also called the Taj al-Jawame' (Arabic: تاج الجوامِع, lit. 'Crown of Mosques'),[1] or Masjid Ahl ar-Rayah (Arabic: مسجد اهل الرّاية, lit. 'Mosque of the Banner Bearers'),[2] or Jame’ al-Ateeq (Arabic: جامِع العتِيق, lit. 'the Old Mosque'),[3] was originally built in 641–642 AD, as the center of the newly founded capital of Egypt, Fustat. The original structure was the first mosque ever built in Egypt and the whole of Africa.[4] For 600 years, the mosque was also an important center of Islamic learning until Al-Muizz's Al-Azhar Mosque in Islamic Cairo replaced it.[1] Through the twentieth century, it was the fourth largest mosque in the Islamic world