Mausoleum in the complex of Sultan Qalā’ūn

R. Hillenbrand writes that the tomb of Qalā’ūn ‘isn’t the most typical, but possibly the most ambitious (and without doubt the most original) [of the Mamluk mausoleums]’[1]. Included in the Sultan’s funerary complex, which also comprises a madrasah and a hospital, it was built in only four months, and houses the patron’s cenotaph. The main entry point is at the end of a central passage. Visitors then crossed a small room under a dome, and a roofed courtyard with a fountain in its centre before entering the main room via a mashrabiyya (turned-wood lattice screen) door surmounted by extensive stucco decorations.

Almost square, the door is covered by a dome resting on an octagonal drum, supported by four columns and four pillars. Their alternating nature recalls the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, built under the Umayyads (692), as does the high plinth of coloured marble panels, which follows the decorative tradition that most probably originated in Byzantium. The vine tendrils that cover the walls and the use of small arches and glass mosaics in the mihrab also recall the Dome of the Rock and, in particular, the Great Mosque in Damascus. F.B. Flood believes the use of elements based on ancient models shows that the Sultan wanted to copy the prestigious models that he encountered during his many military campaigns in Syria.

Certain experts, particularly Creswell, have mentioned the possibility that Syrian craftsmen emigrated to Egypt to escape the advancing Mongols, but there remains some doubt about this. Meinecke’s theory that Byzantine craftsmen worked on the tomb—at least on the decorative elements—is more generally accepted, and is supported by comparisons with certain Byzantine monuments[2]. Collaboration with the basileus (great king) is not unique in the history of Islamic art, as attested by the mosaics in the mihrab in the Great Mosque of Córdoba.

The mausoleum is also ornamented with carved stucco decorations, on the facade and the colonnade’s pointed arches, which are slightly horseshoe shaped. Geometric and vegetal motifs form long friezes that intertwine, creating medallions. The mihrab, one of the most imposing in Cairo (height 7m), rests on six columns with bulbous capitals. It is decorated with incrustations on seven levels, four of which have archways decorated with shell motifs in the upper sections, similar to those used in the Mediterranean since antiquity. The panels of marble marquetry on the walls are decorated with arch motifs and geometric Kūfic inscriptions that repeat the name Muhammad in rectangles. The mausoleum of Qalāʾūn was the first Egyptian monument to use this script, which had been developed several centuries earlier in Iranian brick architecture, and was later used in the Bu’Inaniya madrasah in Meknes (Morocco).

In 1303, a large wooden screen was added around the central part of the tomb, on the orders of Sultan al-Nāsir Muhammad ibn Qalāʾūn. It was made using the mashrabiyya technique, i.e. small wooden bobbins assembled without nails or glue. The Persian traveller Nasir Khusraw described this technique in 1046, in Cairo’s Fatimid palace. The Mamluks in Cairo specialized in using this technique, and it continued to be used in Egypt under the Ottomans, particularly for ornamenting windows and for screens. But it is found more generally throughout the Islamic world, e.g. in the Great Mosque of Kairouan[3] and the Dome of the Rock[4].

[2] the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, Constantinople, 1315–1320 (narthex and cupola)

[3] The maqsura (sanctuary for imam or caliph) in the Great Mosque of Kairouan (eleventh century) is one of the earliest known examples.

[4] Enclosure around the Rock, 1196–99, Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem.