Muzdalifah turns into a gallery of Ottoman-era artifacts

The Abbasid-Ottoman era portico of the Grand Mosque will be restored after
completion of the ongoing Mataf expansion and the largest ever expansion
of Islams holiest mosque by the end of 2015.
Saturday, 19 April 2014

of

of

The holy site of Muzdalifah

now houses a portion of
the Abbasid-Ottoman era
portico of the
Grand
Mosque, waiting to be
restored after completion
the ongoing expansion of
the
Mataf
(circumambulation area)
and the largest ever
expansion
of
Islams
holiest mosque by the end
2015.
Located 3.6 km west of
Arafats Jabal Al-Rahmah
(the Mount of Mercy),
there is a mammoth iron
fenced
compound
in
Muzdalifah where these
invaluable
architectural
artifacts have been kept

since demolition of the portico started in November 2012.

Currently, according to a report in Makkah daily, hundreds of architects and craftsmen are engaged in
refurbishing these precious pieces of history.
The mammoth Muzdalifah compound houses several huge warehouses, wooden offices and several tons of
materials in different shapes, colors and weights. Nobody is allowed to enter the venue without obtaining
prior permission and an entry card.
For the past several months, only a few trucks carrying these artifacts and licensed private cars have been
granted entry into the compound.
The domes and the hallway on the eastern section of the Grand Mosque, which have already been
removed, found a place in the compound.
The Saudi Binladin Group, which is carrying out the massive Grand Mosque expansion project, have
entrusted the task of restoring and refurbishing the Ottoman-era portico to Gursoy Group, one of the
leading Turkish companies specialized in restoration work.
The late Ottoman rulers Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan Selim II and his son Sultan Murad IV
supervised the construction of these porticos. This renovation resulted in the replacement of the flat roof
with domes decorated with internal calligraphy and supported by new columns.
These domes and columns are acknowledged as the earliest architectural features of the mosque.
Gursoy Group specializes in renovation of buildings, especially historical mosques in Turkey. Their last
project was the Sleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul.

In the Kingdom, the company has undertaken the monumental task of performing maintenance and
refurbishing of all pieces and parts of the portico.
After a team inspected the mosque and determined which of the porticos sections in the mosque are from
the Ottoman era, they were detached and packed up so they can be restored.

packed
pieces

them
in
were
then

The companys workers carefully collected

each piece, numbered them and
hundreds of wooden boxes. The
shipped to Muzdalifah, where they will be
pieced together.

The secret
domes

of

the

When
exploring
the
mechanism
used
by
the
Ottomans to build the domes,
Saudi and Turkish companies
discovered the secrets of
Islamic architecture.
Experts from Gursoy said they
investigated the way in which
the domes were built and
concluded that they have
never seen such a method
used in the past.
They are keen to preserve
these artifacts in their full
A portion of the Abbasid-Ottoman era portico of the Grand Mosque in Muzdalifah
magnitude and restore the
portico with the same skillfulness it was built in the 10th century Hijri. Some of the columns of the portico
date back to the Abbasid period.
Experts also found an immense variety of columns and pillars used in the portico. Some of them bore the
characteristics of pre-Islamic Greek architecture and others date back to the Umayyad and Abbasid
periods. Most were from the Ottoman period. Diligent craftsmen and technicians are doing a painstaking
job to remove dyeing materials used in previous renovation works from the Islamic inscriptions and
ornamental and decorative works in the interior parts of the domes in order to restore them to their
original state.
There are a lot of pillars, columns and boards bearing inscriptions and writings chronicling their donations
by caliphs, sultans and kings during different phases of the expansion of the Grand Mosque. Some of them
date back more than 1,200 years. Their restoration also highlights the evolution of various kinds of Islamic
calligraphy, artistic creativity and Islamic architecture.

2,754 Ottoman artifacts

The Grand Mosques Ottomanera structure consisted of

about 2,754 historical pieces,
including 496 marble columns,
881 arches, 152 domes and
993 portions of balconies.
Turkish experts working on the
restoration
of
the
domes
described the architect who
followed a unique method in
their construction as a genius.
The architect was Sinan Pasha
(1499-1588), the father of
Turkish architecture.
Sultan Suleiman (1520-1566)
commissioned Sinan, his chief
architect, to renovate the
mosque.
This
renovation
resulted in the replacement of
the flat roof with domes
decorated
with
calligraphy
internally and the placement
of new support columns.

Grand Mosque.

Sinan, who was the architect

of more than 440 structures
across the Ottoman Empire,
used
the
engineering
technique of keeping empty
space inside the structure and
the corner arch method while
constructing domes for the

Rocks from Shumaysi

Turkish experts found that rocks from Mount Shumaysi in the neighborhood of Makkah were used to
carve most of the columns used in the portico.
According to the Mataf expansion plans, the portico will be rebuilt a few meters away from their original
position after the restoration work is completed.
The level of portico will be parallel to the Mataf and will be linked with the basement floor having a depth
of 27 meters.
The current expansion will increase the capacity of the Mataf three-fold to accommodate 150,000
worshipers an hour instead of the present capacity of 50,000.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index...20140419202386

Photo: Orhan Durgut