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The Attarine Mosque in Alexandria, Egyptby Seif Kamel

The Attarine district is considered to be one of the most interesting areas in Alexandria . It is asprawling antiques district. There are antiqueshops piled high with European furniture andtrinkets that date back to Napoleonic times.Here, also, the intriguing belongings of manyEuropeans who fled the 1952 revolution areup for sale.

The Attarine Mosque is located inthe middle of this unique area, onAttarine Mosque Street. Thismosque was originally a churchdedicated to Saint Athanasius in370 AD. When Islam came toEgypt , the church was convertedinto a small mosque, which was

built up and eventually becameknown as the Mosque of aThousand Columns. As time

passed, this mosque started to getold and some of its ceilings weredamaged at the beginning of theFatimid period .

Badr El Gamaly, the general of thearmy, came to Alexandria to put

down the revolution started by hisolder son, Muzafar El Dawla, whowas trying to create anindependent state apart from theFatimid rule in Alexandria in 1055AD (447 H). Badr placed the city

under siege for an entire month before he was able to enter Alexandria, after which he took hisson Muzafar prisoner. Badr punished the people of Alexandria, because they helped his son inhis revolution, by ordering high taxes to be collected from everyone, Christians and Muslimsalike.

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Badr took some of this money andrestored the mosque of Al Attarinein 1057 AD (449 H), after which it

became a congregational mosquefor Friday prayers. At the time thatthe Attarine Mosque was rebuilt,Alexandria had two mosques . Onewas the western mosque, or oldmosque, built by Amr Ibn El Aaswhen he conquered Egypt . Henamed it the "Mosque of theThousand Columns. The secondwas the eastern, or new mosque of Attarine, so named because of itslocation in the Attarine area inAlexandria . The word Attarinemeans 'the spice dealers'. It had, at

the time, not been acongregational mosque for some time. It was only practiced in the western mosque of Amr IbnEl Aas before the period of Al Nassir Ibn Qalawun, who ordered the practice of Friday prayer inthe Attarine mosque continued once again.

The mosque has suffered much damage andrenovation throughout its history. In 1370 AD(772 H), one of the columns of the mosque was

broken, although this didnt cause any major damage. In 773 H, the mosque was renovatedand there was a small garden placed beside it,which was a custom in mosques in North

African countries and Spain. However, in theMamluk and Ottoman periods the mosque wasneglected. Therefore, the ceiling and the walls of the mosque were damaged. When Abbas II

became the ruler of Egypt in 1901, he orderedhis men to plan a whole renovation process for the mosque. What we see today is the result of that renovation.

The mosque was designed in a rectangular shapethat appears triangular from outside, with theminaret in the corner of the triangle in the

southeastern part of the mosque. The mosqueactually has two facades. The first one is in thenortheast portion of the mosque where the mainentrance door is located. The other entrance door of the mosque is located on the eastern side of the mosque, and it leads to the mausoleum of the

mosque. The southern part of the mosque consists of eight commercial stores. The profit fromthese stores is used to pay for the expenses of the mosque.

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However, perhaps the most alluringelement of this mosque is its minarets,which many believe to be one of the most

beautiful in Egypt . It consists of four levels. The first level or base of theminaret is square in shape. The secondlevel is an octagon shape. The third level,where the Imam stands and call for

prayer, is circular shaped and hasaccurate, marvelous decorations allaround it. The fourth level is a wonderfulsmall circular dome with astonishingdecorations.

The interior of the mosque consists of two floors. Thefirst floor hosts the prayers of men while the second floor isonly for women. The firstfloor of the mosque is arectangular shaped area withfour huge stone doublecolumns that in tern supportarches that support the ceiling.

The ceiling of the middle partof the mosque was coveredwith an open square dome, or a shokhsheikha. This isactually more of a skylightthan a dome, with four decorated windows on eachside. Under these windows,

there is a line of Islamic inscriptions from the Quran. Overall, the ceiling of the mosque is themost appealing element within the mosque. It is covered with amazing paintings of geometricflowers. The lighting of the mosque is appealing as well. There are two kinds of lanterns in the mosque.The first type are gold plated lanterns with many arms, each holding a lamp at the end. Thesecond type are huge brass lanterns, such as one that hangs from the shokhsheikha. These brass

lanterns have Islamic decorations all around them. The qibla wall, which is always on the side of the mosque facing Mecca to indicate the directionin which Muslims should pray, lies in the northeast part of the mosque . It is where the mihrab of the mosque is located. The mihrab of the mosque is wider than most mihrabs in mosques inEgypt . It is decorated with green and brown paint and has two gold plated columns on its sides.At the top of the mihrab there is a verse from the Quran which says that the angels asked theMuslims to pray in the direction of the mihrab.

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The minbar (basically the Islamic equivalent to the pulpit always located to the right of themihrab) of the mosque lies to the side of the mihrab and it's design is very simple. However, it ismade of one of the finest kinds of wood. The door of the minbar has gold plated designs allaround it and there is a small triangle shaped dome at the top. A visit to the Attarine Mosque is very interesting for various reasons, one being to see how thishistoric mosque has transformed through time. The only remaining original item is the stonestating that the mosque was built by Badr El Gamaly. Another reason for visiting the mosque isto see the wonderful architecture, including one of the most beautiful minarets in Egypt.Enjoying the variety of shops while walking through the Attarine district is also alwaysappealing.

The double columns supporting arches surrounding the shokhsheikha

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