ABSTRACT
When the minaret of the Masjid al-Shahidayn (located in the heart of the Sanaʿa souk) collapsed in the year 1302 of the Hejira (1885 AD), its structure was renewed by the distinguished Master of the Waqfs, Qadi Husayn bin ʿAli al-Amri. He told me that he spent one hundred and thirty riyals from the property of the Sanaʿa waqfs on its rebuilding, and the remainder was collected from the charitable merchants of the city. The collapse of the minaret had crushed the mosque’s adjacent lavatory building where the Faqih ʿAbdullah al-Khabat had been performing his ritual ablutions, and resulted in his martyred death. During his lifetime, the Faqih, a learned man in the science of calculations, was regularly asked by the people (of the city) to foretell when the release from their suffering and hardship would come. He would respond: ‘When the minaret of the al-Shahidayn is destroyed’. 1
