Social context in Mamluk times according to Ibn al-ʿAjami

[Picture source: © 1983 Jean-Claude David]

Ibn al-ʿAjami is not only a valuable source for the architectural features and the dating of the mosque, but also for his insights into the social context of its construction and endowment in Mamluk times. He mentions that at the location of the mosque had previously stood a place that sold wine.[1] Ibn al-ʿAjami comments that it was God’s will that Mankalibugha stop this by constructing the mosque and endowing it with a considerable waqf.[2] Among the endowment were precious manuscripts, which were stored in the mosque’s cupboards. Ibn al-ʿAjami counts these as masterpieces of carpentry. He even mentions their craftsman, a certain shaykh Farika.[3] Other parts of the endowment were invested in staff. The hadith professors of the mosque were especially acclaimed. Among them was Ibn al-ʿAjami’s father, which could account for his inside knowledge of the mosque’s construction, endowments and staff. Ibn al-ʿAjami commends two muezzins and the imam for their nice voices.[4]

He also reports that Aleppines and later administrators of the mosque appreciated this mosque, expressing this by protecting the mosque and continuously endowing the it with precious gifts[5]. Thus Ibn al-ʿAjami notes that while Timur’s troops were sacking Aleppo, God’s will and the founder’s baraka led someone settle in the mosque, who detained people from plundering the mosque.[6] He adds a little later that the notables of the quarter (among them ibn al-Iftikhari, who donated a large copper bucket, which was hung at the portal so that everybody could drink) sat in front of the portal and respect for them prevented anything happening to the mosque.[7]

Khushqadam, who also ordered maintenance works in this mosque later sent gilded and non-gilded mosque lamps from Damascus.[8] Ibn al-ʿAjami mentions that later mosque administrators and several Mamluk dignitaries endowing this mosque with carpets.[9]