The Sultan Hassan / Al-Rifa‘i Passage series documents one of Cairo’s most dramatic urban corridors, where the monumental walls of the Sultan Hassan Madrasa and the Al-Rifa‘i Mosque frame a narrow street that once pulsed with everyday activity. These photographs were taken in 1994 as part of my PhD fieldwork, during a period when I spent nearly six months embedded in the surrounding neighborhood, returning repeatedly at different times of day to observe and photograph the life of the passage. The street functioned as a lively urban space: pedestrians moving between markets and nearby districts, vendors occupying small corners, and residents navigating the imposing architectural backdrop that towered above them. Over time I became familiar with many of the people who worked or passed through the area, and these interactions allowed the camera to capture moments of daily life unfolding within this extraordinary setting.

What emerges in these black and white images, and color slides, is the striking contrast between monumental architecture and ordinary urban life—people walking, pausing, or gathering beneath some of the largest and most powerful structures of Mamluk Cairo. The passage served not simply as a visual axis between two historic monuments but as a lived space woven into the city’s circulation and social rhythms. Today, however, the street has been closed to through traffic and carefully managed, transforming it into a controlled historic site intended primarily for visitors. In the process, much of the everyday activity that once animated the space has disappeared. These photographs therefore preserve a record of the passage at a time when it remained fully embedded in Cairo’s urban life, before its vitality was subdued in the name of presenting a sanitized heritage landscape for tourists.