Al-Azhar Mosque: an Architectural Chronicle of Cairo's History

NASSER RABBAT AL-AZHAR MOSQUE: AN ARCHITECTURAL CHRONICLE OF CAIRO'S HISTORY In 1924, Martin Briggs, a British architect who was arions, and annexations of new dependencies and semi embarking on a study of Islamic architecture in Egypt independent institutions that went on until the twen and Palestine, had these words to say about al-Azhar tieth century. The sequence of changes in al-Azhar's Mosque in Cairo: architecture reciprocates and reflects its rise to become the foremost institution of religious learning in Egypt To a European, al-Azhar offers an oriental spectacle, and the concomitant political influence its denizens unparalleled save by the Mecca pilgrimage, where one enjoyed among both the ruling classes and the general may realize at the same time the backwardness of Islam and its tremendous power. Nor does this picturesque population. It also closely follows the fortune of the city scene lose anything by its staging. The dazzling white of Cairo itself in its progress from capital of the self arcades that surround the $al;n with their quaint battle consciously religious Fatimid dynasty to center of the ments silhouetted against the brilliant blue sky, the duster aggressive and expansionist Mamluk military state, to of minarets above them - some bizarre, one at least graceful - all enhance the glow of color presented by the provincial capital of the Ottoman Empire, and finally to many hued robes of the students and their teachers.l contemporary metropolis. By the end of the sixteenth century, if not earlier, To Taha Hussein, the pioneering Egyptian thinker and al-Azhar had reached such a high degree of sanctity educator who came to al-Azhar in 1908 as a young that it was considered Islam's fifth most important blind felliil;, the mosque sparked a totally different feel mosque, after those in Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and ing. He wrote about his impression in the third person, Damascus.4 In the public mind, the mosque was both "It was enough for his bare feet to touch the stone sanctuary and a space for spontaneous acts of civic re paving, and for his face to be caressed by the fresh sistance. Many riots against cruel or foreign rulers breezes in the $al;n to have his heart filled with peace began there or converged in its courtyard, including and hope.,,2 the revolt of the people of the Hussayniyya quarter For a single structure to induce such powerful feel against the rapacious Mamluk amirs in 1785 and the ings a thousand years after its building is surely a sign of uprising against the French occupation in 1798.5 But, vitality. Over the centuries, al-Azhar has played a signif although al-Azhar became the people's assembly place icant role in the cultural, intellectual, and political life par excellence, and although it functioned as an inde of Egypt and the Islamic world generally. Its authority, pendent institution with its shaykhs and students form sometimes rising sometimes ebbing, whether trium ing a self-governing community, its upkeep, expan phant or vanquished, fought for or fought against, has sions, and embellishments were initiated and paid for survived the vicissitudes of history in Islamic Egypt from by Egypt's rulers. In fact, there seems to have been, and the end of the tenth century until today. to a large extent still is, a discernible correlation be The mosque was first built in 970 by Jawhar al-Siqilli, tween the political order in Cairo and the care and the Fatimid general who had conquered Egypt for his attention bestowed on al-Azhar both as a structure and master al-Mucizz li-Din Allah a year earlier. He intended as an educational and religious institution. With a few it to be the Friday mosque for the new city he had exceptions, one can read the intentions of the rulers in founded and named al-Mansuriyya, probably after the the type of work they effected at al-Azhar, or in the earlier Fatimid capital near Qayrawan in Ifriqiya (Tu neglect they showed towards its maintenance. Conse nisia) built by al-Mucizz's father, aI-Man sur (946-53).3 quently the architectural development of al-Azhar can Soon afterward in 972, al-Mucizz himself arrived in be seen as a chronicle of the rise and fall of leaders and Egypt and the mosque underwent a face-lift. This was factions in the religious and political history of the city followed by a succession of expansions, additions, alter- and the country. 46 NASSER RABBAT r ,t(y · '~l' -. ) -J1 } 1/ .- ~~ fJ_, '" '" ,,\, .,\, J .. J\,. j- Fig.!. Al-Azhar mosque. Bab al-Muzayinin (Gate of the Barbers) of Fig. 2. Al-Azhar mosque. Minaret of Qaytbay (1495). cAbd al-Rahman Katkhuda. Mid-eighteenth century. THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOSQUE that the mosque was originally built of brick and was plastered over on several occasions.6 The mosque's original core is now totally enclosed in a On approaching the mosque from the Maydan al cluster of later dependencies and secondary structures Azhar, which was laid out in the late nineteenth century, ranging in date from early in the fourteenth century to the northwestern fa\;ade displays an amalgam of pseudo recent times. The expansion of the mosque could be Mamluk patterns fashionable at the turn of the century. described as following a spiral, that is, new structures Above this fa\;ade, three minarets and one pointed dome grew up around its circumference until they completed a frame the main entrance. They are, from north to south, full circle, then, in the eighteenth century, a new series the minaret and dome of the Madrasa al-Aqbaghawiyya started to the south and east around the older circle. (1339; rebuilt several times), the minaret of Qaytbay These additions continuously changed the mosque's (1495), and the double-finial minaret of Qansuh al perimeter and did not always respect the neighboring Ghuri (1509). The present main entry for al-Azhar is the buildings, especially in the late nineteenth century. They Bab al-Muzayinin (Gate of the Barbers), a double-arched also replaced sections of the mosque's original walls portal built of stone with recessed arches surrounding against which they were built. Consequently, only a tiny the two doors and four panels of stone-cut, floriated portion of the Fatimid western fa\;ade remains; it tells us ornaments with roundels in between. The gate is attri-.

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