The Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Who built the Mosque of Muhammad Ali?

Muhammad Ali Pasha is the owner of this mosque, he starts building in 1830. Then he continued the construction until his death in 1848 as he prepared the southwestern corner of the mosque to be his tomb. In the era of Abbas Pasha, he completed the work of the carvings, marble, and the gilding. He also added his touch to Ali Pasha’s mausoleum by putting in some marble construction and a beautiful maqsura made from copper.

Then King Fuaad became the ruler of Egypt in 1931 and he started rebuilding the main dome and some of the semi-domes around it because they had huge structural deficiencies. They reopened the mosque again after all these constructions work in the reign of King Faruq I in 1939.

Where is the Mosque located?

At the northwestern corner of Salah al-Din Citadel, you will find Mohamed Ali Mosque. The mosque located in the capital of Egypt, Cairo. You can easily see the towering minarets from any place in Cairo city.

Why it called Alabaster Mosque

Mohamed Ali Mosque has another name “Alabaster Mosque” and this is because they used alabaster in all its interior and exterior walls. The alabaster makes the design of all the walls of the mosque beautiful and shiny, this is one of the main attractions of the mosque you will definitely love to look at.

The reason behind building the mosque

The main reason behind building such a beautiful structure is for praying in the first place and to be a place for Mohamed Ali’s tomb. He was buried on the right-hand side of the entrance gate which is the place to enter the main section.

Muhammad Ali Mosque architectural design

The design of the Mohamed Ali Mosque was made based on the model of Sultan Ahmed Mosque which is located in Istanbul.

The mosque design is in the shape of a rectangular and contains two sections, the first one is the Eastern Section which is the main section at the mosque and called “Beit al-Salah”. This part includes Mohamed Ali’s Tomb and made especially for the prayers.

The second one is the Western Section or as it called the courtyard, this courtyard is larger than the one in the Eastern section as it’s about 177 feet high and width of 173 feet.