The Mosque of Sultan Hasan
(1356-61 AD), pt. 2

May 29, 2006

As will hopefully be my practice throughout the following two months, I am going to follow up my visits to sites in Islamic Cairo with a translation of what al-Maqrizi has to say about these sites in his Khitat.

The Mosque of Sultan Hasan

This congregational mosque is known as the Madrasah of Sultan Hasan. It faces the Citadel and is located between the Citadel and the Elephant Pond. Its place used to be the house of the prince Yalbagha al-Yahyawi, which has already been mentioned in the chapter on residences.

The Sultan began this building in the year 756 AH. He made spacious the site and executed it with the largest scaffolding, the best array, and the hugest form, so that there is not known in an Islamic country a place of worship that resembles this congregational mosque.

It was put up in the course of three years, not one single day being wasted. He procured for its expenses each day 20 thousand dirhams, which is something like 1 thousand mithkals of gold. One person reported that he heard Sultan Hasan say that he expended upon the scaffolding on which he built the arch of the large iwan 100 thousand dirhams. This scaffolding was part of what was thrown onto the refuse dump after the completion of the arch just mentioned. This person continued: I heard the Sultan say: If it were not that people would say the King of Egypt lacked strength to complete the building he began, then I would leave off from building this congregational mosque because of the large amount spent upon it.

Inside this congregational mosque are wonders of construction, among them being that the height of the large iwan is 65 cubits. It is said that it is 5 cubits larger than the iwan Kusra which is in the city of Mada'in in Iraq. Among the wonders is also the great domed mausoleum, the likes of which has not been built in Egypt or Syria or Iraq or Maghreb or Yemen. Among its wonders is the marble minbar [pulpit] which has no peer. Among its wonders are also the great doors and the four madaris [schools] which are in the rooms of the courtyard of the congregational mosque.. and there are more wonders..

The Sultan had decided to build four minarets upon which the call to prayer would go out. He had completed three minarets when arrived Saturday, the sixth day of the month of Rabi' al-Akhar in the year 762 AH, at which point the minaret which was over the gate fell and killed underneath it about 300 orphans who were in line at the sabil [public fountain] and some who were not orphans. Six children from among the orphans were unharmed. So the Sultan cancelled the building of this minaret and the building of the fourth as well. Two minarets remain there, standing until today. [I skip some lines of poetry on this event]

The assassination of the Sultan unexpectedly occurred 33 days after the fall of the minaret. The Sultan died before the marble of the congregational mosque had been completed, so one who came after him completed it. The Sultan made for this congregational mosque very large number of waqfs [properties dedicated to support of institution]... [2:316]

The account goes on to relate some later events connected to the mosque, but these are the principal facts. Those two minarets stills stand, remaining after the tragic fall of the third while under construction, and can be seen in the photo from the blog on May 27.