MOSQUE OF IBN TULUN

 

Built between 876 and 879 AD, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun is one of the oldest mosques in Cairo. It was commissioned by Ahmad ibn Ţūlūn, the Abbassid governor of Egypt. The mosque is constructed around a courtyard, with one covered hall on each of the four sides. The minaret, which features a helical outer staircase similar to that of the famous minaret in Samarra, was probably built several centuries later. Parts of the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me were filmed at the Mosque of Ibn Tulun.


The mosque is surrounded by an enclosure that measures 118 x 138 meters (387 x 453 feet). Surrounding the mosque on three sides (all but the qibla side) are narrow enclosed wings called ziyadas, and the mosque's famous minaret with its external spiral ramp is located within the northern ziyada. These small outer courtyards were an extension to insure privacy and separate the sanctified space from the public space of the outside world. They measure about 19 meters in width, and bring the mosque as a whole almost to an exact square shape. Both the enclosure walls and the walls of the ziyada are surmounted by a unique crenellation, a fortified parapet with alternate solid parts and openings, that is probably also of Samarra influence. However, the walls lack the heavy external buttresses and so were probably built strictly as a decorative motif. Rather, the single row of large windows with circular openings on the upper registers of the walls, the frieze of simple square frames and the decorative crenellation seem almost delicate.