Mosque of Almalik al-Jukandar

The Mosque of Almalik al-Jukandar is located near the Mashad of Husayn and Al-Azhar Mosque in the historic area of Cairo. Founded during the Bahri Mamluk period during the third reign of Al-Nasir Muhammad, it is less documented by modern researchers and historians.

Founder

Almalik al-Jukandar was a powerful and wealth Mamluk amir during the third reign of Al-Nasir Muhammad, and later Qalawunid sultans. He would die while imprisoned in Alexandria in 747 A.H. (1346 C.E.) during the reign of al-Kamil Sha'ban.^[1]

The Institution

According to al-Maqrizi, Almalik al-Jukandar founded it in 758 A.H. (1357 C.E.) as a madrasa that taught the Shafiʽi school of law. It was provided for by several endowments (awqaf). The complex also included a library.^[2]

Inscription

On the main entrance of the building there is an inscription, although in poor condition, that flanks both sides of the portal. It reads:

Basmala, has constructed this mosque (the humble servant ever in need of) God Most High Almalik al-Jukandar, (officer of) al-Nasir (Muhammad), seeking the pardon of God Most High and His forgiveness. Dated the year 719 of the hijra of the Prophet (1319–20), salvation be upon him.^[3]

As the inscription makes clear, the founder of the institution is Almalik al-Jukandar during the third reign of al-Nasir (Muhammad).

References

^ Ibn Taghrībirdī, Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf (1984–1993). al-Manhal al-Ṣāfī wa-al-Mustawfá baʿda al-Wāfī. Cairo: al-Hayʾah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʿĀmmah lil-Kitāb. pp. 4:571.
^ al-Maqrīzī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī (2003). al-Mawāʿiẓ wa-al-Iʿtibār fī Dhikr al-Khiṭaṭ wa-al-Āthār. London: Muʼassasat al-Furqān lil-Turāth al-Islāmī. pp. 3:85–88.
^ O'Kane, Bernard. "Insc. Number 24.1". The Monumental Inscriptions of Historic Cairo. CULTNAT. Retrieved 4 May 2021.