Less than ten years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the new religion of Islam arrived in Egypt with the army of Amr ibn al-As in AD 641. Amr immediately established his capital at al-Fustat, just south of modern Cairo, and there he built Africa's first mosque, one still in regular use today. Since then, governors, caliphs, sultans, amirs, beys, pashas, among others, have built mosques, madrasas, and mausoleums throughout Egypt in a changing sequence of Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk, Ottoman, and modern styles. In this fully color-illustrated, large-format volume, a leading historian of Islamic art and culture celebrates the great variety of Egypt's mosques and related religious buildings, from the early congregational mosques, through the medieval mausoleum-madrasas, to the neighborhood mosques of the Ottoman and modern periods. With outstanding architectural photography and authoritative analytical texts, this book will be valued as the finest on the subject by scholars and general readers alike.
Table of Contents:
CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Mosque of ‘Amr (Cairo, 641–twenty-first century)
Mosque of Ibn Tulun (Cairo, 876–79)
Mosque of al-Azhar (Cairo, 970–72 and later)
Mosque of al-Hakim (Cairo, 990–1013)
Mashhad of al-Juyushi (Cairo, 1085)
Three Minarets: ‘Amri Mosque (Esna, 1081); Mashhad al-Bahri (Shallal,
eleventh century); al-Mujahadin Mosque (Asyut, 1708)
Mosque of Hasan ibn Salih (Bahnasa, twelfth century and later)
Mosque of al-Aqmar (Cairo, 1125)
Mosque of al-‘Amri (Qus, 1155–56 and later)
Mosque of al-Salih Tala’i‘ (Cairo, 1160)
Funerary Mosque of Sayyidna al-Husayn (Cairo, 1154–1873)
Mosque of al-Lamati (Minya, 1182)
Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi‘i (Cairo, 1211)
Shrine of Abu’l-Hajjaj (Luxor, 1257–1850)
Mosque of Sultan al-Zahir Baybars (Cairo, 1267–69)
Funerary Complex of Sultan Qalawun (Cairo, 1283–84)
Funerary Madrasa of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (Cairo, 1295–1303)
Funerary Complex of Shaykh Zayn al-Din Yusuf (Cairo, 1298–1335)
Funerary Complex of Salar and Sanjar (Cairo, 1303–1304)
Funerary Complex of Sultan Baybars al-Jashinkir (Cairo, 1307–10)
Four Mamluk Mihrabs, Cairo: Funerary Madrasa of Taybarsiya (1309–10) at al-Azhar Mosque; Funerary Madrasa of Aqbughawiya (1333–39) at al-Azhar Mosque; Mosque of Ibn al-Baqari (1345–46); Khanqah of S‘d al-Din ibn Ghurab (c.1400–1406)
Mosque of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (Cairo, 1318–35)
Funerary Mosque of Amir Ulmas (Cairo, 1330)
Mosque of al-Maridani (Cairo, 1334–40)
Funerary Complex of Aslam al-Silahdar (Cairo, 1345)
Funerary Complex of Aqsunqur (Cairo, 1346, 1652)
Funerary Complex of Amir Shaykhu (Cairo, 1349–55)
Funerary Complex of Amir Sayf al-Din Sarghatmish (Cairo, 1356)
Funerary Complex of Sultan Hasan (Cairo, 1356–61)
Funerary Madrasa of Umm al-Sultan Sha‘ban (Cairo, 1368–69)
Funerary Complex of Amir Aljay al-Yusufi (Cairo, 1373)
Mosque of Sultan Khushqadam al-Ahmadi (Cairo, 1376, 1486)
Funerary Complex of Sultan Barquq (Cairo, 1384–86)
Mosque and Mausoleum of Nasir al-Din (Dakhla, al-Qasr,
fourteenth–nineteenth century)
Funerary Complex of Sultan Faraj ibn Barquq (Cairo, 1400–11)
Madrasa of Yusuf ibn Ahmad Jamal al-Din al-Ustadar (Cairo, 1408)
Mosque of al-Mitwalli (Mahalla al-Kubra, 1410–1858)
Funerary Mosque of Sultan al-Mu’ayyad Shaykh (Cairo, 1416–20)
Funerary Complex of Qadi ‘Abd al-Basit (Cairo, 1419–20)
Funerary Complex of Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbay (Cairo, 1423–24)
