The minbar of the Ibrahimi Mosque is an 11th-century minbar (mosque pulpit) in the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron, West Bank. The minbar was commissioned by the Fatimid vizier Badr al-Jamali in 1091 for the Shrine of Husayn's Head in Ascalon (present-day Ashkelon) but was moved to its current location by Salah ad-Din (Saladin) in 1191.
The first minbar in the Muslim world was Muhammad's minbar in Medina produced in 629. [1] In later periods minbars were produced for every major Friday mosque and developed into a symbol of political and religious legitimacy. The minbar of a mosque was significant not only because it was the only major formal furnishing of the mosque and the symbolic seat of the imam or caliph, but also because it was the setting for the weekly Friday sermon ( khutba ) which usually mentioned the name of the current Muslim ruler and included other public announcements of a religious or political nature. [2] [1]
The minbar of the Ibrahimi Mosque was originally commissioned in 1091-92 CE (484 AH) for the Shrine of Husayn's Head by Badr al-Jamali, the Fatimid grand vizier under Caliph al-Mustansir. [3] [2] At the time, Badr al-Jamali had just reestablished Fatimid control over the coastal regions of Syria (Lebanon and Palestine) during a 1089 military campaign. [4] Ascalon, one of the southernmost cities along this coast, was a strategic fortress located at the beginning of the road from the Levant to Cairo (the Fatimid capital). It was here that in 1091 the head of Husayn ibn Ali (the Shi'a Imam and grandson of Muhammad, killed in 680) was "miraculously" discovered. This granted the city a new religious significance, especially for the Shi'a Fatimids. Badr ordered the immediate construction of a mashhad (a memorial mosque and shrine), [4] known as the Mashhad Ḥusayn, [5] to house Husayn's head and to serve as the Friday mosque of the city. He commissioned the minbar, by then a standard feature of Friday mosques, for this occasion to serve the new mosque. [4]
Later, in 1153, the head of Husayn was moved by the Fatimids from Ascalon to a new shrine in Cairo (now the al-Hussein Mosque), but Ascalon continued to be visited by pilgrims after this and the minbar remained there. [6] [5] In 1187 Salah ad-Din (Saladin) succeeded in recapturing Jerusalem from Crusaders and securing Muslim (Ayyubid) control over most of the region. However, he judged that Ascalon was too vulnerable to a Crusader counterattack and he worried about its potential use as an enemy bridgehead against the newly recaptured Jerusalem. He therefore decided to demolish the city in 1191 but transferred the Fatimid minbar of al-Husayn's now-empty mashhad to the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, which was also a holy site and was situated at a safer distance from the Crusader threat. [5] The minbar has remained there until the present day.
The minbar, made of many wood pieces assembled together, is considered a significant piece of Islamic art and one of the most significant historic minbars in the medieval Muslim world. [2] [3] It is also the oldest surviving minbar in this style of woodwork with geometric decoration; a style also seen in the design of the later Minbar of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (which was also a gift from Salah ad-Din). [2]
Like other minbars, it has the form of a staircase with a doorway portal at its bottom and a kiosk with cupola at its summit. Both the top of the portal and the contour of the copula are crowned with gilded muqarnas sculpting. The doors of the minbar consist of two panels covered with carved geometric star patterns. Above the doors is a carved panel with a long Arabic inscription in Kufic script, while another long Kufic inscription runs along the outer frame of the doorway. [2] [7] The portal and the kiosk of the minbar probably date from a later period than the rest of it, perhaps from the Mamluk period. [8]
The flanks of the minbar are covered in a large motif consisting of interlacing strapwork forming a geometric pattern of hexagons and hexagrams, with each piece of the surface carved with intricate arabesques. [2] [7] The inscriptions record the construction of the minbar and of the original Ascalon shrine by Badr al-Jamali on behalf of the Fatimid caliph. [4]
The Fatimid Caliphate was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD under the rule of the Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia, it ranged from the western Mediterranean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids trace their ancestry to the Islamic prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima and her husband, ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shi‘a imam. The Fatimids were acknowledged as the rightful imams by different Isma‘ili communities as well as by denominations in many other Muslim lands and adjacent regions. Originating during the Abbasid Caliphate, the Fatimids conquered Ifriqiya and established the city of al-Mahdiyya. The Fatimid dynasty ruled territories across the Mediterranean coast and ultimately made Egypt the center of the caliphate. At its height, the caliphate included—in addition to Egypt—varying areas of the Maghreb, Sicily, the Levant, and the Hejaz.
