The Bab al-Ahmar Mosque

South-east of the citadel, where the southern skirt of the moat begins, stands a small Mamluk mosque. The Mamluk emir Uthman ibn Ahmad Aghulbak had it built in 885/1480. The quarter took its name from the same emir and was long called Aghulbak; today both quarter and mosque go by the name Bab al-Ahmar. Two things stand out: the front covered in stone carving, and a minaret kept unusually short by the measure of this city.

Getting there

Walk south-east from the citadel square, along the lanes that follow the outer edge of the moat. Hammam Bab al-Ahmar is in the same quarter and the al-Hamwi Mosque 95 metres away; the three make one walk.

How long it takes

Fifteen minutes. Most of what there is to see is on the front, and the interior is small.

What to see

The façade. The stone is covered in carved ornament from end to end, denser than you would expect on a quarter mosque of this size. The minaret surprises in the other direction: beside the tall octagonal minarets of Aleppo this one is short, its shaft ending almost at roof height.

Do not miss

That the founder and the quarter share a name. Mamluk emirs in Aleppo founded not only buildings but quarters, and Aghulbak is the case you can read in one record. The dates stack up too: Qastal al-Harami in 1461, this mosque in 1480, the Sharaf fountain in Jdayde in 1491 — the last Mamluk building wave in the city fits into thirty years.

Where things stand

The ground around the citadel was at the centre of the fighting between 2012 and 2016, and damage is widespread in this quarter. We found no verified dated record of the mosque today; ask in the quarter about the door.