Draft:Umayyad Mosque

It was built in the era of Omar bin Al-Khattab and built by Arfajah bin Herthmeh Al-Barqi and built near it the house of the emirate. It is the first mosque built in Mosul built by Arfaja bin Harthama Al-Barqi in 22 AH corresponding to 642 CE, and he built the Emirate House next to it. Al-Baladhuri said:

Omar ibn al-Khattab isolated Utbah from Mosul and appointed it to Harthama ibn Arfaja al-Barqi. It had a fort and a Christian settlement and few homes for them at that sale and a Jewish settlement, so Harthama occupied it, so the Arabs settled their homes and planned for them, then built the “Jami’ Mosque”’’’

. Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamdani said:

The first to plan Mosul and inhabit it were the Arabs, and it was occupied by Harthama ibn Arfaja al-Barqi. Omar had isolated Utbah from Mosul and appointed it to be Harthama, and there were fortresses and the sale of Christians and their homes and the settlement of the Jews, so Harthama occupied it. Then he built the “Jami’ Mosque”, then after it he built Al-Hadith, which was an old village with two settlements. So he conquered it and populated it with Arabs, so it was called Al-Hadith, because it is after Mosul

. Then Marwan bin Muhammad expanded on it in The Umayyad era, and in that the historian of Mosul Abdul Wahid Dhanun Taha says:

"The Jami’ Mosque: This mosque was founded by Harthama bin Arfaja al-Barqi, Who was appointed by Caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab "May God be pleased with him" in charge of Mosul after Utbah bin Farqad Al-Salami. He expanded it and rebuilt it in The Umayyad era Marwan bin Muhammad, so it has been called the Umayyad Mosque ever since. This mosque was adjacent to the emirate’s residence, and around it were markets, which were perhaps established as endowments for it." In the year 167 AH / 784 AD, the Caliph Al-Mahdi ordered his servant Musa bin Musab bin Umair to add to the mosque the markets that surrounded it, but Musab demolished them along with He added kitchens to the mosque and expanded it. The condition of the mosque was unsatisfactory in the fifth century AH (eleventh century AD), during the era of the Seljuk governors, so its structure collapsed and people left prayer in it except on Fridays. During the reign of the Atabegs, they cared for it just as they cared for all the city’s facilities and their renewal. They renewed its building in 543 AH/1149 AD at the hands of Saif al-Din Ghazi I bin Imad al-Din Zengi. They called it the Old Mosque to distinguish it from the new mosque - the Nuri Mosque - and the Atabegs cared about decorating it. At present, the mosque is small in which Friday prayer is held], and a large part of its courtyard has been made into a public cemetery and is called the desert cemetery and it was called the ancient mosque cemetery.