A traditional Arab house in Cairo

In the yellow path that branches out from Sha'ir al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah

The house was built in the year 1058 AH (1648 AD)

The house was named after its last inhabitant, Sheikh Muhammad Amin Al-Suhaimi from Al-Azhar Mosque. It is now owned by the Egyptian government and is used as a museum of traditional architecture.

2000 meters.

The house is an example of traditional Arab houses with a Cairo flavor. Entrance to the house is through the metaphor, which leads to the courtyard in which there are basins planted with plants and trees, open house rooms of the house open onto the courtyard (the courtyard in the center of the house).

Which used to allocate the ground floor for men, called the Salamlek, and the upper floor for women, called the Haramlek, Therefore, the ground floor of the house is entirely for receiving male guests, and there are no other rooms or halls in it.

In the first section, we find a large, regular-shaped hall divided into two iwans, which contain in the middle a low area called the Darqaa, which was paved with colored marble

A lofty, open-faced house with a gabled roof.

- or it's the fine, wondrous building

A strip of writing containing verses from Nahj al-Burda. The ceiling of the hall is made of wood covered with colorful floral and geometric designs and motifs. This hall was used as a men's council.

It heads towards the north to receive the cool sea air in the summer. It is called the seat. It also has a wooden ceiling that looks like a hall. The council was used in the winter and the bench was used in the summer.

Another majlis is similar to the first in design, that is, it consists of two iwans and a panel, except that this majlis is larger in size and has finer and more luxurious architectural details, in the middle of it is a gilded marble water basin with a watering can in the form of a candlestick, which indicates that it was designed as if it were a covered dish.

The iwan is topped with a mashrabiya made of Azizi wood. The ceiling of this iwan is made of wood, with a small dome in the middle, It has openings for air and light to enter through, called the shishakha. It is also made of wood, decorated from the inside, and covered with plaster from the outside.

Cabinets made of wood with geometric and botanical inscriptions were placed on it, Why set up the board? after the council, there is a room for reading the Qur’an, in which there is a large chair made of wrought wood, From the ceiling of this room comes down a copper lamp lit by a wick dipped in oil, first floor on the first floor are the family rooms, which are several halls similar to those on the ground floor, except that they have many windows covered with mashrabiyas, It overlooks the court and some of it on the street, and there is no iwan on the first floor, It is worth mentioning that the rooms did not distinguish rooms for sleeping or anything else, with the exception of some specific rooms.

Its walls are covered with blue qaisani, decorated with delicate floral motifs, and it contains dinnerware made of porcelain and colored and ornate ceramics, It appears that it was used to prepare food. Next to it is a very small, undecorated room used for storage, There were no beds in the house rather, the family sleeps on mattresses of ornate velor as well.

In the house is a hammam ( bath)

It is a small room clad in white marble with a vaulted ceiling with square and circular niches covered with stained glass, In the bathroom is a hot water stove and a basin carved from a single piece of ornate marble with a water tank.

The front yard

It serves as a cultivated garden, in the middle of which is the so-called takhbush, which is a wooden bench decorated with lath wood. In this court, two trees were planted when the house was built, olive and Sidra.

The back yard

It has a water trough, an irrigation waterwheel, and a mill run by animals. The back plate was serviceable.

The house has three wells.

1- The engineer supervising the house at the Egyptian government, Dr. Asaad Nadim, that the age of the house does not exceed 350 years, but its site was full of buildings since the Fatimid era, It was found through excavations carried out by the House Documentation and Restoration Project (1994 AD to 2000 AD) throughout the house that the current building, It is built on top of the ruins and remains of buildings older than it that may date back to the Fatimid era, where the place was the site of the altar.

2 - It is considered one of the most beautiful houses in Cairo.

3 - This house was built by Sheikh Abd al-Wahhab al-Tablawi in the year 1058 AH / 1648 AD, and the second part of it was established by Hajj Ismail Chalabi in the year 1211 AH / 1796 AD, And he combined it with the first section to become one house.

4- The house was known as Al-Suhaimi, in reference to the last of its residents, Sheikh Al-Suhaimi, who was one of the great scholars of Al-Azhar and the Sheikh of the Turks’ Gallery during the Ottoman era.

5 - Al-Suhaimi's heirs sold this house to the Committee for the Preservation of Arab Antiquities for six thousand pounds.

https://www.marefa.org/%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AA_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%8A

https://egymonuments.gov.eg/ar/monuments/bayt-al-suhaymi-house-of-suhaymi