Unit No50
Muhammad Shafiq Muhamad Khalid
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Coordinates of the main entrance |
30.039878N - 31.269283E |
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Attribution |
Muhammad Shafiq Muhamad Khalid |
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Higri (AH)Dates as given in the Inscription |
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Miladi (AD)Dates as given in the Inscription |
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Inscription Contemporary with the building? |
Yes |
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Multiple date(s) In the inscription? |
Yes |
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Assumed Date |
Early 20th century |
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Based on |
based on stylistic features |
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Original Use |
Funerary enclosure |
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Current Use |
Funerary enclosure |
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Overall condition |
Poor |
Features of unit 50
| Present | Count | Material | Comments (see description for details) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free standing structure | Yes | stone | Burial chamber now roofless | |
| 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 | Yes | |||
| Garden layout | No | |||
| Sabil(s) | Yes | 1 | stone | |
| Wall fountain(s) | No | |||
| Canopy on columns / pillars | No | |||
| Carved marble cenotaph(s) | Yes | 1 | 1 | |
| Decorated limestone tomb-markers | No | |||
| Decorated gateway | Yes | 2 | stone | |
| Decorative door-leaves | Yes | 4 | wood | Blocked with metal sheets |
| Decorative window grilles | Yes | 8 | wrought iron | Including elaborate sabil window grille |
| Decorative shutters | No | |||
| Painted ceiling(s) | No | |||
| Decorative paving(s) | Yes | 1 | cement tiles | In the entrance hall |
Unusual or unique features
• A purely Art Nouveau iron grille of the sabil in a building otherwise decorated in neo-Mamluk style.
Description (The direction towards Mecca (Qibla) is described as eastern and other directions are named accordingly)
A small rectangular enclosure measuring approximately 6×18 metres. The eastern and southern facades face streets, the western façade is on a small blind alley, and a neighbouring enclosure adjoins to the north. The complex consists of a set of rooms on the western side accessible from a gate in the southern façade, a room on the northern side that contains a sabil in the rounded south-eastern corner and is accessible from a gate in the eastern façade, and a small square courtyard between them. There are remnants of a wooden roof with a skylight over the courtyard that serves as a burial ground and contains a carved marble cenotaph. The eastern façade is built entirely of ashlar stone. In the southern and western façades the base courses, the cornice, the flat pilasters, and the south-western corner are built of ashlar stone, while the rest of the walls are built of rough stone and plastered. In the eastern façade, the entrance portal placed to the right (north) is placed in a shallow recess topped with an elaborate muqarnas frieze and framed in knotted mouldings. The rectangular door is covered with a lintel formed by a flat arch of step-joggled voussoirs with a placement for an inscription panel (now empty) framed in moulding. Over the door is a small rectangular window flanked with colonnettes, with a muqarnas frieze carved in its lintel. The window and the lintel of the door are framed in knotted mouldings. Left of the portal is a shallow recess topped with an elaborate muqarnas frieze, with a single large rectangular window. The southern façade is divided into four sections of unequal width. The eastern and western sections each contain a single rectangular window. The second section from west is built entirely of ashlar stone and is a portal similar to this in the eastern façade, only without a placement of an inscription panel over the door. The portal leads to an entrance hall from which the western room and the burial chamber are accessed. The middle section right of the portal contains two windows corresponding to the burial chamber (now a roofless courtyard.) The western façade has two identical windows. All windows are plain, and witted with simple decorative wrought iron grilles and simple wooden louvre shutters. The doors (now blocked with metal sheets) originally had simple decorative panelling with mafruka motifs. In the rounded south-eastern corner is a sabil window with a ledge supported on a muqarnas corbel. The sabil window covered with an arch with no surrounding framing is set in a corner recess between two pilasters that is topped by a muqarnas frieze. The wrought iron grille in the window displays distinctly Art Nouveau curvilinear motifs.

Condition of preservation
The building is disused and dilapidated. Most of the plaster is missing from the façades. There is serious damage to the lower parts of the walls from rising damp. The burial chamber is roofless, scant remains of the roof with a lantern remain. There are wide cracks in the northern part of the eastern façade, indicating differential settlement of foundations, which compromises structural safety, although the building is not yet in danger of imminent collapse.
- Field recording by
- Hadeer Ahmad and Radwa al-Sayid
- Date recorded
- April 8, 2022
- Data entered by
- Jaroslaw Dobrowolski
- Date entered
- April 27, 2024