Vertical Sundial from the Madrasa of al-Ashraf Inal (No. 158) on Cairo Northern Necropolis

The primary goal of this paper is a detailed publication of the little known mizwala munharifa (vertical sundial), still preserved on the madrasa belonging to the funerary complex of the Sultan Al-Ashraf Inal (no. 158), on the so-called Cairo North Cemetery. This sundial, dating back to Rabi I, year 871 [AH] – i.e. 11.10.-09.11.1466 AD – is a work of the otherwise unknown ‘poor Hassan al-Tayybi’, pupil of the famous mathematician and astronomer (and a longtime muwaqqit of the Al-Azhar) Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ġazal, widely known as Badr or Sibt al-Din al-Mar[i]dini (AD 1423–1506). Further on, comparing the mizwala in question with two other sundials preserved in the city center, author attempts to approach the function and role this instrument might have played within the social context of the local population inhabiting the north-east Cairo suburbs (Cairo ‘fuori le mura’, the ‘North Cemetery’ included) – dominated, by the end of the mamluk period, by numerous sufi communities.