to the Prophet Muhammad and a Qur'an volume alleged to have belonged to Caliph Uthman. The relics were previously housed in a structure known as the Ribat al-Athar, south of Fustat, founded by the vizier Taj al-Din ibn Hanna (d. 1303) who had purchased the relics from a family in the Hijaz. The tile decoration for the exterior of the dome required the establishment of a ceramics workshop, as Cairene craftsmen did not use much ceramic decoration until this point. The mausoleum of Azrumuk in the Northern Cemetery, built in 1503-04 around the same time, is also decorated with blue tiles which must have come from the same workshop. The workshop continued to operate after the Ottoman conquest of 1517. The mosque was inaugurated with a great banquet in May 1503 on the eve of Eid al-Adha, with major officials and the symbolic Abbasid caliph Al-Mutamsik in attendance. An inscription inside dates its completion to slightly later, in August-September 1503. The sabil-kuttab was completed in May-June 1504. The relics of Muhammad were moved to the mausoleum in October-November 1504. Although the current wooden roof over the street is a modern replacement, a similar roof historically existed here, as attested an 1846 painting by David Roberts. The open space between the two buildings was rented to people to create market stalls. Later history The large dome of the mausoleum was unstable from the beginning and was rebuilt twice soon after its initial construction, in 1512 and in 1513. Some of the marble decoration in the mosque had been taken from older monuments and placed here on al-Ghuri's orders. After his conquest of Egypt in 1517, the Ottoman sultan Selim II had this marble decoration removed in turn and taken to Istanbul. Both the mausoleum dome and the top of the minaret were replaced in the 19th century due to collapse or structural deficiencies. The complex was damaged by the 1992 earthquake and underwent restorations that were completed in 2000. Layout and exterior appearance The funerary complex has a remarkable layout as a double architectural composition, with two blocks straddling the main street in the heart of medieval Cairo. There are two blocks: the western - consisting of a mosque with its minaret; the eastern one is a funerary complex, consisting of a mausoleum, a hall called Khanqah, a maq'ad (reception hall), a graveyard and a sabil-kuttab. Both the buildings are built