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diff --git a/78916-0.txt b/78916-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..275064f --- /dev/null +++ b/78916-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12653 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78916 *** + _The Story of Cairo_ + + + _First Edition, April_ 1902 + + _Second Edition, April_ 1906 + + + _All rights reserved_ + + + + +[Illustration: CAIRO FROM THE SOUTH-WEST: THE LAKE OF THE ELEPHANT +(BIRKAT-EL-FIL)] + + + _The Story of_ Cairo + + _by Stanley Lane-Poole + Litt.D. M.A. Professor of Arabic + at Trinity College Dublin_ + +[Decoration] + + _London: J. M. Dent & Co. + Aldine House_ 29 _and_ 30 _Bedford Street + Covent Garden W.C._ * * 1906 + + + + + HE WHO HATH NOT SEEN CAIRO HATH NOT SEEN THE WORLD. + + HER SOIL IS GOLD; + + HER NILE IS A MARVEL; + + HER WOMEN ARE AS THE BRIGHT-EYED HOURIS OF PARADISE; + + HER HOUSES ARE PALACES, AND HER AIR IS SOFT, WITH AN ODOUR ABOVE + ALOES, REFRESHING THE HEART; + + AND HOW SHOULD CAIRO BE OTHERWISE, WHEN SHE IS THE MOTHER OF THE + WORLD? + + + + + PREFACE + + +CAIRO is in the fullest sense a mediæval city. It had no existence +before the Middle Ages; its vigorous life as a separate Metropolis +almost coincides with the arbitrary millennium of the middle period of +history; and it still retains to this day much of its mediæval character +and aspect. The aspect is changing, but not the life. The amazing +improvements of the past twenty years have altered the Egyptian’s +material condition, but scarcely as yet touched his character. We have +given him public order and security, solvency without too heavy +taxation, an efficient administration, even-handed justice, the means of +higher education, and above all to every man his fair share of the +enriching Nile, χρυσορρόης in the truest sense, without which nothing +else avails. For all these, and especially the last, the peasant is +grateful in his way, when their merits are pointed out to him; but not +so the Cairene. The immediate blessings of the irrigation engineer are +not so prominently brought to bear upon his pressing wants, and for the +other reforms of the Firengy he cares very little. I should be sorry to +draw any discourteous comparisons with “the Ethiop,” but whatever time +and association with Europeans may do for the comely, and to my taste +none too swarthy, skin of my Cairo friend, I am convinced that he will +keep his old unregenerate mediæval heart in spite of us all. + +Happily for purposes of study (I am not treating of ethics), the East +changes very slowly, and the soul of the Eastern not at all. The Cairo +jeweller, who will chaffer with you for an hour over a few piastres, +though he mixes reluctantly, shrinkingly, in the crazy, bustling +twentieth century life of Europe that rushes past him, is not of it. In +his heart of hearts he looks back longingly to the glorious old days of +the Mamlúks, to which he essentially belongs, and regrets the +excitements of those stirring times. What good, he asks, comes of all +this “worry”? Justice? More often a man had need of a little injustice, +and a respectable tradesman could usually buy that from the Kady before +these new tribunals were set up. As to fixed taxes and no extortion, +that is chiefly a matter for the stupid fellahín; and after all the old +system worked beautifully when you shirked payment, and your neighbour +was bastinadoed for your share. Then all this fiddling with water and +drains and streets; what is it all for? When Willcocks or Price Bey have +put pipes and patent traps and other godless improvements into the +mosques, will one’s prayers be any better than they were in the pleasant +pervasive odour of the old fetid tanks? The streets are broader, no +doubt, to let the Firengis, Allah blacken their faces! roll by in their +two-horsed ‘arabíyas and splash the Faithful with mud; but for this +wonderful boon they have taken away the comfortable stone benches from +before the shops, and the Cairo tradesman misses his old seat, where +unlimited _keyf_ and the meditative shibúk once whiled away the leisure +of his never pressing avocations. No; pure water and drains, and +bicycles and tramcars, and a whole array of wretched little black-coated +efendis pretending to imitate the Káfirs may be all very well in their +place, but they are ugly, uninteresting things, and life at Cairo has +been desperately dull since they came in. + +In one of the suggestive essays in his delightful book on “Asia and +Europe,” Mr Meredith Townsend has shown how _interesting_ life must have +been in India before England introduced order and all the virtues. The +picture might have been drawn in Cairo with trifling alterations. Life +undoubtedly was interesting in the old unregenerate days. There were +events then; something to see and think of, and possibly fly from; +plenty of blood and assassination, perhaps, but then you could always +shut and bar the strong gates of the quarter, when the Mamlúks or the +Berbers, or, worst of all, the black Sudánis, were on the war-path. Now +the gates are taken away, and there are no cavalcades of romantic +troopers, beautiful to behold in their array, to ravish your household +and give colour to life. In those days it was possible for any man of +brain and luck to rise to power and wealth, such wealth as all Cairo +could not furnish in these blank and honest times; promotion was ever at +hand, and the way was open to the strong, the cunning, and the rich. +What were a holocaust of victims, an orgy of rapine, even the deadly +ravages of periodical plague and famine, in comparison with the great +occasions, the gorgeous pomp, the endless opportunities, the infinite +variety of those unruly and tumultuous but never tedious days? + +This is what the true Cairene meditates in his heart. His ideas, for +good or ill, are not as our ideas; they date back from the Middle Ages, +like his dress, his religion, his social habits, his turns of speech, +his calm insouciance, his impenetrable reserve, his inveterate negation +of “worry.” Outside the official class he is still the same man whom we +saw keeping shop or taking his venture to sea in the faithful mirror of +the Arabian Nights. Even his city preserves its mediæval tone. Much has +been destroyed by time or innovation, but the European fringe is still a +fringe, and the old Muslim city for the present defies western +influences. It has been rebuilt time after time, and every fresh +rebuilding will take away more of its charm; but enough remains to show +us what Cairo was five hundred years ago. The crowded streets of the old +quarters, the immemorial character of the houses and markets, above all +the historical monuments, carry us back to the Middle Ages. + +The aim of these pages is to clothe the vestiges of the mediæval city +with the associations that lend them their deepest interest. Many of the +buildings of Cairo, especially the later mosques of the Mamlúk period, +are exquisitely beautiful, and may be admired as works of art without +regard to their history. But there are many more, ruined courts, +crumbling arcades, mere fragments of walls or inscriptions, which appeal +rather to the archæological than the æsthetic sense, and must be almost +meaningless until their story is revealed. In tracing the growth of +Cairo I have tried to surround the remains of its buildings with the +atmosphere of their historic associations. Mere topography has charms +for the antiquary alone; it is only when the material growth of a city +is interwoven with the life of its people and the character of its +rulers that topography acquires an interest for all. At the same time I +have sought to keep closely to the subject—the growth and life of the +city. This is no general history of Egypt, and many things are passed by +because they bear no intimate relation to the development of its +capital. + +The authorities upon which I rely are sufficiently cited in the +footnotes. The greatest Arabic source is of course the elaborate +_Khitat_ of el-Makrízy, frequently referred to as “the Topographer,” who +wrote in the early years of the fifteenth century, but used various +topographical and historical works of much earlier date, many of which +are not otherwise accessible. The remarkable accuracy, completeness, and +research of his detailed description of Cairo need no praise of mine: +they are universally recognised. Other writers, such as el-Mas‘údy, +Násir-i-Khusrau, ‘Abd-el-Latíf, Ibn-Gubeyr (the extracts from whom I owe +to the kindness of my friend, Mr Guy le Strange, the historian of +Baghdád, and our most learned authority on the geography of the +caliphate), Ibn-Sa‘íd, Ibn-Dukmak, es-Suyúty, Abu-l-Mahásin, el-Isháky, +el-Gabárty, fill up the picture, and add valuable, personal, and +contemporary touches. Lane’s “Cairo Fifty Years Ago” has the merit of +presenting an account of the city as it was in 1835, before the +Europeanizing movement begun by Mohammad ‘Aly, and carried to the +extreme by Isma‘íl, had had time to work much change in the +characteristic aspect of the town. In archæology I am especially +beholden to the researches of MM. Max van Berchem, Ravaisse, and +Casanova. One exception I must note to the generally full references to +my sources. There is something repugnant, if not to modesty at least to +the sense of propriety, in frequently citing one’s own books. Writing +constantly on the subject of Cairo, its art, its monuments, and its +history, for many years past, it was inevitable that I should sometimes +repeat what I have said before: indeed, when we have written what we +have to say in the best shape that we are able to devise, it seems mere +affectation to try to seek a different form of expression. I have +therefore quoted, but sparingly, from my “Art of the Saracens in Egypt” +(published for the Committee of Council in 1886), my “Cairo Sketches” +(3rd ed., Virtue, 1898), my “History of Egypt in the Middle Ages” +(Methuen, 1901), and any extracts to which no footnote is appended must +be understood to refer to one of these books, generally the “History.” I +trust I may be permitted to say that for a more complete account of the +history than would be possible or desirable in the present volume the +student should consult the last of the three books above cited. Were +there any other work in English of similar scope I would gladly +substitute its title. For a much more detailed narrative of the history +of the Copts than could be here included the reader may turn to Mrs +Butcher’s “Story of the Church of Egypt” (2 vols., Smith, Elder & Co., +1897), a work full of sympathy and appreciation for a neglected and +persecuted community, though open to criticism in its Mohammedan +relations. + +I have not troubled the reader with an elaborate system of +transliteration of Arabic names. An acute accent is used merely to show +where the principal accent falls, not necessarily to indicate a long +vowel. The vowels are to be pronounced as in Italian, and the letter _g_ +is employed to represent the Arabic consonant that in Cairo is +pronounced hard (as in _get_), but elsewhere usually soft (as _j_ in +_jet_). Those who are curious to know the exact transliteration should +turn to the index, where every Arabic word is given in roman letters +with diacritical points and distinction of the long vowels. + +The illustrations have been chosen with a view to showing the mediæval +city as far as possible before it suffered its European change. Nothing +could be better for this purpose than the drawings made between 1826 and +1838 by Robert Hay of Linplum and by his companion Owen B. Carter (about +1830), the originals of which are preserved in the Print Room of the +British Museum, and some were lithographed in Hay’s “Illustrations of +Cairo.” These represent the mediæval remains as no modern sketches could +depict them, but Mr J. A. Symington has skilfully supplemented them, +when no older drawings could be obtained. + +In conclusion I should wish to draw attention to what I have said in the +last chapter on the subject of the Commission for the Preservation of +the Monuments of Arab Art. To its vigilance and unremitting labours +during the past twenty years we owe the fact that the mosques and other +remains of Saracenic architecture are secure from demolition, and, as +far as the conditions admit, guarded from decay. Never in the history of +Cairo have its monuments been in such safe keeping, and everyone must be +grateful to each member of this invaluable committee. In the last five +years, since Lord Cromer used his influence to improve its financial +position, the Commission has been enabled to undertake very +comprehensive works of scientific restoration, and all who visit Cairo +should make a point of examining the results of its labours and +inspecting the collections gathered under the care of its chief +architect, Herz Bey, in the Museum of Arab Art. + + STANLEY LANE-POOLE. + + TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, + _January 31st_, 1902. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I + + PAGE + + _The Two Cities_ 1-31 + + The European and the Egyptian Cairo, 1—Oriental Scenes, + 2—The Conservative Tradesman, 6—His Shop, 7, and Home, + 9—The Zuweyla Gate, 10—A Private House, 11—The Mandara, + 14—Bedrooms, 17—Daily Life, 18—Women’s Life, 19—Cairo + Festivities, 22—The Hasaneyn, 23—The Mohammad ‘Aly + Street, 27—View from the Citadel, 28. + + CHAPTER II + + _The Town of the Tent_ 32-58 + + Successive Cities at Cairo, 32—Arab Conquest, 34—Treaty + of Amnesty, 35—The Ancient Misr, 36—Babylon and the + Mukawkis, 37—The Copts, 38—Foundation of Fustat, “the + Tent,” 40—Settlements of the Arab Tribes, 42—The Mosque + of ‘Amr, 42—The Fortress of Babylon, 48—The Coptic + Churches, 53. + + CHAPTER III + + _The Faubourgs_ 59-90 + + The Caliphs’ Governors, 59—Helwan, 61—Treatment of + Christians, 61—Monasticism, 62—Conservatism of the + Copts, 64—The ‘Abbasid Faubourg el-‘Askar, 65—‘Abbasid + Governors, Ibn-Memdud, 66—‘Abdallah ibn Tahir, 67—The + Caliph Mamun in Egypt, 68—Persecutions of Muslims and + Copts, 69—The Turkish Governors, 70—Their encouragement + of Art, 71—Ahmad ibn Tulun, 72—The new Faubourg el- + Katai‘, 75—The Aqueduct, 77—Mosque of Ibn-Tulun, + 78—Sources of Saracen Architecture, 85—Ibn-Tulun’s + Wars, 86—Khumaraweyh’s Palaces, 87—Egypt recovered by + the Caliphs, 89—The Castle of the Ram, 90. + + CHAPTER IV + + _Misr_ 91-112 + + Misr-Fustat the Commercial Capital, 91—The Madara’y + Ministers, 92—The Ikhshid, 93—Mas‘udy in Egypt, 95—The + Island of Roda, 96—Divines at Misr, 97—Poets, + 98—Kafur’s Court, 100—Mohammedan Revels, 102—Kafur’s + Government, 103—Misr in the 10th and 11th Centuries, + 104—Nasir-i-Khusrau’s Description, 107—The Burning of + Misr, 110—Partial Recovery, Ibn-Sa‘id’s Description, + 111. + + CHAPTER V + + _Cairo_ 113-163 + + The Shi‘a Revolution, 113—The Fatimid Caliphate, + 116—el-Mo‘izz, 116—Conquest of Egypt, 117—Foundation of + el-Kahira, Cairo, 118—Effects of the Revolution, + 119—The Copts under the Fatimids, 120—el-‘Aziz, 121—The + Azhar University Mosque, 123—The Palace-city, 125—The + Great Palace, 127—The Gates of Cairo, 129—Bab-Zuweyla, + 129—William of Tyre’s description of the Fatimid Court, + 130—The Port of Maks and the Fleet, 132—Wealth and Art + and Luxury of the Fatimids, 133—Mosque of el-Hakim, + 137—The Caliph Hakim, 139—The Hall of Science, + 142—Apotheosis of Hakim, 142—Military Tyranny and Loss + of Provinces, 144—Cairo in 1047—Cutting the Dam, + 145—el-Yazury, 146—Spoliation by the Turks, 147—The + Seven Years’ Famine, 148—Bedr el-Gemaly, 149—The Second + Wall and Gates of Cairo, 150—Armenian Ministers, + 154—The Rule of Vezirs, 157—Murders and Military + Despotism, 158—Ibn-Ruzzik, 159—Fatimid Architecture, + 159. + + CHAPTER VI + + _Saladin’s Castle_ 164-192 + + Causes of the Invasion of Egypt, 164—Turks and + Crusaders, 167—Shawar and Dirgham, 168—Amalric and + Shirkuh in Egypt, 169—Saladin Vezir, deposition of the + Fatimid Caliph, 170—Saladin’s Campaigns, 172—His Work + at Cairo, 173—The New Walls, 174—The Citadel, 175—The + Dike of Giza, 180—Risings at Cairo, 181—The Head of + Hoseyn, 182—Saladin establishes Medresas or Orthodox + Colleges, 183—Ibn-Gubeyr’s Account, 184—The Hospitals, + 186—Characteristics of Mosques and Medresas, + 187—Results of the Restoration of Orthodoxy and + encouragement of Learning, 190. + + CHAPTER VII + + _The Dome Builders_ 193-254 + + Saphadin el-‘Adil, 193—Great Famine, 194—Invasion of + Crusaders, 195—Frederick II and Kamil, 196—The Mamluk + System, 197—Queen Sheger-ed-durr and the Bahry Mamluks, + 198—Crusade of Louis IX, 201—(i) The Turkish Mamluks, + 202—Their Wars against Mongols, 203, and Franks, + 205—Revival of ‘Abbasid Caliphate, 206—Beybars, 206—The + Mamluk Court, 209—Turbulence of Emirs, 210—The House of + Kalaun, 211—En-Nasir, 212—Toleration of Christians, + 216—Popular Fanaticism, 217—Incendiaries, 218—Nasir and + Abu-l-Fida, 220—Artistic Production, 220—Mosques, + 223—Emirs’ Mosques, 224—Early Mamluk Style of + Architecture, 227—Sultan Hasan, 228—His Great Mosque, + 231—(ii) The Circassian Mamluks, 235—Corruption, + 236—Wars, 237—Cultivated Tastes, 238—Architecture, + 238—Kait-Bey, 241—His Buildings, 245—Mosque _intra + muros_, 246—Wekala, 249—Mosques of Emirs and of Kady + Ibn-Muzhir, 250—The Modified Medresa, 250—Buildings of + el-Ghury, 253—Ottoman Conquest, 254. + + CHAPTER VIII + + _The City of the Arabian Nights_ 257-286 + + Expansion of Cairo, 257—Rise of Bulak, 258—Suburban + Mosques, 259—The Approach from Bulak, 260—The Thousand + and One Nights redacted in Cairo, 261—The Transit Trade + of Egypt, 263—Merchants’ Inns, 265—The Khan el-Khalily, + 266—The Khan of Mesrur, 269—The Wekala Kusun and the + Flower Market, 270—Streets and Quarters, 271—The Art of + Silver Inlay, 272—Cairo Metal Work, 277—Venice, + 279—Wood-carving, 281—Meshrebiya turning, + 284—Characteristics of Saracenic Art, 285—Men of + Letters in the Mamluk Period, 286. + + CHAPTER IX + + _Beys and Pashas_ 287-314 + + Mamluk Emirs (Beys) still in power, 287—Pasha helpless, + 288—Street Fights, 289—‘Othman Bey, 289—Rudwan el- + Gelfy, 290—The Sharaiby family, 292—Libraries, + 295—State of Learning, 296—Fanaticism and Superstition, + 297—Mosques of the Ottoman Period, 298—‘Aly Bey, + 298—‘Abd-er-Rahman Kiahya, 298—Mohammad Bey Abu-dh- + Dhahab, 301—Mohammad ‘Aly, 302—Confiscation of Wakf + Trusts, 302—The Commission for the Preservation of the + Monuments of Arab Art, 303—Report to Lord Cromer, + 303—Preservation, 305—Restoration, 309—Lord Cromer’s + Action, 313—Grants from the Public Debt Commissioners + and the Egyptian Government, 313. + + _Rulers and Monuments of Cairo_ 317-322 + + _Table for converting Hijra Years into Anni Domini_ 323-327 + + _Index_ 329-340 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + _Lake of the Elephant: Birkat-el-Fil._ + _O. B. Carter_ (c. 1830) _Frontispiece_ + + _Court of a Private House._ + _J. A. Symington_ (1902) 15 + + _The Citadel._ + _J. A. Symington_ 29 + + _Court of the Mosque of ‘Amr._ + _J. A. Symington_ 45 + + _Gate of Kasr-esh-Shema‘ (Babylon)._ + _O. B. Carter_ 51 + + _Tower of the Mosque of Ibn-Tulun._ + _O. B. Carter_ 73 + + _Within the Mosque of Ibn-Tulun._ + _J. A. Symington_ 81 + + _Detail of Ornament in Mosque of Ibn-Tulun._ + _J. A. Symington_ 84 + + _Street in Old Misr._ + _J. A. Symington_ 105 + + _Ruined Mosque of el-Hakim._ + _J. A. Symington_ 135 + + _Gate of Succour: Bab-en-Nasr._ + _O. B. Carter_ 151 + + _Minarets over Gate of Zuweyla._ + _O. B. Carter_ 155 + + _Mosque of el-Guyushy._ + _O. B. Carter_ 161 + + _Plan of Cairo before_ 1200. + _After Ravaisse, etc._ 165 + + _Castle of the Ram: Kal‘at-el-Kebsh._ + _O. B. Carter_ 177 + + _Plan of Medresa._ + _After Murray_ 190 + + _Island of er-Roda._ + _Robert Hay_ (c. 1830) 199 + + _“Joseph’s Hall”: Palace of en-Nasir in Citadel, with + his Mosque in background._ + _Robert Hay_ 213 + + _Aqueduct and House of the Seven Watermills._ + _Robert Hay_ 221 + + _Mosque of Sultan Hasan._ + _O. B. Carter_ 225 + + _Gateway of Sultan Hasan’s Mosque._ + _O. B. Carter_ 229 + + _Tomb-Mosque of Barkuk and Farag._ + _J. A. Symington_ 233 + + _Eastern Cemetery: so-called “Tombs of the Caliphs.”_ + _J. A. Symington_ 239 + + _Mosque of Kait-Bey._ + _J. A. Symington_ 243 + + _Tomb-Mosques._ + _J. A. Symington_ 247 + + _Tombs of the Mamluks._ + _J. A. Symington_ 251 + + _Sketch-plan showing growth of Cairo._ + _After E. W. Lane_ (1835) 256 + + _Slave Market._ + _O. B. Carter (figures by H. Warren)_ 267 + + _In the Darb-el-Ahmar._ + _J. A. Symington_ 275 + + _Street near Bab-el-Khark._ + _O. B. Carter_ 293 + + _A Muslim Graveyard._ + _J. A. Symington_ 315 + + _Map of Cairo_ _At end_ + + + + + The Story of Cairo + + * * * * * + + CHAPTER I + + _The Two Cities_ + + +THERE are two Cairos, distinct in character, though but slenderly +divided in site. There is a European Cairo, and there is an Egyptian +Cairo. The last was once El-Káhira, “the Victorious,” founded under the +auspices of the planet Mars, but it is now so little conquering, indeed +has become so subdued, that one hears it spoken of as “the native +quarters,” or even in Indian fashion as “the bazars.” In truth European +Cairo knows little of its mediæval sister. Thousands of tourists, +mounted on thousands of donkeys, do indeed explore “the native quarters” +every winter, but these do not belong to European Cairo; birds of +passage they are, not inhabitants. The true resident, who has his cool +shaded house and breezy balcony in the Isma‘ilíya quarter, surrounded by +hundreds of similar comfortable villas, does not by any chance ride +donkeys, and is only dragged to “the bazars” rarely and with obvious +reluctance by the importunity of some enthusiastic visitor. But even in +European Cairo there are signs that another Cairo, an Oriental, Muslim +Cairo, exists not far away. Let the English colony keep never so closely +to itself and ignore “the native quarters,” except as objects for just +government and wise reforms, it cannot walk abroad, or even open its +ears in its own chambers, without becoming conscious of the true +Oriental world in which it lives but of which it is not. Go to the Post +Office, a few minutes’ walk from most of the hotels, and you are at once +in a medley of East and West. + +A German nursemaid, accompanied by the little daughter of the family, is +asking for letters at the _arrivée_ window, and an old sheykh in +_kaftán_ and turban is negotiating a money-order or a registered letter +at the next bureau. Over the way a row of public letter-writers sit at +their tables on the sideway, gravely imperturbable, awaiting illiterate +correspondents. In the street, omnibuses and tram-cars rumble by, +blowing strident horns; but the passengers who sit on the seats beneath +the awning are not Europeans—they are Egyptians, efendis, clerks, +shopkeepers, sheykhs, often simple fellahín come to town on business and +driving in from Bulák or Kasr-en-Nil. On the footpaths—always uneven and +often muddy, in curious contrast to the roads, which are kept clean by +circular brushes and little girl scavengers—the European element, Greek, +German, Italian, chiefly, is intimately blended with the Oriental: +Sudány women closely veiled with the white _burko‘_, which sets off +their swarthy brows and black eyes to advantage; Egyptian girls in blue +gowns and black veils hanging loose and allowing the well-formed neck +and line of cheek and chin to be seen, whilst concealing the only part a +woman scrupulously hides in the East, her mouth; horrible blear-eyed old +harridans, veiled with immaculate precision, squatting in rows against +the house-fronts; Bedawis striding along in the roadway with the striped +_kufíya_ wound round their heads; strings of camels tied together, laden +with _bersím_, the rich fodder of Egypt, and driven by the smallest of +urchins; petty Government clerks, or efendis, clad in _stambúly_ and +_tarbúsh_, hunched up on donkey-back; all classes and ages and sexes +mingled together in a jostling, perspiring, but good-tempered crowd; and +everywhere the pungent pervasive odour of the East. + +Even in the European quarters you still meet the veritable Eastern +sights and sounds. As you look out of your hotel window you will see a +native musician sauntering by, twanging the lute of the country; then a +sound like the tinkling of baby cymbals informs you that the _sherbétly_ +is going his round, with his huge glass-jar slung at his side, from +which he dispenses (to the unwary) sweet sticky drinks of liquorice +juice or orange syrup in the brass saucers which he clinks unceasingly +in his hand. Late at night sounds of Eastern life invade your pillow: +the “rumble of a distant drum” tells you that a wedding party is +perambulating the streets, and if you have the curiosity to sally forth +you will be rewarded by one of the characteristic sights of Cairo, in +which old and new are oddly blended. Probably a circumcision festival is +combined with the wedding to save expense; and the procession will be +headed by the barber’s sign, a wooden frame raised aloft, followed by +two or three gorgeously caparisoned camels—regular stage-properties +hired out for such occasions—carrying drummers, and leading the way for +a series of carriages crammed with little boys, each holding a neat +white handkerchief to his mouth, to keep out the devil and the evil eye. +Then comes a closed carriage covered all over with a big cashmere shawl, +held down firmly at the sides by brothers and other relations of the +imprisoned bride; then more carriages and a general crowd of +sympathizers. More rarely the bride is borne in a cashmere-covered +litter swung between two camels, fore and aft; the hind camel must tuck +his head under the litter, and is probably quite as uncomfortable as the +bride, who runs a fair chance of sea-sickness in her rolling palankin. +In the old days the bride walked through the streets under a canopy +carried by her friends, but this is now quite out of fashion, and +European carriages are rapidly ousting even the camel-litters. But the +cashmere shawl and the veil will not soon be abandoned. The Egyptian +woman is, at least in public, generally modest. She detects a stranger’s +glance with magical rapidity, even when to all appearance looking the +other way, and forthwith the veil is pulled closer over her mouth and +nose. When she meets you face to face, she does not drop her big eyes in +the absurd fashion of Western modesty; she slowly turns them away from +you: it is annihilating. + +As soon as you have turned your back on the European suburb and the +hotel region, and escaped from the glass shop fronts and Greek dealers +of the Musky, the real Eastern city begins to dominate you. It is quite +easy to lose oneself in the quaint old streets of Muslim Cairo when only +an occasional passer-by reminds one that Europe is at the gates. A large +part of Cairo is very little spoilt: it is still in a great degree the +city of the Arabian Nights. + +In that stall round the corner who knows but that the immortal Barber is +recounting the adventures of his luckless brothers to the impatient +lover on the shaving stool? At this very moment the Three Royal +Mendicants may be entertaining the fair Portress and her delightful +sisters with the story of their calamities, and if you wait till night +you may even see the “good” Harún er-Rashíd himself—though it is true he +lived at Baghdád—coming on his stealthy midnight rambles with prudent +Ga‘far at his heels and black Mesrúr to clear the way. A few streets +away from the European quarters it is easy to dream that we are acting a +part in the moving histories of the Thousand and One Nights, which do in +fact describe Cairo and its people as they were in the Middle Ages, and +as they are in a great measure still. In its very dilapidation the city +assists the illusion. The typical Eastern houses falling to ruins, which +no one thinks of repairing, are the natural homes of ‘Efríts and +mischievous Ginn, who keep away god-fearing tenants. But if in its +ruined houses, far more in what remains of its glorious monuments does +Cairo transport us to the golden age of Arabian art and culture. Among +its mosques and colleges and the scanty remnants of its palaces are the +purest examples of Saracenic architecture that can be seen in all the +once wide empire of Islam. Damascus and Ispahan, Agra and Delhi, Cordova +and Granada, Brusa and Constantinople, possess elements of beauty and +features of style which Cairo has not, and they enlarge and complete our +understanding of Arab art; but to view that art in its purity, +uncorrupted by the mechanical detail of the Alhambra, unspoilt by the +over-elaboration of Delhi, we must study the mosques and tombs of Cairo. + +The blessed conservatism of the East has happily maintained much of the +old city in its beautiful ruinous unprogressive disorder. There are of +course new houses and rebuilt fronts and even glass window-sashes; the +exquisite _meshrebíyas_ with their intricate turned lattice work are +nearly all gone to make way for Italian _persiennes_, and the stone +benches in front of the shops have disappeared in deference to the +modern exigencies of carriages. But the general aspect of the streets +has not seriously altered in recent years, and the people who press +through the crowded lanes, or sit in their little cells of shops at the +receipt of custom, are unchanged. They dress as their ancestors dressed +ages ago; their ideas and education are much what they always were, +though the new schools are gradually infusing more modern notions; they +are still as calm and easy-going and procrastinating as ever. The only +conspicuous change is the dethronement of the time-honoured +_shibúk_,—the long pipe of meditation and stately leisure and “asphodel +and moly” and all that is implied in the ineffable dreamland of +_keyf_,—in favour of the restless undignified cigarette; but _nargílas_ +and cocoa-nut pipes for hashísh are still in full play among the lower +classes. The tradespeople are the conservative element in Egypt, as +everywhere else. The upper classes are becoming every year less Oriental +in outward appearance and habits. They dance with “infidel” ladies, wear +Frank clothes, and delight in the little French pieces played in the +Ezbekíya garden. Even their national coffee cups are made in Europe, and +save for the red tarbúsh, and certain mental and moral idiosyncracies +difficult to eliminate and unnecessary to describe, the Egyptian +gentleman might almost pass muster in a Parisian crowd. It is the +tradesman who recalls the past, keeps up the old traditions, and walks +in the old paths. The course of the world runs slowly in the working +East, and the Cairene shopkeeper has placidly stood still whilst the +Western world joined in the everlasting “move on” of modern +civilization. + +“We shall find this stand-still mortal in one of the main thoroughfares +of the city. Leaving the European quarter behind, and taking little note +of the Greek and Italian shops in the renovated Musky, we turn off to +the right into the Ghuríya—one of those larger but still narrow streets +which are distinguished with the name of _shari‘_ or thoroughfare. Such +a street is lined on either side with little box-like shops, which form +an unbroken boundary on either hand, except where a mosque door, or a +public fountain, or the entrance to another street interrupts for a +brief space the row of stores. None of the private doors or windows we +are accustomed to in Europe breaks the line of shops. For a considerable +distance all the traders deal in the same commodity—be it sugar-plums or +slippers. The system has its advantages, for if one dealer be too dear, +the next may be cheap; and the competition of many contiguous salesmen +brings about a salutary reduction in prices. On the other hand, it must +be allowed that it is fatiguing to have to order your coat in half-a- +dozen different places—to buy the cloth in one direction, the buttons in +another, the braid in a third, the lining in a fourth, the thread in a +fifth, and then to have to go to quite another place to find a tailor to +cut it out and sew it together. And as each dealer has to be bargained +with, and generally smoked with, if not coffeed with, if you get your +coat ordered in a single morning you may count yourself expeditious. + +“In one of these little cupboards that do duty for shops, we may or may +not find the typical tradesman we are seeking. It may chance he has gone +to say his prayers, or to see a friend, or perhaps he did not feel +inclined for business to-day; in which case the folding shutters of his +shop will be closed, and as he does not live anywhere near, and as, if +he did, there is no bell, no private door, and no assistant, we may wait +there for ever, so far as he is concerned, and get no answer to our +inquiries. His neighbour next door, however, will obligingly inform us +that the excellent man whom we are seeking has gone to the mosque, and +we accordingly betake ourselves to our informer and make his +acquaintance instead. + +“Our new friend is sitting in a recess some five feet square, and rather +more than six feet high, raised a foot or two from the ground; and +within this narrow compass he has collected all the wares he thinks he +is likely to sell, and has also reserved room for himself and his +customers to sit down and smoke cigarettes while they bargain. Of course +his stock must be very limited, but then all his neighbours are ready to +help him; and if you cannot find what you want within the compass of his +four walls, he will leave you with a cigarette and a cup of coffee, or +perhaps Persian tea in a tumbler, while he goes to find the +_desideratum_ among the wares of his colleagues round about. + +“Meanwhile, you drink your scalding aromatic coffee and watch the throng +that passes by: the ungainly camels, laden with brushwood or green +fodder, which seem to threaten to sweep everything and everybody out of +the street;—the respectable towns-people, mounted on grey or brown +asses, ambling along contentedly, save when an unusually severe blow +from the inhuman donkey-boy running behind makes their beasts swerve +incontinently to the right or left, as though they had a hinge in their +middle;—the grandees in their two-horse carriages, preceded by +breathless runners, who clear the way for their masters with shrill +shouts—“Shemálak, ya weled!” (“To thy left, O boy!”) “Yemínik, ya Sitt!” +(“To thy right, O lady!”) “Iftah ‘eynak, ya Am!” (“Open thine eye, O +uncle!”) and the like;—the women with trays of eatables on their heads, +the water-carrier with goat-skin under arm, and the vast multitude of +blue-robed men and women who have something or other to do, which takes +them indeed along the street, but does not take them very hurriedly. In +spite of the apparent rush and crush, the crowd moves slowly, like +everything else in the East. + +“Our friend returns with the desired article; we approve it, guardedly, +and with cautious tentative aspect demand, ‘How much?’ The answer is +always at least twice the fair price. We reply, first by exclaiming, ‘I +seek refuge with God’ (from exorbitance), and then by offering about +half the fair price. The dealer shakes his head, looks disappointed with +us, shows he expected better sense in people of our appearance, puts +aside his goods, and sits down to another cigarette. After a second +ineffectual bid, we summon our donkey and prepare to mount. At this +moment the shopman relents, and reduces his price; but we are obdurate, +and begin riding away. He pursues us, agrees almost to our terms; we +return, pay, receive our purchase, commend him to the protection of God, +and wend our way on. + +“But if, instead of going on, we accompany our late antagonist in the +bargain to his own home, we shall see what a middle-class Cairene house +is like. Indeed, a middle-class dwelling in Cairo may sometimes chance +to be a palace, for the modern Pasha despises the noble mansions that +were the pride and delight of better men than he in the good old days of +the Mamlúks, and prefers to live in shadeless ‘Route No. 29,’ or +thereabouts, in the modern bricklayer’s paradise known as the Isma‘ilíya +quarter; and hence the tradesman may sometimes occupy the house where +some great Bey of former times held his state, and marshalled his +retainers, when he prepared to strike a blow for the precarious throne +that was always at the command of the strongest battalions. But all +Cairene houses of the old style are very much alike: they differ only in +size and in the richness or poverty of the decoration; and if our +merchant’s home is better than most of its neighbours, we have but to +subtract a few of the statelier rooms, and reduce the scale of the +others, to obtain a fair idea of the houses on either hand and round +about. + +“The street we now enter is quite different from that we have left. We +have been doing our shopping in the busy Cheapside of Cairo, and in full +view of the lofty façade of the mosque of the Mamlúk Sultan El-Muáyyad. +Its two minarets stand upon a fine old gate called Bab Zawíla (or +commonly Zuweyla), which people now-a-days generally prefer to call the +Bab el-Mutawélly, because it is believed to be a favourite resort of the +mysterious Kutb el-Mutawélly, or pope (for the time being) of all the +saints. This very holy personage is gifted with powers of invisibility +and of instantaneous change of place: he flies unseen from the top of +the Kaaba at Mekka to the Bab Zuweyla, and there reposes in a niche +behind the wooden door. True believers tell their beads as they pass +this niche, and the curious peep in to see if the saint be there; and if +you have a headache, there is no better cure than to drive a nail into +the door; while a sure remedy for the toothache is to pull out the tooth +and hang it up on the same venerated spot. Perhaps pulling the tooth out +might of itself cure the ache; but the suggestion savours of impiety, +and at any rate it is safer to fix the molar up. The door bristles with +unpleasing votive offerings of this sort, and if they were all +successful the Kutb must be an excellent doctor. + +“The street thus barred by the Bab Zuweyla is, for Cairo, a broad one; +and shops, mosques, wekálas (or caravanserais), and fountains form its +boundaries. In complete contrast, the street we are now to enter, as we +turn down a by-lane and then wheel sharply to the left, has no shops, +though there is a little mosque, probably the tomb of a venerated saint, +at the corner. Its broad bands of red and white relieve the deep shadows +of the lane, each side of which is composed of the tall backs of houses, +with nothing to vary the white-washed walls except the closely grated +windows. On either hand still narrower alleys open off, sometimes mere +_culs-de-sac_, but often threading the city for a considerable distance. +In these solitary courts we may still see the _meshrebíyas_ which are +becoming so rare in the more frequented thoroughfares. The best lattices +are reserved for the interior windows of the house, which look on the +inner court or garden; but there are not a few streets in Cairo where +the passenger still stops to admire tier upon tier and row after row of +meshrebíyas which give a singularly picturesque appearance to the +houses. + +“The name is derived from the root which means to drink (which occurs in +‘sherbet’), and is applied to lattice windows because the porous water- +bottles are often placed in them to cool. Frequently there is a little +semi-circular niche projecting out of the middle of the lattice for the +reception of a _kulla_ or carafe. The delicately turned nobs and balls, +by which the patterns of the lattice-work are formed, are sufficiently +near together to conceal whatever passes within from the inquisitive +eyes of opposite neighbours, and yet there is enough space between them +to allow free access of air. A meshrebíya is, indeed, a cooling place +for human beings as well as water-jars, and at once a convent-grating +and a spying-place for the women of the harím, who can watch their +Lovelace through the meshes of the windows without being seen in return. +Yet there are convenient little doors that open in the lattice-work if +the inmates choose to be seen even as they see; and the fair ladies of +Cairo are not always above the pardonable vanity of letting a passer-by +discover that they are fair. + +“In one of these by-lanes we stop before an arched doorway, and tie our +donkey to the ring beside it. The door is a study in itself. The upper +part is surrounded by arabesque patterns, which form a square decoration +above it, often very tasteful in the case of the older doorways. +Sometimes the wooden door itself has arabesques on it, and the +inscription ‘God is the Creator, the Eternal,’ which is a charm against +sickness and demons and the evil eye, and also serves as a _memento +mori_ to the master of the house whenever he comes home. There is no +bell, for the prophet declared that a bell is the devil’s musical +instrument, and that where a bell is the angels do not resort—and +sometimes there is no knocker, so we batter upon the door with our stick +or fist. It generally takes several knockings to make oneself heard; but +this is not a land where people hurry overmuch—did not our lord +Mohammad, upon whom be peace, say that ‘haste came from the devil’—so we +conform to the ways of the land, and console ourselves with the +antithetic text, ‘God is with the patient.’ At last a fumbling sound is +heard on the other side, the doorkeeper is endeavouring to fit a stick, +with little wire pins arranged upon it in a certain order, into +corresponding holes bored at the end of a deep mortice in the sliding +bolt of the door. These are the key and lock of Cairo. The sliding bolt +runs through a wooden staple on the door into a slot in the jamb. When +it is home, certain movable pins drop down from the staple into holes in +the sliding bolt and prevent its being drawn back. The introduction of +the key with pins corresponding to the holes in the bolt lifts the +movable pins and permits the bolt to be slidden back. Nothing could be +clumsier or more easy to pick. A piece of wax at the end of a stick will +at once reveal the position of the pins, and the rest is simple. + +“Within is a passage, which bends sharply after the first yard or two, +and bars any view into the interior from the open door. At the end of +this passage we emerge into an open court, with a well of brackish water +in a shady corner, and perhaps an old sycamore. Here is no sign of life; +the doors are jealously closed, the windows shrouded by those beautiful +screens of net-like woodwork which delight the artist and tempt the +collector. The inner court is almost as silent and deserted as the +guarded windows which overlook the street. We shall see nothing of the +domestic life of the inhabitants; for the women’s apartments are +carefully shut off from the court, into which open only the guest rooms +and other masculine and semi-public apartments. After the bustle of the +street this quiet and ample space is very refreshing, and one feels that +the Egyptian architects have happily realized the requirements of +Eastern life. They make the streets narrow and overshadow them with +projecting meshrebíyas, because the sun beats down too fiercely for the +wide street of European towns to be endurable. But they make the houses +themselves spacious and surround them with courts and gardens, because +without air the heat of the rooms in summer would be intolerable. The +Eastern architect’s art lies in so constructing your house that you +cannot look into your neighbour’s windows, nor he into yours; and the +obvious way of attaining this end is to build the rooms round a high +open court, and to closely veil the windows with lattice blinds, which +admit a subdued light and sufficient air, and permit an outlook without +allowing the passing stranger to see through. The wooden screens and +secluded court are necessary to fulfil the requirements of the +Mohammedan system of separating the sexes. + +“The lower rooms, opening directly off the court, are those into which a +man may walk with impunity and no risk of meeting any of the women. Into +one of these lower rooms our host conducts us, with polite entreaty to +do him the honour of making ourselves at home. It is the guest-room, or +_mandara_, and serves as an example of the ordinary dwelling-room of the +better sort. The part of the room where we enter is of a lower level +than the rest, and if it be a really handsome house we shall find this +lower part paved with marble mosaic and cooled by a fountain in the +middle; while opposite the door is a marble slab raised upon arches, +where the water-bottles, coffee-cups, and washing materials are kept. + +“We leave our outer shoes on the marble before we step upon the carpeted +part of the room. It is covered with rugs, and furnished by a low divan +round three sides. The end wall is filled by a meshrebíya, which is +furnished within with cushions, while above it some half-dozen windows, +composed of small pieces of coloured glass let into a framework of +stucco, so as to form a floral pattern, admit a half-light. The two +sides, whitewashed where there is neither wood nor tiles, are furnished +with shallow cupboards with doors of complicated geometrical panelling. +Small arched niches on either side of the cupboards, and a shelf above, +are filled with jars and vases, and other ornaments. The ceiling is +formed of planks laid on massive beams and generally painted a dark red, +but in old houses the ceilings are often beautifully decorated. There +are no tables, chairs, or fireplaces, or indeed any of the things a +European understands to be furniture. When a meal is to be eaten, a +little table is brought in; if the weather be cold a brazier of red-hot +charcoal is kindled; instead of chairs the Cairene tucks his legs up +under him on the divan—an excellent method of getting the cramp, for +Europeans. + +[Illustration: COURT OF A PRIVATE HOUSE] + +“There is often another reception-room, raised above the ground, but +entered by steps from the court, into which it looks through an open +arched front; and frequently a recess in the court, under one of the +upper rooms, is furnished with a divan for hot weather. A door opens out +of the court into the staircase leading to the harím rooms, and here no +man but the master of the house may penetrate. ‘_Harím_’ means what is +‘prohibited’ to other men, and what is ‘sacred’ to the master himself. +The harím rooms are the domestic part of the house. When a man retires +there he is in the bosom of his family, and it would need a very urgent +affair to induce the doorkeeper to summon him down to anyone who called +to see him. Among the harím apartments there is generally a large +sitting-room, like the mandara, called the _ká‘a_, with perhaps a cupola +over it; and in front of the ká‘a is a vestibule, which serves as a +ventilating and cooling place, for a sloping screen over an open space +on the roof of this room is so turned as to conduct the cool north +breezes into the house in hot weather; and here the family often sleep +in summer. + +“There are no bedrooms in a Mohammedan house, or rather no rooms +furnished as bedrooms, for there are plenty of separate chambers where +the inmates sleep, but not one of them has any of what we conceive to be +the requisites of bedroom furniture. The only fittings the Cairene asks +for the night consist of a mattress and pillow, and perhaps a blanket in +winter and a mosquito-net in summer, the whole of which he rolls up in +the morning and deposits in some cupboard or side room; whereupon the +bedroom becomes a sitting-room. There is another important department of +the harím—the bathroom—not a mere room with a fixed bath in it, but a +suite of complicated heated stone apartments, exactly resembling the +public Turkish baths. It is only a large house that boasts this luxury, +however, and most people go out to bathe, if they care to bathe at all. + +“The inhabitants of a house, such as that described, lead a dreary +monotonous life; fortunately, however, they are not often conscious of +its emptiness. The master rises very early, for the Muslim must say the +daybreak prayers. A pipe and a cup of coffee is often all he takes +before his light mid-day meal, and he generally reserves his appetite +for the chief repast of the day—the supper or dinner—which he eats soon +after sunset. If he is in business he spends the day in more or less +irregular attendance at his shop, smokes almost incessantly either the +new-fangled Turkish cigarette, or the traditional _shibúk_, with its +handsome amber mouthpiece, its long cherry-wood stem, and red-clay bowl +filled with mild Gébely or Latakía tobacco. If he has no special +occupation, he amuses himself with calling on his friends, or indulges +in long dreamy hours in the warm atmosphere of the public bath, where +the vapour of the hot-water tanks, and the dislocation of each +particular joint in the shampooing, and the subsequent interval of +cooling and smoking and coffee, are all exceedingly delightful in a hot +climate. When he goes out, a man of any position or wealth never +condescends to walk; as a rule he rides a donkey, sometimes a horse; but +the donkey is far the more convenient in crowded streets. Indeed, an +Egyptian ass of the best breed is a fine animal, and fetches sometimes +as much as a hundred guineas; his paces are both fast and easy, and it +is not difficult to write a letter on the pummel of one of these ambling +mounts. + +“While their lord is paying his calls or attending to his shop, the +women of his household make shift to pass the time as best they may. In +spite of popular ideas on the subject, Mohammedans seldom have more than +one wife, though they sometimes add to their regular marriage a left- +handed connexion with an Abyssinian or other slave-girl. Efforts, +however, are being made to put down the traffic in slaves, and if the +trade be really suppressed, as it is already in law, the Cairene will +become monogamous. The late Khedive himself set an excellent example in +this, as in most other respects, and the better sort of Muslims are, to +say the least, as moral as ordinary Christians. Facility of divorce is +the real difficulty. Men will not keep several wives, because it costs a +good deal to allow them separate houses or suites of rooms, and +plurality does not conduce to domestic harmony; but they do not hesitate +to divorce a wife when they are tired of her, and take a new one in her +place. It is said the caliph ‘Aly thus married and divorced two hundred +women in his time; and a certain dyer of Baghdád even reached the +astonishing total of nine hundred wives: he died at the good old age of +eight-five, and if he married at fifteen, he would have had a fresh +spouse for every month during seventy years of conjugal felicity. +Divorce was so easy that there seems no great reason why he should not +have married nine thousand. One lady is said to have reduced the +fatiguing ceremony of wedlock to extremely convenient dimensions. The +man said to her _Khitb_, and she replied _Nikh_, and the wedding was +over! Thus did she marry forty husbands, and her son Khárija was sorely +puzzled to identify his father. A governor of Upper Egypt was no mean +disciple of these illustrious leaders; but the habit has become more and +more uncommon. + +“There would be much more excuse for the women to demand polyandria than +for the men to ask for polygynaecia; for while the husband can go about +and enjoy himself as he pleases, the women of his family are often hard +pushed to it to find any diversion in their dull lives. Sometimes they +make up a party and engage a whole public bath; and then the screams of +laughter bear witness how the girls of Egypt enjoy a romp. Or else the +mistress goes in state to call upon some friends, mounted upon the high +ass, enveloped in a balloon of black silk, her face concealed, all but +the eyes, by a white veil, and attended by a trusty manservant. These +visits to other haríms are the chief delights of the ladies of Cairo: +unlimited gossip, sweetmeats, inspection of toilettes, perhaps some +singers or dancers to hear and behold—these are their simple joys. They +have no education whatever, and cannot understand higher or more +intellectual pleasures than those their physical senses can appreciate: +to eat, to dress, to chatter, to sleep, to dream away the sultry hours +on a divan, to stimulate their husband’s affections and keep him to +themselves—this is to _live_, in a harím. An Englishwoman asked an +Egyptian lady how she passed her time. ‘I sit on this sofa,’ she +answered, ‘and when I am tired, I cross over and sit on that.’ +Embroidery is one of the few occupations of the harím; but no lady +thinks of busying herself with the flower-garden which is often attached +to the house. Indeed, the fair houris we imagine behind the lattice- +windows are very dreary, uninteresting people; they know nothing, and +take but an indifferent interest in anything that goes on; they are just +beautiful—a few of them—and nothing more. + +“In truth the Egyptian ladies cannot venture to give themselves airs; +they suffer from the low opinion which all Mohammedans entertain of the +fair sex. The unalterable iniquity of womankind is an incontrovertible +fact among the men of the East; it is part of their religion. Did not +the blessed Prophet say, ‘I stood at the gate of Paradise, and lo! most +of its inhabitants were the poor: and I stood at the gates of Hell, and +lo! most of its inhabitants were women?’ Is it not, moreover, a +physiological fact that woman was made out of a _crooked_ rib of Adam; +which would break if you tried to bend it, and if you left it alone it +would always remain crooked? And is it not related that when the Devil +heard of the creation of woman, he laughed with delight, and said, ‘Thou +art half of my host, and thou art the depositary of my secret, and thou +art my arrow with which I shoot and miss not!’ It is no wonder that a +learned doctor gave advice to his disciple, before he entered upon any +serious undertaking, to consult ten intelligent persons among his +particular friends, or if he have not more than five such friends, let +him consult each of them twice; or if he have not more than one friend, +he should consult him ten times, at ten different visits; if he have not +one to consult, let him return to his wife and consult her, and whatever +she advises him to do, let him do the contrary: so shall he proceed +rightly in his affair and attain his object. Following in the steps of +this pious Father, the Muslims have always treated women as an inferior +order of beings, necessary indeed, and ornamental, but certainly not +entitled to respect or deference. Hence they rarely educate their +daughters; hence they seek in their wives beauty and docility, and treat +them either as pretty toys, to be played with and broken and cast away, +or as useful links in the social economy, good to bear children and +order a household.”[1] + +The fatal blot upon Muslim society is this contempt of women, which far +more than counterbalances the good effects of the Mohammedan doctrine of +the equality of all true believers in the sight of God, and the ease of +manner and independence of opinion which result from the sense of +fraternity in the sacred bond of Islám. The picture we have drawn of the +daily life of the Cairene is perhaps too sombre, and we should watch our +tradesman at his revels in order to understand the brighter side of his +life. It is true these excitements are strictly connected with his +religion, but so are the Roman Catholic holidays, and if one must +dissipate it is soothing to the conscience to do it under the auspices +of a saint. The Muslim, however, takes an unnatural delight in pious +celebrations. The wedding guest of Cairo has his own importunate Ancient +Mariner in the _Khatma_ or recital of the entire Korán, from cover to +cover, which a worthy bridegroom frequently provides for the +entertainment of his friends. When the people of Cairo wish to go in for +serious dissipation they visit the graves of their relations, and then, +in houses expressly reserved for cheerful mourners, they listen to the +chanting of the holy book. _Voilà un terrible humeur d’homme!_ _Tristes_ +as we are said to be in England in our manner of amusing ourselves, even +an Ibsen audience would stand aghast at the Muslim’s staid diversions. +He certainly makes the most of curiously unpromising materials. The +feast of St Simon and St Jude does not perhaps suggest exhilaration to +an unimaginative Englishman, but your Cairene will intensely enjoy, in +his sedate way, the holidays of his religion. There are plenty of them, +and a Cairo _Mólid_ or “birthday” is not a one-day’s festival, like mere +Christian feasts, but lasts sometimes as long as nine days at a stretch. +Every tourist knows some of them, such as the Kiswa or Holy Carpet +procession, and the passing of the Mahmal with the pilgrim caravan to +Mekka, and they are worth seeing, if they happen to fall within the +“season”—for the Muslim year still retains the unreformed lunar +calendar, which shifts continually and carries the feasts round with it. +There is hardly a week in the year however without some special rite or +spectacle. It may be the _Ashúra_ or 10th of Moharram (the first month), +when people eat cakes in honour of Hoseyn, the martyred son of ‘Aly, and +pay their homage at the mosque of the Hasaneyn, where the martyr’s head +is supposed to rest, and watch the amazing antics of the dervishes. +“Since Hoseyn, in whose honour it is held (combining with his elder +brother, Hasan, to form the ‘Hasaneyn’), is especially the saint of the +heretical Persians, and has given rise, through no merit of his own, to +more schisms in the Mohammedan world than any other person, it is +strange that the Cairenes, who are almost all orthodox Sunnis, should +pay such particular reverence to this feast. But the truth is, they are +glad of any excuse for a holiday; and, after all, was not our lord +Hoseyn the grandson of the Prophet? and is he to be given over wholly to +those heretical dogs of Shi‘a? Whatever the argument, Hoseyn is deeply +revered in Cairo, and his Molid is one of the sights of the capital that +most delight the European visitor. Nothing more picturesque and +fairylike can be imagined than the scenes in the streets and bazars of +Cairo on the great night of the Hasaneyn. The curious thing was that in +the winter after Tell-el-Kebír, when I stood—for riding was +impossible—in the midst of the dense throng in the Musky, and struggled +into the by-street that leads to the Kady’s court and the mosque of the +Hasaneyn, there was not a sign of ill-humour or fanaticism in spite of +the presence of many Europeans. A more good-natured crowd was never +seen. It might have been expected that at least some slight +demonstration would have been made against the Europeans who wandered +about the gaily illuminated streets; but English ladies walked through +the bazars, English officers and tourists mingled in the throng and even +reached the doors of the sacred mosque itself without the slightest +molestation or even remark. Once or twice a woman might have been heard +sarcastically inviting some Christian to ‘bless the Prophet’; but if the +Christian charitably replied, ‘God bless and save him,’ she was +nonplussed; and even if he did not know the proper answer, nothing came +of it. The general good-nature inspired by the festival obliterated all +memories of war and heresy, and it may safely be asserted that no +English mob could have been trusted to behave in so orderly and friendly +a manner in the presence of a detested minority. + +“The scene, as I turned into one of the narrow lanes of the great Khan +El-Khalíly, or Turkish bazar, which fronts the mosque of the Hasaneyn, +was like a picture in the Arabian Nights. The long bazar was lighted by +innumerable chandeliers and coloured lamps and candles, and covered by +awnings of rich shawls and stuffs from the shops beneath; while, between +the strips of awning, one could see the sombre outlines of the unlighted +houses above, in striking contrast to the brilliancy and gaiety below. +The shops had quite changed their character. All the wares which were +usually littered about had disappeared; the trays of miscellaneous +daggers and rings and spoons and whatnot, were gone; and each little +shop was turned into a tastefully furnished reception-room. The sides +and top were hung with silks and cashmeres, velvets, brocades, and +embroideries of the greatest beauty and rarity—costly stuffs, which the +most inquisitive purchaser never managed to see on ordinary occasions. +The whole of the sides of the bazar formed one long blaze of gold and +light and colour. And within each shop the owner sat surrounded by a +semicircle of friends, all dressed in their best, very clean and +superbly courteous—for the Cairo tradesman is always a gentleman in +mien, even when he is cheating you most outrageously. The very man with +whom you haggled hotly in the morning will now invite you politely to +sit down with him and smoke; at his side is a little ivory or mother-of- +pearl table, from which he takes a bottle of some sweet drink flavoured +with almonds or roses, and offers it to you with finished grace. + +“Seated in the richly-hung recess, you can see the throng pushing by—the +whole population, it seems, of Cairo, in their best array and merriest +temper. All at once the sound of drums and pipes is heard, and a band of +dervishes, chanting benedictions on the Prophet and Hoseyn, pass through +the delighted crowd. On your left is a shop—nay, a throne-room in +miniature—where a story-teller is holding an audience spell-bound as he +relates, with dramatic gestures, some favourite tale. Hard by, a holy +man is revolving his head solemnly and unceasingly, as he repeats the +name of God, or some potent text from the Korán. In another place, a +party of dervishes are performing a _zikr_, or a complete recital of the +Korán is being chanted by swaying devotees. The whole scene is certainly +unreal and fairylike. We can imagine ourselves in the land of the Ginn +or in the City of Brass, but not in Cairo or in the nineteenth century. + +“Outside the khan, dense masses of the people are crowding into the +mosque of the Hasaneyn, where specially horrible performances take +place, and where the tour of the shrine of Hoseyn must be made. Near by, +a string of men are entering a booth; we follow, and find tumblers at +work, and a performing pony, and a clown who always imitates the feats +of the gymnasts, always fails grotesquely, and invariably provokes roars +of laughter. In another booth Karakúsh is carrying on his intrigues: +this Egyptian Punch is better manipulated than our own, whom he nearly +resembles; but he is not so choice in his language or behaviour, and we +are glad before long to leave a place where the jokes are rather broad, +and certain saltatory insects unusually active. People of the lower +class however care nothing for these drawbacks; they laugh till their +sides ache at Karakúsh’s sallies, and whatever they see, wherever they +go, whomever they meet, whatsoever their cares and their poverty, on +this blessed night of the Hasaneyn they are perfectly happy. An Egyptian +crowd is very easily amused: the simplest sights and oldest jests +delight it; and it is enough to make a fastidious European regret his +niceness to see how these simple folk enjoy themselves upon so small an +incentive.”[2] + +This is what one goes to Cairo to see, the real Eastern life in its +Eastern setting. A scene like this repays one for many dreary calls, +many tepid dances in the region of hotels. You may get hotel life, club +life, polo and tennis, and even golf, excellently at Cairo—the European +Cairo—but these things are common to all “winter resorts.” In the +“bazars,” among the people, you get something that the Isma‘ilíya +quarter cannot give, that no other place can quite rival, something that +painters love and that kindles the imagination. After all, the most +interesting things are always the unfamiliar, and the first plunge into +Egypt is a revelation of fresh ideas, new tones in colour, and the +pungent odours of a strange native life. + +It is in the “bazars” that one feels most the shock of contact with the +unfamiliar; but, in a less intimate yet deeply impressive way, to drink +in the full inspiration of the Muslim city one must climb to the +ramparts of the Citadel about sunset and slowly absorb the wonderful +panorama that spreads below and around. Unhappily, to get there one +usually passes along the most terribly defaced street in all Cairo. The +worst destruction took place, one is thankful to remember, before +England took the reins of Egypt. It was Isma‘íl, under French influence, +who made that unspeakable atrocity, the “Boulevard Mohammad ‘Aly,” which +cut through some of the most beautiful quarters, ruined palaces and +gardens, and chopped off half of a noble mosque in order to preserve the +tasteless accuracy of its straight line. Along its side are ranged mean +and uneven offices and tenements, neither Europeanly regular nor +Orientally picturesque. Old wine and new bottles are in close connexion. +A Muslim school elbows a “Grog Shop for Army and Navy.” Under the shadow +of the stately mosque of Sultan Hasan an Arab barber is cutting hair +with a modern clipping machine. A gaily painted harím carriage, guarded +by eunuchs, stands at the door of the mosque: on the panel is a sham +coat-of-arms, that last infirmity of Turkish minds—though for that +matter heraldic bearings were used in Egypt at least seven hundred years +ago. Solemn sheykhs pace slowly along without any sign of surprise at +these strange sights. Overhead the guns boom out a salute, for it is the +Great Festival, the _‘Id el-kebír_, from Saladin’s Citadel; but the +garrison are not stalwart Turkmáns or wild Kurds, in picturesque garb +and with clanking spear and mace, such as the great Soldan led against +Richard of the Lion-heart, but British “tommies” unbecomingly attired in +khaki. The Citadel itself is an arsenal of modern arms and stores, and +English officers rule where once the Mamlúk Beys were massacred. Old and +new are ever clashing in the mediæval fortress, and Private Ortheris +mounts guard over the mosque of a Mamlúk Sultan. + +But once we stand on the ramparts the flaring contrasts vanish and the +jarring note is still. All in that wide range beneath the eye is of the +East Eastern. The European touches are too small at such a distance to +mar the purely Oriental tone. Countless domes and minarets, a glimpse of +arched cloisters, a wilderness of flat-roofed houses, yellow and white +and brown, with sloped pents to admit the cool breezes below; a patch of +green here and there, with dark-leaved sycamores, revealing some of the +many gardens of the old city, and beyond, a fringe of palms and a streak +of silver where “the long bright river” rolls sleepily on between its +brown banks; in the distance, against the ridge of the Libyan horizon, +in the carmine glory of the sinking sun, stand the everlasting pyramids, +“like the boundary marks of the mighty waste, the Egyptian land of +shades.” One after the other the tall forms of slender minarets separate +themselves from the bewildering chaos of roofs and domes, and display +their varied grace. Each has its story of victory or exile, of famine +and invasion, of learning and piety, to tell. On the right, northwards, +the fine towers of Muáyyad above the Zuweyla gate recall a hundred deeds +and legends of that famous portal, once the main entrance of the +caliphs’ palace-city. Beyond them rise the minarets of the Nahhasín, a +perfect gallery of Saracen art, and again beyond, the turrets of Hákim’s +great quadrangle. In front in the foreground stands Sultan Hasan, the +largest and most imposing of Mamlúk mosques, and a little to the left +one looks into the vast arcaded square of Ibn-Tulún, with its queer +corkscrew tower overhanging the billowy mounds that reveal where Fustát +lay a thousand years ago. Still more to the left a line of arches shows +where the aqueduct that has brought water to the Citadel for five +centuries stretches to the Nile, and behind we can look down upon the +cluster of ruined domes and minarets of the southern Karáfa—the “Tombs +of the Mamlúks”—and catch a glimpse of the old fortress of Egyptian +Babylon and the mosque of the conqueror ‘Amr. Looking over the Mamlúk +minarets we can see the dim outlines of the cairns of Dahshúr and the +conspicuous form of Sakkára’s step-pyramid, separated from the Saracen +domes by only fifteen miles of space but five millenniums of time; and +as the glow of the sunset fades away the evening clouds gather in the +west and the desert beyond takes up their shades of grey and blue like a +vast mid-African ocean. + +[Illustration: THE CITADEL] + +Here we realize Cairo for the first time as a city of the Middle Ages, +and more than that, a city with an heritage from the dawn of history. It +is true it has not the exquisite setting of the seven-hilled queen of +the Bosporus; it is not even built about the Nile, which the silts of +centuries have breasted away from the walls it once laved: but as one +looks out from the battlements of the Castle one perceives that there +are other oceans than those of water, and that the capital of Egypt can +have no more fitting frame than the deserts which are her shield and the +pyramids her title-deeds to her inheritance from the remote past. “He +who hath not seen Cairo,” said the Jewish hakím, “hath not seen the +world. Her soil is gold; her Nile is a marvel; her women are as the +bright-eyed houris of Paradise; her houses are palaces, and her air is +soft with an odour above aloes, refreshing the heart: and how should +Cairo be otherwise when she is the Mother of the World?” + + + + + CHAPTER II + + _The Town of the Tent_ + + +IN the view from the Citadel one sees an essentially mediæval city, but +of all the Arab buildings there is not one that in its present state +dates back to the Arab conquest. Before the Muslims invaded Egypt in 640 +there was no Cairo, and strictly speaking there was none till three +centuries later than that, when the Greek general laid the foundations +of the palace-city of the Fátimid caliphs and it received the name el- +Káhira, which Europeans twisted into Cahere, Caire, and Cairo. But this +is merely a pedantry of terms, and one might as well restrict London to +the City and refuse the name to Westminster and Mayfair. There was a +Muslim capital from the days of the conquest, and though it was not +called Cairo it was close to the present city, which is merely an +expansion of the original town. The history of its growth will appear as +we study its several stages and monuments, and for the moment a bare +enumeration of the successive foundations will suffice. First rose the +original Arab settlement, Fustát, the Town of the Tent, in 641. To this +was added in 751 a north-eastern suburb, the official residence of the +governors and their troops, hence named el-‘Áskar, “the Cantonments.” A +new royal faubourg, or small city, was built still more to the north- +east by the first independent Muslim King of Egypt, Ibn-Tulún, about +860, and was known by the name of el-Katái‘, “the Wards,” because it was +divided into separate quarters for different nations and classes. So far +the three towns were practically contiguous, and ‘Askar and Katái‘ were +but the Chelsea and St James’s of the City, the commercial capital, +Fustát. + +The fourth foundation was still further to the north-east, and a +considerable vacant space was left between it and the almost destroyed +faubourg of Katái‘, in order to preserve the safety and seclusion of the +sacred caliphs for whom it was built in 969. This last was the true +Cairo, el-Káhira, but it was not the commercial and residential capital, +any more than ‘Askar or Katái‘ had been. Fustát, resting on the Nile +bank, was still the emporium of trade and the metropolis alike of +business and of culture, whilst Káhira was but a palace, a barrack, and +a seat of government. When the mediæval chroniclers, such as William of +Tyre, write of “Macer”—meaning Masr (properly Misr) the usual Arabic +name both for Egypt and for its capital—they refer not to Káhira but to +Fustát, or as it was commonly called Misr-el-Fustát. The Emír or Caliph +or Sultan might dwell and rule at any suburb he pleased to build, but +the old capital remained the real metropolis throughout. There the Kádis +sat in judgment in the “Old Mosque”; there the coins of the realm were +issued; and there resided the bulk of the citizens who were not attached +to the palace. It was only when Fustát was deliberately burned in 1168, +to save it from giving cover to the Crusaders, that Káhira took its +place as the real capital as well as the official centre of Egypt. + +Saladin was the creator of Cairo as we know it. It was he who planned +the wall that was to enclose not only Káhira but the Citadel and what +remained of Katái‘ and Fustát, and from his time began the building over +the space intervening between the Citadel and the palace of Káhira which +gradually filled up the Cairo which we now see. The growth of the city +thus consisted mainly of three successive expansions towards the north- +east, accompanied by decay of abandoned suburbs, and ending in a general +enclosure of the chief inhabited portions. Since the days of Saladin, +whatever remained of Fustát has vanished, and only a straggling village +called Masr-el-Atíka or “Old Masr,” and known to Europeans as “Old +Cairo,” has risen near its site, which is easily traced by the immense +rubbish-heaps. On the other hand a new town has grown up between Káhira +and the Nile under European influences, but with this, pleasant winter +city as it is, the Mediæval Town has nothing to do. + +The narrative of the Arab invasion of Egypt is in many points +exceedingly obscure, owing to the circumstances that the Arabs did not +begin to write history till more than two centuries later, and that our +only almost contemporary authority, John, bishop of Nikiu, has come down +to us in a corrupt translation. The Arabs under the command of ‘Amr ibn +el-‘Asy entered Egypt not more than 4000 strong in December 639, in the +caliphate of ‘Omar, the second successor of the prophet Mohammad; and +after taking Pelusium and Bilbeys by siege, and fighting a battle with +the Romans at Umm-Duneyn, a suburb which stood near the present ‘Abdin +palace, attacked the city of “Misr” or “Babylon of Egypt.” This city was +a northern extension or successor of the decayed but then still existing +Egyptian capital Memphis, about twelve miles distant from the present +Cairo, and had grown up under the protection of the Roman fortress of +Babylon. It was evidently strongly defended, for the Arab general had to +summon reinforcements, till his army mustered 12,000, before he could +attack it. + +“‘Amr divided his forces into three corps, one of which he posted to the +north of Babylon; the second was stationed at Tendunyas [probably the +Umm-Duneyn of the Arabic writers], and the third withdrew northwards to +Heliopolis, in the hope of tempting the Romans out of their +fortifications, upon which the other two corps were to fall on their +rear or flank. The manœuvre succeeded. The Romans marched out of their +fortifications, and attacked the Saracens at Heliopolis, but, being +themselves taken in rear by the other divisions, were routed and driven +to the Nile, when they took to their boats and fled down the river. Upon +this the Muslims occupied Tendunyas, the garrison of which had perished +in the battle, except 300 men, who shut themselves up in the fort, +whence they retired by boat to Nikiu. The taking of Tendunyas was +evidently followed by, or synonymous with, the taking of the whole city +of Misr, except its citadel, which was blockaded; for John of Nikiu, +from whose almost contemporary chronicle this account is taken, mentions +no subsequent siege or conquest of the city of Misr, but only the +reduction of the fortress.”[3] + +Whatever this city of Misr or Tendunyas may have been, it vanishes from +history as soon as it is conquered. The last we hear of it is in the +treaty of capitulation granted by ‘Amr, which ran as follows:— + +“In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, this is the +amnesty which ‘Amr ibn el-‘Asy granted to the people of Misr, as to +themselves, their religion, their goods, their churches and crosses, +their lands and waters: nothing of these shall be meddled with or +minished; the Nubians shall not be permitted to dwell among them. And +the people of Misr, if they enter into this treaty of peace, shall pay +the poll-tax, when the inundation of their river has subsided, fifty +millions. And each one of them is responsible for [acts of violence +that] robbers among them may commit. And as for those who will not enter +into this treaty, the sum of the tax shall be diminished [to the rest] +in proportion, but we have no responsibility towards such. If the rise +of the Nile is less than usual, the tax shall be reduced in proportion +to the decrease. Romans and Nubians who enter into this treaty shall be +treated in the like manner. And whoso rejects [it] and chooses to go +away, he is protected until he reach a place of safety or leave our +kingdom. The collection of the taxes shall be by thirds, one third at +each time. For [sureties for] this covenant stand the security and +warranty of God, the warranty of His Prophet, and the warranty of the +Caliph, the commander of the faithful, and the warranty of the [true] +believers. . . . Witnessed by ez-Zubeyr and his sons ‘Abdallah and +Mohammad, and written by Wardan.” + +The Arab historians connect this treaty—which has all the appearance of +being an authentic document, literally copied—expressly with the +surrender of the city of Misr after the battle of Heliopolis; but as +Misr means Egypt as well as its capital the document itself only proves +that the Arab conqueror accorded very generous terms to the people of +Egypt; it says nothing explicit as to the town of Misr, the name of +which was shortly to be transferred to Fustát, whilst the place thereof +was known no more. The only explanation seems to be that the Egyptian +city decayed as the Arab town grew, and that the population migrated to +the neighbouring and more prosperous settlement. The remains of walls +south of “Old Misr” may represent part of the site. The disappearance of +an Egyptian town is unhappily far from unprecedented. Memphis itself has +vanished, all save a few traces of walls and fallen statues; “hundred- +gated” Thebes survives only in her temples; and the reason is that the +ancient Egyptian built his abode of perishable sun-dried brick, and +lavished his massive stone work only upon the tombs of the great dead +and the temples of the immortal gods. + +Whatever became of the city, a fortress of Babylon stands to this day. +Its reduction cost the Arabs a seven months’ siege. The battle of +Heliopolis was won in the late summer of 640, and it was not till April +641 that the fortress was conquered. A leading part in the surrender of +the place is ascribed to a mysterious personage, “the Mukawkis,” as the +Arabs termed the governor of Egypt.[4] According to the Arab traditions +it was he who negotiated the treaty cited above, which secured to the +Egyptians freedom of religion and security of life, and when the +Byzantine emperor Heraclius repudiated the treaty, the Mukawkis stuck to +his word and threw in his lot with the Arabs, whose valour and simple +earnestness deeply impressed him. When his envoys returned from an +embassy to the Saracens’ camp, he asked them what manner of men the +Muslims were, and they answered, “We found a people who love death +better than life, and set humility above pride, who have no desire or +enjoyment in this world, who sit in the dust and eat upon their knees, +but frequently and thoroughly wash, and humble themselves in prayer; a +people in whom the stronger can scarce be distinguished from the weaker, +or the master from the slave.” Such a character was new to the +Egyptians, who had long suffered under the corruption and luxury of the +Eastern Roman Empire, and, whatever part the Mukawkis personally may +have played in what has been called the betrayal of Christian Egypt, it +is certain that the population abetted the invaders. + +Although Christianity had been the official religion of Egypt since the +Edict of Theodosius in 379, there was still a strong leaven of the old +local cults, and, more important still, there was a vigorous tendency to +nationalism both of church and state. The rule of Byzantium had never +been gracious to the Egyptian province; the Orthodox Church had been +tyrannous; and when at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 the Eutychian +heresy maintained by the Egyptian bishops was formally condemned, the +schism became irrevocable. From that time forward there were two +churches in Egypt, the State Church (or Orthodox Greek), supported from +Constantinople, and known as the Melekite or “Royalist,” and the +national church, afterwards called Jacobite, and generally known as the +Coptic Church. Copt is etymologically the same word as Egyptian (Greek, +Aiguptios; Arabic, Kibt and Kubt; English, Copt), and the Coptic Church +means nothing less than the Church of Egypt as separated by the adoption +of the heresy of Eutyches. The Egyptian Christians were as much Copts +before as after the Council of Chalcedon; but it was their devotion to a +metaphysical definition, which very few of them could possibly +understand, that made them a distinct church, and to this they owe at +once their misfortunes and their historical interest. By their adhesion +to the first Nicæan doctrine of the single nature of Christ they exposed +themselves to persecution and courted isolation, and sharing in none of +the developments of the other churches, they preserved in their scanty +and neglected community, unchanged for nearly fifteen hundred years, the +ancient tradition and ritual of the fifth century. It was their +implacable hatred of the Royalists that threw them into the arms of the +Muslim invaders. By the advice of their exiled patriarch they helped the +Arabs from the moment of their setting foot upon Egyptian soil. Eager to +rid themselves of Byzantine rule, and still more of the Royalist +hierarchy, they embraced they knew not what as a preferable alternative; +and after the Mukawkis, aided, according to tradition, by a _catholicos_ +(probably Cyrus, Royalist patriarch of Alexandria), had succeeded in +obtaining a generous amnesty from the Arab general, the Copts rendered +every aid to the Muslims, assisted them with labour at bridge-making, +and brought them supplies. They soon discovered that they had only +exchanged masters, but the Arab, despite his haughty assumption of +superiority and his occasional outbursts of persecution, was a gentler +tyrant than the Roman of the Lower Empire. + +Deprived of all support from the population, the Roman garrison of +Babylon surrendered in April 641. The Delta was quickly overrun, and the +Romans fell back upon Alexandria, which, distracted by factions and +deprived of competent leaders, yielded to panic, and eagerly accepted +‘Amr’s magnanimous terms. By the surrender of the Roman capital in +October 641, the Arab conquest of Egypt was complete. There was no +further resistance worthy the name. The Muslims spread over the land up +to the first cataract of the Nile, and Egypt became a province of the +caliphate. + +On his return from Alexandria ‘Amr founded the Town of the Tent. The +great port on the Mediterranean was no suitable capital for Arab tribes, +whose inexperience magnified the terrors of the deep. Alexandria, +moreover, was liable at the period of Nile inundation to be cut off from +the centre of Arab power at Medina, and the caliph ‘Omar, not yet +inspired by dreams of a vast Muslim empire, was chiefly anxious to keep +in touch with the army of Egypt. ‘Amr indeed wished to retain Alexandria +as the capital. “Behold an abode made ready for us,” he said. But when +the caliph heard of it, he asked, “Will there be water between me and +the army of the Muslims?” and the answer was, “Yes, O commander of the +faithful, there will be the Nile,” so he set his face against +Alexandria. He regarded the new conquest as a barrack rather than a +colony. ‘Amr accordingly was bidden to choose a more central position, +and found it some ten miles north of the remains of the ancient capital +of Memphis, on the site of the camp which lay before the castle of +Babylon. An old canal, the Amnis Trajanus, had formerly connected +Babylon with the Red Sea at Suez, running past Bilbeys and the Crocodile +Lake, and this was immediately cleared of silt and reopened, so that +tribute and corn were sent by water to Arabia, and close relations were +thus maintained with the caliph. + +The Town of the Tent owes its name to a pretty legend, which may very +probably be true. When ‘Amr led his Arabs against the old capital of +Egypt, he pitched his tent on the spot where his mosque now stands. +After the surrender of the castle of Babylon he marched upon Alexandria; +but when the soldiers went to strike his tent, they found that a dove +had laid her eggs within and was sitting on her nest. ‘Amr at once +declared the spot sacred, and ordered them not to disturb her; and when +on the return from the conquest of Alexandria the army set about +building quarters for themselves, ‘Amr bade them settle around his still +standing tent, and the first Arab city of Egypt was ever afterwards +known as el-Fustát, “the Tent,” or Misr-el-Fustát, or simply Misr. The +whole space between the Nile and the hill Mukattam, on a spur of which +stands the present Citadel, was bare at that time. There was nothing but +“waste land and sown fields,” and no buildings except some churches or +convents, and the Roman fortress of Babylon, or Babelyún, known to the +Arabs to this day as the Kasr-esh-Shema‘ or “Castle of the Beacon,” +because (says the Topographer, el-Makrízy) “this Kasr was illuminated on +the summit with candles [in Arabic _shema‘_] on the first night of every +month,” to serve as a kalendar; but it is possible, as Dr Butler has +suggested, that the name is merely a corruption of Kasr-el-_Khemi_, the +“Castle of Egypt,” and that the beacon story was invented to explain +it.