You are now in Bayn al-Qasrayn, ‘between the two palaces’. Here the two great palaces of the Fatimid caliphs once faced each other. When the dynasty fell, their sites filled up with the sultans' mosques, schools and mausoleums.

1The sultan's record build

The facade in front of you is about 67 metres long. The Mamluk sultan al-Mansur Qalawun had it built between 1284 and 1285, in only about thirteen months according to the chroniclers. To meet the deadline, the emir in charge of the works, Sanjar al-Shujai, forced passers-by to labour and seized land illegally. Al-Maqrizi, the city's great historian, recorded the scandal a century later.

The complex brought together three buildings: a madrasa, the sultan's mausoleum and, above all, a large hospital, or bimaristan, open to everyone. It ran for more than five hundred years, until it was demolished in 1910.

2Gothic echoes

The paired windows and the minaret recall the architecture of the Crusaders, whom the Mamluks were fighting in Syria. The present minaret was rebuilt by al-Nasir Muhammad, Qalawun's son, after the earthquake of 1303. Next door, al-Nasir's madrasa displays a Gothic marble portal taken from a church in Acre, the Crusader city conquered in 1291.

Naguib Mahfouz named the first novel of his famous Cairo Trilogy after this place: ‘Palace Walk’, in Arabic ‘Bayn al-Qasrayn’.

3What to look for

  • The pointed-arch windows along the facade.
  • The minaret and its differently shaped storeys.
  • The Gothic portal of the neighbouring madrasa.
Old photograph of the dome and minaret of the Qalawun complex
Qalawun's mausoleum and minaret, photographed by K. A. C. Creswell in the early 20th century.

Documented

The complex was built in 1284-1285, its hospital worked until 1910 and the Gothic portal of the neighbouring madrasa comes from Acre.

Sources and credits

Al-Maqrizi, ‘Al-Mawaiz wa al-Itibar’ (Khitat), 15th century; Doris Behrens-Abouseif, ‘Cairo of the Mamluks’ (2007); Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, egymonuments.gov.eg.

Photos:

  • Facade of the Qalawun complex on al-Muizz Street, with pointed-arch windows and its minaret: Casual Builder, CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • Old photograph of the dome and minaret of the Qalawun complex: K. A. C. Creswell, Dominio público.

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