Mosque Albhr Qryt Aldbwsy Mrkz Shrbyn

Set within the village of al Dabusi in Shirbin district of Daqahliyah governorate in the eastern Nile Delta, Masjid al Bahr, the Mosque of the Sea, serves a community of farmers, fishermen, and small traders whose lives are shaped by the broad waterways of Lake Manzala and the Nile branches flowing toward the Mediterranean. Daqahliyah is one of the most fertile governorates of Egypt, with a long Islamic history stretching back to the conquest led by Amr ibn al As, may God be pleased with him, whose forces moved across the Delta in the years following the opening of Babylon and Alexandria. Shirbin itself is a market town of orchards, rice paddies, and winding canals lined with reeds and palms.

The name al Bahr, the Sea or the Great River, reflects the closeness of water to village life in this corner of the Delta. In Egyptian Arabic usage, al bahr often refers to the Nile or to the lakes fed by its branches as much as to the Mediterranean itself, and the name suggests a mosque whose adhan carries easily across open water. The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, taught his Companions, may God be pleased with them, that the prayer of a traveller on the sea carries special weight, and every mosque near water quietly inherits that tender meaning.

Architecturally, the building follows the humble Delta tradition of village masjids. A whitewashed facade, a short square minaret, arched windows, and a carpeted prayer hall with a simple plastered mihrab facing the qiblah. Women pray in a separate section at the rear, and a small madrasa wing teaches the village children to recite the Qur'an after Asr every day throughout the year.

Fishermen returning from the waters, farmers from the rice paddies, schoolchildren in the afternoons, and elders after Asr gather here for the five daily prayers, for Jumu'ah, and for taraweeh during Ramadan, when families bring dates, bread, and fresh fish to share iftar on cloths spread in the courtyard. On this page visitors to Daqahliyah will find the current prayer times, address, and helpful notes that assist every traveller crossing this green and watery Delta landscape to locate Masjid al Bahr of al Dabusi and share in its gentle, welcoming, and deeply rooted congregational rhythm of rural Egyptian Islamic life year round.