CAIRO -

When feet touch the thresholds of the Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque, the first call that came from the first mosques in Egypt 1400 years ago, an experience expressed by its visitors, recorded by the public and imams whose throats sounded in its space with the Qur'an, rings in the ears.

This mosque, according to the owners of experiences that they expressed on the communication sites, is still filled with the breath of thousands of early Muslims, and millions of late Muslims, despite what has happened to it through the ages, what disasters it has witnessed, and what has recently been restored.

Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque, whose distinctive front facade looks like the oldest Islamic monument in (European) Egypt

In the spacious courtyard surrounding the mosque, which stands alone as the oldest Islamic monument in Egypt, the horizon opens to a rare clear sky in Cairo, saturated with noise and car exhaust in the Old Cairo region, whose buildings and streets still bear an atmosphere that may resemble those that witnessed the opening of a mosque in the city of Fustat, the capital of Egypt. After the Islamic conquest led by the great companion Amr ibn al-Aas, on the first of Muharram in the year 20 AH corresponding to the year 641 AD, the mosque of Amr ibn al-Aas was considered the first mosque in this country and Africa and the fourth in Islam, after the mosques of Basra, Kufa and Medina, according to the narrations, which participated in the construction of a number of of the Companions.

One needs to go to Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque in Cairo and pray Fajr

— Ã ML 🕊 (@AmlMabohemed6) April 19, 2022

In the spacious square, a small number of families lie on the ground, waiting for the time of sunset to start eating breakfast, surrounded by a fence that blocks the view of the square. Those who come early to reserve a place in a mosque that is crowded with worshipers during Ramadan nights to pray behind famous readers, led by Sheikh Muhammad Jibril.

Tarawih prayers at Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque during the Corona period (Archive-European)

missing ambiance

Ahmed Abdullah steps over the marble slabs and the restoration tasks in the courtyard towards the entrance to the mosque, as he turns his eyes at the mosque’s facade, which seemed glossy from the effect of polishing with modern machines, saying, “I came to the mosque when I was a student and then when I became a translator. The facade, the walls, and the columns were not like this.” The luster, which made it look like a luxurious modern mosque, was years ago in its historical condition, filled with the fragrance of sublime spirituality.”

The Ramadan before Corona was in the mosque of Amr Ibn Al-Aas, a beautiful sheikh, who prayed Tarawih, and he saw that you were in the Haram, and God willing, without mentioning his name, the sheikh called for prayers upon the unjust!

And after that, I don't talk to people again for today..


We are in a country that will hold you accountable for the lawsuit between you and our Lord, so I am not surprised by their silence,


may God take care of us https://t.co/jTR1NzsgMh

— Reem (@reem3thman) April 15, 2022

He adds in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, "Perhaps he who visited the mosque before, compared to today, finds a tightness in his chest as a result of losing that spirit, but it is still certainly inspiring to those who visit it for the first time," referring to the fact that Sheikh Muhammad Jibril stopped the imam at the mosque after his supplication for the oppressors during Tarawih prayers. Years ago.

And in Ramadan every year, tweeters express their nostalgia for the mosque in its old condition, and its authentic atmosphere.

Despite the crowds, it was the most beautiful prayer. By God, I felt that a bird was flying in the sky. May God bless the life of Sheikh Muhammad Jibril, and may God protect Amr Mosque and blind Al-Sisi to him.

— Amal (@aaAml511) April 19, 2022

We miss Sheikh Muhammad Jibril in Egypt and praying at Amr Mosque on Laylat al-Qadr

— Sayed Gomaa (@Sayed_g) April 15, 2022

There are customs that have withstood changes, as oriental sweets are still being distributed to worshipers between the eight rak’ahs of Tarawih, while cups of tea rotate between the hands of the worshipers at the break between rak’ahs, and these are “customs created by the long hours of I’tikaf in the mosque,” ​​according to Hamada Al-Mutairi, a resident of the Egypt region. Old.

Al-Mutairi added in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, "The good and affluent people in the area surrounding the mosque used to provide drinks and food to visitors to the mosque, as they are guests of the people of the region as well, and honoring them is a duty."

Frankly, I am with the development and insurance


. You do not know what happens to foreign tourists by the thugs who sit on them, and I saw this myself, especially in Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque, come. So, see what is


happening in front of the mosque of Sayyida Zainab and Mrs. Nafisa


. Insurance is required and succeeded in Sultan Hassan Mosque and the foreigners and take their rest

— MOHMD🕶 (@mohd_medo2020) April 14, 2022

Memory of ancient Egypt

This mosque is located in the ancient Egypt region, which inherited the landmarks of the first Muslim capital in Egypt, where the Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque, and near it the Interfaith Complex and historical tombs for followers of different religions.

