Sabil Om Abbass
About the place
- Country : Egypt , Cairo
- Address : El-Darb El-Ahmar, El-Khalifa, Cairo Governorate
- Category : Baths and Sabil
- Establishing Date : 1284 AH / 1867 AD
- founder : Banbah Qadin, the mother of Abbas Pasha and the wife of Prince Ahmed Toson Pasha
Sabil Om Abbass
Historic overview:
It was established by Banbah Qadin, the mother of Abbas Pasha and the wife of Prince Ahmed Toson Pasha. In 1284 AH / 1867 CE in Cairo.
Sabil Om Abbass was designated as a way to distribute clean drinking water to passers-by, seeking reward from God and asking for help from God. “It is said that the Sabil was established on the basis of a vow (made by Banbah Qadin) - the mother of King Abbas I - as she was forbidden to bear children for many years, and she vowed if God blessed her with a child, she would establish a giant place specializing in good deeds."
Banbah enrolled it a school for educating the little children or an office in which she appointed teachers to teach children modern sciences, as in public schools during the reign of Khedive Ismail, and the Sabil provided drinking water for passers-by and also for homes whose owners could not afford the wages of water carriers.
Architectural description:
The Sabil consists of two levels: the first level is underground, in which there are tanks that were used to store water, and the second level was at the level of the road, which is a room with three windows.
At the front of this Sabil there is a marble slab called "Syazarwan" which has two benefits. The first is to cool drinking water and the second is to purify the water from impurities, if any. This marble slab used to be cleaned at the end of every day, after the doors of the sabil were closed after Isha prayer.
Sabil Om Abbass is a mixture of Ottoman and European architectural styles.
The Sabil room has eight sides, topped by an octagonal dome, and this design is made by a Turkish engineer. The whole facade is covered with white marble and decorated with European floral designs, "Baroque and Rococo", in addition to accurate writing in naskh script for verses of the Qur'an at the top of the sabil which is written by Abdullah Zuhdi.
Resources:
Al Youm Al Sabea Newspaper, issue of Sunday, 06 March 2016 AD, Hekayat sabil Om Abbass... Mn nazr ayam almalakya ela Nafora w dar llhebat w alataya, written by Jihad Al-Dinari
Al-Youm Al-Sabea Newspaper, issue of Friday, 17 March 2017, Written by Menna Allah Hamdy
