Gasr Al-Hājj (Arabic: قصر الحاج) is a huge fortified
granary
A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animal ...
of circular shape built in the 7th century
AH/13th century AD by Abdallah Abu Jatla (Arabic:عبدالله أبوجطلة). It is located in Libya on the Tripoli-'Aziziya-Al Jawf route in
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
about 130 km from
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
. It was built to serve as granary for families from the surrounding area in return for quarter of their crops, which, it is said, the owner had endowed as a
waqf
A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or '' mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitabl ...
for teaching
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
and Islamic related subjects to the people of the area. The building originally comprised 114 chambers, which could be the number of the subscribing families during the time of construction. It is also speculated that the number 114 was used symbolically to reflect the number of
Sura
A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...
in the Qur'an, a view widely accepted by villagers in the region nowadays. The number of chambers as of now, is 119, as result of splitting 10 chambers due to inheritance disputes. Other changes include the addition of 29 cellars.
References
* https://web.archive.org/web/20110723012310/http://alsoog.net/vb/archive/index.php/t-1241.html
External links
Photos
Architecture in Libya
Berber architecture
Tourism in Libya
Agricultural buildings in Libya
Ksars
Fortifications in Libya
Jabal al Gharbi District
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