Jami al-Qarafa Mosque

The Jami al-Qarafa Mosque, also known as the Qarafa Mosque, is a Friday mosque located in Al-Qarafa, the great necropolis of Islamic Cairo and Fustat, Egypt.^[a] It was the second major mosque built by the Fatimid dynasty in their new capital of Cairo after their conquest of Egypt in 969 CE.

Jami al-Qarafa Mosque
Religion
Affiliation	Shia Islam
Sect	Ismailism
Ecclesiastical or organisational status	Friday mosque
Status	Active
Location
Location	Al-Qarafa, Islamic Cairo
Country	Egypt
Architecture
Type	Mosque
Style	Fatimid
Founder	Al-Sayyida al-Mu'iziyya
Completed	976 CE
Dome	1
[1]

History

The mosque was built in 976 CE by order of Al-Sayyida al-Mu'iziyya (also known as Durzan), mother of the Caliph al-'Aziz (r. 975–996), and her daughter Sitt al-Malik.^[3] It occupied the site of the older Mosque of the Dome (Masjid al-Qubba), and apparently was very large.^[4]: 24 al-Maqrizi, an historian, claims that the mosque was one of the most beautiful buildings of its day.^[3]

Architecture

A possible layout was described by Jonathan Bloom in his "The Mosque of the Qarafa", although Yūsuf Rāghib pointed out problems with this reconstruction in his "La mosquée d'al-Qarāfa."^[4]: 24 In Bloom's opinion, the mosque had a central aisle, wider than the others and with a higher roof, that led a dome over the spaces before the mihrab. This was similar to the mosques of al-Azhar and al-Hākim bi-Amr Allāh.^[5]: 15

The courtyard provided a place where the elite of Cairo would meet on Friday evenings in summer, and the covered qibla part of the mosque gave them a meeting place in the cooler weather.^[4]: 24 State festivals would be held at the mosque in which food was distributed to all classes of people.^[3] According to Ibn al-Zayyāt, it was an especially holy mosque, one where people would seek refuge in times of trouble.^[4]: 25 When a great fire burned down most of al-Fustat in 1168 CE, the mosque was almost completely destroyed, with only its green mihrab preserved.

It was later rebuilt as the Jami' al-Awliyya, but was little used after al-Qarafa became depopulated following a crisis in 1403 CE.^[4]: 25

Im 2024 it was reported via Reddit that the mosque and cemetery were being demolished.^[6]

See also

• Shia Islam portal
• Egypt portal

• Shia Islam in Egypt
• List of mosques in Cairo

Notes

1. Al-Qarafa was the cemetery to the south of al-Qahira, lying between al-Muqattam Hill and Fustat. The mosque was at the center of the western half of this cemetery.^[2]