The mosque of Sidi Abu al-Abbas is the principal mosque of Alexandria and the spiritual focus of the old maritime quarter. It rises over the tomb of a Sufi master born in Andalusia who settled in the Egyptian port and whose reputation for sanctity has drawn visitors ever since. The present building, reconstructed on a large scale in the twentieth century, works in a neo-Mamluk idiom: pale stone walls, a broad plan under domes, arcaded galleries and a tall, finely worked minaret that carries the skyline of the seafront. Inside, the prayer hall is open, luminous and busy, and the shrine itself is a place of continual visitation. The episode films the mosque as architecture, in the strong Mediterranean light, and as a living centre of devotion, following prayer, the crowds of the great feasts and the quarter that surrounds it.
