Mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun

By the Editors of the Madain Project

This article is a stub as it does not provide effective content depth for the core subject discussed herein. We're still working to expand it, if you'd like to help with it you can request expansion. This tag should be removed, once the article satisfies the content depth criteria.
What is this?

This article extensively replicates or incorporates text from Wikipedia, it should be rewritten to rectify this issue. Once done, this tag should be removed.

The Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun (مسجد أحمد بن طولون), or the Masjid Ibn Ṭūlūn, located in Cairo, Egypt, is one of the oldest mosques in the world.

Use Images Remove Ads

See Location Home > Islamic History, Islamic Archaeology

See Subject Home > Middle East > Egypt > Cairo > Mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun

Overview

The Mosque of Ibn Tulun is not only one of the oldest mosques in Egypt as well as the whole of Africa surviving in its full original form, and is the largest mosque in Cairo in terms of land area. It is built around an open square courtyard which allows natural light to travel through. Ibn Tulun Mosque features ancient architecture styles of Egypt, its decorations being created from carved stucco and wood. This mosque is a popular tourist attraction.

The mosque was commissioned by the Tulunid dynasty ruler Ahmad ibn Tulun, the Abbasid governor of Egypt from 868–884 CE whose rule was characterized by de facto independence. It was designed by the prominent Egyptian architect, Saiid ibn Kateb al-Farghany (سعيد بن كاتب الفرغاني), who was an Orthodox Christian, the same engineer who designed the Nilometer. The historian al-Maqrizi lists the mosque's construction start date as 876 CE, and the mosque's original inscription slab identifies the date of completion as 265 Hijri (circa 878/879 CE).

Architecture

circa 884 CE

The interior arched windows provides natural light against the hollow dome. Each pointed arch has a window and is designed with plain geometric design.

The minaret shows influences from both the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the famous minaret in Samarra. It is built entirely of well-fired red brick, plaster, and carved stucco. Stucco is cement-based plaster that is mixed on-site and applied wet which hardens to a very dense solid. The mosque is also built from this material. The staircase extends up to the tower 170 feet in height.

There are six prayer niches (mihrab) at the mosque, five of which are flat as opposed to the main concave niche. It indicates the qibla which the profession of faith inscripted in Kufic calligraphy.

Gallery Want to use our images?

Panoramas

References

"Ibn Tulun Mosque Restoration". archnet.org.
Verde, Tom (2012). "The Point of the Arch". Saudi Aramco World. Vol. 63, no. 3. Aramco Services Company. pp. 34–43. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
al-Maqrīzī, Khiṭaṭ, II, pp. 265 ff.
R.G. 'John' Gayer-Anderson Pasha. "Legends of the House of the Cretan Woman." Cairo and New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2001. pp. 33–34. and Nicholas Warner. "Guide to the Gayer-Anderson Museum in Cairo." Cairo: Press of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, 2003.
Shafa'i, F., Al-'Emara al-'Arabiya fi Misr al-Islamiya [Arab Architecture in Islamic Egypt], Cairo, 1983.
Swellam, M., “The Mosque of Ibn Tulun: A New Perspective”, MA thesis, Harvard / Cambridge Universities.
Yeomans, Richard (2006). The Art & Architecture Of Islamic Cairo. 8 Southern Court; South Street Reading RG1 4QS, UK: Garnet publishing Limited. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-85964-154-5.
Behrens-Abouseif, Doris (1989). "Early Islamic Architecture in Cairo". Islamic Architecture in Cairo: an Introduction. Cairo: American University in Cairo.
Flury, S., “Samara und die Ornamentik des Moschee des Ibn Tulun”, Der Islam, No. 4, 1913, pp.421–32.
Gottheil, Richard J. H. (1910). "The Origin and History of the Minaret". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 30 (2): 132–154. doi:10.2307/3087601. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 3087601.
Daqmaq, Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Masri (d. 797 / 1395), Al-Intisar li-Wasita 'iqdal-Amsar, Cairo, 1896.
"A majestic mosque in Cairo". Apollo Magazine. 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
'Akush, M., Tarikh wa Wasf al-Jami' al-Tuluni [History and the Description of the Tulunid Mosque], Cairo, 1922.
Williams, C., Islamic Monuments in Cairo: the Practical Guide, Cairo, 2002, pp.46–9.
Tillier, Mathieu (2015-01-14). ">L'étoile, la chaîne et le Jugement. Essai d'interprétation d'un élément de décor dans la mosquée d'Ibn Ṭūlūn" (PDF). Der Islam. 92 (2). doi:10.1515/islam-2015-0012. ISSN 1613-0928.
Tarek Torky "Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2022. 2022.
Abd al-Wahab, H., “Al-Jami' al-Tuluni [The Tulunid Mosque]”, Majalat al-'Imara [Journal of Architecture], Vol. 2: 12.
Creswell, K. A. C., The Muslim Architecture of Egypt, Vol. II, Oxford, 1952.
Warner, Nicholas (2005). The Monuments of Historic Cairo: a map and descriptive catalogue. Cairo: American University in Cairo.

Mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun

Contents Hide/Show

Remove Ads

Cite this article

Want to use our images?

Overview

Architecture

Gallery Want to use our images?

Panoramas

See Also

References

Let's bring some history to your inbox