جامع الشيخ زايد بن سلطان بن عبدالعزيز

Endowed in commemoration of the late Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may God have mercy upon him, the founding father of the United Arab Emirates, this grand jami in Aleppo represents one of several mosques gifted by the Emirati leader to cities across the Arab world as an expression of shared faith and solidarity. Shaikh Zayed's philanthropy extended to hospitals, schools and mosques from Morocco to Pakistan, and his name is remembered with gratitude wherever his foundations were established. Aleppo is one of the most venerable cities of the Muslim world, its continuously inhabited old quarters dating back more than four thousand years, and its Islamic heritage is extraordinarily rich. The city was governed successively by the Umayyads, Abbasids, Hamdanids, Seljuks, Zengids, Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans, and its Great Mosque preserves architectural layers from each era. Scholars such as Ibn al Adim, Yusuf ibn Muhammad al Halabi and countless others composed works of history, law, medicine and poetry in its madrasas and khanqahs. The regional architectural tradition of northern Syria favours golden limestone walls intricately carved with muqarnas, striped ablaq masonry alternating black basalt and honey coloured stone, tall square minarets such as the famed Seljuk minaret of the Great Mosque, and arcaded courtyards cooled by central fountains. This more recent endowment draws upon the traditional vocabulary in contemporary execution. The mosque hosts five daily prayers that have continued even through the difficult years of recent conflict, Friday assemblies that give comfort to a wounded city, tarawih prayers through Ramadan in lamplit halls, and Eid mornings whose emotional weight surpasses easy description in a people who have suffered so much. Qur'an memorisation classes meet as conditions allow. Travellers visiting the citadel of Aleppo, the reopened souks and the historic Umayyad Mosque will find this contemporary gift a symbol of the bonds that Muslim peoples maintain across vast distances of geography. Traditional Aleppine soap makers, calligraphers and copper workers contribute their crafts to the mosque's ornamentation, ensuring that every restored door panel, polished lamp and inscribed tablet bears witness to the continuing vitality of the craft guilds who have shaped this ancient city.