Masjid al-Qiblatain

Masjid al-Qiblatain stands in the Bani Salamah area in the north west of Madinah, Saudi Arabia, about 4 kilometres from the Prophet's Mosque. It is one of the most visited historic mosques in the city after the Prophet's Mosque and Quba Mosque.

Islamic tradition holds that in the second year after the Hijra, in 624 CE, the Prophet Muhammad was leading a prayer at this place when the revelation came to turn the direction of prayer, the qibla, from Jerusalem toward the Kaaba in Makkah. The worshippers turned during the prayer, and the mosque became known as the Mosque of the Two Qiblas.

For centuries the mosque held two prayer niches, one facing Jerusalem and one facing Makkah. The building has been rebuilt and enlarged many times. The present mosque was built in 1987 under King Fahd, designed by the Egyptian architect Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil. It has two domes and two minarets, and the old niche facing Jerusalem was removed during the rebuilding, leaving a single mihrab toward Makkah.

The mosque sits on a gentle rise and its white walls and arched windows give it a clean, traditional look. It can hold around 2,000 worshippers, and facilities include wudu areas and a separate section for women.

The mosque is open for the five daily prayers, and in October 2025 King Salman ordered that it stay open 24 hours a day. It is included in most local ziyarat tours of Madinah. Visitors should dress modestly, and women should cover their hair.

The first mosque on the site was built in the second year after the Hijra by Sawad ibn Ghanam ibn Ka'ab al-Ansari, and tradition dates the change of qibla to the 15th of Sha'ban of that year. Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab looked after it in its early years, and the last renovation before the modern era was carried out under the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.

It was long one of only two mosques in the world with prayer niches facing different directions; the other is the Mandhry Mosque in Mombasa, Kenya. In El-Wakil's design, the Jerusalem-facing niche was replaced by a small marker under a secondary false dome, and the interior also contains a replica of the mihrab in the lower chamber of the Dome of the Rock. The ablution area is in a sub-basement, the prayer hall is raised one storey on the north side, and the staff quarters form a separate block to the west.

An expansion now under way will raise the capacity to about 3,000 worshippers. The mosque stands on Khalid ibn al-Walid Road, about 5 kilometres northwest of the Prophet's Mosque by road, so most visitors arrive by taxi or on a ziyarat bus in the morning.