The Abdul Rahman Mosque (;

Dari Dari (; endonym: ), Dari Persian (, , or , ), or Eastern Persian is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the Afghan government's official term for the Persian language;Lazard, G.Darī – The New Persian ...

: مسجد عبدالرحمان), also known as the Grand Mosque of Kabul, is one of the largest

mosques A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were simple p ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. It is located in one of

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

's central commercial areas called Deh Afghanan, near the Pashtunistan Square, Zarnegar Park, and across the once popular ''Plaza Hotel''. The building is three stories high, built on of land. One floor of the building is dedicated to women only. The mosque is named after an influential Afghan businessman named Hajji Abdul Rahman who died but the project was continued by his sons. Construction of the mosque began in 2001 by Hajji Abdur Rahman but was delayed for several years due to

red tape Red tape is a concept employed to denounce excessive or redundant regulation and adherence to formal rules for creating unnecessary constraints on action and decision-making. The occurrence of red tape is usually associated with governments but a ...

. The mosque has the capacity to serve 10,000 people at a time. There is also a

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

inside the mosque and a library containing 150,000 books. The major work on the mosque was completed in late 2009 but the official inauguration took place in July 2012, attended by the former Afghan President

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014, including as the first president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014. He previously served a ...

and many other high-ranking officials. The building of the mosque is said to have been initially designed by Afghan architect Mir Hafizullah Hashimi.

References

2009 establishments in Afghanistan Mosque buildings with domes in Afghanistan Mosques completed in 2009 Mosques in Kabul Sunni mosques in Afghanistan Mosque buildings with minarets in Afghanistan {{Afghanistan-mosque-stub

See also

References