This house is typical of domestic architecture in Cairo, with its architectural and artistic styles of the Mamluk and Ottoman eras. It was renovated by Prince Mithqal al-Sawduni then Sultan Qaitbay. During the Ottoman period, Lady Zaynab Khatun occupied the house in 1195 AH/ 1780 AD. The house was named after her Zaynab Khatun.
Zaynab Khatun was the slave of Muhammad Bek al-Maghribi. After her manumission, she married Prince Hamza al-Kharbutli, became a princess, and was given the title “Khatun,” coming from the Persian word meaning, “honorable lady.”
The house consists of an open court and three floors. The ground floor is made up of a reception hall, storage rooms, a kitchen, a mill, a horse stable, and a well.
The first floor includes maq’ad (loggia), two halls, one larger than the other, for women, and a bath chamber. The second floor houses a small hall, a sleeping chamber with its own private lavatory, and a small kitchen.
The house's most distinguishing feature is marble paneling, plaster mashrabiyas, coloured windows, and wooden ceilings decorated with floral and geometric coloured and gilded motifs that reflect the Islamic arts of Mamluk and Ottoman eras.
In the early twentieth century, the Committee for the Conservation of Arab Monuments restored the house, then its ownership transferred to the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments in 1361 AH / 1942 AD. In 1410 AH / 1989 AD, the Egyptian Antiquities Authority restored the house again. While working on the restoration project, a treasure was found inside two pottery pots under the threshold of one of the rooms.
This treasure was about 3611 gold coins, dating back to the 15 th century AD; more than 2,000 gold coins were minted in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Hungary. These gold coins are currently preserved and displayed in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, and are known as (Zaynab Khatun’s Treasure).
