Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan

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Sultan Hassan Mosque

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Sultan Hassan Mosque (left) along with the later El Rifai Mosque (right) and two smaller Ottoman mosques (foreground) - Cairo

The Sultan Hassan Mosque is considered stylistically the most compact and unified of all Cairo monuments. It is one of the masterpieces of Mamluk architecture. The building was commissioned by Sultan Hassan bin Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Qalawun in 1356 AD as a mosque and religious school for all four juristic branches of Sunni Islam. It was designed so that each of the four schools of thought - Shafi, Maliki, Hanafi and Hanbali - has its own area while sharing the mosque.^[1].

Construction started in 1356 AD and ended 7 years later in 1363 AD. One of the minarets collapsed during construction killing 300 people. The state was able to fund the massive structure through the properties that were left behind by the victims of the Black Death. The Sultan was assassinated before the mosque was completed and his body was never recovered. The magnificent burial chamber that was intended for him holds his two sons instead.

The facade is 76 meters long and 36 meters high. The cornices, the entrance portal, the burial chamber, and the monumental staircase are particularly noteworthy. Verses from the Quran in elegant Kufic and Thuluth scripts adorn the inner walls.

The mosque is featured on the Egyptian one-hundred pound note.

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] See also

• Timeline of Islamic history
• Islamic architecture
• Islamic art
• List of mosques