Al-Maqam Mosque, Religious monument in Basra, Iraq.
Al-Maqam Mosque is a brick mosque in the Al-'Ashara area of Basra, built in 1754, with a prayer hall of about 450 square metres holding some 500 worshippers. Its central dome, eight metres square inside with eight windows, is painted blue and carries verses of Dhikr al-Hakim; two smaller domes flank it, and the minaret rises 25 metres. The mihrab and minbar are clad in brick and Karbala glazed tiles.
The building was constructed in 1754 during Ottoman rule and stands on the site of an older shrine from the 8th century. In 1922, it received an outer wall and restoration work that preserved its original inner structure.
The name Maqam means "shrine", and the mosque takes it from the Maqam district, itself named after the Ottoman Maqam customs office that oversaw goods arriving at Basra's port. Friday and the five daily prayers are held here. The Sunni Endowment mosque stands wall to wall with the Shia shrine-mosque of Maqam al-Rida, and a former Jewish prayer house about 50 metres away now serves as a goods store.
The mosque stands in the Al-'Ashara area, beside a second mosque of the Shia waqf and within 50 metres of a former Jewish synagogue now used as a goods store. It is reached from the Al-'Ashara riverbank, which links to the Shatt al-Arab. Friday prayer and the five daily prayers are held there.
The mosque keeps its historic wooden doors and old iron keys, and its treasury holds a rare Quran attributed to the time of the third caliph Uthman ibn Affan. A 2000 restoration revealed a second dome hidden beneath the outer one.
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