Mosque (Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi) in the city of Urfa, 1185 AD.
The Salah Al-Din Al-Ayyubi Mosque is located in the Kurdish city of Urfa.
It is considered one of the historical mosques in Kurdistan, and one of the most important Kurdish Islamic monuments. The Great Mosque (Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi) was established in the twelfth century AD, on the remains of the Church (St. John the Baptist), which was built in the year 457 AD, by Bishop (Nuna) during the days of the Byzantine rule. He supervised the construction of the mosque and supported it, the Kurdish Sultan Yusuf ibn Ayyub (Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi) himself. And due to the fact that the Sultan (Saladin Al-Ayyubi) used the first church as a mosque for a period, the mosque was named after him. The historic Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi mosque in the Kurdish city of Urfa is a model of Ayyubid Kurdish architecture, which is characterized by austerity and lack of extravagance in decoration, due to the wars taking place at the time with the Crusaders. The architecture of the (Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi) mosque in the city of Urfa is characterized by strength, mastery of planning and accuracy with apparent luxury, and reliance on carved stone of large dimensions as a basic material in facades, columns and crowns. And the main prayer hall is lit by windows, and on the edges of the windows there are half-columns remaining from the church and dragon inscriptions interwoven into each other. The mosque is characterized by the fact that it has neither a minaret nor a dome, and it contains a pulpit, a mihrab, and ancient arches and arches, thus forming an architectural masterpiece in which the styles of ecclesiastical and Ayyubid architecture are mixed, so that the mosque remains until the present time a landmark that reminds the people of the city of Urfa that the historical Kurdish leader The Sultan (Saladin Al-Ayyubi, 1137 AD - 1193 AD) passed through here. Historians suggest the secret of the interest of the Sultan (Saladin Al-Ayyubi) in the city of Urfa to his preoccupation with fighting the Crusaders, and his realization of the importance of the Levant, its cities and its frontiers, as it is adjacent to the Byzantines, so he sought to rebuild it and revive its economy and build mosques and public facilities in it, including this mosque named after him in Urfa, who personally supervised its restoration after it was an old and famous church, he bought it from its people and turned it into the mosque that we see now. And the city of Urfa was considered within the Levant at that period, and the Kurds were and still constitute a high percentage of the population of the Levant. According to the Old Testament, Urfa is the city of the birth and life of the Prophet Ibrahim and the Prophet Ayoub, and there are many landmarks that show the stay of the Prophet Ibrahim in it. The building of the mosque (Saladin Al-Ayyubi) was in ruins for many years, and it was used as a power station, It was restored in the year 1993 AD. And it reopened on May 28, 1993 AD, for worship as a mosque. Some of the city’s sheikhs and elderly residents insist on performing prayers in the (Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi) mosque, although it is closer to being a museum of architecture and a historical place for tourists and those interested in history. Their insistence, as they say, is due to their love for Sultan Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, and to what this mosque represents in terms of cohesion between the components of the social fabric in the city of Urfa. [1] [2]