The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

150 The Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo
forms the oratory. Originally there was accommodation for up to
one hundred Sufis, but like the khanqah-madrasa of Amir Sanjar,
much of this residential accommodation has not survived.
Baibars’ khanqah was a waqf foundation, and surviving deeds
of endowment specify its charitable functions and give detailed
information regarding the number of individuals accommodated,
as well as the personnel employed to administer and maintain it.
Residential accommodation in the khanqah was provided for one
hundred bachelors, but up to three hundred non-residential Sufis,
including married men, were also affiliated to it. Those appointed
to administer and maintain the khanqah included the supervising
sheikh, two prayer leaders, two prayer repeaters, an attendant, a
water attendant, lamp-lighter, janitor, doorkeeper, water-sprinkler,
cook, bread attendant, two broth attendants, weigher, eye doctor
and washer. The hundred Sufi residents gave readings from the
Qur’an, participated in the prayers, praised God and liaised with
non-resident Sufis and members of the ribat. The ribat had one
hundred male Muslim members, but residential accommodation
was limited to house thirty. They had to be needy and worthy
Muslims, and preference was given to the freedmen of the founder
and his descendants, as well as retired military personnel. The
maintenance and administration of the ribat was in the hands of a
sheikh, a custodian in charge of cleaning and lamp-lighting, a
doorkeeper, water-sprinkler, kitchen supervisor, cook and weigher.
Those appointed to the mausoleum included an imam in charge of
prayers, thirty-six Qur’an readers, two custodians, a doorkeeper,
two caretakers and two muezzins. In addition to this, the vestibule
in front of the mausoleum provided space for a sheikh and reader
to teach thirty students the Hadith (tradition). 18
Undoubtedly the khanqah’s most distinguished director was the
jurist and historian Ibn Khaldun. Born in Tunis, this great scholar
served in the courts of Fez, Granada, Tlemcen and Tunis before settling
in Cairo. He met most of the great figures of his day, including
Tamerlane, for whom he wrote a brief history of North Africa. His
greatest work was a three-volumed history of the Arab world with its
influential prolegomena, the Muqaddimah. Unlike the chroniclers of
the time, Ibn Khaldun radically changed historiography through his
analysis of the geographical, climatic, social, economic and moral factors
that determine history. He is acknowledged as the first historian
to evolve a sociological explanation of history. He arrived in Egypt in
1384 and was appointed professor of Maliki jurisprudence, and then
Grand Qadi of the Malikite madhhab by the Sultan al-Zahir Barquq.