By Ayyoub Khaddaj
BEIRUT, Aug 3 (KUNA) -- Al-Omari Grand Mosque stands out in the middle of downtown Beirut as a landmark depicting parts of the city history way back to the Islamic conquest during era of the Caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab.
Suhail Mneimneh, head of the Beirut Heritage Society, said in an interview with KUNA that the mosque had been built upon rubble of a Roman military compound.
The Crusaders, during their presence in the Levant in 1110 had transformed the mosque into a church until the Islamic ruler Salah Eddine Al-Ayyoubi restored its original features as a mosque.
The interior is marked with engravings and ancient stones reflecting its historic value.
Al-Omari Grand Mosque, during the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war and the battles that had raged in downtown Beirut, was badly damaged, along with many other buildings properties in the region.
However after the civil war, a Kuwaiti woman good doer, Suad Mohammad Al-Humaidhi, gave donations for renovating the mosque. Nowadays, the three-storey mosque can accommodate some 3,000 worshippers.
It was reopened after the face-lifting, thanks to the Kuwaiti's donations on June 4, 2004, in a broad ceremony attended by Al-Humaidhi, the former Lebanese mufti and the late prime minister Rafic Al-Hariri. (end) ak.rk