It was one of the three mosques (the others are the Mosque of the Prophet in Madinah, and the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem) sponsored by the same caliph, Al Walid, that have been used as models elsewhere.
The mosque replaced the Christian basilica of Saint John the Baptist which itself was erected on the site of the Roman Temple of Jupiter.
It was a original location of an ancient Aramaean temple dedicated to the god Hadad, Semitic god of storm and rain. After the successful military campaign of Alexander the Great, and with the forthcoming Hellenization the temple was dedicated to Zeus. Damascus remain under the control influence of these Greek dynasties until 63 BC. During this time, the temple was converted into a Temple of Zeus-Hadad.
After Islamic conquest in 635 AD, Muslim and Christians agreed to partition and shared the church between them, and they began to perform their rituals side by side. By the succession of the Umayyad Caliph al-Walid bin Abd al-Malik, in 705, he purchased the whole building. The church was demolished and he commenced to construct the mosque.
A massive number of craftsmen and artisan, including Greeks, Indians, Persian, and Syrian Christians spent years embellishing the first sumptuous mosque in Islam.
It took ten years from AD 705 and 715 and eleven million gold dinars to build what has to become the token of Muslim political supremacy and moral prestige.
The new structure was ready in 715. The Umayyad Mosque is especially interesting for the Byzantine influence on its architecture and decor. The construction of the building is based solely on the Roman basilica.
Great Mosque Of Damascus
