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HANDS ON Traditional Crafts at The City of the Dead in Cairo
Takiya of Ahmad Abu Sa‘if (No.111), 15th century A.D. / 9th century A.H.

This complex was built probably towards the end of the 15th/9th century by a member of the ‘ulama’. It is known under the name takiya, an Ottoman term for a Sufi convent (called khanqa in Mamluk times,) indicating that it remained in use after the Turkish conquest of 1517. Although the façade was restored by the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l’Art Arabe, it is again decaying, and the rest of the building is in ruins. It includes a sabil in the northwest corner of the enclosure, an entrance gate, and remnants of residential and service buildings. The façade is simple and unadorned but well-built of stone and handsomely proportioned.

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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