Jaffa’s Al-Bahr Mosque (مسجد البحر), the “Mosque of the Sea,” is the oldest surviving mosque in the city’s historic quarter. It stands beside the…
Jaffa’s Al-Bahr Mosque (مسجد البحر), the “Mosque of the Sea,” is the oldest surviving mosque in the city’s historic quarter. It stands beside the Mediterranean in the Mina, or port, neighbourhood, where it served Jaffa’s fishermen, sailors and waterfront community. The mosque belongs to the Ottoman history of Palestine. A European view of Jaffa dated 1675 depicts a mosque at the harbour, while Palestinian heritage records associate later construction work with Hussein Pasha, an Ottoman minister, during the nineteenth century. Its position links it directly to the maritime life that shaped Jaffa before modern docks and roads transformed the waterfront. A mosque of Jaffa’s old port For much of its history, Jaffa was a principal Mediterranean gateway to the lands of Palestine, receiving merchants, travellers and pilgrims arriving by sea. Al-Bahr Mosque provided a place of prayer at the edge of this busy port and took its enduring name from that setting. The mosque was restored in 1414 AH/1995, with a further phase of restoration and maintenance beginning in 2012 through cooperation between the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage and the Turkish association Mirasımız. It continues to function as a mosque.