[1] The structure is located next to the inner side of Bab al-Nasr, a monumental 11th-century fortified gate in Cairo's Fatimid-era walls.

While the Mamluk Empire was nearing its decline, Qaytbay oversaw a period of relative stability and prosperity, and commerce was still vigorous.

[2] Like other Mamluk buildings, this structure combines more than one function, and like some other wikalas, it was both a caravanserai for merchants and a rab' or residential complex with rented units.

The wikala has in modern times been used as a tenement (not unlike its original function), but has suffered in part as a result of this and has lost some of its elements.

These upper floors functioned as a rab', a residential complex with apartments that were rented and whose revenues were then used for the upkeep of this building or possibly for other waqfs (charitable foundations) elsewhere.