Facade of the prayer hall seen from the courtyard.

Extensively damaged by the fire of 1069, the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus was restored on the orders of the Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah (ruled 1072-1092). When the same sultan ordered the construction of a large and prestigious mosque in Diyarbakir in 1091, the Umayyad mosque was taken as its model, as shown by the plan balanced between the basilica-shaped prayer hall and the rectangular courtyard.