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Interior of Alabaster Mosque
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  • Sultan Hassan Madrassa and Mosque

This is one of the extraordinarily wonderful Islamic Monuments In the Islamic World. If Ancient Egypt is proud of the Pyramids of Giza, Islamic Egypt has to be proud of the Sultan Hassan Madrassa.

 

The founder of this gigantic monument is the Sultan Hassan, son of the great Mamluke Sultan Al-Nasser Mohamed Ibn Qalawoun.

 

Sultan Hassan ruled twice, the first time in 1347, when he was 13 years old, only to be dethroned by the other Mamluke princes and generals. The second time was in 1356A.D, and before he had time to put an end to the power of the princes and high officials, they revolted against him, and the chief of the army with other generals attacked him. It said that he escaped from the Citadel and hid in Cairo; but he was found and imprisoned, never to be seen again! Most probably he was murdered 16 years after his ascension to the throne. Either way, he left 10 sons and 6 daughters.

 

The Sultan Hassan gave order for the construction of this Madrassa to be under the supervision of Prince Mohamed Ibn Baylik Al-Muhssani in 1361A.D, and the work continued for 4 years.

The Mosque was almost complete when Sultan Hassan disappeared or was killed. It was finished by one of his functionaries whose name was Bashir Al-Gamdar.

 

The site of the Madrassa was previously known as Souk Al-Khayl or the Horses Market. The Madrassa was built of stones, but some internal parts and details were built of bricks, faced with stones.

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  • Mosque of Ahmed Ibn Tulun

Ahmed Ibn Tulun  born about 835 A.D, he is one of the Turkish commanders in Samarra in Iraqu. He receives his military and theological training in Samarra and Tarsus .His intelligence and courage attracted the attention of the Khalif and in 868 A.D he made proxy for his step-father Bakabak's governorship of Egypt.

Ahmed Ibn Tulun founded a new Capital called Alqatai around the hill of Gabal Yashkur, to the NE of Al Fustat, razing the Christian and the Jewish cemetery that was located in that area.

 

The site chosen for his mosque was an outcrop of rock called Gabal Yashkur. Is It situated in sharia Al Saliba.

 

1-It is the oldest intact functioning Islamic monument in Cairo. It is considered the 3rd mosque which was constructed for the whole community or the congregation joined together for the Friday noon prayer.

 

2- It is also rare preserved example of the art and the architecture of the classical period of Islam.It is one of the biggest mosques in Egypt.

 

The mosque together with the ziyada occupies an area of 6.5 acres.

 

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Mosque of Amr Ibn Al-As is the first mosque built in Egypt and Africa and It was constructed by Amr Ibn Al-As in 642 AD.Amr was the Arab general who conquest Egypt to fight against the Roman and He was hailed by the Copts as a liberator. Then he was appointed governor by the Caliph. Amr founded a new capital instead of Alexandria, and that was Al Fustat.

 

In he center of Al Futat was the mosque which later on was named " The Mosque of Amr" It was surrounded by the plans and houses of Al Fustat. Originally the mosque was overlooking the Nile from the Northwest side .

 

In 1906 during the reign of khedive Abbas Helmy II, the mosque was restored entirely. These works were achieved by the Arab Antiquities Preservation committee.

 

One of the most remarkable facts about that mosque, that it was not only a place for prayer but also a very important kind of university 600 years before the foundation of Al Azhar mosque in Cairo. It was the place where lesson circles and religious lectures were held. One of the most important Religious professors and Imams who taught in this mosque, was the Mohamed Ibn Idris Al Shafi'.Finally we should mention that in the Western addition (Ziada) there was used as a court of low and many trials of law were held

 

  • Mosque of Amr Ibn Al As

Islamic Cairo is a part of central Cairo noted for its historically important mosques and other Islamic monuments.

 

It is overlooked by the Cairo Citadel.Islamic Cairo, also referred to as Medieval Cairo or Fatimid Cairo, was founded in 969 as the royal enclosure for the Fatimid caliphs, while the actual economic and administrative capital was in nearby Fustat. Fustat was established by Arab military commander 'Amr ibn al-'As following the conquest of Egypt in 641, and took over as the capital which previously was located in Alexandria. Al-Askar, located in what is now Old Cairo, was the capital of Egypt from 750 to 868. Ahmad ibn Tulun established Al-Qatta'i as the new capital of Egypt, and remained the capital until 905, when the Fustat once again became the capital. After Fustat was destroyed in 1168/1169 to prevent its capture by the Crusaders, the administrative capital of Egypt moved to Cairo, where it has remained ever since. It took four years for the General Jawhar Al Sikilli (the Sicilian) to build Cairo and for the Fatimid Calif Al Muizz to leave his old Mahdia in Tunisia and settle in the new Capital of Fatimids in Egypt.