Funerary Mosque of Jawhar al-Lala (Cairo, 1430)
Northern Cemetery, Funerary Complex of Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbay
(Cairo, 1432)
Mosque of Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbay (al-Khanqa, 1437)
Funerary Complex of Sultan Inal (Cairo, 1451–56)
Funerary Mosque of al-Mu‘ini (Damietta, before 1455)
Northern Cemetery, Funerary Complex of Sultan Qaytbay (Cairo, 1472–74)
Mosque of Sultan Qaytbay (Cairo, Qal‘at al-Kabsh, 1475)
Qubbat Fadawiya (Mosque of Yashbak) (Cairo, 1479–80)
Funerary Complex of Qijmas al-Ishaqi (Cairo, 1479–82)
Mosque of Azbak al-Yusufi (Cairo, 1494–95)
Mosque of Asalbay (Fayoum, 1498–99)
Funerary Complex of Sultan al-Ghawri (Cairo, 1502–1504)
Funerary Mosque of Qanibay Qara al-Rammah (Cairo, 1503)
Funerary Complex of Qurqumas (Cairo, 1506–1507)
Funerary Complex of Khayrbak (Cairo, 1502–21)
Mosque of Sulayman Pasha (Cairo, 1528)
Funerary Mosque of Mahmud Pasha (Cairo, 1568)
Mosque of Sinan Pasha (Cairo, 1571)
Mosque of Malika Safiya (Cairo, 1610)
Mosque of Shaykh Karim al-Din al-Burdayni (Cairo, 1616–30)
Mosque of Mustafa Shurbaji Mirza (Cairo, 1698)
Mosque of Salah Agha Duqmaqsis (Rosetta, 1702)
Mosque of Nasr Allah (Fuwwa, 1703–1707)
Funerary Mosque of Amir Hasan ibn Amir Muhammad (Akhmim,
1704–1707)
Mosque of al-Qana’i (Fuwwa, 1720)
Shrine and Mosque of al-Sadat al-Wafa’iya (Cairo, 1772–78)
Funerary Mosque of Muhammad al-‘Abbasi (Rosetta, 1773–1809)
Funerary Complex of Muhammad Abu’l-Dhahab (Cairo, 1774)
Mosque of al-Namiri (Fuwwa, 1785–1800)
Mosque of al-Sini (Girga, 1788)
Mosque of Muhammad ‘Ali (Cairo, 1831–57)
Mosque of Abu’l-Makarim (Fuwwa, 1850)
Funerary Mosque of al-Rifa‘i (Cairo, 1869–1911)
Funerary Mosque of Abu’l-‘Abbas al-Mursi (Alexandria, 1929–45)
Congregational Mosque (New Gourna, 1945–48)
Mosque of al-Qa’id Ibrahim (Alexandria, 1948–51)
Mosque of Imam Hasan (Cairo, 1973)
Mosque of Hidaya al-Islami (Rosetta, 1985)
Basata Mosque (Sinai, 1999)
El Gouna Congregational Mosque (2001–2007)
Glossary
Image Credits
Notes
Bibliographic References
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Bernard O'Kane is professor of Islamic art and architecture at the American University in Cairo. He is the editor of Treasures of Islamic Art (AUC Press, 2006) and Creswell Photographs Re-examined (AUC Press, 2009), and author of The Illustrated Guide to the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo (AUC Press, 2012).
Review :
"As a scholar of Islamic art and history, as a talented photographer, and as a decades-long resident of Cairo and Egypt, Bernard O'Kane has fused his multiple beings into providing a visual celebration of Egypt's Islamic architectural heritage. Egypt's Islamic monuments have long played step-sister to their pharaonic antecedents and Professor O'Kane's volume does much to correct the imbalance. . . . Truly a book to delight the eye and intrigue the historian."—Caroline Williams, ASTENE Bulletin
"An encyclopedic, chronological, and relentlessly full documentation of the buildings studied within a large and immersive format. . . . Despite the author's advanced, original, and often primary scholarship, the text remains clear and accessible to experts and novices alike."—Tammy Gaber, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
"The photographs, mostly the author's own, are of especial note, not only beautiful but of academic importance thanks to the recording of fine detail often invisible to the naked eye in the older monuments."—The Art Newspaper
