Faisal Mosque
Interesting facts
- Vedat Dalokay first drew a tent-like, domeless mosque for Ankara's Kocatepe competition in 1957; it won but was dropped after criticism, and a reworked version became the Faisal Mosque.
- Dalokay explained that the tips of the four minarets mark the upper corners of an invisible cube, an abstract echo of the Kaaba in Mecca.
- At about 90 metres each, the four minarets are described as the tallest in South Asia, and their slim pencil shape was inspired by Ottoman Turkish models.
- The foundation stone was laid in October 1976 by King Khalid of Saudi Arabia, who had succeeded the assassinated King Faisal.
- The building cost more than 130 million Saudi riyals, and Pakistani engineers and workers carried out the construction.
- Although completed in 1986, the mosque did not host its first prayer until 18 June 1988.
- The blue and white calligraphic tiles of the qibla wall were designed by the Turkish artist Mengü Ertel.
- Some conservative Muslims initially objected to the design precisely because it lacked a traditional dome.
- Beyond the prayer hall, the complex contains a library, a lecture hall and a museum.
- The mosque appears in Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner.
Why it is worth it
The Faisal Mosque does not look like a mosque, and that was deliberate. In 1969 Pakistan held an international competition for a national mosque in its new capital, Islamabad. It drew more than forty entries from seventeen countries. The Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay won with a design that left out the dome altogether. In its place, eight sloping shells of concrete meet above the prayer hall like the folds of a desert tent. Four minarets about 90 metres high stand at the corners, slender as pencils. Construction ran from 1976 to 1986. The work was funded largely by King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and after his death in 1975 the mosque and the avenue leading to it were named after him.
The setting is part of the design. The mosque stands at the northern end of the city, at the foot of the Margalla Hills, and its white form stands against the green slopes. Inside, the main hall is lined with white marble and lit by a huge chandelier in the Turkish style. The west wall carries a mosaic by the Pakistani artist Sadequain: the declaration of faith written in early Kufic script and repeated in mirror image, a geometric pattern made from text.
The mosque is very large. The main hall holds about 10,000 worshippers, and with its courtyards and grounds on a 33-acre site the whole complex can take hundreds of thousands. From 1986 to 1993 it was the largest mosque in the world. For years the International Islamic University used buildings on the grounds, before moving to its own campus in 2000. In the courtyard to the south is the small octagonal marble tomb of President Zia-ul-Haq, built after his death in 1988.
Getting there
The mosque is at the northern end of Faisal Avenue in Islamabad, at the foot of the Margalla Hills. Islamabad International Airport (ISB) is about 28 km away.
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From the encyclopaedia
The Faisal Mosque is the national mosque of Pakistan, located in Islamabad, the capital of the country. It is the sixth-largest mosque in the world and located on the foothills of Margalla Hills. It is named after the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. Designed by Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay, the mosque features a contemporary design consisting of eight sides of concrete shell and is inspired by the design of a typical Bedouin tent.
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