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Revising the Majaz Embodied Thresholds: The Madrasa of Sultan Hassan, Cairo

Megahed, Yasser ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1972-5429 2025. Revising the Majaz Embodied Thresholds: The Madrasa of Sultan Hassan, Cairo. Kakalis, Christos and Boyd, David, eds. Embodied Awareness of Space, Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 145-171. (10.1007/978-981-97-4264-6_8)

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Abstract

In architecture, ‘threshold’ is a term associated with boundary, transit and entry. It defines the sense of arrival to the space at which something starts to happen or have an effect and a sense of identity for the place beyond. Furthermore, threshold spaces have phenomenological qualities associated with deep cultural and emotional significance about transition and passage. Therefore, they act as rich soil for embodied multi-sensory experiences to take place. A case in point can be seen in the historical development of mosque architecture. The mosque is a rich building typology that is deeply connected with the idea of purifying the soul from the impurities of the worldly mundane life and preparing it to communicate with its Creator. Because of this spiritually-focused function, the threshold space between the busy and profane ‘outside’ of the mosque and the divine and sacred ‘inside’ has become critical in the development of this building typology. A key moment in the development of the threshold space in mosque architecture can be seen in the use of the architectural device of ‘majaz’. The term majaz, mejaz, majäz or magaz can be translated as the offset passageway or the bent, broken corridor. The initial aim of this architectural device was to accommodate the discrepancy between two orientations: the entrance facade of the mosque which needed to follow the alignment of the street and the orientation of Makkah where the prayer area should be facing. Yet, in Mamluk religious architecture in Egypt, this architectural device has acquired further dimensions by combining spatial and tectonic elements to upstage the function of the mosque’s threshold space to become a transcendental device that creates a wholistic embodied experience that engages the body, mind, senses, and the soul. This chapter will look into the majaz of Al-Sultan Hassan Mosque in Cairo as a unique example of a threshold space in Mamluk mosque architecture, digging deep into how this specific majaz has created an exceptional multisensory threshold experience that merges the spiritual and the spatial through its choreographed entry journey.

Item Type: Book Section
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Architecture
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 978-981-97-4263-9
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 11 December 2024
Last Modified: 29 Jan 2025 15:12
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/174689

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