The Minarets of Cairo: Islamic Architecture from the Arab Conquest to the End of the Ottoman Period

Minarets have defined Cairo's skyline since its early history: they are one of the most characteristic features of Islamic architecture. In Egypt, where civilizations have manifested themselves through awe-inspiring structures since antiquity, 'a thousand minarets' reveal the impact of Islamic civilization and urban aesthetics. "The Minarets of Cairo" offers an accessible and vivid insight into the religious, historical and architectural significance of the minaret in Cairo from the Arab Conquest, through the Abbasid, Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods. Students and scholars will welcome historian and art historian Doris Behrens-Abouseif's excellent new research and analysis as well as over one hundred illustrated entries for individual minarets, brought to life by Nicholas Warner's masterly architectural drawings and reconstructions. With nearly three hundred illustrations, this beautiful book provides depth and color, displaying to full effect historic Cairo's most impressive monuments.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Acknowledgements Illustration Credits Foreword Note to the Reader Introduction CULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE MINARET Chapter 1: The Call to Prayer (adhan) and the Muezzin Chapter 2: Function and use Chapter 3: Evolution Chapter 4: Placement Chapter 5: Construction and Materials Chapter 6: Architecture and Decoration Chapter 7: Epigraphy Chapter 8: The Minaret Depicted THE HISTORIC MINARETS OF CAIRO Chapter 9: Early History and Formation 1-The Mosque of ?Amr Ibn al-?As 2-The Mosque of Ibn Tulun 879 3-The Azhar Mosque 4-The Mosque of the Caliph al-Hakim bi Amr Allah 1010 5-The Mosque of al-Juyushi 1085 6-The shrine of Abu ’l-Ghadanfar 1157 7-The Ayyubid Minaret at the Shrine of al-Husayn, 1237 8-The Madrasa of al-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub 1245 Chapter 10: The Mamluk Minarets 9-*The Madrasa of Shajar al-Durr 1250 10-The Mosque of al-Zahir Baybars 11-The Madrasa of Fatima Khatun 1284 12-The Complex of Sultan Qalawun 1284-5 13-The Minaret of the Zawiyat al-Hunud 1260-90 14-*The ribat of Shaykh Sulayman al-Rifa?i 1297 15-The Mausoleum of Shaykh al-Baqli 1297 16-The Madrasa of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad 1304 17-The Funerary Complex of Emir Sanjar al-Jawli 1304 18-The Khanqah of Sultan al-Muzaffar Baybars (al-Jashnakir) 1308 19-*The minaret of Princess (Khawand) Zahra mid fourteenth century 20-The Madrasa of Sunqur al-Sa?di (Hasan Sadaqa) 1315 21-The Mosque of al-Nasir Muhammad at the Citadel 1318 22-The Mosque of Emir Bashtak 1336 23-The Khanqah of Emir Qawsun 1336-7 24-The “Southern” Minaret 1330-40’s 25-The Minaret of Emir Aqbugha at the Azhar Mosque 1339 26-The Mosque of Emir Altinbugha al-Maridani 1340 27-The Mausoleum Emir Baydar al-Aydumuri 1346 28-The Mosque of Emir Aqsunqur 1347 29- The Mosque of Emir Manjaq al-Yusufi 1349-50 30-The Mosque and Khanqah of Emir Shaykhu, 1349, 1355 31-The Madrasa of Emir Sarghitmish 1356 32-The Sultaniyya mausoleum 1350s 33-The Mosque of Sultan Hasan 1356 34-The Madrasa of Princess Tatar al-Hijaziyya 1360 35-The Khanqah of Emir Tankizbugha 1362 36-The Madrasa of Sultan Sha?ban’s mother (Umm al-Sultan Sha?ban) 1368-9 37-The Madrasa of Emir Asanbugha 1370 38-The Madrasa of Emir Uljay al-Yusufi 1373 39-The Mosque of Sultan Barquq 1386 40-The Madrasa of Emir Jamal al-Din Mahmud (al-Kurdi) 1395 41-The Mamluk Minaret at the Aqmar Mosque 1397 or 1412 42-*The Madrasa of Emir Sudun Min Zada 1401 43-The Mosque of the khanqah Sultan Faraj Ibn Barquq 1411 44-The Mosque of Emir Qanibay al-Muhammadi 1413 45-The Mosque of Sultan al-Mu’ayyad Shaykh 1419-20 46-The Mosque of Qadi ?Abd al-Basit 1420 47-The Mosque of Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbay 1425 48-The Mosque of Emir Janibak al-Ashrafi 1427 49-The Mosque of Emir Fayruz 1426-7 50-The Mosque of Shaykh ?Ali al-?Imari 1429-8 51-*The Mosque of Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghamri 1440 52- The Mosque of Emir Qaraquja al-Hasani 1442 53- The Mosque of the Mosque of Qanibay al-Jarkasi 1442 54-The Madrasa of the Mosque of Emir Taghribirdi 1444 55-The Mosques of Qadi Yayha Zayn al-Din on the Khalij and at Bulaq1448-9 56-The Madrasa of Sultan Jaqmaq 1451 57-*The Mosque of Jaqmaq at Dayr al-Nahas before 1453 58-The minaret at the Mosque of al-Ruway?i 1440’s-50’s 59-The Minaret at the Mosque of Emir Arghunshah al-Isma?ili 1450s 60- The Mosque of Sultan Inal 1451-4 61-The Mosque of Qadi Yayha at Habbaniyya 1452-3 62- *The Minaret at the Mosque of Emir Husayn 1462 63- The Mosque of Emir Tanam Rasas before 1463 64-* The Mosque of Shaykh (Sidi )Madyan 1465 65-*The Mosque of Emir Qanim al-Tajir 1466 66-The Mosque of Emir Mughulbay Taz 1466 67-The Mosque of Emir Bardabak al-Ashrafi 1468 68-The Mosque of Sultan Qaytbay in the Cemetery 1474 69- The Mosque of Sultan Qaytbay at Qal?at al-Ka

