Zofor Domri Mosque is a mosque in the

Shuja'iyya Shuja'iyya (), also ''Shejaiya'', ''Shijaiyeh'', ''Shujayya'', ''Shuja'ia'', ''Shuja'iya'', is the southern quarter of Old City of Gaza, and the only quarter of the Old City located outside the historical city walls. It is one of the largest neig ...

area of the

Old City of Gaza The Old City of Gaza is the historical center of Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip. For much of recorded history it has been the southernmost coastal city in the region of Palestine, occupying a strategic position on ancient trade route of the Via Mar ...

in Palestine. It was built around 1360 during the Mamluk rule of the region and expanded in 1498. The mosque has been damaged on multiple occasions by conflicts in the region, most recently as a result of the

Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip The Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip is a major part of the Gaza war. Starting on 7 October 2023, immediately after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israel began bombing of the Gaza Strip, bombing the Ga ...

History

The mosque was founded in 1360 (762 AH) by Shihab al-Din Ahmad bin Azafir al-Thafer Damri, a Mamluk prince, after whom it is named. Al-Thafer Damri was buried at the mosque. An inscription dated to 1498 (903 AH) indicates that the mosque was expanded around this time. Following the

Third Battle of Gaza The Third Battle of Gaza was fought on the night of 1–2 November 1917 between British and Ottoman forces during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I and came after the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) victory at the Ba ...

in late 1917, in which the British Army captured Gaza from Turkish forces, the city was devastated and Zofor Domri Mosque was damaged. It was rebuilt in the following decades, during the period of British Mandate in Palestine. Zofor Domri Mosque was amongst the more than 170 mosques damaged during the

2014 Gaza War The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge (, ), and Battle of the Withered Grain (), was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that has been governed by Hamas since ...

; the parts built in 2010 bore the brunt of the damage and repair works were undertaken in 2015. It is managed by the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs. The mosque was again damaged during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, when it was bombed on three occasions and bulldozed. In February 2025, Gaza's Ministry of Endowments reported that 79% of the mosques in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed.

Architecture

The mosque measures and was built from

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

. Arranged around the courtyard are a prayer room to the east, an ''

iwan An iwan (, , also as ''ivan'' or ''ivān''/''īvān'', , ) is a rectangular hall or space, usually vaulted, walled on three sides, with one end entirely open. The formal gateway to the iwan is called , a Persian term for a portal projecting ...

'' to the south, a

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

, and on the north side are a library and a burial room containing al-Thafer Damri's tomb. The entrance on the north side dates from the mosque's establishment in 1360, and in the late 20th century was one of the best preserved entrances from the Mamluk period in Gaza. The inscription dating the mosque's construction is above the door. Above this are decorative fields of trefoil patterns and geometric shapes. Several ''iwans'' were added during the mosque's reconstruction after the First World War. By the 1990s only one of the ''iwans'', the one the south side, survived – it likely dated to the Mamluk period. The prayer room is connected to the courtyard by two doors. This access method route to the courtyard rather than using an arcade may have been developed in Syria. The style is used at other mosques in Gaza such as the 13th-century al-Agami mosque.

References

External links

Photograph of the mosque in the Palestine Museum Digital Archive
{{Whole Gaza Strip Mamluk mosques in Palestine Mosques in Gaza City Buildings and structures completed in 1360 Mosques completed in the 1360s Shuja'iyya Buildings and structures destroyed during the Israel–Hamas war Archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip 2023 disestablishments in Palestine Buildings and structures demolished in 2023 Mosques destroyed as a result of Arab–Israeli armed engagements

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links