Mosque of Sayyida Sukayna

The Mosque of Sayyida Sukayna or Mosque of Sayyida Sakina is a historic mosque in Cairo, Egypt. According to an apocryphal tradition, it contains the tomb of Sakina, a daughter of Husayn. The current building dates from 1904. It is located in the historic al-Khalifa neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Cairo's Southern Cemetery.

History

The mosque is named after to Amna bint al-Hussein ibn Ali, a descendant of Muhammad. She was born in the 7th century and her mother was Rubab bint Imra al-Qais, a daughter of the chief of the Banu Kalb tribe. Rubab nicknamed her Sakina or Sukayna. Historians have differed on whether her tomb in Cairo is in fact her true resting place. Those who acknowledge it rely on the following story: she was betrothed to Al-Asbagh ibn Abdul Aziz and sent to Egypt by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, but she found out that he had cheated, so she went back.

A mosque was built over the site of the tomb in 1760 through the patronage of Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda, a mamluk official. It was replaced by a new mosque built in 1904 by Khedive Abbas II in a neo-Mamluk style.