[5] + +Why ‘Amr did not occupy the old city of Misr we do not know: everything +connected with that vanished town is a mystery. Elsewhere the Arabs had +no scruple about taking possession of older cities, such as Damascus and +Edessa; but in Egypt they preferred to take fresh ground. Misr may have +been too small; or it is possible that the caliph’s orders that they +were not to acquire property and take root in the country led to the +original occupation of the bare stretch of land between Babylon and the +Mukattam hills. The first settlement undoubtedly resembled a temporary +camp rather than a city. They wanted plenty of space to separate the +various tribes who composed the Arab army, and who, despite their Muslim +brotherhood, were liable to recall their ancient jealousies. The site +they chose was ample and almost unencumbered. The tract was known as the +three Hamras or “red” spots[6]—the Nearer, the Middle, and the Further +Hamra—apparently from the red standard which was set up in the midst. + +The Arab clans divided the three tracts amongst them and laid out their +settlements, from the fortress to where the mosque of Ibn-Tulún now +stands. In the midst was the general’s house, and close to it rose the +first mosque built in Egypt, the “Mosque of Conquest,” the “Crown of +Mosques,” as it was proudly called, but known later as the “Old Mosque,” +and now as the Mosque of ‘Amr. It was originally a very plain oblong +room, about 200 feet long by 56 wide, built of rough brick, unplastered, +with a low roof supported probably by a few columns, with holes for +light. There was no minaret, no niche for prayer, no decoration, no +pavement. Even the pulpit which ‘Amr set up was removed when the caliph +wrote in reproach, “Is it not enough for thee to stand whilst the +Muslims sit at thy feet?” For it was the duty of the conqueror to recite +the prayers and preach the Friday sermon in this humble building. It +soon became too small for the growing population of Fustát, and was +enlarged in 673 by taking in part of the house of ‘Amr; and at the same +time raised stations—the germ of the minaret—were erected at the corners +for the muézzins to recite the call to prayer. Twenty-five years later +the entire mosque was demolished by a later governor who rebuilt it on a +larger scale. So many and thorough have been the repairs and +reconstructions that there is probably not a foot of the original +building now in existence. What we see to-day is practically the mosque +rebuilt in 827 by ‘Abdallah ibn Táhir, and restored by Murád Bey in +1798, just before he engaged the French in the “battle of the Pyramids” +at Embába. It is four times the size of the original mosque, and +different in every respect.[7] + +The “Old Mosque,” as the Topographer calls it, was intensely revered in +early times. It was there that the chief Kady held his court, and +learned men congregated in its arcades. It was a rallying point for +orthodoxy in times of schism and obtrusive heresies. When Fustát was +burned in 1168 the mosque escaped, though much injured, and Saladin +restored it; “where he found wood and stone he left marble.” But it was +as hopeless to maintain its popularity, when the town it belonged to was +in ashes, as it would be to induce the dwellers in Belgravia to attend +the services at Bow Bells. Fustát mostly in ruins, the congregation +dispersed, and the mosque of ‘Amr fell upon evil days. Ibn-Sa‘íd, a +Moorish traveller of the thirteenth century, found the sacred building +covered with cobwebs, and scrawled over with the ribald _graffiti_ of +loafers and vagabonds, the remains of whose victuals littered the floor. +There were few worshippers, and much unseemliness. “Musicians, and ape- +leaders, and conjurers, and mountebanks, and dancing-girls,” says the +historian Gabárty in the eighteenth century, desecrated the court, and +so decrepit did the building become that even these abandoned it. If +Murád Bey had not been “anxious about his soul,” for very good reasons, +and made peace with his conscience by spending some of his ill-gotten +gains upon the pious work of restoration, the “Crown of Mosques” would +have disappeared altogether. In the early part of the nineteenth century +it was still a favourite place of prayer for the people of Cairo on the +last Friday of the Fast of Ramadán. “It is believed that God will +receive with particular favour the prayers which are offered up in this +ancient mosque; therefore, when the Nile is tardy in rising, and the +people fear a scanty inundation and a consequent scarcity, the principal +Sheykhs and Imáms and learned and devout Muslims of the metropolis are +ordered to betake themselves to the mosque of ‘Amr to pray for an +increase of the river, together with the priests of the various +Christian churches and their congregations, and likewise the Jews; each +of these persuasions arranged by itself, without the mosque. Public +prayers were thus offered up for rain in this consecrated spot by +Muslims, Christians and Jews, in a time of unusual drought about twenty +years ago [_i.e._ 1825-8], and on the following day it rained.”[8] + +[Illustration: COURT OF THE MOSQUE OF ‘AMR] + +The outside of the oldest mosque in Egypt is not impressive. Among the +rubbish-hills that mark the site of the Town of the Tent, its long grey +walls, without windows or the least attempt at ornament, look dreary, +and the two plain minarets are equally unpretentious. But within, +despite decay and the loneliness of neglect, the vast empty court of +some forty thousand square feet, surrounded by colonnades, and the +forest of columns supporting the roof of the east end, the special place +of prayer, wholly dominate all mean details. Crowded with worshippers in +the rhythmic bowings of the Muslim ritual it must have been a wonderful +and solemn vision. The arches are of various ages, and the columns, +taken from churches, show the most diverse capitals, not always put the +right side up; the arcades do not run parallel to the walls, like +cloisters round a cathedral close, but open at right angles into the +court. Wooden beams stretch from column to column to support hanging +lamps, of which eighteen thousand were lighted every night in former +times, and the effect in the long vistas must have been superb. Those +nights of illumination are long over, and the conqueror’s mosque is a +melancholy ruin, the loneliness of which appeals to the imagination to +people it with the zealous groups of scholars and divines, fanatics and +doctors learned in the law, fakírs and holy men, who once bowed before +its deserted _kibla_. Not even the mark of the blessed Prophet’s +_kurbág_ on the grey marble of the pillar, which, urged by the +blow—despite all considerations of chronology—flew through the air from +Mekka when ‘Amr was building the mosque, nor the twin test columns +between which only true believers can squeeze (and even a Turkish +soldier stuck and almost died), avail to attract worshippers to the old +shrine except on very special occasions. Yet it is prophesied that the +fall of the mosque of ‘Amr will be the sign of the downfall of Islám, +and it is strange that a superstitious people are not more careful of +their omens. + +The original mosque of the Arab conqueror has gone, but at least its +representative stands on the hallowed site. One cannot say as much for +Fustát, the Town of the Tent, which he founded. Whatever may remain of +this great city, which was the capital and the river-port of Egypt for +five centuries, lies hidden under the wilderness of sand-hills which +cover the débris and kitchen-middens of the mediæval town. Here, after a +strong wind has stirred the sand, you may sometimes chance to pick up +curious fragments of glass and pottery, Roman lamps, coins, glass-bottle +stamps with inscriptions recording the names of eighth century +governors, and such-like relics of what was once Fustát. Of its houses, +its governors’ palaces, its baths and schools, not a stone or brick +remains. The “granaries of Joseph” certainly date back at least to that +later Joseph, Saladin, for Benjamin of Tudela saw them in 1170; but +Masr-el-Atíka, or “Old Cairo,” is built on land which was covered by the +Nile in the days when Fustát was the capital. The rest is desolation. We +shall catch many glimpses of its history in chapters to come, and read +the descriptions of it written by Persian and Moorish travellers from +the east and the west, but such descriptions do not enable us to realize +the vanished Arab city. + +One monument, however, of the age of the conquest still survives, but it +is not Arab. The Roman fortress of Babylon, the “Castle of the Beacon,” +stands where it once overlooked the Muslims’ tents and saw the Arab +capital growing up beneath its walls. To understand why it was called +Babylon, or as some say Bab-li-On, “the gate of On,” we must go to +Mataríya, a few miles north of Cairo, where stands a solitary obelisk, +sole relic of On or Heliopolis, the “City of the Sun.” In the plain of +Mataríya, before this lonely stone, the Turks fought the final battle +that won Cairo from the Mamlúks in 1517, and here Kléber gained his +victory in 1800 over the Turks. There stood the famous temple of On of +which Potipherah, the father of Joseph’s wife, was priest; here Pianchi, +the Ethiopian priest-king, eight centuries B.C., washed at the “Fountain +of the Sun,” and made offerings of white bulls, milk, perfume, incense, +and all kinds of sweet-scented woods, and entering the temple “saw his +father Ra [the sun-god] in the sanctuary.” Heliopolis was the university +of the most ancient civilization in the world, the forerunner of all the +schools of Europe. Here, in all probability, Moses was instructed by the +priests of Ra in “all the wisdom of the Egyptians”; here, too, Herodotus +cross-questioned the same priesthood with varying success; here Plato +came to study, and Eudoxus the mathematician to learn astronomy; and +here Strabo was shown the houses where the famous Greeks had lived. Of +this seat of learning and focus of religion nothing but the obelisk +remains. “The images of Beth-Shemesh” (the “House of the Sun”) have +indeed been “broken,” and “the houses of the Egyptians’ gods” have been +“burned with fire.”[9] + +Beside the obelisk is an ancient sycamore, riven with age and hacked +with numberless names, beneath which tradition hath it that the Holy +Family rested in their flight into Egypt, and it is hence known as the +“Virgin’s Tree.” Near by is a spring of fresh water—a rare sight in this +brackish land—which, it is said, became sweet because the Bambino was +bathed there. From the spots where the drops fell from his swaddling +clothes, after they, too, had been washed in this sacred spring, sprang +up balsam-trees, which, it was believed, flourished nowhere else. There +is no evidence for these fancies, and, of course, the sycamore is but a +descendant of the supposed original, as it was not planted till after +1672. But the circumstances that a temple was built by the Hebrew Onias +for the worship of his countrymen near here, and that Jewish gardeners +were brought here for the culture of the balsam-trees, give the tale a +certain fitness. + +Heliopolis is no more, but its guardian fortress, the “gate of On” still +defies time and the restorers’ hands, and the name of Babylon of Egypt, +applied to the capital (Fustát) as well as the fort, appears frequently +in the mediæval chronicles and romances. When Richard Cœur de Lion +defeated Saladin, the romance relates, + + + “The cheff Sawdon off Hethenysse + + To Babyloyne was flowen, I wysse.” + + +Whether or not there is any foundation for the tradition reported by +Strabo and Diodorus that the castle was first built by exiles from the +greater Babylon of Chaldæa, the present fortress dates from the third or +possibly the second century of our era. The exterior is imposing, though +the walls have been injured, and the sand has buried their feet. The +greater part of the oblong outline is still sufficiently +distinguishable, and five bastions and two circular towers are well +preserved. The walls are built in the usual Roman manner, five courses +of stone alternating with three of brick—the origin, probably, of the +striped red and yellow decoration of the Muslim mosques and houses—and +their massive aspect even now makes one realize how much the capture of +such a stronghold must have meant to the early Arabs. + +[Illustration: GATE OF KASR-ESH-SHEMA‘] + +When we enter the stronghold the strange character of the fortress grows +upon us. Passing through narrow lanes, narrower and darker and dustier +even than the back alleys of Cairo, we are struck by the deadly +stillness of the place. The high houses that shut in the street have +little of the lattice ornament that adorns the thoroughfares of Cairo; +the grated windows are small and few, and but for an occasional heavy +door half open, and here and there the sound of a voice in the recesses +of the houses, we might question whether the fortress was inhabited at +all. Nothing, certainly, indicates that these plain walls contain six +sumptuous churches, with their dependent chapels, each of which is full +of carvings, pictures, vestments and furniture, which in their way +cannot be matched. A Coptic church is like a Mohammedan harím—it must +not appear from the outside. Just as the studiously plain exterior of +many a Cairo house reveals nothing of the latticed court within, +surrounded by rooms where inlaid dados, tiles, carved and painted +ceilings, and magnificent carpets, glow in the soft light of the stained +windows, so a Coptic church makes no outward show. High walls hide +everything from view. The Copts are shy of visitors, and the plain +exteriors are a sufficient proof of their desire to escape that notice +which in bygone days aroused cupidity and fanaticism. + +After passing through a strong gateway, and traversing a vestibule, or +ascending some stairs, you find yourself in a small but beautifully +finished basilica, gazing at a carved choir-screen that any cathedral in +England might envy. In the dim light you see rows of valiant saints +looking down at you from above the sanctuary and over the screens, and +great golden texts in Coptic and Arabic, to the glory of God; while +above, the arches of the triforium over the aisles show where other +treasures of art are probably to be found. The general plan of a Coptic +church is basilican, but there are many points of wide divergence from +the strict pattern; the Byzantine feature of the dome is almost +universal, and sometimes the whole building is roofed over with a +cluster of a dozen domes. The church consists of a nave and side aisles, +waggon-vaulted (exactly like the early Irish churches, and like no +others), and very rarely has transepts, or approaches the cruciform +shape. The sparse marble columns that divide the nave from the aisles +generally return round the west end, and form a narthex or counterchoir, +where is sunk the Epiphany tank, once the scene of complete immersions, +but now used only for the feet-washing of Maundy Thursday. The church is +also divided cross-wise into three principal sections, besides the +narthex. The rearmost is the women’s place, whom the judicious Copts put +behind the men, and thereby prevent any disturbance of devotions much +more effectually than if the two sexes were ranged side by side as in +some Western churches. A lattice-work screen divides the women’s portion +from the men’s, which is always much larger and more richly decorated, +and the men’s division is similarly partitioned off from the choir by +another screen, while the altars, three in number, are placed each in a +separate apse, surmounted by a complete (not semicircular) dome, and +veiled by the most gorgeous screen of all, formed of ivory and ebony +crosses and geometrical panels, superbly carved with arabesques, and +surmounted by pictures and golden texts in Coptic and Arabic +letters.[10] During the celebration the central folding doors are thrown +back, the silver-embroidered curtain is withdrawn, and the high altar is +displayed to the adoring congregation, just as it is in the impressive +ceremonial of St Isaac’s cathedral at St Petersburg. The carved doors +and the silver-thread curtain, the swinging lamps and pendent ostrich +eggs, prepare us for something more gorgeous than the nearly cubical +plastered brick or stone altar, with its silk covering, and the +invariable recess in the east side, which originally had a more mystic +signification, but is now only used for the burying of the cross in a +bed of rose-leaves on Good Friday, whence it will be disinterred on +Easter-day. The Coptic altar stands detached from the wall of the +sanctuary, which is often coated with slabs of coloured marble, like the +dados one sees in the mosques, or with mosaic of the peculiar Egyptian +style; while above are painted panels or frescoes representing the +twelve apostles, with Christ in the midst in the act of benediction. +Over the altar spreads a canopy or baldacchino, which is also richly +painted with figures of angels. The central sanctuary with its altar is +divided off from the side altars by lattice screens. + +A curious part of the furniture is the Ark, which holds the chalice +during the rite of consecration; and scarcely less interesting is the +flabellum, or fan for keeping gnats off the chalice, which is often +exquisitely fashioned of repoussé silver. Similar fans are represented +in the Irish Book of Kells. There is never a crucifix, but reliquaries +are not uncommon, though their place is not on the altar. The Coptic +church forbids the worship of relics, but every church has its bolster +full of them, and the devout believer attaches considerable importance +to their curative properties. Sometimes the most beautiful object in +metal-work in a Coptic church is the silver textus-case—corresponding to +the Irish _cumhdach_—in which the copy of the Gospels is supposed to be +sealed up, though generally a few leaves alone remain inside. It is +often a fine example of silver chasing and repoussé work, and is +reverently brought from the altar where it reposes to the officiating +deacon, who places it on the lectern while he reads from another copy. +The lectern itself is a favourite subject for decoration. That from the +Mu‘állaka church, now in the Coptic cathedral at Cairo, is covered with +the beautiful inlaid and carved panelling which is familiar in the doors +and pulpits of mosques. + +Of the six churches contained within the fortress of Babylon, three are +of the highest interest; for, though the Greek church of St George, +perched on the top of the round tower, is finely decorated with Damascus +and Rhodian tiles and silver lamps, the Roman tower itself, with its +central well, great staircase, and curious radiating chambers, is more +interesting than the church above it. Of the three principal Coptic +churches, that of St Sergius, or Abu-Sarga, is the most often visited, +on account of the tradition that it was in its crypt that the Holy +Family rested when they journeyed to the land of Egypt. The crypt is +certainly many centuries older than the church above it, which dates +from the tenth century. The church itself is notable for a fine screen, +and close to it a remarkable specimen of early Coptic figure-carving, +with representations of the nativity and of warrior saints in high +relief. Another example of this style of deep carving exists in the +triforium of the church of Saint Barbara. + +Besides Abu-Sarga and Kadísa-Barbára, there remains a third and very +interesting Coptic church to be mentioned. This is suspended between two +bastions of the Roman wall, over a gate with a classical pediment and a +sculptured eagle. It is called from its position the Mu‘állaka or +“hanging” church. It is remarkable in many ways, partly for being the +oldest of the Babylon churches, and partly on account of the entire +absence of domes. The Mu‘állaka has other peculiarities: it has +absolutely no choir—the daïs in front of the shallow eastern apses has +to serve the purpose; and it is double aisled on the north side.—The +carved screen in the north aisle has the unique property of being filled +in with thin ivory panels, which must have shone with a rosy tint when +the lamps behind were lighted. The sculptured pulpit is especially +beautiful; it stands on “fifteen delicate Saracenic columns, arranged in +seven pairs, with a leader.” Not the least curious part about the +“suspended” church is its hanging garden, where the bold experiment of +planting palms in mid air has succeeded in perpetuating the tradition +that it was here that the Virgin first broke fast with a meal of dates +on her arrival in Egypt. + +This is not the place to enter into the doctrine and ritual of the +Coptic church. The appalling Lenten fast of the Copts, which lasts +fifty-five days, and involves total abstinence from food from sunrise to +sunset during each of those days, no doubt suggested the only less +rigorous Muslim fast of Ramadán. The Coptic sacrament of matrimony has +certain elements of the grotesque in it; but most of the ceremonial of +the church possesses a dignity and the sweet savour of antiquity which +must redeem any minor absurdities. No one can stand unmoved in a Coptic +church during the celebration of the Mass, or hear the worshippers shout +with one voice, just as they did some fifteen hundred years ago, the +loud response, “I believe This is the Truth,” without emotion. Through +fiery persecution they have clung to their truth with a heroism that is +only the more wonderful when we consider their weakness; and however +partial and ignorant their interpretation of truth, we cannot withhold +the respect that is the due of those who have come out of great +tribulation and remained steadfast to their faith. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + _The Faubourgs_ + + +BY the Arab conquest in 640 Egypt became a province of the caliphate, +and was ruled, like the other provinces, by governors appointed by the +caliphs. The first four successors of Mohammad retained Medina, the +Arabian city of his adoption, as their seat of government; but after the +murder of ‘Aly, the fourth caliph, the dynasty of the Omayyads +transferred the centre of power to Damascus. From Damascus therefore +came most of the thirty governors who held rule over the land of Egypt +during the ninety years of the Omayyad caliphate. Some of them were sons +or brothers of the reigning caliphs, and most were naturally court +favourites, inexperienced in the art of government, and ignorant of +everything save their religion and their language. The object of the +sovereign pontiff at Damascus was to get as much revenue as he could out +of the subject provinces, and Egypt especially was regarded in the light +of a valuable milch-cow. ‘Amr, the conqueror, was the first governor, +and from his new capital of Fustát he sent out his officers and +collected about £6,000,000 from a population estimated at from six to +eight millions. When the old warrior died at the age of ninety and was +buried in the Mukattam hills he is said to have left seventy sacks of +_dinárs_[11] or something like ten tons of gold, which his conscientious +sons declined to inherit. + +However this may be, it is certain that the governors looked chiefly to +the revenue, and did little for the country but draw the not very +burdensome land and capitation taxes, and accumulate such pickings as +might be safely diverted to their own use. A governor whose average +tenure of office was three and a half years, and whose future livelihood +often depended wholly on his savings, was under serious temptation to +make the most of his brief opportunities. There were good _wális_ and +bad, but the shortness of their tenure and their absolute dependence +upon the caliph at Damascus restricted their powers and energies, and +they generally contented themselves with keeping order and rendering +tribute to their pontifical Cæsar. The position was not easy. There were +some thousands of Arab soldiers at Fustát and Alexandria and some other +towns, constantly increased, however, by the troops brought into the +country by successive governors; but all the rest of the population was +Christian and resolved to remain so. Indeed, any wholesale conversion +was much to be deprecated, since it implied the loss of the poll-tax of +a guinea a head which was levied only from non-Muslims. Still, it was +dangerous to be in so marked a minority, and we find that about ninety +years after the conquest, a governor, despairing of any considerable +accession of native Egyptians to the Muslim ranks, was driven to import +5000 Arabs into the Delta. It was only by very slow degrees and after +much intermarriage and many partial immigrations that Egypt became +Muslim, and for a long time the Arabs were practically confined to the +large towns. + +Fustát itself must soon have attracted a numerous Coptic population from +the decaying Egyptian towns in the neighbourhood, not only in wives for +the conquerors, but in officials. All the details of government were +naturally in the hands of the subject people. The desert Arabs knew +nothing beyond the patriarchal rule of the clan, and they adopted +everywhere the system they found prevailing in a conquered territory. +Roman offices were translated into Arabic equivalents, and the Copts, a +race of born clerks and accountants, managed all the departments. For +half a century the government books and public documents were written in +Coptic. Usefulness does not necessarily compel toleration, and the +Christians did not always escape persecution in spite of their official +services. They were better treated, however, than is sometimes imagined. +Grateful for their assistance in the stress of the invasion ‘Amr granted +privileges to the Jacobites and recalled their exiled patriarch. Another +governor allowed the Copts to build a church at Fustát beside the bridge +that connected the capital with the island of Roda, and a third, ‘Abd- +el-‘Azíz, son of the caliph Marwán, bought the monastery at Tamweyh from +the monks for over £10,000 when he wanted a country house. He went there +in order to be cured of elephantiasis in the sulphur springs of Helwán, +between Cairo and Memphis, and it is curious to consider how nearly this +modern health-resort (now moved further towards the desert) became the +capital of Egypt. ‘Abd-el-‘Azíz was so charmed with the climate of +Helwán that he built mosques there (695), a palace, known as the “Golden +House” from its gilt dome, and a glass winter-garden, planted trees, +made a lake and aqueduct, and constructed a Nilometer. Hitherto the +lower Nile had been measured at Memphis, but in 716 a new Nilometer was +set up on the island of Roda, where a second was afterwards built at the +upper end of the island in 861. Subsequent governors, however, did not +share the ideas of ‘Abd-el-‘Azíz either in regard to the charms of +Helwán or in relation to the Copts, and we read of a vexatious system of +passports, badges for monks, fines and tortures, and destruction of +sacred pictures, which excited such indignation that the people rose in +rebellion in the east of the Delta, and the Christian king of Nubia +marched into Egypt to demand the release of an imprisoned patriarch. + +These Muslim persecutions were not a whit more cruel than the +contemporary Christian persecutions of the Jews, but this does not make +them the more defensible. The monks seem to have especially excited the +fanaticism of the early Muslims, whose puritanism found no place for +monastic rules. In later times the Shí‘a caliphs of Cairo took very +kindly to the Coptic monks, but it was not so in the cruder and fiercer +age of the Arab conquests. Monasticism was a potent force in Egypt from +very early days. The followers of St Mark in the third century had +settled in scattered communities all over the Delta, and had already +begun to formulate what is known as “the Egyptian rule.” We do not yet +know how much we owe to these remote hermits. Some have held that Irish +Christianity, the great civilizing agent of the early Middle Ages among +the northern nations, was the child of the Egyptian Church. Seven +Egyptian monks are buried at Disert Ulidh, and there is much in the +ceremonies and architecture of early Ireland that reminds one of still +earlier Christian remains in Egypt. Everyone knows that the handicraft +of the Irish monks in the ninth and tenth centuries far excelled +anything that could be found elsewhere in Europe; and if the Byzantine- +looking decoration of their splendid gold and silver work and their +superb illuminations can be traced to the teaching of Egyptian +missionaries, we have more to thank the Copts for than has been +imagined. That Arab architecture owes to them much of its decorative +charm is among the commonplaces of the history of art. + +Such considerations naturally could not influence a people so wholly +dead to artistic ideas as the Arabs. To them the Coptic monks were +merely candidates for clerkships and owners of secret hoards to be +squeezed for the benefit of the faithful. Any thought of fellowship or +amity was out of the question, and the fact that persecution was not +more general and consistent must be ascribed to the indolence or good +nature of individual governors, and to the prudent maxim that deprecates +the slaughter of the goose that lays golden eggs. Now and again we read +of cruel massacres and tortures, and destruction of churches, and next +we hear of permission granted for the building or restoration of a +church. We find the Copts quietly meeting in the fortress of Babylon, +which they always occupied, to elect a patriarch; and almost at the same +moment appear notices of humiliating sumptuary rules, a distinguishing +garb of some ridiculous colour, and wooden effigies of the devil hung +over Coptic doors. Every now and then some rising, or a mere street +quarrel, would be made the pretext for a wholesale massacre, when many +churches were razed to the ground. + +In spite of persecution, in spite of the apostasy of the weaker +brethren, the Church still preserved a painful existence. There is +something truly heroic in the constancy of these ignorant people—for the +Coptic priesthood was never famous for learning—to the faith of their +forefathers. They still persevered in the celebration of the rites of +their religion, though the loop-holed walls, massive doors, and secret +passages of their surviving churches testify to the perils that attended +such solemnities. From time to time many of them waxed rich, as the +gorgeous adornments of these churches show; for their masters could not +do without their skill in reckoning and scriveners’ work. Aided by this +monopoly, and supported by a dogged adherence to their ancient faith, +the Copts present to this day the curious spectacle of a people who have +stood still for ages, and, through many centuries of varying +persecution, have preserved their individuality and their traditions. +They are still a people apart, less mixed with alien blood than any +other inhabitants of the Nile valley; their features recall those of the +ancient Egyptians, as we see them on the monuments, much more than do +the faces of the Muslim population. And not only in person but in +language the Copts are a remnant of ancient Egypt. Their tongue, +preserved in their liturgy and recited to-day in their churches, is the +lineal descendant of the language of the hieroglyphics and of the +Rosetta stone. For ordinary purposes of course they use the Arabic of +their neighbours, but the sacred speech of their religion is still +partly understood by the priests, and retains its place of honour before +the Arabic translation in the services of the church. By another curious +freak of conservatism they preserve this ancient language, not in the +script that belonged to it—the cursive development of the picture +writing of the monuments—but in the bold uncial character of early Greek +manuscripts. A people of the race of the Pharaohs, speaking the words of +Ramses, writing them with the letters of Cadmus, and embalming in the +sentences thus written a creed and liturgy which twelve centuries of +persecution have not been able to wrest from them or alter a jot, are +indeed a curiosity of history. + +The Omáyyad caliphs were superseded by the ‘Abbásids in 750, and Fustát +was the scene of the final struggle. Marwán, the last caliph of the +fallen dynasty, fled to Egypt, and setting fire to Fustát and the bridge +that joined it to the island of Roda, escaped to the west bank. His +precautions were vain. The ‘Abbásid general and the men of Khurasán soon +found the means of crossing, and Marwán’s head was sent round the towns +in evidence of the change of power. Usurpers have an invincible +repugnance to dwelling in the houses of the usurped. The ‘Abbásid +caliphs left Damascus and built themselves a famous new capital at +Baghdád; and their governors in Egypt, abandoning the House of the +Emírate at Fustát, established a new official suburb, a Versailles of +the Egyptian Paris, on the place where the pursuing army had encamped, +and named it el-‘Askar or “the Cantonments.” The site was a little to +the north-east of Fustát, on a part of the Further Hamra, which had been +occupied by three tribes at the time of the Arab conquest, but had since +been abandoned and become desert. Here a faubourg grew up, which +extended from Fustát to the hill of Yeshkur, on which the mosque of Ibn- +Tulún now stands. A mosque was soon built, and a palace for the governor +as well as barracks for his troops. Streets and quarters and large +mansions clustered round the new fashionable centre, where the sixty- +five _wális_ who represented the ‘Abbásid caliphs for 118 years had +their seat of government. One of them, Hátim, in 810 built himself a +summer palace called the “Dome of the Air” (Kubbat-el-Hawa) on a spur of +the Mukattam, where the Citadel of Cairo is now built, and thither the +emírs of Egypt often resorted to enjoy the cool breeze. The new faubourg +was merely the quarter of the officials and court circles, and did not +diminish the importance of Fustát as the metropolis of Egypt. + +Not a trace is left of this suburb, and the record of the governors who +lived there is almost equally fleeting.[12] They had a more difficult +task than their predecessors under the Omayyads, and had to suppress +insurrections of Mohammedan schismatics as well as risings among the +Arab tribes and the Copts. Fustát bore unpleasant witness to the revolts +in the thousands of rebels’ heads that were exhibited, and the courage +of hesitating heretics was damped by the sight of their leader’s skull +hung up in the mosque of ‘Amr. The history of the century from 750 to +860 is one long chronicle of “sedition, privy conspiracy and rebellion, +false doctrine, heresy and schism,” but the disturbances hardly affected +the prosperous capital. The vagaries of some of the governors were much +more vexatious to the quiet citizens. Abu-Sálih ibn Memdúd, in 779, was +a middlesome martinet, who showed great energy in putting down +brigandage in the country, and was so satisfied with his measures that +he convinced himself of the impossibility of theft in the towns. +Confiding in this belief he ordered the people of Fustát to leave their +doors and shops open all night, with no more protection than a net to +keep the dogs out; he abolished the office of the watchman who used to +guard the bathers’ clothes at the public baths, and proclaimed that if +anything were lost he would replace it himself. It is said that when a +man went to the bath he would call out “O Abu-Sálih, take care of my +clothes!” and no one would dare to touch them. Such security argued +great vigilance on the governor’s part, but his absurd laws of dress and +general interference irritated the people, and his severity was worse +than the evils it put down. + +A story is told of the famous caliph Harún-er-Rashíd, which would +scarcely invite respect for his nominees. One governor of his time, Musa +the ‘Abbásid, “was a man of great official experience, and well-disposed +towards the Copts, whom he allowed to rebuild their ruined churches. +When it was reported that he was harbouring designs against the caliph +[whom, as one of the family, he might possibly succeed], Harún +exclaimed, with his usual levity, ‘By Allah, I will depose him, and in +his place I will set the meanest creature of my court.’ Just then ‘Omar, +the secretary of the caliph’s mother, came riding on his mule. ‘Will you +be governor of Egypt?’ asked Ga‘far the Barmecide. ‘Oh, yes,’ said +‘Omar. No sooner said than done, ‘Omar rode his mule to Fustát, followed +by a single slave carrying his baggage. Entering the governor’s house +(at ‘Askar), he took his seat in the back row of the assembled court. +Musa, not knowing him, asked his business, whereat ‘Omar presented him +with the caliph’s dispatch. On reading it, Musa exclaimed in Koranic +phrase, ‘God curse Pharaoh, who said, Am I not King of Egypt?’ and +forthwith delivered up the government to ‘the meanest creature.’” + +On the other hand a really capable ruler was sometimes sent from +Baghdad. Such was ‘Abdallah the son of Táhir, governor of Khurasán in +northern Persia (where he afterwards founded a dynasty), whose task in +Egypt was to drive out a troublesome multitude of refugees from Spain, +who had seized Alexandria, and, joined by a hot-headed Arab tribe, set +the government at defiance. ‘Abdallah, in the course of his mission, was +compelled to attack the preceding governor, who refused to be +superseded, and Fustát was blockaded (826). A curious incident of the +leaguer was the arrival one night in the invader’s camp of a thousand +slaves and a thousand slave girls, each of whom brought a thousand +dinárs in a purse. ‘Abdallah refused the bribe, and starved the garrison +out. Unfortunately, when his work was done he returned to Persia, and +Egypt lost a rare example of “a just and humane governor, a man of +learning, and a staunch friend to poets.” A reminiscence of his rule may +still be tasted at any Cairo hotel in the ‘Abdalláwi melons which he +first introduced. A greater than he visited ‘Askar when the caliph +Mamún, son of Harún-er-Rashíd, and himself a noted patron of learning +and philosophy, came in person in 832 to put down a determined revolt of +the Copts in the Delta, and did the work so thoroughly and so +relentlessly that there never again was a national movement amongst +them; and partly by their conversion to Islam, partly by the settlement +of Arabs on the land and in the villages, instead of only in the large +cities, Egypt began at last to become preponderantly a Mohammedan +country. It was the first time that an ‘Abbásid caliph had visited the +Nile, the praises of which poets had constantly been dinning in his +ears; and when el-Mamún surveyed the view from the “Dome of the Air,” he +was frankly disappointed. Using the same phrase from the Korán as the +superseded governor, he exclaimed, “God curse Pharaoh for saying Am I +not king of Egypt? If only he had seen Chaldæa and its meadows!” “Say +not so,” rejoined a divine, “for it is also written, ‘we have brought to +nought what Pharaoh and his folk reared and built so skilfully,’ and +what must have been those things which God destroyed, if these be but +their remnants!”