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Great Mosque, prayer hall, Shrine of the Prophet Zakariya

Great Mosque, prayer hall, Shrine of the Prophet Zakariya

The shrine room of the Prophet Zakariya – the father of the Prophet Yahya, or, in the Christian tradition, John the Baptist – lies to the left (east) of the main niche forming the front of the centrally positioned nave of the prayer hall. It is shielded by a copper screen and topped by a small dome. The shrine room of the Prophet Zakariya was renovated and decorated according to the long inscription above it dated 1120 AH / 1708 AD. The shrine room of Zakariya shows a characteristic Ottoman feature. It is covered by several types of ceramic tiles. First, there is a unique type of hexagonal tiles, based on an early Iznik blue and white prototype from the 16th century with plump peony motifs. A second group of tiles are of the ‘Dome of the Rock’ type. Also, there are two types of rectangular border tiles decorated with cruciform ogival medallions amongst scrolling arabesques and foliage and two different colour schemes: one in black on a turquoise ground, the other in apple green outlined in brown on a white ground.

Full size1500 × 2000

Great Mosque, prayer hall, Shrine of the Prophet Zakariya

    Place
  • Jamiʿ Halab al-Kabir
    Time Period
  • 2000s, 2006
    Type of Subject
  • Hypostyle mosque, Mausoleum (Darih), Shrine (maqam, mashhad)
    Keywords
  • Architecture, Building, Decoration, Detail, Front façade, Interior, Limestone, Mosque, Photography
    Place hierarchy
  • World,Asia,Syria,Governorate Aleppo,Jabal Samʿan District,Nahiyat Markaz Jabal Samʿan,Aleppo,Cadastral district VII,Cadastral division VII-2-1,Jamiʿ Halab al-Kabir
    Collection
  • Collection Afandi (Rami al-)
    Author
  • Rami Alafandi
    Copyright
  • © Rami Alafandi (CC-BY-NC-SA)
    EasyDB ID
  • 60603

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