Six-century-old monument restored in one, plus ten years
Egypt, Local, 5/23/2002

In a bid to rescue the treasures of Fatimid Cairo, which are being engulfed by modern buildings or are suffering the corrosive effects of pollution, an Egyptian-Italian team has recently completed the restoration of Mevlevi Takiyya, which includes the madrassa (school annexed to a mosque) of Sunqur Sa'di and the mausoleum of Hassan Sadaqa.

Italian experts were first consulted on work at this complex in the early years of the last century.

The Italian architect Achille Particolo began the first restoration work on the mausoleum. To restore the building to almost its original state was time consuming, due to background research methods.

Through a process whereby information on building techniques was applied only after it had been tested in real construction situations.

The Italian-Egyptian Restoration Centre supplied the expertise and equipment, while the Supreme Council for Antiquities made local materials available for the project.

In l892, the preservation committee included the dome and minaret of Mevlevi Takiyya on the list of historic antiquities.

These two features were all that remained of the Sunqur Sa'di madrassa that dates from the l4th century AD, when the Whirling Dervishes, a Turkish religious sect, established their takiyya (the Muslim equivalent of a monastery) in the district that included the madrassa.

The committee supervised the works by the Mevlevi sect until the Antiquities Authority took over in l953.

However the only remaining part of the madrassa is an iwan, a recess-like sitting room with a raised floor, which would have opened on the courtyard through an arcade, beside the mausoleum.

Excavation of the madrassa was hindered by the takiyya,which was built by the Mevlevis possibly in the same area where the madrassa is thought to have stood.

The main part of the takiyya known as Sama Khana, was built three metres above the level of the old madrassa. Restoration work has rendered the foundation outlines of the Sama Khana and the madrassa clearly visible.

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