In its beginning, the mosque represented a center of attraction around which the Arab tribes migrated from the Arabian Peninsula gathered to form the nucleus of the residents of the city of Fustat.

The location of the Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque in the Old Cairo area gives it its (European) privacy

Perhaps in one of these areas surrounding the mosque, the neighing of racing horses rose, and after it the sound of the Egyptian protesting against him being beaten with a whip by Ibn Amr Ibn Al-Aas, who says, “I am the son of the honorable,” according to a narration by Ibn Abd al-Hakam Abu al-Qasim al-Masri in his book “Futuh Misr and al-Maghrib.”

The historian refers to the fact that the Commander of the Faithful, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, summoned Ibn Al-Aas and his son to Insaf Al-Masry, and the Rightly-Guided Caliph says to the Egyptian, “Strike with the whip the son of the honorable as he struck you.” Then he said to the ruler: How long have you worshiped people when their mothers gave birth to them free?

Amr said, "O Commander of the Faithful, I did not know, and he did not come to me."

In Ramadan every year, the Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque attracts many worshipers (European)

At the beginning of its establishment, this mosque was a center for governance and a nucleus for preaching the Islamic religion in Egypt. Its ceiling was carried on palm trunks and on mud-brick walls. Then the total area gradually increased until it became, in the Umayyad era, consisting of an open middle courtyard surrounded by 4 corridors, the deepest of which is the qibla portico.

In the year 53 AH, beacons were added to it in the form of towers similar to those found in the Umayyad Mosque, and during the Abbasid era its area was increased until it reached approximately its current area.

Revival of the last ten days of Ramadan in Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque (European)

In the beginning, the "Al-Fath Mosque"

The mosque was initially called "Al-Fath Mosque" and later bore the name of the Old Mosque and the Crown of Mosques, due to its great spaciousness and superior architecture, and it had 6 doors.

The Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque exceeded its role as a mosque for prayer, to consider it an influential administrative and social center, according to historical sources, in which a court was held to settle religious and civil disputes.

Among those who taught the lessons of knowledge was Imam Al-Shafi’i, Al-Layth bin Saad, Abu Taher Al-Salafi, as Al-Izz bin Abdul Salam addressed it, and knowledge sessions were held for the various sects, until scholars estimated the students of the mosque at that time to be about two thousand students, as well as a lesson and preaching session for women. One of the famous women of her time, Umm al-Khair al-Hijazi, in the year 415 AH, is standing on it.

Expansions and renovations

Reforms and expansions followed after that at the hands of those who ruled Egypt, and with each expansion the area doubled, until Minister Shawar bin Mujir bin Nizar Al-Saadi was forced to burn the capital, including the mosque (died in Cairo on February 3, 1169) during the reign of the King, the God Almighty, during the Crusade. On the Muslim countries, specifically in 564 AH, for fear of the Crusaders occupying the city of Fustat, and a feeling of inability to defend it.

Al-Nasir Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi ordered the reconstruction of the mosque again in 568 AH, so the mosque and the great mihrab, which was covered with marble, were reconstructed and inscriptions were engraved on it, including what is in his name.

In 1212 (the era of the Ottomans), Prince Murad Bey increased the building of the mosque from the inside, and built two minarets, which are the two remaining so far, and carried out restoration operations after the fall of its iwan and the inclination of its columns.

Despite that, the completion of the restoration was celebrated on the last Friday of Ramadan, and the custom since that time has been the great popular celebration of the last Friday of Ramadan in this mosque with the prayers of princes and kings.

Tarawih prayer in the holy month of Ramadan at Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque (European)

In March 1996, a piece of 150 meters from the ceiling of the mosque collapsed in the Qibla iwan.

In general, the last decade of the nineties witnessed several disasters that befell the mosque, including the famous earthquake that shook all of Egypt in 1992 AD. Some of the mosque's columns and walls were hit with cracks and cracks that necessitated its restoration.

A large part of the wall of the mosque's campus collapsed in 1994, so the Antiquities Authority erected a 6-meter-high alternative concrete wall around the mosque and its facilities.

Today, the area of ​​the mosque is about 13,200 meters, and it still exercises its role from time to time in serving people in Egypt socially.

He said about the Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque, the late Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali - in press statements - that it should have been a private university, while the late Sheikh Abdel-Sabour Shaheen considered it a center of religious radiation, adding in press statements, "It is Azhar before Al-Azhar."