Maristan of al-Mu'ayyad

Coordinates: 30°01′58″N 31°15′34″E / 30.03278°N 31.25944°E / 30.03278; 31.25944
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Maristan of Sultan al-Mu'ayyad Sheikh
Monumental facade of the maristan.
Map
General information
Typebimaristan (hospital)
Architectural styleMamluk, Islamic
LocationSekat al Komi, al-Darb al-Ahmar, Cairo, Egypt
Coordinates30°01′58″N 31°15′34″E / 30.03278°N 31.25944°E / 30.03278; 31.25944
Construction started1418
Completed1420
Renovatedearly 21st century
Technical details
Materialstone

The Maristan of al-Mu'ayyad or Bimaristan al-Mu'ayyadi

al-Mu'ayyad Sheikh between 1418 and 1420.[2] It is located on the southern edge of the Darb al-Ahmar district in Cairo, Egypt, near the Citadel of Cairo and the former Bab al-Wazir gate. It did not serve its function as hospital very long and stood ruined for many years. Its facade and main walls have survived, and have been recently restored.[3]

History

The maristan of al-Mu'ayyad (photographed in 2012) before recent restoration.

The maristan was built on the site of the unfinished madrasa-mausoleum of Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban. Sha'ban had started building a monumental and lavishly-decorated mausoleum and madrasa for himself in 1375 but the building was still unfinished when he was assassinated in 1377.[3] Since his mausoleum was incomplete, he was instead buried in the second mausoleum of the madrasa he had built to honour his mother (the Madrasa of Umm al-Sultan Sha'ban), which is located further down the main street in the Darb al-Ahmar neighbourhood.[3][2] The unfinished structure was eventually dismantled by Sultan Faraj ibn Barquq in 1411 in order to reuse its materials for a number of other buildings, including the so-called Zawiya of Faraj ibn Barquq (located in front of Bab Zuweila) and the madrasa-mosque of his emir Jamal al-Din Ustadar.[2]

Sultan Faraj was assassinated in 1412 by rebellious Mamluk amirs and Mu'ayyad Sheikh eventually succeeded to the throne, reigning from 1412 to 1421.[3] He was known as a relatively humble and pious ruler who spent little on himself. Nonetheless, he managed to erect many religious and secular buildings (including a large mosque) despite the unsettled political situation and the economic difficulties of Egypt at the time.[2] He appropriated the site of Sha'ban's madrasa and built this maristan, even though a large bimaristan institution already existed as part of Sultan Qalawun's earlier complex at Bayn al-Qasrayn further north.[3] It is likely that the foundations of Sha'ban's demolished religious complex were reused for the maristan, as the building's floor plan is aligned with the qibla (the direction of prayer).[2] Parts of the unfinished madrasa's walls, which were reportedly very tall and impressive, were possibly also reused. If so, this may also explain why this maristan building was equally monumental and impressive, which was rare for such a civic building.[2]

Construction of the building began in July 1418 and was completed in August 1420. The famous Egyptian historian

Friday mosque (for which it was already well-suited, given its qibla alignment).[2] Part of the foundation's failure to serve its intended function may be due to a lack of information and instructions outlined in the documents of its waqf (a charitable trust in Islamic law). The waqf document briefly described the maristan but provided no instructions for how the space should be used, what services should be offered, or what staff should operate it (in contrast with the highly detailed waqf documents of Qalawun's older maristan, which continued to operate even up to modern times).[2] As a typical Mamluk foundation of this sort, the descendants of al-Mu'ayyad were also entitled to keep any income from the endowments which financed the foundation. As a result, they may have had an interest in cutting out operational costs for the hospital. Barsbay likely established a new endowment and trust for the conversion and operation of the building to a mosque.[2]

Over time, the building fell into disuse and then into ruin. Only its monumental facade and the walls of its main hall remained standing. It only received some attention In recent years. In 2005, the Supreme Council of Antiquities demolished some of the structures in front of the building to allow an unobstructed view of the facade.[1] In the following years, the building was restored by the government as part of the Historic Cairo Restoration Project.[3]

Description

Entrance portal of the maristan.

The monumental building, despite falling into ruin over the years, is nonetheless one of the most impressive structures in historic Cairo.[3] What remains today is mostly the facade and the walls of the main hall; the upper floors and interior of the building having collapsed or disappeared some time ago, along with some other outlying structures.[5][1][2] The building is located on higher ground than most of the surrounding area. Its entrance is located on its southeastern side, facing northeast. This entrance leads to a vestibule, which then leads to a large courtyard or main hall around which the northwestern part of the building is centered.[2]

Exterior facade

The unusual snake carvings around the columns of a window above the entrance.

The maristan is set in an elevated position relative to the street in front of it and its entrance was originally reached by a spiral staircase (replaced by a regular staircase today).[2] A sabil used to exist near the entrance, as did a school for orphans and a small mosque or oratory.[5]

The frontal facade is tall and imposing, and features a surprising richness of ornamentation and colour.

symbol of healing.[1]

Interior

The interior was ruined over time and little remains of the original structure other than the bare walls of the main halls, although it has recently been repaired and restored.[3][2][1] Aside from the vestibule at the entrance, the interior is dominated by a rectangular central courtyard surrounded on four sides by iwans (chambers open on one side) that open though massive pointed arches framed by a band of carved stone (as mentioned above) resembling linked chains.[2] The outer walls of the southwestern and northeastern iwans are distinguished by an unusually extensive arrangement of windows: four rectangular windows at the bottom, above which are four arched windows, above which in turn are six round windows stacked in a triangular formation.[2] One set of these windows is visible on the outside of the building (in the section to the right of the main entrance). The original roofs of the building were made of timber (wood).[5]

Beyond this, some of the building's original layout is known from the waqf documentation.[2] The main courtyard had a central basin of water. Two of the iwans had wall fountains (shadirvans) from which water flowed down to the basin via small water channels in the floor (something also found in a courtyard of the maristan of Qalawun, and elsewhere in Islamic architecture).[2] The other chambers of the complex included a ward for female patients, an oratory or prayer room, a pharmacy, and a kitchen.[5][2] There was an upper floor with a number of rooms as well as a loggia or balcony.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Bimaristan al-Mu'ayyidi". Archnet. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Doris Behren-Abouseif (2007). Cairo of the Mamluks: A History of its Architecture and its Culture. The American University in Cairo Press.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Williams, Caroline (2018). Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide (7th ed.). Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press. pp. 225–226.
  4. ^ Behrens-Absouseif, Doris (1989). Islamic Architecture in Cairo: An Introduction. Leiden, the Netherlands: E.J. Brill. pp. 74–75.
  5. ^ a b c d "Sultan Al-Muayyad Hospital". World Monuments Fund. Retrieved 2019-11-12.

External links

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