Masjid Mahmud al-Kurdi

Cairo, Egypt

Mahmud al-Kurdi was the ustadar, or majordomo, of Sultan Barquq and built this mosque in 1393/795 AH before falling out of favor with the sultan. The building sits on the left as one exits the bazaar. The facade has a high-level inscription band and a trilobed portal. Windows have decorated wooden frames and fine bronze grilles., and the doors have their original metal decoration. The mosque is notable for its dome, which has one of the earliest uses of a horizonatal chevron pattern, rather than reproducing and the brick and plaster ribbing of earlier fourteenth-century stone domes. This decoration style would eventually supersede the earlier style. The dome sits on a drum with eight windows. The minaret is located above the portal and has a rounded form unusual for this period and that would later be seen on Ottoman monuments.