Great Mosque of Gaza

The Great Mosque of Gaza,^[a] also known as the Great Omari Mosque,^[b] was the largest and oldest mosque in all of Gaza, Palestine, located in Gaza City.

Believed to stand on the site of an ancient

It was destroyed by the Mongols in 1260, then soon restored. It was destroyed by an earthquake at the end of the century. The Great Mosque was restored again by the Ottomans roughly 300 years later. Severely damaged after British bombardment during World War I, the mosque was restored in 1925 by the Supreme Muslim Council. On 7 December 2023, it was destroyed by an Israeli air attack, leaving most of the structure collapsed and the minaret partially destroyed.^[5]

Location

The Great Mosque is situated in the

A Christian basilica was built on the site in the 5th Century AD, either during the reign of Eastern Roman Empress Aelia Eudocia,^[9][10] or Emperor Marcianus.^{[citation needed]} In either event, the basilica was finished and appeared on the 6th-century Madaba Map of the Holy Land.^[10]

Early Muslim mosque

The Byzantine church was transformed into a mosque in the 7th century by

In 1149, the Crusaders, who had conquered Gaza in 1100, built a large church atop the ruins of the earlier Byzantine church upon a decree by Baldwin III of Jerusalem.^[14] However, in William of Tyre's descriptions of grand Crusader churches, it is not mentioned.^[10] Of the Great Mosque's three aisles today, it is believed that portions of two of them had formed part of the Crusader church.^[14]

Based on a Jewish

In 1187, the Ayyubids, under Saladin wrested control of Gaza from the Crusaders and destroyed the church.^[18]

Mamluk mosque

The

Some Western travelers in the late 19th century reported that the Great Mosque was the only structure in Gaza worthy of historical or architectural note.^[23][24] The Great Mosque was severely damaged by Allied forces while attacking the Ottoman positions in Gaza during World War I. The British claimed that there were Ottoman munitions stored in the mosque and its destruction was caused when the munitions were ignited by the bombardment.^{[25][dead link][citation needed]}

British Mandate

Under the supervision of former Gaza mayor

The ancient inscriptions and

In 2019–20, 211 manuscripts in the library's collection were digitised.[30]

The structure of the mosque was heavily damaged, with some sources describing it as destroyed, by Israeli bombardment during the

The Great Mosque has an area of 4,100 square metres (44,000 sq ft).^[4][18] Most of the general structure is constructed from local marine sandstone known as kurkar.^[34] The mosque forms a large sahn ("courtyard") surrounded by rounded arches.^[18] The Mamluks, and later the Ottomans, had the south and southeastern sides of the building expanded.^[7]

Over the door of the mosque is an inscription containing the name of Mamluk sultan Qalawun and there are also inscriptions containing the names of the sultans Lajin and Barquq.^[35]

Interior

When the building was transformed from a church into a mosque, most of the previous Crusader construction was completely replaced, but the mosque's

Internally, the wall surfaces are plastered and painted. Marble is used for the western door and the western facade's oculus. The floors are covered with glazed tiles. The columns are also made of marble and their capitals are built in Corinthian style.^[34]

The central

The mosque is well known for its minaret, which is square-shaped in its lower half and octagonal in its upper half, typical of Mamluk architectural style. The minaret is constructed of stone from the base to the upper, hanging balcony, including the four-tiered upper half. The pinnacle is mostly made of woodwork and tiles, and is frequently renewed. A simple cupola springs from the octagonal stone drum and is of light construction similar to most mosques in the Levant.^[38] The minaret stands on what was the end of the eastern bay of the Crusader church. Its three semicircular apses were transformed into the base of the minaret.^[39]

See also

• Sayed al-Hashim Mosque

References

1. Arabic: المسجد غزة الكبير, transliteration
   : al-Masjid Ghazza al-Kabīr
2. Arabic
   : المسجد العمري الكبير transliteration: al-Masjid al-ʿUmarī al-Kabīr

Bibliography

• Briggs, M.S. (1918). Through Egypt in War-Time. T.F. Unwin.
• Dowling, T.E. (1913). Gaza: A City of Many Battles (from the family of Noah to the Present Day). S.P.C.K.
• Elnashai, Amr Salah-Eldin (2004). Earthquake Hazard in Lebanon. Imperial College Press.
  ISBN 1-86094-461-2
  .
• Kupferschmidt, Uri (1987). The Supreme Muslim Council: Islam Under the British Mandate for Palestine. BRILL.
  ISBN 90-04-07929-7
  .
• ISBN 9780231914321
  .
• Murray, John; Porter, J.L. (1868). A Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine ... J. Murray.
• Porter, J.L. (1884). The Giant Cities of Bashan: And Syria's Holy Places. T. Nelson and Sons.
• Le Strange, G. (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
• ISBN 0-521-39037-0
  .
• Ring, Trudy; Salkin, Robert M.; Schellinger, Paul E. (1994). International Dictionary of Historic Places. Taylor & Francis.
  ISBN 9781884964039
  .
• ISBN 978-90-04-17085-8
  .
• ISBN 90-04-07929-7
  .
• Winter, Dave (2000). Israel Handbook: With the Palestinian Authority Areas. Footprint Travel Guides.
  ISBN 978-1-900949-48-4
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Mosque of Gaza.

• Palestinians pray in the Great Omari Mosque in Gaza Archived 2013-10-20 at the Wayback Machine Ma'an News Agency.