Nabi Yahya Mosque

Coordinates: 32°16′36″N 35°11′45″E / 32.27667°N 35.19583°E / 32.27667; 35.19583
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Nabi Yahya Mosque
جامع النبي يحيى
Religion
AffiliationIslam
Location
LocationNablus, West Bank, Palestine
Nabi Yahya Mosque is located in the West Bank
Nabi Yahya Mosque
Shown within the West Bank
Geographic coordinates32°16′36″N 35°11′45″E / 32.27667°N 35.19583°E / 32.27667; 35.19583
Architecture
Typemosque
Completed1261
Specifications
Dome(s)1
Minaret(s)1
Minaret height30 meters (98 ft)

The Nabi Yahya Mosque (

Sebastia, Palestine. The mosque also contains the tombs of Elisha and Obadiah
, prophets who were buried next to John the Baptist.

It is the main

Sebastia, near Nablus
. It is located in the central square of the village. It is constructed of large buttressed walls. Within its courtyard, a stairway in the small domed building leads down into a cave.

History

Byzantine church

The Nabi Yahya Mosque stands on the site identified since Byzantine times as the place where John the Baptist's body was buried by his followers. Matthew 14:12[1] records that "his disciples came and took away [John's] body and buried it". A church was erected on the spot of the tomb during the Byzantine era.

Crusader cathedral

The ruins of the crusader cathedral in the 1840s, from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia.

The church erected above John the Baptist's tomb was superseded by a

Arabic language
.

In 1870, the French explorer Victor Guérin visited the place, and noted:

At the western extremity of the monument rises a

sepulchral chamber divided into three parallel arched loculi, with cut stones regularly worked between them. They are only seen by introducing a light across three small openings in the wall of the chamber. According to an ancient tradition, one of these compartments is the tomb of St. John the Baptist, and the others those of the prophets Obadiah and Elisha.

— Guérin, 1875[3]

Later, in the 1870s, the

columns attached, one each side; on the west was a doorway and two windows; on the south four windows remain, and on the north three."[4]

Ottoman rebuilding

A sign in the mosque, 2018

In 1892, Abdul Hamid II ordered the rebuilding of part of the site. The mosque was restored and mostly rebuilt during the 19th century while Palestine was under Ottoman rule.[2]

Prison of John the Baptist

Local tradition in both the

Jordan, some 80–90 miles (130–140 km) away.[5]

References

  1. ^ Matthew 14:12
  2. ^ a b Jacobs, 1998, p.443.
  3. ^ Guérin, 1875, pp. 189; as translated by Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, pp. 213-214
  4. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, pp.212-213
  5. ^ Estimate using Google Maps, 17 January 2017

Further reading

  • Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
  • Guérin, V. (1875). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 2: Samarie, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
  • Jacobs, Daniel (1998). Israel and the Palestinian territories. Rough Guides.
    ISBN 978-1-85828-248-0
    .

External links

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