Al-Aqmar Mosque El-Gamaleya Cairo Egypt

Al-Aqmar mosque is located on al-Muizz Street, and was commissioned by the Fatimid Caliph al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah in 519 AH/ 1125 AD. The mosque’s construction was supervised by the Vizier al-Ma’mun al-Bata’ihi, and it was renewed during the reign of Sultan Barquq in 799 AH/ 1397 AD under the supervision of Prince Yalbugha al-Salmi.

The main façade of the mosque is presently one of the oldest surviving stone façades in Egypt. Its architecture is characterized by its intricate stone carvings and the repetition of the phrase “Muhammad and Ali”, in addition to Qur’anic verses written in the Kufic script. The engineer’s ingenuity is most manifest in his ability to orient the façade to the direction of the street and maintain the direction of prayer inside the mosque.

When the Coptic Museum was built in the twentieth century, its façade was inspired by al-Aqmar Mosque’s architecture, but with Biblical

verses and Christian iconography. The mosque consists of an open courtyard at its center surrounded by four riwaqs (arcades) topped by shallow domes, the largest of which marks the qibla, the direction of prayer. An inscription above the mihrab (niche in the wall of a mosque marking the direction of prayer) records the renovations that were undertaken by Yalbugha al-Salmi.

Historian Taqi al-Din Ahmed bin Ali al-Maqrizi says, in his book, “Prayers and consideration of el- Ethir in Remembrance of Plans and Effects,” about the reforms that took place in the mosque. When it was in the month of Rajab in the year seven hundred and ninety-nine, the Emir, Minister Field Marshal Al-Astadar, Yalbugha bin Abdullah Al-Salmi, one of the Zahirite Mamluks, renewed it. On the outside of his door in Al-Bahri he built shops topped with dishes, and he renewed in the courtyard of the mosque a nice pool to which the water reaches from a waterwheel, and he made it high from which water descends to those who perform ablution from copper taps, and he set up a pulpit in it.

Al-Aqmar Mosque is considered one of the most beautiful Fatimid mosques and the oldest of the remaining examples of small mosques in Egypt. Perhaps the most prominent of its distinctive features is its western façade, among the oldest stone facades, decorated in this rich varied style, in Islamic architecture in Egypt. Possibly the decorative elements on the façade of the projecting portal of al-Hakim Mosque in Cairo (built AH 403 / AD 1012) influenced the construction and decoration of the entrance to this building. Historical sources indicate that stone was used in Fatimid architecture alongside brick. The great traveller, Nasir Khasraw, who visited Egypt in AH 439 / AD 1048, describes the Fatimid palaces that he saw as having walls of stone that fitted into each other so smoothly that the viewer could imagine that it had been hewn out from one single block of rock. 

On the façade and on the entrance, the decoration has been carved out symmetrically and includes a number of components including shell forms, blind-arched niches borne on spiral columns, in addition to vases, rosettes and diamond shapes. The façade also consists of chamfered-edged niches (muqarnas); a new architectural element to be introduced into Egyptian Islamic architecture, and a device previously seen only on a gate, Bab al-Futuh in Cairo (built AH 480 / AD 1087). The façade is also embellished with inscription bands carved in the floriated kufic script. To the left of the entrance is a minaret that was constructed in AH 799 / AD 1396, built by order of Amir Yalbugha al-Salimi, who was in the service of Sultan al-Zahir Barquq who reigned twice (AH 784–91 / AD 1382– 9 and in AH 792–801 / AD 1390–9). 

The mosque's interior measures 28 m x 17.50 m. At the centre is an open square courtyard whose length at the side is 10 m, and which is surrounded by four roofed areas with rows of columns. The deepest of these is the qibla area, which consists of three colonnades, while there is only one colonnade in each of the other three areas. All the arches of the colonnades are made of brick. The colonnades of the mosque – with the exception of that, which precedes the mihrab – are covered with small shallow domes, built of brick. The transition zones of all the domes consist of spherical-triangular pendentives, a style previously applied in Bab al-Nasr and Bab al-Futuh in Cairo, and both built in the Fatimid period, in around AH 480 / AD 1087. The style was used subsequently in the Mamluk period for the construction of Khanqah Faraj ibn Barquq in Cairo (built AH 813 / AD 1410). The convention of spherical-triangular pendentives became widespread in Ottoman mosques where a number of small domes were used to cover the colonnades. 

One of the most distinguishing aspects of the floor plan of this mosque is its response to the street alignment, which deviates from the direction of the qibla, and where the western façade of the building and the entrance lies. There is, however, a respect for the direction of the qibla, brought about by means of a rectangular cross-section that forms a transition area, since on the outside it faces the street whereas the inside faces the direction of the qibla. This mosque is considered one of the earliest examples in the Islamic world of a building that used a triangular section to adapt to the residential fabric surrounding it. 

The mosque was exposed to encroachments in the AH 13th / AD 19th century, the most prominent of which led to the loss of the right-hand side of the western façade, which was replaced by a residential building. In the 20th century the building that had encroached on the mosque was pulled down. The façade of the mosque was then restored to its original form based on the features of the left-hand side of the façade, which was supposed to be identical to that on the right. 

Location: Aqmar Mosque is located on al-Muizz li Din Allah Street, in the Jamaliyya district. At the time it was built, its location was to the north of the Eastern Fatimid Palace, which is now extinct, Cairo, Egypt .