Part 66

HISTORY. In hoar antiquity a suburb of Heliopolis (p. 459) lay on the E. bank of the Nile, opposite the great Pyramids, and was called by the Egyptians _Kherē-ohē_, or place of combat, because the gods Horus and Seth, the tutelary deities of Upper and Lower Egypt respectively, are said to have fought there. The Greeks called it _Babylon_, probably in imitation of the Egyptian name of the island of Rôda, _Perhapi-n-On_, the ‘Nile city of On’ (Heliopolis). The Roman citadel of Babylon was garrisoned under Augustus by one of the three legions stationed in Egypt. In 611 A.D. the town was conquered by _Amr ibn el-Âsî_ (p. 433), who founded the new capital of the country in the plain to the N. of the fortress, a city which, unlike Alexandria, was to be free from the hated Christian element. On the site of his _fostât_ or tent he built a mosque, and the new city then took the name of Fostât. Between Fostât and the citadel and adjoining the older suburb of _El-Askar_ (of 815) the new quarter of _El-Katâi_ was begun by _Ahmed ibn Tulûn_ (868–83), founder of the Egyptian dynasty of the Tulunides, but it was burned down in 905. The Cairo of to-day owes its origin mainly to _Gôhar_, the general of the Fatimites (p. 323), who conquered Egypt in 969 and founded a new town to the N.E. of El-Katâi and made it the residence of the caliph and head quarters of his army. At the hour when its foundations were laid the planet Mars (Arabic Kâhir, ‘the victorious’) is said to have crossed the meridian of the new city, whence it received its new name of _Masr el-Kâhira_ or _El-Kâhira_, while Fostât was afterwards called, by way of distinction, _Masr el-Kadîmeh_ or _el-Atika_ (Old Cairo). In 973 _Abû Teminn el-Muizz_ transferred his residence from Mehdia (p. 369) to Cairo. Two centuries later the famous _Saladin_ comes prominently on the scene. This was the Kurd general of mercenaries, _Salâheddîn Yûsuf ibn Aiyûb_, who, on the death of the last Fatimite in 1171, usurped the supreme power. He built a new citadel on the slope of the Mokattam Hills and enclosed the whole city with a wall 29,000 ells long (p. 453), and Cairo soon became the most populous place in N. Africa next to Fez. Under the dynasty of the _Aiyubides_ (1171–1250) and the _Mameluke Dynasties_ (Bahrite, 1250–1382, and Circassian or Borgite, 1382–1517), the sultans chosen from the white body-guard, Cairo witnessed almost continuous scenes of revolution, rapine, and bloodshed. In 1302 it suffered severely also from an earthquake, and terribly in 1295 and 1492 from the plague. And yet, in spite or all these disasters, the city grew and prospered wonderfully.

After his victory at Heliopolis in 1517 the Osman sultan _Selim I._ (p. 542) marched into Cairo; _Tûman Bey_, the last Mameluke sultan, was captured and executed; and Selim caused the finest marble columns in the citadel to be removed to Constantinople. Cairo now became the seat of a bey (‘prince’), who was placed over the twenty-four Mameluke chiefs entrusted with the government of Egypt and was controlled by a Turkish pasha. Thenceforth the city was a mere provincial capital.

It was not till 1798 that Cairo again became prominent in history. After the Battle of the Pyramids _Bonaparte_ had his headquarters for several months in the ancient city of the caliphs. From Cairo in 1799 he started on his Syrian expedition; and when he returned to France Kléber remained behind as commander-in-chief of the French troops. Kléber was assassinated in Cairo in 1800, and the following year the French garrison, hard pressed by the grand-vizier and the British troops, had to capitulate.

