Affiliation Islam Completed 1880 Opened 1918 | Status Masjid Construction started 1880 Year consecrated 1918 | |
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Location Blvd. Maata Mohamed El Habib, Oran, Algeria Address Boulevard Abderahmane Mira, Oran, Algeria Architectural style Moorish Revival architecture Similar Ahmed Zabana National, Hassan Basha Mosque, Cathédrale du Sacré‑C, Fort Santa Cruz - Oran, Royal Hotel | ||
The Abdallah Ibn Salam Mosque is a mosque in Algeria. Formerly the Great Synagogue of Oran (French: Grande synagogue d'Oran, Arabic: معبد وهران العظيم), Algeria, it was built in 1880 at the initiative of Simon Kanoui, but its inauguration took place only in 1918. Also known as Temple Israelite, it is located on the former Boulevard Joffre, currently Boulevard Maata Mohamed El Habib. It was one of the largest synagogues in North Africa.
Once Algeria gained its independence in 1962, almost all Algerian Jews had relocated to France. An estimated 100 to 120 thousand Jews, as well as a million European settlers and 100 thousand Muslim Harkis had fled Algeria choosing to settle in France during the Pied-Noir exodus
Algerian Jews relocating to France in the 1960s were assigned "repatriate" status and classed alongside the European settler population owing to the fact that the Jews of Algeria had been French citizens since the Crémieux Decree of 1870.
The Abdallah Ibn Salam mosque is named after a 7th-century Jew from Medina who converted to Islam.
Architecture
A British traveller in 1887 described the new synagogue as "new and not imposing." Its style shows Neo-Mudejar and Moorish Revival influences.