Maristan of al-Mu'ayyad, Medieval hospital building in Darb al-Ahmar district, Cairo, Egypt.
The Maristan of al-Mu'ayyad is a medieval hospital building in Darb al-Ahmar with a tall entrance decorated with carved stone patterns. The central courtyard is surrounded by pointed arches and iwans that connect the medical chambers.
Sultan al-Mu'ayyad Sheikh built this as a medical facility between 1418 and 1420. The construction replaced an unfinished mausoleum and school that Sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban had begun roughly 40 years earlier.
The structure incorporates stone elements brought from different sources, including marble plaques from Alexandria and materials from earlier Islamic buildings. These combinations show how construction materials were reused and adapted during this period.
The surviving facade and main hall stand near the Citadel of Cairo and the former Bab al-Wazir gate. The ruins are visible from the street and can be easily explored while walking through the historic quarter.
The facility contained 25 separate chambers with specialized sections for male and female patients, a division that was remarkable for a hospital of that era. This spatial separation shows how medical practice was intertwined with social conventions of the time.
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