Under _Mohammed Ali_ (1805–48), the new Turkish pasha, with whom begins the modern chapter in the chequered history of Egypt, and who did much to develop the resources of the country, the citadel of Cairo witnessed another tragedy in 1811, when by his order the last of the Mameluke beys were shot (comp. p. 453). His successors, particularly _Ismaîl_ (1863–79; Khedive or viceroy from 1867) and _Tewfik_ (Arabic _Taufîk_; 1879–92), greatly improved and extended the city by the construction of new quarters (Ismaîlîyeh and Tewfîkîyeh, p. 454), though to the prejudice of its mediæval architecture; and under the present Khedive _Abbâs II. Hilmi_ (b. 1874) Cairo has expanded as far as the islands in the Nile. Since the defeat of the national party under _Arâbi Bey_ (p. 433) in 1882 the country in general and Cairo in particular have prospered greatly. The paramount British control of the administration is more noticeable at Cairo than at Alexandria or on the Suez Canal.

A convenient short history of Cairo is ‘The Story of Cairo’, by _Stanley Lane-Poole_, in the ‘Mediæval Towns Series’ (2nd ed., London, 1906). Comp, also ‘Cairo and its Environs’, by _A. O. Lamplough_ and _R. Francis_ (London, 1909, illus.; 20_s._) and ‘The City of the Caliphs’, by _E. A. Reynolds-Ball_ (Boston and London, 1897).

HISTORY OF ART. The Arabian architecture of Egypt is founded partly on antique, on Byzantine, and on Coptic models which the conquerors of the country found ready to their hand, and partly on Persian types, developed under the Sassanides and adopted by the Arabs with the aid of native builders. The chief Arabian edifices at Cairo are the mosques, the fountains, and the tombs. The period of their construction extends from the time of the Tulunides (9th cent.) down to the conquest of Egypt by the Turks (1517). Of the earlier buildings, known to us only from the fantastic descriptions of Arabian authors, hardly a trace is left. The later edifices, partly of Arabian-Turkish type with Egyptian-Arabian ornamentation, seldom show much artistic merit.

The oldest mosques (_gâmia_, or chief mosque; _mesgid_, smaller mosque or chapel), such as the Amru Mosque (p. 460) and that of Ibn Tulûn (p. 451), are simple in plan. A quadrangle (_sahn_), answering to the atrium of the Byzantine basilica, is flanked with four flat-roofed colonnades (_lîwân_), which on three sides are single or double, while on the fourth side, in the direction of Mecca, the chief lîwân (sanctuarium) is composed of several aisles or arcades. The cruciform _medreseh_ (school-mosque), of Persian origin, was first introduced by Saladin the Aiyubide. The lîwâns were now roofed with massive barrel-vaulting, and in their four corners were introduced schools or lecture-rooms for the four orthodox sects of Islam (Hanefites, Shafiites, Malekites, and Hambalites). To the second Mameluke dynasty (1382–1517) Cairo owes its most beautiful specimens of Arabian architecture. In the smaller mosques the lateral lîwâns were shortened, the court reduced in size, roofed in, and lighted from above, and the transepts were again roofed with flat timber ceilings. In the Turkish period, as in the case of the mosque of Mohammed Ali (p. 454), the four lîwâns were often replaced by a single vaulted hall, preceded by a forecourt.

The minarets, always in three stories, are of the Pharos or lighthouse type (p. 434; Arabic _manara_, light).

Most of the mosques built since the middle of the 14th cent. have a _sebîl_ attached. This is a public street-fountain, roofed over, with a chamber above it (_kuttâb_) used as an elementary school.

The tombs of sultans and emirs are always connected with the mosques. The tombs of saints or _sheikhs_, on the other hand, as everywhere in the East, are independent buildings, domed like the burial-chapels in the mosques. The ordinary tombs of the Moslems are underground chambers; above the vault usually stands a sarcophagus or cenotaph (_tarkîbeh_). Wealthy families enclosed their tombs with halls for funeral festivals, rooms for the mourners, a dwelling for the custodian, etc., collectively called a _hôsh_.

Of the old palaces and caravanserais a few ruins only remain. The latter (_okellas_; Arabic _wakkâleh_) served also as warehouses (_khân_). Of the mediæval dwelling-house the so-called Bookbinder’s House (p. 449) is a good example.

