Abdallah Ibn Salam Mosque

Great Synagogue of Oran
(Also known as the Abdallah Ibn Salam Mosque)
مسجد عبدالله بن سلام رضي الله عنه

2011
Basic information
Location Algeria Blvd. Maata Mohamed El Habib, Oran, Algeria
Affiliation Islam
Country Algeria
Year consecrated 1918
Status Masjid
Architectural description
Architectural style Moorish
Completed 1880

The Abdallah Ibn Salam Mosque (Arabic: مسجد عبد الله بن سلام‎‎) is a mosque in Algeria. Formerly the Great Synagogue of Oran (Arabic: معبد وهران العظيم‎‎, French: Grande synagogue d'Oran), Algeria, it was built in 1880 at the initiative of Simon Kanoui, but its inauguration took place only in 1918.[1] Also known as Temple Israelite, it is located on the former Boulevard Joffre, currently Boulevard Maata Mohamed El Habib. It was one of the largest synagogues in North Africa.

Once Algeria gained its independence in 1962, almost all Algerian Jews had relocated to France. An estimated 100 to 120 thousand Jews, as well as a million European settlers and 100 thousand Muslim Harkis had fled Algeria choosing to settle in France during the Pied-Noir exodus[2]

Algerian Jews relocating to France in the 1960s were assigned "repatriate" status and classed alongside the European settler population owing to the fact that the Jews of Algeria had been French citizens since the Crémieux Decree of 1870.

The Abdallah Ibn Salam mosque is named after a 7th-century Jew from Medina who converted to Islam.

Architecture

A British traveller in 1887 described the new synagogue as "new and not imposing."[3] Its style shows Neo-Mudejar and Moorish Revival influences.

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Synagogues in Algeria.
  1. ↑ http://80.244.168.89/Communities/Archive/Oran.aspAlso%5B%5D
  2. ↑ Pied-Noir
  3. ↑ Handbook for travellers in Algeria and Tunis, Algiers, Oran, Constantine, Carthage, etc., Robert Lambert Playfair. pub. J. Murray, 1887, p. 184.

Coordinates: 35°42′00″N 0°39′01″W / 35.70000°N 0.65028°W / 35.70000; -0.65028

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