The Great Mosque of Bint Jbeil was a mosque in Bint Jbeil, Lebanon that was built in the 17th century and destroyed in 2026. During the Battle of Bint Jbeil between Hezbollah and Israel, in the course of the 2026 Lebanon War, the mosque was destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces. The destruction is one of the instances of the numerous destruction of cultural heritage sites registered during the 2026 Iran war. The structure was completely destroyed and reduced to rubbles.
History
Construction At the time of its destruction in 2026, the mosque, was at least 400 years old, thus tracing its foundation in the 17th century, when the territory was part of the Ottoman Empire and during the reign of Qablan ibn Hassan ibn Nassar.Munaymina, Suhail; Bazzi, Kamil. Historical inscription records and archival research on the Grand Mosque of Bint Jbeil, compiled from mosque wall inscriptions dated 1134 AH (1722 CE) and 1300 AH (1883 CE), and family historical notes. Preserved in archives of Rihab Ahmad Bazzi
In 1772 an inscription was added to the mosque, which would survive up to its latest years, the inscription went as followed:
Contemporary period
19th century The presence of the mosque was documented by the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) in 1881 during a survey of the area.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 201
In 1883, after the mosque had fallen into disrepair, Hajj Suleiman Bazzi commissioned its reconstruction under the supervision of the Faqīh Sheikh Moussa Sharareh. The rebuilding used structures from the remains of an earlier, unidentified ancient ruin. Two master builders were brought from Safed, Abu Ahmad Hamidi al-Safadi and Saleh al-Safadi, and after completing the work they were paid respectively with half a French gold franc and two Majidi coins.
20th century In the 20th Century a series of changes occurred in the structure of the mosque. In 1932, worshippers extended the prayer hall nine meters to the east, in 1945, a surrounding courtyard wall was constructed with a northern gate, and an arched stone portico supported by decorated columns was added along the northern side. In 1960, community leader Mohammad Raouf Ali Yousuf Bazzi, descendent of Hajj Suleiman Bazzi, funded the construction of an iwan, which expanded the mosque.
21st century During the 2006 Battle of Bint Jbeil the mosque was damaged due to the combats between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hezbollah. However, following the end of the war, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, funded the reconstruction of the Great Mosque with a fund specialized to restore the town's structures to a status before the war.
In October 2024 a historical minaret of the mosque was completely destroyed by an Israeli airstrike.
Destruction During the 2026 Battle of Bint Jbeil, during which 90% of the town faced severe damages or complete destruction, the mosque was destroyed completely by the IDF operating in the town, alongside most of the cultural heritage present in the town.
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