Sculpture and painting existed as independent arts under the Tulunides and Fatimites, being favoured by the Persians and the sect of the Shiites, but in the later Egyptian-Arabian art they survived only in the ornamentation of walls. The main features of this surface decoration consisted in curiously interlaced geometrical figures (entrelacs) and conventional foliage (arabesques). Both mosques and private houses often have charming _kamarîyehs_, or windows of perforated slabs of plaster, inlaid with coloured glass. The façades of the older houses are adorned also with picturesque oriel-windows and with _mashrebîyehs_, or balcony-gratings or lattice-work of beech-wood rods.

a. Northern Quarters.

The main thoroughfare here is the SHÂRIA CLOT BEY (Pl. B, C, 2; tramway No. 7, p. 440), leading from the _Railway Stations_ and the _Limûn Bridge_ (Pl. B, 1) to the Mîdân el-Khaznedâr (Pl. C, 3), adjoining which, between the old Arabian Cairo and the new town (p. 454), is the—

=Ezbekîyeh Garden=, the chief rallying-point of strangers. The name is derived from the Ezbek mosque which once stood here, built in 1495 in honour of a general of the sultan Kâït Bey (p. 458). The grounds (adm. ½ pias.), 20 acres in area, laid out by _Barillet_ in 1870, contain many rare trees and plants. The open spaces are planted with _Lippia nodiflora_ instead of grass, which does not thrive in this dry climate. Among the attractions are a café, a restaurant, a summer theatre, and evening concerts (see p. 442).

To the S. of the Ezbekîyeh Garden rises the _Opera House_ (p. 442), between which and the Hôtel Continental is the PLACE DE L’OPÉRA (Mîdân et-Teatro; Pl. B, C, 3), with the monument of the famous general _Ibrâhîm Pasha_ (d. 1848). From this point the Shâria Abdîn leads to the S. to the spacious _Mîdân Abdîn_, where the _Khedivial Palace_ (Pl. C, 4, 5) rises on the left.

To the E. of the Place de l’Opéra, between the Ezbekîyeh and the Opera House, the Shâria et-Teatro leads to the small Mîdân Ezbek, in which are the _Tribunaux Mixtes_ (Pl. C, 3; international law-courts). A parallel street, Shâria Tâhir, in which is the _General Post Office_ (Pl. C, 3; p. 441), on the right, leads to the ATABET EL-KHADRA, where the principal tramways intersect (p. 440).

On the E. side of this square begins the *=Muski=, or =Mouski= (Pl. C, D, 3), which, with its continuations the Sikket el-Gedîdeh and Shâria esh-Sharawâni (Pl. E, F, 3), is 1 M. long, and forms the chief artery of the Oriental quarters, intersecting the whole of the old town. Externally these streets have lost their mediæval character, the shops appearing quite European, but the motley throng that surges through them at all hours is still quite Oriental.

At the end of the Muski, near the Sûk el-Kanto (Pl. D, 3), we enter the old =Fatimite City= (_Masr el-Kâhira_, p. 443), to whose second wall, dating from 1074, belonged the still existing N. gateways _Bâb el-Futûh_ and _Bâb en-Nasr_ (Pl. E, 2; p. 449), and the S. gateway _Bâb Zuweileh_ (Pl. E, 4; p. 450). The old town was bounded on the W. by the old town-conduit _El-Khalîg_, now Shâria Khalîg el-Masri (tramways Nos. 2 & 9, p. 440).

The _Gâmia el-Ashraf_ (Pl. E, 3), a small mosque built by Sultan Bars Bey (1422–38), at the point where the Sikket el-Gedîdeh is crossed by the old and important line of streets (1 M. long) between Bâb el-Futûh and Bâb Zuweileh, lies in the heart of the =Market Quarter=, which, though usually overcrowded, especially in the early morning, should by all means be visited.

Immediately to the left of the Shâria el-Khordagîyeh (Pl. E, 3; p. 448), which leads from the mosque to the N., is the _Sûk es-Sâigh_ (pl. siyâgh), the bazaar of the goldsmiths and silversmiths, who keep their wares under glass in their cramped little shops, selling them by weight (but often spurious).

