Eight Volumes Documenting Cairo’s Mosques and Shrines in the BA Encyclopedia of Islamic Heritage
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The Bibliotheca Alexandrina offers its patrons and those interested in the history of Islamic heritage access to the Encyclopedia of Islamic Shrines and Arab Monuments in Egypt and Historic Cairo, published in 2018 in eight volumes. It is one of the most prominent publications documenting the history of mosques and Islamic monuments in Egypt.
The encyclopedia was authored by researcher Hassan Qassim and edited by a select group of specialists. It is considered one of the most important references documenting the mosques, shrines, and landmarks of Cairo and Egypt, and highlighting ancient and modern urban plans, historical and archaeological landmarks, as well as biographies of a number of scholars, kings, princes, and the genealogies of Egyptian families. The author based his work on several years of field research, direct observations, and investigation of historical sources.
The volumes trace the history of Islamic architectural heritage in Egypt from the country’s Islamic conquest through the eras of successive dynasties such as the Tulunids, Ikhshidids, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, up to the era of the Muhammad Ali dynasty, and ending in the late 1960s.
The first volume presents an introduction to the history of Islamic art and architecture and its most important architectural elements, such as minarets, domes, and mihrabs, while the second volume addresses early Islamic monuments, including the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As—the oldest mosque in Egypt—and the Mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun, as well as the Fatimid mosques in Cairo and the provinces.
The encyclopedia’s chapters cover the scientific schools and the role of scholarship in Cairo during the Ayyubid and Mamluk eras and explore shrines and mosques of subsequent centuries up to the Ottoman period. They also document the vanished mosques of Fustat and the plans of Old Cairo, as well as the modern mosques built during the 20th century. The final volume features indexes, maps, and references that facilitate researchers’ ability to locate archaeological sites and shrines.