Mosque Name: Abu Dulaf Mosque
Country: Iraq
City: Samarra
Year of construction (AH): 245 AH
Year of construction (AD): 859 AD
GPS: 34° 21’ 39.6000” 43° 48’ 9.0000”
ArchNet: http://archnet.org/sites/3830
Original Qibla: Mecca
For a Link to the Qibla Tool Click Here
Description:
Between 859 and 861, al-Mutawakkil relocated the Abbasid caliphate temporarily from Samarra to a new settlement that he named Ja’fariya, also known as al-Mutawakkil. The Mosque of Abu Dulaf became the new main congregational mosque much like the Great Mosque in Samarra. The walls of the mosque barely remain visible. While this mosque does not face Mecca as the Great Mosque of Samarra. Perhaps the architect of the Samarra mosque was no longer alive to orient the Abu Dulaf Mosque. This mosque had a mihrab and a square minaret.
The Mecca Qibla is illustrated above, demonstrating that the mosque faces too far east.
References:
Leisten, Thomas, 2003. Excavation of Samarra, vol. I: Architecture. Final Report of the First Campaign 1910-1912, Baghdader Forschungen 20, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 58-67.
Herzfeld, Ernst, 1912. Erster Vorläufiger Bericht über die Ausgrabungen von Samarra, Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
Al-Janabi, Tariq, 1983. “Islamic Archaeology in Iraq: Recent Excavations at Samarra”, World Archaeology 14(3): 305-327. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00438243.1983.9979871
Francis, Bashīr, and Ali, Maḥmūd, 1947. “Abi Dulaf Mosque at Samarra”, Sumer 3(1): 60-76 (in Arabic).
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