On the opposite (E.) side of the same street is the _Khân el-Khalîli_ (Pl. E, 3), founded in 1400 on the site of the Fatimite tombs, and once the centre of business. Vendors of silks and carpets, of trinkets and other wares are still located here. Buyers who are judges of carpets will select those of Bagdad or Brussa, but exorbitant prices are generally asked. The silk-stuffs of Lyons and Crefeld often do duty for those of Damascus. The main street of the khân, Sikket el-Bâdistân, contains two pretty Arabian gates.

To the S. of the mosque of El-Ashraf runs the Shâria el-Ashrafîyeh (Pl. E, 3), whence the Shâria el-Hamzâwî es-Seghîr diverges to the right. This street, continued by the Shâria el-Hamzâwî el-Kebîr (Pl. D, 3), forms the _Sûk el-Hamzâwî_, the market of the Christian traders (Syrians and Copts). Here, immediately to the left, is the Shâria et-Tarbîyeh (Pl. E, 3), with the _Sûk el-Attârîn_, or spice-market (comp. p. 335).

Opposite the entrance to the Hamzâwî is the Shâria es-Sanâdikîyeh (Pl. E, 3), also called _Sûk es-Sudân_, for the produce of the Sudan (india-rubber, dûm-palm nuts, etc.).—The last side-street on the left, the Shâria el-Halwagî (Pl. E, 3; the direct way to the university from Shâria esh-Sharawâni, p. 446), is the seat of the _Booksellers_ (over 20 shops).

In the Shâria el-Azhar, behind the small _Mosque of Mohammed Bey Abû Dahab_ (1770), is the chief entrance of the—

*=Gâmia el-Azhar= (Pl. E, 3, 4; adm., see p. 442; photographing prohibited), ‘the flourishing’, the finest building of the Fatimite period. It was completed by Gôhar (p. 443) in 973, and converted into a university by caliph El-Azîz in 988, but after the earthquake of 1302 was almost entirely rebuilt by Emir Salar. The venerable edifice, whose rectangular plan is still distinctly traceable, was again materially altered by the wealthy Abd er-Rahmân Kikhya in 1759. The university is still considered the most important in the territories of Islam. In 1909 there were 10,000 students (_mugâwirîn_) and 319 teachers (_sheikhs_). The rector is called the _Sheikh el-Azhar_.

Adjoining the N.W. façade, erected by Abbâs II. (p. 444) in the neo-Arabian style, is the Bâb el-Museiyinîn (‘barber’s gate’), built in the time of Abd er-Rahmân, now the chief entrance, where a guide is assigned to the visitor. Adjacent to the gateway, on the right, is the _Mesgid Taibarsîyeh_, restored by Abd er-Rahmân, containing a superb mihrâb or prayer-recess of 1309, richly adorned with mosaics. On the left is the _Zâwiyet el-Ibtighâwîyeh_, also of the 14th cent., now the library.

The handsome inner portal, built along with the contiguous minaret by Kâït Bey (p. 458), leads into the _sahn_ (p. 444), or chief quadrangle, flanked with five minarets, and always enlivened by knots of students, mostly grouped in their various nationalities. The colonnades, restored in the time of Tewfik (p. 444), have the Persian keel-arches, in special favour with the Shiites, the walls above which are tastefully decorated with medallions and niches and crowned with pinnacles. The lateral lîwâns on the N.E. and S.W. sides of the quadrangle are allotted to students of different countries and provinces as sleeping-apartments and studies (riwâk). The court of ablutions (p. 63), behind the N.E. lîwân, dates from the time of Kâït Bey.

The _Chief Lîwân_, or sanctuary, on the S.E. side of the quadrangle, with its 140 antique and Byzantine marble columns, forms the great lecture-room. No lectures are given on Thursdays or during the fasting-month of Ramadan. The low front half of this great hall, with its four much restored rows of arcades, belongs to the original building. The dome of the vestibule, the broad transept borne by two rows of columns, and the dome of the old mihrâb, all point to the Sidi Okba mosque of Kairwan (p. 374) as their prototype. The raised inner half of the sanctuary, with its two prayer-niches, was added by Abd er-Rahmân.

The dilapidated _Okella of Kâït Bey_ (1496), behind the S. angle of the university, with its sebîl (p. 445), has a charming façade.

