Situated in the old city of Mosul, the mosque has three names: Al Masfi, the Ancient Mosque, and the Umayyad Mosque. The mosque had sustained critical damages to its structure and shape due to a military operation to reclaim the city from ISIS in mid-2017.
Built after the Islamic conquest of the city in 638 AD, the mosque has been renovated several times to preserve it, the latest of which was a year ago.
At the cost of an estimated $350,000, the renovation of the original structure was undertaken by Aliph, an international alliance for the protection of cultural heritage in conflict areas, in cooperation with the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage of Nineveh and the Sunni Waqf.
"After the Heritage of Nineveh [Department] and the Sunni Waqf evaluated the destruction that the mosque had witnessed, they decided that it must be restored preserving its design and style," Hisham Zanun, supervising engineer of the Al Masfi mosque told Rudaw on Wednesday.
Zanun went on to detail that "This mosque has a very old history. It dates back 1,400 years ago. It is the oldest in Mosul, therefore it is of great importance. This mosque attracts a large number of visitors and tourists to Mosul due to its history.”
Razwan Hani Younis inherited his job of guarding the mosque from his father. His job mainly consists in making sure the worshipping house is clean.
He expressed happiness at seeing worshipers flock back to the mosque during the holy month of Ramadan.
"I was very young when I came to this mosque with my father. My father was a cleaner and muezzin here for 30 years," Younis said. "I am now the guard of this mosque because I am the most fit for this job,” he added.
Iraq has gone through several wars since the 1980s, most recently against the Islamic State (ISIS), a group that destroyed a great number of archaeological sites, including Islamic sites such as Al-Nuri Mosque and Al-Hadba Minaret in Mosul.
The old city of Mosul was the last stronghold for ISIS in Iraq, bearing the brunt of fierce clashes that caused widespread destruction of its buildings.
