Encyclopedia of Islam

burqa

  

119  J

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120

AF

J:

Cairo

 

(Arabic: al-Qahira; Misr al-Qahira; 

or Misr)

The capital of e

gypt

, Cairo is a global metropolis 

of about 16.8 million residents (est. 2008), the 

largest Muslim city in the world. It straddles the 

Nile River near the ancient pyramids of Giza and 

occupies an area of 82.6 square miles (214 square 

kilometers) at the southern tip of the Nile Delta in 

northern Egypt. Most Cairenes (Cairo residents) 

are Sunni Muslims who follow the s

haFii

  l

egal

s

chool

, but it is also home to a sizeable Coptic 

Orthodox Christian population of several million 

as well as immigrant communities from the wider 

region of the Mediterranean basin, Africa, and the 

Middle East. It hosts international businessmen, 

diplomats, 

reFUgees

, scholars, and technical per-

sonnel working for foreign companies. a

l

-a

zhar

,

the foremost Sunni university, is located there, as 

are dozens of remarkable mosques, churches, and 

other monuments that date back to as early as the 

seventh century. It is also the seat of the patriarch-

ate of the Coptic Orthodox Church and has cathe-

drals belonging to several other Eastern Orthodox 

churches. A thriving Jewish community once lived 

there, but most Egyptian Jews emigrated to i

srael

after its creation in 1948. Cairo has played such an 

important role in the cultural, social, economic, 

and political life of the country and the region 

that the nation itself is officially known as Misr, 

one of the Arabic names for Cairo. In colloquial 

Arabic, Egyptians like to boast, “Masr (colloquial 

for Misr) is the mother of the world”—the center 

of civilized life. Despite its prestige and the influ-

ence it holds in Arab and Muslim countries, Cairo 

is beset by the same problems faced by many other 

large, crowded modern cities—urban crowding, 

housing shortages, pollution, unemployment and 

underemployment, and a stressed infrastructure.

The history of Cairo begins with a garrison 

town named Fustat that was built on the east 

bank of the Nile by the Muslim army of about 

10,000 soldiers that invaded Egypt in 641. Fus-

tat was situated next to an old Roman fortress 

known as Babylon. At the town’s center was the 

governor’s residence and a small congregational 

mosqUe

, called the Mosque of Amr after the Mus-

lim commander Amr ibn al-As (d. ca. 663). This 

mosque-government complex was surrounded by 

markets and residential quarters for the different 

Arab tribal groups that had formed the core of the 

invading Muslim army. Fustat served as the first 

capital of Egypt during the U

mayyad

  c

aliphate

(661–750), based in d

amascUs

, and the a

bbasid

c

aliphate

 (750–1258), based in b

aghdad

. By 

C

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