Shurbaji Mosque

About Shurbaji Mosque

The Shurbaji Mosque is a small mosque in the Old City of Al-Quds near Damascus Gate (Bab al-Amud), at the junction of Khan al-Zeit and al-Wad streets, on the right as you walk from the gate towards Al-Aqsa along al-Wad. It is named after al-Hajj Abd al-Karim ibn al-Hajj Mustafa al-Shurbaji, who endowed it in 1097 AH / 1685 CE in the Ottoman period. The building did not begin as a mosque but as a sabil, a public water fountain. The endowment deed records that the founder appointed staff to run it, a water-carrier, a fountain-keeper and a caretaker, and that it consisted of a room above a cistern with copper cups for passers-by to drink from. It appears to have become a mosque around the middle of the twentieth century, used by neighbouring shopkeepers, passers-by and visitors. The mosque is tiny and roughly square, entered through a small doorway in its eastern facade and roofed with a small dome; the mihrab in the middle of the southern wall is a hollow niche faced with modern tiles. It is a charming example of how the function of a waqf building in the lanes of the city can change over time.

Where:

Jerusalem, Palestine