Opening Doors

Door Detail
Madrassah/Khanqah and Mausoleum of Sultan Barquq
First Circassian Mamluk Building in Cairo

Aric 206: Art and Architecture of the City of Cairo
Field Trip: Bayn Al Qasrayn

As we stood in the Madrassah/Khanqah of Sultan Barquq, Noha pointed to the door that we had all entered from (see above). The door was designed to look like a Mamluk Quran. The Quran would have been made out of leather and would have been decorated with gold leaf, she told us.
That's when I heard it.
"Oh my god," said the high pitched nasal voice. "How come the gold leaf's turned so dark?"

Aric206 field trips occur almost every Saturday morning. We meet in Midan Tahrir (Liberation Square), outside the Mohammad Mahmud gate facing McDonalds, on Old Campus. We get on a bus, and peer outside our windows, attempting to figure out which part of the eerily familar city of Cairo the buildings we have been studying that week will emerge from.
Noha, easily described as a slight woman with hair, our professor, leads a group of 40 students (Egyptian and American) through some of the dirtiest, dingiest parts of Cairo. I have never met anyone more passionate about architectural forms. (Quote: "During the Mamluk period architecture used to be art, today is is simply engineering!") and manages to keep an impressive inventory of dates, patrons, and buildings in her heads. Not to mention, she navigates the narrow streets of Cairo like an alley-cat.
Most days we pass butcher shops and sewage water. Once we had to walk over the better part of a rotting cat (Mausoleum and Madrassah of Sultana Shagaret al Dorr). Another time, I was hussled out of a mosque as a funeral procession took place (Mosque of Sali'a Tali'a).

This is not your luxury field trip. My legs, arms, and even neck are aching by the time I return to the bus. Sometimes we've walked four miles by the end of the day, not even distingusing one mosque from another. And the sight when you look at the group of students in the courtyard of a mosque at any given point is generally the same.
Half of them look dead on their feet as they attempt to remember who this mosque/madrassah/mausoleum (or all three)'s patron is. The rest are standing in various poses attempting to get the correct angle to master their amateur photography. If a student is not in one of the above categories, the student is either on a mastaba attempting to rest his/her feet, or has found the shade of the fountain.
It is in the courtyard when the Q&A session generally takes place too, in Noha's signature soft spoken voice.

Q:"Now can anyone tell me what I compared this black and white marble to in class?"
Blank stares all around.
A:"Syrian Khammiya motif in the Mosque of Sultan Hassan"

Between the slideshow lectures and the fieldtrips, and the scarce readings of the textbooks, I manage to absorb a lot of the stuff that I suppose I need to. Apparently the girl at the beginning of post does not.

I wish I could do Noha's expression justice.
I will however share her response.
"No, la. This is a door. It is made out of wood and bronze. A Quran, which is a book, would have looked similar to this and would have been made out of leather and gold leaf. Now let's go."