Qalawun VR Project

Mausoleum

The entrance to the mausoleum was designed to lead worshipers eastward from the corridor between the mausoleum and the hospital (to the west), passing through an antechamber into the main room of the mausoleum. (A side entrance with a few stairs now exists, so visitors can also enter the main room directly from the complex’s main entranceway corridor.)

The main room has a square layout, with eight large columns arranged in an octagon providing support for the soaring dome above the middle. Wooden latticework panels enclose the center of the floor, where an empty wooden tomb sits symbolizing the bodies buried beneath it, which are Qalawun, his son Sultan al-Nāṣir Muḥammad, and his grandson Sultan al-Ṣāliḥ Ismā‘īl. The room’s miḥrāb (an indentation in the wall indicating the direction of Mecca) is on the main room’s east wall, outside which is al-Mu‘izz Street.

¹ Khiṭaṭ, 4: 516.

This mausoleum functioned not only as the burial place of the above-mentioned sultans, but also as a place of learning. For example, courses on hadīth (the traditions of the prophet) and tafsīr (Qur’an interpretation) were offered here. The costs of running these courses were covered by income from commercial facilities, a bathhouse, and an orchard in Cairo donated by Qalawun. The paid staff included 50 Qur’an readers, one professor each for hadīth and tafsīr lectures, one imām to lead worship services, six muadhdhins to perform adhāns (call to prayer), six servants, and other assistants. It also provided scholarships and dormitories for 30 students each (60 in total) who attended hadīth and tafsīr lectures².

Qalawun’s son and successor Sultan Khalīl (reigned 1290–94) designated as “special wards” the villages and port cities of Sur and Acker, which he had captured in battle against the Crusaders, and donated them as a newly added financial resource for this mausoleum. This funding paid additional salaries to six servants, one imām, and 50 Qur’an readers who were already involved in the operation of the mausoleum. This source of income also paid the repair costs for a water wheel, and bought rugs, as well as oil and wax required for prayer and worship services³.

² Nihāya, 31: 110–11.
³ Sulūk, 1: 769; Khiṭaṭ, 4: 523

Qalawun’s grandson Sultan Abū Bakr (reigned 1340–41) also donated funding for Qur’an reading and writing courses at the mausoleum, and provided funds for bread and scholarships for orphans and the poor, in addition to the usual students, on the condition that they worked hard in studying the Qur’an. Similarly, Qalawun’s grandson, al-Ṣāliḥ Ismā‘īl (reigned 1342–45), provided funding for lectures on the four Sunni schools of interpretation of Islamic law at this mausoleum, separate from the Islamic law lectures offered in the madrasa⁴. These additional courses were also provided enough support through an endowment system. What was the point in holding Qur’an studies inside a mausoleum? The idea was that by having regular lectures on the Qur’an and Islamic law here, where Qalawun, al-Nāṣir Muḥammad, and al-Ṣāliḥ Ismā‘īl are all entombed, they would hear the Qur’an and hadīth being recited, providing an ideal environment for them to sleep peacefully until Judgement Day.

⁴ Khiṭaṭ, 4: 518.

Madrasa

Across the entranceway corridor from the mausoleum, in the southeast section of the complex, is the madrasa. According to Mamluk biographer Shāfi‘ b. ‘Alī (died 1330), the Sultan did not initially plan to build a madrasa. Amir Sanjar al-Shujā‘ī, who oversaw the construction, decided to add one. The sultan was angry when he heard of this, and it is reported that he refused to enter the madrasa when he first visited the hospital after the facility was completed⁸. Also, according to historian Qirṭāy (died sometime after 1308), Qalawun wanted to build his mausoleum directly opposite the mausoleum of his former lord Ayyubid Sultan al-Sāliḥ Ayyūb (reigned 1240–49)⁹. In actuality, however, it is the madrasa that sits directly opposite the al-Sāliḥ Ayyūb mausoleum. Qalawun’s charitable endowment complex faces the al-Sāliḥ Ayyūb mausoleum and the adjacent madrasa of Mamluk Sultan Baybars (reigned 1260–77). Both Qalawun and Baybars were once companions serving under al-Sāliḥ Ayyūb, and also had close ties because Baybars’ son and Qalawun’s daughter married. This likely influenced Qalawun’s choice of site for building his own complex¹⁰.

⁸ Behrens-Abouseif, 2007: 134.
⁹ Northrup, 1998: 119.
¹⁰ Behrens-Abouseif, 2007: 134.

The madrasa features a courtyard in the center, a prayer room on the east side, an īwan on the west side (hospital side), a small īwan and a three-story dormitory on the north side (entranceway corridor side), and an arcade on the south side. This south-side arcade was added during renovations by ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Katkhudā in the mid-18th century, and is said to have originally had a small īwan and a three-story dormitory, similar to the north side.

