Those looking for tales of intrigue and persecution in Cairo's history need look no further than the mosque built by the Caliph Al-Hakim, which stands along the northern walls of the old city. One of the first Fatimid rulers, Al-Hakim was notorious for his religious intolerance. He became ruler of Egypt at the age of eleven, upon the death of his father, and is said to have had such a frightening appearance and disposition as a boy that his tutor nicknamed him, “The Little Lizard”. Upon assuming the throne, the little lizard had the tutor murdered. Al-Hakim once famously banned the production of women's shoes so that women were forced to stay at home rather than be seen in public! He used to patrol the city regularly on a donkey called, “Moon,” receiving petitions and complaints from his people. Dishonest merchants were brutalised on the spot by his Nubian servant. One of the Caliph's generals once rushed into the royal apartments to find Al-Hakim covered in blood and standing over the disemboweled body of a servant. The general was beheaded. During his lifetime, Al-Hakim declared himself to be divine, and one of his followers, El-Derazawi, who was later to found the Druze sect which still exists in Lebanon to this day, declared Al-Hakim to be the Messiah. The Caliph's end was as strange as much of his life. Whilst riding in the Muqattam hills one night on his donkey, Al-Hakim disappeared and was never seen again. Neither he nor the donkey were ever found, further fuelling ideas about his divine origins. So, what an extraordinary introduction to a mosque! No matter how cruel, nor bizarre, was its builder, the mosque of Al-Hakim is still well worth a visit. Even its history, though, is almost as strange as that of the Caliph, for the mosque has been used over the centuries as a prison by the Crusaders, a stable, a warehouse, a government repository for Islamic artifacts, a boys' school and, perhaps most fittingly of all, a madhouse! The mosque we see now was almost totally rebuilt between 1980 and 1981 by the Bohras, a Shi'ite sect from Western India, who claim descent from the Fatimids and who care for the mosque to this day. Building of the mosque began around the year 990 by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Aziz, but it was his son, the mad Al-Hakim, who continued with its construction and who claimed it as his own. It originally lay just outside the city walls, but when these were extended by Badr Al-Din Al-Gamali between 1087 and 1091, they placed the mosque between the two massive city gates of Bab Al-Futuh (The Gate of Conquests) and Bab An-Nasr (The Gate of Victory). Perhaps inspired by the large congregational mosque of Ibn Tulun, Al-Hakim's mosque covered an area of twenty five thousand square metres and was large enough to accommodate a vast congregation for Friday prayers. Its plan, like that of Ibn Tulun, is very simple, with four porticoed walls around a central courtyard. The two strangely-shaped minarets, North and South of the façade, are what make this mosque unique. They look like giant pepper pots standing on top of the walls. Despite all its history, though, all that remains now of the original mosque are these pepper pot minarets and some Qur'anic inscriptions along the walls. What a strange history for Cairo's second oldest Fatimid mosque after Al-Azhar. What can it tell us today? How does it speak to our hearts after so many years? Muslims read in the Holy Qur'an in Surat At-Tauba: But Allah did pour His calm On the Messenger and on the Believers And sent down forces which ye saw not…. Holy Qur'an 9:26 Referring to the calm which the Muslims experienced at the Battle of Hunain, this verse also shows us that despite all the rushing and the racing about we experience in life, making us so busy that we can't even recognise the things around us, there are times and places where we can step aside and take some time out to pause and to ponder. Walking into the mosque of Al-Hakim from the street is just one such occasion. The noise and the bustle of life is temporarily hushed and we can feel for a moment or two the peace which comes from elsewhere. Let the mosque of Al-Hakim help us to put things into perspective. Let its history show us that the plotting and the scheming of men is nothing compared to the peace and the calm which comes from on high. Enjoy your visit and enjoy the peace. British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, is a lecturer at Al-Azhar University. The author of eight books about Islam, he divides his time between Egypt and the UK as a speaker, writer and broadcaster. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com.