About the Author :
Doris Behrens-Abouseif is the Nasser D. Khalili Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS). She previously taught at the American University in Cairo and the University of Munich. She is widely acknowledged as the pre-eminent scholar on the architecture of Cairo, and a leading specialist in the art and cultural history of the Middle East. She has written a number of books on Islamic art and architecture including Cairo of the Mamluks: A History of Architecture and its Culture (I.B.Tauris), Beauty in Arabic Culture and Egypt's Adjustment to Ottoman Rule. Nicholas Warner is an architect and architectural historian. He trained at Cambridge University and Harvard University and has, since 1992, been involved in a number of projects to preserve sites of historical and archaeological interest in Egypt. His books include Monuments of Historic Cairo: A Map and Descriptive Catalogue and The True Description of Cairo: A Sixteenth-Century Venetian View.

Review :
'The first half of the book where she deals with the adhan, muezzin, function and use and evolution of the various styles will be of value to anyone, Muslim or non-Muslim, who is interested in one of the most ubiquitous of all Muslim 'signs' - the minaret. Professor Behrens-Abouseif's wide-ranging scholarship is reflected in these chapters as they carry the discussion of the role, function, symbolism and history of the minaret far beyond that of Cairo. On the other hand, the second half on the specific minarets of Cairo will establish this book as the basic reference for any future work on Cairo's numerous minarets.' - Jere Bacharach, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Washington; 'Professor Behren's-Abouseif has produced a book that combines her encyclopaedic knowledge of the sources with impressive art-historical expertise. In the introductory chapters [she] has been able to add much new information from the contemporary chronicles that expand the social and political context of the monuments and of those who used them and the way in which they were used. The analysis of the monuments here is sharpened by the extra material she has added in the form of minarets that have disappeared but which are represented in earlier drawings or photography, pinpointing their location and patrons. Equally useful has been her careful combing of the Comite publications for evidence of what is original and what is later restoration.' - Bernard O'Kane, Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the American University in Cairo; 'Professor Behrens-Abouseif's The Minarets of Cairo - is a remarkable work, combining architectural history, cultural history, religious history and ethnography to explain the unique importance of the minarets of pre-Ottoman Cairo. It is lucidly written and, although addressed to specialists, will appeal to students of the non-specialist reader. It is copiously illustrated and since quite a few minarets have disappeared in the past century, its use of archival photographs to document these makes it particularly valuable. These are supplemented by its drawings of each minaret (many of them isometric), which are an historic document in themselves, for they clearly indicate restorations to the original fabric. It will become a standard work of reference.' - Professor J.M. Rogers, Honorary Curator of the Khalili Collection, formerly of the British Museum and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London