History of the Building
[Picture source: © 1907 Friedrich Sarre] [Picture source: © 1907 Friedrich Sarre] Date and patron
The first version of the Great Mosque (al-Jamiʿ al-Kabir) was built by Umayyad caliphs in order to make their mark in Aleppo.[1] The city’s main congregational mosque is also called “Umayyad Great Mosque” (al-Jamiʿ al-Umawi al-Kabir, see picture 1). Historical sources often attribute the start of its construction to the caliph al-Walid ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 86–96 AH / 705–715 AD) and its completion to his brother and successor Sulayman (r. 96–99 AH / 715–717 AD), who ruled the first Islamic world empire from the Syrian capital Damascus.[2]
