Al Husseini Mosque

About Al Husseini Mosque

The Grand Husseini Mosque is a Friday mosque, located in downtown Amman, Jordan. It is one of the oldest mosques in the city, and one of the main landmarks of the downtown area.

The Grand Husseini Mosque is the oldest mosque in Amman and the beating heart of the city: it stands at the head of King Talal Street downtown, with the old city's markets, from the gold souq to the Bukharia market and the vegetable stalls, wrapped around it. Emir Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, founder of the Jordanian state, began it in 1923–1924 and completed it in 1927, the first building project of the new emirate in its capital, before even Raghdan Palace. It is named for Sharif Hussein bin Ali, leader of the Great Arab Revolt and ancestor of the ruling Hashemite family, and it rose on the ruins of the city's old Umayyad mosque, described by the early Arab geographers, so prayer has continued on this spot since the first centuries of Islam. The mosque is built in Ottoman style of pink and white stone, 58.5 m long and 12.5 m wide, with a front portico, side arcades and an open courtyard, and two unequal minarets, the eastern 70 m high and the western 35 m. It was thoroughly renovated in 1986–1987. The people of Amman gather here for Friday and Eid prayers, national and religious occasions set out from its square, and it is where anyone who wants to know old Amman should begin.

Where:

Amman, Jordan