[1] It was originally built as a Byzantine church and was converted into a mosque during the early Islamic era.

The mosque is located at the intersection of the main streets of the Old City of Nablus, along the district's eastern edges.

[citation needed] The site of the Great Mosque was originally a basilica built during the reign of Philip the Arab in 244-249 CE.

[4] It was likely damaged or destroyed by the Samaritans during their raids in 484 and 529, but Emperor Justinian I (reigned from 483-565) had the cathedral restored.

[5] The cathedral was transformed into the Great Mosque of Nablus in the early period of Islamic Arab rule in Palestine, in the 10th-century.