White Mosque

White Mosque may refer to:

See also

Šerefudin's White Mosque

Šerefudin's White Mosque (Bosnian: Šerefudinova Bijela džamija) is a mosque located in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is of great architectural importance to the town and area. The mosque's architect was Zlatko Ugljen, the craftsman was Ismet Imamović, while the contractor was Zvijezda from Visoko. First construction was completed in 1477, but it was completely reconstructed and finished in 1980. Its most notable award came in 1983, when it was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The jury commended the mosque for its boldness, creativity and brilliance, as well as its originality and innovation. In 2007 it received another recognition from Hungarian architects for being one of the three best designed sacral places in Europe.

Plan, structure and materials

The mosque comprises five functional areas:

White Mosque, Ramla

The White Mosque (Arabic: المسجد الأبيض‎ a-Masjid al-Abyad, Hebrew: המסגד הלבן‎ haMisgad haLavan) is an ancient Ummayad mosque in the city of Ramla, Israel. Only the minaret is still standing. According to local Islamic tradition, the northwest section of the mosque contained the shrine of a famous Islamic saint, Nabi Salih.

The minaret is also known as the Tower of the Forty Martyrs.Muslim tradition dating back to 1467 claims that forty of the prophet Muhammads companions were buried in the mosque, which erroneously influenced a Western Christian tradition from the 16th century that the White Mosque was originally a church dedicated to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.

History

The mosque was built by the caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik in 715-717, but was completed by his successor Umar II by 720. The mosque itself was constructed of marble, while its courtyard was made of other local stone. Two hundred years later, Al-Muqaddasi described it as follows:

Reconstruction

An earthquake in January 1034 destroyed the mosque, "leaving it in a heap of ruins", along with a third of the city. In 1047, Nasir Khusraw reported that the mosque had been rebuilt.