Great Mosque of Samarra

The Great house of prayer of Samarra may be a ninth century masjid placed in Samarra, Iraq. The mosque was commissioned in 848 and completed in 851 by the Abbasid khalifah Al-Mutawakkil who reigned (in Samarra) from 847 till 861.

The Great mosque of Samarra was at just the once the biggest masjid within the world; its tower, the Malwiya Tower, may be a large spiralling cone fifty two meters high and thirty three meters wide with a spiral ramp.

The masjid had seventeen aisles, and its walls were panelled with mosaics of blueness glass. it had been a part of AN extension of Samarra eastward.

On April 1, 2005, the highest of the Malwiya minaret was broken by a bomb. Insurgents reportedly attacked the tower as a result of U.S. troops had been exploitation it as a lookout position. However, per solon in his January twenty one, 2011 Iraq Inquiry testimony, insurgents had attacked the house of prayer to incite Sunni-Shite violence and additional destabilize the country. The blast removed items of brick from the highest of the tower on its spiral ramp.

The art and design of the house of prayer was influential; stucco carvings at intervals the house of prayer in floral and geometric styles represent early Moslem decoration. in addition, the house of prayer of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, Egypt was supported the Samarra house of prayer in several regards.

The house of prayer was destroyed in 656 AH (1278 CE) once the Hulagu Khan invasion of Iraq. solely the outer wall and its tower stay