The Ayyubid and Mamluk Ages in Egypt are considered the longest and the most dangerous ages in the Egyptian history .

Al Malik al Nasir 1 or Salah ad din, the Saladin of the crusades, was from a Kurdish origin, but his family was strongly Turkicized by its association with the Zengids of Mosul and Aleppo under whom Ayyub, the progenitor of the dynasty, had served .

Ayyub s brother, Shikuh gained military control of Egypt, but soon died, transferring power to his nephew .

 Salah ad din restored the Friday prayer to Sunni Caliph of Baghdad .

At the end of Ayyubid age the slave troops of sultan Salih Negm al dien ayyub had been quartered in his fortress at Rhoda, from which this dynasty took it s name .

The Bahri Mamluks succeeded to creat a new superior military force which was taken later by the Burgis.

The Bahri Mamluks fell heir not only to Egypt but also Syria, and their works show an

increasing influence from that quarter as well as from Iraq after the Mongols took Baghdad

in (656 A.H/ 1258 A.D) .

The last Sultan of the Qalawun s Family(Al Ashrsf Khalil) had brought a great number of slaves from different places of the world in order to establish his authority.

The new bodyguard was stationed at the Citadel, and this caused them to be called “Burgis” or inhabitants of the Burg.

They plotted against the throne, and some succeeded in keeping themselves in

power for more or less long periods of time .

Cemeteries in Egypt:

There are many cemeteries in different places in Egypt, for example :to the north of

the Citadel of Salah Ad din, there are many mausoleums and funerary monuments .

They fall into two groups :

the southern is known by the name of the tombs of the Caliphs, while the northern is known as the tombs of Mameluks .

Tombstones in Islamic Art Museum:

Islamic Art Museum in Cairo is considered one of the richest Museums in the world in it s contains .

It contains more than four thousand slabs of marble and different stones .

Most of these slabs are Tombstones .

A lot of them were found in different Cemeteries in Egypt and dated from several ages or years .

No one is quite sure about the place where these stones had been found.

On these Tombstones many inscriptions and different decorations were inscribed .the

inscriptions contain the names of sultans Auubid and Mamluks, his titles or jobs, date of his death, and some Quranic words .

In the Islamic Art Museum some information belongs to little of these tombstones, the information contains different materials, dimensions, dates, names of the owners of these Tombstones and description of the inscription found on some tombstones.

I found that these groups of Tombstones are rich in different types of Arabic

Calligraphy and variety of beautiful decorations. These group shows the evolution

of Arabic Calligraphy and Decorative Art in these ages .

Most of them were surrounded by a frame and contains different decorations .

Limestone is one of the most popular materials used in these Tombstones, marble,

sandstone and different kinds of stones were also being used .

The engraver used to level the slab which he was going to use .Then he drew straight and

parallel lines on it .On these lines he could write the words by black ink on the slab .Then

he engraved these words carefully .

I compared the writing and decorations on these Tombstones which have many differences.

The writing and decoration on many of these Tombstones are very beautiful .

The contents of the Study:

-An Introduction

-The Origin of Islamic Tombstones and its evolution to the Mamluk Age in Egypt .

-The Origin of Arabic Calligraphy and its evolution since the beginning of Islamic Age

untill the end of Mamluk Age in Egypt .

-Inscriptions of Islamic Tombstones in the Ayyubidand mamluk Age in Egypt. Study of form

-Decorations of Islamic Tombstones in the Ayyubid and mamluk Age in Egypt.

-Inscriptions of Islamic Tombstones in the Ayyubid and Mamluk Ages in Egypt. Study of content .

After that the end of the study, the important results and bibliography .

At the end, there are  List contains names of sultans on Islamic

Tombstones in the Ayyubid and Mamluk Ages in Egypt .