[13] + +The caliph’s visit, if it put an end to Coptic insurrection, brought +other troubles in its train. His interest in metaphysical and +theological speculation, which encouraged the study of Greek philosophy +at Baghdád, led him among other things to adopt the doctrine of the +createdness of the Korán, which was flat against all orthodox Muslim +theory. The hated doctrine was made a test question for the kádis or +theological judges, and the consequences to those who indulged +conscientious scruples were distressing. A non-conforming chief kády of +Fustát was shorn of his beard—the worst indignity he could suffer—and +whipped through the city on an ass. The orthodox professors of the +Hánafy and Sháfi‘y schools were driven out of the mosque of ‘Amr in +disgrace. The contumely was the less deserved inasmuch as in those days +the judges were the one healthy feature of the Egyptian government. +Upright and incorruptible, as a rule, and independent of the governor, +the chief kády, who may be called the lord chancellor and primate of +Egypt in one, was a firm if narrow interpreter and administrator of the +sacred law, and would resign his office sooner than submit to his +judgments being overruled. He was not, however, disposed to check his +people’s fanaticism, and the suppression of the Christian revolt was +followed by worse persecution than ever. An orthodox reaction began +after Mamún’s death, and a new caliph issued a number of petty +regulations for the humiliation of the Copts (850). They were ordered +“to wear honey-coloured clothes with distinguishing patches, use wooden +stirrups, and set up wooden images of the devil or an ape or dog over +their doors; the girdle, the symbol of femininity, was forbidden to +women, and ordered to be worn by men: crosses must not be shown, nor +processional lights carried in the streets,” and so forth. The object of +course was to furnish opportunities for fines and extortion. + +There is no need to dwell further upon the period of Arab rule at Fustát +and ‘Askar. The Arab governors left little trace, and though it is to be +regretted that not a single specimen of their buildings has come down to +us, as links in the history of Saracenic art, it is not probable that +these edifices were remarkable. The Arabs have never done anything in +art by themselves. What is called “Arab art” in Spain was due to a +mixture of other and more gifted races, and in Egypt we find no +Mohammedan art until the caliphs began to appoint Turks as Governors. +One hears a great deal about the misgovernment of the Turk in the +present day; but be it good or bad, it is never denied that he can +govern. In the Middle Ages it would almost appear that the Turks were +the only people who possessed the art of governing. The greatest ruler +of Western Asia in the eleventh century—the Seljúk emperor, Melik +Shah—was a Turk. The so-called Moghuls of India, Babar and Akbar, were +Turks. When Europe was split up by jealous and ignoble rivalries, the +great Turkish sultans of Constantinople wielded power from the Danube to +the Indian Ocean, and from the Caucasus to the Atlas. Most curious it is +that wherever there was Turkish rule in the Middle Ages, art and letters +flourished. Indeed, in many parts art can hardly be said to have +reawakened till the Turk came to inspire it. It was not that he could do +anything notable himself in art or letters, for at least among the +Turkish rulers of Egypt—and with an interval of less than two hundred +years its rulers have been almost all Turks for the past eleven +centuries—it would be hard to point to many who were distinguished for +cultivation; it was rather that their strong hand preserved the order +that is essential to the work of culture, and their unscrupulous levies +produced the money, that was needed for the beautiful and grandiose +buildings in which they loved to see their power and wealth reflected. +Many of them probably had a genuine love of art, most of them were fond +of luxury and display, and delighted to surround themselves with the +costly products of exquisite workmanship; and a good many, no doubt, +believed that the endowment of sanctuaries might expiate the sins of a +life, remembering the words of the Prophet, “Whosoever builds for God a +place of worship, be it only as the nest of a grouse, God buildeth for +him a house in Paradise.” Whatever the cause, the fact remains that the +influence of the Turk is found in the artistic energy of every part of +the East from the Bosporus to the Ganges. It was to the Turks of Delhi +and Agra that we owe the Kutb Minár, the Taj, the intricate graces of +Fathpur Sikri; Turks built the Atala Mesjid at Jaunpur, the mosques of +Ahmadabad, of Gaur, of Bijapur; Seljúk Turks were the founders of the +noble buildings of Kóniya, Kaysaríya, Sivás, and other cities of Asia +Minor; Othmanly Turks built the shrines of Brusa and the imperial +mosques, second indeed, but only second, to St Sophia at Constantinople. +In Egypt we find the same thing: the first example of distinctively +Saracenic art appears only when the Turk assumed the sceptre. Up to 856 +every governor of Egypt was an Arab, and, with the doubtful exception of +the mosque of ‘Amr, not a single monument attests their public spirit. +From 856 the governors were Turks, and twenty years later rose the +mosque of Ibn-Tulún, the first and most remarkable monument of Arab art +in the country. + +It would take us far from Cairo to explain how the Turks came to be +rulers of Egypt. The movement was part of that overflow of the peoples +of Central Asia which has been going on from the beginning of history; +but it was assisted by the policy of the caliphs. Alarmed at the growing +power of provincial dynasts in Persia, and threatened by turbulent Arab +tribes in Mesopotamia, the ‘Abbásids imported a guard of mercenaries +recruited from the slave markets of the Oxus, and for a while rejoiced +in the protection of these stalwart young Turks. The old question, _Quis +custodiet?_ soon arose, and the luxurious and effeminate caliphs of +Baghdád realized too late that in purchasing these valiant slaves they +had virtually condemned themselves to slavery. The Turkish captain of +the bodyguard became the _maire du palais_ of the Baghdád _roi +fainéant_, the offices of State were seized by the Turks, and the +government of the western provinces was confided to their friends. At +first they contented themselves with the profits without the cares of +office, and a series of Turkish emírs, living at Baghdád or elsewhere in +Mesopotamia, held the fief and drew the surplus revenue of Egypt through +Arab deputy-governors. But in 856 the deputy as well as the fieffee was +a Turk, and in 868 the Turkish fieffee Bakbak sent his stepson, Ahmad +ibn Tulún, to govern Egypt as his representative. + +Ahmad, the son of Tulún, was thirty-three years of age when he arrived +at Fustát, and combined in a remarkable degree the military and +administrative ability of his race with the culture of his adopted +civilization. He had studied under the learned professors of Baghdád, +and even journeyed to Tarsus for the benefit of special lectures. In +matters of Arabic philology and Koranic doctrine he was critically +expert. But beyond this he was a man of boundless energy, an unerring +judge of character, who knew how to choose and use his subordinates. His +justice, if stern, was incorruptible, and his generosity was superb. +“Give to every one who holds out the hand” was his motto, and every +month he devoted a thousand dinárs to charity. He came to Egypt +penniless, save for a loan from a friend; but when he died he left ten +million dinárs in the treasury, an immense establishment of slaves and +horses, and a hundred ships of war. Yet he accomplished his economies +without increasing the taxes. Indeed he abolished various imposts, and +his revenues were due chiefly to the pains he took to encourage +cultivation and to give the fellahín better security in their land. For +the first time since the Arab conquest Egypt became a powerful and +sovereign State. Ahmad soon threw over all save a nominal dependence on +the caliphate, and after overcoming intrigues and subduing three +rebellions in Egypt, he marched into Syria, and occupied the whole +country as far as Tarsus and the Euphrates, fought the armies both of +the caliphate and of the Romans of the Cilician frontier, and united +under his sole authority the broad stretch of territory from Barka in +Libya to the borders of the Byzantine empire in Asia Minor, and from the +Euphrates to the first cataract of the Nile. + +[Illustration: TOWER OF THE MOSQUE OF IBN-TULUN] + +Side by side with this imperial policy Ahmad expended infinite labour +and wealth upon the embellishment of his capital. “The government house +at el-‘Askar, the official suburb of Fustát, was too small to house his +numerous retinue and army. He was not content, either, with a mere +governor’s palace. In 870 he chose a site on the hill of Yeshkur [at the +north-east extremity of ‘Askar, next to the House of the Emirate], +levelled the graves of the Christian cemetery there, and founded the +royal suburb of el-Katái‘, or ‘the Wards,’ so called because each class +or nationality (as household servants, Greeks, Sudánis) had a distinct +quarter assigned to it. The new town stretched from the present Rumeyla +beside the Citadel to the shrine of Zeyn-el-‘Abidin, and covered a +square mile. The new palace was built below the old ‘Dome of the Air,’ +and had a great garden and a spacious enclosed horse-course or Meydán +adjoining it, with mews and a menagerie; the government house was on the +south of the great mosque, which still stands, and there was a private +passage which led from the residence to the oratory of the emír. A +separate palace held the harím, and there were magnificent baths, +markets, and all apparatus of luxury.”[14] + +The generals and officers built their houses round about, and great +mansions soon covered the new site. The bazars were even better than at +Fustát, well built and filled with choice wares. The Meydán, where Ahmad +and his captains played mall or polo, became the favourite resort of the +town, and if one asked anybody where he was going the answer was sure to +be “To the Meydán.” It was entered by a number of gates, restricted to +special classes, such as the Gate of the Nobles, the Gate of the Harím, +or named after some peculiarity, as the Gate of Lions, which was +surmounted by two lions in plaster, the Sag Gate, made of teak, the Gate +of ed-Darmún, so called because a huge black chamberlain of that name +mounted guard there. Only Ahmad himself could ride through the central +arch of the great triple gate: his 30,000 troops passed through the side +arches. On review days he stationed himself on a daïs and watched the +crowd come in by the Polo Gate (Bab es-Sawáliga) and pass out by the +Gate of Lions, above which he had a balcony, whence on the night of the +great festival he could survey the whole faubourg and see what the +people were about. The view from this belvedere reached to the gate of +Fustát and to the Nile, and it was a favourite resort of the emír. + +The palace was supplied with water from a spring in the southern desert +by means of an aqueduct, the traces of which may still be seen—not that +of many arches running from the Citadel to the Nile, which belongs to a +much later date. The people, in Eastern fashion, naturally found fault +with the quality of the pure water to which their own muddy wells and +turgid Nile had not accustomed them. Rumours of this reached Ibn-Tulún, +and he sent for the learned doctor Mohammad Ibn ‘Abd-el-Hakam to resolve +these suspicions. “I was one night in my house,” he related, “when a +slave of Ibn-Tulún’s came and said, ‘The emir wants thee.’ I mounted my +horse in a panic of terror, and the slave led me off the high road. +‘Where are you taking me?’ I asked. ‘To the desert,’ was the reply; ‘the +emir is there.’ Convinced that my last hour was come, I said, ‘God help +me! I am an aged and feeble man: do you know what he wants with me?’ The +slave took pity on my fears and said, ‘Beware of speaking +disrespectfully of the aqueduct.’ We went on till suddenly I saw torch- +bearers in the desert, and Ibn-Tulún on horseback at the door of the +aqueduct, with great wax candles burning before him. I forthwith +dismounted and salaamed, but he did not greet me in return. Then I said, +‘O emir, thy messenger hath grievously fatigued me, and I thirst; let +me, I beg, take a drink.’ The pages offered me water, but I said, ‘No, I +will draw for myself.’ I drew water while he looked on, and drank till I +thought I should have burst. At last I said, ‘O emir, God quench thy +thirst at the rivers of Paradise! for I have drunk my fill, and know not +which to praise most, the excellence of this cool, sweet, clear water, +or the delicious smell of the aqueduct.’ ‘Let him retire,’ said Ibn- +Tulún, and the slave whispered, ‘Thou hast hit the mark.’” + +The monument which has immortalized Ibn-Tulún, however, is his mosque, +the only building of all his sumptuous little city that has survived the +buffets of civil war and the slow detrition of neglect. It is the most +interesting monument of Mohammedan Egypt, and forms a landmark in the +history of architecture. Two features specially distinguish it: it was +built entirely of new materials, instead of the spoils of old churches +and temples, and it is the earliest instance of the use of the pointed +arch throughout a building, earlier by at least two centuries than any +in England. They are true pointed arches, with a very slight return at +the spring, but not enough to suggest the horse-shoe form. The +Topographer relates how Ahmad lighted upon a treasure in the Mukattam +hills, at a place called “Pharaoh’s Oven,” and resolved to build with it +a mosque large enough to hold the vast congregations that then +overcrowded the mosque of el-‘Askar. He chose for the site the flat- +topped rocky hill of Yeshkur, a sure place for prayers to be answered, +since it was believed to be the spot where Moses held converse with +Jehovah. Here the foundations were laid in 876 (263 A.H.), and two years +later the work was finished and public prayers were held in the presence +of the emír. Ibn-Tulún was at first in a difficulty how to procure the +three hundred columns needed to support the arcades, but his architect, +who was a Christian and doubtless a Copt,[15] and was at the time in +prison for some offence, wrote to him that he would undertake to build +him a mosque of the size he required without columns. He was brought +before the emír who said, “Woe to thee! what is this that thou sayest +respecting the building of the mosque?” “I will draw the plan for the +prince,” answered the Christian, “that he may see it with his eyes, with +no columns save the two beside the _kibla_.” They brought him skins and +he drew the plan. Such a design was evidently quite new in mosque +building, but Ahmad saw its merits at once, arrayed the designer in a +robe of honour, and gave him 100,000 dinárs to carry out his plan. When +it was done he gave him 10,000 more, and the total cost is stated to +have amounted to 120,000 dinárs or about £63,000. The use of brick +arches and piers, instead of marble columns, was due partly to the +emír’s reluctance to deprive the Christian churches of so many pillars, +but even more to his anxiety to make his mosque safe from fire. He was +told that if he built it of “mortar and cinders and red brick well +burnt” it would resist fire better than if constructed of marble, and +the fact remains that the mosque has withstood the conflagrations that +devastated the rest of the faubourg. The adoption of the new plan of +brick piers, instead of columns, led to the employment of the pointed +arch, and the exclusion of marble suggested the plaster or stucco +decoration which still preserves its original admirable designs. + +Five rows of arches form the cloister at the Mekka or south-east side, +and two rows on the other sides; arches and piers are alike coated with +gypsum, and the ornaments on the arches and round the stone grilles or +windows are all worked by hand in the plaster. The difference between +the soft flexuousness of this work, done with a tool in the moist +plaster, and the hard mechanical effect of the designs impressed with a +mould in the Alhambra is striking: it is the difference between the +artist and the artisan. On the simple rounded capitals of the engaged +columns built at the corner of each arch there is a rudimentary bud and +flower pattern, and on either side of the windows between the arches +facing the court, which also are pointed and have small engaged columns, +is a rosette, and a band of rosettes runs round the court beneath the +crenellated parapet. The inner arches are differently treated. “Round +the arches and windows runs a knop and flower pattern, which also runs +across from spring to spring of arch beneath the windows, and a band of +the same ornament runs all along above the arches, in place of the +rosettes, which only occur in the face fronting the court; over this +band and likewise running along the whole length of all the inner +arcades is a Kufic inscription carved in wood, and above this is the +usual crenellated parapet. The arcades are roofed over with sycamore +planks resting on heavy beams. In the rearmost arcade the back wall is +pierced with pointed windows, which are filled, not with coloured glass, +but with grilles of stone forming geometrical designs with central +rosettes or stars.”[16] + +The general form of the mosque is similar to that of ‘Amr as restored, +the form of every mosque in Cairo from the ninth to the thirteenth +century. The great square court, covering three acres of ground, gave +room for the largest assembly, whilst the covered arcades offered +shelter from the sun to the ordinary congregation and to the groups of +students, ascetics, and beggars who have always made their home in +mosques. The south-east arcade or _liwán_, with its deeper aisles, was +the special sanctuary,[17] where the _mihráb_ or niche in the wall +showed the direction (_kibla_) of Mekka, towards which the prayers of +the faithful must turn, and the pulpit (_minbar_) and platform (_dikka_) +gave the preacher and the precentors vantage to make their voices heard +throughout the crowd of worshippers. So far there is nothing original +about the mosque. The form may have been adopted by the Arabs from +ancient Semitic temples, or the great court may represent the atrium of +the Byzantine basilica and the liwán the basilica itself, only supported +on pillars instead of vaulted roofs, with a relic of the apse in the +concave _mihráb_; but it was too obviously suited to the requirements of +the climate to need any curious derivation. + +[Illustration: WITHIN THE MOSQUE OF IBN-TULUN] + +The dome and minaret, so characteristic of later Cairo mosques, are here +wanting. The odd-looking corkscrew tower with external winding +staircase, like the Assyrian ziggurat, has a fellow in the tower of +Samarra on the Tigris, from which it was doubtless copied, but the upper +part has probably been restored; though the tower of Ibn-Tulún was +certainly in existence in 1047, when it is mentioned by Násir-i-Khusrau. +But it is hardly a minaret in the common sense of the term.[18] There is +no dome, because the dome has nothing to do with prayer, and therefore +nothing with a mosque.[19] “It is simply the roof of a tomb, and only +exists where there is a tomb to be covered, or at least where it was +intended that a tomb should be. Only when there is a chapel attached to +a mosque, containing the tomb of the founder or his family, is there a +dome, and it is no more closely connected with the mosque itself than is +the grave it covers: neither is necessary to a place of prayer. It +happens, however, that a large number of the mosques of Cairo are +mausoleums, containing a chamber with the tomb of the founder, and the +profusion of domes to be seen, when one looks down upon the city from +the battlements of the Citadel, has brought about the not unnatural +mistake of thinking that every mosque must have a dome. Most mosques +with tombs have domes, but no mosque that was not intended to contain a +tomb ever had one in the true sense. The origin of the dome may be +traced to the cupolas which surmount the graves of Babylonia, many of +which must have been familiar to the Arabs [and still more to the +Turks], who preserved the essentially sepulchral character of the form +and never used it, as did the Copts and Byzantines, to say nothing of +Western architects, to roof a church or its apse.” + +[Illustration: DETAIL OF ORNAMENT IN MOSQUE OF IBN-TULUN] + +But if there is little originality in the shape of the mosque, its +pointed arches and its decoration are worth studying. Pointed arches +occur also in the second Nilometer on the island of Roda, as rebuilt in +861, some fifteen years earlier than the mosque of Ibn-Tulún, and the +architect of this building is stated to have been a native of Ferghána +on the Iaxartes. There is nothing to prove that this arch was derived +from the Coptic style. On the other hand the bold and free plaster +decoration, designed by the Coptic architect, was undoubtedly borrowed +from the ornament of his countrymen. The Arabs have never been artists +or even skilled craftsmen. They imported Persians and Greeks to build +for them and decorate their houses and mosques, but above all they +employed the Copts, who have been the deft workmen of Egypt through +thousands of years of her history. A comparison of the plaster work of +Ibn-Tulún with the Coptic carvings preserved in the Cairo Museum of +Antiquities and those from the tombs of ‘Ayn-es-Síra in the Arab Museum +shows clearly the source of the floral decoration, which belongs to the +Byzantine school of Syria and Egypt. The Kufic inscriptions carved in +the solid wood are a purely Arab addition, and one that afterwards +developed into a leading decorative feature in Saracenic art.[20] The +geometrical ornament of the open grilles is also Byzantine, as M. +Bourgouin has established in his exhaustive treatise on the _entrelacs_, +but it is not certain that they belong to the original building, and the +star polygons suggest that the grilles may have been part of the later +restoration.[21] + +Home interests did not interfere with Ibn-Tulún’s imperial ambitions. He +played a conspicuous part in Mesopotamian politics, and almost succeeded +in getting the caliph into his hands. The oppressed head of Islam would +have gladly escaped from his tyrannous brother el-Muwaffak, but the +scheme failed, and Egypt lost the opportunity of becoming the seat of +the caliphate. The result was that the ambitious emir was publicly +cursed in every mosque of Mesopotamia. He also failed to capture the +sacred city of Mekka, but his reign ended in some glorious campaigns +against the Roman emperor, in which the Egyptian forces defeated the +enemy near Tarsus, killed (it is said) 60,000 Christians, and captured +immense spoils of gold and silver crucifixes, jewels, and sacred +vessels. The success turned the general’s head, and Ahmad himself had to +march north to bring his viceroy to obedience. “It was a severe winter, +and his opponent dammed the river, flooded the country, and nearly +drowned the besieging army at Adhana. Ibn-Tulún was forced to retire to +Antioch, where a copious indulgence in buffalo milk, following upon the +exposure and privations of the campaign, brought on a dysentery. He was +carried in a litter to Fustát, where he grew worse. In sickness the +fierce emir was a terror to his doctors. He refused to follow their +orders, flouted their prescribed diet, and when he found himself still +sinking, he had their heads chopped off, or flogged them till they died. +In vain Muslims, Jews, and Christians offered up public prayers for his +recovery. Korán and Tora and Gospel could not save him; and he died in +May, 884, before he had reached the age of fifty.” + +His sumptuous capital received many notable additions from his successor +Khumáraweyh, who fully shared his father’s passion for splendid building +as well as his imperial policy. He enlarged the palace, and turned the +Meydán into a garden, which he planted with rare trees and exquisite +roses. The stems of the trees were thought unsightly, and he coated them +with sheets of copper gilt, between which and the trunk leaden pipes +supplied water not only to the trees but to the canals and fountains +that irrigated the garden by means of water wheels. There were beds of +basil carefully cut to formal patterns, red, blue, and yellow water- +lilies and gilliflowers, exotic plants from all countries, apricots +grafted upon almond trees, and various horticultural experiments. A +pigeon-tower in the midst was stocked with turtle-doves, wood-pigeons, +and all sorts of birds of rich plumage or sweet song, who made a +cheerful concert as they perched on the ladders set against the walls or +skimmed over the pools and rivulets. In the palace he adorned the walls +of his “Golden House” with gold and ultra-marine, and there set up his +statue and those of his wives in heroic size, admirably carved in wood, +and painted and dressed to the life with gold crowns and jewelled ears +and turbans. In front of the palace he laid out a lake of quicksilver, +by the advice of his physician, who recommended it as a cure for his +lord’s insomnia. It was fifty cubits each way, and cost immense sums. +Here the prince lay on an air-bed, linked by silk cords to silver +columns on the margin, and as he rocked and courted sleep his blue-eyed +lion Zureyk faithfully guarded his master. Long after the palace had +disappeared people use to come and dig for the costly mercury that had +formed the emir’s cradle. + +There was also a pavilion as large as the “Dome of the Air,” with a new +device in curtains, and splendid carpets, and a view over gardens, town, +and Nile. In another kiosk, built by his father, men chanted the Korán, +proclaimed the hours of prayer, and recited verses sacred and profane, +pious and amorous, _tristes et gais, tour à tour_, whilst the prince sat +at table with his ladies, surrounded by musicians. As the solemn call to +prayer echoed through the merry din, he would lay aside his cup and bow +his head to the earth in prostration, for he was an orthodox though very +irregular Muslim. The Topographer[22] expatiates for pages on the +wonders of Khumáraweyh’s menagerie of lions and lionesses, leopards, +elephants and giraffes; his vast stables, for which whole districts were +set apart to grow the necessary fodder; the lavish luxury of his +kitchen, which cost £12,000 a month; and the splendour of his household +troops, recruited from the predatory Arabs of the Delta. So brave, so +terrible, and so gallant a figure was this superb prince that his +subjects dared not speak, much less sneeze, as he passed by. It is +melancholy to think that of all this glory nothing remained after a few +years but the traces of the quicksilver. + +“Neither the lion nor his bodyguard of vigorous young Arabs could save +the voluptuous prince from the jealousies of his harím. Early in 896 +some domestic intrigue ended in his being murdered at Damascus. His +murderers were crucified, and amid loud lamentations his body was buried +beside his father’s, not far from his stately palace, under Mount +Mukattam. Seven Korán readers were engaged in reciting the sacred book +at the tomb of Ibn-Tulún, and when the bearers brought the body of +Khumáraweyh and began to lower it into the tomb, they happened to be +chanting the verse, ‘Seize him and hurl him into the fire of Hell.’” + +His dynasty did not long survive him. Two young sons were ill able to +withstand the efforts of the caliph to recover the rich provinces of +Syria and Egypt which Ahmad and his son had held in sovereign power for +thirty years. In 905 the ‘Abbásid general, Mohammad ibn Suleymán, +entered Katái‘, massacred the black troops of the Tulúnids, and +demolished the beautiful faubourg. ‘Askar became once more the seat of +government, as it had been under earlier ‘Abbásid emirs, but Katái‘, +what was left of it after the invading army had plundered it for four +months, gradually decayed; its hundred thousand houses (if we are to +believe the historians) fell by degrees, and the prodigious famine and +anarchy of the time of Mustansir in the eleventh century finished the +ruin. We shall hear of this terrible reign of chaos in a later chapter; +but though it is anticipating the course of the story the final +destruction of the two faubourgs must be noted here. These quarters had +become so ruinous by 1070 that a wall was built all the way from the new +palace of Káhira to Fustát—or in other words from the Gate of Zuweyla to +near the mosque of ‘Amr—in order that the caliph, when he rode out, +might not be distressed by the sight of the dead cities. The ruins of +Katái‘ and ‘Askar became as it were a quarry from which people got the +materials for building elsewhere; the whole space between the new Cairo +and Fustát reverted to a state of desert, except for a few gardens and +country houses, and though, after 1125, the people began to build houses +outside the gate of Zuweyla, the rest of the site of the faubourgs +remained unoccupied, save about the mosque of Ibn-Tulún, down to the day +when Makrízy wrote in 1424. + +It was no wonder that the place beside the hill of Yeshkur, known as the +“Castle of the Ram,”[23] where “Pharaoh’s Seat” once stood, and Abraham +slew his sacrifice, became the haunt of the Ginn. In the eighteenth +century an ancient sarcophagus, belonging to a lady of the XXVIth +Dynasty, still occupied the site of the Mastaba Fara‘ún, and anything +brought there, were it but a handful of dates, immediately turned into +gold. But now the alchemy is exhausted, the sarcophagus is in the +British Museum, where no such miracle has been known to happen, and even +the Ginn have deserted the spot. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + _Misr_ + + +ON the downfall of the House of Tulún Egypt reverted to the dependent +position of a province of the Baghdád caliphate. “The Wards” having been +laid low by the conquerors, the new governors took up their residence in +‘Askar, but the name was soon dropped, and the “cantonments” became +merged in the city of Fustát or Misr. During the whole time of the rise +and decay of the official suburbs, Misr, the real metropolis of Egypt, +had been increasing in prosperity. The segregation of the troops and +palace officials at the faubourgs, whilst depriving the towns-folk of a +certain amount of trade, relieved them from the violence of the black +soldiery and the tyranny of the bureaux, and left them free to pursue +their commerce. A large part of the Indian and Arabian trade with +Europe, which afterwards developed to great importance, passed through +Misr, and the quays were laden with the wares of many foreign lands. It +is true, for thirty years after the ruin of the Tulúnids, Egypt and its +capital were a prey to military despotism, and the caliphs’ generals, +weakly controlled from distant Baghdád, did what seemed best in their +own eyes. These were wild times in Misr, when a hotheaded youth, el- +Khalángy, upholding the claims of the fallen dynasty with the +enthusiastic approval of the mob, drove out the hated troops, seized the +capital and Alexandria, and even defeated a fresh army from Baghdád, +till, after eight months of amazing impudence, he was betrayed and +executed (906). As if this were not enough diversion for a generation, +the schismatic Fátimid caliphs of Kayrawán offered the good people of +Misr the spectacle of an African army marching through Egypt, and even +attacking the camp across the river at Gíza, where the Baghdád army of +occupation, under the command of Dukas the Greek, lay timidly +intrenched. The Africans were at last driven out (920), but the state of +the country did not improve. The Turkish governor had to quarter his +troops in his own palace for his protection, and, when he died, “his son +was hooted out of the country by the army clamouring for arrears of pay; +the treasurer Madará‘y was in hiding; rival governors contended for +power, mustered their troops, and skirmished over the distracted land; +and a fearful earthquake, which laid many houses and villages low, +followed by a portentous shower of meteors, added to the terror of the +populace.” + +The people who profited most in the confusion were the lords treasurers, +who seem to have done what they pleased with the revenue. Three members +of the talented family of Madará’y, taking their name from their +original village of Madaráya, near Basra on the Tigris, successively +held the lucrative post of treasurer or comptroller of the taxes, and +one of them enjoyed this office not only under Khumáraweyh and his two +sons, but also under some of the caliphs’ governors, and afterwards +under two of the succeeding dynasty. In spite of several reverses of +fortune, Mohammad Madará’y contrived to scrape together the not +contemptible income of over £200,000 a year, without counting his rents. +But if he largely received, he greatly gave. Every month he distributed +a hundred thousand pounds’ weight of meal to the poor; he freed many +thousands of slaves, endowed charitable and religious foundations, and +spent from £60,000 to £80,000 on each of his twenty-one annual +pilgrimages to Mekka; for he was a devout man, diligent in prayer and +fasting, with the Korán ever in his hand. It was said of his vast +charity during the pilgrimage that there was not a soul in Mekka who did +not sleep in repletion by his beneficence. Madará’y and the great judge +Ibn-Harbaweyh, who used to receive seated even the state visits of the +governors, were two bright exceptions in a crowd of petty tyrants. + +At last another strong Turk took the reins. If Mohammad “the Ikhshíd,” +who derived his title from his ancestors the kings of Ferghána on the +Iaxartes, did not leave any monument in Misr to rival that of his great +predecessor Ibn-Tulún, and if his cautious policy was content with a +kingdom extending no further than Damascus, instead of to the Euphrates, +he at least restored order in Egypt, kept the African invaders at a +distance, waged on the whole successful war in Syria, and maintained +kingly state in his beautiful palace in the “Garden of Kafúr,” west of +the present Nahhasín. A delightful trait of chivalry is recorded in his +war with Ibn-Ráik, a Turkish chief, who dominated Syria for a time. This +emír was “so distressed to find the corpse of one of the Ikhshíd’s +brothers among the slain that he sent his own son to his adversary as an +atonement, to be dealt with as he chose. Not to be outdone in +generosity, the Ikhshíd clothed the intended sacrifice in robes of +honour, and sent him back in all courtesy to his father. Of course the +youth married the daughter of his chivalrous host.” + +In the summer of 935 the people of Misr saw the procession of the +Ikhshíd’s war-vessels advancing up the Nile from Damietta, and occupying +the island of Roda, which was connected with the city by a bridge of +boats; and in August the troops entered the capital and plundered it for +two days, till called to order by their stern master. After the anarchy +of the past thirty years the firm if rapacious hand of the new ruler was +a grateful change, and the enthusiastic son of el-Khaláty, who jumped +upon the carved wooden horse that stood before his palace, and let fly a +pigeon sweetly anointed with musk and rosewater at the new emír, +expressed the sentiments of the people.[24] The Old Mosque of ‘Amr +recovered its former importance as the chief place of worship, and the +Ikhshíd furnished it with beautiful new rush-mats, lamps and perfumes, +and himself attended the service in state on the last night of Ramadán, +clad in white, and followed by five hundred squires carrying maces and +torches. On the following day, the Lesser Festival, he held a review, +after the example of Ibn-Tulún. The army, numbering 400,000, marched by +all day long, followed by the household corps of 8000 mamlúks in shining +armour, beneath the daïs at the gate of the Government House. On the +second day of the feast the emír attended the prayers at the mosque, and +held open house for the people. When the caliph sent the Ikhshíd an +official robe of honour, with necklace and bracelets, the streets and +bazars were decked with rich cloth and rugs, and the doors of the Old +Mosque were covered with gold brocade, as the emír dressed in his new +robe pranced in stately procession to the Wednesday prayers.[25] + +Those were glorious days in Misr, and the people almost forgot the +immense confiscations and severities of the new régime in the enjoyment +of its refulgence. Arabic literature began to flourish in the capital +beside the Nile, though still far from rivalling the intellectual +supremacy of the caliphs’ city on the Tigris, where Persian influences +had produced a quickening of varied studies that were long in finding +their way to the more orthodox capital of Egypt. Arabic learning was +still in its infancy in the days of the Ikhshíd. Poetry indeed had never +died, though it had become mannered and imitative; but history had only +begun to be written, science was scarcely touched upon save in the +distorted form of astrology, and the great names of Arabic literature +had hardly begun to make themselves known. The lives of the Prophet were +gradually being enlarged into wider histories, and two of the earliest +and the most famous chroniclers, Tabary and Mas‘údy, were contemporaries +of the Ikhshíd. Mas‘údy indeed visited Egypt in 942, and though, greatly +to our loss, he does not describe the capital as he saw it, he gives a +vivid account of the “Night of the Bath,” a Christian festival adopted +by the Muslims, which shows us how the people of Misr could make merry. +“The Leylat el-Ghitás,” he says, “is one of the great ceremonies and the +people all go to it on foot on the 10th of January. I was present in 350 +[942 A.D.] when the Ikhshíd lived at his house called “The Elect” in the +island that divides the Nile. He commanded that the bank of the island +and that of Fustát should be illuminated each with a thousand torches, +besides the illuminations of private people. Muslims and Christians by +hundreds of thousands thronged the Nile on boats or looked from kiosks +over the river or from the banks, all emulous for pleasure and outdoing +each other in their display and dress, gold and silver vessels and +jewels. The sound of music was heard all about, with singing and +dancing. It was a splendid night, the best in all Misr for beauty and +gaiety. The doors of the separate quarters were left open [instead being +barred as usual at sunset], and most people bathed in the Nile confident +in its power [on that night] of preventing and curing all +illnesses.”[26] + +The traveller tells how people came to the Ikhshíd and begged to be +allowed to dig for treasure, the clue to which they said they had found +in ancient manuscripts; but when permission was given the treasure- +seekers found only caves full of statues of bone and dust—in short, they +had opened some mummy-pits. Mas‘údy mentions the two Nilometers on the +island of Roda, which he calls “the island of the shipbuilders;” the +first built by Osáma and still in general use; the second made, or +rather restored, by Ibn-Tulún, being used only for very high Niles; and +he saw the bridges connecting Misr with the island and the island with +Gíza on the west bank. He met merchants from Constantinople at Misr, but +of the city itself he tells us nothing. From Ibn-Sa‘íd and others, +however, we learn that the Ikhshíd built a new dockyard at Misr, which +took the place of the inconvenient docks on the island of Roda, where a +garden and pleasure-house were laid out instead; and it was +characteristic of his parsimony that when the estimate was laid before +him he exclaimed, “What? Thirty thousand dinárs for a pleasure-garden!” +and immediately cut the cost down to five thousand. As the dockyard of +Roda was superseded by that of Misr, so was the latter replaced by the +port of Maks, a mile lower down the river, in the next generation. The +Ikhshíd’s economical pleasure-house on the island has left no traces; +but Roda was a favourite resort of successive rulers, and his building +was doubtless pulled down to make way for the Hawdag or “litter- +pavilion” of el-Amir and the more elaborate constructions of the +Ayyúbids. + +The great business of men of learning in those days was the +interpretation of the sacred law as laid down in the Korán, in the +traditions of the Prophet, and in the decisions of the canonical +theologians. A Mohammedan lawyer was necessarily a divine, since the law +depended on revelation, and the earliest scholars of Misr were chiefly +theological jurisconsults. Of the four recognized schools of +orthodoxy—the Hánafy, Máliky, Sháfi‘y and Hánbaly—the Málikis and the +Sháfi‘is each had fifteen porticoes in the mosque of ‘Amr, to only three +for the Hánafis, and the great court rang with their disputes. To us +their distinctions may seem trivial, but to the Muslims of that age they +were quite as vital as the _filioque_ was to the Orthodox Eastern Church +or the difference between ἐκ and ἐν to the Copts. The divines waxed so +furious in their arguments in the Old Mosque that the Ikhshíd was +obliged for a season to take away their rush mats and cushions and close +the mosque except at prayer time. Mosques were then, as some are still, +the academies of Islam, and not merely divinity schools. In the old days +before Mohammad the Arabian poets used to recite their verses at the +great fairs before critical audiences of their countrymen. In Mohammedan +times the criticism of authors was equally public but in a different +fashion. “When a man had produced something he thought particularly +good, he hastened to the mosque to share it with his critics. He was +sure to find them there, doctors learned in the law, poets, +commentators, seated cross-legged on their carpets in the arched +porticos round the court, expounding the refinements of style to a +circle of squatting students. To this audience he would recite his +latest achievement, proud but tremulous. It must have been a searching +ordeal, for the listeners were some of them rivals and all of them keen +critics, on the alert for the least flaw, the slightest halt in the +rhythm, the smallest lapse from the purity of the classical idiom. They +had, too, a way of expressing their opinions which was more forcible +than kind. There was a hot debate, much citing of precedents and quoting +of the Masters, exploring of memory, and examination of texts. The new +comer defended his diction and produced his authorities; the rest cut +him up in remorseless verbal vivisection.”[27] + +It was not only theology that echoed in the Mosque of ‘Amr in the days +of the Ikhshíd. Though the long list of worthies whose biographies Ibn- +Sa‘íd unrolls in his “String of Trinkets of the Fustát Bride” consists +preponderantly of lawyers and divines, men primed with serried +precedents and tenacious of the authentic tracing of traditions, these +were not all. There were the family of Tabátaba, famous descendants of +‘Aly, poets every one, whose verse is full of the love of nature and of +love itself, and not a little of the joys of wine, always forbidden but +not the less dear to the poets of all ages of Islám. Did not one of +these poets sing something like this?