The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

210 The Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo
After al-Mu’ayyad Shaykh, the next effective ruler was
al-Ashraf Barsbay (1422–38). He ruled for sixteen years and brought
a degree of political stability to Egypt, but in matters of trade his
avarice sowed the seeds of Egypt’s ultimate economic decline. His
military campaigns were principally directed against the Turcoman
regions of Mesopotamia and southern Anatolia, and a naval
campaign to eradicate piracy in the eastern Mediterranean brought
Cyprus within the orbit of the Mamluk empire. Making Cyprus a
tributary of the Mamluk empire represented the only territorial
expansion during the period of Burji Mamluk rule. Barsbay
tightened his political and economic grip on the Hijaz and
developed the port of Jeddah in order not only to strengthen
trade with India, but also to raise more revenue. As well as dominating
the trade routes to India, Barsbay established a number of
government monopolies on commodities such as pepper, sugar,
paper and wood. Duty charged on these for Europeans in
Alexandria became extortionate and it was significant that among
the most vocal protesters against these revenues were the kings of
Castile and Aragon. Later, when the kingdoms of Castile and
Aragon were united by Ferdinand and Isabella, Christopher
Columbus was commissioned in 1492 to seek alternative trade
routes to India, thus initiating a decisive move to bypass Egypt and
the rest of the Muslim world.
Barsbay, a devout Muslim, was responsible for two khanqah-
madrasas: one near the amber market in al-Mu’izz street and the
other in the Eastern Cemetery. The khanqah-madrasa in al-Mu’izz
street, built to accommodate sixty Sufi students, has a cruciform
interior similar to Barquq’s madrasa in the same road. The tiraz
inscription around the sahn is interesting because it gives chapter
and verse to the conditions of the waqf, thus ensuring that future
rulers could not, like al-Mu’ayyad Shaykh, take liberties with such
institutions. His other khanqah-madrasa in the Eastern Cemetery
forms a part of one of the most striking architectural ensembles in
Cairo. As well as his own khanqah-madrasa complex (1432), this
also consists of the tomb of Ganibek al-Ashrafi (1432) and, more
recently, the tomb of Amir Qurqumas (1511), which was transferred
here from its original location near the mosque of al-Hakim
in 1983. What is striking about this group of buildings is the
wonderful accumulation of domed mausolea with their extraordinary
geometric patterns, which are not just confined to the dome
surfaces, but also appear on the cuboid structures that support
them with all their varied facets, steps and undulations.