05/10/2026
Masjid Bilal on Jabal Abu Qubays, Makkah, around 1887
The white building circled in this historic photograph is the old mosque on Jabal Abu Qubays, later known as Masjid Bilal, overlooking Masjid al-Haram and the Kaaba.
This mosque is no longer there anymore.
The photo was taken around 1887 by Al-Sayyid Abd al-Ghaffar, a Makkah-based physician and one of the first photographers of the holy city. It was published in 1889.
The mosque was small, about 100 square meters, built of brick and stone from the mountain itself, with a single minaret no higher than 10 meters. It faced the Grand Mosque and the mas'a between Safa and Marwa.
A detail many people miss: early Makkan historians such as al-Azraqi and al-Fakihi referred to a mosque on this peak as Masjid Ibrahim. According to historians, the name Masjid Bilal appears only in the decades before the building was removed in the mid-1970s.
Also worth noting: the Prophet's ﷺ first public call to Islam was made from al-Safa, at the foot of Jabal Abu Qubays, not from this hilltop mosque.
Photo: Leiden University Library
