The Al-Ajami Mosque

A small mosque just outside Bab al-Jabiya, on the corner that faces the Shaghour quarter. It was not built as a mosque. In 1348 it went up as the tomb and Quran school of a Persian merchant, Afridun al-Ajami, and the sources also call it the Afriduniya turba — a turba being a domed funerary chamber. The name follows from the man: al-Ajami means the Persian. The plan is cruciform, which is rare for a mosque in Damascus.

Getting there

Leave Bab al-Jabiya to the south-west and turn into Saad Zaghloul Street. The building does not stand tall over the street; the marker is the green-painted top of its minaret. A plaque at the lower right of the doorway carries the name.

What to see

The doorway. The stone recess is hooded by a course of muqarnas, with a half-round relief at its crown, and the whole back of the recess is marble inlay. Dark and pale marble strips build interlocking stars and hooks, and a small opening sits at the centre of the panel. Near the bottom edge there is a round medallion, and below that a drinking fountain.

What most people miss

Break the habit of walking past the panel to look inside. The marble work does not stop at the back of the recess; it carries on into the upper corners, and the pattern there differs from the one below. And keep in mind what the building is — first a grave, then a school, a mosque only last.

How long it takes

Twenty minutes. Ten at the doorway, ten inside. Bab al-Jabiya and Souq Midhat Pasha are both a short walk away, so carrying on from here is the natural move.