Grand Mosque of Paris

The Grand Mosque of Paris, also known as the Great Mosque of Paris or simply the Paris Mosque, located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, is one of the largest mosques in France. It comprises prayer rooms, an outdoor garden, a small library, a gift shop, along with a cafe and restaurant. In all, the mosque plays an important role in promoting the visibility of Islam and Muslims in France. Completed in 1926, is the oldest mosque in metropolitan France.

History

Genesis of the project

The history of the Paris mosque is inextricably linked to France's colonization of large parts of the Muslim world over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. An early, if not the first, project for a mosque in Paris is recorded as desired to be "in the Baujon district in 1842, followed by a revival of similar intentions at the In 1846, the Société orientale proposed the construction "in Paris, then at Marseilles, of a cemetery, mosque, and a Muslim school." According to the historian Michel Renard, it was put forward "for philanthropic reasons, augmented by political reasons, but also religious since Muslims were judged to be closer to Roman Catholicism than the Jews." The negative reaction of the Ministry of Justice and Religions, which debated the matter with the National Assembly, shelved the project for ten years.

The First "Mosque" at Père-Lachaise

A French Prefectorial decree of 29 November 1856 permitted the Ottoman Embassy in Paris to construct a special enclosure that was reserved for the burial of Muslims in the 85th division of the Parisian Cemetery of the East, called Père Lachaise. The enclosure measured about 800 square meters, and in it the Ottomans built a structure labeled as a 'Mosque,' in order to give shelter to funerary services and the prayers for the deceased. It was thus the first mosque constructed on Parisian territory. However, it was not the first in Western Europe since the disappearance of Muslims from the south of France in the ninth century, because there was an earlier mosque that had long been used in Marseille within the boundaries of the Cemetery of the Turks, but it had been destroyed during the French Revolution."
The cemetery covered the tombs of Ottomans who had died in France. Little used, in 1883 it was cut down in size, but soon the building fell into disrepair, so the Ottoman government decided to finance its reconstruction and extension. In 1914, an architectural design was put forward for a more prominent building with a dome and clear "Islamic" characteristics evident, but the First World War blocked the implementation of the project. In 1923, however, an inter-ministerial commission of Muslim affairs discussed the work for completing a Muslim cemetery in Père Lachaise. It concluded that it was not practical to build a mosque in the cemetery, as they were looking to build a mosque in the district of the Jardin des Plantes.

1895 and 1915–16 projects

The first project for a true mosque in Paris was envisaged without success in 1895 by the Committee of French Africa set up by Théophile Delcassé, Jules Cambon, the Prince Bonaparte and the Prince d'Arenberg. An article in La Presse from 12 January 1896 was, however, optimistic about this project, specifically for a mosque to be constructed on the Quai d'Orsay, notably with the financial support of the Ottoman sultan, the Viceroy of Egypt, and the Sultan of Morocco.
The journalist Paul Bourdarie justified the construction of the Paris Mosque in the newspaper La Revue indigène:

Such a proposal cannot be forgotten and lost . It reflects too much the political outlook that France ought to follow towards her Muslim sons, and which should translate above all into acts of political and administrative equality and above all into gestures of sympathy and goodwill. From its foundation in 1906, La Revue indigène has put forward plans to resume this project from which the reforms which she proposes will be recommended and completed with success. The members of the Algerian Muslim delegation in Paris who came to Paris in 1912, Dr. Benthami, Dr. Moussa, the lawyer Mr. Mokhtar Hadj Saïd, etc., recall that the question was addressed at that moment in the course of the meetings which took place at the headquarters of La Revue indigène. In the meantime, Mr. Christian Cherfils, the Islamophile and author of a work on Napoléon and Islam, recommended the erection of a mosque in Paris. Others, without a doubt, view the same construction as both desirable and possible.

