Ǧāmiʿ alʾAqṣāb

 

North of the Baradā, about 200 meters outside Bāb as-Salāmā.

The building seems to have an old history, and in its northern portico part of a pre-Islamic building may be preserved.

"A masǧid near the entrance to Saṭrā alley; it contains the heads of the companions, ʾaṣḥāb, of the Prophet, known under the name Masǧid al-Qaṣab. It is old. At its gate is a canal" (1).

“Old,” for ibn Šaddād, means long before 632 (1234-1235 CE). Anything resembling the cult of heads is so totally non-Muḥammedan that the presence of such heads is clear evidence of pre-Muḥammedan origin. Van Berchem groups these legends around the survival of the Adonis myth, the head of St. John the Baptist, of al-Ḥusayn, and others.

"Al-Madrasā al-Mismārīyyā . . . near Minaret Fayrūz, founded by Šayẖ Mismār al-Hilālī, who died in 546 (1151-1152 CE), had a large waqf, the limit of which is indicated by ḥakr az-Zuqāq (2), called as-Sāqiyā, and belonging to the area called Masǧid al-ʾAqṣāb" (3).

This indication of the locality evidently is taken by an-Nuʿaymī or his source from the text of the waqf and proves the existence of Masǧid al-ʾAqṣāb before 546. 

"On the thirteenth of Ǧumādā II 721 (July 10, 1321), the Friday prayer was celebrated at Ǧāmiʿ alʾAqṣāb" (4). 

"Ǧāmiʿ Masǧid alʾAqṣāb was built anew and enlarged by Emir Nāṣir ad-Dīn Muḥammad, son of Manǧak, in 811 (1408-1409 CE)" (5).

This led to a lawsuit between the Malikī and the Šafiʿite qaḍīs (6):

Manǧak had destroyed the masǧid and built at its place a large ǧāmiʿ, appropriating the area illegally (7).

The note of ibn Kaṯīr contradicts this description: since the Friday prayer was celebrated there in 721, it was a ǧāmiʿ ninety years before Manǧak. The excitement over the lawsuit and unjustified accusations of the unloved governor seem to be the reason for the inaccurate representation of the facts.

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1. Ibn ʿAsākir P. 84, ibn Šaddād p. 140, Sauvaire p. 451, 

2. "The Enclosure of the Alley". 

3. An-Nuʿaymī Vol II, P 89 and 93. 

4. Ibn Kaṯīr Vol VIII p 152. 

5. An-Nuʿaymī Volume II p 331. 

6. Ibid. See also Badrān p. 386-387. 

7. A masǧid (mosque) is any general place of worship or prostration for Muslims, while a ǧāmiʿ (great mosque or masǧid ǧāmiʿ) is a larger, central congregational mosque specifically designated for weekly Friday (Ǧumʿā) prayers and major community gatherings.

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