Muslim Heritage

About 120 km, West of Mountain Huashan (among China’s five famous mountains) is the Great Mosque of Xian located in the Huajue Xiang district of China, inhabited mainly by the Muslim Hui minority. The Mosque was built in 742 AD during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) in the first year during the reign of Emperor Tian Bao.


Occupying an area of over 12,000 square meters, the Great Mosque is divided into four courtyards, 250 meters long and 47 meters wide with a well-arranged layout. Landscaped with gardens, the further one strolls into its interior, the more serene one feels.


The first courtyard contains an elaborate wooden arch nine meters high covered with glazed tiles that dates back to the 17th century. In the centre of the second courtyard, stands a stone arch with two steles. On one stele is the script of a famous calligrapher named Mi Fu of the Song Dynasty, the other is from Dong Qichang, a calligrapher of the Ming Dynasty. Their calligraphy, because of such elegant yet powerful characters is considered to be a great treasure in the art of handwriting.


A ‘Phoenix’ placed in the fourth courtyard, the principal pavilion of this great mosque complex, contains the Prayer Hall, the surrounding walls of which are covered with coloured designs. This Hall can easily hold 1,000 people at a time.

Among North Africa’s most influential monuments is the Qairawan Mosque (670-675 AD) in Tunisia. One of the significant aspects of this Mosque is its irregular form. This is due to the fact that none of its corners form a right angle. The Mosque consists of a large court surrounded by columns and horseshoe arches while the prayer hall consists of 17 parallel aisles separated with arcades on rows of columns believed to have been brought from Baghdad. These run to the end of the wall, but stop before reaching the last bay. The central aisle is wider and the Mihrab is covered by a dome and here it meets a transverse aisle running through the entire width of the Mosque forming the T-shape.