The White Mosque is an ancient Ummayad mosque in the city of Ramla, Israel. Only the minaret is still standing. According to local Islamic tradition, the northwest section of the mosque contained the shrine of a famous Islamic saint, Nabi Salih.The minaret is also known as the Tower of the Forty Martyrs. Muslim tradition dating back to 1467 claims that forty of the prophet Muhammads companions were buried in the mosque, which erroneously influenced a Western Christian tradition from the 16th century that the White Mosque was originally a church dedicated to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.HistoryThe mosque was built by the caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik in 715-717, but was completed by his successor Umar II by 720. The mosque itself was constructed of marble, while its courtyard was made of other local stone. Two hundred years later, Al-Muqaddasi described it as follows:ReconstructionAn earthquake in January 1034 destroyed the mosque, "leaving it in a heap of ruins", along with a third of the city. In 1047, Nasir Khusraw reported that the mosque had been rebuilt.After the initial construction Ilyas Ibn Abd Allah supervised the second phase design of the western enclosure wall and the central ablutions building for Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Saladin) in 1190 CE. The third phase, in 1267-1268, began after the Crusader occupation was terminated. On the orders of the Mamluk sultan al-Zahir Baybars rededicated as a mosque and was modified by incorporating the dome, placing a new pulpit and prayer niche and adding the minaret. The sultan Muhammad al-Nasir Ibn Qalawun renovated the minaret after an earthquake in October 1318.