Al Azhar Mosque

• 16 / 5 / 2023

Details About Al Azhar Mosque

The Al-Azhar Mosque was not called Al-Azhar at the beginning of its construction, but it was known as the Cairo Mosque in reference to the new Fatimid capital, and the name Al-Azhar Mosque occurred late, as historians close to the construction of Cairo, such as Al-Misbahi, Ibn al-Tuwair and Ibn al-Ma'mun, referred to it as the Cairo Mosque, and rarely referred to it as the Al-Azhar Mosque. The Cairo Mosque may have been named Al-Azhar Mosque after Fatima al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet and wife of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, to whom the Fatimids are affiliated, and it was said that it was named so in anticipation of the importance and prestige it would have by the flourishing of science in it.

Imam Al-Aziz Billah (365-386 AH/975-996 AD) took an interest in it and renovated some parts of the southeastern portico (Qibla canopy and its decoration), and Imam Al-Hakim Amrullah (386-411 AH/996-996 AD) took an interest in the construction of the Al-Azhar University. 1021 AD) took care of the architecture of the mosque, renewed its minaret, raised its roof a cubit higher than it was, and a huge wooden door remains from his work, which is currently preserved in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, and arranged for it in 400 AH/1009 AD, along with some other Fatimid facilities, endowments to be spent from its revenues on its administration and affairs, which was the first endowment arranged for the Al-Azhar Mosque.

The Fatimid mosque, built by Commander Gohar al-Sicilian, consisted of a rectangle measuring 70 x 88 m2, consisting of a rectangular celestial nave surrounded by three canopies on three sides only. Since the width of the mihrab portico is not equal to the width of the basement, the architect had to narrow it where it meets the axis with additional columns to create a square that holds the dome of the mihrab.

Pointed arches were used to raise the roof of the First Fatimid Mosque, similar to the arches used in the Tuluni Mosque, although the pointed arches are more prominent than in the arches of the Tuluni Mosque. Pointed arches have Sassanian origins, with the earliest examples found in the Taq Kisra in Iraq, dating back to the era of King Shapur I (242-272 AD), and the earliest example of them in Islamic architecture found in the façade of the Majaz overlooking the nave of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus in 96H/714 AD.

One of the methods of building inclusive mosques is the multiple niches, a technique found in North Africa, especially those niches that overlook the nave, where those who repeat the takbirs of the imam stand so that worshippers can hear him outside the qibla canopy. The oldest examples of these wooden niches were found in the Uqba Mosque in Kairouan, while the oldest known example of multiple niches in the qibla wall was found in the mosque of St. Catherine's Monastery, where there are three niches dating back to the era of Prince Abu al-Mansur Anushtekin who built the mosque between 429 - 433 AH and 437 - 1041 AD of the Fatimid era. 433 AH and 1037-1041 AD of the Fatimid era.

The movable pulpit is a Moroccan influence that appeared in the Zaytuna Mosque in Tunis, the Sfax Mosque, and the Monastir Mosque. The Mamluk era is considered one of the most prosperous and best eras in which Al-Azhar lived, as the Mamluk rulers raced to take care of Al-Azhar, students, elders and architecture, and expanded spending on it, attention and even adding to its architectural structure.

In the Ottoman era, the Ottoman sultans showed great respect for the mosque and its people, despite its resistance to them and standing with the Mamluks during their war with the Ottomans, but this respect was not practically translated in the form of care and attention to its architecture or spending on its sheikhs and students. 

However, during this period, the mosque became the best place for all Egyptians to learn science and religious knowledge, and it became the center of the largest gathering of Egyptian scholars and began to teach some of the sciences of philosophy and logic for the first time.

Throughout the ages, from its inception to the present time, Al-Azhar Mosque has enjoyed the attention of caliphs, sultans, princes and rulers to its architecture in terms of expansion, construction and restoration, especially the Mamluk era, the last of which was the comprehensive restoration work that was completed in 1439 AH / 2018 AD, which lasted about three years, with an area of approximately 12 thousand square meters.