After five years of painstaking work, the splendid Ibn Toloun Mosque is again welcoming worshippers and visitors. Nevine El-Aref attended its official inauguration When Ahmed Ibn Toloun decided to build an immense and sturdy mosque in Egypt's new Abbasid Al-Qatai (quarter) capital, he chose the solid bedrock of Gabal Yashkour at the city's core. The mosque was to resemble those in Ibn Toloun's home city of Samaraa: a vast, imposing structure built around a courtyard, with arcades running along its four walls and engaged columns at its corners. Its location was probably the reason why the Ibn Toloun Mosque survives today. The solid bedrock on which it stands, and the site's relative elevation, have protected it from natural catastrophes ranging from floods to the more insidious threat of rising groundwater -- if not always from the harm inflicted by human beings. The bricks that make up its walls are fire- resistant, and the mortar that gives them coherence has been flexible enough to absorb the shocks dealt by earthquakes or aerial bombardments -- even the tremors caused by heavy vehicles passing through neighbouring streets. Over the ages, however, the Ibn Toloun Mosque has been subject to massive deterioration. The mosque, in common with other Islamic monuments located in heavily populated areas, has suffered seriously from environmental danger including air pollution, a high subsoil water level, a high level of humidity, leakage from the Al-Madiaa (a fountain used for ritual ablution), and outdated and decayed sewerage installed 100 years ago. In the 1980s the Antiquities Authority was responsible for some shoddy restoration work that augmented the load on the mosque's original ceiling. Moreover, the mosque had lost its original function as a place of worship and been transformed into a residence for homeless people. Peace and serenity had been replaced by hassle and bustle as the open court turned out into a children's playground, while various arcades became kitchens and reception halls for visitors. The walls of the monument cracked, masonry was damaged, and the condition of the ceiling and the water fountain was critical. The ceiling decorations were heavily stained with smoke, while most of the flooring was broken. The mosque had been closed to prayer and visitors. "Birds had also a hand in the destruction," archaeologist Ayman Abdel-Moneim, who was responsible for the restoration project, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Abdel-Moneim said that in 2000, when the Ministry of Culture extended a helpful hand to rescuing monuments like this, all the mosque's external walls were dotted with holes, while birds nested between the decorated elements on the upper parts of the walls. Birds drilled holes in the walls with their beaks to extract salts and minerals accumulated from the high humidity level. Today, following five years of intensive restoration led by the Ministry of Culture on a budget of LE12 million, Ibn Toloun has regained its former grandeur. The completion of the work was celebrated on Monday night by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni and Cairo Governor Abdel-Azeem Wazir, along with top governmental officials. Nazif, delighted with the achievement, told reporters: "restoring the Ibn Toloun Mosque is a milestone in the efforts to preserve and protect Cairo's Islamic heritage. Individual monuments are being preserved for future generations, and the entire neighbourhood is being revived and upgraded." Visitors to Ibn Toloun will invariably remark on what historians described as the "peace and serenity" of the mosque, "completely cut off as it is from the noise of the street". Mokhtar El-Kassabani, Islamic archaeology professor at Cairo University, commented on the similarity of the entrance to that of the Palace of Balkuwara at Samaraa. He remarked on how strollers ambling around the area that stretches between the Citadel and Sayeda Zeinab would come across the massive edifice and be struck by its grand walls and majestic air which seem to radiate an almost daunting silence. "Now, after the destruction of the Samaraa minaret in Iraq, the Ibn Toloun minaret, which is an imitation of that at Samaraa, is the only surviving monument of the magnificent Samarian art," El-Kassabani added. Ahmed Hani, general manager of the Aswan Establishment for Construction and the contracting firm charged with implementing the Ibn Toloun project, said the restoration project rested on three main axes: support of those elements that require it, correction of the restoration work carried out in the 1980s, and upgrading of the area surrounding the sanctuary. All the mosque's walls have been reinforced, since the mortar holding the bricks together had deteriorated. Steel ties were inserted as a form of surgical intervention to link the old elements with the new. Despite the Ministry of Culture's progress in saving a part of the nation's heritage that has crumbled from decades of neglect, some historians and archaeologists are concerned that the ministry is guilty of sloppy workmanship in the restoration of the mosque. Three years ago there have been protests that there was no need to inject anything into the walls for consolidation, and that using cement contradicted UNESCO's restoration methodology. Critics accused the ministry of grouting, pinning and replacing the original brickwork. The whole restoration work has been described as "an infringement on the mosque's building integrity". Ministry officials are defending their methods. "The restoration was restricted by international guidelines on the one hand, and technological possibilities on the other," Abdel-Moneim said. He said the decision to reinforce the mosque's walls was taken on the basis of a core test that revealed the deterioration of the mortar holding the bricks together. "The cavities inside would not be visible to the naked eye, since the wall cladding remains intact," he said. The cement used in the restoration was white cement -- Portland, in this instance, not black. "International restoration conventions admit the use of white cement when necessary," argues Hani. Cement is used essentially because of its very rapid setting time: while lime and sand can take a month, white cement will set in three hours. It was used in the courtyard because the ground beneath was uneven, and it will be tiled over in beige haggari limestone. To the untrained eye, however, the principal problem with the courtyard seems to be the complete lack of drains. Open gutters are integrated into the structure's roof; so it looks as though the rainwater they collect will spill into the courtyard below. However, it cannot accumulate as the courtyard is slightly tilted. "The water will be collected at certain points -- which cannot be seen because they are carefully dissimulated -- and channelled out into a disposal system." This is part of a careful process of saving severely-threatened structures using traditional techniques and materials," Abdel-Moneim said. "Previously the wrong materials and techniques were used. They had painted elements that were not originally painted, and used yellow, which changed the place's character," he said. "In 1984," added Farouk Abdel-Salam, the Culture Ministry's first undersecretary, "only certain parts of the mosque were restored. This time, we did a complete job."
