Located in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Eastern
Turkestan)
Date Building Started: prior to 700 AD
700 AD: Zulpia, an Uighur, started restoration of existing structure
What they said about Idkah mosqueLonely Planet
According to the Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit on China (4th ed.), the Id Kah mosque is not of Chinese architecture as other mosques in China, but looks like it is from Pakistan or Afghanistan, with a central dome. Prayer time is around 10 PM and varies throughout the year.
New World Press
According to an article in New World Press, Beijing, 1989, The Id Kah
Mosque, a grand Islamic structure located in the center of the city of Kashi
(Kashgar), has a history of more than five-hundred years. Shakesimirzha, the
ruler of Kashgar, had the mosque built here first in 1422, where he would say
prayers to the souls of his deceased relatives. Extended and renovated time and
again through the ages, it has finally reached its present size and shape.
The mosque, 140 meters long from south to north and 120 meters from east to
west, covers an area of 16,800 square meters and consists of the Hall of
Prayer, the Doctrine-Teaching Hall, the gate tower, a pond and some other
auxiliary structures. The gate of the mosque, built of yellow bricks with the
joints of the brick work pointed with gypsum, has distinct lines. On both sides
of the gate are eighteen-meter high round brick columns half imbedded in the
wall. On top of the columns stands a tower where the imam would call out loudly
at dawn every day to wake up the Muslims and summon them to attend service in
the mosque. In the tree-graced courtyard, there is a pond, and on its bank many
pottery pots are placed, which are to be used by the Islam believers to clean
their bodies. the main hall with wide eaves is 160 meters long and sixteen
meters wide. The hall's ceiling, with fine wooden carvings and colorful
flower-and-plant painting patterns, is supported by one hundred carved wooden
columns. In the middle part of the main hall, there is a deep shrine in which a
stepped throne is placed. During service, the First Maola stands in the shrine
to lead the prayer. And on Fridays or Corban, the First Maola conducts Wa z
, standing on the steps of the throne. After entering the main hall, the
followers would seat themselves facing west both inside and out, in proper
lines.
