Publication Date
555 AH / 1160 AD
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;eg;Mon01;35;ar
Library Location
The mosque is located in Bab Zuweila Square (Al-Darb Al-Ahmar neighborhood), facing Bab Zuweila - one of the gates of the southern wall of the Fatimid city of Cairo, meaning it was built outside the city wall, Cairo, Egypt
Date
555 AH / 1160 AD
Notes
This mosque is considered the last mosque established in the Fatimid era in Egypt, and it included architectural features that are rarely found in any other Fatimid mosque. The mosque was built at a height of 4 m from the street level, and shops were placed at its bottom. This type of mosque is called “hanging mosques,” and it is considered the first example of a hanging mosque in Egypt. Shops stood near the mosque, and their proceeds were used to maintain and renovate it. This system of endowment was followed later in the Mamluk era. For example, it is followed in the Al-Ashraf Barsbay Madrasa in Cairo (built in 827 AH / 1424 AD). The mosque has four facades built of stone, and the lower parts of its northern, southern and western facades show the facades of the shops located below it. The main facade of the mosque is its western facade, and it consists of five arches that form the entrance portico that precedes the building. This is an arrangement that appears for the first time in mosques in Egypt, and was adapted from the Abu Fattah Mosque in Sousse in Tunisia (built in 226 AH / 841 AD). The front of the entrance portico was decorated with curves crowned with arches decorated with radiant shell shapes and friezes inscribed with Qur’anic verses written in ornate Kufic script, resembling the decorations of the façade of the Fatimid Al-Aqmar Mosque. The shops are surmounted by a frieze consisting of variously decorated square shapes, the same of which later appeared in the Madrasah of Al-Saleh Najm Al-Din Ayyub (built in 647 AH / 1249 AD) in the Ayyubid era, and this decoration indicates the progress of stone engraving decorations in the Fatimid era. The building is rectangular in shape, its dimensions are 53.50 Roofed surfaces with rows of columns forming porticoes. The most important of these surfaces is the qibla surface, which consists of three corridors with arches supported by marble columns. The edges of the arches were decorated, inside and out, with inscriptions of Qur’anic verses in flowery Kufic script. This decoration previously appeared in the Al-Azhar Mosque and the Al-Aqmar Mosque. There are also modern plaster windows in the qibla wall, which contains the mihrab, surrounded by a plaster frieze in which Quranic verses are written in Kufic calligraphy. The Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo preserves an original plaster window from the ancient mosque. To the right of the mihrab, there is a wooden platform containing geometric inlays grouped with engraved floral decorations. It was the work of the Emir Bektamar in the year 699 AH / 1299 AD during the era of the Mamluk Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Qalawun (he ruled three times in the years 693 - 694 AH / 1294 - 1295 AD, and 698 - 708 AH / 1299 AD). - 1309 AD, and 709 - 741 AH / 1309 - 1340 AD). Some historical sources indicate that Al-Salih Tala’i built this mosque to bury the head of our master Hussein - the grandson of our master Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace. However, the Fatimid Caliph Nasrallah refused and said, “It can only be inside the bright palaces.” The tomb was built inside the Grand Fatimid Palace, and today there are remains of the tomb next to the Mosque of Sayyidina al-Hussein in the Hussein neighborhood in Cairo. The Supreme Council of Antiquities is currently (in 2005 AD) implementing a comprehensive project to restore the mosque.
Sample Text
Tarek Torky “Al-Saleh Tala’i Mosque” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;eg;Mon01;35;ar
