Mosque of Amr Ibn Al-As
Amro mosque or
Mosque of Amr
Ibn Al-As
is the first mosque built in Egypt and
Africa, constructed by
the commander Amr Ibn Al-As
in 642 AD.
Amr
was the Arab general who conquest Egypt to
fight against the Roman and He was hailed by
the Copts as a liberator. Then he was
appointed governor by the Caliph. Amr
founded a new capital instead of Alexandria,
and that was Al Fustat.
In he
center of Al Futat was the mosque which
later on was named “ The Mosque of Amr” It
was surrounded by the plans and houses of Al
Fustat. Originally the mosque was
overlooking the Nile from
the Northwest side .
The
mosque was called “ the Crown of the
Mosques” and the Antique Mosque. In fact the
actual features of the mosque is very
different of his first ancient aspect. Many
reconstructions, and restorations took place
since the time of its foundation till now to
be resulted in its actual. The mosque was
built in a shape of rectangular low shed of
wood and palm leaves supported on columns of
palm stems, stones and mud bricks while the
floor was covered with gravel. That first
simple mosque measures about 29 m. in length
and 17 m. in width.
Since
the time of the foundation of the mosque
many additions and extensions took place,
but the most important one was made by the
governor Abudllah Ibn Taher during the reign
of Caliph Al Mamoun in the 9th
century . He extended the mosque adding a
new area at the S.W side and that extension
was the last one. Thus at that time the
mosque measures 120 m. in length and 112 m.
in width, and that represents the actual
area of the mosque. At the end of the
Fatimid period, the mosque was ruined as a
result of Al Fustat Fire which took place in
1175 AD. When Al Fustat was burnt by Shawer,
the Vizier of the Fatimid Caliph Al Adid, to
prevent the crusaders from invading Al
Fustat , and that fire continued 54
days. Therefore Saladin rebuilt it and
renovated it in 1179 AD. Just before the
arrival of the French Expedition to Egypt
Mourad Bey one of the Mameluke leaders in
the end of the 18th century
demolished the mosque and rebuilt it in 1796
AD. Mourad Bey changed the Iwan and the
courtyard replacing the seven rows of coumns
in the quibla liwan with 6 ones and changing
the bays to be perpendicular to the quibla
wall instead of being parallel to it. Most
probably he built the remaining minarets,
one above the right entrance in the façade
and the other is situated above the right
end of the quibla wall. He renovated the
ceiling, and covered the floor with mats and
provided the mosque with candelabras. Also
he made 4 foundation tablets still existing,
bearing poetic verses praising and dating
his achievements. One
of this tablets is fixed to the quibla wall
to the left of the Mihrab.
In
1906 during the reign of
khedive Abbas Helmy II,
the mosque was restored entirely. These
works were achieved by the Arab Antiquities
Preservation committee.
At the
Southern corner of the quibla Riwaq there is
a Mausoleum below a dome,
Perhaps it belongs to Abdulla the son of
Amr, some Historians
cant confirm that, they believe that
no honorable figure was buried in
that Mausoleum. |
