Layout plan
[Picture source: © 1990 Julia Gonnella] [Picture source: © 1990 Julia Gonnella] The mosque possesses two entrances, we enter it either from the north from the neighborhood suq, or from the west. (Fig. 3) The mosque’s octagonal minaret rises above the western entrance.
When looking around the mosque’s courtyard it is easy to identify different phases of construction. The qibliyya’s southern wall, on the other hand, makes a uniform impression and was probably built in one piece. We could assume that its construction was linked to the inscription above the mihrab and could thus be dated to the early 18th century. The qibliyya’s eastern part is elevated by a few steps and was furnished with wall cupboards to store books. Tabbakh mentions that the mosque possessed a number of Qurʾan manuscripts. In 2002, the teaching of Qurʾan, hadith and fiqh took place in the mosque.[1] The prayer hall contains three prayer niches; the space around the central one, with the minbar, is domed. The eastern mihrab was separated from the rest by a wooden structure. Behind that structure and in front of the mihrab was located the tomb of Shaykh Saʿd al-Yamani (died 1174/1760-61). Of Yemeni origin, Saʿd al-Yamani was a disciple of Shaykh Muhammad Hilal ar-Ramhamdani, the shaykh of the Zawiya al-Hilaliyya (cf. az-Zawiya al-Hilaliyya) and celebrated the dhikr in the Mashatiyya mosque. With the consent of his disciples and the inhabitants of the neighborhood (ahl al-mahalla), he was buried in the mosque.[2]
Figure 3: Jamiʿ al-Mashatiyya, façade of the prayer hall [Picture source: © 1990 Julia Gonnella] On the eastern side of the courtyard we find two rooms, in front of which (in the courtyard) we find another tomb, that of Ibrahim al-Mashati who, after Asadi, lent his name to the mosque and the neighborhood as a whole. (Fig. 4) An inscription mentions the years 1248/1832-33 as his death, but mosque and neighborhood already had this name as far back as 992/1583-84.[3] On the façade of the rooms on the eastern side of the courtyard, we find another inscription, which dates its construction to the year 1247/1831-32.[4]
The northwestern corner of the courtyard is occupied by a small building, a zawiya for the disciples of Shaykh Saʿd. ʿAbd al-Qadir an-Nashid, his successor, established a hereditary line and constructed that zawiya. It is known as Zawiyat Bani an-Nashid or Zawiyat Saʿd al-Yamani and would have been completed before Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qadir died in 1204/1789-90.[5]
It consists of a small room for the shaykh, a bathroom and a rectangular hall for the dhikr (maydan) structured with two columns and arches into three bays, covered with a wooden roof.[6]
Figure 4: Jamiʿ al-Mashatiyya, eastern façade of the courtyard with tomb of Ibrahim al-Mashati [Picture source: © 1990 Julia Gonnella ] 