Rifai Mosque - Cairo
Rifai or al-Rifai Mosque is very close to Cairo Citadel and to the opposite side of the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan in Cairo. One reason to build this mosque was to bury the royal family members here. This royal mosque was built to replace a small shrine to the medieval Islamic saint Al Rifa’i.
History
The mosque was constructed in two phases between 1869 and 1912. Khoshiar Hanem, the mother of Khedive Ismail commissioned this mosque. Khushayar Hanim died in 1885 and work on this mosque stopped few years later and it wasn’t resumed until 1905. Khedive Abbas Hilmi II completed the construction of this mosque and the first Friday prayer was held here in 1912.
Construction
The Rifai Mosque was built in the Bahri Mamluk style and some of the material used in this mosque was imported from Europe. This mosque is rectangular in shape, measuring some 6500 square meters in size. 1767 square meters of this area is reserved for praying.
It is said that nineteen different kinds of marble from seven different countries were used. The designs and patterns were copied from all other mosques in Cairo and used here. Dikka is a raised platform from which the respondents repeat the phase of prayer so it can be followed by everyone in the prayer hall.
Tombs inside the Rifai Mosque
Mausoleum of Farouk I of Egypt is inside the mosque and he was the last King of Egypt and the Sudan. King Farouk I died on 18 March 1965 thus making him the last ruler of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty.
Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran was buried in this mosque also but his body was moved to Iran in 1944. An Iranian flag beside the grave of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, he was son of Reza Shah of Iran. He died on 27 July 1980 in Cairo.
Door of the main entrance on the western side which is closed most of the times because side entrance is used to access the mosque.
