Sabil-Kuttab of Qaytbay

The Sabil-Kuttab of Sultan Qaytbay is a Mamluk-era charitable foundation and building in Cairo, Egypt. It was built in 1479 on the order of Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay and is located on Saliba Street in the historic districts of Cairo.^[1][2][3]

Sabil-Kuttab of Sultan Qaytbay
Native name سبيل وكتـّاب السلطان قايتباي (Arabic)
View of the sabil-kuttab from Saliba street.
Type	Sabil; kuttab
Coordinates	30°01′51″N 31°15′17″E
Founder	Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay
Built	1479 CE (884 AH)
Restored	1999
Restored by	Supreme Council of Antiquities; Agencia Española de Cooperacion Internacional
Current use	tourist attraction (historic site); the Suzanne Mubarak Center for Islamic Civilization
Architectural style(s)	Mamluk, Islamic

The building is composed of a sabil (a water distribution kiosk) on the ground floor and a kuttab (primary school teaching the Qur'an) on the upper floors. Below the structure, underground, is a cistern from which water was drawn for the sabil. The structure was the first free-standing sabil-kuttab in Cairo; a type of building that would later become quite common during the Ottoman period.^[4]

Gallery

• 
  Entrance portal.
• 
  Exterior polychrome marble and stone-carving decoration
• 
  Interior of sabil chamber, with window through which attendant gave out water.
• 
  Marble salsabil over which water flowed inside the attendant's chamber.
• 
  Painted wooden ceiling inside the sabil chamber.
• 
  The underground water cistern.

See also

• Sabil of Qaytbay (at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem)
• Wikala and Sabil-Kuttab of Qaytbay (at al-Azhar)
• Funerary complex of Sultan Qaytbay (at the Northern Cemetery)
• Mamluk architecture