Bibi-Heybat Mosque
Man-made
Other
Cultural
Description
Bibi-Heybat Mosque
The Bibi-Heybat Mosque is a historical mosque on the outskirts of Baku, Azerbaijan. The existing structure, built in the 1990s, is a recreation of the mosque with the same name built in the 13th century by Shirvanshah Farrukhzad II Ibn Ahsitan II, which was completely destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936.
The Bibi-Heybat Mosque includes the tomb of Ukeyma Khanum (a descendant of Muhammad), and today is the spiritual center for the Muslims of the region and one of the major monuments of Islamic architecture in Azerbaijan.
It is locally known as "the mosque of Fatima", which is what Alexandre Dumas called it when he described the mosque during his visit in the 1840s.
This Mosque has an unusual history. First of all, it was built to honor the sister of the 7th Shiite Imam, Ali, and secondly, when the mosque was destroyed during Stalin's rule, legends arose about a woman wrapped in white disappearing down into the sea who would return when times got better. The legends that have grown up around the Bibi-Heybat Mosque are examples of how such narratives in the minds of the community can influence reality later on.