The borderlines between the sacred and profane, and the living and the dead, are blurred in the Mamluk Northern Cemetery of Cairo like in no other place in Egypt. Sacred burial domes, prayer chapels, mosques, ṣūfī khanqās, and zawīyyas stood side by side with profane residential quarters, kitchens, latrines, stables, kutābs, and sabīls scattered around a ḥaūsh enclosed by a wall. The Northern Cemetery was dotted with over a hundred of such Mamluk turba complexes. Many perished, but thirty-six survived.
Hamza, Hani. (2021). The Curious Case of the Unrecognized turba of amīr Jirbāsh Qāshiq: New Dating and Attribution. Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World, Volume 1 (Issue 1-2), 96-119. https://doi.org/10.1163/26666286-12340004
