AL-HARAM MOSQUE

Al-Masjid al-Haramthe "Sacred Mosque", is the world's largest mosque.

Its 40 hectares can accommodate 900,000 worshippers. The pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the 5 pillars of Islam, along with shahada (profession of faith), zakat (almsgiving), fasting (Ramadan) and the 5 daily prayers. Pilgrims come to Mecca all year round for the umra and hajj, and to worship at the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, the great cube containing the black stone. The name masjid al-haram comes from the Koran and Sura al-Isra - The Night Journey, which begins as follows: "Glory and purity to Him who made His servant travel from the Sacred Mosque [masjid al-haram] to the most distant Mosque [masjid al-Aqsa] whose surroundings we have blessed, in order to show him some of our wonders. Verily, He sees and hears all things. Thus, the Prophet Mohammed designated Mecca as a sacred site, which was already a place of pilgrimage in pre-Islamic times. The furthest mosque would be in Jerusalem.

Construction of the al-Haram Mosque. In 630, Mohammed returned to Mecca, from which he had been expelled eight years earlier. He went to the Kaaba and destroyed the idols surrounding it and the paintings decorating it. The Ka aba becomes the qibla, the direction towards which all Muslims must turn when praying. Until then, they had turned towards Jerusalem. From this point onwards, successive caliphs added their contribution to the edifice. The second caliph, Omar ibn al-Khattab, was responsible for the construction of the mosque surrounding the Kaaba. He erected a 1.5-metre-high wall around the sanctuary to separate it from the city and demarcate a prayer area. His successor Othman ibn Affan added a wooden roof over the wall, supported by columns and arches. The fifth caliph, Abd al-Malik, had the wall raised, the roof rebuilt in teak and the columns gilded. The sixth caliph, Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik, increased the mosque's surface area and replaced the columns with marble ones from Syria and Egypt. They are decorated with mosaics. Fifty years later, the Abbasid caliph Abu Ja'afar Al Mansour added a vast area to the mosque. He built a circular corridor, increased the size of the prayer hall and erected the first minaret above Bab al-Umra at the northwest corner of the building. In 776, Caliph Al-Mahdi began his reign by annexing the houses built between the rocks of al-Safa and al-Marwah. He had them demolished. The mosque now covers an area of almost 3 hectares. He also had 3 more minarets built to mark the location of the Bab al-Salam, Bab Ali and Bab al-Wadi gates. Due to increasing numbers of pilgrims, the mosque was enlarged again in 918, under the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir Billah.

Renovation work. The subsequent dynasties of the Fatimids, Ayyubids, Mamelukes and then the Ottomans were content to carry out renovation work, some of it extensive, but without altering the surface area of the al-Haram mosque. In 1399, the mosque caught fire. Around a hundred columns and the ceilings were damaged. The Mamluk sultan An-Nasir Faraj ben Barquq replaced the marble columns with stone columns from the Hejaz mountains. The wood was selected from forests near Taïf. In 1571, Ottoman Sultan Selim II ordered a thorough renovation of the building. The roof was replaced by gilded domes, the intrados of which were decorated with calligraphy of suras from the Koran. Columns were added to support the new roof. In 1611, floods again damaged the mosque. In 1629, Sultan Murad IV ordered further major renovations, including the reconstruction of the Kaaba. The new stone building features arcades resting on slender columns. Medallions were affixed to the arches. The flagstones around the sanctuary were replaced with colored marble slabs, and three minarets were added.

Developments in the Saud dynasty. The founder of Saudi Arabia did not put his stamp on the Mecca mosque. He merely had a gateway named after him, Bab Abdulaziz, built. His son Saud ibn Abdulaziz began a major project in 1955, which was completed in 1973. The aim was to increase capacity for the ever-increasing numbers of hajj pilgrims. The surface area was increased tenfold to 20 ha. This involved major demolition work to build a two-storey arcade around the Kaaba. The galleries are clad in marble, as are the floors. The ceilings are decorated with molded plaster caissons. The Mas'a, the corridor linking the two rocks of Safa and Marwah, is extended to become part of the mosque. The tunnel now forms an airlock between the mosque and the street. The Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Umra gates are redesigned to harmonize with the Bab Abdulaziz gate. Four minarets were added and the three older ones were modified to reach a height of 89 meters.

Barely ten years after the completion of these works, King Fahd bin Abdulaziz also undertook an extension project. Work was carried out between 1982 and 2005. It increased the mosque's surface area to 32 hectares. A large air-conditioned prayer hall was added to the southwest. It is topped by three domes resting on drums pierced by 32 windows. Its walls are clad in marble, concealing loudspeakers and electrical wiring. The roof has been converted into an open-air prayer area. A monumental gateway, Bab Fahd, was opened to provide access to the new wing.

A third phase of work was launched in 2007 under the reign of King Abdullah. The mosque's surface area was increased to 40 ha. It was rebuilt on two floors. In 2015, a storm topples a crane just a few days before the start of the hajj. 100 people died and 200 were injured, a tragedy that had a huge impact. The expansion was accompanied by logistical work to ensure the smooth flow of pilgrims. A new terminal is built at Jeddah airport. A high-speed train line linked the airport to the holy city, and new roads were also built.

By 2023, some 2 million people had made the great pilgrimage. The mosque consists of a series of buildings surrounding the Kaaba. The large cube covered by a black canopy occupies the central point. It is surrounded by a vast esplanade and girdled by two-storey galleries. To the north is the main prayer hall, of which little remains due to the many alterations made to it. To the south-west, the great hall added by King Fahd, which also includes a library. To the east, the Mas'a corridor. Access to the mosque is via the northeast, where the ablution areas are located.

The 1979 capture of the Great Mosque. On November 20, 1979, the first day of the year 1400 A.H., a group of Islamic fundamentalists attempted a coup against the Saud dynasty. Around 200 Saudi and Egyptian students from the Islamic University of Medina entered the mosque, heavily armed. Inside, 50,000 worshippers were gathered. The terrorists freed most of the hostages, taking 130 with them. The Saudi government is slow to respond to this attack, as it must first obtain a fatwa from the ulama. Islamic law prohibits bloodshed in Mecca, and the carrying of weapons is strictly forbidden in the mosque. On November 24, the Saudi National Guard launched an ineffective assault and lost 127 men. The Saudis asked for help from France and the United States. On December 4, the Saudis, aided by the French, succeeded in regaining control of the mosque, at the end of a bloody crisis that lasted 15 days and left 244 dead and 600 wounded. The 63 captured terrorists were beheaded on January 9, 1980, after a summary trial.