AHMAD IBN TULUN MOSQUE

• It was built by Ibn Tulun who was the founder of the Tulunide Dynasty in Egypt, the Dynasty which among five rulers survived for 26 years only.
• The Ibn Tulun Mosque was completed in 879 AD on Mount Yashkur.
• This mosque that he had built over a period of three years of mudbrick became the focal point of the Tulunid capital.
• It is the oldest mosque in Egypt that has survived in a fairly original form.
• The Ibn Tulun mosque reflects all the characteristic features of Abbasid art, within the realm of architecture, and other features by the famous Samarra mosque in present day Iraq.
• The mosque's original decorations, presenting in both stuc co and wood the most valuable and best preserved examples of the Samarra style.
• The mosque's famous minaret with its external spiral ramp is Cairo's only minaret with a spiraling external staircase and the overall structure is unique in Egypt. So this minaret of the Mosque is a famous Cairo landmark.
• The fountain (sahn), Al-Mustawfi (one of the Arab historians) says it was known as “Pharaoh’s Cup” (Kas-i-Fir’awn), and that its basin was formed from one block of stone 23 cubits in circumference.
• Behind the qibla wall, which interestingly has a somewhat d ifferent feature than other Cairo mosques, is the Dar al-Imara consisting of three rooms connected to the mosque and have housed a library.
• Interestingly, folktales maintain that this frieze was believed to have been carved onto the planks from Noah's Ark!!!!!