Bibi-Heybat Mosque

The Bibi-Heybat Mosque stands on Bibiheybat Street in the Bibi-Heybat district on the southern shore of Baku Bay, Azerbaijan, and is built over the shrine of Hakima Khanum, a descendant of the seventh Shia imam, Musa al-Kazim. According to tradition, she fled to Shirvan in the 9th century and was buried at this site, which became a pilgrimage place. A mosque was built on the site in 1281-1282 under the Shirvanshah ruler Farrukhzad, and it was enlarged and reconstructed in later centuries, with the 19th-century rebuilding by local oil patrons among the notable stages. In 1934-1936 the Soviet authorities demolished the mosque as part of an anti-religious campaign, and stones from it were reused in other construction, although the foundations and the grave were not entirely lost. After Azerbaijan regained independence, a reconstruction was started in the 1990s, funded by the state and local donors, and the new building was completed in 1997-1998 on the original foundations, following photographs and surviving documentation. The present mosque has a tall blue-tiled dome, two slender minarets, a wide courtyard and an interior with carpets, chandeliers and calligraphic ornament, and the shrine room containing the tomb remains the main focus for pilgrims. The architecture follows the Shirvan school with a modern execution, and it includes a prayer hall that can hold hundreds of worshippers. A small cemetery area and the shrine's holy spring are also associated with the pilgrimage. The mosque is open to visitors outside prayer times, although the shrine is a place of devotion rather than a museum, so no exhibition is arranged. It sits near former oil fields and the waterfront, and the Bibi-Heybat district has long been associated with the oil boom in Baku. Visitors should dress modestly, remove their shoes, and women usually cover their hair, with scarves sometimes provided at the entrance.