The Ben Farès Mosque, also known as Djamaa Ben Farès ( ar, مسجد ابن فارس), originally built as the Great Synagogue of Algiers, is a
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a Place of worship, place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers (sujud) ...
and former
synagogue in
Algiers. It was also formerly known as Djamâa Lihoud, which means "Mosque of the Jews" in
Algerian Arabic
Algerian Arabic (natively known as Dziria) is a dialect derived from the form of Arabic spoken in northern Algeria. It belongs to the Maghrebi Arabic language continuum and is partially mutually intelligible with Tunisian and Moroccan.
Li ...
vernacular.
Following the
Civil war in Algeria and its abandonment in 1994, the synagogue was converted into the Ben Farès Mosque.
History
Synagogue

The site of the synagogue was previously occupied by a mosque, which was founded in 1400 and named after Sidi Al Harbi, one of the saints of Algiers. After the
French occupation of Algeria
French Algeria (french: Alger to 1839, then afterwards; unofficially , ar, الجزائر المستعمرة), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of French colonisation of Algeria. French rule in the region began in 1830 with the ...
in 1830, the French sold the site to the Jews of Algeria, who destroyed the mosque and built a synagogue in its place in 1845.
As Ben Farès Mosque
Following the departure of the Jews of Algiers, who carried French nationality (since 1870 by the decree of Crémieux) with the French colonizers after the
independence of Algeria for political reasons, the synagogue was transformed into a mosque called "The Mosque of Ben Farès."
The origin of the name of the mosque, according to what was indicated in the book of "mosques of the city of Algiers, its zaouïa and its sanctuaries in the Ottoman era" of Ben Hamoush, is attributed to the district in which lived Ali Abdul Aziz ibn Farès, who fled Andalusia after its fall in 1492 and who entered Bejaia and then in Algiers and settled in the Kasbah district.
Notable imams
*
Mohamed Charef
Muhammad was an Islamic prophet and a religious and political leader who preached and established Islam.
Muhammad and variations may also refer to:
* Muhammad (name), a given name and surname, and list of people with the name and its variations ...
(1908-2011)
See also
*
Algerian Islamic reference
The Algerian Islamic reference is the fundamentalist and legal framework for the practice of the religion of Islam in Algeria within Sunnism under the tutelage of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments.
Reference elements
Sunnism
...
*
Hizb Rateb
The Hizb Rateb ( ar, الحزب الراتب) is a collective recitation of Quran or dhikr or dua or wird done by murids and saliks in islamic sufism.
Presentation
The ''Hizb Rateb'' is a group tilawa of the Quran with one voice, in mosqu ...
(
Hezzab
The Hezzab ( ar, حَزَّاب) is the hafiz or qāriʾ supervising or participating in the Hizb Rateb in mosques and zawiyas in Algeria according to the Algerian Islamic reference under the supervision of the Ministry of Religious Affairs ...
,
Bash Hezzab
The Bash Hezzab ( ar, بَاشْ حَزَّاب) is the senior Hezzab supervising the Hizb Rateb and Salka in mosques and zawiyas in Algeria according to the Algerian Islamic reference under the supervision of the Ministry of Religious Affa ...
,
Salka)
*
Lists of mosques
Lists of mosques cover mosques, places of worship for Muslims. The lists include the most famous, largest and oldest mosques, and mosques mentioned in the Quran, as well as lists of mosques in each region and country of the world. The major region ...
*
List of mosques in Africa
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
List of mosques in Algeria
This is a list of mosques in Algeria. According to the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowment in 2006, there are around 15,000 mosques in Algeria as a whole, of which 450 are in the capital city of Algiers. 90% of which are built after ...
References
{{Coord, 36.784, 3.0592, display=inline,title
Mosques in Algiers
Buildings and structures in Algiers
Former synagogues in Algeria
Mosques converted from synagogues