Sultan az Zahir Baibars Mosque
The mosque of Sultan az-Zahir Baibars ( Arabic جامع السلطان الظاهر بيبرس, DMG Ǧāmiʿ as-Sulṭān aẓ-Ẓāhir Baibars ) was built from 1267 to 1269 by as-Zahir Baibars I in Cairo . It was the first Friday mosque to be built in Cairo in almost a hundred years.
The mosque is located in the northern suburb of Husainiyya, some distance from what was then the center of the city. The reason for choosing this location is unknown, especially since the area was only later populated according to historical texts. According to inscriptions on the building, it was started in January 1267. However, the historian al-Maqrizi gives August / September 1268 to June 1269 as the construction period.
The building forms a square about a hundred meters. The outer walls are 12 m high and topped with a series of step-shaped battlements. Inside the mosque there is a large courtyard around which porticoes are arranged. There are three entrances, with the main entrance being in the northwest, facing away from the city. It is 11.8 m wide and has its own gate that protrudes 8.8 m from the facade. In the south-east, across from the main entrance, there was a dome that is no longer preserved today. It is said to have been built from material that was captured during a successful campaign against the Crusaders in Jaffa .
The mosque is now only preserved as a ruin, so that its once rich furnishings can no longer be traced.
literature
- Doris Behrens-Abouseif: Cairo of the Mamluks , London 2007, pp. 121-126, ISBN 978-1-84511-549-4
Web links
Coordinates: 30 ° 3 '44.2 " N , 31 ° 15' 48.3" E