 

After Memphis, Heliopolis, Giza and the Byzantine fortress of Babylon-in-Egypt, Fustat was a new city built as a military garrison for Arab troops. It was the closest central location to Arabia that was accessible to the Nile. Fustat became a regional center of Islam during the Umayyad period. It was where the Umayyad ruler, Marwan II, made his last stand against the Abbasids.Later, during the Fatimid era, Al-Qahira (Cairo) was officially founded in 969 as an imperial capital just to the north of Fustat. Over the centuries, Cairo grew to absorb other local cities such as Fustat, but the year 969 is considered the "founding year" of the modern city.In 1250, the slave soldiers or Mamluks seized Egypt and ruled from their capital at Cairo until 1517, when they were defeated by the Ottomans. By the 16th century, Cairo had high-rise apartment buildings where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants.

 

Napoleon's French army briefly occupied Egypt from 1798 to 1801, after which an Albanian officer in the Ottoman army named Muhammad Ali Pasha made Cairo the capital of an independent empire that lasted from 1805 to 1882. The city then came under British control until Egypt was granted its independence in 1922.

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Construction work of the ancient Mosque of Al Hakim started in the year 990 AD with a decision from the Fatimid Caliph "Al Aziz be Allah Ibn Al Muiz le Din Allah" and the mosque was completed in 1012 during the reign of Al Hakim Be'amr Allah, the third Fatimid ruler in Egypt.

 

The mosque of Al Hakim is the second largest Fatimid Mosque in Egypt and its design is similar to that of the mosque of Ahmed Ibn Tolon. The mosque was mainly built out of brick other than the two unique minarets that were built out of stone.

 

The mosque of Al Hakim is famous for three main architectural characteristics.

The first is the memorial entrance with its huge size and fabulous decorations. This entrance is the first of its kind to be built in Egypt and there isn’t any other mosque entrances that can be compared to it except the one of Al Mahdeya Mosque in Tunisia.

The second beautiful architectural aspects of this mosque is its wide white marble floor that reflects the mosque itself from inside.

.The thirs is that the mosque is it's uniquely designed two minarets which are located at the North and South corners of its western entrance. They are the oldest surviving minarets in Egypt.  

 

  • Mosque of Al Hakim

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  • Al Azhar Mosque

Al-Mu‘izz li-Dīn Allāh of the Fatimid Caliphate commissioned its construction for the newly established capital city in 970.

 

Its name is usually thought to allude to the Islamic prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatimah, a revered figure in Islam who was given the title az-Zahrā′ ("the shining one").

It was the first mosque established in Cairo, a city that has since gained the nickname "the city of a thousand minarets."

 

After its dedication in 972, and with the hiring by mosque authorities of 35 scholars in 989, the mosque slowly developed into what is today the second oldest continuously run university in the world after Al Karaouine.

Al-Azhar University has long been regarded as the foremost institution in the Islamic world for the study of Sunni theology and sharia, or Islamic law. 

 

The university, integrated within the mosque as part of a mosque school since its inception, was nationalized and officially designated an independent university in 1961, following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.

 

Also the mosque has a wonderful park which makes it a green oasis in the crowded city of Cairo.

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  • The Citadel of Saladin

The Saladin Citadel of Cairo  is a medieval Islamic fortification in Cairo, Egypt. The location, on Mokattam hill near the center of Cairo, was once famous for its fresh breeze and grand views of the city. It is now a preserved historic site, with mosques and museums.

 

The Citadel was fortified by the Ayyubid ruler Salah al-Din (Saladin) between 1176 and 1183 CE, to protect it from the Crusaders. Only a few years after defeating the Fatimid Caliphate, Saladin set out to build a wall that would surround both Cairo and Fustat. Saladin is recorded as saying, "With a wall I will make the two [cities of Cairo and Fustat] into a unique whole, so that one army may defend them both; and I believe it is good to encircle them with a single wall from the bank of the Nile to the bank of the Nile." The Citadel would be the centerpiece of the wall. Built on a promontory beneath the Muqattam Hills, a setting that made it difficult to attack, the efficacy of the Citadel's location is further demonstrated by the fact that it remained the heart of Egyptian government until the 19th century The citadel stopped being the seat of government when Egypt's ruler, Khedive Ismail, moved to his newly built Abdin Palace in the Ismailiya neighborhood in the 1860s. While the Citadel was completed in 1183–1184, the wall Saladin had envisioned was still under construction in 1238, long after his death.

