Guide to Maintain Historic Egyptian Mosques: Case Study of Abul-Hajjaj Mosque - Luxor

Abstract

The mosque is considered one of the most important buildings of the Islamic city since the Prophet's Mosque (peace and blessings be upon him), and maintenance is considered an important element and a cornerstone of buildings in general. This is due to the deterioration of public buildings generally given the bad use and common ownership of the mosque and in turn, its facilities have deteriorated. Some mosques belong to historic buildings, so maintaining them is of extra importance.In light of the status of the construction and maintenance systems of historic mosques in Egypt and the limitations and problems faced, this paper presents a proposed guide for the preventive maintenance of historic mosques. It also provides clear evidence for workers in the field of maintenance of mosques including the key elements that need to be taken into consideration while preparing the preventive maintenance plan for mosques.The preventive maintenance of the mosque needs a range of tools and methods in order to succeed. Planning and scheduling for items are major elements among these tools. In order to achieve integration between the elements and the different phases mentioned above, we need to formulate them in a form of an integrated guide with completed elements and dimensions. To find a guide for the maintenance of the mosques we should clearly identify the principles and rules for that guide. This comes through clarity of the purpose, the elements required to be controlled, how to control them, the statement of the time and places and the economic aspects of the guide.This research aims to find a guide for the maintenance of historic mosques, by making a case study for the Mosque of Abul-Hajjaj in Luxor.