Mesjid Umayyad

There was some time to spend in the late Sunday afternoon so I went on foot to the Umayyad Mosque, a 20 minutes walk from the Four Season Hotel. It is one of the largest and oldest mosque in the world located in the old city of Damascus.

After a short prayer in the mosque; I went around to see a few interesting things about the mosque itself. It was built by Khalifa Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik in 705 AD, about 70 years after the Wafat of our prophet Nabi Muhammad. During his reign, this powerful Khalifa continued the expansion of the Umayyad Islamic empire; in fact he took the early Islamic empire to its farthest extents.

He reconquered parts of Egypt and moved across to the west of North Africa before crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and began to conquer Spain. This would be the farthest extent of Islamic control of Europe. In the East, his armies made it as far as the Indus River, the empire thus stretched from Spain to India.

Inside the Umayyad mosque, one can find the relic of Nabi Yahya, also known as john the Baptist to the Christian (3rd photo). In fact in 2001 Pope John Paul II visited the mosque, primarily to visit the relics. It was the first time a pope paid a visit to a mosque.

The other important site in the mosque is the burial site of Saidina Hussein, the prophet’s grandson (last photo). This is an important Shi'ite shrine and well visited by the Shi’ite pilgrims. Today there were quite a large group of shi'ite, I was told they were Iraqis.

The tomb of Saladin, the great Islamic warrior who fought against the crusaders, is also located within the compund of the mosque. Saladin is famous for his conquer of Jerussalem and his amazing compassion to his enemies and achieved a great reputation in Europe despite the long and fierce struggle against the crusades. There are many books written about him and even a number of films made. The most recent one was the Kingdon of Heaven.

In Wiki it was stated that despite the Crusaders' slaughter when they originally conquered Jerusalem in 1099, Saladin granted amnesty and free passage to all and even to the defeated Christian army. Notwithstanding the differences in beliefs, Saladin was respected by Christian lords. King Richard I of England once praised Saladin as a great prince, saying that he was without doubt the greatest and most powerful leader in the Islamic world.

Indeed Damascus is a worthwhile place to visit and learn about the Islamic history.