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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
A public mosque and the tomb of the founder represent at the present day what was once a khanka, or, as it may be described, a conventual establishment for the use of Ṣũfis, erected at Cairo in the early years of the fourteenth century, by Sultan Baybars, second of the name. An earlier foundation of the same character, the first seen in Egypt, owed its existence to Saladin, who adapted to his purpose a house or mansion built in the days of the Fatimites, and known as the house of Sa'īd as-Su'ada, a designation which the existing mosque bears to the present day. Both foundations have for a long period ceased to serve the purposes for which they were erected, and, as has likewise happened to the numerous madāris or colleges founded by the Egyptian Sultans and nobles, their original destination is w ll-nigh forgotten. They are now simply classed among the public mosques of Cairo, a change from their original purpose largely due to their impoverishment, and not unlike that which has befallen many old abbey churches in England.
page 138 note 1 The Dār al-Wizārah was the official residence of the Wazīrs, who during the later years of the Fatimite dynasty were the real and irresponsible rulers of the empire. It stood close to the north side of the Great Palace in which the Khalīfahs lived completely secluded from the world, treated, it is true, with every outward mark of veneration, but none the less in a state of virtual though splendid captivity. The description handed down to us by William of Tyre of the interview with the young Khalīfah al-'Āḍid, which the bluntmannered Latin envoys of King Amalric compelled the shocked Wazīr Shāwar to agree to, is not only an exceedingly curious account of the incident and of its surroundings, but one also in complete accord with the information we derive from the native historians on the conditions under which the Fatimite dynasty was then hastening to its fall.
The Dār al-Wizārah consisted of numerous buildings, and it included a large garden. It was built by Malik al-Afḍal Shāhinshāh (a.h. 487–515), son of Badr al-Jamāli.
The house of Sa'īd as-Su'ada was shortly before the advent of Saladin occupied by the Wazīr al-'Ādil Ruzzayk (a.h. 556–558), who built an underground passage communicating with the Dār al-Wizārah immediately opposite. Remains of the passage, of more or less importance, are, it may be, still in existence.
page 141 note 1 Al-A'raj was the nickname of Malik an-Nāṣir, derived from his lameness. Ibn Baṭūṭah mentions another instance in which it was publicly applied to the Sultan, on that occasion in a hostile spirit (“Defremery,” i, p. 86). The lines referred to in the text have been preserved by Ibn Iyās, and are as follows:—
The unflattering epithet Rukayn may be rendered wretched little mouse, and is a play upon the Sultan's title, Rukn ad-dīn. The nickname Duḳayn or Scant-beard is derisively applied to the Wazīr Salār, who was a Tartar and, like most of his race, almost beardless. 
is for 
, and Duḳayn is written as vulgarly pronounced in Egypt, with Dāl.
page 143 note 1 I have failed in my attempts to identify the port of Ibn Mishta. Professor De Goeje has, with his habitual kindness, looked up for me the MS. of Nuwayri preserved in the library of the University of Leiden; but it makes no mention of the place, nor does it give any information on the Princess's route. Ibn Mishta must have been a contemporary, since Maḳrīzi tells us that he bore his part in showing hospitality to the Princess, and the words used by Maḳrīzi indicate, as Professor De Goeje points out, that the port must have been very distant, relatively, from the Bosphorus. It may, indeed, be understood to have been the place of embarcation.
page 143 note 2 It stands close to the tomb of Khuanda Ţughāy, the favourite wife of an-Nāṣir, and mother of his favourite son, Anūk, who died eight months before the Sultan. The tomb of Ţughāy is in even a worse condition than its neighbour: only fragments of its mosque are visible. The cenotaph has disappeared from below the dome, and with it every trace of a mortuary inscription. The Princess Ţughāy died in a.h. 749.
page 147 note 1 Cf. Lane-Poole, S., “The Arts of the Saracens,” p. 230Google Scholar.