Encyclopedia of Islam

Cairo

  

121  J

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the 10th century, it had developed into a thriv-

ing commercial center linking the Mediterranean 

region and sub-Saharan Africa with the Red Sea 

and Indian Ocean trade networks. It took several 

centuries for Fustat to reach its peak as an urban 

center, but once it did, visitors compared it to 

legendary Baghdad because of its large markets, 

parks, and beautiful 

gardens

. Al-Muqaddasi, a 

10th-century geographer, called Fustat “the glory 

of Islam and the commercial center of the uni-

verse” (Raymond, 30). Among the products it 

was known for were textiles, refined sugar, paper, 

glass, and ceramics. Its population, estimated to 

be 175,000, was large for 

cities

 of that time. The 

rich tended to live alongside the poor, and some of 

the people were housed in large multistory apart-

ment buildings that could hold 350 residents. 

In addition to a growing population of Muslims, 

Fustat also had Christian and Jewish inhabitants. 

An area now known as Old Cairo had several 

antique churches, one of which was believed to 

stand on the spot where the infant Jesus and his 

family had stayed when they fled Palestine during 

the reign of Herod the Great (r. 37–34 

b

.

c

.

e

.). The 

Ben Ezra synagogue was one place of worship for 

Jews in Fustat, and it became famous late in the 

19th century because of the large cache of papers, 

known as the Geniza documents, that were dis-

covered there. These documents shed light on the 

social and economic life of the medieval city and 

on relations between Jews, Christians, and Mus-

lims. Fustat’s 

cemetery

 was situated to the east 

of the city, and it later became the site of many 

of Cairo’s major funerary monuments, as well as 

an important center of social life, as families went 

there to remember the dead, worship at the tombs 

of 

saints

, and give charity to the poor.

The story of Cairo, however, is really a tale of 

two cities—one for the common people and one 

for the rulers. As Fustat grew, officials moved the 

center of government outside the populated quar-

ters to vacant hills just beyond the northeast edge 

of the city. The first of these governmental cities 

was call al-Askar (“cantonment”), built in 751, 

which was replaced by another called al-Qatai 

(“wards”) in 869. In 969, a Shii dynasty known 

as the Fatimids (r. 909–1171) arrived from North 

Africa and founded a new governmental city 

that replaced al-Qatai. They named it al-Qahira 

(“conqueror”), from which comes the English 

name  Cairo, and they wanted it to serve as the 

new capital for their 

caliphate

, which rivaled that 

of the Abbasids in Baghdad. The original Cairo 

was built about three miles northeast of Fustat; 

it was rectangular in shape, enclosed by a strong 

defensive wall, and oriented toward Mecca. Inside 

lived the Fatimid caliph, his household, officials, 

and the army. The most prominent architectural 

features were al-Azhar (the rulers’ congregational 

Medieval Cairo 

(Source: unknown)

K  122  

Cairo

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mosque), a large palace complex, and a street that 

bisected the city lengthwise from the southwest 

to the northeast. The city soon developed its 

own commercial district to serve the needs of its 

residents, and increased prosperity caused it to 

grow beyond the limits of the original walled city. 

Additional mosques and public areas were built, 

and special attention was given to establishing 

shrines for 

ahl

 

al

-

bayt

, descendants of Muham-

mad. The most famous of these shrines are those 

of  h

Usayn

 

ibn

  a

li

 (located within Cairo’s walls), 

and the tombs of the women saints Ruqayya and 

Nafisa (located in the open area south of Cairo 

and east of Fustat). The two cities, Fustat and 

Cairo, thus became symbiotically connected, but 

distinct urban centers.

During the 11th century, famines and fires 

contributed to a decline in Fustat’s population, 

while Cairo grew and became more prosperous. 

Common people were allowed to live there start-

ing in 1073, and its population began to occupy 

new residential areas just outside the city gates. 

Under the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty (r. 1173–

1250), it entered a new phase in its history. In 

terms of religion, the Ayyubid conqueror s

aladin

(r. 1174–1193) and his heirs put an end to the 

Fatimid Shii missionary activities that had not 

been very successful in Egypt, and they promoted 

Sunni Islam instead. They sponsored a building 

program that involved erecting 25 

madrasa

s to 

propagate Sunni religious learning, especially 

jurisprudence (f

iqh

), in addition to a number of 

congregational mosques and Sufi hospices. They 

also built a mausoleum for Imam al-s

haFii

 (d. 

820), the founder of one of the four Sunni legal 

schools, and an adjacent madrasa. To enhance 

Cairo’s defenses and to reinforce their control of 

the city, the Ayyubids built a massive citadel on a 

rocky spur overlooking Cairo and Fustat on the 

east side, and they built a single defensive wall 

that enclosed both cities and the citadel. During 

the Mamluk era (1250–1517), this large urban 

conglomeration grew in size, with more markets 

and residential areas, palaces, mosques, hospices, 

and hospitals. This was also when Cairo became 

the most important center for Islamic learning in 

the world, especially after the Mongol invasions 

destroyed many of the cities of Persia and i

raq

in the 13th century. The city played host to many 

scholars and mystics from the East as well as from 

North Africa and Andalusia, despite the political 

turmoil it endured at the hands of the Mamluk 

rulers at this time.

After the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt 

in the early 16th century, Cairo functioned as its 

administrative capital for the region, and it con-

tinued to be a major intellectual and commercial 

center. Its population actually grew from less than 

200,000 to about 263,000 during this time. As 

they had done in previous eras, the 

Ulama

 served 

as intermediaries between commoners and the 

ruling elites, who were foreigners. Al-Azhar domi-

nated religious life as the main congregational 

mosque and madrasa in Egypt, and it even rivaled 

the religious institutions of Istanbul, the Ottoman 

capital.

Cairo was briefly occupied by Napoleon’s 

French expeditionary force from 1798 to 1801. 

The French scholars who accompanied the army 

produced a detailed account of Egypt at the time, 

the massive 23-volume Description de l’Égypte,

which included important information about 

Cairo and its institutions. The construction of 

modern Cairo, however, did not begin until later 

in the 19th century, when Egypt was ruled by 

the Turko-Albanian dynasty of Muhammad Ali 

(1805–1952). Bolstered by increased revenues 

from the Suez Canal and cotton exports, Khe-

dive Ismail (r. 1863–1879) laid the foundations 

for a new planned city on vacant land between 

the old caliphal city of Cairo and the east bank 

of the Nile River. He had been inspired by the 

geometric pattern of streets and boulevards he 

discovered during his travels in Europe, especially 

by those conceived by the French planner Baron 

Haussmann (d. 1891). This newly developed area 

soon became the political, economic, and cultural 

heart of the city, graced by parks and European-