Niu Jie Mosque, Beijing

Built in 995, the Niu Jie Mosque is Beijing's largest and oldest mosque and the spiritual center for the city's estimated 200,000 Muslims.

History

The mosque was constructed by two Arabs in 995. Throughout the Yuan, Ming and Qing periods (13th-19th C), it underwent several alterations and since 1949 it has been repeatedly restored.

What to See

Niu Jie (Ox Street) is a cramped road running north-south in the Muslim Quarter, about a mile directly west of the Temple of Heaven. It is lined with offal stalls and vendors selling fried dough rings, rice cakes and shaobang (muffins), and populated by men wearing white hats and beards.

The Niu Jie Mosque occupies a site of over 6000 m² and includes several buildings: the prayer hall, the Bangge Lou (minaret), a six-cornered moon observatory tower, and two pavilions with stone steles.

The exteriors are designed in classic Chinese style, looking very much like Buddhist temples, but the interiors are more traditionally Arab. And of course, there are no idols to be seen. Both Chinese and Arabic inscriptions adorn the buildings.

Non-Muslim visitors cannot enter the prayer hall (which is usually fairly empty except on Fridays), but can admire the architecture of the exteriors and look around the courtyards. A small courtyard on the south side contains the graves of two Persian imams who preached here in the 13th century. Nearby is a copper cauldron, used to prepare food for devotees

Islamic Center of Washington, Washington DC

Completed in

19

57, the Islamic Center of Washington is a mosque and Islamic cultural center in Washington D.C., located on Embassy Row near the bridge over Rock Creek.

History

The idea for an Islamic Center was originally conceived in 1944 when the Turkish ambassador died and there was no mosque in which to hold his funeral. The Washington diplomatic community played a leading role in the effort to have a mosque constructed.

Support came from the Muslim American community and most of the Islamic nations of the world, who donated money, decorations, and craftsmen to the project. The Islamic Center is controlled by a board of governors made up of various ambassadors.

The site was purchased in 1946 and the corner stone was laid in 1949. The building was designed by Italian architect Mario Rossi and was dedicated on June 28, 1957 with President Eisenhower in attendance. When it opened, the Islamic Center of Washington was the largest Muslim place of worship in the Western Hemisphere.

The mosque has been visited by many high profile dignitaries, including several presidents. The highest profile visit was by George W. Bush on September 17, 2001, only days after the September 11th attacks. On national television Bush quoted from the Koran and assured Americans that vast majority of Muslims are peaceful.

What to See

Some 6,000 people attend prayers at the mosque each Friday. As well as a mosque, the Islamic Center of Washington contains a library and classrooms for courses on Islam and the Arabic language. Around the building are flags of the Islamic nations of the world.

Great Mosque, Aleppo

The Great Mosque of Aleppo, also known as the Umayyad Mosque (and in Arabic as al Jami al Kabir), was founded just 10 years after the more famous Great Mosque of Damascus.

Little remains of the original structure, and what you see today dates mostly from the 12th century and later. But it has been recently restored to gleaming beauty and is no less fascinating than its Damascene counterpart to visit.

History

The Great Mosque or Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, was built on the site of a former Roman temple and Byzantine cathedral built by St. Helen (mother of Constantine the Great). The mosque was founded by the Umayyad Caliph al Walid in 715 and completed by his successor Caliph Suleiman.

Throughout its history the building has endured multiple renovations and reconstructions in response to natural disasters (earthquakes and fire) and to modify its use, resulting in the development of its surroundings. Nur al Din rebuilt it in 1169 after a great fire and the mosque was destroyed yet again during the Mongol invasion of 1260.

The Great Mosque of Aleppo has recently (2003-04) undergone an extensive renovation, during which the courtyard and the minaret were especially restored.

What to See

In contrast to the comparably intact Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, the Great Mosque of Aleppo bears little resemblance to its original form; it is instead a combination of fragments that record the city's history.

The oldest part of the mosque is the prominent and noteworthy square 45-meter minaret. The minaret's earliest restoration dates to 1090 during the Seljuk dynasty. The minaret boasts intricate bands of carved Kufic inscriptions along its length that alternate with bands of stylized ornaments in patterns and muqarnas.

The mosque is arranged around a vast courtyard that connects to different areas of the mosque that are placed behind the colonnaded arcade. The courtyard is famed for its pavement of black and white geometric patterns and the façade is well decorated with intricately cut and variously colored stones. The courtyard contains two ablutions fountains.

In the main prayer hall are: the shrine of Zachariah (father of John the Baptist), a 15th century wood-carved minbar (pulpit), and an elaborately carved mihrab (niche indicating the direction of Mecca).

The prayer hall originally had a basic straight rooftop with a central dome but was replaced by the Mamluks with an intricate cross-vaulted system with arches and a small dome over the arcades.

Badshahi Mosque, Lahore

The Badshahi Mosque (بادشاھی مسجد) or "Emperor's Mosque" was built in 1673 by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in Lahore, Pakistan. It is one of the city's best known landmarks and a major tourist attraction epitomising the beauty and grandeur of the Mughal era.

