Mansouri Great Mosque

Mansouri Great Mosque
Courtyard and minaret of the Mansouri Great Mosque
Basic information
Location	Tripoli, Lebanon
Affiliation	Islam
Architectural description
Architectural type	Mosque
Architectural style	Norman and Mamluk
Completed	1314
Specifications
Dome(s)	1
Minaret(s)	2

The Mansouri Great Mosque is a mosque in Tripoli, Lebanon, also known simply as The Great Mosque of Tripoli. It was built in the Mamluk period, from 1294 to 1314, around the remains of a Crusader Church of St. Mary. In any case, the two Christian elements in no way detract from the traditional Muslim nature of this great royal mosque, the first building erected in Mamluk Tripoli.

The Mansouri Mosque was named after the Mamluk sultan who conquered Tripoli from the Crusaders in 1289, al-Mansur Qalawun. The mosque itself was erected by his two sons, al-Ashraf Khalil, who ordered its construction in 1294, and al-Nasir Muhammad, who had the arcade built around the courtyard in 1314. Located on the site of what was once a Crusaders' suburb at the foot of the Citadel of Tripoli, the mosque was often mistaken for a remodeled Christian church by medieval travelers and modern historians alike. Two elements, the door and the minaret, probably do belong to an earlier, Christian structure that were incorporated into the mosque when it was built, but the building—comprising its court, arcades, fountain, and prayer hall—is essentially a Muslim creation.

In any case, the two Christian elements do not detract from the traditional Muslim nature of this great royal mosque, which also became the first building the Mamluks erected Tripoli. During Amir Qaratay's first term as Governor of Tripoli (1316-1326), he endowed the Mansouri's Mosque's minbar and also built the Madrasah Qartawiyyah, known as the "finest" madrasa in Tripoli, which adjoins the mosque to the east.

The Mansouri Mosque occupies an area of about 50 by 60 meters in the middle of the city. It does not have an elaborate facade, but is readily identifiable from the outside by its minaret and its main northern gate. The floor plan of the mosque shows a traditional arrangement with a central courtyard, single porticoes on three sides, a deeper qibla side for prayer, and a central fountain. The mosque has three axial entrances set to the north, east, and west, but there are also two others on either side of the prayer hall in accordance with traditional fashion. K.A.C. Creswell regards the three axial entrances as a Syrian feature which began in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, and later became part of other Syrian mosques, like the mosque in Harran, and was then copied in other parts of the Muslim world, particularly in Anatolia and a number of mosques in Cairo.