The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

doors on the exterior are matched inside by magnificent fluted
keel-arched panels set in the centre of each wall. Those on the
north-west and qibla sides have hollowed niches and those on the
other sides are flat. They follow the Fatimid composition of a fluted
sunrise, radiating from a central medallion or keel-arched panel.
Each hood is lined with muqarnas and set in a rectangular panel of
lace-like, stucco arabesque framed with bands of Kufic. Above these
panels the intricacy of the decoration is continued in the stucco
tracery and stained glass of the windows, as well as in the zone of
transition and dome, painted with medallions, inscriptions and
delicate foliate scrolls in red, yellow, dark blue and white.
This is a magnificent interior and there is some speculation
as to who is being honoured with this lavish treatment. The
decoration is thought to be the work of Baibars, although its
delicacy and refinement are not in character with the robust severity
of his own mosque in Cairo or the bold interior design of his
mausoleum in Damascus. It is possible this work was dedicated to
his sons, but, as Hillenbrand has suggested, it could also be
explained as ‘an act of piety on behalf of the resuscitated
caliphate’. 17 If this were the case, then this building, like the
mausoleum of Shafi’i, marks another significant endorsement of
Sunni orthodoxy on behalf of the new Mamluk regime. The
mausoleum of the Abbasids is a transitional building, built during
the Ayyubid period, but finding a new meaning under the
Mamluks. Like the mausoleum of Shajar al-Durr, it bestrides the
end of the Ayyubid and the inauguration of the Mamluk eras.
left: Interior of mausoleum of the Abbasid caliphs.
Ayyubid Architecture 123