Sheikh Ali al-Bakka Mosque

Sheikh Ali al-Bakka Mosque
مسجد الشيخ علي بكاء
The mosque in 2017
Religion
Affiliation	Sunni Islam
Ecclesiastical or organisational status	Mosque
Status	Active
Location
Location	Hebron, West Bank
Country	Palestine
Location of the mosque in the West Bank
Geographic coordinates	31°31′42.3″N 35°06′13.5″E
Architecture
Style	Mamluk
Founder	Husam ad-Din Turuntay
Completed	1282
Minaret(s)	1

The Sheikh Ali al-Bakka Mosque, also known as the Shaykh Ali al-Baka Mosque (Arabic: مسجد الشيخ علي بكاء), is a 13th-century mosque in the northwestern section of the Old City of Hebron in the southern West Bank, Palestine. It is situated in the Harat ash-Sheikh (or Sheik Ali al-Bakka) quarter, one of the Old City's quarters, which is named after the mosque.

Overview

The mosque was founded by Husam ad-Din Turuntay in 1282 during the reign of Mamluk sultan al-Mansur Qalawun. Turuntay was the representative of the sultan in Jerusalem. The sanctuary is named after Sheikh Ali al-Bakka, a renowned Sufi religious leader from Iraq who lived in Hebron. The minaret was erected by the viceroy and practical strongman of the sultanate, Sayf al-Din Salar (d. 1310).

The original mosque was mostly demolished, however the minaret still stands and is viewed as an exemplary work of Mamluk architecture. Sitting on a rectangular base, its shaft has a hexagonal shape. The minaret base has an arched corridor which leads to the courtyard. In 1978 a new mosque was built on the site, but preserved the remains of the original mosque.

See also

• List of mosques in Palestine
• Islam in Palestine

Further reading

• Al-Maqrizi (1840). Histoire des sultans mamlouks, de l'Égypte, écrite en arabe (in French and Latin). Vol. 1, part 1. Translator: Étienne Marc Quatremère. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. (p. 242)
• Moudjir ed-dyn (1876). Sauvaire (ed.). Histoire de Jérusalem et d'Hébron depuis Abraham jusqu'à la fin du XVe siècle de J.-C. : fragments de la Chronique de Moudjir-ed-dyn. (pp. 220, 222, 224, 227, 291 ff)
• Sharon, Moshe (1999). Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, Volume Two: -B-C. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-11083-6.
• Sharon, M. (2013). Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, H-I. Vol. 5. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-25097-0. (Sharon, 2013, p. 58 ff)
• Wilson, Charles Williams, ed. (c. 1881). Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. Vol. 3. New York: D. Appleton.

External links

Media related to Ali al-Bakka Mosque at Wikimedia Commons