Umayyad Mosque (Aleppo)

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View of the inner courtyard with the two fountains; in the background the minaret which collapsed in 2013
Mihrab and minbar

The Umayyad Mosque or Umayyad Mosque ( Arabic الجامع الأموي, DMG al-ǧāmiʿ al-ʾumawī ) from Aleppo is a Syrian Friday mosque that goes back to the Umayyad - Caliph al-Walid I or Sulaiman . Erected around the year 715 as the city's second mosque, it is around ten years younger than the much more famous Umayyad mosque of Damascus .

The mosque was built on the spot where the ancient agora had been until then . Opposite it stood for a long time the Saint Helena Cathedral built by Emperor Justinian (on a Roman temple) , which was first converted into a mosque and then into the Madrasa al-Halawiya in the 12th century .

In contrast to its sister in the capital, the large mosque of Aleppo , north of the main street of Suq , has been extensively rebuilt in the course of its eventful history, mostly due to earthquakes, fires or other events such as the Mongol invasion of 1260. Therefore, almost nothing in the complex that can be seen today dates from early Islamic times; The oldest preserved part was the 45 m high minaret on the northwest corner, dating back to the Seljuks (end of the 11th century) . The rest of the building was restored by the Zengid Nur ad-Din Mahmud after a fire in 1169 , and the Ayyubids and Mamluks also had further modifications made.

On the large inner courtyard ( sahn ) of the mosque, the black and white paving of which forms a geometric pattern, there are two cleaning wells , inside a minbar from the 15th century and a shrine, which is said to contain the remains of the Islamic prophet Zacharias (Zakariya) , of the father of John the Baptist .

The Aleppo Umayyad Mosque was completely renovated over several years until 2005.

In 2013, the mosque was badly damaged in the course of the fighting in the ongoing Syrian Civil War , with the mosque's minaret collapsing on April 24. The government and the rebels accuse each other of responsibility for the destruction. According to a spokesman for the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , it could also be possible that the tower had become crumbly due to the fighting over the past few months and collapsed without being targeted or detonated.

gallery

  • View of the collapsed minaret (2013)

  • Rubble in the courtyard (2016)

  • a Russian delegation in front of the minaret (2017)

  • The courtyard (2017)

Web links

Commons : Umayyad Mosque (Aleppo)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Minaret of the Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo collapsed. In: Spiegel Online , April 24, 2013.
  2. ^ The Minaret of the Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo. In: discoverislamicart.org (English).
  3. ^ Syria clashes destroy ancient Aleppo minaret. In: BBC News , April 24, 2013.

Coordinates: 36 ° 11 ′ 57.7 "  N , 37 ° 9 ′ 24.9"  E