The Great Iwan () was a monumental throne hall located within the Citadel in Cairo, Egypt. It was built by the Mamluk sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad in the early 14th century and was considered one of the most impressive structures in the city at the time. It fell slowly into ruins over several centuries before being demolished by Muhammad Ali in 1825 to make way for the present-day Mosque of Muhammad Ali and other constructions.
Name
The Great Iwan was also known as the Iwan al-Nasiri ("Iwan of al-Nasir") or the Dar al-'Adl ("Hall of Justice"), the latter name deriving from its use as a venue for the dispensation of the sultan's justice. Although the Great Iwan was a large domed structure, which in Arabic is more typically called a qubba, both qubba and iwan were terms that were used to denote monumental throne halls during the Mamluk period. The term iwan is used elsewhere to denote a vaulted hall open on one side, a feature prominently used throughout Islamic architecture, especially in regions of Iranian influence. In Cairo, however, the term seems to have been increasingly used for secular architecture in the late 13th and 14th centuries, while the term qubba was reserved for funerary architecture. Al-Nasir Muhammad's structure was thus called an iwan even though its main element was a domed hall, not a vaulted hall.
In the later Ottoman period (after 1517), the Great Iwan's name became distorted and came to be known as the Diwan of Sultan al-Ghuri, as recorded by Evliya Çelebi. By the end of the 18th century it was being called the Diwan Yusuf, a name that was recorded by the French writers of the Description de l'Égypte at the beginning of the 19th century: "Divan de Joseph".
History
The Great Iwan was located inside the Citadel of Cairo, which was begun by the Ayyubid sultan Salah ad-Din (Saladin) and expanded under his successors Al-'Adil and Al-Kamil. The citadel's structures were almost continuously developed, restored, or rebuilt during the Mamluk period (1250-1517). The Bahri Mamluk sultans were especially active, transforming the Southern Enclosure of the Citadel, which was contained the private palaces of the sultans, into the site of important monumental structures which also had ceremonial or administrative functions. Al-Zahir Baybars, al-Mansur Qalawun, al-Ashraf Khalil and al-Nasir Muhammad each built or rebuilt the audience hall (throne hall), the main mosque, the palaces, or other structures. Unlike the earlier Ayyubid buildings, the Mamluk buildings were increasingly designed to be visible from afar and to dominate the city's skyline.
Sultan Baybars (ruled 1260–1277) first built the Qubba al-Zahiriyya ("the Dome of al-Zahir"), a monumental and richly decorated hall with a central dome which acted as an audience hall or throne hall. Located in the Southern Enclosure, it may have been a new structure or an addition to an existing Ayyubid structure, but it was most likely the predecessor of al-Nasir Muhammad's "Great Iwan". Sultan Qalawun (ruled 1279–1290) later demolished it and replaced it with his own domed structure, the Qubba al-Mansuriyya. His son, Sultan Khalil (ruled 1290–1293), also demolished this qubba in turn and replaced it with his own structure, the Iwan al-Ashrafiyya (the word "iwan" seems to have been used from then on for this particular type of building). This new throne hall differed from previous incarnations in one notable respect: it was painted with pictures of al-Ashraf's amirs (commanders), each with their rank inscribed above his head.
Finally, Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad (who ruled, with interruptions, between 1293 and 1341) demolished, yet again, the Iwan al-Ashrafiyya (throne hall) of his brother Khalil in 1311 and replaced it with his own structure known as the Great Iwan (al-Iwan al-Kabir). This reconstruction may have been out of a desire to make it appear even more prominent and monumental, as well as to perhaps accommodate larger ceremonies. In any case, he later demolished his own creation (either entirely or in part) and rebuilt it yet again in 1333, and it is this incarnation of the Great Iwan which survived up until the 19th century. It was frequently cited by chroniclers as the most impressive structure in Cairo, more monumental than almost any of the Mamluk mosques. It served as the sultan's public and ceremonial throne room and continued to be used (albeit less consistently) by Mamluk sultans after him. Al-Nasir Muhammad, who ruled at the apogee of Mamluk Egypt, also built several other major structures in the surrounding area such as the Ablaq Palace and the Mosque of al-Nasir Muhammad (the only structure still standing today).