Al-Rifa’i Mosque Facts:
Separated from the Mosque of Sultan Hassan by a canyon-like pedestrian street, the similar scale and symmetry of the Al-Rifa’i Mosque suggest that it was erected at the same time as its neighbor. In fact, 450 years separate them.
Founded in 1819, the Al-Rifa’i Mosque was not completed until 1912. Its patron was Princess Khushyar, mother of the Europhile Khedive Ismail, who intended the mosque as a tomb for her family. It was deliberately built in a pseudo-Mamluk style, with decoration copied from existing period mosques.
The result is rather clumsy compared with the Mosque of Sultan Hassan. The overwrought interior is filled with glitzy tombs of members of the royal family, including the Khedive Ismail and Farouk, the last king of Egypt.
Also buried here is the last Shah of Iran, who found refuge in Egypt after fleeing Khomeini’s Islamic revolution in 1979.
Directly in front of the Mosque of ar-Rifai, facing the Citadel is the Mosque of Amir Akhur. Dating from the late Mamluk period, the building is distinguished by its Ablaq banding of red and white stone, its imposing dome, and double minaret finial.
The lower end of its sloping site incorporates a Kuttab or Quranic school century.
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