— + + + Grigs chirp in the sand, + + The moon is on high, + + The breeze curls the runnel, + + Clouds fleck the sky, + + Great trees swing with joy + + And merrily crack: + + Now brim me the beaker + + E’er life turns its back! + + No friendship’s so knit + + That time cannot split. + + +There was Abu-l-Fadl of the distinguished family of el-Furát, who, +though a mighty authority on traditions, did not disdain, any more than +many other learned doctors, to write a good verse now and then, though +his vein might be serious:— + + + Whose soul is dark, a quiet life is his, no night’s unease; + + When the storm breaks, it spares the low but fells the tallest trees. + + +Even Mansúr the lawyer condescended to a somewhat staid vein of verse, +though it was he who stirred up such a turmoil by his pronouncement on +the question of the legal maintenance of divorced wives in the days of +governor Dukas that he had to be protected by troops, and there was a +terrible scene of swords drawn and knives about his bier when the people +believed that he had been murdered by a judge who disagreed with him. +The Kády el-Bakár, the aged court poet, had such a fund of delightful +anecdote that the Ikhshíd would often send for him of an evening and beg +for a story, “were it only a finger’s length.” It was this genial old +bard who wrote the lines about the morning cup and the enjoyment of that +good comrade, life, ending + + + Allah! give me not peace! O God, I ask not content— + + Only a waist to embrace and a wine cup never spent! + + +Misr had its merits in this respect, for ez-Zeyneby wrote:— + + + My home is in Fustát; blame me ye who chide. + + Where the Muskat vines are, there do I abide. + + Egypt, I’ll not leave thee: reason need I hide? + + +The celebrated author el-Musébbihy comes rather later, for he was not +born till 977, but his work is typical of the tenth century in Egypt. +Thirty books he wrote, numbering nearly forty thousand pages, and their +subjects ranged over poetry and criticism, the history of Egypt and +religion, treatises on wine and joviality, on choice repasts and +cookery, on astrology and demons, dreams, wishes and oaths, anecdotes +and maxims, besides subjects that are best described as “curious.” +Literature owed much to the pleasure-loving court of the Abyssinian +slave Kafúr (_i.e._ “Camphor”), who after the Ikhshíd’s death in 946 +ruled the land for twenty-two years, first as regent over his late +master’s two sons, who lived and died in luxurious and inactive +obscurity, and for the last two or three years as titular prince of +Egypt. There are few quainter figures in history than this jolly black +eunuch, with his huge paunch, his bandy legs, and his immense cloven +underlip, of which his guest, the poet el-Mutanebby, last of the classic +Arabians, made such fun when he found that his panegyrics of the black +prince brought him less returns—large as they were—than he expected. +“Kafúr was at once the Lucullus and the Maecenas of his age. He had +contrived to acquire some cultivation, as most clever slaves did, and he +loved to surround himself with poets and critics, and listen to their +discussions of an evening, or make them read him the history of the +caliphs of old.” Serious scholars attended his réunions. There might be +seen el-Kindy, the chronicler of the “Excellencies of Egypt” (Fadáil +Misr), to whom Makrízy owed so much; el-Bakhtary the learned grammarian, +as well as Ibn-el-‘Ásim, whose light lyrics won him the title of the +“castanettist of the soul.” Kafúr could appreciate them all. Like all +blacks he delighted in music. He had control of vast sums of money, and +he scattered it liberally among his literary friends, who repaid him in +fulsome flattery. When the “castanettist of the soul” explained in +choice verse that the frequent earthquakes of the time were due to +Egypt’s dancing for joy at Kafúr’s virtues, the pleased Ethiopian threw +him a thousand dinárs. On his table, “Camphor” was lavish; he had the +black’s jolly sensuality. The daily provision for his kitchen consisted +in 100 sheep, 100 lambs, 250 geese, 500 fowls, 1000 pigeons and other +birds, and 100 jars of sweets. The daily consumption amounted to 1700 +lb. of meat, besides fowls and sweets, and 50 skins of liquor were +allowed to the servants alone. A favourite drink was quince-cider, for +which the kády of Asyút sent 50,000 quince-apples every season.[28] + +In spite of a stern and unimaginative religion, in spite of fatalism and +all its paralysing effects, the mediæval Arabs managed to enjoy life, +just as their forefathers of the desert did. The wonderful thing about +this old Mohammedan society is that it was what it was in spite of +Mohammedanism. With all their prayers and fasts and irritating ritual, +the Muslims of the Middle Ages contrived to amuse themselves. Even in +their religion they found opportunities for enjoyment. They made the +most of the festivals of the faith, and put on their best clothes and +made up parties—to visit the tombs, perhaps, but to visit them +cheerfully—and they “tipped” all their servants that they too might go +out and amuse themselves in the gaily illuminated streets filled with +dancers and singers and reciters, or in the mosques where the dervishes +were performing their strange and revolting rites. Such diversions gave +a relish to life,—even though a man had his destiny inscribed in the +sutures of his skull and some ascetic souls found a consolation in +staring at a blank wall till they saw the name of Allah blazing on it. + +But the great amusement of the mediæval Muslim was feasting. It is true +the Arabs did not understand scientific cookery or æsthetic gastronomy; +they drank to get drunk and ate to get full. We read of a public banquet +where the table was covered with 21 enormous dishes, each containing 21 +baked sheep, three years old and fat, and 350 pigeons and fowls, all +piled up together to the height of a man, and covered in with dried +sweetmeats. Between these dishes were 500 smaller _plats_, each holding +seven fowls and the usual complement of sweetmeats. The table was strewn +with flowers and cakes of bread, and two grand edifices of sweetmeats, +each weighing 17 cwt., were brought in on shoulder poles. A man might +eat a sheep or two without being too remarkable. And if he ate hugely, +he washed it down with plenty of wine, in spite of all the Prophet’s +laws. The Arab’s cup held a good pint, and he refilled it pretty often. +Hence the majority of the banquets described in the Arabian histories +end under the table, or would do so if there were any tables of the +right kind. + +There are redeeming points, however, in all this gluttony and +sottishness. The Arabs did not tope moodily in solitude. They liked a +jovial company round them, and plenty of flowers and sweet scents on the +board; they dressed very carefully, and perfumed their beards with civet +and sprinkled themselves with rosewater; while ambergris, burning in a +censer, diffused a delicious fragrance through the room. Nor was the +feast complete without music, and the voices of singing-men and singing- +women. A ravishing slave-girl, with a form like the Oriental willow and +a face like the full moon, sang soft sad Arabian melodies to the +accompaniment of the lute, till the guests rolled over with ecstasy. And +rarely was a banquet considered perfect without the presence of a +wit—such a wit as no longer exists; no mere punster, though he could pun +on occasion, but a man of letters, well stored with the literature of +the Arabs, able to finish a broken quotation, and of fine taste in his +compositions and recitations. It was, indeed, the heyday of literary +men. So intense was the devotion of the caliphs and vezírs to poetry and +song, that they would refuse nothing to the poet who pleased them. A +beggar who gave an answer in a neatly-turned verse would have his jar +filled with gold; and a man of letters who made a good repartee was +likely to have his mouth crammed with jewels, and his whole wardrobe +replenished. One poet left behind him a hundred complete suits of robes +of honour, two hundred shirts, and five hundred turbans. + +But Kafúr was much more than an epicure and a dilettante. Strong as a +horse, but gentle as a giant, his hard work and unfailing good-humour +were phenomenal. He was no mean statesman and devoted much time and +pains to the management of public business, working often far into the +night, and then throwing himself on his knees, crying, “O God, give no +created thing power over me!” His justice, clemency, open-handedness, +and piety were renowned, and though he left immense wealth in gold and +precious stones, slaves and beasts, he used his possessions in a large- +minded and charitable spirit. He died in 968, and on his grave at +Damascus was written— + + + “How fares it with thee, Kafúr, alone in the grave amid the rattle of + the hail, who once didst revel in the din of battling hosts? + + Men’s feet now trample over thy head, where of old the lions of the + sandy waste crouched before thee.” + + +The warlike epitaph was not very apposite, for Kafúr, brave as he was, +cannot be described as a successful general, in spite of two victories +in his earlier days in Syria. It was to the credit of his statesmanship +and his officers that the whole of the kingdom, now extending to the +northern frontier of Syria and including the Higáz with the holy cities +of Mekka and Medína, was preserved in undiminished prosperity and rarely +ruffled peace throughout his regency and reign, and this in spite of +several bad Niles and consequent scarcity, portentous earthquakes, and a +disastrous fire which consumed 1700 houses in Misr in 954. The big black +eunuch knew how to keep order. Unhappily, like most great autocrats, he +left no successor, and the weakness of the government of the new prince, +the infant grandchild of the Ikhshíd, invited the invasion which the +Fátimid caliphs had long been preparing. + +We have no description worth quoting of the city of Misr during this +prosperous period. The traveller Ibn-Hawkal gives a brief account of it +a little later (978), and estimates its size as about a third of +Baghdád. He notes its handsome markets, its narrow streets, with brick +houses of five and even seven storeys high, large enough for two hundred +people to live in, and the gardens and pleasure-grounds surrounding the +city. The Mosque of ‘Amr in its midst was still the most striking of its +buildings, which shows that there were as yet no great palaces or +government houses. Kafúr’s own palace was outside, probably in the park +called the “Garden of Kafúr,” though at one time he built a new palace, +at the cost of 100,000 dinárs, by the pool of Karún, near the mosque of +Ibn-Tulún; but the miasma from the stagnant water soon caused its +desertion. The capital was of course very differently situated from the +present Cairo. The Nile had then hardly begun the slow shifting of its +bed towards the west which resulted in the formation of the island of +Bulák or el-Gezíra. The river in the Ikhshíd’s time flowed under the +walls of the castle of Babylon, skirted el-‘Askar, and passed by the +points now known as the Bab-el-Luk and Bab-el-Hadíd.[29] All the +districts of Masr-el-‘Atíka, Kasr-el-‘Eyny, Kasr-ed-Dubára, and Bulák +were then under water, and the capital spread along the banks of the +Nile and stretched inland to near the mosque of Ibn-Tulún. + +[Illustration: STREET IN OLD MISR] + +The best description is that of the Persian Násir-i-Khursau, who visited +Misr in 1047, eighty years after Kafúr’s death, it is true, but it is +not probable that very important changes had taken place in the +interval. He knows nothing of el-Katái‘, and from his description of +Misr as a city built on high ground, and other indications, it is +evident that in his day “the Wards” faubourg was included in Misr and +that there were still houses there in spite of the devastation that +followed the fall of the House of Tulún. The mosque of Ibn-Tulún “on the +outskirts of the town” was then as now surrounded by a double wall more +solid than any the traveller had seen except at Amid and Mayyafarikin, +and a minaret was certainly standing at that time.[30] There were +altogether seven mosques in the old city, of which that of ‘Amr was the +chief, with its _mihráb_ covered with white marble on which was engraved +the entire text of the Korán, and its court crowded with professors and +students and a multitude of people of all kinds, who used it as a +general meeting place for business. It had lately been purchased by the +Fátimid caliph Hákim, of whom we shall hear presently, for 100,000 +dinárs (the mosque of Ibn-Tulún had cost him only 35,000), and he had +made some restorations and presented a magnificent silver lamp carrying +seven hundred lights. So huge was this work of art that a door had to be +broken down to get it into the mosque. The chief kády still held his +court there. + +Outside, the gates opened into the bazars. On the north was the Street +of Lamps, the like of which the traveller had seen nowhere else; he was +amazed at the cut rock-crystal, tortoise-shell, and other delicate work +he saw there displayed, besides ivory tusks, ostrich feathers, and other +products of the Sudán and Abyssinia. On one day, to be precise, the 18th +of December 1048, he counted the following flowers and fruits and +vegetables in the markets of Misr: red roses, lilies, narcissi, bitter +and sweet oranges, lemons, apples, jasmine, melons, _dastbuyas_, +bananas, olives, dates, grapes, sugar-cane, mad-apples, gourds, +_badrangs_, onions, garlic, carrots, and beetroot, though they belonged +to different seasons: “but Egypt,” he adds, “is a land of great extent +which produces the fruits both of hot and cold climates, and the +products of all the provinces are brought to the capital and are readily +sold in the markets.” Pottery he found manufactured of so fine a quality +that he could see his hand through it, and so skilfully coloured that it +resembled the iridescent fabric called _bukalamún_. There was also a +green transparent glass of costly price. (All this is amply confirmed by +the fragments which have been found among the rubbish heaps of the old +city.) He saw great bowls of Damascus copper; one woman owned five +thousand of them which she let out at a franc (dirhem) a month at the +borrower’s risk. He was pleased to discover that there was no need to +carry one’s bottle or paper to the bazars of the druggists or +ironmongers: they themselves supplied the wherewithal to contain their +wares; and what was more extraordinary, the shopkeepers sold at a fixed +price, instead of haggling for a bargain, and if one of them cheated he +was set on a camel and marched through the bazar to the ringing of a +bell, crying aloud, “I have deceived and am punished! May the like +chastisement befall other liars!” All the shopkeepers rode on donkeys +from their houses to their shops, and asses stood for hire at the street +corners to the number (he was told) of 50,000. Only soldiers rode +horses. + +The city stretched along the Nile bank, and kiosks and pavilions +overlooked the river, whence one could draw up water by a rope. Sakkás +carried it then as now in great pitchers on their backs, or on camels. +Some of the houses were seven storeys high, and on the top of one of +these was a terrace garden of orange and other fruit trees, watered by a +sákiya turned by a bull that had been conveyed to the housetop when a +calf. The houses were so large (30 cubits square) that 350 people could +occupy a single house. Some of the covered streets and bazars had to be +constantly lighted by lamps, since no sunlight penetrated to them. To +cross to the island there was a bridge of thirty-six boats, but at that +time there was no second bridge connecting Roda with Giza, and one had +to take a boat or ferry. Fortunately there were more boats to be had at +Misr than either at Baghdád or Basra. The inhabitants of the city, says +Násir-i-Khusrau, were enjoying great prosperity in 1048, and in honour +of a royal accouchement they decorated the town with such splendour that +he would not hope to be believed if he described it. Indeed, he never +knew so peaceful and orderly a country as Egypt, and tells the story of +a rich Christian he met at Misr, who owned innumerable cargoes and vast +estates, and who, when appealed to by the vezír in a year of scarcity, +informed him that he had enough corn in his granaries to supply the +capital for six years. The rents of the occupiers of a single khan or +inn, called the Dar-el-Wezír, brought in 12,000 dinárs a year, and there +were said to be two hundred such buildings. + +The city which the Persian philosopher described in 1047-8 was probably +little changed in the remaining century of its prosperity. The +foundation of Káhira, or Cairo proper, had once more separated the +official and court circles from Misr, eighty years before the visit of +Násir-i-Khusrau, and yet the old capital retained its flourishing +position as the commercial metropolis. There is no reason to suppose +that it decayed during the hundred and twenty years that were left to +it. We have already anticipated the course of history, in describing +Misr in the eleventh century, and it will be well to finish the subject +by relating its destruction in the twelfth. In 1168 Amalric, the Latin +King of Jerusalem, advanced upon Cairo, intent upon the conquest of +Egypt, which the Crusaders believed to be essential to their safety in +Palestine. In November he took Bilbeys, and stained his name by +massacring every man, woman, and child. Fear of similar atrocities and +the danger of affording the invader valuable cover close to Cairo +induced Sháwar, the vezír of the Fátimid caliph of Egypt, to order the +burning of Misr. On the 12th of November, “twenty thousand naphtha +barrels and ten thousand torches were lighted. The fire lasted fifty- +four days, and its traces may still be found in the wilderness of +sandheaps stretching over miles of buried rubbish on the south side of +Cairo. The people fled ‘as from their very graves’; the father abandoned +his children, the brother his twin; and all rushed to Cairo for dear +life. The hire of a camel for the mile or two of transit cost thirty +pieces of gold”[31] in that crisis of panic. The smoke rose in dense +black clouds to the sky, and compelled the invaders to camp at a +distance. The cruel measure may have been necessary, though Cairo was +saved by other means; but as we look out upon the desolate sandhills +that mark the site of the vanished Town of the Tent and recall the peace +and prosperity witnessed by the Persian traveller, it seems as if a +thousand Crusaders in Cairo would be a lighter sacrifice than the loss +of the old city of Misr. + +Though the town never really recovered from the fatal day of its +burning, it must not be supposed that no efforts were made to rebuild +it. People are not so easily transplanted from their old seats, and as +soon as the Crusaders were driven away the inhabitants began to search +for their blackened homes and tried to make them fit to live in. Ibn- +Gubeyr, the Spanish Arab, who visited Misr in 1183, only fourteen years +after the great fire, found a less melancholy scene than we should be +led to expect from the account of the fifty-four days’ burning. He was +comfortably entertained at the Inn of Master Worthy (Funduk Aby-th- +Thaná) in the Street of Lamps,—so called because formerly inhabited by +nobles who had each a lamp before his door—which still stood close to +the Mosque of ‘Amr, and though there were sad signs of the late +destruction, the people had rebuilt many of the ruined houses, “and the +new buildings are in continuous lines which form a great city with the +remains of the former town lying beyond and all around it, close by, +showing how great was its extent in earlier days.”[32] The attempt to +restore the old city did not succeed. A sign of the diminishing +population is seen in the fact that although ten colleges were founded +in and about Misr by Saladin and his successors, in the belief that the +town would recover, not a single mosque for congregational worship was +built there after the great fire. Cairo was rapidly taking its place, +and when Ibn-Sa‘íd visited Misr about 1240 he was distressed at its +blackened walls, ruined houses, and general state of dirt and neglect. +There were still plenty of people in the narrow crooked streets, and +pedlers hawking their wares among the students and children in the Old +Mosque, which was covered with cobwebs and littered with refuse; the +slovenly quays of Fustát were still frequented by much shipping, and +there were sugar and soap factories still at work.[33] But the ruin was +universal, the final decay had set in, and the glory of Misr was +transferred to Cairo. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + _Cairo_ + + +THE foundation of Cairo proper, as distinguished from the earlier city +of Misr and its faubourgs, marks a revolution infinitely more profound +than a mere change of dynasty or shifting of site. The Fátimid conquest, +which created the new city, was a revolution in religion, in statecraft, +and in culture. The theological differences that had turned the mosque +of ‘Amr into a bear-garden in the time of the Ikhshíd were hair- +splittings compared with the breach between the old orthodoxy and the +heresy of the newcomers. In its inner essence, Shi‘ism, the religion of +the Fátimids, is not Mohammedanism at all. It merely took advantage of +an old schism in Islám to graft upon it a totally new and largely +political movement. The schism arose out of the succession to the +caliphate, and resolved itself into the old antagonism between the +theories of popular election and divine right. The orthodox party (or +Sunnis) held that the election of the first three caliphs, Abu-Bekr, +‘Omar and ‘Othmán, was constitutional in Islám; the Shí‘a maintained +that the divine right of succession to the Prophet’s mantle rested with +his own family, that is to say with his daughter Fátima’s husband ‘Aly +and their offspring, the only surviving descendants of Mohammad. ‘Aly in +turn became the fourth caliph, but he was bitterly opposed, and in the +end murdered; his children, the Prophet’s grandsons, were ousted from +the succession; one of them, Hoseyn, endeavouring to assert his rights, +was defeated and slain, and the tragedy of the “martyrdom” at Kerbela +has ever since excited the deepest passions of the Shí‘a at the annual +representations of the Persian Passion Play in the month of Moharram. + +The ruthless persecution of the “holy family” by the Omayyad caliphs +stimulated an enthusiastic sympathy with their misfortunes, but since +none of their descendants showed any political genius, the occasional +risings in favour of the ‘Alids were scarcely more important than the +last attempts in Scotland to revive the claims of the Pretender. The +movement would probably have died out as an element in politics, and +become a mere tradition or sentiment, but for the new development given +to it in the ninth century by an obscure Persian, half conjurer, half +eye-doctor, named ‘Abdallah, son of Meymún. This man, who abhorred the +Arabs and their caliphs, devised a scheme by which the very religion of +Islám should become the instrument of its own destruction, and the +Persians should recover their power by the unconscious aid of their +conquerors. His doctrine, whilst making use of the ‘Alid sentiment of +divine right, was such that not only the enthusiasts who still wept over +the tragedy of Kerbela, but all shades of dissenters from rigid +Mohammedanism might embrace. He taught that God has always been +incarnate in some spiritual leader or “Imám,” such as Adam, Abraham, and +so on to ‘Aly. The world has never been without an Imám; but—and here +came the stroke of genius—the Imám is not always visible in the flesh. +The series of spiritual leaders descended in apostolic succession from +‘Aly was broken, but not the less was there a hidden Imám, who would +reveal himself to mankind in his own good time. When he appeared all +would recognize “the Mahdy,” and abandon the self-styled caliphs who +usurped his authority. Meanwhile those who awaited his coming must +strive to prepare men for it. Though the Imám be hidden, his doctrine +must be zealously preached, and in the absence of the mysterious being +in whom the secrets of the Most High are deposited, his missionaries +must go forth and call men to the truth. + +A widespread and admirably organized propaganda was instituted; a secret +society, skilfully graduated in advancing degrees of initiation, worked +underground throughout the Mohammedan world, but with special success in +Arabia, Mesopotamia, and North Africa. The _dá‘is_ or missionaries were +carefully chosen and trained to teach such doctrines as their converts +could bear. To the rude and uneducated they would preach what seemed the +plain lessons of the Korán, always coupled with the imminent approach of +that mysterious and attractive personality, the Mahdy. To the +philosophic they would use arguments suited to their special views, and +leading them up through the progressive stages of initiation, would +finally land them in a philosophy of complete negation. These +missionaries had nothing in common with Muslims: they were atheists +among themselves, and all things to all men. Their aims were +political—to upset Islám through itself, to dispossess the Muslims, and +to grasp their power. They made use of all forms of religion +indifferently; all were equally false to them, and all were serviceable +tools to their purpose. They cared not what means they used to secure +proselytes, to whom they confided only so much of their system as they +could safely assimilate. They employed the hallowed name of ‘Aly, and +preached the immediate advent of a Messiah, not because they believed in +either or in any caliphate or spiritual incarnation, but because if the +multitude is to be made to dance one must harp on some string, and these +strings happened to twang harmoniously in the ears of the people. + +Three signal successes rewarded the brilliant propaganda of the Shí‘a +(or Isma‘ílian) missionaries. The first was the Carmathian domination of +Arabia, Mesopotamia and Syria, in the ninth and tenth centuries; the +second was its offshoot, the Fátimid caliphate of North Africa and +Egypt; the last was the dreaded Wehmgericht of the Isma‘ílians or +“Assassins” in Persia and the Lebanon. Here we have chiefly to do with +the second, though both the Carmathians and the Assassins had their +influence upon Egypt. + +The Fátimid caliphate, taking its name from ‘Aly’s wife, the daughter of +the Prophet, was the most powerful and conspicuous result of Shí‘a +proselytism. Among the credulous Berbers the missionary had an easy +field of conquest, and when he produced a reputed descendant of ‘Aly and +Fátima in the person of “the Mahdy” ‘Obeydallah at Kayrawán, the Arab +capital of what is now called Tunisia, in 910, the revolution was +triumphant. The whole of Barbary, from Fez in Morocco to the frontier of +Egypt, which he twice invaded, bowed before the sway of the Mahdy. +Inheriting by conquest the possessions of the Aghlabid dynasty of Tunis, +who for more than a century had been the great naval power of the +central Mediterranean and held Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and Malta, the +Fátimid fleets ravaged the coasts of France and Italy, plundering, +burning, and kidnapping wherever they went. The fourth caliph of the +Mahdy’s line, el-Mo‘izz, the conqueror of Egypt, was a singularly able, +upright, politic, and intelligent man, an orator, a linguist who knew +Greek as well as Arabic and the Berber tongue, and to all appearance a +just and honest Muslim of the Shí‘a sect.[34] There was so careful a +distinction between esoteric and overt doctrine among the Shí‘a that it +is impossible to be certain, but the probability is that Mo‘izz, like +most of his successors, did not share the extreme views of the advanced +degrees of the initiate, but held Koranic doctrines tempered by ‘Alid +views and allegorical interpretation. + +Such was the Fátimid caliph who, after a progress throughout his African +dominions, and carrying his arms even to the shore of the Atlantic +(959), at length resolved to achieve the conquest of Egypt, which his +grandfather had vainly attempted, and which was the goal of his own +ambition. The barren land and unruly tribes of Barbary were not to be +compared with the fertile valley and splendid commerce of Egypt, and his +plans were carefully laid for the invasion. The conquest was an easy +triumph. Gawhar, his Roman slave from the Eastern empire, led his +100,000 men from Kayrawán in February 969. Alexandria capitulated on +liberal terms. The Egyptians, exhausted by a distressing famine followed +by plague (of which more than half a million people died in and around +Misr), led by no competent chief, despoiled by a mutinous soldiery, and +influenced by secret sympathizers with the Fátimids, made scarcely an +effort to resist. There were a few skirmishes at Giza, and then Gawhar +forced the passage of the Nile, the defenders fled, and the women of +Misr implored mercy. A full amnesty rewarded submission, pillage was +interdicted, and the Fátimid army rode into Misr on the 5th of August. + +“That very night Gawhar laid the foundations of a new city, or rather +fortified palace, destined for the reception of his sovereign. He was +encamped on the sandy waste which stretched north-east of Fustát, on the +road to Heliopolis, and there, at a distance of about a mile from the +river, he marked out the boundaries of the new capital. There were no +buildings, save the old ‘Convent of the Bones,’ nor any cultivation +except the beautiful park called ‘Kafúr’s Garden,’ to obstruct his +plans. A square [about 1200 yards each way] was pegged out with poles, +and the Maghraby astrologers, in whom Mo‘izz reposed extravagant faith, +consulted together to determine the auspicious moment for the opening +ceremony. Bells were hung on ropes from pole to pole, and at the signal +of the sages their ringing was to announce the precise moment when the +labourers were to turn the first sod. The calculations of the +astrologers were, however, anticipated by a raven, who perched on one of +the ropes and set the bells jingling, upon which every mattock was +struck into the earth, and the trenches were opened. It was an unlucky +hour: the planet Mars (el-Káhir) was in the ascendant; but it could not +be undone, and the place was accordingly named after the hostile planet, +el-Káhira, ‘the martial’ or ‘triumphant,’ in the hope that the sinister +omen might be turned to a triumphant issue. Cairo, as Káhira has come to +be called, may fairly be said to have outlived all astrological +prejudices. The name of the ‘Abbásid caliph was at once expunged from +the Friday prayers at the old mosque of ‘Amr; the black ‘Abbásid robes +were proscribed, and the preacher, in pure white, recited the _khutba_ +for the Imám Mo‘izz, _emír el-muminín_, and invoked blessings on his +ancestors, ‘Aly and Fátima and all their holy family. The call to prayer +from the minarets was adapted to Shí‘a taste. The joyful news was sent +to the Fátimid caliph on swift dromedaries, together with the heads of +the slain. Coins were struck with the special formulas of the Fátimid +creed—‘‘Aly is the noblest of [God’s] delegates, the vezír of the best +of apostles’; ‘the Imám Ma‘add calls men to profess the Unity of the +Eternal’—in addition to the usual dogmas of the Mohammedan faith. For +two centuries the mosques and the mint proclaimed the shibboleth of the +Shí‘a.”[35] + +But the change was far more than a substitution of one creed for +another: indeed, thanks no doubt to the politic tolerance of the +conqueror and the discreet avoidance of extreme Shí‘a doctrines, the +people accepted the new régime without any outburst of orthodox +fanaticism, except when the new comers flaunted the Moharram festival in +memory of the Kerbela “martyrs” in their very faces. The majority +remained unconverted to the new formulas; at least they welcomed the +restoration of orthodoxy two centuries later with equal phlegm. The real +change was political. Cairo was no longer the capital of a province of +the old caliphate, or even of a virtually independent principality +connected with that caliphate: it was the capital of a rival Power, and +that power a Mediterranean Empire. It is true the empire soon lost its +outlying African provinces and European islands, and shrank to the +dimensions of the principality of Ibn-Tulún; but the strength and the +wealth and commerce of the Fátimid kingdom were something new. The +rivalry between Cairo and Baghdád, between the vigorous young caliphate +of the Shí‘a and the decaying hierarchy of the Sunnis, had far-reaching +effects in politics and in civilization. The naval power and European +connexions of the Fátimids introduced a new element into foreign policy, +gave a stimulus to trade, and modified in various ways the civilization +of Egypt and Syria. + +On the other hand undoubtedly the isolation of Cairo tended to a +development of a separate culture which was not to its advantage. Heresy +cut it off from the great centres of intellectual life in the Arabian +world, from Baghdád, Damascus and Cordova. The old intercourse, which +brought students and professors of all parts of the Muslim empire +together in the mosques of every great city, was impossible in a capital +where the mosques were in the hands of heretics. Hence Cairo was out of +intimate touch with the progress of Muslim studies in the eleventh and +twelfth centuries, and few of the leaders of Arabic thought or +literature were found under Fátimid rule. In some branches, such as +philosophy and physical and medical science, one would expect to find +good results from the influence of Shí‘a free-thinking, and undoubtedly +some progress was made, especially by Jewish and Christian physicians; +but these exceptions do not outweigh the general loss entailed by +isolation from the rest of the intellectual world. A little later the +heretics of Cairo might have profited much by their intercourse with +Europe, but in the tenth and eleventh centuries Europe had little to +teach. + +The class that gained most by the change of government was that of the +Christian Copts. Hitherto they had had their ups and downs according to +the disposition and rapacity of different Arab and Turkish governors; +but with the advent of the Fátimid caliphs they entered upon a period of +unusual toleration and even favour. The new rulers, with one notorious +exception, were exceedingly well disposed towards their Christian +subjects, and many churches were built or restored during their reigns. + +The caliph el-‘Azíz, son of Mo‘izz, who reigned from 975 to 996, had a +Christian wife, two of his brothers-in-law were Melekite patriarchs, and +the Jacobite patriarch Ephraim and Severus bishop of Ushmuneyn were his +particular friends. The bishop was encouraged to come to the palace and +discuss theology with the chief kády, and the patriarch was allowed to +restore the church of St Mercurius (Abu-s-Seyfeyn, “the two-sworded”) +outside Misr. “In ancient times,” we are told by an Armenian writer, +“there had been a church dedicated to Saint Mercurius, on the bank of +the river, but it was ruined and turned into a storehouse for sugar- +canes. Then, in the time of this patriarch, enquiries were made about +the creed of the Christians, whether they believed in the truth or in a +lie. So the Christians assembled and went out to the mountain, and the +Muslims and Jews went out at the same time on account of a certain +event. Many of the Muslim _sayyids_ came forward, and prayed, and cried +_Allahu akbar_, and implored the assistance of God, but no sign appeared +to them. Then the Jews followed them, and still no result followed. Then +the patriarch came forward, and the tanner, for whom God had performed a +miracle, followed him; and all the orthodox people followed them. They +prayed to the most high God, and burnt incense, and cried _Kyrie +eleison_ three times; and God showed his wonders, and the mountain +moved: namely, that part of the Mukattam hills which is near the hill of +Al-Kabsh, between Cairo and Misr. This miracle took place through the +faith of the tanner, who had plucked out his eye in the presence of +Al-‘Aziz and the chief men of his government and the kadis of the +Muslims. When Al-‘Aziz had witnessed this great miracle, he said: ‘It is +enough, O patriarch; we recognize what God has done for you’; and then +he added: ‘Desire of me what thou choosest, and I will do it for thee.’ +The patriarch, however, refused with thanks; but Al-‘Aziz begged him to +ask for something, and did not cease until the patriarch had asked for a +certain church which had fallen into ruin. So Al-‘Aziz commanded that +this church should be restored for the patriarch, and it is said to have +been the church of Saint Mercurius.”[36] The patriarch would not accept +the offer of money for the restoration, but paid for it himself, and the +work was carried out under a guard of the caliph’s troops to protect the +Christians from the “common people of the Muslims,” who had no patience +with such concessions to the “polytheists.” + +One of the vezírs or prime-ministers of ‘Azíz was a converted Jew, +another was the Christian Ibn-Nestorius. The Muslims naturally resented +this unusual toleration, and lampooned the caliph, but the harím was on +the side of the Christians, and as usual had its way. Even under the +caliph Hákim, the exception referred to, who certainly at one time +persecuted the Copts cruelly, the great posts of state were still held +by Christians; and though there was much confiscation and extortion +under the vezír Yazúry in the middle of the eleventh century, it seems +to have arisen more from fiscal necessities than from religious +antipathy. The great influence of the Armenian vezírs in the latter part +of that century evidently promoted a good feeling, for in the twelfth we +find the caliph Háfiz receiving lectures in history twice a week from +the Armenian patriarch, and several of the later caliphs would visit the +shaded gardens of Coptic monasteries, where they were hospitably +welcomed by the monks and made suitable returns for their cheer. We read +of handsome contributions for the support of convents and churches. The +far from exemplary caliph Ámir even had a monk for his right-hand man, +and used often to use a pavilion which he had built at a monastery near +Giza as a hunting lodge, paying 1000 dirhems to the monks at every +visit. He took pleasure in standing in the priest’s place in their +church, but scrupulously entered backwards in order to avoid the +appearance of bowing when passing through the low door. The last of the +Fátimid caliphs, el-‘Ádid, had also his favourite monastic retreat in +the convent of the Virgin some miles out of Cairo, where he would take +the air and gaze upon the “blessed Nile.”[37] + +If the churches were cared for, the mosques were not neglected; and +though the Fátimid period is not rich in the multitude of mosques +erected by private benefactors which distinguishes the later Mamlúk +period, it boasts at least the two greatest congregational mosques +(_gámi‘_) of Cairo proper, both of which were among the early +preoccupations of the new dynasty. Gawhar’s first step, after beginning +the walls of the palace-city of Káhira, was to lay the foundations of +the mosque which stands to this day, known to all the world as el-Azhar, +“the Resplendent.” The day of its foundation was Sunday the 3rd of +April, 970, and it was finished on the 24th of June, 972. In 988 it was +specially devoted to the use of the learned and became what it has been +ever since, one of the chief Universities of Islám. Here to this day +multitudes of students gather from all parts of the Muslim world, from +the Gold Coast to the Malay States, each nation to the special _riwák_ +or portico assigned to its use, and here they receive from learned +sheykhs instruction in the various branches of the old Arabic +curriculum—theology, exegesis, traditions, jurisprudence, grammar, +prosody, logic, rhetoric, algebra, etc. Over nine thousand students +still (1901) attend the lectures of 239 professors in the Azhar, and not +one of them is called upon to pay a piastre in fees. The learned men of +Cairo and many foreign cities willingly impart their knowledge without +reward, and eke out a living by private tuition and copying manuscripts. +The foreign students not only pay no fees but receive rations of food +from certain bequests. One may regret the limited scope and fanatical +tendency of the Azhar lectures, but at least it is a noble example of +free education, open to the poorest, no matter what his race or +language, and given to all without distinction of class. The knots of +students sitting round their master in earnest attention, or swaying to +and fro as they commit his dicta to memory, are a spectacle not easily +forgotten. In every detail they carry us back to the Middle Ages of +Arabic culture, and show us a zeal for learning, neither tainted by +prize-hunting nor cramped by examinations, which may teach even Western +universities something that they lack. + +Very little of the Azhar represents the original building. It has been +repeatedly restored, and was largely reconstructed in the eighteenth and +the middle of the nineteenth century, and, though there are some fine +Kufic friezes and keelform (Persian) arches characteristic of the +Fátimid period, its present aspect is modern. The square court, however, +covers the same ground as it did when in 973 the caliph Mo‘izz, after +making his splendid entry, preceded by the coffins of his ancestors, +into the new city built by his faithful general, and totally ignoring +the old metropolis then _en fête_ for his reception, himself conducted +the prayers on the festival following the fasting month, delivered the +_Khutba_ or sermon with his wonted unction, and then headed the +procession of his troops, escorted by his four sons in armour, and +preceded by two elephants, back to the palace which Gawhar had prepared +for him. The fortified enclosure which has given its name to Cairo, +though sometimes called _el-Medína_, “the City,” was never intended to +be an Egyptian metropolis. It was to be the residence of the caliph and +his court, his slaves and officials, and his African troops. The public +of Misr had no access to it; none might pass through the gates without a +permit, and even ambassadors from foreign states were obliged to +dismount and were led into the palace between guards after the Byzantine +custom. Káhira was in fact a royal compound or enclosure, not a public +city. Its high walls and guarded gates symbolized the seclusion and +mystery in which the sacred person of the caliph was wrapped, and its +familiar epithet “the Guarded City” (el-Káhira el-Mahrúsa) illustrates +its privacy. + +The original walls were built of large bricks, nearly two feet long and +fifteen inches broad, and the thickness of the walls was such that two +horsemen could ride abreast upon them. The Topographer in 1400 measured +the last fragment of this first wall, and says that none of it +afterwards remained to be seen.