The tomb
A brass enclosure at the end of a long passage.
KhaledYousry1 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · لا روسا — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sherifgheta — CC BY 4.0 · لا روسا — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Mohamed kamal 1984 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Sayyida Nafisa Mosque is a Cairo shrine holding the tomb of Nafisa bint al-Hasan ibn Zayd, a scholar descended from al-Hasan ibn Ali who died in Egypt in 208 AH (824). With the mosques of al-Hussein and Sayyida Zaynab it is among the city's best-known shrines of the Prophet's family. It stands on the edge of the great cemetery, within the UNESCO World Heritage listing of Historic Cairo. Tradition says her husband planned to take her body to Medina for burial, but the people of Egypt begged him to leave her here and he agreed after a dream. Imam al-Shafi'i is said to have attended her gatherings. An Abbasid governor put up the first building over the grave; the Fatimids added a dome, and the mihrab was faced in marble in 1138. Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda renewed the shrine in Ottoman times, and the brass enclosure dates from the reign of Abbas I. Inside, a long passage leads to the tomb, with separate entrances for men and women. The mosque reopened in 2023 after a renovation funded by the Dawoodi Bohra community, and a second phase ended in 2025, adding marble and new decoration; some heritage experts have criticised the changes. The mosque stands at the start of the route known as the Way of the Prophet's Family. Allow about half an hour, then visit the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, 700 m north, or the Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i, 1.3 km south-east, both in a straight line.
A brass enclosure at the end of a long passage.
A chain of shrines through the cemetery.
Marble and carving from the recent renovation.
Sayyida Nafisa Square, al-Khalifa district, Cairo
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Yes, through their own entrance, with hair covered. Visits are easiest outside prayer times.