The Arab monuments displayed in the “Great Mosque of Algeria” attract hundreds of visitors, including official delegations participating in the Arab summit. As for the allocation of the “Islamic Garden” for this exhibition, coinciding with the holding of the summit, it was not absurd.
On the eastern coast of the capital, Algeria, the “Great Mosque” catches the eyes of passers-by, and its largest gardens have collected monuments from all Arab countries, in a miniature exhibition, transporting its visitors between two continents, from the Great Maghreb to the Levant and the Gulf, penetrating borders, canceling passports and transit visas.
The minaret of the “Mosque” stands majestically not comparable to any other minaret in the world, opposite the Harrach beach.
The waves crash quietly, as if they are trying to erase the traces of a recent past, which was driven to this land by invaders, who worked to uproot its people from their religious beliefs and their Berber and Arab identity.
Allocating the “Islamic Garden” for this exhibition, coinciding with the thirty-first regular session of the League of Arab States Summit, was not absurd, as this land, on which miniature models of pyramids, towers, castles, palaces and mosques were erected, representing Arab civilizations and their present, was once the seat of the largest missionary center in North Africa, “Church of Lavigre”.
Exactly from here, the French missionary missions of the “white fathers and sisters” set off towards Tunisia, the Far Maghreb, Sudan, and Central Africa, more than a century ago.
Muhammadiyah brings the Arab peoples closer together
In the “Islamic Garden”, one of the eighteen gardens of the mosque, where the trees mentioned in the Qur’an were planted, the minaret of the Moroccan “Koutoubia Marrakech Mosque” met with the “Algerian Martyr’s Shrine” in glory, before which geographical boundaries and political sensitivities faded away.
And next to them are the Tunisian “Clock Tower”, the Libyan “Al-Saraya Al-Hamra” palace, and the Mauritanian “Walati House”.
Not far from them, the “Dome of the Rock” stood on Muhammadiyah Square, in a prestige that could not be broken by occupation or stormed by settlers. The Egyptian “Pyramids of Giza”, the Lebanese “Hamidiya Clock Tower” and the Jordanian “city of Petra” stood guarding it.
He attended the Syrian “Palace of Azem”, covering up the official absence of Damascus from the official delegations participating in the Arab Summit.
On the opposite side, the Iraqi “Ishtar Gate” has returned, opening in front of the “Kuwait Towers”. And the “Saudi Arabia Tower” and the Emirati “Burj Al Arab” along with the Yemeni “Dar Al Hajar Palace”.
And other landmarks in a square that brought together Arab civilizations and their present, from twenty-two countries, in a semiological image that carries many connotations.
In an interview with Al-Mayadeen Net, Professor of History at the University of Algiers, Professor Mohamed Lahcen Zghidi, believes that “the exhibition includes symbolic messages for the Arab peoples and their rulers in the first place, especially as it coincides with the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1954 revolution, which is considered a victory for all Arab countries and not only for Algeria, as colonialism was a common enemy.” It threatens all Arab countries, and works to obliterate the identities of their peoples, and make them all subordinate to the West without exception.”
According to the “Arts and Culture” Foundation, which is in charge of making the sculptures, the idea of this cultural and artistic project came in order to “bring Arab peoples closer and introducing them to each other,” as confirmed by Al-Mayadeen Net, Nazim Hammadi, director of the institution affiliated with the Algerian Ministry of Arts and Culture.
The Arab monuments displayed in the Algiers Mosque attract hundreds of visitors, including official delegations participating in the Arab summit.
Some models attract attention more than others, with their fine details that mimic their original counterpart to the greatest extent, so you see dozens standing in front of the Jerusalem Dome of the Rock, the Damascene Azem Palace, the Babylonian Ishtar Gate, and the Yemeni House of Stone, which sculptors excelled in shaping.
From “Lavigrie” to “Muhammadiyah”, the story of a minaret that erased the traces of the “religious invasion”
Ancient civilizations mixed with the arts of Islamic architecture and contemporary engineering, on an area that has “a very special place for Algerians.”
Between tides, the waves of the opposite shore tell stories dating back to the time of the Crusades, and “Algeria protected by God.”
Historian and academic Muhammad al-Amin Balghith says in an interview with Al-Mayadeen Net that the coasts of “El-Harrach” and “Al-Hamma” witnessed one of the largest campaigns of invasion in North Africa.
In 1541, the Spanish King Carlos V “Charlequin” announced a Crusader invasion of Algeria, in the name of the “Holy Roman Empire”.
“A naval fleet of eighty ships, hundreds of sailors and dozens of soldiers, in the face of a population whose simple weapons provoked the ridicule of King Charlemagne,” according to Al-Amin.
And he adds, “But the people did not give up…they continued to resist, until divine support came to them in the form of a sea storm that sank Charlemagne’s fleet, and the Spaniards lost their king’s crown forever, after it was lost to them on the shores of Algeria, which has come to be called protected by God.”
The invasion raids were renewed again in the summer of 1830 at the hands of the French, who managed this time to occupy Algeria.
In 1868, Bishop Cardinal Charles Marcial Lavigerie founded the Association of the White Fathers on the El Harrach plateau, and then the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the African Lady. At that time, they constituted the largest missionary center in the brown continent, for which Lavigrie was given the title of “Archbishop.”
Professor Mohamed Lahcen Zghidi says that when the construction work of the White Fathers Monastery was completed, the French priest called out mockingly: “Where are you, Mohamed? The response came to him after independence, when the crowds came out chanting: O Mohamed, congratulations to you.. Algeria has returned to you.”
Hence, the region bore the name “Muhammadiyah” instead of “Lavigry”, and the traces of its church were erased by its minaret, which rises to the clouds at a height of 265 meters, divided into 43 upper floors, and two ground floors, which include research centers and museums that tell the history of the country and the region.
An architectural masterpiece and a fortress of national reference
Belkhair Taheri, a professor of Sharia and Law at the University of Oran, believes in an interview with Al-Mayadeen Net that “the Great Mosque is one of the castles of Islam, and an architectural masterpiece of archaeological dimensions, which guides the authenticity of this people, and their adherence to their identity and belief.”
Says the Preachers Association And the imams of the Sahel region, Bazaz Lakhmisi, told Al-Mayadeen Net that “the mosque serves as a fortress of protection for the national intellectual and religious authority, from outside ideas and currents, which do not tire of trying to attack the belief of this nation.”
Today, the land of “Muhammadiyah” includes the largest mosque in Africa, and the third in the world, after the Two Holy Mosques. Reconciliation” in front of thousands of students, researchers and visitors, who are drawn by history to a place that was the scene of great events.
Translated from https://www.almayadeen.net/society/%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B9%D8%B8%D9%85-%D9%82%D8%B5%D8%A9-%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%AA-%D8%A2%D8%AB%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A2%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%B6
