As historians is greater than the throne of Balqis and Iwan Kasri

"Al-Moayed Sheikh".. The oppressed who turned his imprisonment into the greatest mosques of the East

Did not pass in Islam than ornament, After the "Umayyad Mosque"، These words were described by the Egyptian historian Shams al-Din Abu al-Khair Muhammad al-Sakhawi in the 15th century That is the ancient Islamic , which has stood for more than 600 years, To be witness to the splendor of the architecture in the Mamluk era and even in the whole Islamic era.

 

The Mu'ayyad Shaykh Mosque is a wonderful combination of the Fatimid and Mamluk civilizations,Where his minarets are based on the towers of Bab Zuwaila, built by Jawhar al-Saqli in the early days of the Fatimid state،The engineer, "Mohammed bin Qazzaz," his idea of the exploitation of these towers to be the bases of the minarets . The Sheikh of the Arab historians" Ahmed bin Ali al-Maqrizi " Has been described in the 15th century, as "the whole of the benefits of architecture،Witness the Majesty of its pillars and large structure,The origin of Mr Kings of time, Despise the beholder when watching the throne of Balqis and Iwan Kasri Anusharwan, And diminishes from the contemplation of Badi Al-Khorq and Qasr Ghamdan".

Al-Moayyed Sheikh Mosque is located in Old Cairo, Specifically next to Bab Zuwaila in the street of Mu'izz Li-din Allah Fatimah in the Darb Al Ahmar area،It is considered one of the ancient Islamic monuments ،Which dates back more than 600 years.Built by order of Sultan Al - Moayyed Abu al - Nasr Saif al - Din Shaykh Ibn 'Abdullah al - Mahmudi al - Dhahiri in 1415, Loyal lender launched when he was locked up in a prison"kzana shma'l"Who had occupied the same site, Which he described as "Maqrizi"،That he is the most heinous of prisons and ugliest sight in which he is imprisoned, who must kill or wants the Sultan's destruction.

Historians differed on the reasons for Mu'ayyad's imprisonment.Although some believe that after the death of the Sultan "Al-Zaher Barqouq" , And who taught him martial arts, bestowed on him by the Emirate . assumption His son, "Al-Nasir Faraj bin Barqouq,"The time of tribulation and conspiracies began to appear between him and the Princes،Even thought the Al-Moayyed wants coup aganist him, ordered his imprisonment in that terrible prison,But he managed to escape from prison and from all of Egypt,And he didn't come back until after the death of Nasser, to rule Egypt in 1412,Then he bought the Qaysariya where the prison is located, and demolished it and proceeded to build that mosque.

 

The limestone was used to build the foundations of the mosque,and Colored marble floors,Either the main door moving from Sultan Hassan mosque that built in 1316,The mosque consists of a rectangular plate exposed,And four facades, the south-eastern facade overlooking Al-Moez Ladin Allah Fatimi Street,And the North-Eastern façade overlooking the street Ashrafieh,And North West façade overlooking the student residences,And Southwest facade overlooking the street "Ahmed Maher Street",In addition to a single dome and minarets.

Once you cross the main door overlooking the Bab zuweila, Meet the double ladder of coloured marbles, it has long terraces of marble,Up to the sides of the entrance built of red granite,Standing between them copper-coated wooden door,inlaid with gold and silver, height 6 meters, and width 3.2 m, Transferred to him from the mosque of Sultan al-Nasir Hassan ibn Qalawun, There is on either side of the outer wall of the entrance to the door frame of the cursive scripts.

 

That door up to a square yard,There is another door on the right up to the East Iwan,And another door to the left up to the dome of the mosque, which is about 40 metres,Either open courtyard of the mosque, centered ablution,That takes the shape Octagon, topping eight marble columns, covered with gilded wooden dome,The saucer is surrounded by four mansion,The largest is the Qibla Iwan,Which consists of 3 halls, while three other palaces consists of only two arcades, each Ewan two rows of columns.

Mediate the East wall hollow niche, with a length of 4 m,Diameter 15 meter, replete with various colors of marbles , and geometric motifs,And there are two side coated in red, gilded crowns,Beside the wooden podium poufy stellar dishes, surmounted by a dome of the pulpit, The bench of transference is located at the end of the eastern corner, the transference was repeated to echo the call of prayer behind the imam,It is a marble bench on 8 columns,Its sides were carved with gold, And in the southern part of the Qibla corner,Engraved with the names of the 10 missionaries in heaven,There is also a secret door reaches the minarets.

The minarets surrounded by three figure-eight balconies, first on a square base,Its eight ribs are decorated with rectangular vases،second is interspersed with ribbed lines,third is the eight-column gorse,Topped with a pear-shaped helmet, Ending with the Copper Crescent takes the Qiblah,Various third minaret mosque had a figure near the West entrance,But collapsed in the 19th century.

 

Inside the dome mosque there are two graves, One of them for Al-Moayed ,And the other to his three sons, El sarmy Ibrahim, and Muzaffar Ahmed, and Abu al-Fotouh Mossa, Surrounded by wooden cabin , While the top of the dome's convex lines, surrounded by 6 windows of plaster,Al-Maqrizi also mentioned that Al-Moayad provided the mosque with the largest library in the world,For he supplied her with a closet of books for various arts and sciences there were mountain Castle, plus 500 volumes assigned to him by Judge Nasser al-Din al-Barzi.

Mosque destroyed in 1665, When ordered "Omar Pasha al-Selhdar" ruler of Egypt hit the mosque with guns to come out of the encircled by the Zarb groups, And repaired by Ahmed Pasha in 1690,And then renewed by Mr. Ibrahim Ibn al-Sayed on the servant of the poor Kalashni in 1842,During the reign of Khedive Ismail, Iwana was renewed for the third time between 1870 and 1874,In 1881, the Committee for the Preservation of Arab Archeology examined it and reported that it was Crumbling,And already has lots of archaeological overview, In 2000 the Council began the process of comprehensive restoration of the mosque,As the repairs to the mosque dome wall , and platform in 2016, The East Ewan, with its three pillars, is therefore the only place that retains its old character.

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