Shafiqa Ibrahim ‘Ali Nassar

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

The funerary enclosure occupies a quadrilinear lot measuring approximately 13 x 6 – 14 metres, with western, southern, and northern walls meeting at right angles, and the eastern wall oblique. It faces streets on the southern and eastern sides, and borders on neighbouring funerary enclosures on the other sides.
In the southern part of the enclosure is a residential unit accessed through a gate in the southern façade; the north-western corner is taken by a burial chamber, and to the east of it is a small triangular courtyard accessed by a gate in the eastern façade. The corner where the southern and eastern façades meet at an obtuse angle is rounded and contains a sabil window (now walled up). The entrance gates sections corners of the façades and the rounded corner with a sabil are built of ashlar stone masonry, the other walls are built of rubble stone and were originally plastered, with stone courses imitated in plaster. Originally, over the window in the western façade a stone lintel and a relieving arch, and the knotted moulding framing around it were imitated in high-quality plaster; only scant remnants of this decoration remain. The gates are placed off-centre in the façades. In the longer western one there is a single large window asymmetrically placed left of the gate. In the southern façade the gate is placed close to the rounded corner with the sabil; left of the gate is a single small window of a service room.
Both rectangular entrance gates were framed in simple Classical (not Mamluk-style) mouldings, in the eastern one carved in stone, in the southern one made of plaster and now almost entirely missing. Over both gates are marble inscription panels set in recesses in the walls, with two lines each of fine calligraphic lettering in raised relief. Both mention “Lady Shafiqa, daughter of the late Ibrahim ‘Ali Nassar” and give the date Friday, 2 Rabia‘ al-Awwal 1334 AH. The inscription over the western entrance also includes the corresponding date of 7 January AD 1916. The western entrance door is panelled, with simple architectural decoration in Classical (not Islamic) style. The southern door has been replaced with modern steel one.
The window of the sabil in the rounded corner is rectangular and plain, without architectural decoration. It is covered with a flat arch of elaborately joggled voissoirs and has a marble ledge at the bottom. It is currently walled up, with the blocking crudely smeared with Portland cement. On both sides of the sabil are small wall-fountains in the form of marble panels with rounded tops, inscribed in raised relief and giving the same Higri and Miladi dates: 1334 / 1916. Over the western one, a modern water-tap has been installed. This is a very rare example of a historic wall fountain in Cairo that continues in use.
The façades are topped with a stone cornice and huge stone crenellations in late Mamluk style.
Interior was inaccessible at the time of recording.