Mausoleum of the Abbasid Caliphs, Cairo

The Mausoleum of the Abbasid Caliphs, in the precincts of the Sayyida Nafisa mosque, is attributed to the Ayyubid period; its oldest inscribed cenotaph is that of Abu Nadla, the caliph's envoy, who died in 1242, which may be the building's date. ¹ Creswell suggested it was built for him, which is uncertain; its scale suggests a royal tomb, and it has been proposed that it was meant for al-Adil II, deposed by al-Salih in 1240; Yeomans thinks it reasonably certain that it was not built for the Abbasid caliphs. ¹

After the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258, Baybars revived a nominal caliphate in Cairo by installing al-Mustansir in 1261; he and his successors lent the Mamluk regime religious prestige without political power. ^{1 2} The earliest datable caliphal burial is al-Wathiq's in 1341; earlier, the most significant are Baybars's sons Anas Bay (d. 1266) and Umar (d. 1269). ²

The composition closely resembles the tomb of Shajar al-Durr: a cube under a keel-profiled dome with a stepped zone of transition pierced on each side by three windows; each outer wall has three keel-arched recesses with rosettes and strapwork, with doors in the centre except on the qibla side, marked by the mihrab salient. ² Inside are fluted keel-arched panels in the Fatimid sunrise manner, lined with muqarnas and set in lace-like stucco arabesque framed by Kufic, with stucco and stained-glass windows above, and a dome and zone of transition painted with medallions, inscriptions and scrolls in red, yellow, dark blue and white. ³

The decoration is thought to be Baybars's work, though its delicacy is unlike the severity of his Cairo mosque; it may honour his sons or, as Hillenbrand suggests, be "an act of piety on behalf of the resuscitated caliphate", making the tomb, like al-Shafi'i's, an endorsement of Sunni orthodoxy by the new Mamluk regime. ³ Yeomans calls it a transitional building, built under the Ayyubids and given new meaning under the Mamluks. ³