Aqsunqur Mosque
The Aqsunqur Ibrahim Agha Mosque is Mustafzan or Ibrahim Agha Mosque, or “the Blue Mosque,” and is one of Egypt’s Islamic architectural marvels. It was created in; the Al-Darb Al-Ahmar neighborhood, Bab Al-Wazir Street, Cairo Governorate, by Prince Aq Sunqur al-Salari; one of Sultan Qalawun’s Mamelukes, to serve as a “blue beacon” that illuminates the area.
Location
The initial mosque was built by the Mamluk prince Shams al-Din Aq Sunqur al-Farqani al-Silahdar in the year 676 AH / 1277 CE; but the existing mosque was built by the Ottoman Prince Muhammad as two Mustaftan in 1080 AH / 1669 AD; and it is situated behind the Court of Appeal in Darb Saada in Bab al-Khalq neighbourhood in central Cairo. Its design consists of a rectangular rectangle with an open courtyard in the middle encircled by four iwans. The qibla iwan is the largest of them all.
History
The mosque is located in the Mamluk style over the burial sites of the people of Cairo in 1347 AD; and even before the foundations were laid, the builders discovered structures for the dead buried there; and the mosque’s width is about 80 metres and its length is 100 metres; with an open yard in the centre surrounded by four colonnades with columns; the biggest of which is the qibla gallery, which contains two aisles, and the remaining three aisles each.
“One on the western façade, another in the northern façade, and the third on the eastern façade, with a shrine dome attached to it;” says the mosque’s website. The eastern portico’s chest is adorned with a lovely blue carpet.
Description
The mosque’s main façade is on the western side of Bab al-Wazir Street; and the main gate is in the middle of it, about two metres away from the azimuth of the façade’s walls. It is capped by a ribbon-carried arch, and in the centre of the entrance is a door with a lintel including green and white marble “docked” on the right. It also has stalactites made of white and green marble on its threshold. A big, concave “tray” surrounds it on the top. Another line of windows can be found on the left.
The pulpit is made of marble, while the mosque’s sides are made of coloured marble. It features a variety of designs on its railings, knots, and helmet, and its entrance is crowned with a cornice made of three stations of muqarnas, as well as two wood marquetry shutters. This pulpit is the earliest of the few marble pulpits found in Cairo’s historic mosques.
The mosque contains a mihrab with floral motifs on the interior walls and an inscription that says: “The Prophet, may God’s prayers and serenity be upon him, advocated in this fortunate mihrab on the night of Saturday the ninth of Dhu al-Qa’dah in the year sixty-eight and eight hundred, and he is having to stand and praying at this honourable mosque, Ibrahim Agha Mustaftan in 1062 AH ».
After the earthquake that rocked Egypt this year, the mosque was shut for nearly 21 years, and it was renovated over four years at a cost of $ 2 million.