To supply water to the Citadel, Saladin built the 280 feet (85 m) deep Well of Joseph (so-called because Saladin's birth name, Yūsif, is the Arabic equivalent of Joseph), which can still be seen today. This well is also known as the Well of the Spiral because its entrance consisted of 300 stairs that wound around the inside of the well.

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The mosque was built in memory of Tusun Pasha, the oldest sun of Mohammed Ali who died in 1816.

 

Though certainly not one of the  most ancient mosques in Cairo, nor even one of the most historic, because of its grandeur and its location in the Citadel, the Moque of Muhammad Ali is the most popular islamic mosque among tourists.

 

It is also reffered sometimes as the Alabaster Mosque. 

 

  • Mosque of Muhammad Ali

The Muhammad Ali's Mosque is built on the summit of the Citadel, is the largest to be built in the first half of the 19th century.

 

Is,with its animated silhouette and twin minatetes the most visible mosque in Cairo.

Bayt Al-Suhaymi is an old Ottoman era house museum in Cairo, Egypt. It was originally built in 1648 by Abdel Wahab el Tablawy along the Darb al-Asfar, a very prestigious and expensive part of Medieval Cairo. In 1796 it was purchased by Sheikh Ahmed as-Suhaymi whose family held it for several subsequent generations. The Sheikh greatly extended the house from its original through incorporating neighbouring houses into its structure.

The house is built around a sahn in the centre of which there is a small garden with plants and palm trees. From here several of the fine mashrabiya windows in the house can be seen. Today the house is a museum which foreign visitors can tour for 35 Egyptian pounds (15 for students). Much of the marble floor work, wooden furniture, and ceiling decor is still intact

  • House of Suhaymi

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Old Islamic Cairo | Mui'z Street | Travel Egypt Tours
  • Mui'z Street

El Mui'z Li Din Allah was once the principal street in Cairo. It is named after the Fatimid Caliph who conquered Cairo in 969 AD and who was responsible for much of Cairo's building programs at that time. El Mui'z Street was the main route of this period. Back then, people would access the road through Bab Zuweila in the south and exit through Bab El Futuh in the north. Over the centuries many buildings have been constructed on this street. Of course, it is no longer a central street in Cairo. It is very narrow these days in comparison with more modern avenues, but it is nevertheless one of the most historical, representing Cairo's largest open-air museum of Islamic and medieval monuments.

El Mui'z Street still starts out at Bab Zuweila, the only remaining gate of the southern walls of Fatimid, Cairo
Bab Zuweila was also called Bab Al Mutawali, which can be translated as the "gate of the responsible" because the individual responsible for communicating the problems of the people to the Caliph sat beside this gate. Next to Bab Zuweila there is the Mosque of Sultan Mu'ayyad, which was built in 1415. 

Just beside the Khan El Khalili is the entrance to the other part of El Mui'z Street. It starts with Al Sagha, which means 'the gold sellers'. There are many gold and silver shops at the beginning of this part of the street. You can buy wonderful gifts there at the best prices. There are also many spice and perfume dealers, as well as the traditional gift shops that sell papyrus, gifts, shishas and other kinds of souvenirs.

A few steps after these shops, you is the area of Bein El Qasrein. The word means "between the two palaces". These two palaces used to exist 600 years ago, facing each other and opening on a public square that was the center of Fatimid, Cairo, founded in 969 AD. Other dynasties replaced the buildings of the street with buildings of their own but the street remained reserved for grand buildings.

The western side of Bein El Qasrein has the spectacular facades belonging primarily to three early Mamluk complexes. The most southerly is the Madrasa and Mausoleum of Sultan Qalawun and it is the oldest of the three, being completed in 1279. Three hundred prisoners worked in the construction of the complex, which was completed in 13 months. There is a dark corridor that goes from the Madrasa to the Mausoleum, which is one of the most stunning interiors in Cairo.

The Qalawun complex is undergoing restorations and it will be ready for visits in a few months. However, its view from outside is amazing with all the Islamic decorations on the walls and the minarets of the complex. There are verses of the Quran carved on its walls. They are still in good enough shape to read them.

Continuing north and adjoining the Qalawun complex, is the less expansive faade of the Madrasa and Mausoleum of Sultan Al Nasser Mohamed. It was built between 1299 and 1304 by a sultan who was forced to leave his throne twice. He was able to regain power in both cases and he ruled for a total of 42 years. During this time he built around 200 buildings, all over Cairo. The most famous among them is his mosque in the Citadel. However, his monument in the Mui'z Street is in ill repair and is in the process of being restored. However, the North African style minaret is a wonderful sight to see.

Going north there is the Madrasa of Sultan Barquq, which was built around the year 1384 to 1386. The Madrasa looks similar to a mosque from the outside. It was a school for teaching Islamic law. The most interesting thing in this complex are the four doors which are covered with bronze. There is also the fascinating mausoleum building that looks like an ornate jewelry box. Sultan Barquq wasnt buried there, but his daughter was. He was buried in the north cemetery.