Bourdarie evoked, in his article, the contradiction between the alliance with England which worked to dominate the majority of countries in the Muslim world while the French interest was to remain "friends of the Turk according to the wishes of Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent" and to continue "its role within Muslim Arab power." La Revue indigène believed that the project for the Parisian mosque was one that French citizens knew "to be in accordance with their spirit and their heart's love of their country and the respect of Islam." It was why Bourdarie did not stop lobbying for his project and undertook serious work to get the French government to listen to him.
As Bourdarie confided in his journal:

In May and June 1915, I began conferring with an architect, a student of Charles Girault| Girault, Mr. E. Tronquois. Our discussions frequently turned towards Islam and the role of French Muslims on the field of battle. Mr. Tronquois expressed the opinion that a mosque would be a veritable commemorative monument to their heroism and their sacrifices. I explained to Mr. Tronquois the facts and points of view previously expressed and we resolved also to get to work. And in the summer of 1916 a certain number of Muslims living in Paris and their friends met several times at the headquarters of La Revue indigène in order to examine and, if need be, critique the sketches of the architect. Among them I recall were the Emir Khaled, having come from the Front and passing through Paris; Dr. Benthami; the mufti Mokrani; Dr. Tamzali and his brother; Halil Bey; Ziane; the painter Dinet; the Countess d'Aubigny; Lavenarde; Christian Cherfils; the deputy A. Prat, etc. Following these meetings, a committee was formed, the presidency of which was offered to Mr. Édouard Herriot|É Herriot, mayor of Lyon and a senator; the vice-presidencies to Mr. Lucien Hubert, Senator; Marin and Prat, members of the Chamber of Deputies; and A. Brisson, the director of Annales politiques et littéraires. The Interministerial Commission of Muslim Affairs, which knew of the project through Mr. Gout, had given its approval, and Mr. Pichon, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, offered his patronage, and so the project was brought directly to Mr. Aristide Briand| Briand, president of the Council which approved it.

Bourdarie was truly the father of the project for the Parisian mosque, and he worked tirelessly towards its completion. The first concept for the project was worked up by the architect Maurice Tranchant de Lunel, who was the Director of Fine Arts under Hubert Lyautey from 1912 onwards and a friend of Rudyard Kipling, C. Farrère, and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium.

First World War

In 1881, the French government established the indigénat in Algeria which enabled punishments, such as being stripped of land, and discrimination towards the colonials. This decree also restricted travel of Algerians internationally and in their own country by requiring permits to travel. In 1905, a strike among the French workforce had French officials look to Algerians to fill this role. The travel limitations were relaxed to allow Algerians to travel and immigrate to France to fill the voids in the labor force. In 1912, the French desire for workers grew as the country grew while also needing additional soldiers for the military. In response, the decree was softened allowing further immigration from Algeria. Shortly afterwards, during World War I France needed more resources to assist ongoing war. France saw large waves of migration of Algerians to France in order to serve in the military and to become laborers. The war saw casualties upwards of 100,000 Algerian soldiers serving the French and a new population of Algerian immigrants into France. As the war came to an end, the French became more accepting of the Muslim people and wanted to celebrate them for their efforts and sacrifices for France.

Construction and financing

The decision to construct the mosque resurfaced more precisely in the aftermath of the Battle of Verdun when the Société des Habous was charged with constructing the mosque. This association, created in 1917, had the goal of organizing an annual pilgrimage to Mecca for residents of North Africa and insuring that the pilgrims followed regulations of security and hygiene during their travel to the Hejaz.
The Great Mosque of Paris was funded by the French state as per the law of 19 August 1920, which accorded a subvention of 500,000 francs for the construction of a Muslim Institute composed of a mosque, a library, and a meeting and study room. The law of 19 August 1920 did, however, infringe upon the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State promulgating the secular nature of the government, whose signatories had included Edouard Herriot and Aristide Briand themselves. The Great Mosque was built on the site of the former Charity Hospital and adjacent to the Jardin des plantes. The first stone was laid in 1922. The work was completed by Robert Fournez, Maurice Mantout and Charles Heubès based on plans by Maurice Tranchant de Lunel. The mosque was built following the Moorish Revival style, and its minaret is high.

Inauguration

It was inaugurated on 16 July 1926, in the presence of French President Gaston Doumergue and Sultan Yusef of Morocco. Doumergue celebrated the Franco-Muslim friendship sealed by the bloodshed on the Western Front in World War I and affirmed that the Republic protected all beliefs. The Sufi Sheikh Ahmad al-Alawi led the first communal prayer to inaugurate the newly built mosque. On the eve of the inauguration, Messali Hadj held the first meeting of the Etoile nord-africaine and criticized the "mosque publicity stunt."
In 1929, King Fuad I of Egypt donated the mosque's minbar, which is still used today.