The Mosque of Sultan al-Mu'ayyad (Arabic: مسجد السلطان المؤيد), is a mosque on al-Mu'izz Street, adjacent to Bab Zuwayla, in Islamic Cairo, Egypt. The complex was built between 1415 and 1421, under the rule of the Mamluk sultan al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh, from whom it takes its name. The complex includes a Friday mosque and two mausoleums, which contained the tomb of al-Mu'ayyad and his family members. The monument replaced a prison which originally stood next to Bab Zuwayla. When originally completed, it also included a madrasa that taught the four madhhabs. The mosque's two minarets are built on top of the older Fatimid-era towers of Bab Zuwayla, a choice unique to this mosque.
History
Sultan al-Mu'ayyad In keeping with Mamluk custom, al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh was purchased by Sultan Barquq when he was ten or twelve years old. As an adult, he served for ten years as the governor of Tripoli under an appointment by Sultan al-Nasir Faraj. The medieval historian al-Maqrizi relates that the future Sultan al-Mu'ayyad was imprisoned in the same prison which the mosque replaced as while an emir under Sultan Faraj. Shaykh suffered so terribly from fleas and lice during his imprisonment, he vowed that he would transform the prison into "a saintly place for the education of scholars" if he ever came to power. True to his word, when he became sultan he commissioned the mosque. In 1412, Shaykh assisted in overthrowing Sultan Faraj, and within six months, he seized power and became the new sultan. He took the title al-Mu'ayyad and began to expand his empire through battles against neighboring territories. As sultan, al-Mu'ayyad led a number of successful campaigns to northern Syria, as well as fighting Turkoman neighbors in Anatolia. He advanced as far as Konya before having to return to Cairo. Sultan al-Mu'ayyad's reign was plagued by troubles: the Bubonic plague, currency devaluation, and rebellious bedouins all disturbed his reign. Despite this, the sultan still managed to oversee the building of his large mosque. Sultan al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh died in 1421, eleven years after he took power. Throughout his reign, he gained a reputation as a humble man and as one of the great patrons of architecture in Cairo. On his death, the sultan left behind several religious and secular monuments, including a khanqah in Giza, palaces along the Khalij canal and the Nile, and the Mosque of Sultan al-Mu'ayyad.
Construction Construction of the mosque began in May 1415. The project was an ambitious one, costing the sultan 40,000 dinars between commencement and completion. According to al-Maqrizi, thirty builders and one hundred workers labored on the structure over seven years. The mosque required such a large quantity of marble that some of it was harvested from pre-existing structures. Besides marble, many other parts of the mosque were cannibalized from other buildings, including the mosque's columns and a beautiful bronze door and chandelier. The door and chandelier are particularly famous instances of this; both are said to have come from the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan. Removing parts of current mosques was illegal while the Mosque of Sultan al-Mu'ayyad was being built, so taking the door and chandelier were tantamount to stealing, despite donations the sultan made to the old mosque. Although the new mosque was not officially completed until 1422, an inaugural celebration was held in November 1419 to celebrate the new building. Even after the official conclusion of the mosque's construction, a number of structures in the original plans were never built. The dome of the second mausoleum attached to the mosque was never completed. A separate building for use as dormitories by Sufi students who studied at the madrasa were not immediately erected, despite an allocation of 20,000 dinars toward them. Later mosque records are unclear as to whether the Sufi dormitories were later completed as plans, though the students definitely were given space in which to live.
Purpose The mosque was intended as a funerary complex and for use in Friday prayers, but it also served as a madrasa for Sufi students. The madrasa was devoted to the study of the Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, and Hanbali schools of Sharia law. According to the mosque's original documents, the madrasa was to house fifty Hanafis, forty Shafi'is, fifteen Malikis, and ten Hanbalis, and their respective teachers and imams. There were also two classes of twenty students each for students of tafsir and hadith, and two others of ten each for students of the Quran recitation and legal studies, according to the Hanafi jurist al-Tahawi. Under the sultan's sponsorship, the madrasa within the mosque became one of the most prominent academic institutions Cairo in the fifteenth century. The lavish endowment left by the sultan upon his death allowed the madrasa to hire the most eminent scholars of the day as professors. The most famous Quranic specialist in Egypt, Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, lectured in Shafi'i jurisprudence at the madrasa.
Restorations
Throughout its history, the Mosque of Sultan al-Mu'ayyad has undergone extensive renovations. Even early on, reconstruction was necessary. According to al-Maqrizi, the eastern minaret had to be pulled down and rebuilt as early as 1418 due to structural insecurity from its tower base. Another three-story minaret stood at the Western portal on a side street; it collapsed in 1427 during the reign of Sultan Barsbay and was immediately rebuilt. By the nineteenth century, the mosque had fallen into such disrepair that all that remained was one facade, the prayer hall, and the mausoleums. Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Muhammad 'Ali, oversaw restorations in the late 1830s and 1840s, including the installation of Turkish tiles in the qibla wall. In the late nineteenth century, the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l'Art Arabe rebuilt the western facade and turned the courtyard into a garden. In 2001, the mosque again underwent restorations, this time by the order of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture. These restorations removed the garden from the courtyard and rebuilt the majority of the mosque, including missing arcades around the courtyard.
Architecture
Exterior
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