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The initial surface of the Amr Ibn Al-As 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, or "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 riwaqs, they consisted of six colonnades each.
The mosque was restored in Murad Bey's reign in AD 1798. It was also given a description by the archaeologist Pascal Coste in AD 1818. Coste said that the mosque 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 colonnade. 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, Mohammed 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. |
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