Thursday, June 13, 2024

Ayyubid introduction of khanaqas into Egypt

According to the Mamluk historian Al-Qalqashandi, the Ayyubids introduced Khanaqas to Egypt:

As for the khanqas and ribats, they were not known in Egypt before the Ayyubid state. Sultan Şalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ayyūbī was the one who originated [building] them, for he built al-Şalāḥiyya Khanqah known as Sa'id al-Su'adā'. Sa'id al-Su'ada' was the title of a eunuch-servant (khādim) of the Fatimid al-Mustanşir named Qunbur, who owned this house (dār). The house, in the last [Fatimid] days, became the residence of al-Şālih

Talā'i' b. Ruzyak, who, after assuming the vizierate, dug an underground tunnel to it from the House of the Vizierate (Dār al-Wizāra). It was also a residence for Shāwir al-Sa'dī, the vizier of al-'Adid, then his son, al-Kāmil. When Sultan Şalāḥ al-Din came to power, he converted it into a khanqah and allocated an endowment (waqf) to it [that comprised] the Caravanserai of Sharb (Qaysariyyat al-Sharb) inside Cairo and al-Habbāniyya Garden in al-Birka Street (Zuqāq al-Birka).


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