Mosque of Ibn Tulun
The Mosque of Ahmad Ibn
Tulun is located in Cairo, Egypt. It is arguably the oldest mosque
in the city surviving in its original form, and is the largest
mosque in Cairo in terms of land area.
The mosque was commissioned
by Ahmad ibn Tulun, the Abbassid governor of Egypt from
868–884 whose rule was characterized by de facto
independence. The historian al-Maqrizi lists the mosque´s
construction start date as 876 AD, and the mosque´s original
inscription slab identifies the date of completion as 265 AH, or
879 AD.
The mosque was constructed
on a small hill called Gebel Yashkur, "The Hill of Thanksgiving."
One local legend says that it is here that Noah´s Ark came to rest
after the Deluge, instead of at Mount Ararat.
The grand ceremonial mosque
was intended as the focal point of Ibn Tulun´s capital, al-Qatta´i,
which served as the center of administration for the Tulunid
dynasty. The mosque originally was backed by ibn Tulun´s palace,
and a door adjacent to the minbar allowed him direct entry to the
mosque. Al-Qatta´i was razed in the early 10th century, AD, and the
mosque is the only surviving structure. The mosque was constructed
in the Samarran style common with Abbassid constructions. The
mosque is constructed around a courtyard, with one covered hall on
each of the four sides, the largest being on the side of the qibla,
or direction to Mecca. The original mosque had its ablution
fountain (sabil) in the area between the inner and outer walls. A
distinctive sabil with a high drum dome was added in the central
courtyard at the end of the thirteenth century by the Sultan
Lajin.
There is significant
controversy over the date of construction of the minaret, which
features a helical outer staircase similar to that of the famous
minaret in Samarra. It is also told that using these stairs one can
climbs up on the horse. Legend has it that ibn Ţūlūn
himself was accidentally responsible for the design of the
structure: supposedly while sitting with his officials, he
absentmindedly wound a piece of parchment around his finger. When
someone asked him what he was doing, he responded, embarrassed,
that he was designing his minaret. Many of the architectural
features, however, point to a later construction, in particular the
way in which the minaret does not connect well with the main mosque
structure, something that would have been averted had the minaret
and mosque been built at the same time. Architectural historian
Doris Behrens-Abouseif asserts that Sultan Lajīn, who restored
the mosque in 1296, was responsible for the construction of the
current minaret.
The mosque has been restored
several times. The first known restoration was in 1177 under orders
of the Fatimid wazir Badr al-Jamālī, who left a second
inscription slab on the mosque, which is noted for containing the
Shī´ī version of the shahada, adding the phrase "And Ali
is the wali of God" after acknowledging the oneness of God and the
prophethood of Muhammad. Sultan Lajīn´s restoration of 1296
added several improvements. The mosque was most recently restored
by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities in 2004.
During the medieval period,
several houses were built up against the outside walls of the
mosque. Most were demolished in 1928 by the Committee for the
Conservation of Arab Monuments, however, two of the oldest and
best-preserved homes were left intact. The "house of the Cretan
woman" (Beit al-Kritliyya) and the Beit Amna bint Salim, were
originally two separate structures, but a bridge at the third floor
level was added at some point, combining them into a single
structure. The house, accessible through the outer walls of the
mosque, is open to the public as the Gayer-Anderson Museum, named
after the British general R.G. ´John´ Gayer-Anderson, who lived
there until 1942.
Parts of the James Bond film
The Spy Who Loved Me were filmed at the Mosque of Ibn Tulun and in
the Gayer-Anderson Museum.
from
Wikipedia
