Religious, political and intellectual importance
[Picture source: © 2006 Rami Alafandi] [Picture source: © 2006 Rami Alafandi] Historically, the Great Mosque was always the main place for official ceremonies, where rulers and dignitaries attended prayer services, especially on the Islamic Eid holidays and during the holy month of Ramadan. In Ottoman times, all imperial decrees were publicly read there.[1]
The Great Mosque as main congregational mosque functioned not only as the religious centre for performing the five daily prayers and the Friday prayer or listening to the sermons but also as the centre of intellectual activities in the city. Notable and literate Aleppine citizens held learning circles in the arcades at all hours to teach religious matters including the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh).[2] Al-Ghazzi states that the prayer hall contained four prayer niches, one for each madhhab (school of legal thought, traditionally four in Sunnite Islam). The main mihrab was used for the Shafiite school and then in Ottoman times for the Hanafite school.[3]
The Great Mosque once was also an important institution for astronomy. Famous scholars such as Ibn al-Naqib (900–971 AH / 1494–1563 AD)[4] and Ahmad Agha al-Jazzar (19th century) taught there. The position of the timekeeper of the Great Mosque was inherited by the family of the Aleppine scholar ʿAbdallah al-Hanbali al-Miqati in the 16th century up until 1920 when he, the last male member of the family-line, died.[5]
The Aleppines are said to be good listeners to music and singing and so it is important that the muezzin (muʾadhdhan) of the Great Mosque recites the call to prayer (adhan) with a beautiful voice from the minaret. Even in recent times, the best traditional singers of Aleppo have been chosen, such as Sabri Moudallal and Hassan Haffar.[6]
