Great Mosque of Kufa

The Great Mosque of Kufa (Masjid al-Kufa) in the city of Kufa in Iraq is one of the oldest mosques in the world and a site of profound religious and historical significance, particularly within Shia Islam. The mosque was founded in 638 CE — only six years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad — when the city of Kufa was established as a garrison town and administrative capital by the second caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab during the early Islamic conquests of Iraq. The mosque became the principal political and religious centre of the Rashidun caliphate when the fourth caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib relocated his capital from Medina to Kufa in 656 CE, and it was within this mosque that Ali was struck by a poisoned sword while leading the dawn prayer in 661 CE — an attack from which he died two days later. The mosque is therefore one of the most spiritually significant sites in Shia Islam and a regular pilgrimage destination for Shia Muslims, who visit in conjunction with the much larger nearby shrines of Imam Ali in Najaf and Imam Husayn in Karbala. The mosque has been rebuilt and expanded many times over the fourteen centuries since its founding, most recently in major Iraqi government renovations of the 2000s, and it remains an active congregational mosque alongside its function as a major religious historical site.