The Bein El Qasrein area is very famous worldwide. Naghuib Mahfouz, the famous Egyptian author who won the noble literature prize in 1988, used to live in this area. Most of his writings were inspired by the place. The first novel of the Cairo Trilogy, the most famous Egyptian novels, was even called Bein El Qasrein after this area

Continue to the north, on the right is the Beshtak Palace of Qaser Beshtak. It can easily be missed from the outside because it is only a two story building with some mashrabeya windows. However, there is a narrow lane right to the house that enters a beautiful Islamic reception. Beshtak was a powerful prince who married the daughter of the Caliph and had great wealth and influence. His palace, which was built in 1334, was the host for many great parties and ceremonies. The house contained five stories but only two remain. The second floor is a roof now and it has a wonderful panoramic view of Islamic Cairo with all its minarets and buildings. The Beshtak palace is in a period of restoration now, just as many of the monuments of the Mui'z Street.

Moving along, in the middle of the street there is the Sabil and Kuttab of Abdel Katkhuda. Islamic Cairo has many dotted odd shaped buildings that look like huge windows. These buildings are 'sabils', or fountains of fresh water. Copper cups were placed next to these fountains so that the people would come and take their supply of water. Wealthy people used to build sabils to make the people love them, and they believed they would become closer to God by helping others. The second floor of the sabil was usually used as a kuttab, a place to teach Quran and Islamic subjects. This sabil was built in the year 1744 and it is being restored along with Qaser Beshtak, which is usually associated with it.

Going north again, is the Mosque of Al Aqmar on the right. This mosque is also called the 'grey mosque' because of the color of its walls. The mosque was built in 1125 by one of the last Fatimid caliphs. It is well known and famous as the oldest stone built mosque in Egypt. The decorations of the mosque are remarkable. Different geometric shapes and verses from the Quran are carved into the stone.

Walking along the street, there is Darb Al Asfar Lane. This lane is famous for two reasons. First, it will take you to the Khan El Khalili market very fast and easily. Second, it hosts the amazing house of Suhaymi, a very good example of how a wealthy family used to live in Old Islamic Cairo. The house is a two store building full of beautiful decorations in the Islamic style.

To the left of Darb Al Asfar, there are the remarkable mosque and sabil of Soliman Al Selhdar which was built in 1839. It also contains a madrasa. This mosque is remarkable because it is unlike any other mosque in the area. It was designed in the Turkish style, apparent by the pencil shaped minaret of the Mosque. It doesnt have a lot of decorations, which is unlike many of the other mosques of the area.
Further on Al Mui'z Street, there is the garlic and onion market. There are many garlic shops in the area and it is famous for this kind of trade. At the end of this market, there is the Mosque of Al Hakim Be'amr Allah, the third Fatimid Caliph. He ruled when he was only eleven years old and had his tutor murdered when he was fifteen. He is famous for his strange actions and violence. He even ordered shoemakers to stop manufacturing shoes for women to prohibit them from leaving their homes or walking in the street. This mosque was actually built by his father by Al Hakim, completed in 1013, and was used as a prison for crusaders in the period of Mohamed Ali. It was restored in the 1980's and is now a good example of the Islamic art of the period.

The exciting walk in Al Mui'z Le Din Allah Street ends with the northern walls and gates, including Bab El Naser, Gate of Victory, and Bab El Futuah, Gate of Conquests. They were both built in 1087 and were enlarged by Salah El Din Al Ayouby. It is possible to walk on the walls and near these gates by jumping from the roof of Mosque of Al Hakim and then to the walls. These gates demonstrate a great example of how Cairo was protected in the Fatimid period.

 

Walking in the Mui'z Street is like walking through the history of Islamic Egypt. The street is full of Islamic monuments. You can pass through the streets, view the monuments from outside, and enter the ones you feel attracted to. People in this area are quick to help you with anything. After this appealing walk in Mui'z Street, it is great to freshen up in the Fishawy Caf, the most famous caf in Khan El Khalili. This area of Cairo is unique and always enjoyable. You won't find any place like it in all of Egypt.

 

Old Islamic Cairo | Mui'z Street | Travel Egypt Tours
Old Islamic Cairo | Mui'z Street | Travel Egypt Tours
Old Islamic Cairo | El Aqmar Mosque | Travel Egypt Tours
Ahmed Ibn Tulun Mosque
Sultan Hasan Mosque
Citadel of Saladin
Al Azhar Mosque
House of Suhaymi
Al Hakim Mosque
Amr Ibn Al As Mosque
Mui'z Street

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