Publication Date
265 AH / 879 AD
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;eg;Mon01;2;ar
Library Location
The Ibn Tulun Mosque is located in a slightly elevated area on Al-Khudairi Street in the Sayyida Zeinab district, Cairo, Egypt
Date
265 AH / 879 AD
Notes
The Mosque of Ibn Tulun is considered the second oldest surviving mosque in Egypt, and the only remaining trace of the city of Al-Qata'i, which was founded in 256 AH / 870 AD as the capital of the Tulunid state in Egypt. The horizontal layout of the mosque is in the form of a square with a side length of 162 metres, and it follows the perpendicular style that was followed in the traditional layout of university mosques in the region. The site of the mosque consists of an open square central courtyard with a side length of 92 metres, with a flood in the middle, as a result of the renovations carried out in the year 696 AH / 1296 AD by the Mamluk Sultan Husam al-Din Lajin (ruled in the period 696 - 698 AH / 1297 - 1299 AD). The court is surrounded by four roofed surfaces with networks of columns whose rows form parallel to the sides. The courtyard has arcades. The largest of these areas is located in the eastern direction (the direction of the Qibla) and consists of five galleries, while the other three areas each consist of two galleries. The mosque is surrounded from the north, south and west by a large wall, leaving between it and the walls of the building an open space called the ziyada. We see the likes of the Samarra Mosque (built in 237 AH / 850 AD) in Iraq and the Mosque of Susa (built in 236 AH / 851 AD) in Tunisia. The Mosque of Ibn Tulun is considered one of the largest mosques in Egypt, with a total area of 26,318 square metres, including increments, and it is built of red brick. The exterior facades of the mosque are crowned with a pediment consisting of unique hollow shapes known as dolls due to their resemblance to abstract human forms. In the upper half of the facades was opened a row of windows with pointed arches, at the corners of which were placed integrated columns resembling those of the Nilometer (built in 247 AH / 861 AD) in Cairo. The number of doors in the walls of the mosque is 19, and they are simple rectangular in shape. The eastern rooftop is considered the most ornate area of the mosque, and contains Tulunid, Fatimid, and Mamluk mihrabs. The arches of the mosque's corridors rest on supports (shoulders) built of red brick, with integrated columns at their corners. This method appeared before in the Samarra Mosque. The rims and insides of the arches of the mosque and the insides of the window arches are decorated with beautiful stucco decorations consisting of intersecting lines with various leafy decorations inside them. The mosque included the most valuable and oldest collection of stucco decorations in Egypt, which are closely related to the decorations of the city of Samarra in Iraq (the capital of the Abbasid state in the period 221 - 279 AH / 836 - 892 AD). The walls of the mosque are surrounded from above by 128 knotted meshes of hollow plaster with interwoven geometric and floral decorations similar to those found in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus (built in 69 AD). AH/714 AD) executed from marble. Studies have shown that only four of them date back to the era of Ibn Tulun because they contain decorations characteristic of that era, consisting of interlocking circles, while the rest are attributed to the Fatimid and Mamluk eras. This group of plaster windows is considered one of the most beautiful features of the building, as each window differs from the other in the design of the decorative units, and it is also the first example of its kind in Egypt. The influence of Samarra in this mosque is evident in its minaret, which was built in the western side, as the minaret’s staircase wraps around its body from the outside and not from the inside as is the practice in most minarets of the Islamic world, and it is a design similar to the design of the minaret of the Samarra Mosque, known as Al-Malwiya. The renovations and additions of Sultan Hussam are considered Al-Din Lajin in the year 696 AH / 1297 AD was the most important and largest of the renovations and additions that took place in the mosque. In 1263 AH / 1847 AD, the mosque was transformed into a shelter for the infirm and the elderly. In the period 1890 - 1918 AD, the mosque was restored and the new buildings were removed. The Supreme Council of Antiquities is currently (in 2005) carrying out a comprehensive restoration of the mosque.
Sample Text
Tarek Torky “Ahmed Ibn Tulun Mosque” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;eg;Mon01;2;ar
