The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

oundels. The largest in the centre encircles a bronze oculus grille
with interlacing arabesques drawn in terracotta-red and white over
a buff stone background. The flanking roundels contain geometric
interlaces against a dark blue background, reinforcing a scheme in
which organic patterns at the centre are contained by the geometrical
forms of the margins. The composition is rounded off with a
surmounting band of calligraphy which wraps around the building
and articulates the horizontal division between the sabil and
kuttab. As Blair and Bloom have pointed out, this elegant format
of arabesque, geometrical forms and calligraphy derives from
contemporary book illumination. 19
The richness of Qa’it Bay’s architecture has already been
observed in his minaret adorning the al-Azhar mosque. Other
works include his madrasa at Qal’at al-Kabs (1475) and two
waqalas, one opposite the al-Azhar mosque (1477) and the other
near Bab al-Nasr (1480). Outside Cairo his other important monuments
include the fortress in Alexandria, occupying the site where
the Pharos once stood, and perhaps more significantly, a number of
madrasas in the holy cities of Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina. In
Jerusalem on the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) is his sabil, a
domed cube similar in form to the free-standing mausoleum of
Ganibek al-Ashrafi in Cairo’s Eastern Cemetery. Its crystalline form
makes a notable contribution alongside a cluster of domed octagonal
buildings that form satellites around the Dome of the Rock. The
arabesques on the sabil dome are a provincial variant on those
adorning the dome of his funerary complex in Cairo. Nearby, at the
western edge of the Sanctuary, is the Ashrafiya madrasa (1482), the
most important of a number of madrasas Qa’it Bay established in the
holy cities. These buildings defiantly signalled Egypt’s imperial role as
guardian of the holy places at a time when the advancing Ottoman
empire was poised to extinguish her power in the region. The
Ashrafiya madrasa, which adjoins the earlier Baladiya madrasa, is the
most imposing of a number of madrasas built near the Haram
al-Sharif. Only the ground floor survives, but the madrasa itself was of
the qa’a type, constructed laterally on the first floor over an assembly
hall. The imposing façade, with its triple arcaded loggia, overlooked
the Sanctuary, and the surviving first-floor structure, with its ablaq
masonry, vaulted entrance porch and vestibule, is equal in strength
and originality to anything Qa’it Bay built in Egypt.
Back in Cairo, one of the most beautiful mosques of the Qa’it
Bay period is that erected by his amir, Qijmas al-Ishaqi (1478–9). It
is built on the triangular intersection of two streets, Sharia Darb
above: Qa’it Bay’s sabil on the Haram al-Sharif,
Jerusalem.
The Architecture of the Burji Mamluks 225