King Saud Mosque in Jeddah

This is the biggest mosque in Jeddah. It is located in the city’s al-Sharafiyyah district, about 6 km north of historic Jeddah. It was completed in 1987. Its architect was ‘Abd al-Wahid al-Wakil. With the oil boom in 1973, Saudi Arabia provided a majority of commissions for ‘Abd al-Wahid. In collaboration with the Ministry of Pilgrimage and Endowment, a program for mosque architecture was established for the reconstitution of traditional architecture. A series of new mosques in a neo-traditionalist and revivalist style was also initiated. ‘Abd al-Wahid al-Wakil, as a leading authority in Islamic traditional revivalism, fitted the bill perfectly. As many as nine mosques in Jeddah were commissioned within the frame of the beautification and development of the city. They were built in the 1970s and 1980s. They varied in size: from tiny single-domed mosques, to the massive multi-domed and multi-vaulted ones.

King_Saud_Mosque_in_Jeddah.docx