Omari Mosque: A record of Gaza’s changing rulers

Gaza’s Omari Mosque is more than an archaeological site. It has become a symbol of the city’s repeated changes of power, with nearly every major authority that ruled Gaza using the landmark in some form. An Israeli airstrike destroyed the mosque on October 8, 2023.

Historian Jean-Pierre Filiu, in his book Gaza: A History, writes that the site originally served as a temple to Zeus. Under Byzantine rule in Gaza, it became the Church of Saint Eudocia. Muslim forces captured the city from the Byzantine Empire around the middle of the 630s and converted the church into a mosque.

The exact date of Gaza’s conquest remains debated. The early Iraqi historian al-Baladhuri wrote that the city fell to Muslim rule during the caliphate of Abu Bakr, who ruled from 632 to 634. Al-Tabari placed the conquest around 636 or 637, during the rule of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab.

Filiu describes the mosque as a stopping place for merchants. In 985, the Jerusalem traveler al-Muqaddasi recorded the presence of a beautiful mosque in Gaza and described it as a monument to Umar ibn al-Khattab.

Gaza’s position on the medieval trade route between Egypt and the Levant left it vulnerable to successive rulers. The city passed from the Rashidun Caliphate to the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties, and later to the Fatimid dynasty based in Egypt. A study by Ziad M. Shehada says the mosque was damaged by an earthquake in 1083.

In 1149, Gaza fell to the Crusader forces of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem under Baldwin III. Filiu’s account says the mosque was enlarged and converted into a cathedral named for Saint John the Baptist. The site’s layered history reflects the succession of political and religious powers that shaped Gaza over centuries.