الأعمدة ذات الرموز المسيحية في مساجد مدينة القاهرة نموذج للتواصل بين الحضارة القبطية والإسلامية في مصر THE COLUMNS WITH CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS IN CAIRO MOSQUES: A MODEL OF INTERACTION BETWEEN THE COPTIC AND ISLAMIC CIVILIZATIONS IN EGYPT

Islamic architecture in Egypt, specifically in the city of Cairo, through the successive eras of the Islamic civilization, included parts of the former architectural heritage, where it has comprised the appropriate elements as it is, or re-adapted it to take advantage of all available building resources, which included ancient architectural elements. Therefore, a set of columns transferred from Christian edifices to the mosques of Cairo, where their capitals engraved with Christian symbols such as the cross, the bird in the shape of a pigeon or an eagle. Accordingly, the research paper aims at explaining the one of the aspects of interaction between Coptic and Islamic monuments in the ages of Islamic civilization, as a model of the connection between the Coptic and Islamic Egypt represented in the architecture, by studying examples of these columns with Christian symbols reused in mosques in Cairo. In order to shed light on the usage of those Christian architecture elements from the perspective of Islamic law, and to find out the significance of its use in religious functional buildings. These architecture elements stand as a witness of the civil character of Islamic art, which absorbed the former architectural heritage. Although, the practical- economic motives were the primary incentive for Muslims to deal with those architectural elements as building materials; it considered on the other hand a prototype of the mutual influence between the Coptic architectural heritage and Islamic culture, including the concepts of tolerance, justice and respect for religions.