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HANDS ON Traditional Crafts at The City of the Dead in Cairo

Tomb of Khawand Tulbay (No.80) A.D. 1363-4 / 765 A.H.

Khawand (Princess) Tulbay, sometimes spelled Tulbiya, a Tartar princess from the Volga, was a wife of Sultan Hasan, the builder of the magnificent mosque at the feet of the Citadel. She died in 1364. There is some confusion regarding her identity, as in some accounts Tulbiya is named as the principal wife of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad Ibn Qalaun and reported to have been of Uzbek origin and a descendant of Genghis Khan.

Her tomb is the smaller and less sumptuous than the neighbouring one of Khawand Tughay. Except the tomb, the original complex has been replaced with later buildings, so it is not certain how it looked. Within the enclosure wall and just north of the domed tomb stands a double open-canopy structure with pyramidal roofs, dating from Ottoman times. The cemeteries of Cairo were full of such tombs when the French expedition recorded them in 1798-1799, but only a few, including the nearby tomb of Qadi Muhammad Mawahib are preserved now.

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