The prayer room is a basilica with a nave and aisles. On the Bayn al-Qaṣrayn side of the nave, there is a miḥrāb indicating the direction of Mecca. Next to the miḥrāb is a minbar (raised pulpit) for the imām (worship leader) to give khuṭba (sermons).

Lectures given in the madrasa‘s īwans and a prayer room taught about the interpretation of Islamic law of four Sunni legal schools (Shafi’i, Hanafi, Maliki, and Hanbali) and how to read the Qur’an. The imām was selected from the Shāfi’ī school, which was dominant during the Mamluk dynasty. Nevertheless, lectures on Islamic law covered all of four legal schools, with one professor and three assistants for each. In addition to these administrative positions, servants and gatekeepers were appointed and paid salaries. At the beginning of the 14th century, 50 students were reportedly studying at the madrasa, and were provided scholarships and dormitories¹¹.

¹¹ Nihāya, 31: 112.

Hospital

After coming in through the main entrance to the complex, proceeding forward down the entranceway corridor, passing the mausoleum on the left and the madrasa on the right, the visitor comes to a T-shaped intersection where corridors extend to the left and right. The hospital building is immediately ahead. Although it is not visible from the Bayn al-Qaṣrayn district, the hospital is one of the most visited buildings in this complex.

At the Qalawun hospital, all Muslims, military and civilian, were accepted for treatment. Moreover, there was no limit on the length of hospital stay¹⁵. When a patient was discharged, they were provided with money and clothing as a form of congratulations, and when a patient died, their bereaved family was provided with money to cover the cost of holding a funeral¹⁶. Thus, the Qalawun hospital not only treated sick and injured Muslims, but also played a social welfare role by providing them with financial support. So-called “protected persons” (dhimmī) such as Jews and Christians, on the other hand, were not admitted as patients and strictly prohibited from having anything to do with hospital management¹⁷. In that era, only the Islamic faithful were allowed to receive the leading-edge medical care available at hospitals with chief physician.

¹⁵ Tadhkira, 1: 358–59.
¹⁶ Tadhkira, 1: 367; ‘Īsā, 1981: 96.
¹⁷ Tadhkira, 1: 363, 367.

The hospital consisted of four departments, each overseen by a department head (ra’īs): internal medicine, ophthalmology, surgery, and orthopedics¹⁸. The head of internal medicine was also the hospital’s chief physician (ra’īs al-aṭibbā’) supervising all departments. Moreover, the chief physician’s supervision was not confined just to the hospital but extended to all doctors in Egypt and Syria. The chief physician also supervised lectures on medicine given at the Qalawun hospital. When, through these lectures, a medical student acquired the general background needed as a doctor, he was issued a license (ijāza) by the corresponding department head¹⁹.

¹⁸ The endowment document mentions only three departments: internal medicine, ophthalmology, and surgery. But al-Nuwayrī, who was engaged in the management of the hospital in the early 14th century, reported there were four departments in the hospital, indicating that an orthopedics department was established some time after the hospital opened (Nihāya, 31: 107). See the following sources regarding the fact that the head of internal medicine also served as the chief physician. Behrens-Abouseif, 1987: 3, 5–6; Kikuchi, 1992: 51.
¹⁹ Doris Behrens-Abouseif, 1987: 6.

Patient rooms were assigned according to symptoms, such as diarrhea, fever, injury, and mental illness. The Egyptian historian al-Maqrīzī (died 1444) reported as follows:

The Sultan (Qalawun) assigned male and female employees to deal with the sick, and paid their salaries. Beds were provided for the patients and covered with the necessary sheets. Patients were divided into different locations according to their medical conditions. The four īwans of this hospital were allocated to female patients with fevers and others (patients). Ophthalmologist, surgeon, people with diarrhea symptoms, and women were allocted independent room (qā’a). There was also a space for the dead, divided into men’s and women’s sections. (Khiṭaṭ, 4: 696)

A floor plan of the Qalawun complex drawn by 19th century architect Pascal Coste (died 1879) also shows that the treatment spaces were divided according to symptoms and gender.

Sabīl-Kuttāb (Water Supply / Elementary School)

Outside, near the complex entrance, the remains of a sabīl (public water fountain) are found where the northeast corner of the madrasa sticks out into the street. When the Qalawun complex was constructed, water was supplied for animals here. As the stench created by the animals later became an issue, and it was replaced with a public water supply for humans during the renovations of 1326²⁰.

²⁰ Khiṭaṭ, 4: 697.

In 1346–47, Amīr Arghūn al-‘Alā’ī built a sabīl-kuttāb, with a sabīl on the first floor and a kuttāb (a primary school teaching orphans to read and write the Qur’an) on the second floor²¹. At present, no building with such floors remains. But a drawing made toward the end of the 19th century shows a wooden addition above the arcade section in front of the main entrance.

²¹ Sulūk, 2: 700.