Gallery
Description
Property Name: Ein Karem Mosque
Inventory No: 972-2-21
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2020-08-10
Country (State party): Palestine
Province: Al Quds/Jerusalem
Town: Al Quds
Geographic coordinates: 31°45’55.06″N
35° 9’40.11″E
Historic Period: Ottoman
Year of Construction: 1828-1829
Style:
Original Use: Mosque
Current Use: Drug den
Architect: Unknown
Significance
Since ‘Umar Ib al-Khatab visited and prayed in the village soon after the Muslim Arab conquest in the 7th century, a mosque has been erected for this occasion (which remains standing to this date). Ein Karem Mosque is located in the village of Karem, the largest village in the Jerusalem district. It was named Al-Omari Mosque refers to the second caliph. The mosque is still standing but closed by occupation and abandoned, and its minaret is still standing. Ain Maryam water flows under the mosque.
Selection Criteria
ii. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design
iii. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared
vi. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
State of Preservation
The mosque is still in poor condition, as Ain Mariam water flows into the courtyard of the mosque. It’s changed to a Drug den. Al-Aqsa Foundation for the Reconstruction of Islamic Holy Places and the people of the village tried in 2004 AD to open the mosque for a period of three weeks and tried to restore it and open it for prayer, but the Zionist authorities closed the mosque.
References
Yusuf, Faraj Allah Ahmad. 2011. Mosques of Palestine: under the Zionist occupation. Dar Al-Qalam, 2011.
Leisten, Thomas. 1996. Mashhad Al-Nasr: Monuments of War and Victory in Medieval Islamic Art. Muqarnas Volume XIII: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. Gülru Necipoglu (ed.). Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Rabbat, Nasser. 1989. The Meaning of the Umayyad Dome of the Rock. Muqarnas VI: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture. Oleg Grabar (ed.). Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Rabbat, Nasser. 1993. The Dome of the Rock Revisited: Some Remarks on al-Wasiti’s Accounts. Muqarnas X: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture. Margaret B. Sevcenko (ed.). Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Richard Ettinghausen, Oleg Grabar, Marilyn Jenkins-Madina (1987),The Art and Architecture of Islam 650-1250 c.e. (pp.28-34)
Yavuz, Yildirim. 1996. The Restoration Project of the Masjid al-Aqsa by Mimar Kemalettin (1922-26). Muqarnas Volume XIII: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. Gülru Necipoglu (ed.). Leiden: E.J. Brill.
UNESCO, (1995) General Conference Twenty-eighth Session Report
Archnet website: archnet.org
Organization of the Islamic Conference Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture
AL-QUDS/JERUSALEM IN HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS: İSTANBUL, 2 0 0 9.