The al-Hakim Mosque, nicknamed al-Anwar, is a historic mosque in Cairo, Egypt. It is named after Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (985–1021), the sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili Imam. Construction of the mosque was originally started by Caliph al-'Aziz, the son of al-Mu'izz and the father of al Hakim, in 990 AD. It was completed in 1013 by al-Hakim, which is why it is named after him.
A minbar is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam stands to deliver sermons. It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Hussainiya where the speaker sits and lectures the congregation.
Islamic Cairo, or Medieval Cairo, officially Historic Cairo, refers mostly to the areas of Cairo, Egypt, that were built from the Muslim conquest in 641 CE until the city's modern expansion in the 19th century during Khedive Ismail's rule, namely: the central parts within the old walled city, the historic cemeteries, the area around the Citadel of Cairo, parts of Bulaq, and Old Cairo which dates back to Roman times and includes major Coptic Christian monuments.
The Mosque of Ibn Tulun is located in Cairo, Egypt. It is one of the oldest mosques in Egypt as well as the whole of Africa surviving in its full original form, and is the largest mosque in Cairo in terms of land area. It is built around an open square courtyard which allows natural light to travel through. Ibn Tulun Mosque features ancient architecture styles of Egypt, its decorations being created from carved stucco and wood. This mosque is a popular tourist attraction.
Abū al-Qāsim Aḥmad ibn al-Mustanṣir, better known by his regnal name al-Mustaʿlī biʾllāh, was the ninth Fatimid caliph and the nineteenth imam of Musta'li Ismailism.
The Mosque of al-Salih Tala'i is a late Fatimid-era mosque built by the vizier Tala'i ibn Ruzzik in 1160. It is located south of Bab Zuweila, just outside the southern entrance to the old walled city of Cairo.
Abū'l-Najm Badr ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Jamālī al-Mustanṣirī, better known as Badr al-Jamali, was a vizier and prominent statesman for the Fatimid Caliphate under Caliph al-Mustansir. His appointment to the vizierate in 1073 restored the fortunes of the Fatimid state, which had faced collapse in the previous decades, but also began a period where the vizierate was dominated by military strongmen who held power through their military strength, rather than through the Caliph's appointment. An Armenian Badr al-Jamali initiated a wave of Armenian migration into Egypt, and was the first of a series of viziers of Armenian origin, who played a major role in the fortunes of the Fatimid Caliphate over the subsequent century.
The al-Hussein Mosque or al-Husayn Mosque, also known as the Mosque of al-Imam al-Husayn and the Mosque of Sayyidna al-Husayn, is a mosque and mausoleum of Husayn ibn Ali, originally built in 1154, and then later reconstructed in 1874. The mosque is located in Cairo, Egypt, near the Khan El-Khalili bazaar, near-by the famous Al Azhar Mosque, in an area known as Al-Hussain. It is considered to be one of the holiest Islamic sites in Egypt. Some Shia Muslims believe that Husayn's head is buried on the grounds of the mosque where a mausoleum is located today and considered to be what is left of the Fatimid architecture in the building.
Bab al-Nasr, is one of three remaining gates in the historic city wall of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. The gate's construction is dated to 1087 and was ordered by Badr al-Jamali, a Fatimid vizier. It is located at the northern end of Shari'a al-Gamaliya in the old city of Cairo and slightly east of another contemporary gate, Bab al-Futuh.
Al-Muizz li-Din Allah al-Fatimi Street, or al-Muizz Street for short, is a major north-to-south street in the walled city of historic Cairo, Egypt. It is one of Cairo's oldest streets as it dates back to the foundation of the city by the Fatimid dynasty in the 10th century, under their fourth caliph, Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah . Historically, it was the most important artery of the city and was often referred to as the Qasaba. It constituted the main axis of the city's economic zones where its souqs (markets) were concentrated. The street's prestige also attracted the construction of many monumental religious and charitable buildings commissioned by Egypt's rulers and elites, making it a dense repository of historic Islamic architecture in Cairo. This is especially evident in the Bayn al-Qasrayn area, which is lined with some of the most important monuments of Islamic Cairo.
