Khanqa location:
The building is considered one of the largest complexes established in Egypt's cemeteries to serve various purposes. It includes a mosque, a khanqa for Sufis to reside, a school for receiving religious knowledge, two shrines, and two avenues, each surmounted by a book to teach children. The northern cemetery is on the eastern desert outskirts of the city of al-Qahira. This site had been used as a hippodrome in the early Mamluk times. Later, under Sultan al-Nasir Mohammad, this hippodrome was abandoned in favor of others, and emirs began to build religious and funerary structures on the site. Sultan Farag, while erecting the khanqah, planned to urbanize the site.
It took eleven years to complete the khanqah and was probably completed in 813 A.H./ 1411 A.D. No endowment deed was found for the building but its inscriptions indicated that it combined a Friday mosque, a khanqah and mausoleum.
Sultan Al-Nasir Faraj bin Barquq established this khanqah in the maritime part of the Mamluk Qarafa, which is sometimes called the Tombs of the Caliphs. Al-Nasir Faraj began its construction in the year (801 AH/1399 AD) and completed it in the year (813 AH/1411 AD). Some of its complementary works were contributed by his brother Al-Mansur Abd Al-Aziz became king in the year 808 AH/1405 AD for two months. It is the most luxurious cemetery found in all the cemeteries of Egypt and Cairo, the largest in area, and the most expensive.
Although this huge building was originally prepared to be a burial ground for the Barquq family, it was used as a school in which Islamic sciences were taught. It was prepared to be a comprehensive mosque with spacious areas, as well as a large religious community for Sufism.
Architectural description:
The exterior architecture of this great khanqah, which took twelve years to build, consists of four stone facades, the first of which is the main one in the northwestern side, the second of these facades in the northeastern side, the third of these facades in the southwestern side, and the fourth of these facades in the southeastern side. The structure of the building is rare in Mamluk architecture of this period. The building is free standing with four interesting facades, two sabils, two kuttabs, two minarets and two domes. The building has two entrances, each flanked by a sabil and kuttab. The first entrance occupies the north corner of the building and the second occupies the west corner of the building. The latter is the one used nowadays. It takes the shape of a recess crowned with a trilobed arch with half dome carried on stalactites. The recess is decorated with mushahar masonry.
The northeastern façade of the complex faces the caravan road and is connected to an arcade that leads to the mausoleum of Barquq's father Anas. This arcade appears to have been a part of a musalla4 . The north-western façade is marked with its two minarets which are identical. Each minaret consists of three stories: the first is rectangular; the second is circular carved with intersecting lines and the third is a pavilion with eight columns carrying the bulb. The south-eastern facade shows the two huge stone domes and between them a smaller brick dome which lies above the mihrab. The domes are the earliest stone domes of this size in Cairo (with a diameter of over 14 meters). They are carved with zigzag pattern and the transitional zone is stepped with one step concave and the next convex.
The exterior:
The structure of the building is rare in Mamluk architecture of this period. The building is free standing with four interesting facades, two sabils, two kuttabs, two minarets and two domes. The building has two entrances, each flanked by a sabil and kuttab. The first entrance occupies the north corner of the building and the second occupies the west corner of the building. The latter is the one used nowadays. It takes the shape of a recess crowned with a trilobed arch with half dome carried on stalactites. The recess is decorated with mushahar masonry.
dargah:
The main entrance leads to a rectangular dargah, 7.3 meters long and 40.50 meters wide, covered by a ceiling consisting of a fan vault, in the middle of which is an octagonal opening formed by a multi-lobed rose. In the front wall of the dargah there is a rectangular window surmounted by a rectangular window with a semicircular arch. This window is opposite the wall. To the north, there is an entrance with a capacity of 1.60 m, surmounted by a pointed Persian arch bordered by a jute player with circular memes, and above it a square window surmounted near the upper edge by a rectangular window with a semicircular arch. This entrance leads to the school’s vestibule.
The courtyard:
The layout of the madrasa , the mosque, and the khanqah consists of a large open courtyard surrounded by four iwans, the largest and deepest of which is the qibla iwan. This courtyard is a rectangular area 40.20 meters long and 36.90 meters wide. In the middle was a fountain whose features have been lost. The eastern iwan opens onto it with seven semicircular arches that it carries in addition to two shoulders on the northern side. The southern iwan has six stone columns, and the western iwan opens to it with five arches similar to the arches of the eastern iwan. Both the northern and southern iwans open to this court with five extended semi-circular arches, each of which is surrounded by a player’s palm that ends above the corner of the arch with a circular meme.
Stone pulpit:
To the right of the central mihrab, there is a stone pulpit that rests on a rectangular base, 4.15 meters long and 1.30 meters wide, on top of which two similar vanes stand. The decorations of each of them express a large triangle at the bottom, with a star plate in the middle, surrounded by parts of plates within their various units, floral decorations. Above this triangle (the vane). There is a ledge with a group of decorative units between squares and rectangles with geometric decorations of overlapping lines and floral decorations for porticoes and half-palm fans. In the middle of these decorative units is a steamer in the middle.
On this pulpit are prominent cursive inscriptions of four lines on its northern side that read: “He ordered the establishment of this blessed pulpit, our Lord the Sultan.” King Al-Ashraf Abu Al-Nasr Qaitbay, may God bless his supporters, on the date of the month of Rabi’ al-Akhir in the year eight hundred and eighty-eight of the honorable Prophet’s Hijra” and four other lines on its southern side that read, “He ordered the establishment of this blessed pulpit, our honorable master and master, the honorable Sultan Al-Malik, King Al-Ashraf Abu Al-Nasr Qaitbay, may God bless his supporters, and he concluded with good deeds.” His deeds and Muslims, O Lord of the Worlds.”
The mausoleum
The two mausoleums are entered directly from the qibla riwaq through wooden lattice screens. The northern mausoleum or dome is for Barquq and his son Farag, the southern one for his wife and daughters. The mausoleums are richly decorated with marble dadoes. The two domes are built of stone and carried on pendentives carved with stalactites. The windows of the transitional zone consist of a triplearched window surmounted by three bull's eyes one over two.
Minarets:
Two similar stone minarets were attached to this khanqa in the corners of the northwestern façade (north and south), each of which is 30 meters high and has three floors. Each of them rests on a square base with three courses above it. The first of these courses has a square body on its sides and four prominent balconies below. Each of them has three levels of polygonal muqarnas with angles, and at the top is a stone cycle with three sides, each with a stone apartment decorated with floral decorations.
This cycle is crowned by concave stalactites with pendants, and the second cycle has a cylindrical body, at the beginning of which is a circular balcony with hollow marble apartments with geometric decorations surmounted by doors, resting on On several levels of concave muqarnas with pendants, at the bottom of which is an inscription band in prominent Mamluk naskh script, which reads in the northern minaret: “In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, O you who have believed. When the call to prayer is on Friday, strive to the remembrance of God and give up selling,” and in the southern minaret it reads: “Shahed.” God is that there is no god but Him and the angels and those who are endowed with knowledge, standing with justice.” The third cycle consists of a colonnade with eight small round marble columns ending in muqarnas shapes. The colonnade is preceded by a circular balcony composed of small hollow apartments with Roman heads carried on stalactites in two rows. Above this colonnade A conical neck with a pear-shaped helmet crowned by a metal crescent.