Overview:
The Muhammad Ali Mosque or Alabaster Mosque (Arabic: مسجد Ù…Øمد علي), is a mosque within the citadel of the Cairo Citadel in Cairo, Egypt, built on behalf of Muhammed Ali Pasha between 1830 and 1848.
In its place at the top of the citadel, this mosque was the largest built during the first half of the 19th century and is, with its characteristic design and twin minarets, the most prominent in Cairo. The mosque was built in memory of Tusun Pasha, Muhammad Ali's eldest son, who died in 1816.
The mosque, together with the surrounding citadel, is through its elevated position on the edge of the Mokattam Mountains in the eastern part of the city, a prominent landmark and a tourist attraction in Cairo and one of the first characteristics when approaching the city from outside . From the mosque area you also have an impressive view of Cairo which spreads out below.
In its place at the top of the citadel, this mosque was the largest built during the first half of the 19th century and is, with its characteristic design and twin minarets, the most prominent in Cairo. The mosque was built in memory of Tusun Pasha, Muhammad Ali's eldest son, who died in 1816.
The mosque, together with the surrounding citadel, is through its elevated position on the edge of the Mokattam Mountains in the eastern part of the city, a prominent landmark and a tourist attraction in Cairo and one of the first characteristics when approaching the city from outside . From the mosque area you also have an impressive view of Cairo which spreads out below.
The mosque was built on top of a site of ancient Mamluk buildings within the Cairo citadel between 1830 and 1848, but was not completed until 1857 during the reign of Said Pasha. The architect was Yusuf Bushnak from Istanbul, who built it with the New Mosque in Istanbul as a model. The foundation of the mosque was built from the rubble of buildings that previously formed part of the Citadel.
Before the mosque was completed, the alabaster panels were removed to be used to build the palace of Abbas I. The bare mosque walls were instead covered with wood painted to look like marble. In 1899, the mosque began to show signs of decay and substandard repairs were carried out. The condition of the building deteriorated and it was in such poor condition that King Fuad ordered a complete renovation in 1931, something that was not completed until 1939 under King Farouk.
Muhammad Ali Pasha was buried in a coffin of Carrara marble in the mosque. His body was transported there from Hawsh al-Basha in 1857.
Architecture
Muhammad Ali decided to build his mosque in the architectural style of his previous masters, the Ottomans, in contrast to the Mamluks, who joined the architectural styles of previous Mamluk dynasties, despite their political affiliation with the Ottomans.The mosque was built with a central main dome surrounded by four smaller domes in the shape of a semicircle. It was built in the shape of a square and measures 41x41 meters inside. The central dome is 21 meters in diameter and the building is 52 meters high. The two elegant cylindrical Turkish-style minarets have two balconies with conical peaks on the west side of the mosque and reach a height of 82 meters.
The use of this style combined with the two minarets and several half-domes around the central main dome, the characteristics of mosques built with the permission of the Ottoman sultan, was a defiant declaration of Egyptian independence.
The main building material was limestone, but the lower floors and the courtyard are tiled with alabaster to a height of 11.3 meters. The external facades are powerful, angled and rise about four storeys, at the height of the lead-covered domes.
The mosque's mihrab in the southeast wall is three stories high and is covered with a semicircular dome. There are two arcades on the second floor erected on pillars and covered with domes. Although there are three entrances on each side of the courtyard, the northeast entrance is preferably used. The forecourt measures 50x50 meters and is surrounded by pillars joined by arches and covered with domes.
In the middle of the northwest pillar row is a brass bell tower, a bell tower that was donated to Muhammad Ali in 1845 by King Louis Philip I of France as a gift for the Luxor obelisk that now stands on Place de la Concorde in Paris.
The mosque measures 41 x 41 meters inside, which gives a real feeling of space. By using two floors of the dome, an impression of significantly more space than the real one is given. The central dome is erected on four arches on large pillars. Around the central main dome are four semicircular domes with another four smaller domes in the corners. The domes are painted and decorated with motifs in relief.
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