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HANDS ON Traditional Crafts at The City of the Dead in Cairo
Tomb of Abdallah al-Menufi (No.168), 15th century A.D. / 9th century A.H.

The venerated Shaykh Abdallah al-Menufi died in a.d.1348/748 a.h. The present tomb was built either in Sultan Qaitbey’s times in 1470s, or perhaps in the first half of the 15th/9th century.

 

The very small stone-built mausoleum is covered by a dome with elaborate floral decoration of fleur-de-lys patterns. It is unusual in that the zone-of-transition, internally formed by rows of muqarnas niches, does not show on the exterior. The huge, pointed-arched openings suggest that this was originally an open-sided, canopy-type structure. There are traces of painted decoration inside the dome (possibly early 19th century.)

 

The tomb is included, together with another domed structure (probably of the 19th-century) within an early 20th-century mausoleum. The shaykh’s tomb is still venerated, so the tomb is well maintained.

This website is a result of a conservation and research project at the Hawd of Sultan al-Ashraf Qaitbey in Cairo's City of the Dead. The project was financed by the European Union Delegation to Egypt with a contribution from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and implemented in 2014 by Cairo-based ARCHiNOS Architecture in association with the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo under supervision of the Ministry of Antiquities and Heritage.

The web site is funded, produced, and designed by ARCHiNOS Architecture.

Website designed in 2014 by Maha Akl for ARCHiNOS Architecture.

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