Social context

Three congregational mosques were founded in Aleppo under the rule of the Mamluk sultan an-Nasir Muhammad (r. 693-694/1293-1294, 698-708/1299-1309, 709-741/1310-1341)[1], the mosque of Altunbugha al-Nasiri being the first. Besides this fact it occupies a prominent position in the urban fabric of Mamluk Aleppo as it is said to have been the first congregational mosque within the city walls in which the Friday sermon was instituted after the Umayyad mosque. This was also regarded as noteworthy by contemporary historians [2]. When explaining the raison d’être for the construction of this mosque, Ibn al-ʿAjami writes that the governor Altunbugha did not like Ibn al-ʿAjami, the preacher (khatib) of the Umayyad mosque and therefore decided to build a new mosque [3].

However, the multiplication of Friday mosques within the city walls is a phenomenon evident in all cities of the Mamluk empire at that time, not just Aleppo. It is therefore a relevant marker of a social change motivated by urban densification and growth, the increase of charitable endowments and the predominant school of law of the policymakers and patrons of mosques, amongst other factors.[4]

Footnotes

[1]

These three mosques are the Mosque of Altunbugha as-Salihi (718/1318-1319; Meinecke 1992, 2nd vol., 121-122 No. 9c/75), the Mosque/Madrasa an-Nasiriyya (727/1326-27; Meinecke 1992, 2nd vol., 145 No. 9C/210) and the Mosque as-Safi/Hajjī Fattum (728-733/1328-1333; Meinecke 1992, 2nd vol., 149 No. 9C/233). The foundation date of the Jamiʿ al-Mihmandar is not clear, though it received an endowment in 702/1303 (Meinecke 1992, 2nd vol., 93 No. 9B/29).

[2]

Ibn Taġrībirdī , an-Nujum, 10th vol., 73; Ibn ash-Shihna, ad-Durr, 336/59; Ibn al-ʿAjami, Kunuz adh-dhahab, 1st vol., 235; Sauvaget 1933, 67; Sauvaget 1950, 36;

[3]

Ibn al-ʿAjami, Kunuz adh-dhahab, 1st vol., 235; Sauvaget 1950, 36.

[4]

See for further discussion of this topic Loiseau 2012 and Kühn 2019, 320-329.