Al-Burdayni Mosquee

Al-Burdayni Mosquee 

Cairo is often called the city of minarets in 1000, but it can actually be more than many small mosques and even more who really do not need, and were built without minarets. Cario everywhere, there are many small mosques and even today, a number of relatively wealthy members of the Muslim mosques or private funds in small populated Cairo. This is a tradition that has carried out since ancient times. Al-Burdayni mosque is a gem of a structure traditionally dated between 1616 and 1629. However, it was completed in 1694 by a wealthy merchant. It was started by a religious scholar named Karim al-Din al-Burdayni who lived in the Ottoman period, but that was not a Turk, or even a member of the ruling class, but an Egyptian sheikh rite Shafi ' i. Therefore, there was no real royal support for this facility primarily funded by the private sector. Perhaps because of this, the minaret is not characteristic of the Ottoman style, and in fact the entire facade is totally Mamluk a renewal period Qaytbay. 

It is a very small mosque, in fact no larger than a square room with a raised gallery at the north-west end, though richly decorated. The walls are completely covered in marble panels, marble arches and mosaic and marble roundels, while the reflections of soft golden ceiling and the windows burst of color. Located in the Dawudiyya area not far from the much darker Malika Safiyya Mosque, it is an architectural jewel.

The mosque has two facades. Western provides the input to the minaret on the right side gate. The history of the fist is octagonal minaret, while the second part is carved. The final upper consists of a bulb sitting on a balcony stalactites, and is an imitation of the late Mamluk minarets with a first story ornate carved keel semicircular niches framed by moldings. The two balconies on the rest of the minaret stalactites of different models. Therefore, the only real difference between this and old Mamluk minaret structures is that the bulb is not centered on an octagonal pavilion, but located directly above the upper balcony. However, the quality of the sculpture is less refined than the period Qaytbay. This is the only period Ottoman minaret with an inscription band, here placed on the octagonal section dating from 1623, much later than the mosque itself.

 The mosque is L-shaped, with the qibla wall completely covered with polychrome marble panels. Other w3alls have a strong marble dada. The windows have both stucco decorations and stained glass color. The prayer niche, richly decorated with inlaid marble and blue glass paste, is one of the finest examples of decoration in the Mamluk tradition, while the ceiling is richly painted.

Detail, Windows and Doorway of the Mosque of al-Burdayni

More Details, including (right) the minarets