Al-Arba'een Mosque

Al-Arba'een Mosque was one of the notable religious structures in central Tikrit, a Sunni mosque whose name — the Mosque of the Forty — has roots in Shia commemorative tradition. This kind of ambiguity was not unusual in Iraqi religious life before 2003, when the city's Sunni and Shia communities had a more tangled and interdependent relationship than later events would suggest.

The mosque suffered damage during the period of ISIS control and the fighting of 2014–2015. Conditions on the ground and current access should be confirmed locally before any visit.

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A story
Al-Arba'een — the Mosque of the Forty Martyrs — was a functioning Sunni mosque in Tikrit before the ISIS period. Its name refers to a Shia tradition of mourning forty days after the death of Imam Hussein, which gives the mosque an unusual name for a Sunni place of worship and hints at the complex religious geography of Tikrit before the sectarian violence of recent years rewrote it.