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Al-Rifa'i Mosque

Al-Rifa'i Mosque

Hussein Fahmi Pasha & Max Herz

Photo: Mohammed Moussa · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Citadel Square, Islamic Cairo, Egypt
Client / Owner
Hoshiyar Qadin
Year
Completed 1912
Access
Public
Typology
Spiritual
Style
—

The Al-Rifa'i Mosque in Citadel Square was designed by Hussein Fahmi Pasha, a distant cousin in Muhammad Ali's dynasty, and supervised by the Hungarian architect Max Herz. Hoshiyar Qadin, mother of Khedive Isma'il Pasha, commissioned it to replace an older zawiya. Work ran in two phases from 1869 to 1912. Fahmi died early in the first phase, and work stopped after Isma'il's abdication in 1880. Hoshiyar died in 1885, and Khedive Abbas II ordered completion in 1905.

The article calls it Neo-Mamluk in style, built opposite the Sultan Hassan complex it was meant to complement. It has 70,000 square feet (6,500 m²) of interior area, with 19,020 square feet (1,767 m²) for prayer. Two minarets on circular bases are modeled on those of the Sultan Hassan Mosque.

It holds the shrine of Ali Abu Shubbak and the royal mausoleum of the Muhammad Ali dynasty, including the tombs of Fuad I, Farouk and Reza Pahlavi.

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