Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral is a

Coptic Orthodox The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the Apostolic see, See of Alexandria i ...

church in

Azbakeya Azbakeya (; also spelled Al Uzbakeya or Auzbekiya) is one of the districts of the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. Along with Downtown Cairo, Wust Albalad (Downtown) and Abdeen Palace, Abdeen, Azbakiya forms Cairo's 19th century expansion outside th ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, Egypt. It was the seat of the

Coptic Pope The pope (; ), officially the pope of Alexandria and the patriarch of the see of St. Mark, also known as the bishop of Alexandria, or the patriarch of Alexandria, is the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, with ancient Christian roots in Eg ...

from 1800 to 1971. Due to Ibrahim El-Gohary's influential position in the government and his great favor to the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

rulers, he was able to issue

fatwas A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist (''faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

that permitted the Copts to rebuild the destroyed churches and

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...

. This was of particular importance because the

Copts Copts (; ) are a Christians, Christian ethnoreligious group, ethnoreligious group native to Northeast Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt since antiquity. They are, like the broader Egyptians, Egyptian population, des ...

were not allowed to build new churches or to repair old ones unless they got official government approval, which was rarely granted. One of these churches that he built is Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Azbakeya in Cairo, which his brother completed and which was inaugurated by Pope Mark VIII in 1800.shababchristian
/ref> Ibrahim El-Gohary also donated many endowments of good land and money for the reconstruction, amounting to 238 endowments as documented in the

Patriarchate. The cathedral served as the

seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria The Seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria is historically based in Alexandria, Egypt. It is commonly known as the See of Alexandria, or the Holy See of Saint Mark, to whom the Coptic Pope claims to be the legitimate successor. Ruling pow ...

between 1800 and 1971, after which it moved to

Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral () is a Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Coptic church architecture, church located in the Abbassia District in Cairo, Egypt. The cathedral is the Seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria, seat of ...

in the Abbassia district.

References

Coptic Orthodox churches in Cairo Cathedrals in Cairo Coptic architecture 18th-century Oriental Orthodox church buildings Oriental Orthodox cathedrals in Egypt 18th-century establishments in Africa Establishments in Ottoman Egypt 18th-century churches in Egypt {{CopticOrthodox-church-stub