Great Mosque of Gaza

The Great Mosque of Gaza ( ar, المسجد غزة الكبير, transliteration: ''al-Masjid Ghazza al-Kabīr''), also known as the Great Omari Mosque ( ar, المسجد العمري الكبير, transliteration: ''al-Masjid al-ʿUmarī al-Kabīr,'') is the largest and oldest mosque in the Gaza Strip, located in the Gaza's old city, in the State of Palestine.

Believed to stand on the site of an ancient Philistine temple, the site was used by the Byzantines to erect a church in the 5th century, but after the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, it was transformed into a mosque. Described as "beautiful" by an Arab geographer in the 10th century, the Great Mosque's minaret was toppled in an earthquake in 1033. In 1149, the Crusaders built a large church, but it was mostly destroyed by the Ayyubids in 1187, and then rebuilt as a mosque by the Mamluks in the early 13th century. It was destroyed by the Mongols in 1260, then soon restored only for it to be 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.

Location

The Great Mosque is situated in the Daraj Quarter of the Old City in Downtown Gaza at the eastern end of Omar Mukhtar Street, southeast of Palestine Square.Gaza- Ghazza
Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction. Gaza's Gold Market is located adjacent to it on the south side, while to the northeast is the Katib al-Wilaya Mosque and to the east, on Wehda Street, is a girls' school.Winter, 2000, p.429.

History

Legendary Philistine roots

According to tradition, the mosque stands on the site of the Philistine temple dedicated to Dagon—the god of fertility—which Samson toppled in the Book of Judges. Later, a temple dedicated to Marnas—god of rain and grain—was erected. Local legend today claims that Samson is buried under the present mosque.

Byzantine church

The building was constructed in 406 AD as a large Byzantine church by Empress Aelia Eudocia,Dowling, 1913, p.79.Pringle, 1993, pp. 208-209. although it is also a possible that the church was built by Emperor Marcian. The church appeared on the 6th-century Madaba Map of the Holy Land.

Early Muslim mosque

The Byzantine church was transformed into a mosque in the 7th century by Omar ibn al-Khattab's generals, in the early years of Rashidun rule. The mosque is still alternatively named "al-Omari", in honour of Omar ibn al-Khattab who was caliph during the Muslim conquest of Palestine. In 985, during Abbasid rule, Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi wrote that the Great Mosque was a "beautiful mosque."Ring and Salkin, 1994, p.289. On 5 December 1033, an earthquake caused the pinnacle of the mosque's minaret to collapse.

Crusader church

In 1149 the Crusaders, who had conquered Gaza in 1100, built a large church atop the ruins of the church upon a decree by Baldwin III of Jerusalem.Briggs, 1918, p.255. However, in William of Tyre's descriptions of grand Crusader churches, it is not mentioned. Of the Great Mosque's three aisles today, it is believed that portions of two of them had formed part of the Crusader church.

Based on a Jewish bas-relief accompanied by a Hebrew and Greek inscription carved on the upper tier of one of the building's columns, it was suggested in the late 19th century that the upper pillars of the building were brought from a 3rd-century Jewish synagogue in Caesarea Maritima. However, the discovery of a 6th-century synagogue at Maiumas, the ancient port of Gaza, in the 1960s make local re-use of this column much likelier. The relief on the column depicted Jewish cultic objects - a '' menorah'', a ''shofar'', a ''lulav'' and ''etrog'' - surrounded by a decorative wreath, and the inscription read "Hananyah son of Jacob" in both Hebrew and Greek. The relief has been destroyed sometime between 1973-1996 and the stone has been smoothed over.

In 1187 the Ayyubids under Saladin wrested control of Gaza from the Crusaders and destroyed the church.

Mamluk mosque

The Mamluks reconstructed the mosque in the 13th century, but in 1260, the Mongols destroyed it. It was rebuilt thereafter, but in 1294, an earthquake caused its collapse. Extensive renovations centered on the ''iwan'' were undertaken by the governor Sunqur al-Ala'i during the sultanate of Husam ad-Din Lajin between 1297-99. A later Mamluk governor of the city, Sanjar al-Jawli, commissioned the restoration of the Great Mosque sometime between 1311 and 1319.Great Mosque of Gaza
ArchNet Digital Library. The Mamluks finally rebuilt the mosque completely in 1340.Gaza at the crossroads of civilisations: Gaza timeline
Musée d'Art et Histoire, Geneva. 2007-11-07. In 1355 Muslim geographer Ibn Battuta noted the mosque's former existence as "a fine Friday mosque," but also says that al-Jawli's mosque was "well-built."Ibn Battuta quoted in le Strange, 1890, p.442. Inscriptions on the mosque bear the signatures of the Mamluk sultans al-Nasir Muhammad (dated 1340), Qaitbay (dated May 1498), Qansuh al-Ghawri (dated 1516), and the Abbasid caliph al-Musta'in Billah (dated 1412).

Ottoman period

In the 16th century the mosque was restored after apparent damage in the previous century; the Ottomans commissioned its restoration and also built six other mosques in the city. They had been in control of Palestine since 1517.Ring and Salkin, 1994, p.290. The interior bears an inscription of the name of the Ottoman governor of Gaza, Musa Pasha, brother of deposed Husayn Pasha, dating from 1663.

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. 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.

British Mandate

Under the supervision of former Gaza mayor Said al-Shawa,Said al-Shawa
Gaza Municipality. it was restored by the Supreme Muslim Council in 1926-27.

In 1928, the Supreme Muslim Council held a mass demonstration involving both local Muslims and Christians at the Great Mosque in order to rally support for boycotting elections and participation in the Legislative Assembly of the British Mandate of Palestine government. To increase the number of people in the rally, they ordered all the mosques in one of Gaza's quarters to temporarily close.

After 1948

The ancient inscriptions and bas-relief of Jewish religious symbols were allegedly chiseled away intentionally at some stage between 1987 and 1993. During the Battle of Gaza between the Palestinian organizations of Hamas and Fatah, the mosque's pro-Hamas imam Mohammed al-Rafati was shot dead by Fatah gunmen on June 12, 2007, in retaliation for the killing of an official of Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard by Hamas earlier that day. The mosque is still active and serves as an emotional and physical support base for Gaza's residents and a focal point of Palestinian pride.Palestinians pray in the Great Omari Mosque in Gaza
. ''Ma'an News Agency''. 2009-08-27.

Architecture

The Great Mosque has an area of .Gaza Monuments
International Relations Unit. Municipality of Gaza. Most of the general structure is constructed from local marine sandstone known as ''kurkar''. The mosque forms a large ''sahn">haron Horowitz. ''The Quaternary of ...