The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

Egyptian architecture. It occupies almost as much space as the qibla
iwan, and its setting appears to claim a special status and sanctity.
As Hillenbrand has observed, it ‘usurps the domed sanctuary in the
classical Iranian mosque’. 20 All this might suggest a degree of
presumption and ostentation on the part of Hasan, but it could be
explained by Anatolian influence. Domed mausolea appear in
similar locations in the Seljuk mosques of Anatolia and there are
strong indications of Anatolian influence in this building.
From the outside, the mausoleum is a domed cube projecting
from the centre of the façade overlooking Maydan Rumayla. Its
cubic mass announces the solid geometrical basis of the building
as a whole. The mausoleum is flanked by two minarets of unequal
size rising from the corners of the mosque façade. The tallest is
84 metres high and its composition of two octagonal shafts
surmounted by a pavilion with a bulbous finial follows the precedent
set by the al-Maridani mosque. It is the tallest minaret in Cairo.
Originally it was matched by an identical minaret on the other side
of the façade, but that collapsed in 1659 and was replaced with the
present two-storeyed minaret which appears truncated by comparison.
When the first minaret collapsed it weakened the structure
of the building and the dome fell two years later. The present dome
is modern and bears little resemblance to the original, which
was wooden and bulbous in form. Trial and error seems to have
determined much of the building process in this ambitious work.
Originally two other minarets stood over the entrance portal but
these also collapsed, killing three hundred people in 1361.
The entrance portal, which is the tallest in Cairo, is 37 metres
high, and it stands out from the main street façade by its angled
setting. Below its projecting muqarnas cornice is a recessed entrance
with a conical muqarnas hood flanked by a series of unfinished
square and rectangular panels. Only two square panels with a
design of geometrical strapwork are complete. However, the
exquisitely cut foliate rosettes above the steps, the vertical borders
of arabesque and the cable moulding on the corners provide some
evidence of what the completed stonework might have been like.
The composition of the portal has been compared to an earlier
Seljuk monument, the Gök Medresa in Sivas, Anatolia (1271–2).
Bearing in mind that the original design also included a pair of
minarets in the Seljuk and Mongol style, there is no doubt that
Anatolian, and to a lesser extent Ilkhanid influence, was at work
here – like the already noted possible Anatolian influence in the
location of the mausoleum behind the qibla wall. The Ilkhanid
top: Entrance portal to the Sultan Hasan mosque.
above: Gök Medresa: portal.
The Architecture of the Bahri Mamluks 157