The Culture Ministry has chosen Bashtak Palace as a museum for the personal belongings and books of the late Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz and a centre for cultural activities.
Among the Nobel laureate’s possessions that the museum will exhibit is the Nile Pendant, the highest medal bestowed by Egypt’s president. Mohamed Salmawy, head of the Egyptian and Arab Writers League, will provide the museum with texts in Mahfouz’s handwriting as well as recordings of ++Dreams of the Rehabilitation Period++, extracts of dreams he narrated after he survived an assassination attempt in 1994.
Bashtak Palace was chosen for its location at the heart of Gamaliya district, in Bein al-Qasrein Street, close to Mahfouz’s birthplace and site of many of the scenes and incidents in his novels. The neighbourhood was central to his Cairo Trilogy: ++Palace Walk (Bein al-Qasrein)++, ++ Palace of Desire (Qasr al-Shouq)++ and ++ Sugar Street (Al-Sukkariya)++. The places Mahfouz mentioned in his novels and short stories will be regarded as tourist sites.
+Richly decorated+
The palace has a historical architectural significance. It was built in 1334 during the Mamluk era by Prince Seif Eddin Bashtak al-Nasiri, an emir and son-in-law of al-Nasser Mohamed ben-Qalawun. After the sultan’s death, Bashtak was arrested in Alexandria and in 1341 he was executed. He was buried in the Singer al-Gawli cemetery.
The palace is renowned for the richness of its decorations and for the large number of rooms it contains. It has three floors and three facets. The first looks onto al-Muizz Street, the second is onto Darb Kormuz, and the third looks onto Beit al-Qadi alley.
Wooden stairs at the entrance of the palace lead to a wooden door adorned with engravings about the history of the palace. The entrance leads to a courtyard with stables on the left, warehouses for food storage and rooms for servants. A staircase to the right leads to the second floor where the bedrooms and celebration halls are situated, covered with rich marble. The third floor of the palace, which is rather dilapidated, was used only by the women of the palace and was where they watched parties and festivities from behind the curtains.
After the earthquake of October 1992, the palace underwent several restoration processes at a cost of LE50 million. Mohamed al-Rashid, the technical supervisor of the Cairo historical project, says the Bashtak Palace was badly damaged by the tenants who rented the east wing of the palace, and because of the nearby shops which almost hid the palace façade. The restoration work included injecting the palace walls to reinforce them, and isolating parts against moisture and treating the parts that were already damaged. The ground floor was provided with proper aeration to guarantee that water vapour does not condense on the walls.