Great Mosque of Gaza

Infobox religious building


image_size=200px
caption=The minaret of the Great Mosque of Gaza
building_name=Great Mosque of Gaza
location=flagicon|Palestine Gaza, Palestinian territories
geo=
religious_affiliation=Islam
region=Levant
province=Gaza Strip
functional_status=active
website=
architect=
architecture_type=Mosque
architecture_style=Mamluk, Italian Gothic,
year_completed=1344
construction_cost=
capacity=
dome_quantity=
dome_height_outer=
dome_dia_outer=
minaret_quantity=1
minaret_height=
materials=Granite stone, olive wood, plaster tilesThe Great Mosque of Gaza ( _ar. جامع غزة الكبير, "Jama'a al-Kabira al-Ghazza") also known as the Great Omari Mosque ( _ar. المسجد العمري الكبير) is the largest and one of the oldest mosques in the Gaza Strip, [http://www.ahmedphd.org/news.php?maa=PrintMe&id=7/ Gaza Monuments] International Relations Unit. Municipality of Gaza.] located in downtown Gaza (the Old City) at the end of Omar Mukhtar Street. [ [http://www.mideasttravelling.net/palestine/gaza/gaza_culture.htm Travel in Gaza] MidEastTravelling.] A girls' school is located just east of the mosque and Gaza's gold market is adjacently south of it. [Winter, Dave. (2000) [http://books.google.com/books?id=Q0suiJ7Gj1QC&pg=PA429&dq=Great+Mosque+of+Gaza+Mamluk&sig=ACfU3U3BMZLQkCo1ACxxk52j0UnIA986vw#PPA429,M1 Israel Handbook: With the Palestinian Authority Areas] Footprint Travel Guides, p.429.]

History

The Great Mosque was originally a large Byzantine church built on the site of a temple dedicated to Dagon (Marnas) — the god of fertility — in the 5th century CE. The church was destroyed by the Sassanid Persians in the early 7th century. It was transformed into a mosque after the capture of Gaza by the Rashidun.

On December 5, 1033, an earthquake caused the pinnacle of the mosque's minaret to fall off. [Elnashai, Amr Salah-Eldin (2004) [http://books.google.com/books?id=ogGJKiUFzxAC&pg=PA23&dq=Great+Mosque+of+Gaza+minaret&sig=ACfU3U2PgSgDeJO_9RuhtbsbyO3BCxUycw Earthquake Hazard in Lebanon] Imperial College Press, p.23. ISBN 1860944612] In 1149, the Crusaders (who had conquered the Levant from Fatimid Egypt in 1099) built a cathedral dedicated to John the Baptist atop the ruins of the church upon a decree by Baldwin III of Jerusalem. [ [http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/the-palestinian-territories/gaza-city/sights/1000548454?list=true Great Mosque] Lonely Planet Publications.] [ m'Tsiyon, Eliyahu. [http://www.paulasays.com/articles/columbia_gone_mad/on_nadia_el_haj/blog_talk_on_el_haj/destroying_history_el_hajs_legacy_put_in_practice.html Arabs in Gaza Have Destroyed Jewish Antiquities] Paula Stern. 2007-09-18.] However, in 1187, the Muslims under Saladin recaptured Gaza and destroyed the cathedral, but it was reconstructed as a mosque under the Mamluks in 1344.

More additions were made to the mosque, including its submergence with an adjacent library established by the Mamluk sultan Baibars in 1277. The Great Mosque was severely damaged by Allied forces during World War I, but it was restored by the Supreme Muslim Council in 1926. [Kupferschmidt, Uri M. (1987) [http://books.google.com/books?id=SiBkMSIZ2LYC&pg=PA134&dq=Great+Mosque+of+Gaza+minaret&sig=ACfU3U25cmSDRn_XEW77vBkexenlv-p9iA#PPA134,M1 The Supreme Muslim Council: Islam Under the British Mandate for Palestine] BRILL, p.134. ISBN 9004079297]

According to a Biblical resource center, sometime between 1987 and 1993, a ladder or scaffolding was erected and the old carvings on the mosque's exterior surface was chiseled off. [Shanks, Hershel. "Peace, Politics and Archaeology". Biblical Archaeology Society.]

During the Battle of Gaza between the Palestinian organizations of Hamas and Fatah, the mosque's pro-Hamas imam was shot dead by Fatah gunmen on June 12, 2007, in retaliation for the killing of an official of Mahmoud Abbas' presidential guard by Hamas earlier that day. [ [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21890067-601,00.html Deadly escalation in Fatah-Hamas feud] Rabinovich, Abraham. "The Australian".]

Architecture

The Great Mosque has an area of 4,100 square meters. It is well-known for its minaret, which is square in it's lower-half and octagonal in its upper-half, very typical Mamluke style. It is of solid stone to the upper-hanging balcony and it's pinnacle is mostly woodwork and tiles, but it frequently renewed. It has a simple cupola springing from an octagonal stone drum and is of light construction similar to most mosques in the Levant. [Sturgis, Russel. (1909) [http://books.google.com/books?id=QXk3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PR23&dq=Great+Mosque+of+Gaza+minaret#PPA198,M1 A History of Architecture] pp.197-198. The Baker & Taylor Company.]

The mosque forms a large "sahn" ("courtyard") surrounded by rounded arches. When the building was transformed into a mosque from a cathedral, most of the previous Crusader construction was completely replaced, but the mosque's western door and columns within the compound still retain their Italian Gothic style.

ee also

*Mosque of al-Sayed Hashem

References