Cairo
The first mosque in Egypt and in Africa was founded by Amr ibn al-As at Fustat in 21 AH, after the Muslim conquest. Mazarat Misr records that some eighty…
The first mosque in Egypt and in Africa was founded by Amr ibn al-As at Fustat in 21 AH, after the Muslim conquest. Mazarat Misr records that some eighty Companions, among them al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Abu al-Darda and Uqba ibn Amir, took part in setting its qibla. Caliphs and sultans prayed the last Friday of Ramadan here. Little of the first simple building survives, and the mosque has been enlarged and rebuilt many times. Today it is a vast courtyard surrounded by rows of columns, and it remains a place of prayer in Old Cairo near the Coptic quarter and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.