The maq'ad
A loggia with a painted wooden ceiling.
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Amir Taz Palace is a Mamluk palace on al-Suyufiyya Street, just off Saliba Street in historic Cairo, built in 1352 for Sayf al-Din Taz, one of the leading amirs of the Bahri Mamluk state. It covers more than 8,000 square metres around a large courtyard laid out as a garden, with its buildings on all four sides. Taz is said to have built it for his marriage to a daughter of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad. It was altered many times; in Ottoman times Ali Agha Dar al-Saada added a public fountain and Quran school and renewed the loggia. In the late 19th century it became a girls' school, and later a storeroom for the education ministry. The 1992 earthquake badly damaged it, and part of its rear wall collapsed in March 2002, prompting a Ministry of Culture rescue project that also brought archaeological finds to light. A passage from the street opens into the courtyard, facing the maq'ad, the main reception loggia, with its painted wooden ceiling. The harem wing has wooden lattice windows and round stained-glass openings. In the northern iwan, a ceiling of geometric and floral designs carries an inscribed band of Taz's titles, centred on a cup, the emblem of his post as cupbearer. The palace now serves as a cultural centre and hosts events. It lies 300 m west of the Sultan Hassan Madrasa and 500 m north-east of the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in a straight line, so all three fit one walk.
A loggia with a painted wooden ceiling.
A large garden at the palace's heart.
The cupbearer's badge in the northern iwan.
Al-Suyufiyya Street, off Saliba Street, al-Khalifa district, Cairo
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It served for decades as a neglected storeroom, was damaged in the 1992 earthquake and lost part of a wall in 2002, before the Ministry of Culture took on its difficult rescue.