BIA

FÉVRIER 2015
were held in the building until the early 16 th
century, almost at the end of the Mameluke
period. But the Ottoman conquest in 1517
turned Egypt from a seat of power to a mere
province, and under such circumstances the
mosque was too big for the provincial
government to maintain and it fell into
disrepair.
During the Ottoman period it was used as
an army storehouse, where supplies such as
tents and saddles were kept. During the
Napoleonic Expedition at the end of the 18 th
century, the contemporary historian ‘Abd al-
Rahmân al-Gabartî reported that it was used as
a fortress and garrison for soldiers.
In the 19 th century, during the rule of
Muhammad ‘Alî Pasha, it became an army
camp and bakery, and later a soap factory.
In 1812, Sheikh al-Sharqâwî, a prominent
sheikh of the time, used some of the mosque’s
marble columns to build the Riwâq al-Sharqâwî
at al-Azhar Mosque. It is even rumoured that
some of the columns were used to build the
Qasr al-Nîl Palace.
At the end of the century the British
occupying forces used the mosque as a bakery
and a slaughterhouse, hence the still-popular
name of al-Madbah al-Ingilîzî (the English
slaughterhouse). This continued until 1915.
Amîn said that several attempts to restore
the mosque failed until 1995, when a
restoration project focussed on cleaning the
mosque, removing some small shops in the
external enclosure and raising the height of the
walls to prevent future incursions.
However, cracks were found in the walls of
the northern riwâq (prayer hall). The Ministry of
Culture blamed the contracting company, which
said that the cracks were related to the
mosque’s poor condition.
Work was halted, and the ministry filed a
lawsuit against the company. In 2000 the
dispute was resolved, and the company
resumed the restoration work. In 2007, the
government of Kazakhstan signed a
cooperation agreement with the Ministry of
Culture to restore the mosque, seeing the
building as marking the achievements of one of
Central Asia’s greatest sons. (Nevine El-Aref,
“Mosque restoration resumes”, Al-Ahram Weekly,
February 26, 2015. Voir également Dînâ ‘Abd
al-‘Alîm, « Reprise des travaux de restauration
de la mosquée Baybars », al-Yawm al-Sâbi‘, 15
février ; Hasan Sâlih, « al-Zâhir Baybars : des
travaux de restauration sans fin », al-Watan, 3
mars).
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A Czech expedition directed by Miroslav
BÁRTA recently made a great discovery at the
site of Abûsîr, to the south of the Gîza
Pyramids and between the Pyramids and
Saqqâra.
Abûsîr is the site of the “forgotten
pyramids,” and the Czech expedition has been
working there for many years, first under
Miroslav VERNER, and now under BÁRTA. Last
month it found a tomb at Saqqâra recording
for the first time the name of a queen. Her
name is Khent-kawes, but we know of two
other queens named Khent-kawes.
Khent-kawes I is known from Gîza, where
Egyptologist Silîm Hasan found her tomb in
1932-1933. Some scholars believe that this
Khent-kawes ruled at the end of Fourth
Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, between the
pharaohs Khafre and Menkaure. Her tomb is
unique for a queen, and its construction may
be evidence that she actually ruled in her own
right.
It consists of a huge mastaba that caused
Hasan, its excavator, to designate it as a
fourth pyramid of Gîza. The tomb, which had a
boat located near its southwest corner, is
associated with a settlement that may have
housed the priests who maintained the cult of
the queen after her death.
This is the oldest such settlement to be
found in Egypt, and the tomb is also
associated with a structure that could be a
valley temple. The settlement is surrounded by
an enclosure wall.
The title of the queen was Mother of the
Two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt, and
these may have been kings of the Fifth
Dynasty. It is also possible that this title can
be read as two separate titles, as the Kings of
Upper and Lower Egypt and Mother of the
Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt.
BIA LI — Janvier/Juin 2015 51