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Unit No28

Mustafa Pasha al-Khazindar

Coordinates of the main entrance

30.041128N - 31.273017E

Attribution

Mustafa Pasha al-Khazindar

Higri (AH)Dates as given in the Inscription

Miladi (AD)Dates as given in the Inscription

Inscription Contemporary with the building?

Yes

Multiple date(s) In the inscription?

Yes

Assumed Date

AD 1910 [?]

Based on

(published information, see section “History”)

Original Use

Tomb with an external sitting area and rooms for visitors

Current Use

Tomb with an external sitting area, and residential

Overall condition

Fair

Features of unit 28

Present Count Material Comments (see description for details)
Free standing structure Yes 1 Stone Free standing building: 2 residential rooms, sabil, and burial chamber plus a wooden front porch
Walled enclosure No
Rooms by the perimeter wall No
Freestanding structure(s) in enclousure No
Dome over the tomb chamber No
Neo-Mamluk architectural decoration No
Garden layout No
Sabil(s) Yes 1
Wall fountain(s) No
Canopy on columns / pillars No
Carved marble cenotaph(s) Yes 1 1 Big decorative marble cenotaph.
Decorated limestone tomb-markers No
Decorated gateway Yes 1 Wood &stone
Decorative door-leaves Yes 2 Wood In the entrance door
Decorative window grilles Yes 1 Iron
Decorative shutters No
Painted ceiling(s) Yes 1 Wood
Decorative paving(s) No

Unusual or unique features

• An elaborately decorated wooden front porch.
• The calligraphic inscription over the gate is unusual in containing a word that spans two framed compartments

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

A free-standing structure consisting of a one-story stone building and an elaborately decorated wooden front porch. The building is well constructed of ashlar masonry blocks with edges rebated to accentuate the joints. The entrance gate in the north-facing façade inside the porch is asymmetrically placed, with two rectangular windows with rusticated flat arches as lintels to the right and one to the left. The windows in the courtyard-facing facades are identical. All are fitted with simple louvre shutters. The window to the left of the gate in the front façade is a sabil window with a rounded marble ledge decorated with floral scrolls under a moulding. The arched gate has a simple rusticated architectural framing and a double-leaved door with neo-classical based decorative panelling. In the entablature over the gate is a rectangular marble ainscription panel with eight calligraphic framed compartments. Over the cornice, there is a semi-circular marble inscription panel divided into nine calligraphic compartments. The gate leads to a vestibule that gives access to the sabil room to the left, the burial chamber to the right, and to two residential rooms at the back. The burial chamber contains a single marble cenotaph elaborately decorated in the Ottoman Baroque style. The chamber has a ceiling of exposed bevelled beams, painted green, red, and pea-green and featuring a simple decorative wooden frieze at the top of the walls.
The wooden front porch has in the front elevation four round arches supported on five massive wooden columns, and in each side elevation a similar round arch and a narrower pointed arch. The tympana of the arches and the rectangular horizontal openings above them are filled with very elaborate wooden openwork of geometric patterns with floral motifs. The overhanging roof has a very elaborate tassellated wooden edge. Atop the corners of the main building are decorative stone vases. The ones at the front are awkwardly hidden behind the wooden porch, suggesting that it may be a later addition or an afterthought during construction.

Condition of preservation

The unit is in fair overall condition, although dilapidated. The wooden openwork decoration of the porch is heavily damaged and partially missing. The north-western corner column of the porch is missing, apparently knocked down by a vehicle moving on the street that sometimes becomes busy. The photograph in Al-Kady and Bonnamy’s book published in 2007 (p.197) shows that this happened before that date.

Information abut the founder, family history, etc.

According to a resident, the enclosure currently belongs to Ahmad Mandur family, who also own the nearby funerary enclosure of al-‘Abd al-Fakir Muhammad (No 29 in this survey). Ahmed Mandur is reported to have worked for the original Turkish family who had owned the enclosures before.
Al-Kadi and Bonnamy (p.197) attribute the tomb to Salih Pasha Silim and date it to AD 1910 without quoting any evidence. Judging by the style of the building, the date 1910 is not improbable. The name of Mustafa Pasha al Khazindar appears in the inscription on the semi-circular marble panel over the entrance door. Khazindar means “treasurer”, and is also a given name of Turkish origin deriving from this title.

References in published/primary sources

• El Kadi, Galila and Bonnamy, Alain Architecture for The Dead: Cairo’s Medieval Necropolis, American University in Cairo Press 2007, p. 197.

Field recording by
Hadeer Ahmad and Radwa al-Saeed

Date recorded
August 25, 2022

Data entered by
Yusuf Yassir

Date entered
May 9, 2024