Tree of Pearls by Ruggles D. Fairchild;

Author:Ruggles, D. Fairchild;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2020-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Fig. 5.10 Mosque-Madrasa-Tomb of Mahperi Khatun in Kayseri (Turkey), reconstruction drawing.

Credit: A. Gabriel.

Fig. 5.11 Madrasa-Mausoleum of Nur al-Din in Damascus (Syria), plan.

Credit: D. F. Ruggles, after Herzfeld.

In early Ayyubid Cairo, Saladin had begun a madrasa in 1176–7 in the Southern Cemetery near the tomb of the highly revered Imam al-Shafiʿi. Hillenbrand described the juxtaposition as “an interesting exploitation of the principle of the Fatimid mashhads for orthodox Sunni ends” that was probably planned from the outset as part of the charitable foundation so as to “disarm the criticism of the pious.”36 Like so many other earlier madrasa-tomb complexes, Salih’s tomb combined piety with politics. Kessler noted that the mere presence of a mihrab invited prayer, giving the tomb a mosque-like function, which “was as much in disregard of the teaching of the orthodox authorities as the erection of the mausoleum itself.”37 Yet the invitation to prayer in the tomb would have been reinforced by the sound of Quran recitation and the lessons emanating from the madrasa, linking the two and making the sultan appear more pious than his earthly deeds may have merited. Meanwhile, the adjacent mausoleum reminded the madrasa students and staff how dependent they were on the deceased patron’s generosity. It is important to note that the scale of this was different from the kind of beneficence embodied by earlier and more modest tombs in which the deceased served as mediator between an individual supplicant and God.38

Salih’s tomb, built as an act of commemoration and sign of respect for the deceased sovereign, provided a political service for the living as well. For Shajar al-Durr, the tomb was a visible reminder to the court and the people of Cairo of the sultan in whose shadow she ruled and from whom she continued to draw power. With the addition of the mausoleum to the madrasa, the complex did not simply bear Salih’s name; it now held his body and turned the madrasa as a whole into a grand commemorative institution. One of the body’s semiotic signs was the large wooden cenotaph, glimpsed through the windows that gave onto the street, but in a larger sense the entire domed mausoleum served as an even more powerful sign, projecting upward into the skyline and outward into the street where it demanded attention in the part of the city that mattered most. In empowering the madrasa-mausoleum complex to become the eternal substitute for the sultan himself, the tomb changed the paradigm of what architecture in Cairo could do: the entire complex gained a new “identity” through the presence of the patron’s actual body.

The initial madrasa foundation had enabled the patron to embellish the streetscape, stake a claim to the city, and display his generosity and piety in his lifetime. But while it bore his name and titles, its primary purpose was to provide a place for teaching and study. The tomb, in contrast, existed for the sake of commemoration. Like all mausolea, it stood as a visible sign whose express purpose was to preserve the memory of its occupant for eternity.

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