History of El Attarine mosque

Athanathius, on which a small mosque was erected after the Islamic conquest of Egypt, but over time this mosque began to be demolished and some of its bishops collapsed at the beginning of the Fatimid era, when the Emir of armies Badr al-Jamali came to Alexandria in 477 ah to put down the revolution carried out by his eldest son, "the only Abu al-Hassan, nicknamed Muzaffar Al-Dawla, who had fortified the city of Alexandria after his father cursed her, Badr al-Jamali went down to the gates of the city and besieged it for a month until its people asked for safety and opened its doors for him, so he entered it and took his son captive and punished the people of Historical sources have stated that the construction of the mosque was completed in the first spring of the seventy-ninth and four hundred Hijri year and Friday prayers.

This mosque was known as the Al-Attarin mosque because it was located near the Al-Attarin market, and it was also known as the Al-Jayushi mosque, after the Emir of the armies, Badr al-Jamali, who took over its renovation and architecture. 

The Al-Attarin mosque suffered some damage, as one of its columns fell on 11 Dhu al-Qa'dah in 772 AH and broke, and no damage was caused by its fall. In the Muharram in 773 AH, the Al-Attarin mosque was repaired and covered with white, and had a green kindergarten in its bowl as a tradition. When the Khedive Abbas Helmi II built the mosque in 1901, there was nothing left of its initial architecture except the spot on which it was founded.

ground floor inside consists of a rectangular space, the prayer house, centered on four stone pillars, each of which incorporated two marble columns bearing concrete contracts, the roof of the central part of the mosque was covered with the whole roof of the mosque has been decorated with colorful ornaments based on magnificent floral and geometric motifs. At the eastern end of the south-eastern wall, there is a rectangular opening leading to the mausoleum Dome attached to the mosque, which is a square chamber with a wooden composition in the middle, and its ceiling is covered with a stone dome mounted on spherical triangles.

The dome helmet is decorated from the inside with colorful floral motifs. each wall of the mausoleum Dome, except the south-eastern wall, was opened with a moon of colored plaster decorated in the form of a vein. The dome of the mausoleum on the southeast side has a rectangular opening leading to a small rectangular chamber with the founding text of the mosque dating back to the era of Badr al-Jamali Fatimi, which is a rectangular panel inside which is written in Kufic script:

Only Allah feared what he ordered to be established by the future Amir of armies Saif al-Islam Nasser Imam Kafil Muslim judges and Hadi the advocates of the faithful Abu al-Najm Badr al-mustansiri when his passengers arrived in Alexandria and watched this mosque ruin, so he saw his good loyalty and religion renew it as a gift to Allah, may he come, in the spring of the first seventy-seven and four hundred years."

walls are covered with tiles of the wonderful and super-beautiful Kashani, similar in its decoration and colors to the tiles of the Moroccan style zellij, which is in white decorated with blue colored ornaments. The first floor of the mosque, which is dedicated to women's prayer, is reached through an ascending staircase at the northern end of the prayer house, and the layout of this floor consists of a rectangular space overlooking the prayer house on the ground floor through a stucco balcony mounted on three marble columns on the ground floor.

Description of the mosque 

Travelers described this mosque and noted its regular shape and its inner courtyard, in which the colors with baubles rotate. Its bowl is surrounded by bright trees.

The mosque has two facades, namely the north-eastern facade, which is the main facade, and the main entrance to the mosque is located at the northern end of the facade.

As for the south-western facade, there is a group of shops that were parked on the mosque to spend their rents on it.