Ottoman architecture in Egypt

At the apogee of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century its state bureaucracy, whose foundations were laid in Istanbul by Mehmet II, became increasingly elaborate and the profession of the architect became further institutionalized.[3] Many of the architects and administrators were recruited from the European population of the empire through the devshirme system.[4] The Ottoman administration included a "palace department of buildings" (khāṣṣa mi'mārları), which grew from 13 architects in 1525 to 39 architects by 1604.[4] The central state commissioned and planned building projects across its vast territory, a practice that also helped to establish Ottoman sovereignty in these provinces through the construction of monuments in a visibly Ottoman style.[5] Architects in the capital were able to draw plans and delegate them to other architects who carried them out locally, while the imperial administration developed a set of standards for planning and construction and was able to coordinate the procurement and transportation of the necessary materials.[5] Often plans, but no elevations or craftsmen, were sent to the provinces. This can be seen for instance in the combination of an Ottoman plan with a Cairene elevation in the Sinan Pasha Mosque in Bulaq, Cairo.[6]

In 1517 the Ottoman conquest of Egypt formally brought Mamluk rule to an end, although Mamluks themselves continued to play a prominent role in local politics.[7] In architecture, there was significant continuity with existing Mamluk architectural style, but new Ottoman features and building types were introduced.[1] For example, most Egyptian mosques of the period consistently adopt the pointed Ottoman style of minaret rather than the more ornate traditional Mamluk-style minaret, which is one of the features that visually denoted Ottoman hegemony in the urban landscape.[8][9] In the late Mamluk period stone domes had become almost exclusively associated with mausoleums, but under Ottoman influence they were used to roof the prayer halls of mosques.[1] The scale of architectural patronage declined in comparison with previous periods.[1]

Sinan Pasha Mosque in Cairo (1571)

In Cairo, the Mosque of Suleyman Pasha inside the Cairo Citadel is the closest representative of classical 16th-century Ottoman mosques in the city. The roofing of the prayer hall by a central dome and three semi-domes, the pencil-shaped minaret, and the open courtyard surrounded by a domed portico are all classical Ottoman features. A few of its details, however, such as the marble paneling decoration of the interior, draw on the local Mamluk-Cairene style.[10][11][1][12] The Sinan Pasha Mosque (1571) in the Bulaq neighbourhood of Cairo is somewhat less Ottoman in character and more heavily influenced by local traditions, but it is also one of the most successful mosques of this period blending these two traditions.[10][13][14][15] It consists of a large single-domed prayer hall surrounded by a domed portico on three sides, both typical Ottoman features. The multi-lobed pendentives of the dome, the decoration of the mihrab, and the shape of the windows are all in local styles.[16][17] The Mosque of Malika Safiyya (1610) was probably built by local architects commissioned to design an Istanbul-style mosque. The feature most reminiscent of Istanbul is the square courtyard that precedes the prayer hall, while the prayer hall has a central dome surrounded by smaller domes.[8] In 1652 the 14th-century Aqsunqur Mosque (now also known as the "Blue Mosque") was renovated by Ibrahim Agha, a local Janissary commander, who added extensive Ottoman Iznik tile decoration on the qibla wall and in the attached tomb he built for himself.[18][19]

The sabil-kuttab (Arabic: سبيل وكتاب), a combination of a sabil (water-dispensing kiosk) on the ground floor and a primary school (kuttab or maktab) above it, was a typical building type of the architecture built by the Ottomans in Cairo.[6] These structures had existed in the late Mamluk period but they proliferated under the Ottomans and numerous surviving examples date from the 18th century.[20] One of the best-known examples is the Sabil-Kuttab of Abd ar-Rahman Katkhuda (1744) on al-Mu'izz street.[21]

Sabil-kuttab of Mustafa III in Cairo (1758–1760)

In the 18th century the power of the local Janissaries and allied urban notables increased.[20] However, a few rare monuments sponsored by Ottoman sultans were also built in Cairo in the mid-18th century, demonstrating a certain level of renewed imperial interest in the city.[20] The Takiyya Mahmudiyya, sponsored by Mahmud I and dated to 1750, was the first Ottoman complex in Cairo to be founded by a sultan, over two and a half centuries after the conquest of the city. It consists of a madrasa and a sabil-kuttab. The style and decoration of the complex is a fusion of Ottoman and local Cairene (Mamluk) styles, but it does not include any elements of the new Ottoman Baroque style Mahmud I was employing in Istanbul.[20][22] The most influential innovation of Mahmud I's complex was the curved façade of its sabil-kuttab, a local interpretation of the curved sabil facades in Istanbul, which was repeated in subsequent sabil-kuttab designs in Cairo.[20] A slightly later imperial foundation, the Sabil-kuttab of Mustafa III in Cairo (located across from the Mosque of Sayyida Zeinab) in 1758–1760, still demonstrates local Cairene influences but this time it incorporates some new Ottoman Baroque details for the first time.[20][23] Another sabil-kuttab founded by Mustafa III near the Mosque of Sayyida Nafisa in 1756–1757 has not been preserved.[20] Other buildings sponsored by local elites were generally still built in an Ottoman-Mamluk hybrid style, such as the Sabil-kuttab of Abd ar-Rahman Katkhuda (mentioned above). While Mamluk-era configurations remained predominant, Ottoman decoration was applied in highly visible ways in some local monuments, most notably in the use of Ottoman blue and white tiles, including re-used 16th-century Iznik tiles imported from Istanbul.[20]

Mosque of Muhammad Ali in the Citadel of Cairo, completed in 1848

In the 19th century, under the de facto independent rule of Muhammad Ali and his successors, Ottoman Baroque and contemporary late Ottoman Westernizing decoration was conspicuously employed in new buildings, including the Mosque of Muhammad Ali (1830–1848) in the Citadel and multiple new sabil-kuttabs throughout the city.[24][25] Muhammad Ali's mosque is entirely Ottoman in form and adopts the same layout as the Şehzade Mosque and Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, referencing the classical architecture of the Ottoman Empire at its apogee.[26][27] This choice of model expressed a pan-Islamic affiliation beyond Egypt.[27] The mosque's decoration, however, eschews any Mamluk influences or any traditional Islamic ornamentation in favour of European influences instead, although Qur'anic inscriptions and references are still present.[27][28] These deliberate design choices were a radical break from the architectural traditions of Cairo and likely symbolized Muhammad Ali's own efforts to forge a new order in Egypt. Having been appointed Ottoman governor in 1805 and eliminated the remaining Mamluks in 1811, he undertook a program of modernization while increasing Egypt's independence from Istanbul. The new architectural vocabulary likely symbolized these changes, and the mosque's size and prominent position on Cairo's skyline reinforced this statement.[27][29]

• Residential Architecture in Historic Cairo