Sultan al-Nasir Faraj built this khanqah, with the intention of
urbanizing the site, but before his plans could be realized, he died. He was
described by the fifteenth century historian, AL-Maqrizi as "the most
tragic king of Egypt".
Sultan Faraj took the throne at the age of ten, and
was only twenty-three when he was deposed and killed in Damascus. The
khanqah took so long to complete (eleven years), that during its construction
the sultan was dethroned twice and traveled to Syria seven times to quell
disturbances. His reign was really one of continual strife among the amirs and
as such was really a history of their rivalries, and one wonders how,
amongst these circumstances, he could have produced such a magnificent complex.The
northern mausoleum is the tomb of Barquq and his son, Faraj, along with the
latter's son, while the southern mausoleum is that of Sultan Barquq's two
daughters, the ladies Shiriz and Shakra. The body of their nurse lies in
the corner. Both chambers have entrances covered by wooden lattice screens with
geometric patterns not unlike the wooden window screens in Barquq's Bayn
al-Qasrayn complex. Upon entering either chamber, one may be unprepared for the
soaring effect of the interior. Unlike the khanqah, the mausoleums are richly
decorated with marble dadoes. However, eye level ornamentation, as is usual for
Egyptian religious structures, is rather plain while the upper level
decorations are more ornate, so that the viewer's attention is drawn upward,
towards heaven.
The interior of the domes are painted with red
and black patterns to simulate inlaid marble, which would have been too heavy
in these domes. The domes are supported on penentives carved with
stalactites, a common feature of Mameluke period. The use of triangular
pendentive rather than squinces led to a different
device for the windows of the transitional zone, which became standard and are
found at the madrasa of Iljay al-Yusufi. It consisted of a triple-arched window
below three bull's eyes, one over two.