Sidi Bishr Mosque – A Spiritual Landmark by the Sea Alexandria

Bishr Ibn Al-Hussein Abdallah Ibn Al-Hussein Ibn Bishr Al-Gohari, descended from the line of the Bishrs who had a special standing as preachers. 

He came to Alexandria at the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century according to the Islamic Calendar (twelfth century CE), along with the ulama who came from the Maghreb and Andalusia during that period.

Sidi Bishr Al-Gohari was a hermit devoted to worship and prayer. He gave up the material world and lived in a distant, lonely spot. When he died in 528 H / 1133 CE, a shrine was set up for him there, and as the city expanded eastwards, a new mosque was built for him at the end of the nineteenth century. 

Sidi Bishr Mosque Architecture 

The mosque contains a rectangular courtyard surrounded by porticoes. The mosque also has an iwan containing three porticoes made of octagonal columns bearing pointed arches. 

The iwan is divided into four corridors parallel to the wall of the qibla. On the western side of the iwan is a shrine containing a square-shaped room surmounted by a dome. 

The dome is considered the oldest part of the mosque, as it dates back to the 19th century CE.[6][7] The mosque has been renovated several times, most notably during the reign of the Khedive Abbas II of Egypt and in 1945, when its size quadrupled

The mosque was renovated during the reign of Khedive Abbas II and a railway line was laid to the mosque, so that the khedive could pray there when he was in Alexandria. The mosque was renovated once more in 1945 CE so that it became four times its original size.

In 1945, the mosque was expanded and added to it, making its area four times what it was. In 1947, a spacious square and a garden were built in front of the mosque, adjacent to the sea shore, so that the Sidi Bishr neighborhood became one of the most famous neighborhoods in Alexandria. In June 2000, during the reign of the Governor, Major General / Mohamed Abdel Salam Mahjoub, the facades of the Sidi Bishr Mosque were renewed and the square facing it .