[38] The original enclosure was about 100 +feet smaller every way than the later enclosure built in 1087, and we +may easily realize the length of the city of Gawhar by remembering that +the present Bab-el-Futúh (with the mosque of el-Hákim) and the Bab- +Zuweyla (with the mosque of el-Muayyad) stand a little outside the +original enclosure; whilst its breadth extended from the Bab-el- +Ghureyyib beyond the Azhar on the east to the Khalíg or canal on the +west. The western boundary running beside the canal is still recorded in +the street called Beyn-es-Sureyn, “Between the walls,” at the top of the +Musky. The enclosure was thus about 1200 yards each way, and formed an +area of less than half a square mile. + +About the centre was the square called Beyn-el-Kasreyn, “Between the +Palaces,” a name still preserved in the original site in part of the +street known as the Coppersmiths’ Market (Suk-en-Nahhasín), now flanked +by several noble mosques of much later date. The name explains itself: +the square, which was far broader than the present thoroughfare, and +formed a parade ground on which ten thousand troops could be marshalled, +separated the two palaces which faced it, and served as the meeting +place of the city. The Great Palace of Mo‘izz lay on the east—the Khán- +el-Khalíly stands on a corner of its vast ground, and the Hasaneyn at +another corner—and the Lesser West Palace, built by ‘Azíz a little +later, faced it on the other side (where the Máristán of Kalaún occupies +a portion of its site), and on the back looked upon the spacious “Garden +of Kafúr,” where the Ikhshíd once had his pleasure-house. Makrízy +devotes nearly two hundred pages to the description of these wonderful +palaces. “We read of four thousand chambers;—of the Golden Gate which +opened to the Golden Hall, a gorgeous pavilion where the caliph, seated +on his golden throne, surrounded by his chamberlains and gentlemen-in- +waiting (generally Greeks or Sudánís), surveyed from behind a screen of +golden filigree the festivals of Islám;—of the Emerald Hall with its +beautiful pillars of marble;—the Great Diván, where he sat on Mondays +and Thursdays at a window beneath a cupola;—and the Porch where he +listened every evening while the oppressed and wronged came below and +cried the _credo_ of the Shí‘a till he heard their griefs and gave +redress.” + +These various buildings composing the Great Palace were not the work of +a single year or of one ruler. Gawhar began the palace on the same night +that he marked out the foundations of the city, in July 969; two gates +were finished in the following March, and a wall was carried round the +palace in 970-1. Writing of the wall three-quarters of a century later, +Násir-i-Khusrau says that from outside the city the palace of the +caliphs looked like a mountain, by reason of its lofty mass of +buildings; but when one drew near one could see nothing of it on account +of its high wall.[39] This original palace was designed by the caliph +Mo‘izz himself, but it did not comprise half the splendid halls +described by the Topographer. The next caliph ‘Azíz built the “Golden +Hall” and the “Great Diván,” as well as the smaller Western Palace and +the Pearl Pavilion in Kafúr’s Garden. Later caliphs and vezírs added and +altered, and the “Splendid Palaces” (el-Kusúr ez-Záhira), as they were +collectively called, included numerous separate mansions or suites of +rooms of various dates. The Great Palace alone had ten gates, besides a +subterraneous passage by which the caliph could cross on his mule, led +by slave girls, to the Western Palace, which was specially reserved for +the harím. In the eleventh century there were twelve thousand servants +in the Palaces, and including the women the inmates were reckoned at +thirty thousand. + +M. Ravaisse has reconstructed the Fátimid palaces, and even drawn plans +of them from the Topographer’s descriptions, in two elaborate +memoirs,[40] and though some of the details must be regarded as +tentative and open to revision, the general results probably represent +the actual arrangement of the Fátimid city. According to these +interesting researches the Great East Palace comprised principally three +large quadrangles of unequal sizes forming three quarters of a square, +the fourth or N.E. quarter being occupied by the Court of the Festival, +an open space between the Great Palace and the Palace of the Vezírs, +where the people could make merry on the ‘Id days. This Great Palace, +flanked by the Vezirate and the Azhar, covered the space from the +present Khan-el-Khalíly and Hasaneyn to the Gemalíya street (where the +monastic mosque of Beybars the Gashnekír stands). The various halls, +apartments, and court offices were arranged about the quadrangles, and +stables and stores formed outbuildings. On the other side of the Beyn- +el-Kasreyn, the West Palace ran from where the Maristán now stands to +the Hárat Bargawán, with two wings jutting forward at each end to +enclose the Beyn-el-Kasreyn; whilst the space between the West Palace +and the west wall was filled by the spacious Garden of Kafúr with its +various kiosques looking on the canal. The rest of the city enclosure, +outside the palaces, was occupied by the quarters (Hára) of the various +divisions of the Fátimid army, such as the Gawdaris, the Deylemis, the +Kitáma, the Barkis, the Utúfis, the Zawíla, and the north and south +Greek quarters (Hárat-er-Rúm), and so forth. The gates of the city were +the (old) Gates of Succour, Bab-en-Nasr, and of Conquests, Bab-el-Futúh, +on the north; the Gate of the Bridge (B.-el-Kántara) leading to Gawhar’s +bridge over the canal, the B.-el-Farag, also called the Gate of the +Sha‘ríya (a Berber tribe), and the Gate of Sa‘áda, named after a general +of el-Mo‘izz, and the Wicket Gate (Bab-el-Khawkha) on the west, opening +to the canal; the old double Gate of Zuweyla[41] on the south; and on +the east the Burnt Gate (B.-el-Mahrúk, so called because burnt down by +some fugitive Mamlúks in the thirteenth century), the New Gate (B.-el- +Gedíd, built by Hákim), and the Gate of the Barka troops (B.-el- +Barkíya), now known as the B.-el-Ghureyyib. + +Some of the modern superstitions connected with the Gate of Zuweyla have +been mentioned before, but it has always been a haunted spot, and the +fact that executions took place just outside did not improve its +reputation. The Topographer records that the original gate, which stood +beside the “oratory of Shem, the son of Noah,” consisted of two arches, +one of which was known as the “Gate of the Arch.” This was the gate +through which el-Mo‘izz entered when he made his state progress into the +new city of Káhira, and all the people followed his example: but the +other arch was considered unlucky and no one cared to go under it. “This +[second] gate no longer remains,” says Makrízy, “nor is there any trace +of it, but the place where it stood is called el-Haggarín, where musical +instruments, as drums, lutes, and such-like are sold; and it is still +notorious among the people that whoever passes that way will not +accomplish his wishes. Some say that the reason of this saying is +because it is the place of sale for musical instruments, which are held +in disrepute, and the abode of musicians and male and female singers; +but the case is not as they pretend, for the saying was current among +the people of el-Káhira from the time when el-Mo‘izz entered, before +this place was a market for musical instruments and the haunt of the +disorderly.”[42] + +Such topographical details are chiefly interesting to the antiquary. We +must search the records of travellers for more graphic descriptions. +Strangers unfortunately were rare in so jealously secluded a sanctum as +the Fátimid palace, and there are consequently few travellers’ pictures +to add to the researches of the Topographer. The Persian Násir-i-Khusrau +was indeed admitted in 1047, but he is disappointingly discreet in his +account, and we gain only a confused but gorgeous impression of the +great throne-room with hunting-scenes carved on the gold throne, which +was screened by gold lattice and approached by silver steps. The best +description occurs in William of Tyre’s account of the mission of the +Crusaders in 1167, when Amalric was posing as the protector of the +caliph, though it may well be that the palace had greatly changed in the +two centuries that had passed since its foundation. “The introduction of +Christian ambassadors to the sacred presence, where few even of the most +exalted Muslims were admitted, was unprecedented; but Amalric was in a +position to dictate his own terms. Permission was granted, and Hugh of +Cæsarea with Geoffrey Fulcher the Templar were selected for the unique +embassy. The vezír himself conducted them with every detail of oriental +ceremony and display to the Great Palace of the Fátimids. They were led +by mysterious corridors and through guarded doors, where stalwart +Sudánis saluted with naked swords. They reached a spacious court, open +to the sky, and surrounded by arcades resting on marble pillars; the +panelled ceilings were carved and inlaid in gold and colours; the +pavement was rich mosaic. The unaccustomed eyes of the rude knights +opened wide with wonder at the taste and refinement that met them at +every step;—here they saw marble fountains, birds of many notes and +wondrous plumage, strangers to the western world; there, in a further +hall, more exquisite even than the first, ‘a variety of animals such as +the ingenious hand of the painter might depict, or the license of the +poet invent, or the mind of the sleeper conjure up in the visions of the +night,—such, indeed, as the regions of the East and the South bring +forth, but the West sees never, and scarcely hears of.’ + +“At last, after many turns and windings, they reached the throne room, +where the multitude of the pages and their sumptuous dress proclaimed +the splendour of their lord. Thrice did the vezír, ungirding his sword, +prostrate himself to the ground, as though in humble supplication to his +god; then, with a sudden rapid sweep, the heavy curtains broidered with +gold and pearls were drawn aside, and on a golden throne, robed in more +than regal state, the caliph sat revealed. + +“The vezír humbly presented the foreign knights, and set forth in lowly +words the urgent danger from without, and the great friendship of the +king of Jerusalem. The caliph, a swarthy youth emerging from +boyhood,—_fuscus, procerus corpore, facie venusta,_—replied with suave +dignity. He was willing, he said, to confirm in the amplest way the +engagements made with his beloved ally. But when asked to give his hand +in pledge of faithfulness, he hesitated, and a thrill of indignation at +the stranger’s presumption ran through the listening court. After a +pause, however, the caliph offered his hand—gloved as it was—to Sir +Hugh. The blunt knight spoke him straight: ‘My lord, troth has no +covering: in the good faith of princes, all is naked and open.’ Then at +last, very unwillingly, as though derogating from his dignity, the +caliph, forcing a smile, drew off the glove and put his hand in Hugh’s, +swearing word by word to keep the covenant truly and in all good +faith.”[43] + +There is no doubt that the Fátimid caliphs were the most sumptuous +monarchs that ever ruled in Egypt. Mo‘izz himself was no sybarite. He +attended personally and assiduously to the details of administration, +looked to the justice of the law courts, managed the army upon which his +power depended, and built a new dock at Maks, lower down the river than +the former dockyards of Roda and Misr, and near the present Ezbekíya. +Maks remained the dock and port of Cairo until the shifting of the Nile +bed brought Bulák to the surface. Six hundred ships were soon afterwards +built there, and some of Mo‘izz’s vessels were seen in 1047 by Násir-i- +Khusrau beached at Maks, and were found to measure about 275 feet in +length by 110 feet in the beam.[44] But hard-working and prudent as he +was, he loved display. He would go in state to cut the dam of the canal, +and spent large sums on the brocaded covering for the Kaaba at Mekka—the +holy city now acknowledged his supremacy—which was exhibited to the +people at the annual Feast of Sacrifice. The palace buildings were all +planned by his own hands; Gawhar had only been his clerk of the works; +and the profusion of the new city argued the luxurious taste and the +prodigious resources of the caliph. The wealth of the Fátimids recorded +by the historians seems almost incredible. We read of two daughters of +Mo‘izz, one of whom left about a million and a half in gold (2,700,000 +dinárs), whilst the other’s numerous jewel-rooms and coffers, +containing, among others, five sacks of emeralds, 3000 silver vessels, +and 30,000 Sicilian embroideries, exhausted forty pounds of wax in +sealing them up for her executors. Mo‘izz himself bought a silk curtain +from Persia for nearly £12,000, on which the countries of the world were +depicted and their cities; and his wife spent much treasure in 966 on +her mosque in the Karáfa, designed by el-Hasan the Persian and decorated +by Basra painters. + +One advantage of heresy was the toleration of artistic ideas that were +abhorrent to the orthodox, and the Fátimids encouraged, if not portrait +painting, at least the representation of human beings in art, which was +held to be distinctly forbidden by the Prophet.[45] The mosque of the +cemetery called the Karáfa, however, transcended anything ever attempted +before in Egypt, if we except the stories of Khumáraweyh’s palace in +“the Wards.” Its plan was the ordinary square quadrangle surrounded by +cloisters, like the Azhar, but the decoration was remarkable. The +fourteen square doors leading into the _liwán_ or sanctuary were +surmounted by arches resting on triple marble columns, painted blue, +red, and green; the ceilings were also painted in various colours by +artists from Basra. Opposite the middle door was an arch on which a +bridge was painted, with steps of various colours, which looked real. +Painters used to come to see it, but they could not copy it. We read of +two rival artists, el-Kasír and Ibn-‘Azíz of Chaldæa, protégés of the +vezír el-Yazúry, who painted figures, the first of a dancing girl in a +white dress, standing against the black background of an arch, seeming +as though she stood inside it, and the second a similar girl in red who +appeared to be standing out in front of a yellow arch. There was in a +house in the Karáfa a picture by el-Kettámy, one of the decorators of +this mosque, which represented Joseph in the pit so that he seemed to +stand out in relief.[46] + +The money to pay for the outgoings of the palace, with its twenty to +thirty thousand inmates, and all the luxury it implied, was partly +obtained by a more rigorous collection of the taxes and arrears than +heretofore, and by the substitution of a central tax office in the old +emírate house next to the mosque of Ibn-Tulún in place of the wasteful +and corrupt system of local collectors and tax-farmers. In a single day +the city of Misr (still in its prime) contributed from £26,000 to +£62,000 in taxes, according to the season. All taxes had to be paid in +the new Fátimid coinage, and the ‘Abbásid money was put out of currency. + +The next caliph el-‘Azíz was noted for his judgment in gems, and set a +number of new fashions in gold-thread turbans, jewelled harness scented +with ambergris, and gold-inlaid armour for his horses, and luxuries for +the table, such as truffles from Mukattam and fish fresh from the sea. +Like Khumáraweyh he was fond of strange beasts, and imported birds and +animals from the Sudán. But he shared with his father the statesmanlike +qualities that no luxury could enfeeble. He built a fleet to fight the +emperor Basil; personally waged a successful campaign in orthodox Syria, +which never became reconciled to the Fátimid supremacy; and he gave +Egypt an interval of unbroken peace. His name was commemorated in the +Friday prayer in the mosques from Arabia to the Atlantic, and he never +failed to stand before the people in the Azhar and conduct the service +as their spiritual as well as temporal head. + +[Illustration: RUINED MOSQUE OF EL-HAKIM] + +The mosque known as el-Hákim’s owed its foundation at the close of 990 +to el-‘Azíz and his vezír Ibn-Killis, who completed it sufficiently to +hold the Friday prayers there a year later. The decoration, minarets, +and other accessories were not finished till the reign of his son el- +Hákim, who set the work in hand in 1003, and placed the final +inscription on the pulpit in March 1013. Hence this second +congregational mosque of Káhira, originally known as the “New Mosque” or +“The Brilliant” (el-Anwar, in obvious imitation of the name of el- +Azhar), took its most usual title from el-Hákim. In the course of its +history it has suffered even worse indignities than the Old Mosque of +‘Amr. When the Crusaders occupied Cairo in 1167 they turned part of the +mosque of el-Hákim into a church. Under the Ayyúbid restoration of +orthodox Islam, the Azhar was disused for a time, as being the chief +seat of heresy, and the mosque of el-Hákim became the official place of +worship. Afterwards it seems to have been used for stables, and in the +summer of 1303 it was terribly shattered by a great earthquake, and +restored in the following year by Beybars the Taster. By the time that +the Topographer wrote his account of it about 1420, the mosque was again +in ruins, by fire and neglect, and its roof was crumbling piece by +piece. Since then it has fallen on still more evil days. Its court has +served in turn as a rope-walk, a drying ground, a common throughfare, a +playground, which you entered through a café, a brewery, or a bead +factory. The only honourable use it has been turned to is that of a +Museum of Arab Art, which for the past twenty years has occupied part of +the arcades of the east end, where the noble arches and Kufic +inscriptions still preserve something of their ancient grandeur, and +formed a fit shrine for many beautiful and curious works of Saracenic +art. + +Melancholy as this vast empty court surrounded by decayed walls and +ruined arches appears in the present day, there are points of great +interest in the mosque of el-Hákim. The arches are the only exceptions +to the Persian shape (“keelform”—two arcs terminating in tangential +lines _at each end_) which is otherwise universal in the architecture of +the Fátimid period. This is doubtless due to its early date and obvious +imitation of the mosque of Ibn-Tulún. Still more remarkable are its +minarets, commonly called _mibkharas_ or censers from their peculiar +shape. The heavy square bases, however, have nothing to do with the +original minarets, the lower parts of which, built of carefully dressed +stone, with traces of Fátimid inscriptions, may still be traced inside +these ugly buttresses. A minute examination made by Herz Bey and M. van +Berchem established beyond a doubt the fact that the brick minarets +belong to the hasty restoration of 1304, after the earthquake. Beybars +did not trouble to rebuild the minarets in their former style, but put +brick tops, and probably shored up the old bases with the clumsy cubical +casings which have puzzled so many archæologists and suggested strange +theories of the early forms of minarets. The cubes may be later, +however, and may have had some connexion with the military defences of +the neighbouring city gate. The remains of the original stone minarets +inside these casings are specially interesting since they are the only +definite evidence we possess (save the small brick minaret of the mosque +el-Guyúshy) as to the construction of minarets of the Fátimid epoch, of +which Makrízy was evidently unaware when he wrote that no stone minarets +were erected previously to that of Kalaún in 1284. They are precisely +similar in construction to the later Mamlúk minarets, starting from a +square base, changing to an octagon, resolved into a cylinder. A spiral +staircase within led up to windows whence the muezzins chanted the call +to prayer.[47] + +The caliph Hákim is one of the best known characters in Egyptian +history, yet a character so contradictory and bizarre that his +biographers are inevitably reduced to the weak conclusion of explaining +his conduct by the unsatisfactory solution of mania. He was the only son +of the exemplary ‘Azíz and his Christian wife,—the sister of two +patriarchs,—and is another witness to the truth of the saying that +clergymen’s relations are no better than other folk. Emerging from the +upper branches of a fig tree at the age of eleven to enter upon the +dazzling lustre of the throne, the boy had an unfortunate training. His +governor, the Slavonian eunuch Bargawán,—whose name is still to be read +in one of the lanes off the Beyn-el-Kasreyn—amused himself in the Pearl +Palace in the Garden of Kafúr, whilst the Berber and Turkish troops +fought each other in the streets. One of Hákim’s early experiences was +the presentation of the Berber general’s head by the victorious Turkish +guard. It was but a short step to the murder of the regent, and after +four years of very lax tutelage the youth of fifteen assumed full +powers. + +“As the young caliph came more before the public, the eccentricities of +his character began to appear. His strange face, with its terrible blue +eyes, made people shrink; his big voice made them tremble. His tutor had +called him ‘a lizard,’ and he had a creepy slippery way of gliding among +his subjects that explained the nickname. He had a passion for darkness, +would summon his council to meet at night, and would ride about the +streets on his grey ass night after night, spying into the ways and +opinions of the people under pretence of inspecting the market weights +and measures. Night was turned into day by his command. All business and +catering was ordered to take place after sunset. The shops had to be +opened and the houses illuminated to serve his whim, and when the poor +people overdid the thing and began to frolic in the unwonted hours, +repressive orders were issued; women forbidden to leave their homes, and +men to sit in the booths. Shoemakers were ordered to make no outdoor +boots for women, so that they might not have the wherewithal to stir +abroad, and the ladies of Cairo were not only enjoined on no account to +allow themselves to be seen at the lattice-windows, but might not even +take the air on the flat roofs of their houses. Stringent regulations +were issued about food and drink. Hákim was a zealous teetotaller, as +all Muslims are expected to be. Beer was forbidden, wine was +confiscated, vines cut down, even dried raisins were contraband; +malukhíya (Jews’ mallow) was not to be eaten, and honey was seized and +poured into the Nile. Games, such as the Egyptian chess, were +prohibited, and the chessboards burnt. Dogs were to be killed wherever +found in the streets, but the finest cattle could not be slaughtered +save at the Feast of Sacrifice. Those who ventured to disobey these +decrees were scourged and beheaded, or put to death by some of the novel +forms of torture which the ingenious caliph delighted in inventing. A +good many of these strange regulations were no doubt inspired by a +genuine reforming spirit, but it was the spirit of a mad reformer. The +lively ladies of Cairo have always needed a tight hand over them, but +who could expect to restrain a woman by confiscating her boots? The +prohibition of intoxicating liquors, gambling, and public amusements, +was in keeping with the character of a sour and bitter puritan, and was +doubtless intended as much to improve the morals as to vex the souls of +his subjects. But the nightly wanderings, the needless restrictions and +harassing regulations concerning immaterial details, were signs of an +unbalanced mind. Hákim may have meant well according to his lights, but +his lights were strangely prismatic.” + +It is difficult to discover the method in this madness. At first +Christians were tolerated; then, about 1005, began a course of +contemptible persecution, petty annoyances, foolish badges and liveries, +and other humiliations, followed by wholesale confiscations and +destruction of churches. But the Muslims fared almost as ill. Vezírs, +whether Christians or Muslims, were indiscriminately assassinated or +executed. The great Gawhar’s son was treacherously murdered in the +palace. Officials of all grades and all creeds were barbarously tortured +and wantonly killed. A distinguished general, after putting down a +rebellion which kept Egypt in a tumult for two years, happened to +disturb Hákim when he was cutting up a murdered child, and paid for his +indiscretion with his life. Yet at the very time when these horrors were +being enacted, the young caliph was busily superintending the decoration +of the mosque that bears his name,[48] and also founding the remarkable +institution called the “Hall of Science” (Dar-el-‘Ilm), in the precincts +of the Great Palace, where learned men of all shades of opinion met +together and discussed everything under the sun with the resources of a +well-appointed library. These meetings of a parliament of religions +recall the debates of Akbar’s later “Hall of Worship” at Agra, nor is +this the only point of resemblance between the two sovereigns, +contrasted as they are in most respects. Akbar allowed himself to be +worshipped as a deity, and Hákim came at last to a similar result, and +both were led to it by Shí‘a influences. + +No doubt those long lonely rides on his grey ass about the desolate +Mukattam hills, those nights in the observatory on the slopes where he +worked out his astrological chimeras, ministered to a mind deeply imbued +with the mystical teaching of the Shí‘a. He was the Imám, through whom +God revealed Himself to the ignorant world; he was the only possessor of +the divine secrets; it was an easy step, and a logical, to argue that he +was the incarnation of the deity—that he was God. It took more than +twenty years to bring him to this point, but aided by the preaching of +some Persian mystics he arrived there about 1018. It is true his +preachers had poor success in their mission of proclaiming the divinity +of Hákim. One was set upon and murdered to the joy of the orthodox; +others desecrated the Old Mosque of ‘Amr with their blasphemy, and the +people rose and slew them; Darazy, who afterwards gave his name to the +strange sect of the Druzes in the Lebanon, was hunted to the palace and +with difficulty saved by the caliph’s personal interposition and ready +lie. Nobody accepted the new doctrine, monstrous to orthodox ears; and +probably the bulk of the people were not even moderate Shí‘a but really +Sunnis of the old school. Misr was in an uproar, and within an ace of a +revolution; but the negro troops did their savage work, the old capital +was looted, houses were burst open, young girls dragged away, and a +reign of terror silenced the outcry. The tortured people gathered in the +mosques and prayed for help. + +Help came, but from an unexpected quarter. The black troops had gone too +far, and their rivals, the Berbers and Turks, less out of humanity than +mere jealousy of power, joined together in suppressing the common enemy. +Even Hákim lost his control over the army. He also set a powerful +influence against him in the harím. He slandered his sister’s chastity. +The Princess Royal refused after this to stand between her brother and +his fate. A conspiracy was formed and when, on the 13th of February +1021, Hákim took one of his accustomed rides to the hills, dauntless and +unconcerned as ever, he never returned. His ass and his coat, slashed +with dagger cuts, were found, but his body had disappeared. For a long +time people fearfully expected his return, as the Druzes in the Lebanon +do to this day. + +After so horrible a nightmare Cairo stood in sore need of rest. It came, +but not at once. Military tyranny was succeeded by the corrupt rule of a +court clique; a terrible famine in 1025 drove the starving people to +highway robbery; the treasury was exhausted, the very slaves of the +palace mutinied, and Syria was in open revolt, whilst the new caliph, +Hákim’s son, amused himself with singers and dancers and bricked up +young girls to starve to death in the mosque. The luck of the Fátimids +was not yet exhausted, however; and good Niles, a vigorous suppression +of the Syrian rebellion by an energetic viceroy, and a temporary +quieting down of the soldiers’ jealousies, gave Egypt a quarter of a +century of comparative tranquillity. The valley of the Nile was now +almost all that was left to the Fátimids. Their great Barbary dominions +had completely fallen away by 1046, and the old Mediterranean supremacy +had departed for ever. Syria was held with difficulty by force of arms, +and though Arabia, from Medina to the Yemen and Hadramawt, yielded +homage to the Egyptian caliphs, its Shí‘a emír was nothing less than an +independent sovereign. The extraordinary fact that for forty weeks in +1058-9 the Fátimid caliph was prayed for in the mosques of orthodox +Baghdád[49] testifies to political intrigues in the eastern caliphate +rather than to any real access of power to the Fátimids. + +In Egypt, however, they were still undisturbed. A new caliph, el- +Mustánsir, a baby of eight months, succeeded to the throne in 1036, and +kept it, by no special virtue or effort of his own, until 1094, and his +long occupation—it can hardly be called reign—comprised alternations of +surprising prosperity and desperate distress. In spite of the evil +influence of his mother, a Sudány black, who imported many of her savage +compatriots to overawe the capital, the country enjoyed exceptional +tranquillity in the middle of the eleventh century. We have the evidence +of Násir-i-Khusrau, in 1047-9, who states unconditionally that Egypt was +then in affluence, and that he had never known such tranquillity and +security as he saw there. The caliph Mustansir was exceedingly popular, +and no one went in fear of violence or rapacity from his government. +Order reigned supreme, and the very jewellers and moneychangers did not +trouble to shut the doors of their shops against thieves. The shops in +Cairo itself were reckoned at over twenty thousand, and all were the +property of the caliph, and paid him from two to ten dinárs a month. He +owned, it was said, 20,000 houses, five or six storeys high, let out in +lodgings, at monthly rents averaging eleven dinárs (or £70 a year). The +houses were well built of good stone, not brick, and were separated by +delightful gardens. There were then no city walls (the first walls +having fallen to ruin, and the second not built till forty years later), +but the lofty houses themselves, says the traveller, were almost like +fortifications, and each palace or mansion was a castle by itself.[50] +There was a space of a mile between Cairo and Misr, covered with gardens +and country-houses, but flooded at the time of the inundation so that it +looked like a sea. + +The Persian saw one of the great ceremonies of the Cairo year, the +cutting of the dam of the canal at Misr by Mustansir in person. The +caliph rode at the head of ten thousand horsemen, whose saddles and +harness and horse-armour were adorned with gold and precious stones, +with silken housings embroidered with the caliph’s name. Led camels bore +litters richly decorated, and even the mules had their share of jewelled +harness. Regiment after regiment the army defiled towards the mouth of +the canal: Berbers of the Kitáma tribe, 20,000 strong, descended from +the veterans of Mo‘izz; Maghrabis, 15,000; Masmúda, 20,000; Turks and +Persians, called “the Easterns,” though born in Egypt, 10,000; Bedawis +from the Higáz, 15,000; Sudány blacks, 30,000; slaves, chamberlains, +officials of all ranks, poets and doctors, princes from Morocco, from +the Yemen, from Nubia, Abyssinia, Asia Minor, Georgia, Turkistan, and +even the sons of a sultan of Delhi, whose mother had settled at Cairo. +The caliph himself, a handsome and amiable-looking young man, clean +shaved, and dressed in a long robe of pure white, rode a mule without +any ornaments. Three hundred Persians of Deylem on foot, dressed in +Greek brocade, formed his escort, carrying axes and pikes. A great +dignitary bore the parasol of state beside him, and eunuchs burned +incense on either hand. All the people fell on their faces as the caliph +passed to the silken tent at the mouth of the canal, and as soon as he +cast a javelin at the dam they fell to with pick and shovel, and the +Nile flowed in. Then all the world went sailing on the river in great +joy, headed by a boatful of deaf and dumb for the sake of luck. + +The Persian was fortunate in the time of his sojourn in Egypt. Very evil +days were in store for it, in which Cairo suffered its first spoliation +since its foundation a century before. For nine years (1050-8) an able +vezír, el-Yazúry, kept the upper hand over the various factions. He did +his best to deal with the ever-recurring menace of famine, and it is +possible that the ruins of “Joseph’s granaries” near Masr-el-‘Atíka, +which Benjamin of Tudela mentions as early as 1170, represent the +storehouses for corn which he laid up against years of scarcity. In +those days there was no Willcocks or Scott Moncrieff to plan barrages +and dams, and make the great river the servant of the poorest felláh. If +the Nile at the season of inundation did not rise above the lines on the +Nilometer at Roda known by the ominous names of the degrees of Munkir +and Nakír, the two angels of the grave, a famine inevitably ensued, and +with the famine came too often plague, and misery and hunger led to +disorder and crime. The cause and effect recurred with the regularity of +a machine. Yazúry’s granaries staved off the danger for a while at the +capital; but after he was poisoned in 1058, there was no one to control +the warring factions. Forty changes of vezírs in nine years show the +instability of the government. The caliph listened to the advice of +anybody, and men of straw formed his council. The real rulers were the +Turkish troops, who united with the Berbers and drove the hated Sudánis +out of Cairo. The blacks established themselves in Upper Egypt, where +their license terrified the people and prevented cultivation; the +Berbers, expelled in turn, overran the Delta and deliberately destroyed +the irrigation system in order to starve the fellahín. Meanwhile the +Turks looted the capital, despoiled the beautiful palaces of the +caliphs, dispersed their priceless collections[51] of works of art, +precious stones and jewellery, and worst of all broke up their +incomparable library of 100,000 manuscripts—some of them books which +orientalists still search for in vain—and used these treasures of +learning to mend their boots, to light their fires, or even threw them +wantonly out on the rubbish heaps. + +Upper and Lower Egypt being held by predatory bands of Sudánis and +Berbers, the capital was cut off from supplies when the great famine +began in 1066. Seven years it lasted without a sign of relief, and Egypt +was nearly ruined. Terror of the disbanded troops in the provinces +paralysed the fellahín, and nothing was done to mitigate the effects of +the low Niles or to sow for the next season. Cairo and Misr, deprived of +their usual supplies from the provinces, felt the scarcity most +severely. We read of £8 being paid for a loaf of bread, of a house +bartered for a quarter of flour, of ladies of quality throwing away +their useless jewellery which no one would take in exchange for food, +and of horses, asses, and even dogs and cats, bought at high prices and +hungrily devoured. Soon there was not a beast to be killed, and the +caliph’s stable was brought so low that his starved grooms could only +muster three sorry nags. The people began to kidnap and eat each other. +Human flesh was sold by the butchers. Then came the plague and mowed +down every soul in house after house with its sudden secret scythe. +Famine and plague are no respecters of persons. The great suffered alike +with the poor. Proud noblemen tried to earn a crust of bread by serving +in the public baths. The caliph himself, despoiled by the Turks and +deserted by his household—even his wife and daughters fled to Baghdád to +escape the pest—owed his daily rations of two loaves to the charity of a +scholar’s daughter. + +Those seven lean years of indescribable misery and crime had never +before been approached in Egypt. At last they came to an end. The +harvest of 1073 was bountiful, the leader of the Turks was “cut in +pieces small,” and a great vezír came to the rescue of the tottering +State (1074). This was Bedr el Gemály, for whom the caliph sent in his +distress. Bedr was an Armenian, but not a Christian, and began his +career as a slave. His marked ability had raised him to such high +offices as the governorship of Damascus and afterwards of ‘Akka (Acre). +He was the man for the crisis, and by a fortunate omen a Korán reader +was actually reciting to the caliph the verse, “And God has helped you +with Bedr——”[52] when Bedr entered the presence. “Had you read any +more,” cried the delighted caliph, “your head would have been cut off.” +The famous general made short work of the Turkish oligarchy. The leaders +were all killed, by a treacherous but salutary trick, in a single night. +The reign of terror in Cairo was over. Bedr was appointed commander-in- +chief, vezír of the sword and pen, chief kády, and director of the Shí‘a +propaganda—generalissimo, prime minister, cardinal, and lord chancellor +in one. He first brought back order in the capital, and then marched +through the provinces, defeating, slaughtering and subduing Berbers, +Sudánis, and Arabs, till law reigned supreme from Alexandria to Aswán. +The peasantry, restored to peace and security, laboured their lands +again, the revenue rose by leaps and bounds, and for twenty years the +country enjoyed plenteous prosperity. + +Cairo benefited incalculably by the large and noble policy of the great +Armenian. For a century since the days when ‘Azíz built the West Palace +and the Pavilion of the Pearl, there had been few important additions to +its architecture. Hákim, indeed, had finished his father’s mosque, and +built the Hall of Science. Mustansir’s favourite residence was his +country palace at Heliopolis, where he had a kiosk modelled after the +holy but distinctly ugly Kaaba of Mekka, with a pool of wine to +represent the well of Zemzem; and there he made merry, with exceedingly +unorthodox sarcasms upon the black stone and bad water of the Arabian +original. With the rule of Bedr, Cairo once more heard the sound of the +trowel. In view of the recent invasion and spoliation of the city by +insurgent troops the first necessity was to fortify it for defence. The +old wall of sun-burnt brick had practically disappeared in the growth of +the town which now spread outside the three gates built by Gawhar. These +gates were now taken down and rebuilt of stone (1187-91) so as to +enclose a larger area—the Greek Quarter at the south, for example, was +now taken within the wall—and a new wall of brick was carried round the +city. It was afterwards enlarged by Saladin, but some of the wall of +Bedr still remains. On the north it still connects the Bab-en-Nasr with +the Bab-el-Futúh, and extends to a bastion about 330 feet west of the +latter, and to a re-entering angle some 200 feet east of the Bab-en- +Nasr. There is also a piece of the wall among the houses near the Bab- +Zuweyla on the south face of the enclosure, and as late as 1842 a +portion of the west wall was still to be seen at the west side of the +Ezbekíya. + +[Illustration: GATE OF SUCCOUR: BAB-EN-NASR] + +The three great gates stand practically unchanged, though the towers of +the Zuweyla gate were shortened to receive the minarets of the mosque of +el-Muayyad in the fifteenth century. These gates are the most impressive +monuments of the Fátimid period, but they are Byzantine, not Saracenic. +According to the Armenian chronicler Abu-Sálih, a Copt, “John the Monk,” +planned the walls and gates for the Armenian vezír; but whatever share +he had in designing the lie of the walls, he could never have been the +architect of these Norman-looking gates.