Alexandria
Yaqut al-Arshi was born in Abyssinia and brought to Alexandria as a boy, where Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi freed him and taught him. He became one of the leading…
Yaqut al-Arshi was born in Abyssinia and brought to Alexandria as a boy, where Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi freed him and taught him. He became one of the leading figures of the Shadhili way, married his shaykh's daughter, and taught in the city until his passing in 732 AH (1331), at about eighty years of age. Ibn Battuta met him, and in his Rihla passes on an account of al-Shadhili that Yaqut gave him from al-Mursi. He is buried in his mosque beside the Mursi mosque on Midan al-Masajid. The present building was commissioned under King Fuad in 1934 and finished in 1943 to Mario Rossi's design, in a Neo-Mamluk style with domes, two minarets and a prayer hall carried on six octagonal columns. His tomb stands under the main dome inside a wooden enclosure, and his mawlid is held in Ramadan.