مزكهوتي شێخ عهبدولقادري كهيلاني - قهڵادزێ

In the upland town of Qaladze in Iraq's Sulaymaniyah governorate stands a mosque dedicated to the memory of Shaykh Abd al Qadir al Gilani, the twelfth century Baghdadi scholar whose name is beloved across the entire Muslim world. Qaladze itself is tucked into a high valley near the Iranian border, surrounded by oak forests and traversed by the Lower Zab river, a landscape that has sheltered Kurdish villages, mountain fortresses, and trade routes for over a millennium. The town's residents rebuilt Qaladze after the devastation of the Anfal campaign in the late 1980s, and the mosque today stands as a quiet monument to that painful recovery. The name links the building to the wider tradition of mosques and zawiyas throughout the Muslim world that honour Shaykh Abd al Qadir, born in Gilan in northern Persia and buried in Baghdad, where his shrine remains a major pilgrimage site. The Qaladze mosque is a substantial structure in local grey stone, with a broad rectangular prayer hall, a domed central bay, and a square minaret whose upper band is faced in green ceramic tile. Inside, the qibla wall is finished in pale plaster with Quranic calligraphy in deep blue, and the carpet runs in parallel lines toward Mecca. The congregation is drawn from the bazaar streets and the newer apartment blocks that have grown up around the old town. Daily prayers proceed at an unhurried Kurdish cadence, and Jumu'ah brings the hall to capacity. During Ramadan, the mosque runs tarawih each evening, and women of the neighbourhood prepare communal iftars of dolma, kichka, and fresh naan. On Thursday evenings a quiet remembrance gathering is held in the attached hall, with blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, and upon his family and companions, may God be pleased with them. Visitors reach Qaladze through a scenic mountain road from Sulaymaniyah, passing the Dukan lake and the Halgurd peaks. Nearby sites include the Rawanduz gorge carved by centuries of river water, the old iron bridge at Bekhal, the trout pools below its waterfall, and the mountain passes leading toward the Iranian border.