Great Mosque of Nablus

Great Mosque of Nablus
The Great Mosque's minaret
Basic information
Location	Nablus
Affiliation	Islam
District	Old City
Province	West Bank
Region	Levant
Year consecrated	1187
Architectural description
Architectural type	Mosque
Architectural style	Early Arab, Ayyubid
Completed	Tenth century CE
Specifications
Dome(s)	1
Minaret(s)	1

Great Mosque of Nablus (Arabic: جامع نابلس الكبير‎‎ Jami' Nablus al-Kebir) is the oldest and largest mosque in the Palestinian city of Nablus. It was originally built as a Byzantine church and was converted into a mosque during the early Islamic era. The Crusaders transformed it into a church in the 11th century, but it was reconsecrated as a mosque by the Ayyubids in the 12th century. The mosque is located at the intersection of the main streets of the Old City, along the district's eastern edges. It has a long, narrow, rectangular floor plan and a silver dome.

Local legend in Nablus claims that mosque was the site where Jacob's sons handed Jacob the blood-stained coat of their brother Joseph as evidence that his favorite son was dead. This tradition is more associated with the nearby al-Khadra Mosque, however.

The site of the Great Mosque was originally a basilica built during the reign of Philip the Arab in 244-249 CE. The Byzantines later constructed a cathedral on the basilica's ruins and this cathedral is depicted in the mosaic Map of Madaba in 600 CE. It was likely damaged or destroyed by the Samaritans during their raids in 484 and 529, but Emperor Justinian I (reigned from 483-565) had the cathedral restored.

The cathedral was transformed into the Great Mosque of Nablus in the early period of Islamic Arab rule in Palestine, in the 10th-century.Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi wrote that the Great Mosque was in the “midst” of Nablus, and “is very finely paved.” The Crusaders converted the mosque into a church, but made only few alterations including the construction of an apse. In 1187, the Ayyubids led by Saladin reconsecrated the building as a mosque. The Knights Templar of the Crusaders burnt it in a raid in 1242.