al-Azhar Mosque

Interesting facts

Construction of al-Azhar began in 970, and the first Friday prayers took place in 972.

It was the first mosque built in Cairo, the city later called the City of a Thousand Minarets.

Al-Azhar was founded as an Ismaili Shia institution by the Fatimid dynasty.

The marble columns of its prayer hall were reused from older Pharaonic, Roman and Coptic buildings.

The double-topped minaret was built by Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri in the early 16th century.

The mosque lies within Historic Cairo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.

Al-Azhar University grew out of the teaching that began in the mosque in the late 10th century.

Why it is worth it

Al-Azhar is the oldest mosque of Fatimid Cairo and one of the most influential places of learning in the Islamic world. Work began in 970, a year after the Fatimid general Jawhar al-Siqilli founded a new royal city beside the older settlement of Fustat, and the first Friday prayers were held in 972. Built to spread the Ismaili Shia teachings of the Fatimid caliphs, the mosque soon became a school as well, and by the late 10th century scholars were being paid to teach here, the beginning of an institution that grew into al-Azhar University.

The building is a layered record of a thousand years of Cairo. Its heart is a marble-paved courtyard framed by arcades of keel-shaped arches with carved stucco medallions, laid out under the Fatimid caliph al-Hafiz in the 12th century, and beyond it a hypostyle prayer hall whose forest of marble columns was gathered from older Pharaonic, Roman and Coptic buildings. Saladin's Sunni Ayyubid dynasty neglected the former Shia foundation, but the Mamluk sultans restored congregational prayer in 1266 and enriched it with madrasas, domes and minarets. Sultan Qaytbay's slender minaret of the late 15th century and Qansuh al-Ghuri's twin-topped one of the early 16th century still rise over the main gate. In the 18th century Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda nearly doubled the prayer space and added new gates.

For centuries students came from across the Muslim world, lodging in residential halls grouped by region, and al-Azhar's scholars spoke for the city in times of crisis, from protests against Ottoman governors to resistance during the French occupation of 1798. Cairo grew outwards from this Fatimid core into a vast metropolis, and the mosque stands in the dense medieval quarter now inscribed by UNESCO as Historic Cairo, close to the Khan el-Khalili bazaar and the shrine mosque of al-Hussein.

Getting there

The mosque is in Islamic Cairo, about 2.3 km from the city centre, across the street from the al-Hussein Mosque and the Khan el-Khalili market. The nearest airport is Cairo International (CAI), about 15 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

Al-Azhar Mosque, known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in the historic Islamic core of the city of Cairo, Egypt. Commissioned as the new capital of the Fatimid Caliphate in 970 CE, it was the first mosque established in a city that eventually earned the nickname "the City of a Thousand Minarets". Its name is usually thought to derive from az-Zahrāʾ, a title given to Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad.

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al-Azhar Mosque

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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From the encyclopaedia