CairoPrayer Times in Cairo, Al Qahirah

Cairo, founded as al-Qahira by the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz in 969 CE, became and has remained one of the principal cities of the Islamic world for over a millennium. Its religious heart is the al-Azhar Mosque and University, established by the Fatimids in 970-972 CE and reorganized as a Sunni institution under the Ayyubids and Mamluks; al-Azhar is now the most influential Sunni seat of learning in the world, training scholars who serve as imams, jurists, and teachers across the Muslim majority countries. The Mosque of Ibn Tulun (879 CE), with its massive arcaded courtyard and spiral minaret, predates al-Qahira and is the oldest mosque in the city to survive in something close to its original form, while the Mamluk-era Sultan Hassan complex and the Ottoman Muhammad Ali Mosque on the Citadel anchor later eras. Cairo's mosque-saturated daily life — five daily prayers broadcast across its vast neighborhoods, Sufi mawlids, and Ramadan public iftars — remains foundational to Egyptian Muslim culture.