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Aqsunqur Mosque (Blue Mosque)

Aqsunqur Mosque (Blue Mosque)

Photo: CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Darb al-Ahmar, Islamic Cairo, Egypt
Client / Owner
Shams ad-Din Aqsunqur
Year
Completed 1347
Access
Public
Typology
Spiritual
Style
—

The Aqsunqur Mosque, also called the Blue Mosque, stands on Bab el-Wazir Street in the Darb al-Ahmar district of Islamic Cairo. The article names no architect. The emir Shams ad-Din Aqsunqur supervised the project, which was completed in 1347 under the sultan al-Muzaffar Hajji in what the article calls a Syrian architectural style. It surrounds the earlier mausoleum of 1341 for the late sultan al-Ashraf Kujuk. The infobox lists the styles as Mamluk and Ottoman.

Between 1652 and 1654, the Ottoman-era general Ibrahim Agha renovated it, adding columns to the southern prayer hall and Iznik-style blue and green tiles that gave it its nickname. The layout is an open courtyard enclosed by four riwaqs.

A restoration in 1908 was followed by repairs after the 1992 Cairo earthquake damaged its portico arches. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the World Monuments Fund began another in 2009. The mosque reopened in May 2015.

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