Ǧāmiʿ al-Ǧarrāḥ

 

This congregational mosque is located outside Bāb āš-Šāġūr (1) at the beginning of the large southern cemetery, east of the Maydān suburb.

"Masǧid al-Ǧanāʾiz (2), at Bāb aṣ-Ṣaġīr, on the sheep market, great and old. Having fallen into ruins, it was rebuilt by Ǧarrāḥ. It contains a well" (3).

"Ǧāmiʿ al-Ǧarrāḥ, outside al-Bāb aṣ-Ṣaġīr, in the sheep market quarter, known of old as Masǧid al-Ǧanāʾiz, ruined and rebuilt by Ǧarrāḥ and Muḍḥī" (4).

The nisbā (5), which Sauvaire could not solve, is apparently al-Manbiǧī “from Manbiǧ.”

The tribe of the Banū al-Ǧarrāḥ is often mentioned by ibn al-ʾAtṯīr during the fourth and fifth centuries; they were Ṭayʾ Arabs, though they had no provable connection with the history of Damascus.

"After the rebuilding by al-Ǧarrāḥ, the masǧid was converted into a ǧāmiʿ by al-malik al-ʾAšraf Mūsā, son of al-ʿĀdil, in 631 (6), according to Ibn Šaddād. Ibn Kaṯīr and others report the same. The ǧāmiʿ was destroyed by fire during the siege of Damascus by Muʿīn ad-Dīn, son of aš-Šayẖ in 642 (7), under al-Malik aṣ-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl. The building was restored by the Emir Muǧāhid ad-Dīn Muḥammad, son of Emir Šams ad-Dīn Maḥmūd, son of Ġars ad-Dīn Qiliǧ an-Nūrī, in 652 (8)."

The siege is that of the Khawārizmians. According to ʿAbd al-Bāsiṭ, the mosque suffered a fire once more in 974 (9), and the money was collected for its restoration at this time.

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1. Otherwise known as al- Bāb aṣ-Ṣaġīr.
2. Literally "the Funeral Mosque".    
3. Sauvaire p. 446.
4. Sauvaire p. 232. Al-Manīḥī, according to ibn Šaddād, or Al-Manbiǧī, per an-Nuʿaymī.
5. Attribution.
6. 1233-1234 CE
7. 1244-1245 CE.
8. 1254-1255 CE.
9. 1566-1567 CE. 

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Ernst Herzfeld. Damascus, Studies in Architecture IV. Ars Islamica XIII-XIV 1948 (p. 118-138).