The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

cessors. Egypt then became a province of the Ottoman empire ruled
by Turkish pashas, but the power of the Mamluks remained considerable.
Many pashas in their turn, like the sultans before them,
became puppets of the Mamluks, and during the latter part of the
eighteenth century Egypt’s independence was more or less re-established
under Mamluk rule. It was not until the reign of Muhammad
Ali (1805–48) that Mamluk power was finally obliterated.
The Ottoman conquest did not bring an immediate end to
Mamluk architecture, and one of the finest buildings of the period
is the mosque of Amir Khayrbrak (1520–1) in Sharia Bab al-Wazir,
near the Citadel. Amir Khayrbak, governor of Aleppo, gained
much diplomatic experience of the Ottoman court during his distinguished
career. At the battle of Marj Dabiq, al-Ghuri put him
in command of the left wing of the army, but during a
decisive moment in the battle he defected to Selim. As a reward
for this treachery Selim appointed him governor of Egypt, where
he adopted Ottoman dress, language and culture. 30 He did not,
however, adopt an Ottoman style for his mosque and it stands as
one of the most distinctive late Mamluk buildings in the city.
This is due to the rich decoration on the dome and minaret as
well as its irregular plan and vaulted prayer hall. The dome, with
its fine interlacing arabesque, matches in quality the works of
Qa’it Bay. Equally rich is the minaret rising from a square base
with two shafts, one octagonal and one cylindrical (the third, in
the form of a pavilion, was removed). The octagonal shaft is
decorated with keel-arched recesses and the cylindrical shaft,
built of brick, is covered with geometric stucco patterns. Two
balconies supported on a lush outgrowth of muqarnas separate
and crown the two shafts.
The irregular plan of the mausoleum makes a striking impact
as one approaches the building up Sharia Bab al-Wazir. The sharp,
flange-like angles of the walls are echoed in the triangulation of the
slanting planes that form the corner sections of the zone of transition.
The design is compact and crystalline and the interlacing
arabesques on the dome make a fitting climax to this mounting
ensemble of prismatic forms. The mausoleum is attached by means
of an arch to the adjacent palace of Amir Alin Aq, a thirteenthcentury
building which Khayrbrak refurbished and occupied. Such
an arrangement, linking a funerary monument to a palace, is quite
unusual. The north-western side of the mosque is taken up by a
sabil-kuttab, and the trilobed entrance portal opens into a court
above: The madrasa and mausoleum of Amir Khayrbak.
The Architecture of the Burji Mamluks 233