Al Sehemy House
One of the most important ancient Islamic monumental houses, it still stands as a witness and living proof of the splendor of Egyptian architecture in the Ottoman era, so much so that historians described it as the jewel of Ottoman architecture and its crown, and despite the passage of nearly 370 years since its construction, it still retains the same description.
“Al-Suhaimi House. An archaeological house located in the heart of Old Cairo, specifically in the Darb Al-Asfar lane in the Jamaliya area, branching from Al-Moez Street, with an area of two thousand square meters, consisting of two houses, the first on the tribal side, established by the Sheikh of the Bandar Al-Tablawi merchants Abdel Wahab Al-Tablawi in 1648 AD, and recorded this on a wooden piece in one of the walls of the house, and the second on the marine side, established by Sheikh Ismail bin Ismail Shalaby in 1797 AD, who merged the two houses to become one house.
Al-Suhaimi House was known by that name after another of its residents, Sheikh Muhammad Amin Al-Suhaimi, who was born in Mecca and came to Egypt to settle in that house, where he held Ramadan nights, and made it a religious and secular arena for consultation, as well as a shelter for passers-by, and when he died in 1928, the Egyptian state reached out to his family to turn the house into one of Egypt's ancient Islamic monuments in 1931.
Al-Suhaimi's house was influenced by the Ottoman planning of old buildings, which were built with only two floors, the first is called “Salamlik”, which is the part dedicated to receiving male guests, while the second floor is called “Haramlik”, which is the part dedicated to the Sultan's harem, and is completely forbidden to outsiders, and only the owner of the house enters it. Therefore, it consists of two floors and two courtyards, the front is a garden with a “Takhtbush” in the center, which is a wooden “dukkah” decorated with khartar wood, and the back was dedicated to service, as it contains a basin of water, a watering can for irrigation, and a flour mill run by animals.
At the door of the house there are two olive and Sidr trees, and once you cross the door you find yourself on the ground floor of the tribal face of the house, a large regular-shaped hall, divided into two iwan, and the iwan is a roofed hall surrounded by three walls, and the fourth side is either completely open, or lined with columns, although sometimes it is preceded by an open gallery overlooking the inner courtyard, between the two iwan is a low space called the “Darqa”, which is the place that maintains privacy inside the house.
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