Gallery
Description
Property Name: Al-Omari Mosque
Inventory No: 961-1-3
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2009-09-01
Country (State party): Lebanon
Province: Beirut
Town:
Geographic coordinates: 33° 53′ 50.92″ N
35° 30′ 21.12″ E
Historic Period: 12th century, 1st half
Year of Construction: 1113-1115, restored 2000s
Style: Mamluk
Original Use: Mosque
Current Use: Mosque
Architect: Unknown
Significance
The Cathedral of St. John (1113-1115 A.D) which was constructed by the Crusaders was transformed into a mosque by Mamlukes in 1291. Before, there was a Roman temple at the site. The mosque was damaged during the civil war but its restored at the beginning of the 21th century by Youssef Haidar. At the courtyard, an addition with wooden panels is built as well.
Selection Criteria
vi. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
State of Preservation
The monument was restored at the beginning of the 21th century.
• A wiew from northwest, the mosque and the recent addition. (www.archnet.org)
The oldest mosque in the capital dates back to the twelfth century, which is the Omari Mosque.
small and originally Byzantine church was converted into a mosque in 635 and named Al-Omari Mosque in the name of Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, it soon became known as “Jami’ Al-Kabir” (the Great Mosque).
it was retransformed into the city’s Grand Mosque by the Mamluks in 1291. Damaged during the Civil War, the mosque’s refurbishment was completed in 2004. A second minaret was built on the northwest corner of a new colonnaded courtyard. Beneath it, an ancient cistern with Roman columns and stone vaults has been preserved.
Open to visit and prayers.
References
Salam-Liebich, Hayat. The Architecture of the Mamluk City of Tripoli, The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 1983.
Tadmuri, Omar Abdel Salam; Salame-Sarkis, Hassan. Tripoli the Old City: monuments survey-mosques and madrasas: a sourcebook of maps and architectural drawings.
Website of Archnet, http://archnet.org