The building dates back to the 5th century AH.[2] The name of the mosque, "Al-Arba'een" (The Forty), is derived[3] from a belief that forty martyrs killed during an Islamic conquest of Tikrit[4] were buried under the mosque, although this claim is contested as reports of the forty graves are weak.[5]
The building was used as an Islamic university in 1262 AD.[6]
Construction
The mosque building was a square shape, with five domes. Each side was approximately forty-seven meters long.[7] Its dimensions are 36.5 x 35.5 meters.[8] Gravel and plaster were mostly used to construct the building[9] and the two venerated rooms are ten meters tall.[10]
One of these venerated rooms was a shrine that contained a tomb of Amr ibn Jundab Al-Ghafari,[11] a companion of the Rashidun caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab. There was also a cellar in the building which is believed by locals to house the resting place of a female saint, Sitt Nafisa.[12]
Demolition
The mosque was destroyed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2014 by explosives.[13] The explosion completely destroyed the shrines but did not damage the rest of the mosque. The surrounding cemetery was damaged.
