Қайыр мешіті: Мысырдың тарихи жәуһері

Mosque in Cairo, Egypt

The al Hakim Mosque (مسجد الحاكم), nicknamed al Anwar (الانور), is a historic mosque in Cairo, Egypt. It is named after al Ḥākim bi Amr Allāh (985–1021), the 6th Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismāʿīlī Imam. Construction of the mosque was originally started by Caliph al ʿAziz, the son of al Muʿizz and the father of al Ḥākim, in 990 CE. It was completed in 1013 by al Ḥākim, which is why it is named after him. The mosque is located in Islamic Cairo, on the east side of al Muʿizz Street, just south of Bab al Futuh (the northern city gate). In the centuries since its construction, the mosque was often neglected and re purposed for other functions, eventually falling into ruin. In 1980, a major restoration and reconstruction of the mosque was completed by the Dawoodi Bohras, resulting in its reopening for religious use. Finally, its inauguration took place in Ramadan of the year 1013. It measured 120 meters by 113 meters when it was finished and was more than double the size of the al Azhar Mosque. Al Hakim allocated 40,000 dinars to the construction and then another 5,000 dinars to its furnishings. The al Hakim Mosque was also known by an epithet, al Anwar ('the Illuminated'), similar in style to the name of the earlier al Azhar Mosque founded by the Fatimids. A ziyada, or a walled outer enclosure, was also added around the mosque later, begun by Caliph al Zahir (r. 1021–1036) but completed much later under the Ayyubid sultan al Salih Najm al Din (r. 1240–1249) and the Mamluk sultan Aybak (r. 1250–1257).

In 1303, during the Mamluk period, the mosque was severely damaged by an earthquake and was subsequently restored by Sultan Baybars II al Jashankir. By that time, the mosque was also being used to teach Islamic law from the four Sunni maddhabs. The use of "unauthentic" materials and additions during the restoration has been criticized by scholars and conservationists, particularly when judged by the standards of the Venice Charter. The mosque was reopened after restorations in February 2023. On June 25, 2023, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi visited the mosque along with Prime Minister of Egypt, Mostafa Madbouly and son of Mufaddal Saifuddin, Husain Burhanuddin.

The facades and minarets of the mosque are made from stone, while the rest of the structure is made of brick. This layout is similar to the layout of the older Ibn Tulun Mosque and the al Azhar Mosque. The mosque's original Fatimid portal has not been preserved; the current portal was reconstructed during the mosque's modern restoration according to earlier descriptions provided by K. A. C. Creswell.

The most spectacular feature of the mosque is the minarets on either side of the facade. The northern minaret is 33.7 meters high while the southern minaret is 24.7 meters high. The minarets were originally built in 1003, but the massive bastion towers or salients (referred to as arkān in Arabic sources) that define their lower parts today were added in 1010, after their initial construction, for reasons that remain unclear. The inner (original) minaret towers have a multi tier design with different forms: the northern minaret has a square base and a cylindrical shaft above it, whereas the southern minaret is composed of a taller square base with an octagonal shaft above it.

Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, Shukr Niʿam Aṣhāb al Barakāt. Aljamea tus Saifiyah Publications, Mumbai, India, 2017
Aljamea tus Saifiyah, Al Jāmiʿ al Anwar: The Luminous Masjid. Middlesex, UK, 2016
Aliasger Madraswala, The Iḥyāʾ of al Jāmiʿ al Anwar: Religious Values in the Restoration of Sacred Islamic Monuments. PhD dissertation at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK, 2020