The Great Mosque of Aleppo (Arabic: جَـامِـع حَـلَـب الْـكَـبِـيْـر, Jāmi‘ Ḥalab al-Kabīr) or the Banu Umayya Mosque of Aleppo (Arabic: جَـامِـع بَـنِي أُمَـيَّـة بِـحَـلَـب, Jāmi‘ Banī Umayyah Bi-Ḥalab) is the largest and one of the oldest mosques in the city of Aleppo, Syria. It is located in al-Jalloum district of the Ancient City of Aleppo, near the entrance to Souq al-Madina.
It was built in the beginning of the 8th century CE. However, the current building dates back to the 11th through 14th centuries. The minaret was built in 1090, and was destroyed during fighting in the Syrian civil war in April 2013.
The site of the Great Mosque was once the agora of the Hellenistic period, which later became the garden for the Cathedral of Saint Helena during the Christian era of Roman rule in Syria. According to later traditions, the construction of the earliest mosque on the site was commenced by the Ummayad caliph al-Walid I in 715 and was finished by his successor Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik in 717.
Architectural historian K. A. C. Creswell attributes its construction solely to the latter, quoting 13th century Aleppine historian Ibn al-Adim who wrote Sulayman's intent was "to make it equal to the work of his brother al-Walid in the Great Mosque at Damascus." Another tradition claims al-Walid founded the mosque using materials from the so-called "Church of Cyrrus."
circa 700 CE
On 13 October 2012 the mosque was seriously damaged during clashes between the armed groups of the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian Army forces. President Bashar al-Assad issued a presidential decree to form a committee to repair the mosque by the end of 2013. On 13 October 2012 the mosque was seriously damaged during clashes between the armed groups of the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian Army forces. President Bashar al-Assad issued a presidential decree to form a committee to repair the mosque by the end of 2013. On the 24th of April, 2013, the minaret of the mosque was reduced to rubble (inspect) during an exchange of heavy weapons fire between government forces and rebels during the ongoing Syrian civil war.
