Syria, is a country in Western Asia.
Syria borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to
the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the
southwest. Cyprus lies to the west across the Mediterranean Sea. A country of
fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic
and religious groups, including the majority Syrian Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens,
Assyrians, Armenians, Circassians, Mandaeans, and Greeks. Religious groups
include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Isma'ilis, Mandaeans, Shiites,
Salafis, and Yazidis. The capital and largest city of Syria is Damascus. Arabs
are the largest ethnic group, and Sunnis are the largest religious group.
The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the
Great Mosque of Damascus, located in the old city of Damascus, is one of the
largest and oldest mosques in the world. It is the fourth holiest site in
Islam. Its religious importance stems from the eschatological reports
concerning the mosque, and historic events associated with it. Christian and
Muslim tradition alike consider it the burial place of John the Baptist's head,
a tradition originating in the 6th century. Muslim tradition holds that the
mosque will be the place Jesus will return before the End of Days. Two shrines
inside the premises commemorate the Islamic prophet Muhammad's grandson Husayn
ibn Ali, whose martyrdom is frequently compared to that of John the Baptist and
Jesus.
The site has been used as a house of
worship since the Iron Age, when the Arameans built on it a temple dedicated to
their god of rain, Hadad. Under Roman rule, beginning in 64 CE, it was
converted into the center of the imperial cult of Jupiter, the Roman god of
rain, becoming one of the largest temples in Syria. When the empire in Syria
transitioned to Christian Byzantine rule, Emperor Theodosius I (r. 379–395)
transformed it into a cathedral and the seat of the second-highest ranking
bishop in the Patriarchate of Antioch.
After the Muslim conquest of Damascus
in 634, part of the cathedral was designated as a small prayer house (musalla)
for the Muslim conquerors. As the Muslim community grew, the Umayyad caliph
al-Walid I (r. 705–715) confiscated the rest of the cathedral for Muslim use,
returning to the Christians other properties in the city as compensation. The
structure was largely demolished and a grand congregational mosque complex was
built in its place. The new structure was built over nine years by thousands of
laborers and artisans from across the Islamic and Byzantine empires at
considerable expense and was funded by the war booty of Umayyad conquests and
taxes on the Arab troops of Damascus. Unlike the simpler mosques of the time,
the Umayyad Mosque had a large basilical plan with three parallel aisles and a
perpendicular central nave leading from the mosque's entrance to the world's
second concave mihrab (prayer niche). The mosque was noted for its rich
compositions of marble paneling and its extensive gold mosaics of vegetal
motifs, covering some 4,000 square metres (43,000 sq ft), likely the largest in
the world.
Under Abbasid rule (750–860), new
structures were added, including the Dome of the Treasury and the Minaret of
the Bride, while the Mamluks (1260–1516) undertook major restoration efforts
and added the Minaret of Qaytbay. The Umayyad Mosque innovated and influenced
nascent Islamic architecture, with other major mosque complexes, including the
Great Mosque of Cordoba in Spain and the al-Azhar Mosque of Egypt, based on its
model. Although the original structure has been altered several times due to
fire, war damage and repairs, it is one of the few mosques to maintain the same
form and architectural features of its 8th-century construction, as well as its
Umayyad character.
The Umayyad Mosque underwent major
restorations in 1929 during the French Mandate over Syria and in 1954 and 1963
under the Syrian Republic.
In the 1980s and in the early 1990s,
Syrian president Hafez al-Assad ordered a wide-scale renovation of the mosque.
The methods and concepts of Assad's restoration project were heavily criticized
by UNESCO, but the general approach in Syria was that the mosque was more of a
symbolic monument rather than a historical one and thus, its renovation could
only enhance the mosque's symbolism.
In 1990s, Mohammed Burhanuddin
constructed a zarih of the martyrs of the Battle of Karbala, whose heads were
brought to the Mosque after their defeat at the hands of the then Umayyad
caliph, Yazid I.
On March 15, 2011, the first
significant protests related to the Syrian civil war began at the Umayyad
Mosque when 40–50 worshipers gathered outside the complex and chanted
pro-democracy slogans. Syrian security forces swiftly quelled the protests and
have since cordoned off the area during Friday prayers to prevent large-scale
demonstrations.
Sources :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_Mosque
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-islam/chronological-periods-islamic/islamic-art-early/a/the-great-mosque-of-damascus
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