White mosque

The White Mosque was an Umayyad-era mosque located in Ramle, Israel. Only its minaret is still standing. According to local Islamic tradition, the northwestern section of the mosque contained the shrine of an Islamic prophet, Salih. The minaret is also known as the Tower of the Forty Martyrs. Islamic tradition dating back to 1467 claims that forty companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad were buried at the mosque, which influenced an erroneous Western Christian tradition from the 16th century that the White Mosque was originally a church dedicated to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. History 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, but was completed by his successor Umar II in 720. The mosque itself 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: