The façade
Cairo's first fully decorated front.
R Prazeres — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Radosław Botev — CC BY 3.0 pl · Francisco Anzola — CC BY 2.0 · Djehouty — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Robert Prazeres — CC BY-SA 4.0
Al-Aqmar Mosque is a small Fatimid mosque on al-Muizz Street, built by the vizier al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi in 519 AH (1125) under the caliph al-Amir. It matters for two things: its stone façade, the first in Cairo decorated across its whole width, and its plan, which follows the street outside while the interior turns to face the qibla. It stood at the north-east corner of the Fatimid Great Palace and served the neighbourhood; closeness to the palace may explain why it first had no minaret. Al-Ma'mun was arrested the year it was finished and executed three years later. The amir Yalbugha al-Salimi rebuilt it in the late 14th century and added a minaret, and it was restored again in the 19th century. The Dawoodi Bohra community later restored it and rebuilt the right side of the façade. It reopened in August 2023 after a ten-month renovation. Start with the façade. Above the door, a shell-hooded niche holds a pierced medallion with the names Muhammad and Ali, ringed by a Quranic verse on the Prophet's family. Muqarnas panels flank it, and the bevelled left corner, cut to ease traffic round the bend, has its own small niche. The paler right side is the modern rebuilding. The street has risen so far that it buried the shops the mosque once stood on. Inside, arcades surround a square courtyard. The mosque stands near Bayt al-Suhaymi, 200 m north of the Qalawun complex and 400 m south of Bab al-Futuh in a straight line. It takes 15 to 30 minutes on a walk along al-Muizz Street.
Cairo's first fully decorated front.
Muhammad and Ali above the door.
A muqarnas niche at the bend of the street.
Al-Muizz Street, Gamaliya, Cairo
Al-Muizz StreetA single street said to hold the greatest concentration of Islamic architecture 1 minute walk4.5
Bayt al-SuhaymiA complete Ottoman house in an alley off Al-Muizz Street, and the best place in 1 minute walk4.7
Qalawun ComplexA huge Mamluk complex in the heart of al-Muizz Street, built by Sultan al-Mansur3 minutes walk4.6
Mosque of al-HakimThe second largest Fatimid mosque in Cairo, begun by Caliph al-Aziz in 990 AD an5 minutes walk4.6
Khan el-KhaliliCairo's great bazaar since the fourteenth century, and still a working market ra5 minutes walk4.3Another building covered its right side for centuries. That part is a modern reconstruction by the Bohras, so its stone is paler and smoother than the original.
Moonlit. Like al-Azhar and al-Anwar, the old name of al-Hakim's mosque, it belongs to a family of Fatimid mosque names tied to light.