03/27/2021
Mosque of Amr Ibn Al-As, first built in 641 AD.
The mosque was named after Amr Ibn Al-As, the military commander who led the conquest of Egypt and served as its governor later on. It was built in Al-Fustat, a city that grew out of an Arab army encampment on the site of present-day Cairo.
The mosque doesn’t exist in its original form, having undergone numerous additions and restorations. In fact, it was destroyed and restored so often that it is impossible to know the appearance of the first building. Most notably, the Egyptian Vizier Shawar ordered the mosque and the entire city destroyed by fire in 1169 to prevent the Crusaders from capturing it. When Saladin defeated the Crusaders, he had the mosque rebuilt in 1179.
This sketch is part of a commissioned series featuring some of Cairo’s most architecturally significant mosques.