Capable of accommodating over 55,000 worshippers, Badshahi is the second largest mosque in Pakistan, after the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. The design of the Badshahi Masjid is closely related to the Jama Masjid in Delhi, India, which was built in 1648 by Aurangzeb's father, Emperor Shah Jahan.

Badshahi Masjid is one of the famous locations where Qari Basit (1927-88), a widely acclaimed Egyptian Qur'anic Recitor, recited the Qur'an.

HISTORY

The mosque was built under the patronage of the sixth Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb Alamgir. It was completed in 1673 under the supervision of Aurangzeb's foster brother Muzaffar Hussain (also known as Fidaie Khan Koka) who was appointed governor of Lahore in May 1671 and held this post until 1675. He was also Master of Ordnance to the emperor.

The construction of the mosque took about two years, from May 1671 to April 1673. The mosque was built opposite the Lahore Fort, illustrating its stature in the Mughal Empire. In conjunction with the building of the mosque, a new gate was built at the fort, named Alamgiri Gate after the Emperor.

From 1852 onwards, piecemeal repairs were carried out under the supervision of the Badshahi Mosque Authority. Extensive repairs were carried out from 1939 to 1960 at a cost of about 4.8 million rupees, which brought the mosque to its original shape and condition. The blueprint for the repairs was prepared by the late architect Nawab Zen Yar Jang Bahadur.

In 2000, the repair work of marble inlay in the main vault was repaired under the supervision of Saleem Anjum Qureshi. On the occasion of the second Islamic Summit held at Lahore on February 22, 1974, thirty-nine heads of Muslim states offered their Friday prayers in the Badshahi Masjid, led by Maulana Abdul Qadir Azad, the 'Khatib' of the mosque.

Recently a small museum has also been added to the mosque complex, which contains relics of Muhammad, his cousin, and his daughter, Hazrat Fatima Zahra.

WHAT TO SEE

Like the character of its founder, the mosque is bold, vast and majestic in its expression. It was the largest mosque in the world for a long time. The interior has rich embellishment in stucco tracery (Manbatkari) and panelling with a fresco touch, all in bold relief, as well as marble inlay.

The exterior is decorated with stone carving as well as marble inlay on red sandstone, specially of loti form motifs in bold relief. The embellishment has Indo-Greek, Central Asian and Indian architectural influence both in technique and motifs.

Faisal Mosque, Islamabad

Faisal Mosque, Islamabad

The Faisal Mosque (also known as Shah Faisal Masjid) is a very large and very unique mosque in Islamabad, completed in 1986. Designed by a Turkish architect who won an international competition for the honor, Faisal Mosque is shaped like a desert Bedouin's tent and functions as the national mosque of Pakistan.

HISTORY

King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia both suggested (in 1966) and largely funded the Faisal Mosque, which is named in his honor.

Ever since its conception, the mosque has been regarded as the national mosque of Pakistan, and as such it symbolizes the hopes and aspirations of the new nation.

The architect was Vedat Dalokay of Turkey, whose design was chosen in 1969 after an international competition. Constructed was completed in 1986.

WHAT TO SEE

The Faisal Mosque is located on an elevated area of land against a picturesque backdrop of the Margalla Hills. This enviable location represents the mosque's great importance and allows it to be seen from miles around day and night.

The mosque's architecture is strikingly modern and unique, lacking both the traditional domes and arches of most other mosques around the world.

The shape of the Faisal Mosque is an eight-sided concrete shell inspired by a desert Beduoin's tent and the cubic Ka'ba in Mecca, flanked by four unusual minarets inspired by Turkish architecture. The architect later explained his thinking to design school students:

I tried to capture the spirit, proportion and geometry of Kaaba in a purely abstract manner. Imagine the apex of each of the four minaret as a scaled explosion of four highest corners of Kaaba - thus an unseen Kaaba form is bounded by the minarets at the four corners in a proportion of height to baseShah Faisal Mosque akin to Kaaba.

Now, if you join the apex of each minaret to the base of the minaret diagonally opposite to it correspondingly, a four-sided pyramid shall be bound by these lines at the base side within that invisible cube. That lower level pyramid is treated as a solid body while four minarets with their apex complete the imaginary cube of Kaaba.

Entrance is from the east, where the prayer hall is fronted by a courtyard with porticoes. The International Islamic University was housed under the main courtyard, but recently relocated to a new campus. The mosque still houses a library, lecture hall, museum and cafe.

The interior of the main tent-shaped hall is covered in white marble and decorated with mosaics, calligraphy by the Pakistani artist Sadeqain, and a spectacular Turkish-style chandelier.

The prayer hall can accommodate 10,000 worshippers. (There is room for an additional 24,000 in the porticoes and 40,000 in the courtyard.)

The mausoleum of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, whose 1988 funeral at the site was the largest in the history of Pakistan, is located adjacent to the mosque.

