THE RUINS OF THE WHITE MUSJID OF RAMLAH
THE RUINS OF THE WHITE MUSJID OF RAMLAH
- Approximately 40kms west of Jerusalem, lies the city of Ramlah. The city was founded by the Umayyads and became the most important political city in Palestine for several centuries.
- The Umayyads had desired to establish a new capital for the region which they could build from scratch, choosing for their location an important crossroad that linked the major Islamic cities of Damascus and Cairo with Jerusalem. Ramlah thereafter remained the regional capital of Palestine throughout the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties until the arrival of the Crusaders.
- Around the year 715 AD, Sulayman ibn Abd Al-Malik, the Umayyad Caliph, ordered the construction of a magnificent new Musjid in Ramlah. This was just after the completion of the great Umayyad Musjid in Damascus, and presumably many of the now very experienced masons and laborers went to work on the new project in Ramlah. The Musjid became one of the three great Musjids built by the Umayyad’s in the ‘Holy Land’ and was even considered by some to be grander than the Musjid of Damascus.
- Unfortunately for the Musjid, time, the elements and wars haven’t been too kind to its structure and all that remains of it are some of the original Umayyad sub-structure and a magnificent Mamluk-era minaret.
- It is mentioned that around forty early Muslims who were lesser Companions of the Prophet were buried on the site.
