Aidrus Mosque

The Aidrus Mosque sits on Aidrus Street in central Crater and is the most important religious building in Aden. Founded in the early 16th century around the tomb of the Sufi saint Abu Bakr al-Aydarus, it has been rebuilt several times since, most recently after damage during the 1994 civil war.

The whitewashed prayer hall, slender minaret, and walled courtyard are typical of Hadramawt mosque architecture and unlike anything else in coastal Yemen. The interior is reserved for worshippers but the courtyard and exterior are accessible. The mosque is at the heart of one of the densest blocks of old Aden — the lanes around it preserve some of the city's last late-Ottoman houses.

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A story
Abu Bakr al-Aydarus, the Sufi saint to whom the mosque is dedicated, settled in Aden in the late 15th century after fleeing Hadramawt. He is said to have died in 1508; his tomb is the focus of an annual mawlid each Rajab that fills the surrounding streets. The mosque's minaret was rebuilt in coral-stone in the early 19th century — coral cut from the reefs of the bay is a building material specific to the Red Sea coast.

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