Manzil Jamal al-Din al-Dhahabi

Cairo, Egypt

"The house of Jamal al-Din is located on Sharia Khushqadam, where the street narrows and gives one a nice sense of a medieval street.

Jamal al-Din was the chief of the corporations of gold merchants in Cairo, and as such one of the elite merchants of seventeenth-century Cairo. The wikala-sabil-kuttab that he endowed in the same year still stands (just off the Qasaba behind the stalls selling gold jewelry). His house is an example of a mansion of the seventeenth century, built in the Mamluk style. Perhaps the most charming part of this old house is the interior courtyard ensemble, with its central fountain and finely decorated door leading to the double arched maq'ad, or second-story loggia. To the east of the loggia is a splendid qa'a with a high dome in the center and handsome inlaid marble dadoes on the wall. The ceiling is beamed, coffered, and painted, and there are mashrabiya screens at the second-story level at the northern end to permit the women of the harem to witness the activities below. Although many of the rooms are empty, they nevertheless impart a sense of the extended and complicated nature of these medieval households."

Source:

Williams, Caroline. Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide, 146. Cairo: American University of Cairo Press, 2002.