Aslam al-Silahdar Mosque is considered central location in a historic neighborhood and known for significant legacy of Cairo’s medieval past. The Mosque is known for Mosque-Sabil of Sulayman Agha al-Silahdar or Mosque-Sabil-Kuttab of Sulayman Agha al-Silahdar. The mosque was built in 1344 AD by Baha’ al-Din Aslam whose Mamluk prince with an important political and social standing in the Mamluk royal court who took the rank of a Silahdar. The mosque was part of a complex that included horse stables, tenement housing and a private home.
As a victim of vicious slander he was imprisoned for six and a half years and was not back until the end of al-Nasir's reign. The historian al-Maqrizi describes him as a kind man, known for his good deeds, and a pious man who sat at the head of halqas
The mosque was built in stages, with each section regressed by a pre-existing structure to achieve a unified and coherent programme. The mausoleum, which predates the mosque, is integrated into the cruciform configuration of the complex following the Madrasa-Mausoleum of Ahmad al-Mihmandar as a prototype. One of the new variations that the plan of the mosque introduces on the four-iwan theme is the inclusion of an entrance that opens directly onto one of the iwans in addition to one that leads to the sahn through passageways. This entrance on the south side is the emir's entrance to the mosque.
Inside the mosque appears the mausoleum of El-Silihdar that seems to be built earlier than the mosque itself. It is a very high shrine, and it has a ribbed brick dome decorated with Quran inscription, but some of it desolated and now it is used for a store room. The entrance of the mosque leads to the courtyard differently from the common cruciform style of that time. The four naves of the mosque are vaulted and have different heights The Eastern nave includes the Qibla, and a simply decorated Mihrab, and a small Minbar exist. There are a difference between the design of Mihrab and the design at that time where arched panels were commonly used. The side wall is recessed and handsomely ornamented with stucco roundels. Above the Mihrab, there is a roundel was decorated with colorful and beautiful arabesque patterns. The north and south naves have a flat roof topped with a group of rooms for the people who live in that building. The west nave hasn’t decorated and was used by the students and Sheikhs and Sufis. In 1900, there was a roof that had been added as a means for protecting the inside of the mosque
There is a difference in height among the iwans, showing novel features both horizontally and vertically. The iwans on the south and north sides lead to the sahn through a three-part portico and are rooms for the users of the complex. The room over the south iwan was most likely a reception room for the amir, who was also a shaykh in the madrasa, since it is also positioned above the princely (southern) entrance to the mosque. The opposite room, which has a separate staircase, was probably related to the Rab' (no longer existent) on that side of the complex, and served, along with the iwan underneath it, as a madrasa for the Shafi'is. The facades of these rooms in the courtyard have triple windows and are decorated with striking carved stucco medallions and lozenges. The west side of the sahn is unique in its vertical volumetric organization, for it houses two balconies along with an iwan. The first balcony, which is made of wood and hangs across the iwan, probably functioned as a dikkat al-muballigh (for the call for prayer). fixed second, this the Iwan, is a rare feature in Mamluk mosques and becomes popular only in Ottoman mosques. It was most likely used for theological discussions.
The ribbed base of the ribbed brick dome at Aslam is decorated with a fleur-de-lys frieze of green, white and blue faience mosaics. The crenellations around the base of a dome are unusual for Mamluk Cairo. The Qur'anic verse running around the drum of the dome is also executed in polychrome faience mosaic, otherwise seen only on Cairene buildings with royal patrons.
During the Burji period, the more traditional techniques of marble mosaic and glass paste, which were introduced for the first time in Cairo in the complex of Qalawun (1284-85), were employed to achieve polychromy
The marble mosaic panels around the circular opening above the south gate apparently belong to the same workshop that produced the marble mosaics for the mihrab of the Bakri Mosque.
This complex is representative of the constantly evolving Bahri Mamluk religious architecture, with its rejection of fixed formulas and modules. New configurations of iwans, halls, portals, and courtyards were developed in response to the challenges of the land available and the new functional requirements of the project. Correspondingly, there are no fixed patterns for surface decoration; scattered elements were put together to form an ensemble for a specific surface area.