Jameh Mosque of Makki

{{Short description|Mosque in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran}}

{{Infobox religious building

| name = Jameh Mosque of Makki

| image = مسجد مکی زیبای زاهدان.jpg

| image_upright = 1.4

| alt =

| caption =

| map_type = Iran

| map_size = 250

| map_alt =

| map_relief = 1

| map_caption = Location of the mosque in Iran

| coordinates = {{Coord|29|29|19.8|N|60|51|14.4|E|region:IR_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| coordinates_footnotes =

| religious_affiliation = Sunni Islam

| location = Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchestan

| deity =

| rite =

| sect = Hanafi Deobandi

| tradition =

| festival =

| country = Iran

| administration =

| consecration_year =

| organisational_status = Friday mosque

| functional_status = Active

| heritage_designation =

| ownership =

| governing_body =

| leadership = Molavi Abdul Hamid {{small|(imam)}}

| bhattaraka =

| patron =

| website =

| architect =

| architecture_type = {{nowrap|Mosque architecture}}

| architecture_style = Ottoman

| founded_by = Abdul Aziz Malazada

| creator =

| funded_by =

| general_contractor =

| established =

| groundbreaking =

| year_completed = {{ubl|1971 {{small|(first structure)}}|{{circa|2010}} {{small|(expansion)}}}}

| construction_cost =

| date_demolished =

| facade_direction =

| capacity = {{formatnum:60000}} worshippers

| length =

| width =

| width_nave =

| interior_area = {{cvt|33000|m2}}

| height_max =

| dome_quantity = 52

| dome_height_outer = {{cvt|46|m}}

| dome_height_inner =

| dome_dia_outer =

| dome_dia_inner =

| minaret_quantity = Four

| minaret_height = {{cvt|92|m}}

| spire_quantity =

| spire_height =

| site_area = {{cvt|50000|m2}}

| temple_quantity =

| monument_quantity =

| shrine_quantity =

| inscriptions =

| materials =

| elevation_m =

| elevation_footnotes =

| nrhp =

| designated =

| added =

| refnum =

| footnotes = {{cite web |url=http://www.irna.ir/en/News/81811265 |title=Zahedan, a city rich in potentials |date=25 October 2015 |access-date=15 November 2017 |work=Islamic Republic News Agency |id=81811265}}{{cite web |url=http://www.isna.ir/photo/96021206912/%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AC%D8%AF-%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B9-%D9%85%DA%A9%DB%8C-%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86 |title=Zahedan, a city rich in potentials |date=3 May 2017 |access-date=15 November 2017 |work=Iranian Students' News Agency |id=81811265}}{{cite web |title=Grand Makki Mosque of Zahedan |work=Sunni Online |date=5 April 2010 |url=http://sunnionline.us/english/2010/04/makki-mosque-capacity-and-its-location |access-date= }}

}}

The Jameh Mosque of Makki, officially the Grand Makki Mosque of Zahedan ({{langx|fa|مسجد جامع مکی زاهدان}}), also known as the Makki Mosque, is one of the world's largest Hanafi mosques, and the largest Sunni Friday mosque in Iran, located in the center of Zahedan, the capital of the Sistan and Baluchestan province. The mosque has a capacity of over {{formatnum:60000}} worshippers at any time.

History

The founder of the mosque was Abdul Aziz Malazada who, until his death in 1987, had the most important Sunni religious authority of the Baloch in Sistan-Balochistan in Iran. The Makki Mosque was founded in 1971 as part of the Jamiat Darul Uloom seminary which is located next to the Makki mosque. The Darul Uloom is part of the Deobandi School.{{Cite web |date=5 April 2010 |title=Grand Makki Mosque of Zahedan |url=http://sunnionline.us/english/2010/04/makki-mosque-capacity-and-its-location |access-date=2024-08-26}}

The Darul Uloom in Zahedan is the center for the Sunni Baloch people who live in eastern Iran. From its founding in the early 1970s, it has become the center of a network of thousands of mosques in the region, 120 Deobandi madrasas and about seventy seminaries of which forty are under direct leadership of the Zahedan-based Darul Uloom.{{cite web |author=Wiig, Audun Kolstad |title=Islamist opposition in the Islamic Republic. Jundullah and the spread of extremist Deobandism in Iran |publisher=Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) |date=2 July 2009 |url=https://www.ffi.no/no/Rapporter/09-01265.pdf |access-date= }}

For years, the mosque was overcrowded with a large number of worshippers and its space was inadequate for everyone to be able to pray inside the mosque. Prayers often had to be offered on the nearby streets. An expansion project was started which made the Makki Mosque the largest Sunni mosque in Iran after completion.{{cite book |author=Steinberg, Guido |title=German Jihad: On the Internationalization of Islamist Terrorism |location=New York |year=2013 |publisher= |pages=67-68 |isbn= }} In 2010, the old mosque building with its two minarets were demolished to make room for the new {{convert|50000|m2|adj=on}} mosque with four minarets.

Annual gatherings and conferences in the Makki Mosque attract large numbers of Deobandi and other Sunni scholars from Iran and neighboring countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan. These gatherings and conferences have often prominent Deobandi speakers like the president of the Darul'Uloom in Karachi and speakers linked to the Tablighi Jamaat.{{rp|22}}

Leadership

The founder of the Makki mosque Maulana Abd-al-Aziz Mullahzada (1916–1987) was a well-respected Deobandi scholar. He was the major proponent of the spread of the Deobandi thought in Sistan-Baluchistan. His influence kept growing and after being acknowledged as the religious authority of the Baluch people, his religious authority spread all over the Sunni communities in Iran.{{rp|22}}

{{as of|2025}}, the imam of the congregation is Molavi Abdul Hamid.