page_title: An-Nasir Hasan
section_title: Building works
hierarchical_section_title: An-Nasir Hasan / Building works
caption_attribution_description: English: The Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan is a massive Mamluk era mosque and madrassa located near the Citadel in Cairo. Its construction began 757 AH/1356 CE with work ending three years later "without even a single day of idleness".[1] At the time of construction the mosque was considered remarkable for its fantastic size and innovative architectural components. Commissioned by a sultan of a short and relatively unimpressive profile, al-Maqrizi noted that within the mosque were several "wonders of construction".[1] The mosque was, for example, designed to include schools for all four of the Sunni schools of thought: Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanafi and Hanbali. This is a photo of a monument in Egypt identified by the ID EG-ASN-001
context_page_description: An-Nasir Badr ad-Din Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Qalawun, better known as an-Nasir Hasan, was the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, and the seventh son of an-Nasir Muhammad to hold office, reigning twice in 1347–1351 and 1354–1361. During his first reign, which he began at age 12, senior Mamluk emirs formerly belonging to an-Nasir Muhammad, dominated his administration, while an-Nasir Hasan played a ceremonial role. He was toppled in 1351 when he attempted to assert executive authority to the chagrin of the senior emirs. He was reinstated three years later during a coup against his brother Sultan as-Salih Salih by emirs Shaykhu and Sirghitmish.
  During his second reign, an-Nasir Hasan maneuvered against the leading emirs, gradually purging them and their supporters from the administration through imprisonment, forced exile and execution. He replaced many mamluks with awlad al-nas, who he found to be more reliable, competent and amiable with the public. An-Nasir Hasan was killed by one of his own mamluks, Yalbugha al-Umari, who headed a faction opposed to an-Nasir Hasan's elevation of the awlad al-nas.
context_section_description: In line with the favoritism he showed to Muslim scholars in his court, an-Nasir Hasan was responsible for the construction of a massive mosque-madrasa complex bearing his name, known today as the Sultan Hasan Mosque and Madrasa, in Rumaila, Cairo. Construction of the complex began in 1357 and was worked on daily at the expense of 20,000 silver dirhams a day for the following three years. Construction continued following an-Nasir Hasan's death under the patronage of his senior aide, Bashir Agha al-Jamdar, who oversaw the complex's completion in 1363. The complex was described by al-Maqrizi as a sanctuary with no equals among the mosques and madrasas of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, North Africa or Yemen. Likewise, Mamluk-era historians Ibn Taghribirdi and Ibn Shahin describe the complex as having no equal in the world, while Ibn Habib described it as superior in greatness to the Pyramids of Giza. Western travelers Pietro Della Valle and Jean Thevenot both described it as the finest mosque they had ever seen. 
  The complex's construction was noted to be remarkable by the modern historian Oleg Grabar because in his opinion, the complex's patron, an-Nasir Hasan, was a generally weak leader for much of his reign and construction of the expensive complex occurred at a time of severe economic instability in the aftermath of the Black Plague in Cairo. Mamluk-era historian Ibn Iyas wrote that most of the funds for the complex derived from a huge treasure of gold found under the site, but Egyptian historian Howayda al-Harithy contends that the funds likely came from mass appropriations of property by an-Nasir Hasan from plague victims who left no legal heirs. An-Nasir Hasan chose the complex's site from the two palaces built by his father for his emirs Altunbugha al-Maridani and Yalbugha al-Yahyawi, demolishing both to make way for the complex.
  A double-mausoleum structure in Cairo's Southern Cemetery (the Qarafa or City of the Dead), known as the Sultaniyya Mausoleum, is also attributed to Sultan Hassan and was dedicated to this mother.
  Starting in 1360, an-Nasir Hasan commenced other architectural projects in the sultanate, including the Qa'a al-Baysariyya tower at the Cairo Citadel, described by al-Maqrizi as a structure unique in Mamluk architecture. The Qa'a al-Baysariyya was a high, domed tower decorated with bejeweled gold bands. Other projects included a madrasa complex in Jerusalem in 1361, and sabil-kuttabs (public fountains attached to open galleries where the Qur'an was taught) in Jerusalem, Gaza, Damascus and other towns. An-Nasir Hasan also commissioned a major renovation of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
caption: The Sultan Hasan Mosque and Madrasa, commissioned by an-Nasir Hasan in 1357 and completed in 1363
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