Al-Masjid al-Haram

Al-Masjid al-Haram ("The Holy Mosque"; also known as al-Haram Mosque, Haram al-Sharif, Masjid al-Sharif and the Haram) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is the holiest mosque in the world and the primary destination of the Hajj pilgrimage.

The mosque complex covers an area of 356,800 square meters and can accommodate up to 820,000 worshippers during the Hajj. The Holy Mosque is the only mosque that has no qibla direction, since Muslims pray facing the Ka'ba in the central courtyard.

HISTORY

The Haram was built in the 7th century and has been modified, rebuilt, and expanded on a regular basis ever since. Major expansions took place in the 1980s and further work is going on today.

The beginnings of the Holy Mosque were established under Caliph Omar Ibn al-Khattab (634-644). The caliph ordered the demolition of houses surrounding the Ka'ba in order to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims, then built a 1.5-meter high wall to form an outdoor prayer area around the shrine. During the reign of Caliph Uthman Ibn Affan (644-656), the prayer area was enlarged and covered with a simple roof supported by wooden columns and arches.

In 692, after Caliph Abdul Malik bin Marwan conquered Mecca from Ibn Zubayr, the building was enlarged and embellished: the outer walls were raised, the ceiling was covered with teak and the capitals were painted in gold. The caliph's son al-Walid (705-715) replaced the wooden columns with marble ones and decorated its arches with mosaics. Abbasid Caliph Abu Ja'far al-Mansur (754-775) added mosaics to the columns, doubled the size of the northern and western wings of the prayer hall and erected the minaret of Bab al-Umra on the northwest corner.

In 777, a major rebuild took place under Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdi (775-785) to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims. The existing mosque was demolished along with more houses in the area and a new mosque was constructed in its place. Measuring 196 by 142 meters, it was built on a grid plan with marble columns from Egypt and Syria decorated with gilt teak wooden inlay. Al-Mahdi's mosque also included three minarets, placed above Bab al-Salam, Bab Ali and Bab al-Wadi.

In 1399, the northern part of the mosque was severely damaged by fire and the remaining sections suffered from water damage. The mosque was subsequently rebuilt by Mamluk Sultan Nasir Faraj bin Barquq (1399-1405). The damaged marble columns were replaced with stone columns quarried from the nearby Hijaz region and the roof was patched with local wood from the Ta'if Mountains.

In 1571, Ottoman Sultan Selim II (1566-1574) commissioned the court architect Sinan to renovate the Holy Mosque. It is from this renovation that the present building mostly dates. Sinan replaced the flat roof of the prayer hall with domes, supported by the addition of new columns from the nearby Shams Mountains. The interior of the domes were decorated with gilded calligraphy.

Due to damaging rains in 1611, the mosque was once again restored under Sultan Murad IV (1623-1640) in 1629. It received a new stone arcade with slender columns and inscriptive medallions between the arches. The floor tiles around the Ka'ba were replaced with new colored marble tiles and the mosque was given seven minarets.

Between 1955 and 1973, the first of many extensions under the Saudi kings was commissioned by King Abdul Aziz (1932-1953). As part of the renovations, the Mas'a gallery connecting the Rock of al-Safa' with al-Marwah was extended to reach the mosque. The two-story extension was built of reinforced concrete arches clad in carved marble and artificial stone, which communicates with the street and the mosque via eleven doors.

A major extension sponsored by King Fahd (1982-present) consisted of a new wing and an outdoor prayer area on the southeast side of the mosque. In the two-story wing, air conditioning circulates below the tiled floors and is supplied through ventilation grids located at the base of each column. The facade of the extension blends in with the previous constructions, with gray marble facing from the Fatimah Mountains and carved white marble bands.

The monumental King Fahd Gate consists of three arches with black and white voussoirs and carved white marble decoration, flanked by two new minarets matching the older ones. The windows are covered with brass mashrabiyya and framed with carved bands of white marble. The minor gates have green-tiled sloped canopies.

Finsbury Park Mosque, London

History

The mosque became associated with radical Islamism in the early 2000s, in particular related to its association with Abu Hamza al-Masri. The Charity Commission expressed concerns about the management of the mosque, and its apparent use for political activities.

On January 20, 2003 the mosque was raided by British police, apparently as part of the investigation into the discovery of ricin in Wood Green. A number of men who were apparently living at the mosque were arrested.

On February 4, 2003, Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri was removed from his position as an agent of the mosque.

On October 3, 2004, The Observer revealed that 46-year-old Kamel Rabat Bouralha attended the mosque. Bouralha, with UK citizens Osman Larussi and Yacine Benalia, were loyal to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. Basayev has boasted of training the men who took control of the school and wired it with explosives.

Investigators believe that the three men, all Algerian-born, travelled to Chechnya from London to take part in fighting there in 2001. Like Bouralha, they are believed to have attended Finsbury Park mosque and to have joined the network of groups loyal to Basayev on arrival in Chechnya.