A place with a story: al-Ḥaggāg Mosque at Luxor

The Sufi mosque dedicated to Sheikh Yūsuf al-Ḥaggāg at Luxor, Egypt.

"Luxor" is a latinisation of the arabic لأقصر al-Uqṣur, "The Palaces." The name clearly carried a memory of the extensive Pharonic temples, which in the 19th Century lay buried eight metres beneath the fishing village. Coptic Christians once built their church among what ruins protruded from the sand. Later, the Sufi mystic Sheikh Yūsuf al-Ḥaggāg brought the Sufic version of Islam to the village and spent 50 years serving the people until his death in AD1243. The church became this mosque.

When 19th century French imperialists discovered the temple ruins, they managed to get most of the village cleared to allow the excavation. However, with some justification, the muslim faithful and their imam would not allow the bones of their saint, buried in the mosque, to be disturbed. They must have been adamant on this to overcome the will of their Napoleonic overlords, as the mosque remains in place to this day, perched in the ruins high above modern ground level. It has pretty good foundations, as it rests on the columns of the peristyle courtyard built by Ramesses II.

Some repairs to the mosque were required following a fire in AD 2007. DIsconcertingly for the modern worshippers, elements of the ancient temple were found incorporated into the walls of the building, complete with graven images of people and animals which moslems would regard as idolatrous. The early Coptic and/or Sufic builders were presumably less sensitive on this point than some modern muslims, as the carvings had been simply plastered over and forgotten rather than destroyed. These are highly significant discoveries, one of the reliefs for instance showing an illustration of the dedication of the temple and erection of the obelisks, around 1250 BC.

news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070927-egypt-tem...

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Taken in: مصر / قنا / الاقصر (show map)

Taken on: April 2, 2009

Tags:

al-Ḥaggāg

Mosque

al-Uqṣur

Egypt

Islam

Sufi

minaret

night

temple

Rameses

ruins « less

Sets appears in: • Luxor 2009 • My Life in Ruins

Groups appears in: • Egypt • No-Flash Night Shots more » • Views: 100 • Egypt Photographers... • sacred places, holy spaces • Historical Buildings and Landmarks (No Limits) • Written stories with photos / Post1Comment1 • PICS & FACTS « less

Camera: Canon EOS 400D, f/1.8, 1/10 sec, 50mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 400D
Aperture:	f/1.8
Exposure Time:	0.1 sec (1/10)
Focal Length:	50mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 Windows
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