Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i

The Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi’i (Arabic: قبة الإمام الشافعي ) is a mausoleum dedicated to Imam Al-Shafi’i, one of the four Sunni Imams who founded the Shafi’i Sunni Islamic school of jurisprudence. Located at the Imam Shafi’i Street in the City of the Dead, Cairo, the mausoleum is a hallmark of Ayyubid style architecture and historical significance.

Imam al-Shafi'i travelled to Cairo in 813 where he taught at the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As, before his death in 819. He was buried by his child Ibn Abdulhakim in the place of turbah in the City of the Dead.^[1] Later, the Ayyubid sultan Salah ad-Din built a turbah and madrasa for Shafi'i in 1176, marking the first establishment on his grave. In 1178, a wooden coffin was created with decorations of Islamic geometric patterns and inscriptions of the Qur'anic verses and the life of Shafi'i in Kufic and Ayyub scripts. The decorations were created by Abid al-Najar.^[1]

In 1211, after the death of mother of the Ayyub Sultan Al-Kamil, the sultan built a mausoleum for her near the site, and simultaneously built a dome and a building which covers the entire area as well as the grave of al-Shafi'i. This had become the current structure, consisted of wooden dome, and later added muqarnas and marble decorations furnished by the Mamluk Sultan Qaitbay in 1480. The building was restored during the era of the Mamluk Sultan al-Ghuri and the Ottoman wali Ali Bey al-Kabir in 1772 who added colored decorations for the inner wall, muqarnas and dome.^[1]