[53] The Topographer is +evidently right in stating that they were built by three brothers from +Edessa—a city full of Armenians where Bedr, with his Syrian experience, +would naturally seek his architects—each of whom built one gate. The +statement is amply confirmed, not only by the style, which clearly +belongs to the Syrian-Byzantine school, but also by various mason’s +marks in Greek letters, Ζ̲, Η, Η’, etc. In short, as M. van Berchem has +pointed out, the gates and enceinte of Cairo belong to what is called +the Templars’ (as distinguished from the French) style of military +architecture,—“the great Byzantine and Saracenic school of which the +chief characteristics may be traced in various countries and at divers +epochs, at Constantinople, Nicæa, Brusa, Adalia, and the Pamphylian +cities, in the old Arab fortresses of northern Syria, in the style of +the Templars and the military buildings of the post-crusade Saracens, +such as the enceinte of Jerusalem,” etc. The leading features of the +style are square bastions and square or round headed openings, +contrasting with the Persian arches of the Fátimid mosques and the round +bastions of Saladin’s wall. The curtains run to a thickness of eleven to +thirteen feet, and contain archers’ chambers and other apparatus for +defence. The gates consist of a vaulted passage, with round arch, +between towers containing an ingenious arrangement of shooting floors +and connected by a cross-passage above the arch, with a place for +launching stones or grenades upon the enemy. A fine spiral staircase, +admirable cornices, some sculptured shields, and a magnificent Kufic +inscription[54] adorn the Bab-en-Nasr. The inscription (like another on +the Bab-el-Futúh) expresses the Shí‘a creed, but has nevertheless +sustained eight centuries of orthodox rule in Egypt unchanged. The three +great gates are noble monuments of one of the greatest vezírs of +mediæval Cairo. + +For nearly sixty years Egypt enjoyed the inestimable benefits of +Armenian rule. Bedr died in 1094, the year also of the caliph +Mustánsir’s death, but the vezír’s son el-Afdal succeeded to his +father’s power, and governed Egypt till 1121, when he was assassinated +by order of the caliph Amir. Afdal’s son Abu-‘Aly held supreme power in +1131 in the name of “the expected Mahdy,”—thus reverting to the old +Shí‘a theory of the hidden Imám and ignoring all claims of the Fátimid +dynasty. When he in turn was murdered on his way to the polo field, +Yanis, an Armenian slave of Afdal’s, became vezír, and after him Bahrám, +an Armenian Christian, retained the office until 1137. By this time the +growing influence of the Armenians had led to their holding every post +worth having in all the government departments, and their excessive +assumption of authority led to a natural reaction. Bahrám and 2000 of +his fellow-countrymen were expelled, and the heyday of the Armenians was +over. They deserved well of the country, and had ruled, on a whole, both +wisely and large-mindedly. Firm and yet mild, the virtual sovereignty of +Bedr and his son had rendered immense services to Egypt. If they +accumulated vast wealth—Afdal is said to have left over £3,000,000 in +gold, and the milk of his herds of cows was farmed in one year for +£15,750—they earned their fortunes by hard and intelligent work; they +were just and generous, and the Copts had much to thank them for. Even +Abu-‘Aly, with his eccentric revival of the doctrine of the concealed +Imám, who actually figured on the coinage, inherited the wise tradition +of his father and grandfather, and showed himself tolerant and mild, a +good friend to the Christians, and a patron of learning. + +[Illustration: MINARETS OVER GATE OF ZUWEYLA] + +From the time of Bedr, Egypt, it will be realized, had become a country +ruled no longer by caliphs but by vezírs. It was the old story of the +Merovingian _major domo_ translated into Arabic. Indeed, since the +terrible despotism of Hákim no caliph had exercised personal authority +in the great affairs of state, except el-Amir, who tried for a few years +to be his own prime-minister, with the help, however, of the monk Ibn- +Kenna, but the experiment was not a success. The monk became too +inflated, and was scourged to death. El-Ámir’s cruelty made him +detested, and one day as he was riding back from the Hawdag, or +“Litter,” the country-house on the island of Roda in which he consulted +the desert tastes of his Bedawy bride, he was assassinated by some +Isma‘ílian Assassins (1130). He had at least the virtue to found a +mosque, the Gámi‘ el-Akmar (Grey Mosque), in Beyn-el-Kasreyn. After this +the caliphs resigned themselves to a succession of vezírs, who were +themselves the instruments of military factions. The spiritual sanctity +and seclusion of the Fátimid pontiffs were still observed, as we have +seen in the description of the embassy of the two knights, but one must +believe that this reverence had degenerated into something like a farce. +The murders of Ámir and Záfir; the early imprisonment of Háfiz, and his +later thraldom to his drunken negro guards, who killed the gallant +Rudwán, vezír, soldier, and poet, in front of the Grey Mosque, and who +made the caliph poison his own son by the hands of his Christian +physician; the awful scene of bloodshed in the very palace, amid which +the baby Fáïz was exhibited to the trembling court as their spiritual +Imám[55]—these do not point to any real reverence for the mystical +caliphate of the Shí‘a. Fainéant caliphs had long been known at Baghdád, +and their rivals on the Nile were equally shadows of a mighty name. + +The last horror was too much even for the long-suffering people of +Cairo. The murder of the caliph Záfir shortly after the murder of the +Kurd vezír Ibn-es-Salár; the massacre in the palace; the peculiar +unnaturalness of the crimes on the part of a kinsman and boonfellow; the +atrocious brutality of exposing the child-caliph of four years to the +terror of such a scene of blood and anguish, roused a storm of +vengeance. The new vezír, ‘Abbás, the instigator, fled from a hail of +stones, and was killed near the Dead Sea; the actual assassin, Nasr, was +delivered up by the Templars of Palestine, for a blood-money of £30,000, +to the women of the palace, who tortured him, and sent him through the +streets of Cairo, maimed and blinded, to be crucified alive at the Bab- +Zuweyla. In their desperate straits the women had sent locks of their +hair to the governor of Ushmuneyn in Upper Egypt, and the emír Talái‘, +son of Ruzzík, responded gallantly to the appeal (1154). Waving the +eloquent tresses he rode into Cairo, followed by an Arab guard, and when +he had assumed the vezirate in the Dar-el-Mamún,[56] the capital +recovered its confidence. Talái‘, who followed the custom of recent +vezírs and styled himself “king,” el-Melik es-Sálih, was the last +buttress of the falling dynasty. He was a man of culture, a poet, +accessible, generous, and politic. His mosque, still to be seen near the +Bab-Zuweyla, bears witness to his pious munificence. He tried his best +to turn aside from Egypt the storm that was threatening from the +political complications in Syria and Palestine; but the palace women +found that they had called to their rescue an austere moralist, and +ungratefully put him to death. “His last words were a regret that he had +not conquered Jerusalem and exterminated the Franks, and a warning to +his son to beware of Sháwar, the Arab governor of Upper Egypt. The +regret and the warning were well founded. Sháwar deposed and executed +the vezír’s son Ruzzík at the beginning of 1163, and within the year the +Christian king of Jerusalem was in Egypt.” + +Before turning to the invasion of Cairo by the Crusaders, the conquest +by Saladin, and the end of the Fátimids in the death of the last caliph +el-‘Adid, a few words must be said on the remains of the city which the +falling dynasty had created and maintained in exceptional splendour. Of +all their buildings only the three great gates, part of the walls, and +the remains of four[57] mosques, bear witness to the Fátimids. The +palaces have utterly gone: they were not used by their successors, and +gradually fell to ruin. “O censurer of my love for the sons of Fatima,” +wrote Omára, the poet, before 1174, “join in my tears over the desolate +halls of the twin Palaces.” The Hall of Science, the Dar-el-Mamún, the +Palace of the Vezírs, and all the other mansions and pleasure houses of +the Shí‘a caliphs and their court have disappeared. There was no wanton +or general destruction: the buildings were simply deserted and neglected +under the new orthodox régime, and neglected houses soon fall to ruin. +Of the few remaining monuments, the oldest that can be regarded as +authentic is the mosque of el-Hákim—for the Azhar retains little of its +original architecture or decoration. The Akmar mosque in Beyn-el-Kasreyn +built by the caliph Ámir is remarkable as the first mosque built of +stone: the earlier mosques were all of brick. Only the façade, however, +is of stone, well-shaped and joined, and finely sculptured. The interior +arches are of brick on marble pillars. “Small and ruined as it is, it +has the feature, unique among Fátimid mosques, of a fine façade +(unfortunately hidden by a formless erection which the Monuments +Commission has vainly sought to obtain power to remove), very unlike the +ordinary plain exterior of the early mosques, and deserving special +notice for the shell ornament of its fluted niche, the rosette of open +tracery composed of inscriptions and ornaments, and the side niches, +surmounted by a Kufic frieze.”[58] Two inscriptions giving the name of +el-Amir and the date 519 A.H. (1125) belong to the foundation, and two +others record the restoration of the mosque by the emír Yelbugha es- +Sálimy in 799 (1396), but this restoration fortunately made but slight +alterations in this interesting building. The mosque of the vezír Talái‘ +ibn Ruzzík, near the Bab-Zuweyla (1160), though much dilapidated, shows +a notable advance in decorative skill, and the rich detail of its +arabesques is scarcely surpassed by any later work. Fátimid decoration +is well illustrated by several important examples in the Museum of Arab +Art. Especially to be studied are the panelled doors with fine foliate +carving and inscriptions (of el-Hákim) from the Azhar mosque; and the +three _mihrabs_ or prayer niches, two of which came from the Azhar (one +bears an inscription recording its erection there by el-Ámir in 1125), +and the third from the chapel of Seyyida Rukeyya of about 1135. The last +is a marvel of intricate geometrical panel-work and arabesque and Kufic +ornament. + +[Illustration: MOSQUE OF EL-GUYUSHY] + +Unhappily, if heterodox opinions encouraged artistic development, they +also led to the destruction of its achievements. Had the Fátimids not +been heretics, their beautiful palaces with their thousands of exquisite +works of art might have been preserved by their successors. As it was, +they all bore “the mark of the Beast,” and the pious folk of later times +were only too eager to efface all memories of the schismatic caliphs who +had lavished their fabulous wealth with admirable taste upon the +embellishment of their city. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + _Saladin’s Castle_ + + +CAIRO at the beginning of the thirteenth century was a very different +city from the Fátimid royal compound. It covered a much larger space, +included a number of new buildings of a character unknown in Egypt +before, and it possessed a citadel. All these changes were due to +Saladin, though he did not live to see them completed. To trace in +detail the causes which led to the invasion of Egypt by the Crusading +king of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Franks by the armies of Nur- +ed-din, sultan of Damascus, would carry us far away from our proper +subject. The principal element in the political situation was the +partition of the Fátimid province of Syria between two new and +aggressive powers, the Crusaders and the Seljúk Turks. The gradual +infiltration of Turkish officers into the Baghdád caliphate had ended in +a great invasion of this race, led by the Seljúks, who not only subdued +the whole of Persia and Mesopotamia in the middle of the eleventh +century and made the ‘Abbásid caliph their tool, but overran the Fátimid +dominions in Syria, which had always been loosely held, took possession +of Damascus in 1076, and were only prevented from invading Egypt by the +bribes and warlike preparations of the Armenian vezír Bedr el-Gemály. +The Seljúk empire broke up at the close of the century; but its Syrian +fragment, under the brilliant leadership of the Atabeg Zengy and his son +Nur-ed-din, was little less formidable to the Fátimid authority than the +undiminished empire of the Seljúks. Meanwhile a fresh complication was +introduced into Syrian politics by the beginning of the Crusades, the +recovery of Jerusalem by the Christians in 1099, and the establishment +there of the Latin Kingdom. Step by step the Fátimid garrisons were +driven south. The Armenian Afdal, Bedr’s son, after attempting +negotiations, fought a series of campaigns in Palestine, but the advance +of the Crusaders was not to be stayed. Tripolis fell in 1109, Tyre +followed in 1124, and after a long interval Ascalon, the last Fátimid +outpost, surrendered in 1153. The Crusaders now touched the Egyptian +frontier, and their fortresses at Karak and Montréal, by the Dead Sea, +intercepted communications with Syria. + +[Illustration: CAIRO BEFORE 1200] + +Of the two powers, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Turkish +Sultanate of Damascus, neither was strong enough to crush the other. +Egypt was the key of the situation. If either power could obtain +possession of the Nile, it would take its rival on the flank and win the +mastery. The natural combination would of course be between the two +Muslim states of Damascus and Cairo; but religious sectarianism barred +the way. Nur-ed-din was a zealous Muslim of the orthodox school, and +would have no traffic with Shí‘a heretics. The vezírs Ibn-es-Salár and +Talái‘ did indeed open a diplomatic correspondence with the king of +Damascus, but received little encouragement. It was not till his hand +was forced by the actual presence of a Crusading army at Cairo that Nur- +ed-din at last sent his troops to Egypt. The interference was due to the +quarrels of rival vezírs who were struggling over the remains of the +Fátimid power. One of these, Sháwar, expelled by Dirghám, appealed to +Nur-ed-din, and Dirghám sought the alliance of Amalric, the king of +Jerusalem, who had already invaded Egypt to claim the yearly +subsidy—_annua tributi pensio_ as William of Tyre describes it—which the +decrepit Fátimid government had recently paid as blackmail to its +Christian neighbour. Sháwar returned in 1164 supported by a Syrian army +commanded by Shirkúh, with his nephew Saladin on his staff. Dirghám, +defeated at Bilbeys, made another stand at Cairo, where he held the +Fátimid city whilst Sháwar and the Syrians occupied Misr. Popular as +Dirghám had been—he was a brave Arab, who had fought the Crusaders at +Gaza and commanded the Barkíya battalion of the Fátimid army—he ruined +his cause by laying hands on the _wakf_ (pious benefactions) to meet his +military necessities. His followers fell away, and the caliph withheld +his countenance. The final scene was tragical:— + +“Driven to bay, for the last time he sounded the ‘assembly.’ In vain +‘the drums beat and the trumpets blared, _ma-sha-llah!_ on the +battlements’; no man answered. In vain the desperate emir, surrounded by +his bodyguard of 500 horse, all that remained to him of a powerful army, +stood suppliant before the caliph’s palace for a whole day, even until +the sunset call to prayer, and implored him by the memory of his +forefathers to stand forth at the window and bless his cause. No answer +came; the guard itself gradually dispersed, till only thirty troopers +were left. Suddenly a warning cry reached him: ‘Look to thyself and save +thy life!’—and lo! Sháwar’s trumpets and drums were heard, entering from +the Gate of the Bridge. Then at last the deserted leader rode out +through the Zuweyla Gate: the fickle folk hacked off his head, and bore +it in triumph through the streets; his body they left to be worried by +the curs. Such was the tragic end of a brave and gallant gentleman, +poet, and paladin.” + +As soon as Dirghám was disposed of, the treacherous Sháwar turned upon +his deliverers, and called in the aid of Amalric to drive away the +Syrians. After a prolonged conflict, an armistice was eventually +arranged, and both armies, Christian and Syrian, retired from Egypt +without immediate result. But the invasion was the beginning of a +permanent occupation. On their return to Damascus the Syrian troops +described the weakness of the Fátimid rule and urged upon Nur-ed-din the +importance of the conquest of Egypt. The cautious sultan was slow to +move, but when the news came that Amalric was again intriguing with +Sháwar, the Syrian army set out a second time for the Nile and crossed +it just as the Crusaders came up (1167). Amalric, however, succeeded in +getting possession of Cairo, and made the treaty with the caliph which +was the occasion of the memorable audience of the two knights described +above (p. 131). Shirkúh, on the other hand, overran Upper Egypt, and +Saladin held Alexandria for seventy-five days. Then another truce was +arranged, and the two armies went back respectively to Syria and +Palestine. The Franks, however, left a Resident at Cairo and manned the +guards of the gates, quartering a garrison in the mosque of el-Hákim; +and the representations of these spectators of the weakness and +distraction of the government of Egypt brought Amalric back in the +following year with the definite intention of annexing the land. This +breach of faith, followed by a barbarous massacre at Bilbeys, so alarmed +the Egyptians that they sent urgent entreaties to Nur-ed-din—the caliph +even plied him with the touching argument of tresses of his wives’ +hair—and for the third time, at the beginning of 1169, Shirkúh and +Saladin arrived in Egypt. This time they stayed for good. Amalric +retired without even giving battle; Sháwar, after plotting the murder of +his rescuers, was arrested and executed; Shirkúh was appointed vezír, +and on his death two months later Saladin was invested with the robe of +office in March 1169. + +As vezír of the Shí‘a caliph and at the same time viceroy of the +orthodox king of Damascus, Saladin’s position was clearly untenable, and +though he carried on the business of state for two years in this +anomalous situation it was obvious that the Fátimid caliphate must come +to an end. The last of the Fátimids was dying, and the opportunity was +taken to make the necessary change. At the Friday prayers on the 10th of +September 1171, the ‘Abbásid caliph of Baghdád was duly proclaimed in +the mosques of Cairo. A similar ceremony is described by an Arab +traveller from Spain twelve years later. + +“In one of these Friday Mosques,” says Ibn-Gubeyr, “the Sermon was +preached to-day. The Preacher herein followed the Sunny rite, beginning +his sermon with an invocation conjointly for the Companions, the +Followers and their fellows, also for the Mothers of the Faithful, who +are the Wives of the Prophet, and for his two noble uncles Hamza and +el-‘Abbás;—further, he preached so fine a sermon and so moving a +discourse that hard hearts were humbled and dry eyes shed tears. He +delivered his sermon robed in black, as is the ‘Abbásid rule; for he +wore a black cloak over which hung a _taylasan_ or veil of fine black +linen, such as in Spain would be called an _ihrám_; his turban also was +black, and he was girt with a sword. As he ascended the pulpit, he +struck a blow on the step with the ferule of his scabbard, when he first +began to go up, such as the congregation might hear, and as though it +were a call to silence, and in the midst of his ascent he struck another +blow, and when he reached the top, a third; after which he pronounced +the blessing, turning first to the right and then to the left, standing +there between two black banners that had white marks on them, which were +fixed in the upper part of the pulpit. On this occasion, further, he +invoked a blessing first on the ‘Abbásid caliph, who is en-Násir-li- +dini-llah, the son of el-Mustady, and next he prayed for the restorer of +his power, Yúsuf, son of Ayyúb, who is the Sultan Saladin, and then for +his brother and heir apparent, Abu-Bekr, who is named Seyf-ed-din +(Saphadin).”[59] + +The congregation who first heard this bidding-prayer in 1171 showed +little surprise, and there was scarcely a murmur. The Shí‘a propaganda +had probably been attended with little success in Cairo, and the bulk of +the people retained their leanings to the orthodox creed, in spite of +two centuries of dominant heresy. At least, the revolution was +accomplished without a shock. The last of the Fátimid caliphs passed +away without hearing of his deposition. His relations were kept in +luxurious captivity, and his slaves and household dispersed. The palaces +were too magnificent for Saladin’s modest wants, and he quartered the +officers of his army there, and himself occupied the House of the +Vezírs. The great library of 120,000 books, which had been studiously +collected since the dispersal of the earlier library a century before, +was given to the learned chancellor, Kády el-Fádil. The treasure was +distributed or sold. The palaces and every memory of the Fátimids +gradually disappeared, save their mosques, and orthodoxy once more +reigned supreme in Egypt. + +The career of the great champion of Islám was made chiefly outside +Egypt. Of Saladin’s reign of twenty-four years—for reign it was from the +beginning, though nominally subject to the king of Damascus for the +first five years—he spent but eight at Cairo, and his greatest triumphs, +as well as his few reverses, took place in Syria, Mesopotamia, and +Palestine. When he left Cairo on the 11th of May, 1182, and the great +officers of the court came to his stirrup to bid him farewell, as the +cavalcade halted by the Lake of the Abyssinians, a voice was heard above +the music and the singing: “Enjoy,” it cried in the classical lines of +an Arab poet, + + + “Enjoy the perfume of the ox-eyes of Nejd; + + After to-night there will be no more ox-eyes.” + + +The evil omen came true: there were no more ox-eyes in Egypt for him, +and Cairo saw him never again. He conquered the land of the Euphrates; +held kingly state at Damascus, which he had annexed after the death of +Nur-ed-din; won his great victory at Hittín over the Crusaders; +recovered Jerusalem, sacred to him as well as to Christians, and brought +all the Holy Land to his feet; and fought the long duel with the +chivalry of Europe which wavered about ‘Akka for two years, and ended in +the running fight with Richard of England that has made Saladin a +household name even in Europe. After the last dash upon Jaffa and its +repulse, the treaty of peace was signed, and in the following March, +1193, Saladin died and was buried at Damascus. + +“The Holy War was over; the five years’ contest ended. Before the great +victory at Hittin in July, 1187, not an inch of Palestine west of the +Jordan was in the Muslims’ hands. After the Peace of Ramla in September, +1192, the whole land was theirs, except a narrow strip of coast from +Tyre to Jaffa. At the Pope’s appeal all Christendom had risen in arms. +The Emperor, the Kings of England, France and Sicily, Leopold of +Austria, the Duke of Burgundy, the Count of Flanders, hundreds of famous +barons and knights of all nations, had joined with the King and Princes +of Palestine and the indomitable brothers of the Temple and Hospital, in +the effort to deliver the Holy City and restore the vanished Kingdom of +Jerusalem. The Emperor was dead, the Kings had gone back; many of their +noblest followers lay buried in the Holy Land: but Jerusalem was still +the city of Saladin, and its titular king reigned over a slender realm +at Acre. All the strength of Christendom concentrated in the Third +Crusade had not shaken Saladin’s power. When the trials and sufferings +of the five years’ war were over, he still reigned unchallenged from the +mountains of Kurdistan to the Libyan desert, and far beyond these +borders the King of Georgia, the Catholicos of Armenia, the Sultan of +Koniya, the Emperor of Constantinople, were eager to call him friend and +ally.”[60] + +Brief as was Saladin’s residence at Cairo, none of its rulers has left +more lasting traces of his influence. It is to him that the capital owed +the form and extent it has borne ever since, until comparatively recent +times. Its most conspicuous feature, the Citadel, was Saladin’s +creation, and its most pervasive architectural form, the Medresa, was +his introduction. All these changes were due to his initiative, and +when, after eight years, he went away, and thenceforth continually +called upon Egypt to send its contingents to his yearly campaigns, he +left behind him officers and kinsmen who carried out the great works he +had begun. These works were partly defensive, and partly religious. The +defensive works were the Citadel, the new wall, and the great dike, and +all three are original features. Hitherto the various rulers of Egypt +had contented themselves with building official or royal suburbs, each +half a mile or so further to the north-east. Even the Fátimid “city” of +Káhira, as we have seen, was an official and palatial residence of the +caliphs, not a metropolis of Egypt. Saladin was the first to elaborate a +comprehensive plan of a great capital. Instead of following the example +of earlier sovereigns and building a new suburb, he resolved to unite +the existing inhabited districts within one great wall, and to crown the +whole by a citadel. The burned city of Misr was then struggling to rise +from its ashes, like the phœnix, and renew its youth: Saladin resolved +to help it. The scattered settlements upon the site of the ruined +faubourgs were also to be gathered in, and the port of Maks was to be +joined to its city by a wall, as Peiraeus was to Athens. The enclosing +wall was to be of stone, and to prolong the defences of Bedr the +Armenian to Maks on the west and to the hill of Mukattam on the south, +and thence to run round the remains of the old Town of the Tent till it +touched the Nile. + +The great scheme was never completed: its author was busy on his Syrian +campaigns, and probably his representatives at Cairo had enough to do to +raise men and money for his support without carrying out more building +than was absolutely necessary. It is also possible that further +reflection convinced him or his deputies that the plan of enclosing so +decayed a town as Misr was hardly worth the cost of a couple of miles of +wall. What was actually accomplished was this: the wall of Bedr on the +north was prolonged from its terminus at the canal to the Nile, where +the fortified tower of Maks was erected; on the east the old wall was +prolonged southwards to the Bab-el-Wezír, near the wall of the new +Citadel;—the Sultan’s death stopped the work before a junction had been +made, and the south and west walls were not even begun. A large part of +Saladin’s walls still stands: though often lost among houses, they can +be traced between the canal and the Iron Gate (Báb-el-Hadíd, formerly +called the Bab-el-Bahr, or Nile Gate, beside the fort of Maks, which has +disappeared), where the contrast between the last square bastion of the +Fátimid wall and the neighbouring rounded bastion of Saladin’s curtain, +with its bosses, watch-towers, and loopholes, is clearly marked. The +same characteristics are seen on the east wall which separates the city +from the Káit-Bey cemetery, until a modern style appears at the Bab-el- +Wezír.[61] A portion of the wall at the N.E. angle, with the Burg ez- +Zafar, lies outside in the desert, showing that here only has the modern +city shrunk within its twelfth century limits. + +The walls were but a development of the earlier enceinte of Bedr. The +Citadel was a new idea. It may have been partly inspired by Saladin’s +dislike to the palaces so intimately associated with the schismatic +caliphs, for though he did not live to dwell in the Citadel, except for +a brief visit, there can be no doubt that he intended to make it his +residence, as his successors did. But the obvious explanation of the +fortress is to be found in his Syrian experience. There every important +city had its _Kal‘a_ or castle, and nothing could be more natural than +that Saladin, looking with a soldier’s eye at the jutting spur of +Mukattam, should at once have recognized it as the proper place for a +citadel. It is true that whilst commanding Cairo from its height of 250 +feet, the fortress is itself commanded by higher positions on Mukattam; +but this would hardly injure its efficiency in days of stone-slings and +short-ranged mangonels. It was a strong enough position for twelfth +century engineers, and no pains were spared to make it impregnable from +beneath, in case of an insurrection in the city. The work was begun in +1176-7 under the direction of the eunuch Karakúsh, one of Saladin’s most +faithful emírs, who in spite of great services and warlike deeds has by +a strange freak of fortune come to be associated with the ribald antics +of Karakúsh, the Oriental Punch. It was not till six years later that +the founder’s inscription was set up which still surmounts the “Gate of +Steps” (Bab-el-Mudarrag) in the original (west) part of the Citadel, +where we read how “the building of this splendid Castle,—hard by Cairo +the Guarded, on the terrace which joins use to beauty, and space to +strength, for those who seek the shelter of his power,—was ordered by +our master the King Strong-to-aid, _Saláh-ed-dunya wa-d-din_ (Saladin), +Conquest-laden, Yúsuf, son of Ayyúb, Restorer of the Empire of the +Caliph; with the direction of his brother and heir the Just King +(el-‘Adil) Seyf-ed-din Abu-Bekr Mohammad, friend of the Commander of the +Faithful; and under the management of the Emír of his Kingdom and +Support of his Empire Karakúsh son of ‘Abdallah, the slave of el-Melik +en-Násir, in the year 579” (1183-4). + +The smaller pyramids of Giza were used as quarries for the stone, and +the masonry was executed in part by Frank or European prisoners taken in +Saladin’s wars. The Spanish traveller Ibn-Gubeyr, who visited Cairo in +1183, saw the building in progress. “Both the workmen,” he says, “whose +forced labour is employed for building the Citadel and their overseers +are Christian prisoners of war of the Franks; their number is so great +as cannot be reckoned, and but for them there would be no means of +carrying out these works, for only they can support the toil and heavy +labour of sawing the marble, dressing the great blocks of stone, and of +quarrying the fosse which encompasses the wall of the Citadel, which +fosse is cut like a ditch in the solid rock with crowbars, a wonder of +wonders for ever. Elsewhere there is another building of the Sultan +which is being carried out by the Frank prisoners who work here; but +even those of the Muslims, who give their service in these and similar +public works, must do it at their own cost, for there is no pay given to +any who work here.” Corvée labour was no new thing in Egypt, however +strange it may have appeared to a visitor from Spain. + +[Illustration: CASTLE OF THE RAM: KAL‘AT-EL-KEBSH] + +The Citadel was not finished till 1207-8, when Saladin’s nephew el-Kámil +was king. As the chief residence and stronghold of every successive +ruler down to 1850, it has been frequently altered and enlarged by +several of the Mamlúk Sultans, and finally by Mohammad ‘Aly Pasha, and +none of the mosques or vestiges of palaces on it belongs to Saladin’s +age. The old mosque was built by en-Násir in 1318; the more conspicuous +mosque with slender Turkish minarets was begun by Mohammad ‘Aly in 1824. +The “Hall of Yúsuf,” believed to be Saladin’s, was part of a Mamlúk +palace. The interior towers are not original, and the gateway opening on +the Rumeyla was built in the middle of the 18th century. Still there is +much remaining of the original structures, besides the famous “Well of +the Winding Stairs,” 280 feet deep, which was excavated by Karakúsh. +Saladin’s walls are still preserved in a large part of the enceinte, +though it needs some architectural knowledge to distinguish them from +later additions and restorations, and some of the internal passages and +constructions date from the foundation. The prevalent use of round, +slightly truncated, and well-projected bastions, commanding a long +stretch of the curtain, the absence of interior chambers or low +loopholes in the curtain, and the _arc brisé_ or square openings, +besides certain technical peculiarities in the masonry, reveal the +original work, and associate it with the Franco-Syrian rather than the +Byzantine school. + +The last work of defence was the great dike of Giza on the west bank of +the Nile. Ibn-Gubeyr describes it as a gigantic undertaking. “The +Sultan,” he says, “to his glory and as a lasting work that shall serve +the need of the Muslims, has begun to build a great dike of arches to +the westward of Misr, and at a distance from it of seven miles. This +forms a continuation of the embankment which, beginning opposite Misr, +runs along the side of the Nile like a hill that has been flattened on +the ground: after traversing which you come at the end of six miles to +the dike continuing it. This dike consists of forty arches, each of the +largest size of bridge-arches, and runs in the direction of the delta +which extends thence to Alexandria. It is a wonderful work, and such as +only a king of great foresight would emprise, as a precaution against +sudden attack by an enemy from the Alexandrian frontier at the time of +the inundation, when, the land being under water, the usual road becomes +impassable for troops. The dike thus forms a causeway available at all +seasons of need.”[62] The object of this defence is evident. Saladin had +not forgotten the history of the successive Fátimid invasions from the +Libyan side, when there was nothing to stop them from marching straight +to the Nile, and he determined to be forearmed. Ibn-Gubeyr mentions that +there were fears of an attack from the Almohades, who after subduing all +Morocco and southern Spain, had conquered Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli in +1158, till the frontier of their victorious leader ‘Abd-el-Mumin +actually touched the western border of Egypt. Saladin did well to take +precautions, though the threatened invasion never came. + +These defensive works against external enemies were accompanied by other +measures taken with a view to internal order and content. It must not be +supposed that the new régime had no difficulties to contend with. +However well disposed the mass of the people may have been towards a +ruler who showed himself so magnanimous, generous, and yet indomitable +as Saladin, the traditions of two centuries were not to be uprooted in a +day. The partisans of the Fátimid family were numerous and active. +Before the death of el-‘Ádid, there was a formidable rising of the black +troops, abetted by the caliph himself, and Saladin had hard work to put +it down. The Sudánis were at last driven to bay and slaughtered for two +days till they cried quarter, when they were banished the city. The part +called el-Mansuríya, outside the Zuweyla Gate, that had been covered +with their barracks, was utterly burned down, and the site turned into +gardens; so that a few years later, when Saladin rode from the palace to +the new Citadel, he passed between trees and flowers, and standing at +the mosque of Ibn-Tulún he could see the Gate of Zuweyla with no +building intervening. Other conspiracies followed, supported by the +Franks who threatened Alexandria, and stern measures were needed before +the new sultan felt his power secure. So long as there was a strong +party sympathizing with the captive survivors of the fallen dynasty +there would always be danger. + +How zealous the Shí‘a still were may be judged by the scene described by +the Spanish traveller in the famous shrine which preserved the head of +the martyr Hoseyn, in the mosque adjoining the Great Palace of the +Fátimids. “The Head is preserved in a chest of silver buried +underground, over which a mighty building has been erected such as any +description thereof must fail to portray, for the understanding cannot +compass it. Its walls are tapestried with brocades of various kinds, and +it is set round with what are like great columns, the same being white +candles, though some are of smaller size, the most being set in +candlesticks of pure silver or of silver gilt. Above are suspended +silver lamps, and the whole of the part above this is set with the like +of golden apples, and so arranged as to resemble [the chapel at Medina +where the Prophet is buried called] er-Roda; and by the beauty and +magnificence thereof it rivets the sight, for herein are all kinds of +rare variegated marbles wonderfully wrought in mosaic work such as no +imagination can depict, nor can he who would describe it attain thereto +with any description. The entrance to this chapel is through a mosque +that is the equal of it in regard to the pleasure of the eye and the +rare sight that it affords, for all its walls are of marble after the +fashion above described. To the right of the chapel (where the Head is), +and to the left of it, are two chambers, through which you enter the +same, and each of these is in every particular similar to this last, and +curtains in brocade stuff of wondrous workmanship are here hung on all +sides. But the most curious of the many things that we saw was on +entering this most blessed mosque; for a stone is set in the wall facing +him who enters, which is so extremely black and lustrous that the whole +person is reflected therein, as though it were in an Indian steel mirror +newly polished. And we saw the people kissing this blessed tomb (where +the Head of Hoseyn is buried), embracing it with their arms and +prostrating themselves upon it, after which they would lay their hands +on the pall that covers it and then, crowding one on another, circle +round, praying, weeping, and supplicating Allah—to whom be praise—for +the blessing that pertains to this holy grave, humbling themselves +before Him in such fashion as melts the heart and overcomes the feelings +of the spectator; for this is a wonderful matter and a sight that is +awful in its aspect. May Allah cause us to benefit by the blessing +vouchsafed to this holy Oratory!”[63] + +Such a demonstration, recalling the hysterical emotions of the Persian +Passion Play, shows that twelve years after the deposition and death of +the last Fátimid caliph Shí‘a fanaticism was still ardent in Cairo. +Saladin’s mode of dealing with it was characteristic of his +statesmanship. Despite his gentle and chivalrous nature he was quite +capable of fierce persecution “for righteousness’ sake.” A Muslim of the +Muslims, rigidly orthodox, and deeply imbued with the puritanical ideas +of the theologians with whom he loved to converse, he had no toleration +for heretics and infidels. The grievous confiscation and destruction +which the Copts and their churches suffered in the orthodox reformation +showed that Saladin’s magnanimity did not extend to matters of faith. +But in the case of the Shí‘a he had to deal with a more powerful and +dangerous movement, which had two centuries of dominance behind it, and +he met it not by overt persecution but by a counter propaganda. The +people of Cairo must be taught the true religion, and then there would +be little fear of heresy. At the time of his accession there was not a +single college in Egypt where orthodox theology was taught. This want +was at once supplied, and Saladin began the foundation of those +_Medresas_ or theological colleges which have ever since been the +leading architectural feature of Cairo. + +In 1176 he established the first _Medresa_ ever built in Egypt. It was +next to the shrine of the Imám Sháfi‘y, the founder of the school of +orthodoxy to which most Egyptian Muslims have since belonged. The tomb- +mosque may still be visited in the wilderness of graves to the south of +Cairo, but the college has long disappeared. In 1183 the shrine is +described as “a magnificent oratory of vast size, and strongly built, +standing opposite to a Medresa,” so large and so surrounded by buildings +as to resemble “a township with its dependencies. Over against it is the +_hammám_ with all other needful offices, and the building and additions +are still going on at a cost not to be counted. The Sheykh Negm-ed-din +el-Khabushány himself oversees it, being imám of the mosque, a pious +learned man. The sultan of the land, Saladin, has munificently supplied +all that is required therefor, commanding that the buildings shall be +well cared for and beautified, and all expenses set down to him. . . . +We met this Khabushány and gained the blessing of his prayers—his fame +had reached us even in Andalusia. We visited him in his mosque and also +at his private dwelling within the precincts, a small house with a +narrow court, and here he offered up prayer for us when we left. In all +Egypt we did not meet his equal.”[64] + +Besides the Sháfi‘y College, Saladin built a medresa close to the +stronghold of the enemy, the shrine of Hoseyn, turned the old palace of +Mamún into the Seyf-ed-din college for the Hanafy divines, and built +another for the Sháfi‘is and a fifth for the Málikis in Misr. In +recording his benefactions one must not forget his hospitals. Everyone +knows the Maristan or hospital of the Mamlúk Sultan Kalaún in the Suk- +en-Nahhasín, but it is not generally known that this noble institution +was anticipated by Saladin. To quote Ibn-Gubeyr again:— + +“Among the famous institutions of this Sultan which we saw was the +Maristán or Hospital, which stands in the city of Cairo. It is one of +the great palaces there, spacious and magnificent, and the Sultan has +been prompted to the meritorious deed of establishing this hospital +solely by the hope of gaining favour with God and recompense in the +world to come. He has appointed here an administrator, a man of +knowledge, in whose charge a provision of drugs has been placed, with +power to compound potions with these according to diverse recipes, and +to prescribe them. In the chambers of this palace couches have been +placed, which the sick folk make use of as beds, these being fully +provided with bed clothes, and the administrator has under him servants +who are charged with the duty of inquiring into the condition of the +sick folk morning and evening, and these last receive food and medicines +according as their state requires. Opposite this hospital is another, +separate therefrom, for women who are sick, and they also have persons +who attend on them: while adjacent to these two hospitals is another +building with a spacious court, in which are chambers with iron +gratings, which serve for the confinement of those who are mad, and +these also are visited daily by persons who examine their condition and +supply them with what is needful to ameliorate the same. The Sultan +himself inspects the state of these various institutions, investigating +everything and asking questions, verifying the statements with care and +trouble even to the uttermost; and in Misr also there is another +hospital, exactly after the pattern of the one just described. + +“Between Misr and Cairo stands the great mosque called after its +founder, Ahmad ibn Tulún, which is one of those from ancient times used +for the Friday prayers. It is admirably built and very spacious, being +at the present day set apart by the Sultan as a dwelling-place for +strangers from the Western lands, where they may abide and hold their +assemblies, the Sultan having provided monthly rations for their +support. And one of the most remarkable matters related to us is this +which we heard from a person cognizant of the facts, namely, that the +Sultan allows the strangers entirely to govern themselves, and lays no +hand on any one of them, for they elect from among themselves their +governor, and to his rule they conform, submitting to his judgment in +all cases of disputes that arise in their affairs. They are people who +seek to live in piety and peacefulness, being solely occupied in the +worship of the Lord, and thus, through the favour of the Sultan, they +may gain grace enabling them to hold the better part in the way of +righteousness. Indeed there is no one either of the great mosques, or of +the lesser mosques, or any one among the diverse chapels that are built +over the tombs of saints, neither any of the various colleges or +schools, but is the object of the grace of the Sultan, and aid in money +from the public treasury is freely given to all who frequent these +places, or have their abode there by reason of necessity, in relief of +their needs.” + +The institution of the Medresa by Saladin marks a conspicuous change in +the architecture of Cairo. Hitherto the mosques had been of one form +only, that of the _Gámi‘_ (commonly pronounced _gama_, and meaning a +place of assembly) or congregational mosque, where alone the Friday +prayers (_gum‘a_) and sermon take place. The form was specially adapted +to the meeting of large congregations. There was the ample east end or +sanctuary, where a considerable number of worshippers could kneel under +cover; and in case of a great crowd, as on certain festivals, there was +the great open court where a multitude could prostrate themselves +towards the _kibla_. The arcades round the court served for professors +to hold classes, and as shelter for fakírs and mendicants; but these are +no essential parts of the gámi‘, which, as its name implies, is a place +of congregational worship. There were only four such buildings when Ibn- +Gubeyr visited Cairo, and these were the gámi‘s el-Azhar, el-Hákim, Ibn- +Tulún, and ‘Amr. The few others that existed, such as el-Akmar and es- +Sálih Talái‘, and perhaps two or three less important and probably +ruined, though built in the gámi‘ form and used at one time for +congregational worship, fell into disuse when the death of their +founders or some other cause removed them from the list of fashionable +churches. New gámi‘s were always being built from time to time, as we +shall see in the next chapter, and they always formed, and form, the +leading mosques of Cairo; but they were not by any means the only kind +of mosque. + +The word mosque itself comes, through the old Italian _meschita_ (Span. +_mesquita_) and later _moschea_, from the Arabic _Mesgid_, which means a +place of worship, but does not imply a congregation. Comparatively few +mosques were known as mesgids, and such as bore the name were small +buildings used chiefly for private prayer.