The Great Mosque of Tirana ( sq, Xhamia e Madhe e Tiranës) or Namazgah Mosque ( sq, Xhamia e Namazgjasë; en, Mosque of Prayer) is a mosque which is currently being built in

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

. When completed, it will be the largest mosque in

the Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

History

After the fall of communism in Albania, in 1991, Albanian Muslims often complained about being discriminated against. While two cathedrals (Catholic and Eastern Orthodox) were built, as of 2016 Muslims in Albania still had no central mosque and had to pray in the streets. In 1992, then president, Sali Berisha, laid the first stone of a mosque to be constructed near Namazgja square, close to the parliament. Construction was delayed after the speaker of parliament,

Pjetër Arbnori Pjetër Filip Arbnori (18 January 1936 – 8 July 2006) was an Albanian gulag survivor. He was dubbed "the Mandela of the Balkans" by Albanian statesmen because of the length of his 28-year internment. He was born in Durrës, on the Adriatic coa ...

contested the plans. The decision of building the mosque was taken in 2010, by then mayor of Tirana,

Edi Rama Edi Rama (born Edvin Kristaq Rama, 4 July 1964) is an Albanian politician, painter, writer, former university lecturer, publicist and former basketball player, who has served as the 33rd and current Prime Minister of Albania since 2013 and chairm ...

The building of the mosque is considered necessary because there are only 8 mosques in the city, down from 28 in 1967. During Islamic holidays, the

Skanderbeg Square The Skanderbeg Square () is the main plaza in the centre of Tirana, Albania. The square is named after the Albanian national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu. The total area is about 40,000 square metres. The Skanderbeg Monument dominates the ...

is filled with Muslim worshipers, because the Ottoman-era Ethem Bey mosque, currently Tirana's principal mosque, has a capacity of only 60 persons. Rain makes Friday sermons impossible. The mosque will have four minarets, each 50 meters high, while the central dome will have a height of 30 meters. The first floor of the mosque will include a cultural center and other facilities. The mosque is being constructed on a 10,000-square-meter parcel of land near Albania's parliament building and will have the capacity for up to 4,500 people to pray at one time within the mosque. The financing for the mosque's construction comes from the main state-run Turkish Muslim organisation

Diyanet The Directorate of Religious Affairs in Turkey ( tr, Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, normally referred to simply as the Diyanet) is an official state institution established in 1924 by the orders of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk under article 136 of t ...

." In 2015, Turkish president

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

visited

for the

inauguration In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugu ...

ceremony of the mosque.

References

External links

Official Website
(Albanian and English) {{Coord, 41, 19, 32, N, 19, 49, 27, E, type:landmark_region:AL, display=title Proposed mosques Mosques in Tirana 21st-century mosques Albania–Turkey relations

Mosque buildings with domes

History

See also

References

External links