The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

elow: The minaret of the madrasa
of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad.
142 The Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo
shafts separated by two balconies supported
on muqarnas corbels. The first shaft is pat-
terned with chevrons zigzagging vertically
up the column, and the second has chevrons
banded horizontally. The third shaft is tapered
and ribbed, terminating with a bulbous
ribbed dome. Under the dome is a band of
faience inscription in white and blue, and
the rest of the shaft and dome is principally
covered with green mosaic tiles. The first,
lowest, shaft of the other minaret is rectangular,
the second cylindrical, and the third
is an open hexagonal kiosk terminating with
a similarly tapered shaft surmounted by a
bulbous ribbed dome. The first two shafts
are plain but the top of the third is decorated
with the same faience as the other
minaret. Al-Maqrizi records that at this time
craftsmen from Tabriz set up workshops in
Cairo, and Michael Meinecke has identified
one thirteenth-century miniature from Tabriz
showing similar bulbous domed minarets. 13
The interior follows the traditional
plan of the hypostyle mosque and there is
little sense of innovation. The arcading and
windows around the sahn are uniform, and
there is no differentiation on the qibla side.
The crenellation above the inner façades is
stepped, unlike the round-headed crenellation
on the exterior, which adds to its fortified
character. The prayer hall is four aisles
deep with the arcades running parallel to the qibla wall, and the
three riwaqs are two aisles deep. Like the mosque of Baibars, the
dome over the mihrab covers nine bays, but this one, with a dia-
meter of 15 metres, is much smaller. The original, made of wood
and covered with Persian green and blue ceramic tiles, collapsed in
1531. It rests on wooden muqarnas pendentives and the whole
superstructure is supported on antique granite columns. Perhaps
the most distinctive features of this interior are the ablaq masonry
in the voussoirs of the arcades and around the windows and the
variety of antique columns with capitals taken from Pharaonic,
Roman and Coptic sources. The interior decoration, consisting of a