Mosque of al-Salih Tala'i, Cairo

The Fatimid vizier al-Salih Tala'i ibn Ruzzik built this mosque in 1160 outside the Fatimid walls, opposite Bab Zuwayla. ^{1 3} He wished to house in it the head of al-Husayn brought from Ascalon, but the child caliph al-Fa'iz refused after fierce opposition from the women of the court, and a mashhad was built for the relic in the palace precincts; Tala'i went on to complete his mosque. ^{3 2}

It is a rectangular free-standing structure built over a row of shops, now exposed below street level by excavation; Behrens-Abouseif notes that their rents supported the mosque. ^{4 2} Steps lead up to the north-west entrance, and the façade is unique for its open portico of five keel arches on antique Corinthian columns, flanked at the corners by solid masonry with tall blind recesses under fluted hoods and iron window grilles, concealing two rooms. ² The portico ceiling is original Fatimid fabric; the wooden mashrabiyya screen between the column bases is a modern copy of the medieval woodwork that once filled the arches of the qibla arcade. ²

The portico originally stood in place of a north-west arcade; when the mosque was restored early in the twentieth century a north-west arcade was built inside in the mistaken belief that it belonged to the original design. ⁵ The courtyard now has three single-aisled arcades and the prayer hall is three aisles deep; the general character resembles the al-Aqmar mosque on a larger scale. ⁵

Bands of Kufic frame the keel arches; the antique columns with finely drilled Corinthian capitals are tied by carved beams; the spandrels facing the courtyard have blind niches with fluted hoods, and deeply cut fluted rosettes sit above the arch apexes. ⁵ The qibla wall has seven window grilles, some original, one of which, near the mihrab, carries what Yeomans calls the earliest inscription in cursive Naskhi. ⁵ The wooden minbar with geometric decoration is one of the oldest in Egypt, presented by the amir Baktimur al-Jukandar in 1299. ⁵