The mosque of ibn Tulun was commissioned by Ahmad ibn Tulun (323–358 AH/935–969 AD), ‘Abbasid governor of Egypt. Construction began in 263 AH/876 AD, and finished in 266 AH/879 AD.

You can visit the mosque with Magic Life Tours to see the beauty of the mosque from inside, The mosque has a square shape 162 meters long, making it one of the largest mosques of Cairo, It consists of three main sections, The prayer hall is a rectangle of six aisles running parallel to the Qibla wall, These aisles are divided by five arcades of pointed arches, each one is carried on 16 piers of brick and covered with plaster, On the centre of the Qibla wall, there is the main Mihrab which is a niche of pointed arch flanked on both sides by two attached columns, Four other smaller Mihrabs which were added later appear on the sides of the main mihrab, two on each side, The minaret in its famous spiral shape, in the form of Al-Malwiya of Samarra, was built outside the enclosure wall opposite the Qibla. The mosque is accessed through a total number of 42 doors, half of which belong to the original mosque, and The courtyard “Sahn” is a square extending south of the prayer hall, It is surrounded by covered porticoes, each consisting of two aisles of pointed arcades raised on strong piers and overlooking its open centre where a fountain and an ablution basin stand, and The third section consists of the extensions, of 11 meters each, along the northern, eastern and western sides of the mosque. These open extensions which ring the mosque on three sides work as buffers between the bustle of the streets and the religious space inside.