Funerary enclosure of Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi

Description (The direction towards Mecca (Qibla) is described as eastern and other directions are named accordingly)

Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi’s funerary enclosure is one of the largest and best maintained in the area under study. More than two-thirds of the rectangular plot is taken up by an open funerary enclosure arranged as a garden, while the section facing the Sultan Ahmad Street is a Neo-Mamluk building. The domed mausoleum is placed in the southern corner of the enclosure. The cubical block of the mausoleum is taller than the adjacent facades and topped with an elaborate fleur-de-lys crenellation resembling those of late Mamluk period in the reign of Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri. The dome sits on a tall octagonal drum with no zone-of-transition visible from the outside, featuring double round-arch windows topped by an oculus in each of the eight sides, with knotted mouldings framing and floral “arabesque” motifs in the spandrels. The dome constructed of reinforced concrete is decorated with fleur-de-lys floral pattern in prefabricated plaster panels. The pattern is virtually identical with this on the dome of Amir Azrumuk (monument No. 87, AD 1504-5) (Index, s.v.), located about one kilometre to the south in the same area of the cemetery. The small blue convex insets of glazed ceramic decorating the dome are also present in the tomb of Azrumuk. (Williams, p. 279-80). The main façade adjacent to the mausoleum is tripartite, with two bays each featuring a single window flanking the central, slightly projecting part with the main entrance portal. The right (north) bay is slightly wider and protruding forwards compared to the left one. The entrance section is asymmetrical, with the entrance door set to the right of its axis, and a single engaged corner column to the left. The rectangular entrance door is set in a rectangular recess topped with a three-tiered muqarnas frieze. Above the door is a recessed long inscription panel with one line of text. The windows of the façade are identical with those of the mausoleum. They are rectangular, fitted with iron grilles, with marble lintels decorated with recessed panels, over which are segmental relieving arches with joggled voussoirs and set in a rectangular recess topped by a two-tiered muqarnas frieze with muqarnases grouped in pairs, a feature of many Mamluk-period buildings including the tomb of Amir Azrumuk. The section adjacent to the mausoleum in the side (south) elevation is identical with the corresponding bay of the front façade, while the rest of the enclosure is surrounded by a lower simple wall of rough stone.
The entrance gate leads to a vestibule open to the sky, which on the back end opens to the garden with an arcade of three pointed arches on round columns with simple Mamluk-style capitals. A similar arcade of three arches faces the vestibule to the left, forming a portico in front of the mausoleum and the reception room that precedes it. To the right (north) of the vestibule, is a residential zone composed of two rooms and a toilet.