Talk:Great Mosque of Gaza

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Great Mosque of Gaza has been listed as one of the Art and architecture good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
January 12, 2009	Good article nominee	Listed

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on August 28, 2008.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that the Great Mosque of Gaza (pictured), completed by the Mamluks in 1344, is the largest and one of the oldest mosques in the Gaza Strip?

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Arabic[edit]

Not sure the transcription given in the article is 100% correct according to the Classical Arabic rules, but the Arabic script would presumably be something like الجامع الأكبر بغزة -- AnonMoos (talk) 09:52, 22 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Archaeological vandalism[edit]

Should mention the ancient Jewish inscription on a column or pillar that was vandalized for precisely that reason... AnonMoos (talk) 09:52, 22 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Good Article? Really?[edit]

I have serious concerns about this article being promoted as "Good". It appears to me to be partisan and demeaning to the religion and people concerned.
Just for one example, the fact that munitions were allegedly stored within the Great Mosque is mentioned twice in the context of it's near-destruction by the British - but there is no reference for this fact (something for which we'd need quite a good reference, not a passing mention by the people who'd shelled it, for instance).
Worse, this claim about the munitions looks like a propaganda dig at Islam for a practice that was widespread eg David Hirst's The Gun and the Olive Branch, p.282 "Arrested, Tajjar confessed that he was indeed an Israeli, but explained that he had come to Baghdad to marry an Iraqi Jewish girl. His revelations led to more arrests, some fifteen in all. Shalom Salih, a youngster in charge of Haganah arms caches, broke down during interrogation and took the police from synagogue to synagogue, showing them where the weapons, smuggled in since World War II, were hidden." (I regret to say that this quote from Hirst appears on the web-sites of the anti-semitic, but then so do quotes from Moshe Sharret's diaries. I found the quote in the book.). PR^talk 09:58, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Good point about the munitions. We should certainly attribute that claim to the British, I didn't even think of who the author was. Fact is: the British Army bombed it, so munitions or not, it was going to be destroyed. However, the British claim that there were munitions stored and that caused extra damage should of course be mentioned and attributed to them. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll get it on it right away. Besides this, I don't see anything partisan about the article. --Al Ameer son (talk) 18:28, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The whole of this article seeks to belittle the society that the mosque serves eg "Western travelers in the late 19th century reported that the Great Mosque was the only structure in Gaza worthy of historical or architectural note.". That statement appears to be nastily partisan - and is probably quite untrue. Other travelers (eg those with their sensibilities not just over-loaded by having gazed on the pyramids or Roman remains) probably say something quite different. I'm sure I've seen similarly dismissive statements about communities of Jews in Palestine - adding such unpleasant observations to the articles would be disgraceful even if it were not clearly seen to be antisemitic. PR^talk 18:00, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Trust me, the article does not seek to belittle the society the mosque serves i.e. Gazans. I'm one of the most Arab nationalist users on Wikipedia and I would never let an article on such a prominent mosque have POV especially pro-Western POV. I think it's very interesting that Western travelers noted that the Great Mosque was the only structure worthy of architectural and historical note. The two books on cities of the Middle East that I used here and the Gaza article itself also note that most of the great history that Gaza had is not visible due to centuries of war, occupation and natural disasters or because the Old City is built atop of historic structures. However, both say the Great Mosque still retains the beauty of its history. I think that's very important to include that in the article. Also, al-Muqaddasi's and Ibn Battuta's descriptions of the mosque are also included, so it's not leaning to one side (even though I didn't realize there could even be two sides in this article.) If you could find a description by an Arab/Muslim traveler of the Ottoman era who visited Gaza and its mosque, you should go ahead and add it, because it took me months to extract all the possible info I could from so many various sources. --Al Ameer son (talk) 20:11, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. This is a good article and Al Ameer son should be applauded, not taken to task, for his efforts. Chesdovi (talk) 23:03, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much Chesdovi. And since we're acknowledging each others accomplishments for holy places, I must say, your efforts for the Hurva Synagogue article are extraordinary and should be applauded as well. Cheers! --Al Ameer son (talk) 23:10, 25 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Church category[edit]

I think we should include Category:Churches in the Gaza Strip due to the history of the building. Whether it has been used as a church today or 1500 years ago is irrelevant. It was founded as a church and existed as a church for centuries and the category should reflect that.--TM 23:42, 2 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The history of the mosque as a church (and a pagan temple before that) is covered by the category "Conversion of non-Muslim places of worship into mosques." It is relevant. Having the category "Churches in Gaza" is misleading since the mosque is not a church currently and hasn't functioned as a church since the Byzantines (although it briefly was one under the Crusaders). If you want to have a more specific category, we could add the Category:Ancient churches in the Holy Land which would be accurate. --Al Ameer son (talk) 00:35, 3 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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External links modified[edit]

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Referencing discussion on Porphyrious church[edit]

discussion on mosque/church's original building. Makeandtoss (talk) 15:13, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes targeting it on December 8, 2023.[edit]

Is there a citation or news story for this? It is very recent and seems like it would be hard to verify currently. 67.245.146.18 (talk) 15:18, 8 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

From a historical perspective the mosque has been damaged before. Right now a majority of the site is in ruins per the BBC. This could change if the mosque is rebuilt or restored as it was in the past. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 18:21, 11 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Also here. Zero^talk 03:40, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]