Mosque Maryam
— a Byzantine dome that found a second life.
Not only on a wall.
“On the South Side of Chicago, the national headquarters of the Nation of Islam. The building was raised in the early 1970s as a Greek Orthodox cathedral, in Byzantine-revival form, a wide central dome over a brick drum, ringed by smaller cupolas. The Nation acquired it in 1988 and renamed it in honour of Maryam, the mother of Jesus. The Saviours' Day address each February is given from inside.
Mosque Maryam, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Mosque Maryam stands at 7351 South Stony Island Avenue, on the western edge of Chicago's South Shore neighbourhood, about thirteen kilometres south of the Loop. The building was originally constructed in the early 1970s as the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helen, and was acquired by the Nation of Islam in 1988 for a reported $2.2 million. It serves as the movement's national headquarters and the principal place of worship for the Nation under Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has led the organisation since 1977.
The architecture is Byzantine-revival rather than the form most readers associate with mosques. A wide central dome rises over a brick drum, ringed by four smaller cupolas at the corners of a cross-in-square plan inherited from the original Greek Orthodox design. The cross finials were replaced with crescents after the 1988 transition, and the interior frescoes and iconostasis were removed, but the volume and proportion of the worship space remain those of the cathedral as it was raised in the early 1970s.
The mosque sits across Stony Island Avenue from Rainbow Beach Park and a kilometre north of the South Shore Cultural Center. Friday afternoon prayers and the Sunday morning lecture are the regular public gatherings. The Saviours' Day convention each late February draws thousands and includes a keynote address from inside the main hall. Visitors are asked to dress modestly; women cover the head. Photography inside the prayer space is generally not permitted. The Metra Electric line stops within a short walk.