Al+Rifai+Mosque

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The Rifai Mosque is one of the greatest mosques in Egypt. It is located in Salah El Din Square right next to Sultan Hassan mosque. This Mosque is truly great and is none the less magnificent. It took 40 years to build the Al Rifai Mosque. Khoshiar Hanem the mother of Khedive Ismail was the person who insisted on building the Mosque.



The Al Rifai Mosque is an enormous mosque. It was intentionally built that way so if compared to Al Sultan Hassan Mosque it wouldn’t seem smaller. The exterior of the Al Rifai Mosque is the same as Sultan Hassan Mosque. When viewing the mosque, on the walls you can see that such effort was put forth into every aspect, since every single decoration was obviously not rushed. media type="custom" key="7892343" At the entrance of the mosque you witness two great marble pillars greeting you as you approach them. The ceiling of the entrance is golden Mamluk decoration. The brilliant architect who designed Al Rifai Mosque was Hussein Hamy Pasha. It was built in the Bahri Mamluk style, which was a famous style in the 19-20th centuries. This huge mosque is 6500 square meters of which 1767 square meters are reserved for prayer at the Eastern side. All the walls are made up of colorful marble. One last interesting feature I noticed in the mosque was the brass lanterns that were hanging from the ceilings. media type="custom" key="7892763" Something that my eyes could not break focus from was the magnificent Minbar and the Qibla wall. For those of you that don’t know, a Minbar also known as a Pulpit, a small staircase where the Sheikh or a person conducts prayers. A Qibla wall is the wall that directs the people praying to Mecca. The Minbar was beautiful it was made of alabaster and the engravings on the sides were done with such precision there was also a lot of pearl that added to the beauty of the elegant Minbar. Next to it was the Qibla wall which was glamorous.

media type="custom" key="7893133" The mosque was built in 2 phases first in 1869 and then construction resumed in 1905. This was caused by the subsequent deaths of Khosiar Hanem who died in 1885 and her son Khedive Ismail who died in 1894. After these tragic deaths the construction had froze for 25 years until Hussein Hilmy II was in power and started the construction again. The mosque was first opened on the Friday prayer in 1912. Something that the mosque is also famous for is the graves of great people such as Sheikh Ali Al Refaie himself. His grave is surrounded by sandal wood and on his tomb there are verses of the Quran written in gold calligraphy. Khosiar Hanem and her son Khedive Ismail are also buried in the Al Rifai Mosque, along with King Farouk, King Fuad of Egypt and his mother. Lastly, the Shah of Iran and his son Mohammed Reza Pahlavi who died in Cairo during the year 1980 are also buried in Al Rifai Mosque. People until today still place flowers on their graves in remembrance.