The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque ( ar, جَامِع ٱلسُّلْطَان قَابُوْس ٱلْأَكْبَر, Jāmiʿ As-Sulṭān Qābūs Al-Akbar) is the
largest mosque in
Oman
Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...
, located in the capital city of
Muscat
Muscat ( ar, مَسْقَط, ) is the capital and most populated city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the total population of Muscat Governorate was ...
.
Construction
In 1992, the then
Sultan of Oman,
Qaboos bin Said al Said
Qaboos bin Said Al Said ( ar, قابوس بن سعيد آل سعيد, ; 18 November 1940 – 10 January 2020) was Sultan of Oman from 23 July 1970 until his death in 2020. A fifteenth-generation descendant of the founder of the House of Al Said ...
, directed that his country should have a Grand Mosque. In 1993, a competition for the design of the proposed masque took place. The building contract was awarded to
Carillion
Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018.
Carillion was created in July 1999, following ...
Alawi LLC. Construction commenced in December 1994, after a site was chosen at Bausher, and it took six years and seven months to build the mosque.
The mosque is made of stone, with doors, windows and embellishments made of wood and glass. Around 300,000 tons of Indian sandstone was imported for the building. Five minarets have been built around the premises of the mosque: the main
minaret
A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گلدسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...
() in height, and the four flanking minarets () are the mosque’s chief visual features from the exterior. In the interior, the main
musalla
A musalla ( ar-at, مصلى, muṣallá) is a space apart from a mosque, mainly used for prayer in Islam.''The Encyclopaedia of Islam''. New Edition. Brill, Leiden. Vol. 7, pg. 658; ''al-mausūʿa al-fiqhiyya.'' Kuwait 1998. Vol. 38, pg 29 ...
is the focus of both prayer and tourism. The prayer hall is square in shape and has a central dome rising to a height of above the floor.
The dome is embellished spectacularly from the inside and it is a major tourist attraction in itself. The main musalla can hold over 6500 worshippers, while the women's musalla can accommodate 750 worshipers. The outer paved ground can hold 8000 worshipers and there is additional space available in the interior courtyard and the passageways, making a total capacity of up to 20,000 worshipers.
The mosque is built on a site occupying ,
and the complex extends to cover an area of . The newly built Grand Mosque was inaugurated by Sultan of Oman on May 4, 2001 to celebrate 30 years of his reign.
Interior
A major feature of the design of the interior is the prayer carpet which covers the floor of the prayer hall. It contains, 1,700,000,000 knots, weighs 21 tonnes and took four years to produce, and brings together the classical
Persian Tabriz, Kashan and Isfahan design traditions. 28 colors in varying shades were used, the majority obtained from traditional vegetable dyes. It used to be the largest single-piece carpet in the world, but is now the second,
after the
Sheikh Zayed Mosque
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque ( ar, جَامِع ٱلشَّيْخ زَايِد ٱلْكَبِيْر, Jāmiʿ Ash-Shaykh Zāyid Al-Kabīr) is located in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The largest mosque in the countr ...
in
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dha ...
, the
UAE.
This hand-woven carpet was produced by Iran Carpet Company (ICC) at the order of the Diwan of the Royal Court of Sultanate. The carpet measures over , and covers the area of the praying hall.
The chandelier above the praying hall is tall and was manufactured by the Italian company Faustig. Since the mosque is high, the chandler looks proportional, but it used to be the world's largest chandelier,
before again being replaced in this respect by the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It weighs 8.5 tons, includes 600,000 crystals, 1,122 halogen bulbs complete with dimming system, and includes a staircase for maintenance within the chandelier. Thirty-four smaller chandeliers of the same design are hung in other parts of the building.
Classical chandeliers in the World
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See also
* List of mosques in Oman
This is a list of mosques in Oman.
See also
* Islam in Oman
* Lists of mosques
References
External links
{{List of mosques
Oman
Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), ...
*Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque Sohar
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque ( ar, جَامِع ٱلسُّلْطَان قَابُوْس ٱلْأَكْبَر, Jāmiʿ As-Sulṭān Qābūs Al-Akbar) is a mosque located in Sohar, Oman. It was named after the previous Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin ...
* Mohammed Al Ameen Mosque
References
External links
Official site from the Ministry of Tourism
Biggest Chandelier in the World
Official Panoramic virtual tour of the Grand Mosque by the Diwan of Royal Court
{{Mosques in Oman
2001 establishments in Oman
Mosques completed in 2001
Mosques in Oman
Buildings and structures in Muscat, Oman
Mosque buildings with domes
Culture in Muscat, Oman
Tourist attractions in Muscat, Oman
Ibadi mosques
Grand mosques