Study of housing in the Mamluk (1517-1250) and Ottoman periods (1789-1517)In Egypt (a comparative study: The House of Zainab Khatoun - The House of El Sitt Wassila)

There is no doubt that the Islamic arts were distinguished from the rest of the arts by an advantage derived from the creed that is based on tolerance and justice, which led to its prosperity in all regions in which the claim of Islam spread. And if the artistic work is measured by the extent of the aesthetic values it contains, not from its source or by its intent, then it can be said that Islamic arts regardless of the diversity of their sources or the different areas and eras in which they flourished or the circumstances surrounding them. As a whole, they are arts that belong to one faith, aim at one goal, and derive their being from one inspiration, which is Islam.Whereas, the architecture of the Islamic era has a strong luster and a unique history among the world's civilizations, which confronts most students of interior design to be enlightened by the light of those civilizations, so that they will get used to them with useful and enriching knowledge for their lives.As a result of the domination of religious beliefs over Muslim nations, architecture was printed with the character of those beliefs and religions both externally and internally, and the interior design of the Islamic dwelling is only a translation of these principles in our Islamic architectural heritage.And housing in the Islamic era is nothing but a microcosm of a society’s economic, social and cultural life, and it is linked to the system of movement of this society. It is also affected by social values of customs and traditions that are directly reflected on the interior design and furnishing of the house.Given that the Mamluk and Ottoman era in Egypt reached its climax in human interaction with his environment in terms of defining and allocating environmental relationships in the internal spaces of the dwelling on the vertical and horizontal levels. It was also evident during that period a complete familiarity with the environmental conditions and factors that qualified the architect to achieve success from an ecological point of view in exploiting these factors and employing them in the optimal employment and from the elements of air and rain treatment, as well as the effect of religion, traditions and customs, the separation between multiple functions