The Blue Mosque, or Aqsunqur Mosque, is an exceptional example of early Mamluk religious architecture, and the largest mosque in the Bab al-Wazir district of Cairo. Built in 1347 by Amir Aqsunqur, it incorporates a mausoleum and impressive courtyard for prayer.

The general layout of the mosque consists of a large open courtyard (sahn) enclosed by four arcades (riwaqs).There are three main entrances with the main portal opening into the western arcade. The latter consists of a large pointed arch with corbels on the front edges of its roof. Facing the courtyard is the dikka (“tribune”) from which the Qur’an is
recited. The structure uses Western European-style capitals that Islamic architecture expert Doris Behrens-Abouseif believes were taken from Crusader-era structures in the Levant.

Kujuk’s mausoleum is situated at the portal’s northern side and has two facades facing the street. Of the two alternative entrances, one opens into the southern arcade while the other opens between the northern and western arcades. Unlike other tombs in Cairo, Kujuk’s mausoleum, which predates the mosque, is not aligned according to the qibla (“orientation with Mecca”) and instead is aligned with the street. This structure is the principal feature unique to other major mosques in Egypt.

Above the prayer hall sits a brick one-bay dome carried on four brick squinches. A large brick dome supported by brick squinches is also situated atop the mausoleum of Kujuk. However, the latter has a pendentive below each squinch. When the mosque was originally built this technique of using plain squinches was considered classical. Two stone domes are located over the mausoleum of Tankizbugha and another stone dome is built above the tomb of Umm as-Sultan al-Sha’ban.

The mosque’s interior also has an irregular layout mostly due to Ibrahim Agha’s renovations which replaced most of the original cross-vaulting of the arcades with columns supporting a flat wooden ceiling. The only part of the mosque that continues to employ Aqsunqur’s interior design is the qibla wall which uses cross-vaults that rest on octagonal-shaped piers. The technique of cross-vaults is a reflection of Islamic Syrian architectural influence. Along with the Mosque of Amir al-Maridani, the Aqsunqur Mosque has a hypostyle plan which is rare in Cairo and typically associated with Syrian style mosques.

The mihrab (“prayer niche” that indicates qibla) was built in a geometric interlace style typically found in Mamluk architecture. The design is used in the mihrab’s spandrels. Other features of the mihrab include the hood’s relief painted carvings, fluctuating lintel panels, marble panels, carved marble registers and mosaic inlay. To the right of the mihrab is the marble minbar (“pulpit.”) Decorated with light grey, salmon, green and plum-coloured stone inserts, it is the oldest and one of the handful remaining marble minbars used in a Cairo mosque. The handrail is also built of marble and has a pattern of rolling leaf and grape clusters carved from the stone.

The brick one-bay dome above the mihrab is carried on four plain squinches built of brick. Similar squinches are also used to carry the brick dome over the mausoleum of Kujuk, but with a pendentive underneath each squinch. By the time this foundation was built, the use of plain squinches in the transitional zones of domes instead of muqarnas pendentives or squinches was old-fashioned. The blue Iznik tiles on the qibla wall were installed in 1652-64 by Ibrahim Agha, who seized and redecorated the mosque. They were imported either from Istanbul or from Damascus.

A curious feature of the original scheme of this mosque is its employment of piers sustaining cross-vaults. This is a departure from the standard structural scheme for the interior of hypostyle mosques from the Bahri period, which consists of arcades formed by marble columns carrying arches which support a flat wooden ceiling. However, Aqsunqur, who is reported by al-Maqrizi to have himself been the supervisor on the construction site, had been governor of Tripoli, Syria, the great mosque of which (1294-1314) follows a hypostyle scheme with cross vaults on piers. In addition to these vaults on piers, the mosque has arcades on columns supporting a flat wooden ceiling, probably a later addition.

The mosque’s first restoration came in 1652 under the Ottoman Amir Ibrahim Agha Mustafazan and included refurbishing the mausoleum with the blue Iznik tiles that lend the mosque its name. However, between 2009 and 2012, The Aqsunqur Mosque conservation project was implemented. This project was the largest in size carried out by the conservation team in Cairo. The mosque had been vacated from religious use following the 1992 earthquake. While structural reinforcement of the building was a prerequisite to be able to remove temporary shoring in the main arches, the main scope of intervention concerned the intricate decoration made of polychrome stones and marbles, blue Iznik tiles and painted ceilings. Gentle cleaning of all exterior facades and courtyard elevations revealed the original decorative pattern of the façade alternating bands of red and white stone, including marble incrustations. In the interior, the level of deterioration of the polychrome marble panels in Ibrahim Agha Mustahfazan’s mausoleum due to capillary rising damp made it necessary to dismantle and reassemble a significant number of broken panels. Conserved with grout injections, poultice cleaning and integration of lacuna, the interior decoration is now well preserved and presented in an integrated manner.