Isma‘il Katkhuda Mustahfizan

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

A trapezoid tetragonal enclosure measuring ca 22 x13-18 metres, with a smaller annexe at the northern end of the western side. Save the modern shed in the south-eastern corner, the enclosure is an open courtyard. The perimeter wall was evidently remodelled a number of times, and it includes features (such as bold mouldings curving around architectural features) typical of early 19th-century buildings in Cairo, e.g. the nearby funerary complex of Sulayman Agha al-Silahdar from the 1830s, or Muhammad ‘Ali’s buildings at the Citadel of Cairo. The whole eastern wall and north-eastern corner of the enclosure are clearly rebuilt, with some Ottoman-period decorated stone blocks haphazardly reused in the lower part. The simple, undecorated gate to the enclosure is covered with a segmental arch and placed in the southern wall. Inside the enclosure are numerous tomb markers with many marble plaques with incised inscriptions, of recent date. The tomb markers and plaques have been evidently rearranged and remodelled quite recently. A marble stela in the form of a post tapering towards the base and octagonal in section bears five band of calligraphic inscriptions in raised relief, including the date 1198 AH [=AD 1775]. The floral decoration on the stela is in the style consistent with this date, resembling e.g. the buildings of ‘Abd al-Rahman Katkhkuda. The stela has been mounted on a modern tomb marker.