Al-Satoun Mosque

Description of the site: It is in the Al-Yasmina neighborhood. The mosque was built in 1285 AD, and was restored and renovated several times during the Ottoman period. The inscriptions appear on its facades overlooking the open yard and another inscription above the door of its minaret. Prince Shams al-Din Ibn al-Taher al-Shahid built and rebuilt it in different periods. Then the minaret was rebuilt in 1358 AD by Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Shahid. In 1852 AD, the mosque was expanded from its northern side by Sheikh Fakhr al-Din Sharaf, based on the mosque during the Ottoman period.It is a 417 square meters mosque consisting of three sections: the southern prayer chamber (al Qibli) and the northern prayer house (the Omari mosque). An open yard includes the mosque's facilities in the north section. The western facade overlooks a roofed road with high intersecting arches, and it consists of the main gate of the mosque: a beautiful gate built in the form of two overlapping arches of chiseled stones.To the south of the main gate is a smaller entrance leading to the ablution yard, and above the entrance is a semicircular arch. At the northern end of the mosque, a standpipe was added, which is called Sabil al-Ran. Its name comes from the basin of this standpipe, a Roman stone sarcophagus that the public called the Ran, as it was reused as a basin for it.The southern prayer house took a rectangular shape in an east-west direction, its dimensions are 24 x 8 meters, and it consists of two halls: the southern hall is 4 meters wide and topped by intersecting arches that reach 8 meters high. Given the dam's presence above this hall, the northern entrance was less widespread and tall. The Qibla wall includes a stone pulpit preceded by an arch surmounted by an inscription. In the exact site of the Qibla, there are three niches. The central one has two marble columns attached to its ends, each topped with a locally made stone crown, while the two side niches are smaller and less important than the middle one. They were dedicated to the three jurisprudence schools the city's people adopted.The second part consists of the mosque, which was called the Omari mosque, with an area of about 10 square meters, and in the middle of it is a massive stone column that seems to have been moved from a Roman building, and the mosque took its name from this column. Its function was to support the intersecting arches and support them in conjunction with the walls surrounding the mosque. The height of the mosque ceiling was the same as that of the northern arcade: due to the barrier at the top of the two, the wall is accessed from a stone staircase at the northeastern corner of the Omari mosque.As for the open yard, it connects with the Al-Omari and Al-Qibli chambers through wide arches. And the sanitary facilities of the mosque were added to the square from the western side, and at its southwestern corner, the mosque's minaret stands. Three inscriptions are distributed on its western and southern facades. During the year 2018 AD, the mosque witnessed reconstruction and restoration by a committee from the region. Modern ablution facilities were added to its yard, and the facade that separated the southern prayer chamber, and the Omari mosque was removed.