Mosque of Amr Ibn Al Ass

Description

The initial surface of the Amr Ibn Al-Ass Mosque was 25 by 15 meters or 82 by 49 feet. Its walls were built of clay bricks and its roof was lifted by palm tree trunks. It had no pulpit, minaret, or hollow mihrab “prayer niche”. It included two doors at each side facing the Qibla, or direction of prayer. Its floor was covered with pebbles and there was no courtyard in its middle.

The mosque has been subject to subsequent changes, starting from the Wallah or early Islamic era until the Mamluk era.  The European traveler, Pocok described the mosque in AD 1737. Pocok said that it consisted of a rectangular area that had an uncovered courtyard surrounded by four riwaqs, or aisles. The riwaq of the Qibla consisted of seven colonnades and the riwaq opposite to it had seven colonnades. As for the side riwaq, they consisted of six colonnades each.

Amr Ibn Al As Restoration:
The mosque was restored in Murad bey´s regin in AD 1798.It was also given a description by the archaeologist Pascal Coste in AD1818. Coste said that the mosque of Amr Ibn Al-Ass consisted of a courtyard surrounded by four riwaqs, but that the riwaq of the Qibla had only six colonnades. The opposite one consisted of one cololnnade. One of the side riwaqs consisted of two colonnades and the other of three colonnades.

One of the archaeologists painted the mosque in AD 1843.The painting shows that the mosque was completely ruined. In AD 1845 Mohamed Ali Pasha began work to restore the whole mosque with six colonnades in the riwaq of the Qibla , six colonnades over the wall opposite to it ,and another six at each side. The mosque’s plan has changed now.