Al-Khadra Mosque ( ar, مسجد الخضرة, translit=Masjid al-Khadra, lit=the Green Mosque) also known as Hizn Sidna Yaq'ub Mosque (trans. ''Sadness of our Lord Jacob''), is a

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

situated on the lower slopes of Mount Gerizim in the southwestern quarter of the Old City of Nablus in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. The mosque is rectangular in shape, and its minaret rises .Pringle, 1993, pp.112.

History

According to local Muslim tradition, the mosque is situated upon the site where

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...

wept after being shown

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

's blood-soaked tunic which suggested that he had been mauled and killed; on the right of the courtyard is a small room said to be the place where Jacob sat down and wept. Hence the mosque's alternative name "Sadness of our Lord Jacob". According to Samaritan tradition, al-Khadra Mosque had been a synagogue destroyed by the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

. They claim that its

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

name ''al-Khadra'' ("the Green") derived from the Samaritan ''Mahallat Khadra'' ("the place of the Green"). Archaeologist Michael Avi-Yonah identified the Khadra Mosque with the synagogue built by the

Samaritan high priest The Samaritan High Priest is the high priest (''kohen gadol'') of the remaining Samaritan community in the Levant. According to Samaritan tradition, the office has existed continuously since the time of Aaron, the brother of Moses, and has been ...

Akbon in 362 CE. The synagogue was rebuilt in 1137 by Ab Giluga, a Samaritan from Acre. Several Western scholars, however, believe, because of examples of

Gothic architecture Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It ...

in portions of the present-day mosque, that in the 1170s, there stood a Crusader church and bell tower.Pringle, 1993, p.111

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

geographer

Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known for ...

records in 1225, while Nablus was under Ayyubid rule, the buildings was restored to become a Samaritan synagogue, which he referred to as "a large mosque" which the Samaritans venerated. It is probably from this era that the Samaritan inscriptions on a minaret wall were made. In 1242, however, the

Knights Templars , colors = White mantle with a red cross , colors_label = Attire , march = , mascot = Two knights riding a single horse , equipment ...

damaged the building, which was later destroyed in 1260 by the

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

. It was transformed as a mosque in 1290 by the Mamluks during the reign of Sultan Qalawun as attested to by a foundation inscription. Most of the structure resembles

Mamluk architecture Mamluk architecture was the architectural style under the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517), which ruled over Egypt, the Levant, and the Hijaz from their capital, Cairo. Despite their often tumultuous internal politics, the Mamluk sultans were proli ...

and a '' mihrab'' was added to the mosque.

Second Intifada

According to the Palestinian government and

Gush Shalom Gush Shalom (Hebrew: גוש שלום, lit. ''The Peace Bloc oalition') is an Israeli peace activism group founded by Uri Avnery in 1993. Avnery–a former journalist, Irgun and Knesset member–also lead the organization till his death in 2018. ...

, during the Second Intifada in the Battle of Nablus in 2002,

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i bulldozers destroyed 85% of the mosque, including the Mamluk-era ''mihrab''. The current imam of al-Khadra Mosque, Maher Kharaz (the 'White Lion'), was removed from his position in a Palestinian Authority 'crack down' on militant imams in 1996, but was reinstated in 2006. Kharaz, a

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...

member and opponent of Fatah, regularly defied the Fatah-led

Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,

during his weekly Friday sermons. Kharaz was arrested on September 23, 2007 in another Fatah-led 'crack down' on Hamas.UN Doc
Chronological Review of Events Relating to the Question of Palestine, Monthly media monitoring review September 2007

History

Second Intifada

References

Further reading