Fatimid art refers to artifacts and architecture from the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171), an empire based in Egypt and North Africa. The Fatimid Caliphate was initially established in the Maghreb, with its roots in a ninth-century Shia Ismailist Many monuments survive in the Fatimid cities founded in North Africa, starting with Mahdia, on the Tunisian coast, the principal city prior to the conquest of Egypt in 969 and the building of al-Qahira, the "City Victorious", now part of modern-day Cairo. The period was marked by a prosperity amongst the upper echelons, manifested in the creation of opulent and finely wrought objects in the decorative arts, including carved rock crystal, lustreware and other ceramics, wood and ivory carving, gold jewelry and other metalware, textiles, books and coinage. These items not only reflected personal wealth, but were used as gifts to curry favour abroad. The most precious and valuable objects were amassed in the caliphal palaces in al-Qahira. In the 1060s, following several years of drought during which the armies received no payment, the palaces were systematically looted. The libraries largely destroyed, precious gold objects melted down, with a few of the treasures dispersed across the medieval Christian world. Afterwards Fatimid artifacts continued to be made in the same style, but were adapted to a larger populace using less precious materials.
The Aqmar Mosque, was built in Cairo, Egypt, as a neighborhood mosque by the Fatimid vizier al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi in 1125-6 CE. The mosque is situated on what was once the main avenue and ceremonial heart of Cairo, known today as al-Mu'izz Street, in the immediate neighborhood of the former Fatimid caliphal palaces. The mosque is an important monument of Fatimid architecture and of historic Cairo due to the exceptional decoration of its exterior façade and the innovative design of its floor plan.
The Juyushi Mosque is a historic monument in Cairo, Egypt. The mosque is dated to 1085 CE, during reign of the Fatimid Imam-Caliph al-Mustansir Billah. Its construction was sponsored by Badr al-Jamali, the vizier of al-Mustansir, who was Amir al-Juyush. It is located on the Muqattam hills above the Southern Cemetery of Cairo.
The Fatimid architecture that developed in the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1167 CE) of North Africa combined elements of eastern and western architecture, drawing on Abbasid architecture, Byzantine, Ancient Egyptian, Coptic architecture and North African traditions; it bridged early Islamic styles and the medieval architecture of the Mamluks of Egypt, introducing many innovations.
The al-Sayyida Nafisa Mosque is a mosque in al-Sayyida Nafisa district, a section of the larger historic necropolis called al-Qarafa in Cairo, Egypt. It is built to commemorate Sayyida Nafisa, an Islamic saint and member of the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The mosque contains her mausoleum, also known as a mashhad. She was the great-granddaughter of Hasan, one of the Prophet Muhammad's two grandsons. Along with the necropolis around it, the mosque is listed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Historic Cairo.
The Great Palaces of the Fatimid Caliphs were a vast and lavish palace complex built in the late 10th century in Cairo, Egypt, to house the Fatimid caliphs, their households, and the administration of their state. There were two main palace complexes, the Eastern and the Western Palace. They were located in the center of the walled city of Cairo around the area still known today as Bayn al-Qasrayn.
The Minbar of the Kutubiyya Mosque is a minbar produced in Cordoba, Spain, in the early 12th century by order of the Almoravid amir Ali ibn Yusuf. The minbar was commissioned for the main mosque of Marrakesh, the Almoravid capital in Morocco. After the Almohad conquest of Marrakesh in 1147, the minbar was moved to the new Kutubiyya Mosque built by Abd al-Mu'min. It remained there until 1962, when it was moved into storage and then to the El Badi Palace for public display, where it remains today. Made primarily of wood and decorated with a variety of techniques, the minbar is considered one of the high points of Moorish, Moroccan, and Islamic art. It was enormously influential in the design of subsequent minbars produced across Morocco and the surrounding region.
The Minbar of the al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as the Minbar of Saladin, was a notable historic minbar inside the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. It was originally commissioned by Nur al-Din in 1168-69 CE in Aleppo, Syria and was later moved to Jerusalem after the city was conquered in 1187 by Salah ad-Din (Saladin). It was one of the most famous historic minbars of the Muslim world and was considered by scholars to be a highly significant object of medieval Islamic art.
The Shrine of Husayn's Head was a shrine built by the Fatimids on a hilltop adjacent to Ascalon that was reputed to have held the head of Husayn ibn Ali between c. 906 CE and 1153 CE. It was described as the most magnificent building in the ancient city, and developed into the most important and holiest Shi'a site in Palestine.
