Author
The construction was supervised by Muhammad bin Bilek al-Muhsani, who was the chief engineer of his time. His name was placed after the Sultan's name on a scroll in the Hanafi school in the building.
Author Original
أشرف على البناء محمد بن بيليك المحسني، وكان كبير مهندسي عصره وقد وضع اسمه بعد اسم السلطان على شريط كتابي في المدرسة الحنفية في المبنى
Publication Date
764 AH / 1362 AD
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;eg;Mon01;16;ar
Library Location
The building is located in Citadel Square, Cairo, Egypt
Date
764 AH / 1362 AD
Notes
This building combines the strength and massiveness of the structure with the delicacy, beauty and diversity of decoration. One of the most prominent features of the building is its northern facade, which is the main facade, extending 145 meters long and 38 meters high. This facade includes various stone and marble decorations, and ends at the top with a luxurious and elegant cornice consisting of six rows of delicate muqarnas that resemble beehives. The façade includes a high entrance, which is considered one of the greatest entrances to Islamic buildings in Egypt. This entrance consists of an arch with a semi-dome ceiling decorated with a wonderful group of multi-row muqarnas. It is influenced by the architecture of the Seljuks (ruled in the period 429-590 AH / 1038-1194 AD), in which the entrances are distinguished from the rest of the building by their abundance of decoration. The eastern facade of the building is topped by two minarets, the oldest of which is the southern minaret, which reaches a height of 81.60 metres. Each minaret consists of a square base surmounted by two octagonal floors in the style of Mamluk minarets. The two minarets were renewed in the twentieth century. The horizontal plan of the polygonal building has an area of 7,906 square meters, and its largest side is 150 meters long and the smallest is 68 meters long. The building was built of stone, and it consists of an open middle courtyard with an ablution fountain in the middle, surrounded by four iwans that form the mosque. In each corner of the building there is a school designated for teaching one of the four schools of jurisprudence. Entrance to the schools is through doors located in the four corners of the iwans. Each school consists of a courtyard with a fountain and an iwan in the middle, and three floors containing student dormitories. The building is influenced by the phenomenon of establishing schools that arose in particular during the era of the Seljuks and Atabeks - such as the Nour al-Din Mahmoud School in Damascus, which served as high-level educational institutions whose goal was to teach jurisprudence in religion according to Sunni doctrines, explore science, and spread Islam. It is noted that the Qibla iwan is the largest iwan in the mosque, and is covered by a pointed vault overlooking the courtyard through an arch that is considered the largest arch on an iwan in Egypt. This iwan contains many masterpieces of Islamic art. Its walls are covered with marble and colored stones, and at the top there is a rare band of plaster decoration, inside which is an inscription band in flowery Kufic script containing Qur’anic verses. The iwan contains a mihrab decorated with multi-colored marble decorations and gilded inscriptions, and it is considered one of the most beautiful mihrabes in Egypt. The building includes a richly decorated shrine in which the builder’s son, Al-Shihab Ahmad (died in 788 AH / 1386 AD), was buried. The shrine is square in shape, with a side length of 21 metres, and is covered by a dome that reaches a height of 48 metres. In this shrine there is a marble mihrab decorated with delicate geometric decorations made of marble mosaics. When Sultan Hassan died in 762 AH / 1361 AD, the building was almost complete except for some complementary works that Bashir al-Jamdar completed after him. These works include the implementation of marble work on the walls and floors, the completion of the dome of the fasqiya in the courtyard in the year 766 AH / 1364 AD, the construction of the two shutters of the large copper door that is now located in the Mosque of Al-Muayyad Sheikh, and the completion of the construction of the shrine in the year 764 AH / 1362 AD.
Sample Text
Tarek Torky “Sultan Hassan Madrasa and Mosque” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;eg;Mon01;16;ar
