Khamis Mosque: Bahrain’s Historic Friday Mosque
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Bahrain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Mosque
On this page7 sections
History
Khamis Mosque is a historic active mosque in Bahrain, traditionally dated to 692 CE and associated with the early Islamic period. It is considered one of the country’s oldest Islamic buildings and may have been Bahrain’s first mosque. Its foundation date remains uncertain: an inscription found at the mosque points to the 11th century, while another interpretation places its construction late in the Uyunid period, one of the medieval dynasties that ruled Bahrain and eastern Arabia.
Early Islamic and Medieval Development
Islam spread to Bahrain during the 7th century after Muhammad sent the envoy Al-Ala’a al-Hadrami to preach to Munzir ibn Sawa al-Tamimi, the governor of Qatar and Bahrain. Khamis Mosque was built in the historic Al-Khamis area, described as lying between Sitra and Riffa. The mosque’s name derives from this district.
The building was rebuilt or substantially altered during the 14th and 15th centuries. Its later development included a second minaret, added two centuries after the first during the Usfurid period. The Uyunids and Usfurids were successive medieval ruling dynasties in Bahrain and eastern Arabia.
Religious School and Later Preservation
The western part of the mosque served as a religious school. Scholars taught children religious law, hadith, grammar, and other religious and worldly subjects. Hadith are reports concerning the words and actions of Muhammad, while fiqh refers to Islamic jurisprudence. A cemetery in a corner of the outer courtyard is thought to have been used for scholars associated with the school.
The mosque was partly restored or reconstructed in recent times. These interventions helped preserve a building that remains affiliated with Islam and functions as a Friday mosque, a mosque designated for the principal communal prayer held on Fridays.
Remains
Layout and Prayer Halls
The mosque occupies a site measuring approximately 113 by 48 metres. The main building is about 22.79 metres long and 20 metres wide, and its surviving fabric is built from stone, limestone, and timber. The present structure has two principal sections. The earlier prayer hall has a flat roof carried by wooden columns, while a later flat-roofed section rests on arches supported by thick masonry piers dated to 1339.
Minarets
Khamis Mosque has two minarets described as identical in appearance. The western minaret is associated with an 11th-century inscription in Kufic, an early angular style of Arabic script often used for monumental writing. The inscription attributes the minaret to Abu Sinan Muhammad ibn al-Fadl Abdallah, identified as the third ruler of the Uyunid dynasty. The second minaret belongs to a later period under the Usfurids.
Decoration and Recovered Mihrab
The surviving columns, arcades, and entrance arches carry distinctive plasterwork decoration. Part of the roof used palm-tree trunks as structural material. Restoration uncovered a limestone slab shaped as a mihrab, the niche or marked feature indicating the direction of prayer toward Mecca. The slab bears Qur’anic verses 21:34–35, a passage whose use is normally associated with gravestones, and is believed to date from the 12th century.
