Al Bidya Mosque

Al Bidya Mosque is a small but nationally important historic mosque in Fujairah, on the coastal road toward Dibba about 35 kilometres north of Fujairah city. Fujairah Tourism identifies it as the UAE’s oldest existing mosque and also records the alternative name Othmanian Mosque. The building is notable for a compact vernacular design in which a central column supports four domes without a timber roof.

Inside are a mihrab, a small minbar, ventilation openings and wall shelves, preserving the character of an early local prayer space. A research project undertaken in 2017 with the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi sampled the mosque’s foundations for uranium-thorium analysis at the University of Minnesota.

Fujairah Tourism reports that this study dated the construction to approximately 1599 CE, with a margin of error of plus or minus nine years. The mosque was restored and officially reopened in March 2003 and continues to be presented as both a place of worship and a heritage attraction. A separate UAE federal tourism page has published the date 1446; because the two official sources conflict, this record follows Fujairah Tourism’s stated scientific dating rather than treating 1446 as settled fact.