Kurds pray towards jerusalem
Executive summary
Kurds today who are Muslim pray facing the Kaʿbah in Mecca (the Islamic qibla), not Jerusalem, because Islamic practice changed the qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca in the early Medinan period (second Hijri year) and that remains the normative direction for Muslim prayer [1] [2] [3]. The historical fact that the Prophet Muhammad and early Muslims initially faced Jerusalem for a period explains why some confuse regional or historical practices with contemporary Kurdish worship [1] [4].
1. How the qibla shifted and why it matters to answering the question
Islamic scripture and early Muslim tradition record a commanded change of the qibla—prayer direction—from Bayt al‑Maqdis (Jerusalem) to al‑Masjid al‑Harām (the Sacred Mosque in Mecca) roughly 15–16 months after the Prophet’s migration to Medina, and the community reportedly turned in the middle of congregational prayer when the revelation arrived [1] [2] [4]. These sources establish the doctrinal baseline: the default, obligatory orientation for Muslims worldwide became Mecca, which directly bears on whether Muslim Kurds would pray toward Jerusalem today [3] [5].
2. What those facts imply about Kurdish Muslim practice
Because the qibla for all Muslims was canonicalized toward the Kaʿbah in Mecca following the Qurʾanic revelation, Muslim communities—including Kurdish Muslims—are obliged to orient salat (ritual prayer) toward Mecca; contemporary guidance and mainstream fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) reinforce using the Kaʿbah as the unified focal point for prayer [3] [5]. Sources in this dossier do not discuss Kurdish ethnic practice specifically, but the doctrinal change and its universal application to Muslim prayer provide the necessary link to conclude that Muslim Kurds follow the Mecca qibla rather than Jerusalem [1] [2].
3. Why some people say Muslims once faced Jerusalem (and how that creates confusion)
Primary Islamic narratives and tafsir explain that the Prophet and his followers faced Jerusalem for a period—variously reported as over a year in Mecca and some months in Medina—before the command to face Mecca was revealed, and this episode is explicitly mentioned in Qurʾan 2 and classical tafsir literature, which recounts the mid‑prayer reorientation [1] [4]. That early history is often invoked in popular discussion to suggest lingering traditions or regional exceptions, but the textual record frames the Jerusalem orientation as an earlier stage that was superseded by the Mecca qibla [1] [2].
4. Non‑Muslim practices that involve Jerusalem and why they’re distinct
Jews and many Christians orient their prayer practices toward Jerusalem or eastward for theological and liturgical reasons—Judaism historically focuses on the Temple/Temple Mount and many Christian traditions face east—so statements that “people in the region pray to Jerusalem” can reflect Jewish or Christian practice rather than Muslim Kurdish practice, a distinction emphasized in comparative accounts of liturgical directions [6] [7]. Conflating these separate religious customs with Kurdish Muslim customs leads to factual error when sources fail to distinguish religion from ethnicity [6] [7].
5. Limits of available reporting and a clear verdict
The provided reporting establishes the universal Islamic qibla change to Mecca and documents the earlier Jerusalem orientation but does not include ethnographic or community‑specific reporting about Kurds themselves; therefore, while doctrinally Kurdish Muslims pray toward Mecca, no source here directly surveys Kurdish communities’ contemporary practice, and that gap should be acknowledged [1] [3] [4]. Given the doctrinal evidence, the strongest, evidence‑based answer is that Kurds who are Muslim pray toward Mecca (the Kaʿbah), not Jerusalem, while the historical episode of facing Jerusalem explains the origin of the confusion [1] [2] [3].