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Of Sinan Pasha in Cairo

Of Sinan Pasha in Cairo

M. TAREK SWELIM

AN INTERPRETATION OF THE OF SINAN PASHA IN

The mosque ofSinan Pasha was built in 979 (1571-72) at 976 (3 December 1568), he was re-ealled to take com­ the port of Bulaq in Cairo.' It was the fifth major reli­ mand ofa campaign in Yemen to overthrow the Zaydis." gious building erected by the Ottomans after conquer­ Several years later, on 1 Safar 979 (25 June 1571), he was ing in 1517. This study will describe and evaluate appointed todli of Egypt for the second time." This time the architecture, decoration, and socio-religious interac­ he ruled for one year and ten months, until Dhu'I-Hijja, tions of this mosque." 981 (April 1573) ,8 when he was ordered to lead another Sinan Pasha ibn cAli ibn 'Abd al-Rahrnan'' was ofAlba­ campaign against the Spaniards at Halq ai- in Tuni­ nian origin, born around 1520,4 and raised among the sia. In the following year, he commanded a third success­ elite group ofjanissaries, the devshirme. He attained high ful campaign, this one against Georgia." These victories ranks at the Ottoman court and was appointed governor promoted Sinan Pasha to the position of sadr al-a'f,am of many important cities in the empire. On 24 Shafban, (grand vizier), a post he was appointed to five times be­ 975 (23 February 1568), Sinan Pasha became uuili (gover­ tween 1580 and 1595.10 In the same years he led two cam­ nor) ofEgypt," His first tenure was shortlived, lasting for paigns into Hungary and Wallachia.ll only nine and a half months. On 13Jumada al-Akhira, Sinan Pasha died in 1595 at the age of eighty, and was

Fig. 1. Cairo. The mosque ofSinan Pasha. (From the Description det'fgypte, pt. 1 [1809-28], pI. 25) T HE MOSQUE OF SINAN PASHA IN CAIRO 99

Fig. 2. "The Port of Bulaq " by Robert Hay. (From Illustrations oJCairo[London , 1840], pI. 27)

buried in his mausoleum in th e Sofiler quarter of Istan­ (fig. 2)14show that it remained one ofth e maj or bul." He had been a very wealthy man , and in all the at Bulaq to th e end of th e nineteenth cen tury," It was locations over which he had had jurisdi ction, he had partially demolished in 1902 to clear land for a new ordered the construction of mosques and/or commer­ cial buildings, and for each of th em had established waqfs. The mosque of Sinan Pasha at Bulaq was built on th e east bank overlooking th e Nile. An illustrati on in th e Description de l'Egypte (fig. 1) 13 and an other by Robert Hay

Fig. 3. Th e mosqu e of Sinan Pasha. Gro und Plan. (Fro m Ministry of Fig. 4. The mosqu e of Sinan Pasha. Elevation of the southeas tern Waq fs, The Mosques of Egypt) facade . (Fro m Ministry ofWaqfs, The Mosques oj f.gyp t)

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