Mi'dhanat Bab al-Silsila

Jerusalem

The Bab al-Silsila minaret borders with the main entrance of the Haram. Around the beginning of the 16th century Mujir a-Din wrote that the Bab al-Silsila Minaret was reserved for the best muezzins in Jerusalem. From this Minaret came the first call for prayer that was followed by the voices of muezzins from other minarets.

Built in the traditional Syrian square tower type entirely out of stone, this minaret probably replaced an earlier Umayyad minaret. This reconstruction took place, as mentioned in the inscriptions, in the days of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, apparently by Amir Tankiz, governor of Syria, when he built the madrasa named al-Tankiziyya.

In the 19th century the top was replaced, after it had been damaged in an earthquake, by a 'pencil-point' spire in the Ottoman style, which was later substituted by a smooth ashlar drum and a semicircular dome. The present canopy and the lead sheathing on the dome were erected during the 1923-4 restoration.


Sources:

Burgoyne, Michael Hamilton. 1987. Mamluk Jerusalem: An Architectural Study. Jerusalem: British School of Archeology in Jerusalem, 244.

Burgoyne, Michael H. 1976. A Chronological Index to the Muslim Monuments of Jerusalem. In The Architecture of Islamic Jerusalem. Jerusalem: The British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem.