#ancient
A monument of brilliant red brick and lace-like ornaments, the Mosque of Ibn Tūlūn is an homage to bygone centuries. Crisp air whistles through the complex, and imagination is reborn in time-etched crevices; a murmur of prayers, a loose calling of Allah is Greater, and an image of the ninth century develops in the mind. Commissioned in 876 AD by Ahmed Ibn Tūlūn, the then-governor of Egypt and Syria, the mosque sits in present-day Cairo, flanked by three ziyādahs: courtyards…
