Bibi Heybat Mosque & Shrine of Bibi Ukeyma Khanum, Daughter of Imam Musa Kazim AS | Baku, Azerbaijan
Channel: Saudi Destinations
Date: 2023-01-23

The Bibi-Heybat Mosque is a historical mosque in Baku, Azerbaijan. The existing structure, built in the 1990s, is a recreation of the mosque with the same name built in the 13th century by Shirvanshah Farrukhzad II, which was completely destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936.
The Bibi-Heybat Mosque includes the tomb of Ukeyma Khanum, a descendant of The Islamic Prophet Muhammad PBUH, and today is the spiritual centre for the Muslims of the region and one of the major monuments of Islamic architecture in Azerbaijan.
It is locally known as "the mosque of Fatima", which is what Alexandre Dumas called it when he described the mosque during his visit in the 1850s.
The mosque was built over the tomb of the daughter of the seventh Shiite Imam - Musa al-Kazim, who fled to Baku from persecution of Abbasid caliphs. On the tomb there is carved on a stone inscription indicating that Ukeyma Khanum belongs to the sacred family: "Here was buried Ukeyma Khanum, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH, the granddaughter of the sixth Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, the daughter of the Seventh Imam Musa al-Kazim, sister of the eighth Imam Ali al-Ridha".
Famous French writer, Alexandre Dumas, who visited the mosque in the 1840s, in his book "The World" wrote: The mosque - a place of worship for infertile women, they come here on foot, worship, and within a year gain the ability to give birth.
After the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan in 1920, the Bolsheviks began lashing out against religion. Bibi-Heybat Mosque, along with the Baku's Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the Roman Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception became a target for the new regime. The mosque was blown up in 1934 as result of the Soviet anti-religious campaign.
In 1994, after Azerbaijan gained its independence, then president Heydar Aliyev ordered the construction of a new building for Bibi-Heybat Mosque at the same place where it was destroyed. The layout and size of the complex were restored in 1980 on the basis of photographs taken shortly before the explosion. 
The mosque was reconstructed and enlarged by the Presidential decree in 2005. New halls have been constructed to insure the convenience of pilgrims.
The modern restored mosque is a classic example of the Shirvan architectural school. The mosque has three domes, which have kept the traditional corrugated galvanised iron shape of the old mosque and two minarets. The domes are decorated with the green and turquoise mirrors, which are bordered with gilded inscriptions from Qur'an. The men's praying room is located on the south side of the complex, while women - on the north side. Between them is the mausoleum.

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