MOSQUE OF THE SULTAN HAS SAN, FROM THE GREAT 
SQUARE OF THE RUMEYLEH. 
This is the finest Mosque in Cairo, and though it is rapidly hastening to ruin, its 
dilapidation is unchecked by repair. It is one of the finest examples of Arab architecture 
of the fourteenth century, and in plan, solidity, and scale, is unrivalled in the city. It 
was constructed by Melec-el-Naser. Abou- el-Maali Hasan ben Mohammed ben Kalaoun 
(Coste has pleasure, like Dr. Primrose, in giving all the names), in the quarter out of 
the gate of Zouaila. It was begun in 757 of the Hegira (a.d. 1356), and finished 
in three years. It stands in the highest part of the city, just below the citadel, on 
one side of the great square of the Rumeyleh, and in every general view of Cairo 
is a striking feature from its magnitude and elevation. El Makreezee said, that 
“ Islamism possessed no temple comparable to this in its architecture, its loftiness, and 
its grandeur.” 
The tomb of the Sultan is within the square part of the building, which formerly 
contained a valuable library. Its grand cornice has a noble projection, enriched with 
fretwork and honeysuckle ornaments. 
According to M. Coste, the extreme length of the irregular exterior figure is 
about five hundred feet, and the greatest length of the nave within, including the 
tomb of the Sultan, which corresponds with the choir of our cathedrals, three hundred 
and fifty-eight feet; its length, without the tomb, extending to the niche of the 
Mehrab, in the direction of Mecca, about two hundred and fifty. The tomb is 
sixty-nine feet square, and the walls about one hundred and twenty-eight feet high; 
in some parts they are twenty-five feet thick, and generally exceed thirteen feet in 
thickness. 
The general plan of this Mosque, the most perfect of its class, is a Greek cross. 
It is vaulted on every side of the court. Below that on the south-east is the sanctuary. 
Its construction is regular, in stone painted in alternate white and red bands. The 
cornice is bold and corbelled, and the parapet surmounted with ornaments formed 
like the fleur-de-lis. The principal entrance, a noble vestibule, instead of opening 
under the facade below the minarets, is placed in a narrow street; and the general 
plan has been controlled by the previous direction of the streets. It is extraordinary 
that these were not removed, for the regular structure of so grand a building; but 
perhaps a power, greater than that possessed by a tyrant ruler, forbade it. 
It is said that three years exactly were occupied in its erection, and at a daily 
cost of 20,000 drachmas of silver; an amount so enormous that it would have been 
abandoned, but that it might have been said that a sovereign of Egypt had not 
funds enough for such a work. 
