Ahmad ibn Tulun, Abbasid governor of Egypt from 868 to 884, commissioned the mosque. Construction began in 876, according to al-Maqrizi, and an original inscription gives completion as Ramadan 265 AH, in April or May 879. Al-Balawi names the architect as al-Nasrani, a non-Muslim, possibly Christian.
Including its outer enclosure, the mosque covers about 283,000 square feet (26,318 m²), one of the largest in Egypt by area. It is the oldest mosque in Egypt to largely retain its original form. It is modeled on Samarra, the Abbasid capital, with Samarra stucco styles. The walls, arches and piers are brick, the roof is palm wood, and the stone minaret has an external spiral staircase. A Kufic frieze nearly 1.2 miles (2 km) long reproduces about one fifteenth of the Qur'an.
Sultan Lajin restored it in 1296. A restoration from 2002 to 2004 cost $2.5 million. UNESCO listed it as part of Historic Cairo in 1979.
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