Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque

The Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque (جامع محمد الأمين), also referred to as the Blue Mosque, is a Sunni Muslim mosque located in downtown Beirut, Lebanon.

In the 19th century, a zawiya (prayer corner) was built on this site. Decades of preparation to obtain sufficient land adjacent to the old Zawiya led finally to the building of the new mosque. It was inaugurated in 2008.

Construction
The Mohammad Al-Amin mosque is the biggest mosque in Lebanon. In preparation for the mosque, panels were placed which signified that a mosque was going to be built. Soon after the Lebanon Civil War, following a donation by the late Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, the foundation for the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque was laid in November 2002.

The design is similar to the Ottomans's monumental architecture: with a built area covering approximately 11,000 square meters, a 48-meter-high blue dome and 65-meter-high minarets (placed on the corners of the mosque), the mosque has become a dominant feature of the Beirut City Center skyline. It was inaugurated in 2008. The Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque contains multiple domes, all of which are made from light blue tiles. The mosque also has multiple arches, which are a couple stories high. The mosque has very similar characteristics to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque.

At the commencement of the mosque, Hariri commissioned Oger Liban. Hariri also hired Azmi Fakhouri as the main architect for the mosque. After the first stone was laid out for the mosque, the first concrete was poured in 2003. By 2005, the architecture of the mosque had begun to be built. The main stone used for the mosque was the Yellow Riyadh Stone. Rafic Hariri, along with other architects and artists, was involved in the making of the building's exterior decor.

Interior and exterior design
The interior details have patterned ceilings and a dome circle. The ornament that seems to be a chandelier dangles in front of the mihrab. As for the scale of this mosque, it is surrounded by four minarets that are 65 meters tall.

History
In the 19th century, a zawiya (prayer corner) named after Sheikh Abu Nasr al-Yafi was built on this site. Souk Abu Nasr was located in the same area and was operational with the zawiya until 1975. Following earlier efforts by Beiruti families, the Mohammad Al-Amin Association was created in the 1950s in order to replace the zawiya with a mosque, in the name of Mohammad, and acquire more land. It took decades to obtain sufficient land adjacent to the old zawiya to build the new mosque.

Following a donation by the late Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, the foundation stone for the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque was laid in November 2002. The built area covers approximately 11,000 square meters with a 48-meter-high blue dome and 65-meter-high minarets. During the construction of the mosque on this corner of Martyrs' Square, archaeologists uncovered a section of the east-west main Roman street (Decumanus Maximus), with paving and columns. The prime minister Rafic Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005, and his body is buried next to the mosque in downtown Beirut, within the Martyr Square of Beirut. The mosque was used for the ceremony of the funeral of Hariri.

On August 4, 2020, the mosque was badly damaged by the Beirut explosions. Its chandeliers and windows were shattered, leaving broken glass on the floor.

Significance of the zawiya with the Ottoman Empire
There is the Mohammad Al-Amin mosque that was believed to be named after Muhammad. The Ottoman empire's Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid had Shaykh Muhammad Abu Nasr Al-Yafi originally name the mosque "Zawiya Abu Nasr" and then was later on carrying the name in reference to Muhammad. The zawiya was given to the sultan for the people of Beirut that were Muslims. The zawiya is already known to mean the "angle" and could be related to the word "sufism".