Al-Aqmar Mosque (1125 AD)

June 15, 2006

Perhaps the most famous mosque in Cairo is named al-Azhar ("the flourishing"). A second name for the mosque of al-Hakim was "al-Anwar" ("the Illuminated"). Another mosque located on the medieval Qasaba, or main north-south road through Cairo, has a similar epithet: al-Aqmar (the Moonlit). Like those two larger mosques, it was built during the 200 year long Fatimid reign.. during which time Egypt was ruled by a Shi'a dynasty.. hard to imagine given that Egypt is so strongly Sunni in its orientation today. But there can be no doubt about it: it is right there in stone:

In the center of the medallion are the words: "Muhammad and Ali".. a combination that can only come from a Shi'a.. and which is something of a heresy for Sunnis. But there it is on the front of this mosque!

This pairing can be found elsewhere also, like on the unique corner:

On the top right of this niche is a circle that says "Muhammad".. and then to the left of the niche (and impossible to read in this photo) is another circle that reads "Ali." This decorative space is being used to make a theological point.. and that is something which must be regained for the modern visitor, as otherwise the small mosque simply slips in with all the nearby mosques which come from a later period.

The photo of the corner brings up another point about this mosque. Unlike the mosque of Ibn Tulun or the mosque of al-Hakim, this smaller mosque did not have the luxury of a broad empty space. It needed to fit onto the street. In this case we see architects having to settle an important building on a streetscape, and that leads to certain choices.. such as the decoration of the wall that faces the street, but the leaving blank of a wall that would presumably once have had another building next to it. And so in the photo one can see a decorated front wall giving way to a rather plain side wall.

With the mosque of al-Hakim we noticed the highly decorated monumental portal.. but now it is as if the portal has taken over the entire front of the mosque.. something which is possible in the case of a quite small mosque.

The mihrab and the need for it to face Mecca posed another challenge for streetscape architecture. The visitor enters the mosque, but then has to do a quick shift to get orientated in the right way. When seen from above, the small court of the mosque fits ungainly with the angle of the street, giving the building itself an odd shape.

The inside of the mosque is harder to get excited about.. and in fact there is little of historic value inside. The mihrab at the back is (like the one in the mosque of al-Hakim) entirely of white marble.. Some of the history is given by Doris Behrens-Abouseif, who notes that the mosque was already in ruins by the end of the 14th century, and she goes on:

The mosque was again restored in the nineteenth century during the reign of Muhammad 'Ali by Amir Sulayman Agha al-Silahdar, who also built the mosque across the street from al-Aqmar. [74]

That makes sense: if you are building a new mosque you want to make sure that the one next door is not a dump. Real estate brokers would understand. But the result is a rather modern looking interior.

We can end with the view from the roof of al-Aqmar, looking further down the road at the large mosques still to be visited by this blogger.