The mosque was built on a site devoted to deities since about 3,000 years. Nothing remains of the Aramean temple,
and only some traces of the Roman temple, probably built in the late 3rd century A.D. can be seen. Of the Byzantine
cathedral, all that remains is the precious relic, the head of St. John The Baptist, veneered both by Christians
and Moslems who call him Yehia Ben Zakariyah, and the spirit which directed the design and execution of mosaics
with golden backgrounds still covering some fragments of the Islamic edifice.
The church devoted to St. John The Baptist existed for 72 years after the Arab conquest, until the Caliph EI-Walid
expropriated it in 708 to erect a sumptuous mosque to replace the too modest mussalla, or outdoor prayer place,
which was built in the enclosure of the pagan temple beside the church of Saint John The Baptist and the chapel
which contained the head of the Precursor. El- Walid destroyed everything inside the enclosure wall with the exception
of the big wall which surrounds it and the square angle towers. It took 10 years for the Caliph to build the symbol
of political supremacy and moral prestige of Islam. Mosaics inlaid with gold, marble marquetry and gold plating
rivalled each other to give a sumptuous decoration to the new mosque which was unanimously admired in the Orient
and became one of the marvels of the world. Ravaged too often by fire and ransacked by looters, in particular the
Mongols in 1260 and the Turcomans of Tamerlane early in the 15th century, and finally almost entirely consumed
by fire in 1893, the Great Mosque of Damascus no more vies with its distant Omayyad cousin of the West, the mosque
of Cordoba. |
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