Jami' al-Kabir (Sarmin)
Sarmin, Syria

The Great Mosque of Sarmin is located at the center of the small town, which lies approximately nine kilometers east-south-east of Idlib in Idlib Governorate. The town of Sarmin is ancient, attested in pre-Islamic sources and mentioned by the geographers of the Islamic period. The mosque itself is of significant antiquity, as it appears in a description of the town by the medieval historian and geographer Izz al-Din Ibn al-Shaddad (d. 1285/657 AH), who mentions one of its most distinct architectural features: the nine domes over its prayer hall. Inscriptions in the mosque record a renovation in 1261-2/660 AH and a restoration (?) in 1305-6/705 AH.1

The mosque's plan is typical of Syria and Palestine. It is centered on a large, rectangular courtyard bordered by arcades and a prayer hall on the qibla (southern) side. The prayer hall is shallow. The qibla aisle is divided into nine bays, each one covered by a small dome.


Notes:

  1. Michael Meinecke. Die Mamlukische Architektur in Ägypten und Syrien. Gluckstadt: J. J. Augustin, 1992. Vol. 2, Cat. 4/32 and Cat. 9B/53, respectively.

Sources:

van Berchem, Max. Voyage en Syrie, 1:205. 2 vols. Mémoires publiées par les membres de L’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale du Caire 37-38. Cairo: L’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 1914.

Tchalenko, Georges. Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: le massif du Bélus à l’époque romaine, 3:126. 3 vols. Paris: P. Geuthner, 1958.

Todt, Klaus-Peter, and Bernd Andreas Vest. Syria (Syria Prōtē, Syria Deutera, Syria Euphratēsia), 1722-1725. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2014.

Location

Sarmin, Syria

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Variant Names

(جامع الكبير (سرمين
Original
Great Mosque of Sarmin
Translated

Site Types

religious