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Great Mosque of Binnish

الجامع الكبير في بنش

The main mosque of Binnish, thought to stand on the site of an old basilica-style church; an inscription over its door dates a renewal to 1200 AH (1785–86).

The Great Mosque is the largest mosque of Binnish, a town built on a hill north-east of Idlib. A local study gives its size as about 11.5 by 30 metres. Its author believes the building began as a basilica-style church, perhaps on the site of an older temple, pointing to its massive old stones and to the doorway lintel of the prayer hall, which he describes as Byzantine and similar to the one at the mosque of Ariha. The same study says it was one of the churches of Binnish turned into mosques after the Islamic conquest, under the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab; this is a handed-down account that no inscription or document confirms. A four-line verse inscription over the door dates a renewal to 1200 AH (1785–86), and a Syriac inscription is reported to have appeared during works in 1960. Building works next to the mosque in the town centre uncovered Roman column capitals, wall remains and tombs. These views on its origin remain hypotheses awaiting archaeological study.

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