[5] Shajar al-Durr was an Ayyubid queen and architectural patron who reigned formally as the official sultan of Egypt for eighty days[4] in May, June, and July 1250 C.E.

[5] Al-Salih died in 1249 during a campaign against Louis IX, who led the Seventh Crusade, resulting in a dangerous succession crisis in a time of war.

Architectural patronage served to establish power and legitimacy, for "as a woman, former slave, and an affine (related through marriage but not blood) of the Ayyubid household, her position could not be anything but precarious".

[6] Both Shajar al-Durr and Sultan al-Salih contributed to the "huge and imposing" citadel in Cairo, originally built by Saladin, as Ayyubids worked to reconfigure the building to serve ceremonial purposes.

[6] Once al-Salih died in 1249 at the age of 44, the responsibility for building a mausoleum "to house his mortal remains and commemorate his deeds" fell to Shajar al-Durr.

[6] The tomb was purposefully constructed adjacent to the Salihiyya madrasa, a school built by al-Salih and Shajar al-Durr, in order to commemorate his good deeds.

Perhaps in part because of the religious character of this location, Shajar al-Durr's tomb eventually became a popular shrine itself, despite the violent end to her political career.

On the interior walls of the mausoleum, unfinished blue and green foliage and arabesque designs were discovered after a recent renovation and can be seen on the stucco squinches supporting the dome above.

Additional friezes were made to commemorate her as the mother of Khalil, which plausibly dates the mausoleum before Izz al-Din Aybak's rule.

It contains a swirling arabesque design with gilded tesserae depicting a tree with lotus buds and pearlescent orb-shaped fruits.

[5] The mausoleum exhibits influence from Syria and incorporates spolia from a Fatimid palace to commemorate Shajar al-Durr rule as sultan.

[6] This is evident in the architectural elements of a high pointed dome, a square base, and a middle transitional zone speckled with trios of carved-out hexagonal windows.

Stucco detailing is seen on the exterior of the building with fluted keel arched niches that reflect the Fatimid-Ayyubid architectural style of this era.

Historic accounts suggest that Qalawun, who came to rule as a Mamluk Sultan in the years following Shajar al-Durr's death, possibly added gilded mosaics to the mausoleum in the 1280s.

[11] These paintings, dated to the same year as the dome's construction in 1251, contained motifs of greenish-blue lotus buds and swirling arabesque in poly-lobed panels.