Perched atop a hill that overlooks Egypt’s capital city of Cairo, the Cairo ßCitadel is a site steeped in history and heritage, reports Nevine El-Aref.
Within its enclosed walls are several awe-inspiring monuments, among them the Suleiman Pasha Al-Khadem Mosque, known as the Sariyat Al-Gabal Mosque, a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture that boasts a captivating blend of artistic elegance and historical significance.
Built in 1528 by the then Ottoman governor of Egypt Suleiman Pasha Al-Khadem, the Sariyat Al-Gabal Mosque is considered to be the first Ottoman-style mosque to be established in Egypt and is charaterised by domes, semi-domes, pencil-shaped minarets, and the use of ceramic-tile revetement on the inner walls.
The mosque is currently being restored, and earlier this week Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Mustafa Waziri embarked on a tour to inspect the restoration work being carried out with a view to reopening the mosque soon.
The work started in 2017 and aims to maintain and restore the architectural and decorative elements of the building. It includes removing the plasterwork installed in different previous restoration campaigns as well as consolidating the mosque’s walls, cleaning the masonry, and repairing the woodwork and decorative elements.
“The restoration is a self-financed project carried out by restorers at the SCA according to the latest scientific techniques and with reference to the original design of the mosque as signaled in various documentation,” Waziri said.
The Sariyat Al-Gabal Mosque was built on the ruins of a former Fatimid mosque built in 1140 by Abu Mansur Qastah Ghulam Al-Muzaffar ibn Amir Al-Guyush, a governor of Alexandria during the Fatimid period, to serve the Janissaries, a unit of the conquering Ottoman armies that entered Egypt in 1517 with the Ottoman Sultan Selim.
Its architectural style is inspired by the Istanbul mosques in Turkey, such as the Suleimani Mosque.
The mosque consists of two sections, the first one covered with a dome in the middle surrounded by half-domes decorated with colourful inscriptions interspersed with various writings.
The second section is connected to the first by a door in its western wall. It is an open central courtyard with the floor covered with coloured marble and surrounded by four porticoes covered by domes supported on arches resting on shoulder straps.
On the western side of the courtyard, there is a small dome containing several tombs on which are marble structures that contain evidence of the different head coverings that were widespread in the era.
The minaret of the mosque is located to the left of its southwestern façade. It consists of a square base with bevelled corners topped by a cylindrical body surrounded by two wooden balconies. Each balcony is supported by three tiers of muqarnas (ornamented vaulting). The top of the minaret is conical-shaped, and the central dome of the mosque is panelled with green-glazed tiles.
The prayer hall has two iwans (arcades). The first is the qibla iwan, which contains the mihrab signalling the direction of Mecca and is marked by a pointed arch and polychrome marble decoration. The upper portions of the walls of this iwan have four circular plaques inscribed with Quranic verses, the name of their sponsor, and the name of the Sultan Suleiman Al-Qanuni.
The second iwan has a marble floor that is lower than the floor of the qibla iwan, and in its southeastern side there is a decorated marble minbar (pulpit) embellished with gilded geometric and foliage designs.
There is a door in the northeastern wall that leads to the interior annexes of the mosque and the ablutions area. This wall, which faces the qibla wall, has four arched niches, one of which contains a window, while another has a door that leads to the mosque courtyard.
In front of the northwestern wall is the dikkat al-mouballigh, an elevated platform from which prayers are recited to worshippers, supported by 10 wooden consoles and from which daily prayers are recited.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 August, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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