We next visit the N. half of the old city of the Fatimites. In the SHÂRIA EL-GOHERGÎYEH (Pl. E, 3), in line with Shâria el-Khordagîyeh (p. 446), we are struck with the façades (on the left) of the Muristân Kalâûn, the Medreseh Mohammed en-Nâsir, and the Barkûkîyeh, on the site of the Fatimite palaces.

The =Muristân Kalâûn= (Pl. E, 3), a great hospital begun by the Mameluke sultan El-Mansûr Kalâûn (1279–90) in 1285, shows the influence of the European architectural style which the Crusaders had introduced into Syria. The massive portal, flanked with a minaret 192 ft. high, leads into a long corridor. On the left is a small _Mosque_, partly restored. On the right is the *_Tomb of Kalâûn_, completed in 1293 by his son Mohammed en-Nâsir (1293–1340), one of the most beautiful Arabian buildings in Cairo. The square hall has a rich timber ceiling; the mosaics of the walls and central pillars are composed of marble and mother-of-pearl, and the superb prayer-niche is enriched with porphyry columns and dwarf arcades. The wards for the sick and lecture-rooms, grouped round the large quadrangle, now partly used as store-rooms and workshops, are sadly disfigured.

The adjoining *_Medreseh Mohammed en-Nâsir_ (Pl. E, 3), dating from 1303, also is in a ruinous condition. It is entered by a Gothic church-portal brought from Acre in Syria. The fine minaret, the sanctuary (on the left), and the tomb of the founder (on the right) show remains of tasteful stucco decoration recalling the Alhambra (p. 79).

The _Barkûkîyeh_ (Pl. E, 3), the medreseh of the Mameluke sultan Barkûk (1382–99), with its octagonal minaret, has suffered from the gaudy modern painting of the sanctuary and of the mausoleum, in which reposes a daughter of Barkûk. The dikkeh for the prayer-reciter (p. 180) is modern.

Farther to the N. in the same line of streets is the lively SHÂRIA EN-NAHHÂSÎN, in which is the market of the coppersmiths. On the right is the façade of the _Dâr Beshtâk Palace_ (Pl. E, 3), erected by Emir Beshtâk in 1330, but now entirely altered. At the next bifurcation we come to the *_Sebîl Abd er-Rahmân_ (p. 447), one of the finest structures of the kind. Upstairs the hall of an elementary school affords from its windows a capital view of the busy Nahhâsîn Street.

Farther on the main street is called SHÂRIA EL-MARGUSH EL-BARRÂNI. Immediately to the right is the _Gâmia el-Ahmar_ (Pl. E, 2; ‘red mosque’), built in 1125 by the grand vizier of the Fatimite Amr ben Mustali. The fine façade, recently brought to light in part, with its high pointed niches in square framework alternating with smaller niches in two stories, shows the oldest stalactite vaulting in Cairo, and is therefore historically interesting.

Near the end of the same thoroughfare, here called Shâria Bâb el-Futûh, we come to the entrance, on the right, of the ruinous _Gâmia el-Hâkim_ (Pl. E, 2), begun, outside the oldest town-wall, by El-Aziz (p. 447) in 990, on the model of the mosque of Ibn Tulûn (p. 451), and completed by his son El-Hâkim in 1012. The two minarets, with their heavy square setting, rise from the middle of the second town-wall (p. 446), which is here well preserved. Their superstructures, crowned with domes and resembling an Arabian censer (_mabkhâra_), belong to the period when the mosque was restored after the earthquake of 1302.

The two ancient gate-towers, the _Bâb el-Futûh_ (Pl. E, 2; ‘gate of the conquests’) at the end of the street and the neighbouring _Bâb en Nasr_ (‘gate of victory’; reached by the Shâria el-Kassasineh), which was pierced with loopholes in the time of Bonaparte, recall the late-Roman and Byzantine gateway castles. The town-wall (adm. 2 pias.) affords an interesting survey of the whole group of buildings.

