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Saffron Palace

palace in Cairo, Egypt

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ6508630 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Saffron Palace (Arabic: قصر الزعفران) is located in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, near Abbassia at Khalifa Maʽmon Road.

Now it is inside the main campus of Ain Shams University.

History

The Saffron Palace was an Egyptian royal palace. Farouk of Egypt is said to have been born in it.

The three-storey palace, designed by the French-educated Egyptian architect Moghri bey Saad, was built during the reign of Isma'il Pasha. It received its name from the saffron plantations which then existed around the palace. The Egyptian University's administrative offices were housed in the palace when it was founded in 1925. Important visitors were also hosted by the ministry of foreign affairs at the palace.

The Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 was signed in the palace and, in March of 1945, the Arab League was founded there.

In 1952, the palace became the administrative headquarters of Ain Shams University, which remains to the present day.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Saffron Palace” is palace in Cairo, Egypt. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Saffron, Palace and palace, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1925, 1936, 1945, 1952—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Saffron, Palace and palace is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “palace in Cairo, Egypt” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6508630. Authority coordinates are 30.077, 31.284. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 1936, 1945 and 1952.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Saffron Palace”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Saffron Palace primary sources, Saffron Palace archive and Saffron research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Saffron Palace”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Saffron Palace” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.