Syria Gate
The Salimiyya Takiyya (Arabic: التكية السليمية, romanized: at-Takiyya as-Salīmiyya), also known as the Ibn Arabi Mosque (Arabic: جامع الشيخ محي الدين بن عربي, romanized: Jāmiʿ al-Šaykh Muḥyī d-Dīn ibn ʿArabī), was established as a takiyya (an institution to serve pilgrims and the poor, providing communal meals through a soup kitchen as well as residential accommodation). It is located in as-Salihiyya, Damascus.
History
The complex was built over and in the surroundings of Ibn Arabi's tomb in 924 AH (1518/1519 CE) by the Ottoman sultan Selim I upon his return from the conquest of Egypt. The Salimiyya Takiyya is considered to have been "the first Ottoman building in Syria". However, its construction is considered to have followed "a local architectural idiom", which was "neither Mamluk, nor Ottoman" (unlike the later Sulaymaniyya Takiyya, which marked the introduction of the Ottoman architectural style to Damascus). The Salimiyya Takiyya consists of the Ibn Arabi Mosque and an imaret (or soup kitchen) facing it.
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