At a glance
- Era
- The Rashidun Caliphate
- Region
- Levant & Iraq
- Identifiers
- Wikidata
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
Summary
The Great Mosque of Kufa, a near-square mosque with slightly unequal sides of about 116×109×116×110 metres 1.
Features
Its south riwaq holds the mashhad of Imam Ali, and scattered niches known as maqams — of al-Khidr, Zayn al-Abidin, Jibril and Ibrahim. The 'Safina' or Tannur is a sunken octagonal court reached by a stair under an arch, popularly believed to be where Noah's ark came to rest after the Flood; there is also the bayt al-tasht, an underground sirdab 1.
The palace and the adjoining shrines
The mosque joined the Qasr al-Imara — historically begun by Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas — through a door in its south wall; Iraqi excavations measured the palace side at some 177 metres. Two adjoining shrines on the east wall hold the graves of Muslim ibn Aqil and Hani ibn Urwa, with Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd's grave nearby and Maytham al-Tammar's just outside 1.
Connections
- Located in
- Kufa
People and things also explored
Ali burns people in Kufa who claimed he was God· Ali burns the village of Zarara where wine was sold· ʿAli's dispatch of his own governors to the garrison towns (36 AH)· Ali enters Kufa in 36 AH· Ali's judgment on a slap over a debased dirham in Kufa· Ali's rounds in the market of Kufa· Ali moves the capital to Kufa· Ali's inquiry into a missing traveller and his wealth
Sources
- Mawsu'at al-Atabat al-Muqaddasa — Ja'far al-Khalili (Samarra section)
- Wikidata
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Great Mosque of Kufa”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/building/great-mosque-of-kufa/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.