Cairo's Al Rifa'i Mosque
Islamic architectural style that these mosques were built in makes them almost homogenous and this has also made them feature in many movies. Nowadays they are tourist attractions with high wall ace windows reflecting light creating a sparkling sight when viewed from afar.
The Rifa'i Mosque is situated beside Sultan Salah al-Din al-Ayoubi Citadel which is located in Khalifa City to the south of Cairo, and the latter has cast the history of its construction and origin of its name, after Imam Ahmed al-Rifai who was born in Al-Hejaz, then went to Iraq and then settled down in Egypt; thus all those who are lucky enough to visit this mosque get amazed by the magnificent decorations on its engravings on the outer walls and huge columns at its main entrance.
The question of why Khushiyar Hanim, the mother of Khedive Ismail, chose this corner and its buildings in 1869 called Zawya al-Rifai near Salah al-Din Square in the Citadel as the resting place for some members of Muhammad Ali family including grandson King Farouk, who happened to also be Egypt’s last king and son of King Fouad who was Khedive Ismail’s son, remains a mystery to everyone.
The construction came to a halt when Khushiyar Hanim died in 1885 but resumed after a period of twenty-five years upon an order from Khedive Abbas Helmi II when it was opened for prayer on the first day of Muharram in 1330 AH /1912 AD.
The mosque has the tombs of Sheikhs Ali Abu Shabak and Yahya Al-Ansari, as well as the tombs of the royal family, where Khedive Ismail, his mother Khushiyar Hanim, interred there are King Fuad I, King Farouk I, Sultan Hussein Kamel and his wife, and the mosque's founder.
The site of the mosque was formerly “Zawiya al-Rifai”, in which Sheikh Ali Abi Shabak al-Rifai is buried, and his tomb is still in the mosque, from which the mosque took its name. The mosque is currently located in Salah al-Din Square in the Khalifa neighborhood of Cairo's Southern District.
In the opinion of an artist, this is simply decoration to divide up the geometric spaces, but it’s a fact that they happened to be present. For instance, large crosses formed on facades of high-rise mosque can only be architecturally modeled after Gothic windows while ideating their shapes architecturally, however from structural perspective they point to load-bearing principles particularly considering the exceptional height of its outer walls.
Moreover, the Gothic windows – which by their nature relate to load distribution theory – especially bear on these particularly large external wall heights showing how Egyptian tastes had accepted them. Their importance in Islamic architecture has long been known since there are finding such figures at times ‘crowned’ columns as depicted at Nasser Muhammad’s Mosque situated within Citadel surrounded by ancient building materials reflecting on its composition.
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