We now return to the Gâmia el-Ashraf (p. 446) to complete our visit to the S. part of the old town of the Fatimites. At the beginning of the SHÂRIA EL-GHÛRÎYEH (Pl. E, 4), the continuation of the Shâria el-Ashrafîyeh (p. 446), rises the double monument of the Mameluke sultan Kânsûh el-Ghûri (1501–16), with its fine façades: on the right is the _Medreseh el-Ghûri_ (Pl. E, 3, 4), whose minaret, 213 ft. high, is incongruously crowned with five modern dwarfed domes; on the left is the _Mausoleum_, with its charming sebîl. The sultan, who fell in Syria, was not, however, buried here.—A few paces to the E., in the Shâria et-Tableta which leads to the Azhar mosque (p. 447), is the _Okella of El-Ghûri_ (Pl. E, 3, 4), now entirely disfigured.

In line with the Shâria el-Ghurîyeh, farther to the S., is the SHÂRIA EL-AKKÂDÎN (Pl. E, 4). A little to the E. of it, in the side-street Hôsh Kadam (No. 12), is the so-called *BOOKBINDER’S HOUSE (_Beit Gamâl ed-Dîn_; Pl. E, 4), built in 1637 by the president of the merchants’ guild, an admirable example of an Arabian dwelling-house (fee 2 pias.).

A crooked passage (_dirkeh_) leads into the court of the Salamlîk, the apartments of the owner, with two well-preserved façades. In the S.W. angle are stairs ascending to the Makad or reception-room, an open colonnade with two arches. Adjoining it is an oriel-window closed with mashrebîyehs (p. 445), from which the women could overlook the court. Farther on we come to the handsome Kâa, the banqueting-room of the harem, adorned with superb mosaics. In the centre of it is a lower chamber (_durkâa_) roofed with a wooden dome. The flat timber ceilings of the two _lîwâns_, or lateral rooms, are very fine.

Still farther to the S., in the same line, runs the SUKKARÎYEH (Pl. E, 4), the market for sugar, dried fruit (_nukl_), fish, candles, etc.—On the right rises the—

*=Gâmia el-Muaiyad= (Pl. D, E, 4), begun by the Mameluke sultan Sheikh el-Mahmûdi Muaiyad (1412–21), and completed a year after his death. In plan it resembles the convent-mosque of Barkûk (p. 458). The sumptuous portal, with its striped marble enrichment and stalactite or honeycomb half-domes, is well preserved. The *Bronze Gate, the finest in Cairo, was brought from the mosque of Hasan (p. 452). The main court and the lateral lîwâns, with their heavy modern outer walls, now form shady grounds. The sanctuary, restored in 1880, is a splendid hall of three arcades with lofty stilted arches. The decoration of the back-wall and the coloured wooden ceiling are charming. To the left of the sanctuary is the mausoleum of the sultan, and to the right that of his family. The two minarets, 167 ft. high, rise from the platform of the _Bâb Zuweileh_ (Pl. E, 4; p. 446), or _Bâb el-Mitwelli_, the S. gate of the Fatimite city.

From the Bâb Zuweileh the Shâria Taht er-Rebâa leads to the W. to the Place Bâb el-Khalk (Pl. D, 4; see below); to the S. run the Kasabet Radowân, a _Shoemakers’ Market_, where the favourite red slippers (p. 97) are sold, and the Shâria el-Khiyamîyeh, the bazaar for gaily coloured _Tent-Covers_, leading to the Shâria Mohammed Ali (see below).

To the E. of the Bâb Zuweileh runs a line of streets, bending round to the S., to the _Citadel_ (p. 453). Nearly opposite the gate, at the corner of Kasabet Radowân and Derb el-Ahmar, is the small _Mosque of Sâlih Telâyeh_ (Pl. E, 4), dating from the reign of El-Âdid, the last of the Fatimites (1160). The sanctuary contains some beautiful stucco ornamentation in the Syrian-Arabian style.—In the Derb el-Ahmar, farther on, to the left, rises the small *=Mosque of Emir Kijmâs= (Pl. E, 4), built in 1481 by a master-of-the-horse of Kâït Bey (p. 458). The interior is a perfect gem of its kind.