Unit No30

‘Ali ‘Uthman

Coordinates of the main entrance	30.041798N - 31.271045E
Attribution	‘Ali ‘Uthman
Higri (AH)Dates as given in the Inscription	1322
Miladi (AD)Dates as given in the Inscription
Inscription Contemporary with the building?	Yes
Multiple date(s) In the inscription?	Yes
Assumed Date
Based on
Original Use	Tomb chamber with a room for visitors upstairs
Current Use	Tomb chamber with a room for visitors upstairs
Overall condition	Good

Features of unit 30

	Present	Count	Material	Comments (see description for details)
Free standing structure	Yes	1	Rubble stone
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)	No
Wall fountain(s)	No
Canopy on columns / pillars	No
Carved marble cenotaph(s)	No
Decorated limestone tomb-markers	Yes	2	limestone	Inside the ground-floor room
Decorated gateway	Yes	1	Marble lintel	A marble lintel in a very simple doorway
Decorative door-leaves	Yes	2	wood
Decorative window grilles	No
Decorative shutters	No
Painted ceiling(s)	No
Decorative paving(s)	No

Unusual or unique features

• A free-standing tall building rather than a more typical walled enclosure
• Residential unit above a burial chamber
• A flat gabled roof, an unusual feature in Cairo.

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

Ali ‘Uthman’s family funerary structure is a freestanding two-story building with a simply decorated main elevation facing east. The main doorway is in the middle of the east façade, with a marble lintel inscribed with the family name and the construction date, and with a segmental relieving arch above the lintel. The door is framed with an extremely simplified band in plaster very vaguely suggesting a Mamluk-style arrangement. Similar plaster bands (not related to Mamluk architecture) frame a small window to the left and a corresponding blind window to the right. The upper floor has two large windows in similar framing and with wooden louvre shutters in the eastern elevation. The top of the façade is a flat gable, with an inscribed roundel in the middle. The north wall has one window on each floor and the fenestration of the back elevation is irregular.
The ground floor consists of a single room covered with an undecorated wooden ceiling. It functions as a burial chamber with two simple limestone tabut tomb markers. Wooden stairs in the south-eastern corner of the room lead to the upper floor, which is a residential room covered by the sloping gabled roof.