The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

vegetarian dish known as mulukhiyyah. His lifestyle was austere and
his habit of making incognito nocturnal visits to the suqs of the city
inspired many of the stories in The Thousand and One Nights. He
became more volatile as he grew older, and when he declared his
divinity and his supporters entered the mosque of Amr proclaiming
the blasphemous bismillah (invocation) ‘In the name of al-Hakim,
the compassionate and merciful’, a riot broke out. The city of Fustat
was looted and burned for three days. Soon after these events
al-Hakim disappeared in the Muqattam Hills. 13
Five days later his solitary ass and the remnants of his slashed
clothing were found, but never his body. He was probably assassinated
as a consequence of a conspiracy involving his sister, but his
supporters refused to believe he was dead. They believed their
divine caliph had gone into occultation and would return to rule,
like the Mahdi (in Shi’ite belief, a Messianic spiritual leader), in
glory and peace. The leader of these followers, al-Darazi, fled to
Syria and formed the sect known as the Druzes. These damning
accounts by Sunni historians do not, however, quite square with
other descriptions of al-Hakim’s love of learning, sense of religious
duty, almsgiving, lack of personal ostentation and accessibility to
the common people. He established a number of pious foundations
including the Rashida mosque in Fustat and a mosque in Maks and
he completed the great mosque which bears his name near the
gates of Bab al-Nasr and Bab al-Futuh. This mosque was begun by
his father, the imam-caliph al-Aziz, in 990 and completed by
al-Hakim between 1003 and 1013.
Originally the al-Hakim mosque was built outside the city walls
but was later incorporated into al-Jamali’s walls, forming a part of
that massive architectural ensemble which includes Bab al-Nasr and
Bab al-Futuh. Richard Ettinghausen and Oleg Grabar suggest it served
principally as a royal sanctuary and imperial mosque for ceremonial
purposes, isolated from the main centres of population. 14 Its plan and
form combine features from Ibn Tulun’s mosque, al-Azhar and the
mosque of Mahdiya in Tunisia. It has the same monumental simplicity
as Ibn Tulun and is likewise built substantially of brick with pointed
arches springing from rectangular piers, but its proportions are taller.
The plan of the prayer hall follows the Tunisian model with a wider,
taller, perpendicular central aisle leading towards the mihrab. Three
domes are arranged along the transverse qibla aisle, one over the
mihrab and two in the corners of the prayer hall. Unlike al-Azhar and
the Tunisian mosques, there is no corresponding dome at the front of
the central aisle facing the sahn. This central arch in the qibla riwaq is
Fatimid Architecture 59