Because the city was ripe with power mongers, his tutor, Kitbuqa sent him away to grow up and come home when he was better able to deal with the responsibility of ruling a country.

[3] At the time, rulers of Cairo would support the city by sponsoring massive building projects which brought them prestige and created jobs.

Al-Nasir wiped out the library and audience halls of his predecessor and sponsored the building of a grand palace, aqueduct, and mosque for his own personal use in their place.

A side room enclosed by intricate iron work served as a private place of thought for the busy sultan.

These funds were used to buy more land and shops to support the mosque making it one of the wealthiest institutions in the city.

When the British arrived in Cairo, the Mosque on the Citadel was well past its days of honor where it was the sultan’s choice place to meditate.

Areas between the entrances grand columns were plastered to form the walls of prison cells and storage rooms.

[7] Being an amateur archeologist, Charles Moore Watson of the British army asked his commanding officer, Captain William Freeman for permission to start repairs on the mosque.

Unlike most other mosques of Cairo, its outer walls are not paneled and have no decoration except a crenellation composed of rectangles with rounded tops.

In the 1335 renovation, the mosque was heightened, its roof rebuilt and a dome of plastered wood covered with green tiles was added over the maqsura (prayer niche).

The present dome is modern, carried by granite columns taken from ancient Egyptian temples.The mosque in its entirety is a 206 by 186 square.

[9] The ancient scholar al-Zahiri is quoted as saying “The Great Mosque of the Citadel is equally as wondrous; I am assured it can hold 5,000 faithful”.

[11] A message over the doors in flowing Arabic script reads: “In the name of God the Merciful, the Gracious, He who ordered the building of this mosque, the Blessed, the Happy, for the sake of God, whose name be exalted, is our Lord and Master, the Sultan and King, the conquer of the world and faith, Nasir Mohamed, son of our Lord the Sultan Qalawun es Saleh, in the months and year of Hijrah of the Prophet seven hundred and eighteen”.

[16] Some scholars believe that Sultan al-Nasir was friendly with the Mongols at this time and may have hired a master mason from Tabriz to construct the minarets of his mosque.