2779 x 5275 px | 23,5 x 44,7 cm | 9,3 x 17,6 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
gennaio 2010
Ubicazione:
al-Qasr, Dakhla, Egypt
Altre informazioni:
Al-Qasr is the main town of the Dakhla oasis in the southwest of Egypt, almost due west of Luxor. The Mosque of Nasir al-Din, located across from the Ottoman-period house ofthe oasis’s ‘umda (mayor), is a simple one-room structure with a flat roof partially supported by a single large pillar near the center of the room. Behind the wall opposite the qibla, but not on axis with it, is the domed Mausoleum of Shaykh Nasir al-Din, a descendant of the Prophet who built a house in al-Qasr in the seventeenth century. Standing separately near the northwest corner is the minaret. The mosque, like the mausoleum, is built with thick walls of sun-dried brick, now whitewashed. The interior is devoid of decoration apart from the mihrab, which has lozenges as part of the frame above the spandrels. A lintel at the entrance to the mosque tells us that Darwish ‘Ali Afandi, the governor of the oases, renovated this madrasa on the date equivalent to 31 December 1856, and gives the name of the supervisor of the minaret and waqf, ‘Umar son ofthe late ‘Ali Safi, as well as the name of the carpenter, Salih Muhammad ‘Allam. The mausoleum lintel, of the same date, tell us that the maqam was renovated by Darwish ‘Ali Afandi and Shaykh ‘Umar Safi.It is probable that the mausoleum and mosque were built at different times, the mausoleum first, followed by the building now known as a mosque but which may have been erected as a madrasa to carry on the teachings of Shaykh Nasir al-Din.The minaret is mentioned separately in the inscription, and according to the Supreme Council of Antiquities it dates to the Ayyubid period. Unlike the mosque and mausoleum it is built of fired brick, with successive square, octagonal, and round tiers. A more recent analysis has suggested that this configuration is more likely to reflect a Mamluk prototype.
