مسجد School Khanqah Siraj Al Din Hurin

Quietly present in the Kurdish town of Derbendixan in the As Sulaymaniyah governorate of northern Iraq, the historic complex of a mosque, a school, and the khanqah of Siraj al Din in Hurin preserves a layered spiritual heritage reaching back across several centuries of Kurdish religious life. Sulaymaniyah itself was founded in 1784 as the seat of the Baban Kurdish principality and became a celebrated centre of Kurdish literature, music, and religious learning, producing some of the most influential poets of the Kurdish language. The surrounding mountains carry villages whose Muslim communities have held fast to their faith across countless political upheavals.
The name Siraj al Din, meaning the Lamp of the Religion, belongs to a long and honoured line of scholars and pious teachers in the Muslim world, and its use for this Kurdish khanqah suggests that it was named after a local teacher whose memory was especially cherished by the community of Hurin. A khanqah in the Islamic tradition is a dedicated building for spiritual gatherings, Qur'anic recitation, and collective remembrance of God, often attached to a mosque and school. Kurdish religious life has long included such institutions, drawing students and seekers who combined study of the formal sciences with deep contemplation of the Qur'anic verses that teach the heart to remember its Lord.
The surviving complex includes a modest prayer hall with traditional stone and timber construction, a courtyard for ablution and open air gatherings, small classrooms where students once studied Arabic grammar, tajwid, jurisprudence, and Qur'anic commentary, and the khanqah itself with its simple cells for visiting seekers. The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, taught that whoever travels a path seeking knowledge, God makes easy for him a path to Paradise, and the layered institutions of Kurdish learning drew countless travellers along such paths across the centuries. Friday sermons are delivered in Kurdish, with Qur'anic passages in Arabic, and during Ramadan the community gathers for collective iftars of dolma, kubba, and sweet kleicha. Daily prayer times for Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha at this Derbendixan complex appear on this page for every resident and visitor.