The Al-Karimiyya Mosque

Just inside Bab Qinnasrin, opposite the Jawhari bath house, stands a small mosque. What makes it known is not the building but a single stone inside it: a yellowish block set into the south wall, marked with the print of a human foot, which local belief attributes to the Prophet Muhammad. The building itself is layered. It began as a small mosque called al-Muhassab, whose foundation is traced to an Umayyad caliph; it was repaired under the Ayyubids in 1256, and its minaret was added under the Mamluks in 1369. The name it carries now comes from the Sufi shaykh Abd al-Karim al-Hafi, buried here in 1479.

Getting there

Enter by Bab Qinnasrin and look across. The mosque faces the Jawhari bath house, with the small Tarsusi mosque standing right in front of it. Walks that run from the gate into the souq pass this corner.

How long it takes

Twenty minutes. The prayer hall is small, and the place you will actually stop is the south wall.

What to see

The yellow stone sits east of the mihrab. It is not set into the wall at random but framed: a geometric border runs around it, small engaged columns stand at either side, and above it rises a horseshoe arch carrying an inscription in praise of the Prophet. The stone is presented not as a find but as a second mihrab.

Do not miss

The story of how the stone reached the mosque. A shaykh dreams that a stolen stone is being carried through the city; the camel with the smuggled load then refuses to walk, the load is opened, and the stone comes out of it. The stone stands today where that story ends.

Where things stand

The ground around Bab Qinnasrin was heavily damaged in the fighting between 2012 and 2016. We found no verified dated record of the mosque today; ask in the quarter whether the door is open.