|
|
| |
| |
Muhammad Ali Mosque
Ottoman period
(Khedives), 1830-1857
|
| |
The citadel of Cairo was built under the Ayyubid dynasty
between 1176 and 1207, and later extended to become the
residence of the Mamluk and Ottoman pashas. Sultan
al-Nasir Muhammad I (1294-1340) had a mosque as well as
his principal palace built here, and the mosque stands
to this day.
He also commissioned a great aqueduct to bring water
from the Nile and raise it to the citadel by
wheel-powered devices. The second great mosque in the
citadel was commissioned by Muhammad Ali, the Khedive
(viceroy) who reigned in 1805/06 – 1848. The 42 year-old
Pasha of Macedonian origin started the modernization of
Egypt.
His tremendous mosque was located on the site of the old
Sultan’s palace, which had been blown up in 1824 when
the arsenal exploded. The architect Yusuf “the Bosnian”
took his guidelines from the classic Ottoman style, and
accordingly his building consists of two slender
minarets (h. 269 ft; 80 m), a forecourt with water for
ablutions, and the great prayer hall with its mighty
main dome and several smaller domes. The walls are clad
in alabaster, and the window openings are filled in with
thin plates of the same material, hence the building’s
name of the “Alabaster Mosque.” The marble sarcophagus
of Muhammad Ali is on the right of the entrance to the
domed hall.
|
| |
| |
Courtyard with well house |
|
| |
The courtyard of the
Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali is surrounded by
arcades, roofed with 50 small domes, and has three
larger domes over the passageways.
The main entrance to the complex is at the eastern
corner of the northern arcade, and the entrance to the
Mosque is in the middle of the eastern arcade.
The well for purification is at the center of the
courtyard; the projecting edge of its domed roof rests
on eight fluted columns. |
 
|
| |
| |
| |
Domed ceiling of the prayer
hall |
|
| |
The ceiling of the prayer
hall consist of huge, lofty dome , 170 ft (52m) in
height, resting on four pillars, with four semi-domes
around it, and four more smaller domes over the corner
of the hall.
The window gallery with its alabaster panes is directly
below to this domed area.
Skillfully diving it, as if by means of a photoelectric
beam, From the dark space below, where the wall are
covered with alabaster slabs to a height of 36 ft
(11m)The architect Yusuf Bosnak probably took the
inspiration of his design from the example of the 16th
century Ottoman architect Sinan.
|
 
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
