White Mosque of Ramle

First phase Construction on the White Mosque was initiated by the Umayyad governor (and future caliph) Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik in 715–717 CE, and was completed by his successor Umar II in 720. The mosque was constructed of marble, while its courtyard was made of other local stone. Some two-and-a-half centuries later, Al-Maqdisi () described it as follows: : Reconstructions An earthquake in January 1034 destroyed the mosque, "leaving it in a heap of ruins", along with a third of the city. In 1047, Nasir Khusraw reported that the mosque had been rebuilt. The Mamluks again commissioned restoration works in 1408. The last restoration of the White Mosque of Ramle took place during between 1844-1918. Since then, the mosque has been mostly destroyed, except for its minaret. ==Architecture==

Outline and prayer hall The White Mosque's compound is rectangular, , and oriented to the cardinal points. The third eastern cistern was supplied by runoff rainwater. The reservoirs provided water for worshippers at the mosque and filled the pool for wudu at the center of the courtyard, of which only the foundation remains today. ==Archaeological excavations==

in Ramla (pictured in 2014) built by Sulayman and his cousin and successor Umar II Excavations conducted by the State of Israel in 1949 on behalf of the Ministry of Religious Services and the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums revealed that the mosque enclosure was built in the form of a quadrangle and included the mosque itself; two porticoes along the quadrangle's east and west walls; the north wall; the minaret; an unidentified building in the centre to the area; and three subterranean cisterns. The mosque was a broad-house, with a qibla facing Mecca. Two inscriptions were found that mention repairs to the mosque: the first relates that sultan Baibars built a dome over the minaret and added a door; the second inscription states that in 1408, Seif ed-Din Baighut ez-Zahiri had the walls of the southern cistern coated with plaster. == See also ==