TIt is a historic town, this Tripoli of Lebanon,
one which has known waves of conquerors who saw
themselves as civilizers. They have been coming
since earliest antiquity, Phoenicians, Persians,
Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Fatimids, Crusaders, Mamelukes,
Ottomans, and finally the Europeans. All these have
left something behind, temples, churches, mosques,
citadels and ports.
Of such monuments the mosque of Al-Bortassi first
attracts our attention. In Arabic a mosque is called
Jamaa, meaning a meeting-place and expressing the
same idea as ecclesia, church or assembly. The mosque
is a place where people meet together, assemble,
and then pray together. In every religion and sect
there is a need to come together as a congregation,
so there must be some sort of sacred building. And
here we have the Al-Bortassi mosque, situated in
the district known as Bab al-Hadeed, the Portal
of Iron.
It stands by the river Abu Ali, which runs through
the old northern part of Tripoli. Many travelers
have referred to it and described it. Al-Atifeh
said, “There is a mosque known as Al-Bortassi. From
the door through which one enters up to the mihrab
(the preacher’s seat or cathedra) there is marble
running round which fascinates the visitors who
contemplate it. The same goes for the faces of the
walls. The ceiling of arcades inlaid with colored
stones like so many stars gives the place a poetic
aspect.”
One notices a basin of water set with a multicolored
mosaic, helping to make this one of the most beautiful
mosques of Tripoli, where one can see Byzantine,
Fatimid, Moroccan and Andalusian influence, and
as for the mihrab, it is without any doubt one of
the most beautiful of those to be seen in Mameluke
mosques anywhere. It is decorated with golden mosaic
showing floral designs and with crossings constructed
with marble of a variety of colors. Its mizinat
bears imprints from the Ommayads, Andalusians and
even Moroccans. It is held together by a carved
chain, an architectural masterpiece, and surrounded
by recesses for students of the Ash-Shafiyi community.
The name of the founder of this mosque is indicated
on an inscribed stone on which one may read, “In
the name of God the Merciful and Loving-kind, I
offer as an endowment (waqf) this blessed school,
I, Issa ben Omar al-Bortassi (with the date equivalent
to 1310 A.D.); may God pardon me and all those engaged
in noble studies in the community of the Imam ash-Shafiyeh,
and may there be prayers and assemblies, on the
one condition that no place is given to those having
no right.”
The lines speaking of the construction of the mosque,
the period and the date, have been erased. We do
not even know for certain the exact year of its
construction but historians by their researches
taking into consideration the style of decoration,
the aspects and structures, put it at the end of
the period of the Mameluke mariners, with the actual
building having gone on from 1250 to 1382 A.D..
Doctor Omar Padmouri estimates that the mosque was
built around 1310 A.D., the year 710 of the Muslim
Hegira, according to the stone inscribed with the
name of Issa ben Omar al-Bortassi al-Kurdi. This
was a Kurd who had the title of Emir and was said
to be one of the Altabkhamat princes. This information
is not to be found in the carved inscription, although
the title is such as is to be found in the inscriptions
of mosques everywhere.
The Al-Bortassi mosque of Tripoli is truly worth
visiting and draws the admiration of all the well-informed
tourists.
Joseph Matar
Translation from the French: Kenneth Mortimer
- Al Bortassi Mosque: >> View
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