Architectural and art historical importance
[Picture source: © 2010 Lamia Jasser ] [Picture source: © 2010 Lamia Jasser ] 
Figure 12: Cairo, Funerary Complex of Sultan Barquq [Picture source: © 2011 Stefan Weber] Al-Utrush Mosque was the first Friday prayer mosque, built by a Mamluk governor, to be completed after the Mongol attack on Aleppo in 803 AH / 1400 AD. Its main facade is regarded to have been stylistically formative in the development of Aleppo’s Mamluk architectural school.[1]
In keeping with the standards set by the monumental funerary complexes in the Mamluk capital, Cairo, the view of the streets changed and the aesthetics of the city were elevated. Thus, the mosque contains a long, prominent street facade with a high-rising portal and window recesses, as well as a towering minaret and a dome jutting out of the mausoleum. A striking example is the Funerary Complex of Sultan Barquq, built some years earlier (786–88 AH / 1384–86 AD) in Old Cairo’s famous Bayn al-Qasrayn area (fig.12).[2] Comprising a madrasa, a khanqah, a mosque and a mausoleum, it was constructed during the rule of Sultan Barquq and his son and successor, Sultan Faraj under whom Aqbugha al-Utrush served as a governor in the Mamluk’s Syrian province.
Apart from the mausoleum, al-Utrush Mosque follows the standard model of Mamluk mosques in Aleppo, being of almost square shape with a portal niche, a minaret, a courtyard surrounded by three arcades, and a prayer hall approximately twice the depth of an arcade. Also located south of the citadel, Jamiʿ Altunbugha (718–23 AH / 1318/19–23 AD), is the first Friday mosque to have been built in Mamluk style.[3] It is assumed that both the floor plan and cross vaulted ceilings were first introduced in the Great Mosque of the citadel in the early 13th century, during Ayyubid rule. However, large-scale use of cross vaults on pillars was implemented in the Great Umayyad Mosque only during the first time of Mamluk rule, at the end of the 13th century. This cross-vault on pillars style represents traditional Aleppine architecture as well as connection to crusader architecture.[4]
Eight-sided minarets developed locally in the architectural school of Aleppo during the early 14th century, the minaret of the Jamiʿ Altunbugha being the earliest example.[5] The minaret of Jamiʿ al-Utrush is the only one in Aleppo Old City with two galleries.
Figure 13: Early window niche (14th century) [Picture source: © 2010 Lamia Jasser] 
Figure 14: Aleppo, Throne Hall of the Citadel, front facade
Iconic window niche (15th century) [Picture source: © 2001 Peter Heiske] Jamiʿ al-Utrush represents the fully developed stage of an elaborately decorated street facade in Mamluk Aleppo. At about the same time, around 802 AH / 1400 AD, a similar facade on a smaller scale but with characteristic window niches were created, for example, for Jamiʿ al-Daraj. Predecessors can be traced back as far as the Jamiʿ al-Sarawi (780 AH / 1378–79 AD; fig.13) and the Jamiʿ al-Sakakini, built under governor Ishiqtamur al-Maridani (773 AH / 1371–72 AD).[6]
Recessed and decorated window niches first appeared after Syrian builders had returned from Cairo, where they had been assigned construction work for the monumental madrasa-mosque-mausoleum complex of Sultan Hasan (finished ca. 760 AH / 1360 AD). In contrast, when Syrian builders went to workshops in the capital Cairo during the initial phase of Mamluk rule when the Mosque of Sultan Baybars was built (665–67 AH / 1267–69 AD), they took with them principal elements of the Syrian building traditions including striped masonry (ablaq) and geometric stone intarsia, which they integrated into the Cairene architecture.[7]
The features characteristic of Mamluk street facades, combining recessed window niches with various traditional decorative stone elements, would continue to play a significant role in the historical architecture of Aleppo throughout the Mamluk period, and, further on, into the Ottoman era. The most prominent example is the front window of the Citadel’s Throne Hall (fig. 14), dating – like the Jamiʿ al-Utrush – from the 15th century.[8]
