page_title: Fatimid architecture
section_title: Al-Hakim Mosque
hierarchical_section_title: Fatimid architecture / Mosques / Al-Hakim Mosque
caption_attribution_description: Cour de la Mosquée Al-Hakim
context_page_description: The Fatimid architecture that developed in the Fatimid Caliphate of North Africa combined elements of eastern and western architecture, drawing on Abbasid architecture, Byzantine, Ancient Egyptian, Coptic architecture and North African traditions; it bridged early Islamic styles and the medieval architecture of the Mamluks of Egypt, introducing many innovations.
  The wealth of Fatimid architecture was found in the main cities of Mahdia, Al-Mansuriya and Cairo. The heartland of architectural activity and expression during Fatimid rule was at al-Qahira, the old city of Cairo, on the eastern side of the Nile, where many of the palaces, mosques and other buildings were built. Al-Aziz Billah is generally considered to have been the most extensive of Fatimid builders, credited with at least thirteen major landmarks including the completion of the Great Palaces, the Cairo Mosque, a fortress, a belvedere, a bridge and public baths.
  The Fatimid caliphs competed with the rulers of the Abbasid and Byzantine empires, and indulged in luxurious palace building. Their palaces, their greatest architectural achievements, are known only by written descriptions, however.
context_section_description: The Al-Hakim Mosque is named after Imam Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (985–1021), the third Fatimid caliph to rule in Egypt. Construction of the mosque started in 990. 
  In 1002–3 Caliph al-Hakim ordered completion of the building. 
  The southern minaret has an inscription with his name and the date of 393 (1003). Significant changes were made to the minarets in 1010. At first the mosque was outside the city walls, but when Badr al-Jamali rebuilt the walls he enclosed a larger area, and the north wall of the mosque became part of the new stone city wall.  The mosque was badly damaged in the 1303 earthquake, and suffered further damage in later years. By the nineteenth century it was ruined, but has since been reconstructed.
  The mosque is an irregular rectangle with four arcades that surround the courtyard. As with the Ibn Tulun mosque, the arches are pointed and rest on brick piers. It resembles the al-Azhar mosque in having three domes along the qibla wall, one at each corner and one over the mihrab. Also like al-Azhar, the prayer hall is crossed by a transept at right angles to the qibla. This wide and tall central aisle leading to the prayer niche borrows from the Mahdiya mosque's design. 
  The al-Hakim mosque differs from the al-Azhar and Ibn Tulun mosques in having two stone minarets at the corners of the stone façade, which has a monumental projecting portal like the Mosque of Mahdiya.
caption: Interior courtyard of the Al-Hakim Mosque, Cairo
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