Al-Mahmoudia Mosque () or the Mosque of Mahmud Pasha is a historic mosque in the city of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. It is located at the

Salah al-Din Square Salah al-Din Square (), known historically as Al-Rumaila Square (), Black Square, and colloquially as Citadel Square () is the main city square of Islamic Cairo. It is considered among the most important areas in Egypt, having witnessed many signi ...

in the

Citadel of Cairo The Citadel of Cairo or Citadel of Saladin () is a medieval Islamic-era fortification in Cairo, Egypt, built by Salah ad-Din (Saladin) and further developed by subsequent Egyptian rulers. It was the seat of government in Egypt and the residenc ...

area, in front of Bab al-Azab gate of the citadel. There are

Sultan Hassan Mosque The Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan () is a monumental mosque and madrasa located in Salah al-Din Square in the Islamic Cairo, historic district of Cairo, Egypt. It was built between 1356 and 1363 during the Bahri dynasty, Bahri Mamluk Sultanate (C ...

and

Al-Rifa'i Mosque Al-Rifa'i Mosque (, transliterated also as ''Al-Rifai'', Al-Refai, Al-Refa'i, locally known as El-Refa'i, and in English: the Refaai Mosque) is located in Citadel Square, adjacent to the Cairo Citadel. Its name is derived from the Ali Abu Shubb ...

to the east.

Description

The mosque dates back to the

Ottoman era The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Central Euro ...

in 1567 during the administration of Mahmud Pasha who is buried in the mosque. The name of the mosque is derived from him.بالصور..مسجد المحمودية بالقاهرة
''Masrawy''. Retrieved January 12, 2018. The mosque is attached with the mausoleum of Mahmud Pasha which is accessible through the door on the

mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...

wall. Mahmud Pasha was shot dead near the mosque after being accused of oppressing the Egyptian people. The design of the mosque is unique in its architectural style which follows the Mamluk tradition for the main building and partly based on the

Ottoman architecture Ottoman architecture is an architectural style or tradition that developed under the Ottoman Empire over a long period, undergoing some significant changes during its history. It first emerged in northwestern Anatolia in the late 13th century an ...

for the

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

in particular. The minaret is decorated with a ring with

muqarnas Muqarnas (), also known in Iberian architecture as Mocárabe (from ), is a form of three-dimensional decoration in Islamic architecture in which rows or tiers of niche-like elements are projected over others below. It is an archetypal form of I ...

and a cone shaped obelisk on top. It is noted to be smaller than the other mosques in the same area, and it is partly due to the building was built on top of the pile of stones, and it is required to climb up stairs to the mosque. The mosque has four sides, and two of them have entrance gate on it. The gates are ornamented with two lines of windows filled with plasters and maroon glass works, with muqarnas on top of them facing toward the balconies.

Condition

The mosque was restored by

Farouk I Farouk I (; ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936 and reigning until his ...

in 1940. The restoration reinforced the vaults and fixed the ceiling. In 2015, the Ministry of Antiquity reported that the minaret of the mosque is in danger of collapsing any moment if there’s no adequate measure to be implemented. The picture released by the ''

Youm 7 ''Youm7'' (, , meaning ''The Seventh Day'') is an Egyptian privately owned daily newspaper. It was first published as a weekly paper in October 2008 and has been published daily since May 2011. It is published in Arabic. The paper was twice sele ...

'' paper showed the cracks on the wall behind the minaret.بالصور.. مئذنة مسجد المحمودية الأثرى مهددة بالانهيار
''Youm 7''. Retrieved January 12, 2018.

References

Bibliography

*Bates, Ülkü. "Façades in Ottoman Cairo." In The Ottoman City and Its Parts, edited by Irene Bierman, Rifa’at Abou-El-Haj, and Donald Preziosi, 129-172. New Rochelle, N.Y. : A.D. Caratzas, 1991. *Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. Islamic Architecture in Cairo. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1989. *Jarrar, Sabri, András Riedlmayer, and Jeffrey B. Spurr. Resources for the Study of Islamic Architecture. Cambridge, MA: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, 1994. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mahmoudia Mosque Mosques completed in the 1560s Religious buildings and structures completed in 1567 Mamluk architecture in Egypt Ottoman mosques in Egypt Mosque buildings with domes in Egypt Mosques in Cairo 1567 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Mosque buildings with minarets in Egypt Sunni mosques in Egypt

Description

Condition

See also

References

Bibliography