Great Mosque of Gaza
The Great Mosque of Gaza ( al-Jami 'al-Akbar bi-Ghazza ) or also The Great Omar Mosque ( Arabic المسجد العمري الكبير, DMG al-Masǧid al-ʿUmarī al-kabīr ) is the largest and one of the oldest mosques in the Gaza Strip . It was a former Christian cathedral and is located in the Daraj district in the center of the old city of Gaza at the end of Omar Mukhtar Street. A girls' school is directly east of the mosque, and Gaza's gold market is adjacent to the south.
history
Even in the centuries before the Islamic conquest, the place where the Great Mosque is located was used for religious purposes. In the Canaanite period there was a temple dedicated to Dagān , and in the Byzantine period a large church was built in its place, which was devastated by the Sassanids at the beginning of the 7th century . After the capture of Gaza by the Arabs, a mosque was built there, which was named ʿUmars , under whose caliphate the city had been conquered.
In an earthquake on December 5, 1033, the pulpit of the minaret fell down. In 1149, the Crusaders , who had conquered the Levant from the Fatimid Egyptians in 1099 , built on a decree of Baldwin III. of Jerusalem a cathedral dedicated to John the Baptist on the site. In 1187 the Muslims under Saladin recaptured the city of Gaza and rededicated the cathedral into an Islamic sacred building; the building elements in the Gothic style from the time of the crusaders now form the oldest part of the mosque. From the end of the 13th century, the Mameluks made numerous alterations to the building, including the eastern portal that connected the mosque with the neighboring library founded by Baibars in 1277 , and a minaret. In 1330 the south wall of the former basilica was torn down and an additional nave was added instead. Additional columned galleries were built in the 17th and 18th centuries.
During the First World War and the three battles for Gaza in 1917, the mosque was badly damaged by the Allies . In 1926 it was repaired by the Supreme Islamic Council .
During the skirmishes in Gaza between the Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah on June 12, 2007, the mosque's imam was shot dead by Fatah members in retaliation for the killing of a member of Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard.
architecture
The Great Mosque has a floor area of 4100 square meters. What is striking is the architectural irregularity of the building, which results from repeated renovations in different artistic styles. The building has an unusual minaret , which is square in the lower part and octagonal in the upper part, typical of Mameluke buildings. It is made of stone up to the cantilevered balconies. The minbar (pulpit) is largely made of wood and tiles and is renewed from time to time. The simple dome sits on an octagonal drum and is a lightweight construction, very similar to most mosques in the Levant.
The mosque encloses an extensive cream (an inner courtyard), which is framed by arcades . Under the Mamluks, when the cathedral was converted into a mosque, most of the previous structure was removed, but the western entrance and pillars of the mosque complex were preserved in the Gothic style .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Gaza Monuments ( Memento of September 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) International Relations Unit. Municipality of Gaza.
- ↑ Travel in Gaza ( Memento of the original from 23 August 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. MidEastTravelling.
- ↑ Winter, Dave. (2000) Israel Handbook: With the Palestinian Authority Areas Footprint Travel Guides. Page 429.
- ↑ Elnashai, Amr Salah-Eldin (2004) Earthquake Hazard in Lebanon Imperial College Press, page 23. ISBN 1-86094-461-2
- ↑ Great Mosque ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Lonely Planet Publications.
- ↑ Kupferschmidt, Uri M. (1987) The Supreme Muslim Council: Islam Under the British Mandate for Palestine , p. 134. ISBN 90-04-07929-7
- ↑ Deadly escalation in Fatah-Hamas feud ( Memento June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Rabinovich, Abraham. The Australian .
- ↑ Russel Sturgis: A History of Architecture. The Baker & Taylor Company, Charlotte (NC) 1909, pp. 197f, online at Archive.org
Web links
Coordinates: 31 ° 30 ′ 14.4 " N , 34 ° 27 ′ 51.8" E