In Cairo’s cemetery, Imam al-Shafi‘i’s mausoleum marks the burial place of the jurist who died in Egypt in 819. Sultan al-Kamil built the present mausoleum in 1211, while its wooden cenotaph dates to the earlier patronage of Saladin. The site brings together different stages of care for the scholar’s memory.
Successive conservation campaigns have attended to the dome and decoration, including work completed in 2021. Inscriptions, wood and marble fill the interior beneath a dome prominent in the cemetery landscape. This remains an active place of devotion, giving its architectural details a living religious context.
