English
Saeed Ibn Katebb (El Faraghany)
The Architect, Engineer & Martyr
Saeed Ibn Katebb (El Faraghany) had built the first irrigation system that led to the palace of the ruler himself, and a body of water that connects to a storage for water and a wheel for the water. When the ruler came to view the project, he found that there was some dust and his horse would not move. The decree was then issued to arrest the mastermind behind these great inventions. They took Saeed and put him in prison. He stayed there until Ahmed Ibn Toloan, the ruler of Egypt at the time, wanted to build his mosque and needed an Architect. He wanted the mosque to be unique and be one of a kind in all the land of Egypt. The mosque was going to require at least 300 pillars. The Architect heard about it from his prison cell and knew this would be bad news for the Copts because all the pillars were used for the churches. Saeed asked the prison guards for some leather to make a small scale sample of how the mosque would look like. This was great because Saeed only used two pillars for the miehrass in the scale. They sent the scale to the ruler and when he saw it he told them to come to me with the person who formed this display. So they brought Saeed to him, and he gave the project to him. The pillars that were used were made from red bricks by the hands of Saeed himself. This coloum style did not appear in Egypt until 130 years later after Saeed’s martyrdom. When he came to build the mosque he used the style of arches which he invented at the time and was the first to use in Egypt and was later seen in Europe. When he had completed the mosque and Ibn Toloan came to check the mosque he liked it and he made Saeed an offer which was to convert to Islam. He refused and did not go with the words of Ibn Toloan. So he beheaded him after building the mosque. So history closes a page of its book after the accomplishment of the mosque.