Maristan of al-Mu'ayyad

Brief Information

The Maristan of al-Mu'ayyad looks too solemn for a building that barely had time to become a hospital. It was built in 1418-1420 as a bimaristan, but soon afterward the building was occupied by Iranians, then used as a boarding house for ambassadors, and in 1422 it was turned into a Friday mosque. This turn of events was possible because the plan had already been aligned with the qibla.

Its monumentality is explained not only by Sultan al-Mu'ayyad's conception. The maristan was built on the site of the unfinished madrasa-mausoleum of Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban II; its foundations and parts of its very high walls were probably incorporated into the new building. As a result, the surviving facade reads as the trace of two unrealized projects at once: a mausoleum that was dismantled, and a hospital that hardly ever functioned.

What to Notice First

It makes sense to look at the facade as the main surviving document of the building. The maristan stands above street level; originally, a spiral staircase led to the entrance, and the ascent itself emphasized the separation between the street and the portal. The recessed entrance is crowned with muqarnas - tiered carving resembling stalactites - while the ablaq masonry alternates dark red and light stone, so that the facade surface works not only through mass but also through color.

Individual details connect the hospital function with the decorative program. Bands of carved stone around the facade and the arches of the main hall resemble linked chains and gather the elements into a single frame. Above the doorway are two small columns with carved snakes; this rare detail may allude to healing. The courtyard was surrounded by four iwans, and the windows in some walls are arranged in tiers: rectangular, arched, and round. This grid makes it easier to understand that what remains of the interior is not emptiness, but the framework of the former layout.