Alexandria
Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Umar al-Ansari al-Mursi was born in Murcia in al-Andalus in 616 AH (1219) and came east with his family as a young man. In Tunis he…
Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Umar al-Ansari al-Mursi was born in Murcia in al-Andalus in 616 AH (1219) and came east with his family as a young man. In Tunis he became the disciple of Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili, followed him to Alexandria and succeeded him as head of the Shadhili way, teaching in the city for more than forty years until his passing in 686 AH (1287). Among those who learned from him were Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari and the poet al-Busiri, who lies across the square. A tomb and small mosque were built over his grave in the early fourteenth century and were enlarged many times. The present mosque was built between 1929 and 1945 to the design of the Italian architect Mario Rossi, an octagonal building of creamy stone under a high central dome, with a slender minaret that rises above the Eastern Harbour. It stands at the heart of Midan al-Masajid, the square of mosques in Bahari, beside the mosques of al-Busiri and Yaqut al-Arshi, and it is the city's best-known Islamic landmark.