Though originally a modest structure, it was destroyed and restored so often that it is impossible to know the appearance of the first building. The Umayyad ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwan demolished the mosque and rebuilt it, probably following closely the original dimensions, in 698. In 827 the ʿAbbāsids rebuilt it, doubling its size. The mosque was restored by Saladin in 1172 after the city of al-Fusṭāṭ was burned by crusaders. After periodic cycles of ruin and restoration, the mosque was left to decay with the coming of Napoleon Bonaparte's troops to Cairo in 1798. The present mosque is a 19th-century reconstruction that still preserves design elements and ornamental work from various periods of the building's history.