Al-Rifa'i Mosque

About Al-Rifa'i Mosque

Mosque in Egypt

Al-Rifa'i Mosque is one of Cairo's best-known historic mosques, standing in Salah al-Din Square in the Khalifa district, directly opposite the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan and below the Citadel. Khushyar Hanim, mother of Khedive Ismail, ordered its construction in 1869; work stopped in 1880 and she died in 1885, leaving the project suspended for some 25 years until Khedive Abbas Hilmi II ordered its completion in 1905. The architect Max Herz Pasha finished it in 1911, and it opened for prayer in 1912. The mosque was conceived as an architectural counterpart to the Mamluk Sultan Hassan Mosque across the square, part of a wider effort by Egypt's 19th-century rulers to link themselves with the glories of earlier Islamic periods while modernising the city; the two huge buildings look as if they belong to one age although about five and a half centuries separate them. It rose on the site of the Rifa'i zawiya, where Sheikh Ali Abu Shubbak al-Rifa'i, from whom the mosque takes its name, and Sheikh Yahya al-Ansari are buried. Al-Rifa'i also serves as the royal mausoleum of the Muhammad Ali family: Khedive Ismail, his mother Khushyar Hanim, his wives and children, Sultan Hussein Kamel, King Fuad I and King Farouk rest here, as does the last Shah of Iran, who found refuge in Cairo after his overthrow. Other historic mosques surround the square, including al-Mahmudiyya, Qanibay al-Rammah and Gawhar al-Lala.

Where:

Cairo, Egypt