ABOUT THE PROJECT
A first outcome is a thorough documentation of this monument zone, both of the architecture of its monuments and the surrounding urban fabric and a historical study of its development through time.
URBAN SURVEY
The current relationship of the cemetery of Sayyidi Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti to the city is a paradox. It lies at the convergence of Cairo's two main highways and immediately south of one of Cairo's busiest transportation nodes. Its domes and minarets are visible, yet it is extremely difficult to enter because its access points are hidden. The contrast between the serenity of its inner spaces and the visual and auditory noise of the commercial and residential structures on its peripheries adds to the paradox. How did this come about?
MONUMENTS
The currently extant remains of five Mamluk funerary complexes – the turbas of al-Sawabi, al-Qarafi, Qusun, al-Sultaniyya and Sudun - are the result of a building frenzy in this area that started during the reign of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad and culminated in the construction of at least 15 funerary turbas belonging to prominent Mamluk amirs. While interest dwindled in the Ottoman period, the northern periphery still has the mosque of Masih Pasha, a curious historical footnote illuminating the relationship between political power and religious influence. One last Ottoman monument, Mustafa Agha Jaliq is a small canopy tomb with a wealth of archival documentation behind it.
SHRINES
With the exception of the shrine of the Mamluk scholar Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti after whom the cemetery is named, this cemetery's shrines house mostly obscure, and often forgotten religious figures. They are extremely fluid both physically as markers and conceptually as narratives and myths. Thus the shrine of Rayhan (whose origins are now obscure) is re-identified as the shrine of Sana wa Thana by a scholar in the 1990s only to have all physical signs of identification eradicated by the caretaker. We even have a shrine that was moved from the banks of the Nile to here . The most popular of the shrines marks the grave of a 20th century Rifa'i sufi called 'Abata (literally "idiocy").
FUNERARY
This cemetery contains a mix of two kinds of funerary markers; tarkibas (cenotaphs) and hawshs (funerary enclosures). Cenotaphs range from simple mastabas to elaborate constructions in carved and coloured marble. Hawshs can contain, in addition to burial yards, living quarters for overnight stay, that in a few cases are gradually converted into apartments for permanent dwelling by the cemetery residents, or they can be basic walled enclosures that are open to the sky. In both cases, they accommodate elaborate rites of burial and visitation that are still practiced to this day.
SECULAR
The northern section of the cemetery as well as its western border Street are both busy commercial strips with the northern section's shops topped by residential multi-storeys. Some of the hawshs inside the cemetery contain spaces that service these commercial activities, while others simply serve as residences. The turabis (cemetery caretakers) could also live in purely residential homes that are legal structures with street numbers. The cemetery residents form a tight-knit community with a clear structure and their livelihood is derived both from burial activities and related construction and contracting works and from the peripheral commercial activities.WELCOME TO OUR SITE
PROJECT SUMMARY
The aim of this project is to complete a thoroughgoing study of a section of the Cairene cemetery that produces a visual record of change and that functions as a scholarly model for studying areas of conflicting interests. Specific to Cairo, of course, our research project has regional applications throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Made possible by a Getty Collaborative Research Grant and administered by the University of California, LA, this is a collaborative research project whereby scholars from different disciplines research the history of the cemetery and monument zone of Sayyidi Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti from a number of perspectives.
PROJECT OUTCOME
A first outcome is a thorough documentation of this monument zone, both of the architecture of its monuments and the surrounding urban fabric and a historical study of its development through time. A second outcome is a methodology for the study of contested multi-functional historical zones in Egypt and the region. Results are disseminated via this website.
PROJECT SITE AND DESCRIPTION
The historic cemetery of Cairo is a condensed, complex and extreme example of other cases of multifunctional cemeteries. Its study can potentially contribute significant insight into what is a regional urban type. Furthermore its study feeds into the more universal issue of how to understand and represent historic areas where conflicting claims of history, art, religion, social and economic necessity are at play.
This extraordinary cemetery, described as a significant site in the Egyptian government decree declaring Islamic Cairo as a world heritage site, is not within the official borders of the world heritage site. Even more incredible is the fact that to this very day, no cadastral maps of the cemetery, definitive maps of ownership or rent, or even an official population count exist. Furthermore, the majority of its listed buildings are poorly documented and are outside the focus of almost all ongoing conservation projects in Islamic Cairo, whether local or international.
It is not possible to include the whole cemetery (which includes over 120 listed monuments within close to 6 sq. km) within this project. Therefore, one section of it has been chosen as a pilot study, al-Suyuti cemetery. Al-Suyuti Cemetery (normally referred to as Tombs of the Mamluks in western travel literature) is the north-eastern section of the southern cemetery, the oldest of Cairo’s cemeteries. Its area contains nine monuments and what we term an infill of tombstones, cenotaphs, streets and squares. The monuments are:
– Mausoleum of Badr al-Din al-Qarafi (founder Aydughmish Amir Akhur – pre 1323; mon. no. 297)
– Funerary complex of Sayf al-Din Qusun (c. 1330; mon. nos. 290, 291, 293)
– Mausoleum of al-Sawabi (founder Sawab al-Din Rukni – pre 1335; mon. no. 296)
– Mausoleum of al-Sultaniyya (founder Mother of Sultan Nasir Hasan – r. 1356-2; mon. no. 288, 289)
– Mausoleum of Sudun al-‘ajami (c. 1505; mon. no. 294)
– Iwan Rayhan (founder Nawruz Kikhya al-Jawishiyya – 1534; mon. no. 297)
– Mosque of Masih Pasha (1575, mon. no. 160)
– Mausoleum of Mustafa Agha Jaliq (1667, mon. no. 295)
– Mausoleum of Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (1796-7; not listed)
This two-year study is a collaborative effort between three scholars whose multi-disciplinary experiences encompass the fields of art and architectural history, urban history, epigraphy and conservation. One of the core members has written her PhD dissertation on the cemetery of Cairo. All three have worked both individually and collectively on subjects that touch on the issues at hand such as: implementation of conservation projects in the cemetery of Cairo, studies of cemeteries in other temporal and culture frameworks, and supervision of PhD dissertations that touch on issues of sacred geography and cemeteries. During the first year of the project, these Core Members collaborated with six Associate Scholars from other fields (history, law, religion, social anthropology, archaeology and popular culture) and the result was a mapping, survey and architectural documentation of the area and its significant buildings (carried out by the core team), in addition to reports by the associate team members (each on their area of specialization). During the second year, the material was synthesized, to be disseminated through this website.