The Muqattam Hills, extending north and south in the east of Cairo, are also called the 'Hills of the Dead' or the 'Hills of Khalifas (Caliphs).' At their western foot is a vast cemetery, an area of quite characteristic scenery of innumerable tombs, from commoners' small graves to Sultans' grand scale mausoleums.

From the age of the Pharaohs, Egyptian tradition has been to make cemeteries places of picnic. As affluent families built tombs like houses here to be able to stay nights, this area also looks like a housing estate.
In modern times, as a lot of people occupied these houses and settled, this area has become a queer quiet city where the living and the dead coexist. It was in the age of the Mamluk Dynasty (1250-1517jthat this area developed as a monumental necropolis, during which successive Sultans and nobles constructed here their own tombs or mausoleums, often accompanied with public facilities.

 
Entrance Corridor and Courtyard

Mamluk means white slaves. After the 8th century, Muslims conquered Central Asia and made conquered people, such as Turks, who did not inhabit current Anatolia but Central Asia in those days, Mongols, and Greeks and Kurds in the Middle East, white slaves.
In spite of being a slave, as opposed to the popular image, if one had ample talent or ability, one could become a government official or soldier and get promotion, even to a high rank. The slave soldiers in high ranks in Egypt staged a coup in 1250 and took power, giving rise to the Mamluk, or Slave, Dynasty.

 
Courtyard and Worship Hall

Barquq, who originated in Circassians in the Middle East, was the first Sultan of the Burji Dynasty (1382-1517) of the latter half of the Mamluk Sultanate, replacing the Bahri Dynasty (1250-1382) of the first half. He planned to construct in Muqattam a large-scale building complex of his own mausoleum, a mosque with twin minarets, a Khanqah (monastery for Sufis), and two Sabil-Kuttabs (complex of elementary school and water-supplying facility).

Although it was difficult to get a well-shaped large building site in the urban district of Cairo owing to its high-density, it was possible in Muqattam to arrange facilities in an orderly way on extensive land. The construction was commenced a year after his death by his son, Nasil Faraj, who succeeded as Sultan.
The name of the architect, who created this new style of a building complex with various functions, is said to be Cherkis al Haranbuli. He was endowed with splendid skill to make a unified totality, giving an independent form to each function.

Plan of the Khanqah and Mausoleum of Sultan Barquq, 1399-1410
(From Henri Stierlin, Architecture de l'Islam, 1979)

In terms of technology, since it was five centuries after the construction of the Ibn Tulun Mosque, dealt with in the former chapter, the roof-building technology had highly developed in Egypt, so this complex could acquire a far more intricate and artistic space and appearance with ashlar stone, not with workable brick.
The total plan, nevertheless, was arranged in a simple square framing, making the Makka-side of the 40m square courtyard a worship hall, this complex also looks like an ordinary mosque. However, it actually is accompanied on both sides with tomb halls crowned with a grand dome of over 14m in diameter, and a three storied wing for dormitory rooms for Dervishes (Sufi ascetics) on the north side of the courtyard.

 
Stone Minbar and Interior of a Mausoleum

Its two entrances are flanked with a Sabil-Kuttab, a characteristic public facility in Egypt, which is a two storied compound of an elementary school on the upper floor and a free water-supply on the lower floor.
Such a complex form of public functions would be developed by later by the Turks in the age of the Ottoman Empire as a large public building complex called a 'Kulliye.'
Incidentally, this complex also looks like a large-scale Madrasa (a school for higher education). The reason is that Islamic architecture did not vary the design of buildings according to each function.

 
Exterior and Ceiling of a Mausoleum

The major difference of this complex from the hypostyle halls in the earlier Arabic type mosques may be the use of many kinds of domes of various sizes. No timber is used for structure here; even the roof of the hypostyle hall consists of rows of small brick domes.

The tall interior spaces of the mausoleums are most decorative; their colorful Mihrabs made of marble wainscot, Gothic-like triptych windows with stained glass, and the organic ornamental patterns on the domical ceilings bring about intensive impressions.
Sultans Barquq and Faraj were entombed in the northern mausoleum, and their wives and daughters in the southern, separated into male and female groups.
From the balconies of the twin minarets of 50m in height, one can look at not only the entire Muqattam area and its rear hills but also over the urban district of Cairo.

(In "Architecture of Islam" 2006)