Nablus
The Nabi Yahya Masjid, the main mosque of Sebastia north-west of Nablus, holds the grave honoured as that of Nabi Yahya. A stairway in a small domed building…
The Nabi Yahya Masjid, the main mosque of Sebastia north-west of Nablus, holds the grave honoured as that of Nabi Yahya. A stairway in a small domed building in the courtyard leads down to a crypt with three burial niches, and tradition places Nabi al-Yasa' and the prophet Obadiah beside him. The head of Nabi Yahya is honoured in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. A church stood over the tomb in Byzantine times, and the Crusaders built a large cathedral here in about 1160. Salahuddin made it a mosque in 1187, and the mosque was largely rebuilt in the Ottoman period, with Sultan Abdul Hamid II ordering work on the site in 1892. The mosque stands inside the shell of the cathedral on the village square, a short walk from the ancient ruins of Sebastia.