[65] Another term, more +commonly employed, is _Záwiya_, which means properly an ingle or nook, +but in its application to mosques differs hardly at all from mesgid, +unless the not unusual assignation of a záwiya as a hospice for poor +students or devotees constitute a difference. Both the mesgid and the +záwiya were comparatively insignificant edifices, and it may be doubted +whether any ordinary visitor to Cairo has noticed a single example of +either, except as a decorative feature in a by-street. + +The buildings which everyone knows and which everyone calls “mosques” +are really colleges, _medresas_. They include most of the famous +architectural gems of the city—such as Sultan Hasan, Barkuk, Ibn-Muzhir, +Násir, Kalaún, and so forth, and they differ altogether from the gámi‘ +both in form and object. They were not intended or used for +congregational worship, but were expressly built for the purpose of +theological training; and this purpose radically influences their form. +Instead of the great open court where vast congregations could muster on +Fridays, there is only a small central square, and in most cases this +was originally covered by a flat roof of painted planks and joists, with +perhaps a small cupola or skylight in the centre. The sides, instead of +being surrounded by long arcades or cloisters, are formed of four +transepts each spanned by a single lofty arch. The transept towards the +east, forming the liwán for prayer, is deeper than the other three, and +is furnished with mihráb, pulpit, tribune, and other accessories for +worship; since worship takes place there, or may do so, though not as a +rule the regular Friday congregations of the gámi‘. Each of the four +transepts was originally assigned—or ready to be assigned—to one of the +four orthodox schools, Sháfi‘y, Máliky, Hánafy, and Hánbaly, and in each +there might be found a group of students following the instruction of +the professor of the particular school. These professors and students +often had lodgings in the college, and there were also a variety of +lecture rooms, libraries, laboratories, and other adjuncts built in the +spaces that intervened between the cruciform interior and the +rectangular exterior. The subjoined sketch representing the later +medresa of Sultan Hasan (1359) will give a general idea of the +arrangement. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF MEDRESA] + +This then was Saladin’s method of counteracting heretical tendencies by +building and endowing a number of orthodox colleges—state-supported +theological seminaries or divinity schools. The idea was not his own: he +brought it with him from Syria, where his former sovereign Nur-ed-din +had been zealous in founding similar colleges for Hanafis at Damascus +and other cities; and Nur-ed-din himself only followed the example of +the pattern of the age in Asia, the great Seljúk Sultan Melik Shah, +whose vezír, the scarcely less famous Nizám-el-Mulk, the friend of ‘Omar +Khayyám, had established the splendid Nizamíya college at Baghdád. The +introduction of colleges into Egypt, however natural and inevitable in +the pupil of such masters, was little less than a revolution in culture +as well as in architecture. The old stigma of heresy removed, and these +new colleges founded, the wave of intellectual commerce once more flowed +to Cairo from all parts of the Muslim world. The chief control in Egypt +during Saladin’s long absence was vested in his brother or son, subject +to the counsels of his chancellor, the Kády el-Fádil, an Arab of +Ascalon, a learned scholar and a wise man, whose very ornate dispatches +concealed a vast amount of sound sense. Under his influence foreign +students began again to frequent the mosques of Cairo, and Egypt +rejoined the comity of Islám. Professors from remote cities of Persia or +even from beyond the Oxus met the learned men of Cordova and Seville. In +1176, for example, there arrived “a stranger from Xativa in distant +Andalusia, drawn eastward by the fame of the revival of learning: it was +Ibn-Firro, who had composed a massy poem of 1173 verses upon the _variae +lectiones_ in the Korán, simply ‘for the greater glory of God.’ This +marvel of erudition modestly confessed that his memory was burdened with +enough sciences to break down a camel. Nevertheless, when it came to +lecturing to his crowded audiences, he never uttered a superfluous word. +It was no wonder that the Kády el-Fádil, chief judge and governor of +Egypt under Saladin, lodged him in his own house and buried him in his +private mausoleum. The presence of such philosophers tempered with cool +wisdom the impetuous fire of the predatory chiefs. Many of the great +soldiers of that age delighted in the society of men of culture. Nur-ed- +din was devoted to the society of the learned, and poets and men of +letters gathered round his court; whilst Saladin took a peculiar +pleasure in the conversation of grave theologians and solemn +jurists.”[66] “I found him,” wrote ‘Abd-el-Latíf, the Baghdád physician, +“a great prince, whose appearance inspired at once respect and love, who +was approachable, deeply intellectual, gracious, and noble in his +thoughts. . . . I found him surrounded by a large concourse of learned +men who were discussing various sciences. He listened with pleasure and +took part in their conversation.” It was not the least of Saladin’s +titles to fame that he brought the collegiate mosque to Cairo. The +training of the medresa may have been narrow and bigoted, but it was the +system of the whole Muslim world, and its adoption put Cairo in touch +with the thought of the other leading centres of Islám. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + _The Dome Builders_ + + + 1. THE MAMLUKS OF THE RIVER + + +SALADIN had raised Cairo once more to the rank of an imperial capital. +By his fortifications he had strengthened it against attack, and by his +theological foundations he had united it to the great comity of Muslim +culture. He had no doubt added seriously to the responsibilities of +future rulers of Egypt, who found themselves engaged in controversy, +diplomacy, or war with the minor rulers of Syrian cities, members of +Saladin’s kindred, as well as with the Franks of the coast of Palestine, +who had not yet abandoned the dream of “_Gerusalemme liberata_,” and +were now fully aware that the road to the Holy City, circuitous as it +might seem, lay through Egypt. It is no part of the story of Cairo to +relate the campaigns waged by Saladin’s brilliant brother, el-‘Ádil +Seyf-ed-din—“the noble Saphadin” of the _Talisman_, the friend of King +Richard, who actually gave the accolade of Christian knighthood to one +of Saphadin’s sons, as Humphrey of Toron had given it before to Saladin +himself. Succeeding, after a brief interval, to his brother’s empire in +1200, el-‘Ádil soon showed that the loss of the hero was not +irreparable. He had loyally served Saladin as his right hand for a +quarter of a century, and for another quarter of a century he held +together the empire which his nephews and cousins were doing their best +to shatter into fragments. He prudently kept on terms with the Franks by +the cession of a couple of ports in Palestine, and such hostilities as +took place in spite of his concessions did not lower his prestige. He is +described by one who knew him as a man of immense experience and +information and much foresight, physically robust and high-spirited, and +capable of eating a whole lamb at a meal. A contemporary Arabic poet +dwells on his extraordinary alertness and personal control of every part +of his wide dominions— + + + A Monarch, whose majestic air + + Fills all the range of sight, whose care + + Fills all the regions everywhere; + + Who such a ward doth keep + + That, save where he doth set his lance + + In rest to check the foe’s advance, + + His eye with bright and piercing glance + + Knows neither rest nor sleep. + + +Even his vigilance, however, could not avert that periodical calamity of +mediæval Egypt an insufficient inundation of the Nile, and its usual +concomitants plague, pestilence, and famine. This happened in 1201 and +was repeated in 1202, and the results were exceptionally disastrous. We +have the appalling narrative of an eye-witness of undoubted veracity and +professional experience for this time of horror:— + +“The Baghdád physician, ‘Abd-el-Latíf, who lived at Cairo for ten years +(1194-1204), attending the professors’ lectures at the Azhar mosque, +records the terrible experiences of the famine. The distress was so +desperate that the inhabitants emigrated in crowds, whole quarters and +villages were deserted, and those who remained abandoned themselves to +atrocious practices. People habitually ate human flesh, even parents +killed and cooked their own children, and a wife was found eating her +dead husband raw. Men waylaid women in the streets to seize their +infants. The very graves were ransacked for food. This went on from end +to end of Egypt. The roads were deathtraps, assassination and robbery +reigned unchecked, and women were outraged by the multitude of +reprobates whom anarchy and despair had set loose. Free girls were sold +at five shillings apiece, and many women came and implored to be bought +as slaves to escape starvation. An ox sold for 70 dinárs and corn was +over ten shillings the bushel. The corpses lay unburied in the streets +and houses, and a virulent pestilence spread over the delta. In the +country and on the caravan routes flocks of vultures, hyenas, and +jackals mapped the march of death. Men dropped down at the plough, +stricken with the plague. In one day at Alexandria an imám said the +funeral prayers over 700 persons, and in a single month a property +passed to forty heirs in rapid succession. The depreciation of property +was disastrous. Owing to the decrease of population, house-rent in Cairo +fell to one-seventh of its former price, and the carvings and furniture +of palaces were broken up to feed the oven-fires. Violent earthquakes, +which were also felt throughout Syria and as far north as Armenia, shook +down countless houses, devastated whole cities, and increased the +general misery.” + +The invasion of John de Brienne, who captured Damietta, kept Egypt in a +tremor of anxiety for three years (1218-21); but el-‘Adil, who died at +the beginning of the trouble, left a singularly able successor in his +son el-Kámil; the Crusaders departed in ignominy; and when some years +later the emperor Frederick II. himself “took the cross” and came to +Palestine, the prudent sultan not only let the emperor crown himself in +Jerusalem without striking a blow, but actually concluded (1229) a +general defensive alliance with Frederick against even the Franks of +Syria. The Holy City was surrendered to the Christians with the road to +it, but the Muslims retained the sacred enclosure of the Mosque of +‘Omar, which was all they cared for. The treaty was the most singular +ever concluded between a Christian and a Muslim power; but it must be +remembered that the Pope had called Frederick “a follower of Mohammad,” +and the emperor’s correspondence with the Arab philosopher Ibn-Sab‘in +and the metaphysical debates he held with Kámil’s ambassadors point to +“emancipated views” that in the case of less eminent people commonly +conducted them to the stake. Frederick was much admired by Muslim +writers, and for his part Kámil had shown himself broad-minded. He had +entertained the emperor’s envoy, bishop Bernard, at Cairo, released the +poor prisoners taken in the “Children’s Crusade,” and loyally stood by +his treaty. It is not surprising that good Muslims regarded him in much +the same light as the bishop of Rome held the emperor. They were wrong, +however, for Kámil was a thorough Muslim, and had only treated with the +“infidel” in the cause of peace. His college, the Dar-el-Hadíth or +Kamilíya, some relics of which still stand in Beyn-el-Kasreyn, bears +evidence to his zeal for orthodox Islám, whilst his father’s +intellectual powers shone in the son when he took part in the meetings +of the learned at his palace on Thursday evenings. To him Cairo owed the +completion of the Citadel, where he took up his residence, and Egypt was +improved in cultivation by his assiduous superintendence and enlargement +of the canals and dikes. + +The new régime of the Ayyúbids or successors of Saladin had introduced +something besides an imperial sway and a revival of orthodox learning: +it had brought with it a feudal system that dominated Egypt, for better +or for worse, for six hundred years, and vitally affected the social +conditions, arts, literature, and material aspect of Cairo. The _Mamlúk_ +period may be said to begin with Saladin. It is true of course that +there had been mamlúks, _i.e._ white slaves, long before, and many of +them had attained to power. Ibn-Tulún, or at least his father, was a +mamlúk, and many of the later governors belonged to the same class of +emancipated slaves whether Turks or Greeks, from Turkistan or from Asia +Minor. Under the Fátimid caliphs slaves had risen to the highest rank. +Gawhar, the founder of Cairo, was a Greek or a Slav—it is not certain +which—and we have seen how the Armenian slave Bedr became practically +master of Egypt. Slavery in the East is no disgrace; on the contrary the +relationship ranks far above mere hired service. The slave is regarded +almost as a son, and we find an amusing instance of this feeling in the +undoubted slur that attached to a famous emír (Kusún) in the fourteenth +century, because he had the misfortune _not_ to be a slave, like the +rest of his world. The Fátimid armies were full of such mamlúks, and +they acquired rank and lands. But the system had not reached the +completeness that we see under Saladin’s successors. The great champion +of Islám was brought up in the mamlúk system, as organized by the +Seljúks and their followers, whose power rested upon a military basis +formed by hired or purchased troops, paid by grants of fiefs, lands, +castles, towns, or even whole provinces, held on strict condition of +military service. The higher feudatories sublet parts of their fiefs to +minor vassals, who had to furnish a certain number of men to their lord, +just as he had to bring his contingent to aid the sultan in his wars. +This system was adopted in all the provinces governed by officers of the +Seljúk empire. Nur-ed-din, who sprang from the Seljúk officers, carried +it out in Syria; Saladin, trained under Nur-ed-din, brought it to Egypt, +where the land and villages were parcelled out among the generals of his +armies, who lived on them during the winter, and joined their overlord +at the head of their retainers each year as soon as the campaigning +season opened. + +We find this feudal system in force in Egypt from the arrival of Saladin +and his Turkish troops down to the accession of Mohammad ‘Aly in the +nineteenth century. It took a dominant place in Cairo when el-‘Adil’s +grandson, es-Sálih, established a picked battalion of mamlúks in the new +palace and barracks which he built on the island of Roda, opposite Misr. +From their quarters on the river (_el-bahr_) they were known as the +Bahry or Nilotic Mamlúks. Their splendid valour at the battle of +Mansúra, when under the leading of Beybars they drove back the finest +chivalry in Europe, decided the fate of the disastrous Crusade of Louis +IX. Thenceforward they ruled Egypt for a century and a half, and in +spite of much lawlessness, tyranny, intrigue, and slaughter, the reign +of the Bahry Mamlúks is among the glorious pages in the history of +Cairo. Their triumph at Mansúra was not the less remarkable because they +were then under the sovereignty of a woman. Queens are rare in +Mohammedan history, for the blessed Prophet had a prejudice against +them; but among the three or four Muslim women that have held the +sceptre, queen Sheger-ed-durr—“Spray of Pearls” is the translation of +her charming name—holds the first place. She was only a slave, and her +lord and husband, es-Sálih, grandson of el-‘Adil, died in the midst of +the campaign with the Crusaders; but she at once took command, kept the +sultan’s death secret till his son could be fetched from the other end +of the empire, controlled the government, organized the defence, gave +instructions to the generals and governors at her levees, and with +wonderful courage and wisdom held the state together. When the heir +arrived (1250) she surrendered her regency, but on the assassination of +the brutal young man by the exasperated mamlúks within two months, +“Spray of Pearl” resumed her authority, and honourably observed the +treaty of ransom with St Louis, who probably owed his life to the high- +minded queen. + +[Illustration: ISLAND OF ER-RODA] + +She possessed great qualities, and she had the title, such as it was, +that was conveyed by her having borne a son to the late Ayyúbid sultan. +The baby was dead, but she still based her claim to rule upon her +motherhood, and her signature and her coins[67] bore a string of +feminine titles ending with “Mother of the victorious King Khalíl,” +though the little “king” had never been conscious of his royalty. + +She was not long left to rule alone. The idea of queenship was too +repugnant to Muslim prejudices, and the caliph of Baghdád interfered +with all the authority of a pope. “If they had no man among them,” he +wrote to the emírs of Cairo, “he would send them one.” So the commander- +in-chief, Aybek, was chosen to marry the queen, and a joint-king, a +child of Saladin’s kindred, was appointed to keep up the figment of the +departed dynasty. But “Spray of Pearls” still ruled, in fact though not +in name. She kept her hold on the exchequer, and evidently treated her +new husband with scant respect. Like a true woman however, she could be +jealous; she made him divorce another wife, and when Aybek ventured to +propose a fresh marriage with a princess of Mosil the queen gave way to +a regrettable act of resentment; having lured him by fair words to the +Citadel—the facts unhappily cannot be softened—she had him murdered in +the bath (1257). Her punishment was speedy and terrible. In three days +all was over. The mamlúks shut her up in the Red Tower, where she +vindictively pounded her jewels in a mortar that they might adorn no +other woman, and then she was dragged before the wife whom she had made +Aybek divorce, and there and then beaten to death with the women’s +clogs. For days her body lay in the Citadel ditch for the curs to worry, +till some good Samaritan buried it. Her tomb may still be seen beside +the chapel of Sitta Nefísa, and a pious hand of these latter days has +shrouded it with a cloth on which the Arabic name of “Spray of Pearls” +is worked in gold. + +The rule of the Bahry Mamlúks now began, without further pretence of +joint-kingship with one of Saladin’s house, though not without +opposition and intrigue from members of the family in Syria, nor without +hostility from the Arabs of Egypt, who got up a national movement and +were put down with great severity. The bare list of the twenty-three +sultans of the Bahry dynasty—all Turks, and most from Kipchak—who +succeeded Aybek and ruled from 1257 to 1382 is misleading unless one +takes the conditions of their rule into account. Of the twenty-three, +only four reigned for any considerable period, and the four reigns of +Beybars, Kalaún, en-Násir, and Hasan, account for more than half the sum +of all the twenty-three reigns. A sultan was nothing more than the chief +mamlúk, elected by his comrades, _primus inter pares_ indeed, but with a +distinct understanding that they were his peers. For example, when Lagín +was elected sultan by a conspiracy of the emírs, they marched at his +stirrup and did him fealty, but they made him swear, and then swear +again, that he would remain one of themselves, act only by their +counsel, and never favour his own mamlúks to the detriment of the rest: +and when he broke his oath by making a favourite, they murdered him. It +was only a very strong man who could hold the dangerous position for +long, as Beybars did, partly by the prestige of his brilliant campaigns +in Syria; and after the strong man’s death, which as likely as not +happened by design, his son would be set on the throne as a stop-gap +whilst the rival emírs tried their strength, arranged their +combinations, and bought off competitors. Then the strongest of them, or +the most diplomatic, would remove the warming-pan and ascend the throne, +to hold it as long as he could; after which the same process would be +renewed. + +We must at least give the mamlúks their due as a splendid soldiery. Four +times they had to meet the most formidable of all possible invasions, +the repeated advance of the Mongol hordes led by Ginghiz Kaan’s +successors, and four times they rolled them back. Kutuz was the first to +bear the brunt. Hulagu’s Mongol envoys came to Cairo with insulting +demands of submission: Kutuz cut off their heads and hung them up at the +Zuweyla Gate; then marched into Syria, routed the Mongols in a glorious +victory at Goliath’s Well in 1260, and rid the land of them. Beybars +swam the Euphrates at the head of his troops and defeated the Mongols at +Bira in 1273; then turning west he slew seven thousand of the enemy at +Abu-lusteyn and seated himself on the Seljúk throne, which they had +usurped, at Cæsarea of Cappadocia. Kalaún stemmed another invasion in +1281. Mustering every man he could enrol, mamlúks of the guard, +Turkmáns, desert Bedawis, Arabs from the Euphrates and the Higáz, backed +by the steady veterans of the old principality of Hamáh which still +owned a prince of Saladin’s blood, the sultan won a decisive battle at +Emesa, and freed Syria once more from the locust-cloud of devouring +Mongols. Again they returned in the time of his son en-Násir, and this +time the Egyptian army sustained a terrible reverse at the battle of the +Treasurer’s Ghyll near Emesa in 1299. Damascus was lost, and the Mongol +envoys appeared at Cairo to treat for the respectful submission of the +sultan. But the mamlúks had not lost heart; the armourers of Cairo were +busy, recruits were pouring in, and remounts were in such demand that +the price of a horse rose at a bound from £12 to £40. Syria was in a +panic, after an orgy of Mongol license; but the great emírs, Beybars +Gashnekír and the other mamlúk chiefs, rode proudly on to victory. Once +more the opposing armies met, in the plain of Marg-es-Suffar, in 1303, +and for the fourth time, and the last, the Mongols were driven out of +Syria. “Násir returned to Cairo in a wave of glory. Messengers had +announced the news, and the emírs vied with one another in setting up +costly pavilions, or grand stands, richly decorated and furnished, along +the route of his procession. Workmen were forbidden to do anything but +set up these triumphal erections. Rooms along the route were let at from +£2 to £4 for the day. Silken carpets were laid in the street; and the +proud sultan rode between the brilliant façades and admired the nobles’ +pavilions, while troops of Mongol prisoners in chains, each with a +fellow Mongol’s head hanging from his neck, completed the triumph. So +noisy were the rejoicings and so deafening the tumult of drums and music +throughout Egypt, that nothing short of an earthquake sobered the +people.” + +Nor was it the Mongols alone who felt the edge of the mamlúks’ steel. +Beybars the Great—a blue-eyed Turk from Kipchak afflicted by a cataract +which caused him to fetch but £20 in the slave market—despite his humble +beginnings, had the courage and the zeal of a second Saladin. He waged +the Holy War for ten years in Palestine, where the Franks were disposed +to league with the Mongols. He seized and razed Cæsarea and Arsúf in +1265, and dragged their defenders in cruel ignominy to Cairo, where they +were paraded with reversed banners and broken crosses. Jerusalem had +been recovered from the Christians twenty years before, but the embers +of Crusading zeal still smouldered feebly on the coast and at a few +inland fortresses. Beybars resolved to extinguish the last flicker. +Jaffa fell in 1268, Belfort surrendered, and Antioch, the Christian +capital of northern Syria, was stormed and burnt to the ground; three +years later the great fortress of the Hospitallers, Crac des Chevaliers, +lowered its flag, and the Teutonic knights lost Montfort.[68] Even +Cyprus, whence the Franks got their supplies, was invaded by the mamlúk +fleet. The mountain fastnesses of the dreaded Assassins were seized and +disarmed, and the Wehmgericht sank into impotence. Before Beybars died +his commands were obeyed from the Pyramus and the Euphrates to the south +of Arabia and the fourth cataract of the Nile. The Holy Cities of Mekka, +Medina, and Jerusalem were his; he held the ports of Sawákin and ‘Aydháb +on the Red Sea; the Arabs of the desert were his servants, the chiefs of +Barbary paid him tribute; the great Khan of the Golden Horde on the +Volga was his sworn ally and sent him his daughter in marriage—Mongol +though he was, Baraka Khan was the inveterate foe of the Mongols of +Persia who had overrun Syria;—embassies were exchanged with the Eastern +Emperor, who permitted a mosque to be restored at Constantinople, while +Beybars supplied him with a patriarch; diplomatic and commercial +relations were established with Manfred of Sicily, James of Aragon, +Alfonso of Seville, Charles of Anjou. To crown his glory he revived the +old ‘Abbásid caliphate, extinguished at Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258; +brought a meek representative of the sacred line to Cairo and housed him +in great state in the Citadel, as the supreme legitimate pontiff of +Islám, and humbly received at the caliph’s hands the purple robe and +black turban and golden chain and anklets which betokened a sovereign +recognized by the spiritual power. Henceforward there was ever a caliph +at Cairo—however _fainéant_—till the Ottoman conquest and the assumption +of the caliphate by the Sultans of Turkey in 1538.[69] + +A great soldier and a consummate if perfidious diplomatist, Beybars was +also an able and laborious administrator. Under him the land was quietly +if not quite godly governed, and his energy was unbounded. He seemed to +be in several places at once, so rapid and secret were his journeys, and +it was a favourite device of his to lie hidden in the Citadel for days +together, watching his deputies, when he was believed to be in Syria all +the time. “The greater part of his reign was spent in campaigns outside +Egypt, but he generally passed the winter months at Cairo, whilst his +troops rested and rains or snow hindered marching, and he devoted these +intervals to improving the country and the capital. It was not only in +founding and restoring mosques and colleges, or rebuilding the Hall of +Justice at the foot of the Citadel, that he showed his public interest. +He enlarged the irrigation canals and dug new ones, made roads and +bridges, fortified Alexandria and repaired the pharos, and protected the +mouths of the Nile from the risk of foreign invasion. He revived the +Egyptian fleet, built forty war galleys, and maintained 12,000 regular +troops—not reckoning, one must assume, the Arab and Egyptian militia or +occasional levies. His heavy war expenses entailed heavy taxation; and +though with a view to popularity he began his reign by remitting the +oppressive taxes imposed by Kutuz to the amount of 600,000 dinárs a +year, he found himself compelled to increase the fiscal burdens as his +campaigns developed. Yet we read more often of old taxes repealed than +of fresh duties imposed, and his treasury was filled less by the imposts +of Egypt than by the contributions from the conquered cities and +districts of Syria, the tribute of vassal states and tribes, and the +valuable custom-dues of the ports. + +“His government was enlightened, just and strict. He met the severe +famine of 1264 by measures at once wise and generous, by regulating the +sale of corn, and by undertaking, and compelling his officers and emírs +to undertake, the support of the destitute for three months. He allowed +no wine (though the tax on it used to produce 6000 dinárs a year), beer, +or hashish in his dominions; he attempted to eradicate contagious +diseases by scientific isolation; he was strict with the morals of his +subjects, shut up taverns and brothels, and banished the European women +of the town; though, personally, he was addicted to the Tatar kumiz, and +was suspected of oriental depravity. He was no sybarite, whatever his +vices; no man was more full of energy and power of work. If his days +were often given to hunting or polo, lance-play or marksmanship, his +nights were devoted to business. A courier who arrived at daybreak +received the answering dispatches by the third hour, with invariable +punctuality.” Sometimes over fifty dispatches were dictated, signed and +sealed late in the night, after a fatiguing march. There was a mail +twice a week carried by relays of horses, besides a well-organized +pigeon-post. + +It was no wonder that such a man was adored by the people, who thought +him the ideal of a gallant and generous soldier-king, and who still +listen with delight to the romance in which the story-teller of the +cafés of Cairo clothes the great deeds of the ever popular Záhir +Beybars. Even the devout admired a king who endowed religious +foundations and held an even balance between the four contending schools +of orthodox divines, from each of which he nominated a separate kády. +Only the emírs and officers dreaded one who, if he was true as steel to +a good servant, never forgave a bad one, and whose restless suspicion +watched their every move. It was inevitable that some day one of the +many grudges should be paid off, and after seventeen years of a +resplendent reign Beybars died in 1277 by a cup of poison which he had +apparently made ready for another. + +Beybars was the true founder of the mamlúk power and the organizer of +the mamlúk system. Since the day when he led the charge of the Bahry +guard against Louis of France at the battle of Mansúra, he had +sedulously watched over the army, stimulated recruiting from fresh +blood, and encouraged good service by liberal distribution of fiefs. His +was the foreign policy maintained in Egypt for many years, and his court +formed the pattern for succeeding kings. A very magnificent and +ceremonious court it was, where the sultan sat surrounded by the great +officers of state and of the household,—Viceroy, Commander-in-chief, +Major domo, Captain of the Guard, Armour-bearer, Master of the Horse, +Cup-bearer, Taster, Master of the Wardrobe, Grand Huntsman, Polo-bearer, +Slipper-holder, Lord of the Seat; the Master of the Halberds with his +Gentlemen at Arms; the Adjutant-General with his thirty Lords of the +Drums, each followed by forty troopers and a band of ceremony of ten +drums, four trumpets, and two hautbois; the eunuch guards, equerries and +chamberlains, secretaries and court physicians, judges and divines. All +these functionaries had their allowances, fiefs, or appanages; a lord of +the drums, for instance, would draw an income of about £16,000 a year; +and the expenses of the royal household may be judged by the estimate +that 20,000 lbs. of food were daily prepared in the larder, and that the +daily cost in meat and vegetables in the time of en-Násir was from £800 +to £1200. + +The great officers of the court and of the army were of course the most +powerful men next to the sultan, and each deemed himself a fit successor +to the throne. On their loyalty, and especially on that of the +bodyguard, a brigade of several thousand picked men who held in fief a +large part of Egypt, rested the safety and power of the sultan, who +stood more or less at their mercy. Each of the great lords, were he an +officer of the guard, or a court official, or merely a private nobleman, +was a mamlúk sultan in miniature. He, too, had his guard of slaves, who +waited at his door to escort him in his rides abroad, were ready at his +behest to attack the public baths and carry off the women, defended him +when a rival lord besieged his palace, and followed him valiantly as he +led the charge of his division on the field of battle. These great +lords, with their retainers, were a constant menace to the reigning +sultan. A coalition would be formed among a certain number of +disaffected nobles, with the support of some of the officers of the +household or of the guard, and their retainers would mass in the +approaches to the royal presence, while a trusted cupbearer or other +officer, whose duties permitted him access to the king’s person, would +strike the fatal blow or administer the insidious cup; and the +conspirators would forthwith elect one of their number to succeed to the +vacant throne. This was not effected without a struggle; the royal guard +was not always to be bribed or overcome, and there were generally other +nobles whose interests attached them to the reigning sovereign rather +than to any possible successor, except themselves, and who would be sure +to oppose the plot. Then there would be a street fight; the terrified +people would close their shops, run to their houses, and shut the great +gates which isolated the various quarters and markets of the city; and +the rival factions of mamlúks would ride through the streets that +remained open, pillaging the houses of their adversaries, carrying off +women and children, holding pitched battles in the road, or discharging +arrows and spears from the windows upon the enemy in the street below. +These things were of constant occurrence, and the life of the merchant +classes of Cairo must have been exciting. We read how the great bazar, +called the Khan-el-Khalíly, was sometimes shut up for a week while these +contests were going on in the streets without, and the rich merchants of +Cairo huddled trembling behind the stout gates. + +There were fine doings of this kind when Ketbugha deposed the child-king +Násir, for a time. The Ashrafis—or mamlúks of the late sultan, el-Ashraf +Khalíl—raised a revolt and besieged the Citadel. Then Ketbugha’s troops +rode out to quell the tumult and slashed through the ranks; the rebels +were blinded, maimed, drowned, beheaded, nailed to the gate of Zuweyla; +and so a new reign began (1294). A plague followed, when seven hundred +corpses were carried out of one gate of Cairo in a single day. A fresh +conspiracy was formed, Ketbugha fled, and the viceroy Lagín was elected +sultan in his place. The streets which had lately been shambles were now +_en fête_ with decorations, for the new sultan was a generous man and +promised to remit taxes; bread was cheap and Lagín was popular. + +The idea of hereditary succession was wholly foreign to the mamlúk +system; yet it presented the only correction to these scenes of violent +supercession, and after a time some sort of hereditary title seems to +have been established. Kalaún had been succeeded by his son Khalíl, and +then by a younger son en-Násir Mohammad in 1293, and though the last, as +a mere child, was temporarily deposed, he came back in 1298 after the +murder of his brother-in-law Lagín. After another trial of usurpation by +Beybars Gashnekír (the Taster) in 1308, Násir was restored and began a +third reign which lasted thirty-one years (1310-1341), and after his +death his incapable descendants sat on the throne, with little or no +real authority, till the close of the dynasty. Thus from 1279 to 1382 +Egypt was ruled, except for six or seven years, by members of one +family, the House of Kalaún. The founder of this family, whose history +refutes the theory that these foreigners were unprolific in Egypt, was +himself a notable figure, a brave general, a prudent statesman, and a +great encourager of commerce. His passports to traders were in force as +far as India and China, and he did all he could to develop the commerce +of Egypt. Like most of the mamlúk sultans he was a notable builder. It +is extraordinary how these men of war, in the midst of alarums and +intrigues, took a delight in architecture. The brilliant queen, first of +the mamlúks, built (1250) the tomb-mosque over her husband Sálih, which +still stands on part of the site of the old palace of the Fátimids in +Beyn-el-Kasreyn. Beybars founded a college in 1262 on another part of +the palace called the “Hall of the Tent,” and also a great mosque +outside the Bab-el-Futúh in 1267-9, both of which still exist, though +the college is a ruin, and the mosque was used, _infandum!_ as a bake- +house for the French troops a century ago, and recently as a slaughter- +house for the British army of occupation. Kalaún, stirred by a dangerous +illness, vowed to build a hospital, and his Maristán is still to be seen +in the Nahhasín, though no longer used for its original purpose: it was +a madhouse less than a hundred years ago. It stands beside his mosque +and tomb, the latter notable for its exquisite plaster tracery and red +granite pillars, and for the oddly decorated stone minaret and fine +inscription. Ibn-Tulún and Saladin had built hospitals, and Kalaún +carried on the good tradition of these pious benefactors. Cubicles for +patients were ranged round two courts, and at the sides of another +quadrangle were wards, lecture rooms, library, baths, dispensary, and +every necessary appliance of those days of surgical science. There was +even music to cheer the sufferers; while readers of the Korán afforded +the consolations of the faith. Rich and poor were treated alike, without +fees, and sixty orphans were supported and educated in the neighbouring +school. People still visit the tomb where the good sultan and his son +en-Násir lie buried, to touch their clothes in sure belief that they +will be cured of sundry diseases and disabilities. + +[Illustration: “JOSEPH’S HALL”: PALACE OF EN-NASIR IN CITADEL, WITH HIS +MOSQUE IN BACKGROUND] + +The long reign of en-Násir was a golden age of mamlúk architecture. +However much this sultan may have profited by the sense of tranquillity +which hereditary title inspired, he owed his long tenure of the +precarious throne partly to his personal qualities. “This self- +possessed, iron-willed man—absolutely despotic, ruling alone—physically +insignificant, small of stature, lame of a foot, and with a cataract in +the eye—with his plain dress and strict morals, his keen intellect and +unwearied energy, his enlightened tastes and interests, his shrewd +diplomacy degenerating into fruitless deceit, his unsleeping suspicion +and cruel vengefulness, his superb court, his magnificent buildings—is +one of the most remarkable characters of the Middle Ages. His reign was +certainly the climax of Egyptian culture and civilization.” He carried +on the traditions of Beybars and Kalaún; maintained the alliance with +the Golden Horde and married a princess from the Volga, the lady +Tulbíya, whose tomb may still be seen, with that of another of his +wives, in the eastern cemetery; he preserved the normal boundaries of +the empire, from the Pyramus and Euphrates to Sawákin and Aswán, and +arranged, if not alliances, diplomatic connexions with the emperor of +Constantinople and the king of Bulgaria, as well as the rulers of +Abyssinia and Arabia. He married eleven daughters to the highest nobles, +and each wedding cost him half a million. Násir was not only a +statesman; he was a farmer, trainer, and sportsman, who would pay £4000 +for a horse, kept a systematic stud-book, knew all his horses’ +pedigrees, prices, and ages, and broke in three thousand fillies every +year with Bedawy grooms, for the races in which he and his emírs took +the keenest possible interest. He kept thirty thousand sheep, and +imported the finest breeds from abroad, and like most of the sultans he +was devoted to falconry. Ibn-Batúta, who saw him in 1326, describes +Násir as a king “of noble character and great virtues,” beneficent to +pilgrims and assiduous in his duty of sitting in appeal twice a week to +hear causes and complaints in person. Under his rule Egypt thrived; +vexatious taxes were repealed, a new survey of the land was made, +millers and bakers who tried to raise prices in bad years were scourged, +and when his son-in-law, the great emír Kusún was reported to him for +extortion, the sultan smote him with the flat of his sword and flogged +his factor. Prices were kept down by his vigilance, wine-bibing and +immorality were severely punished, and if Násir recouped himself by +sweeping confiscations among the nobles, and cut down the “tall poppies” +remorselessly, the people gained by the new method, and prospered +exceedingly. + +Even to the Copts Násir was indulgent, though the Christians were never +so well used under mamlúk rule as they had been under the Fátimids and +in the time of el-Kámil. At the time of Saladin’s invasion there had +been a great destruction of churches, due rather to the burning of Misr +and the turmoil of war than to any fanaticism of the conquerors. Saladin +himself was no friend to Christians; he was too rigid a Muslim to be +tolerant; but he did not persecute them. The flight or expulsion of the +Armenian patriarch and his followers was more probably the result of the +close association of the Armenians with the Fátimid government than of +religious bigotry. But the Holy War in Palestine, though waged against +the Latin branch of the church catholic, reacted unfavourably upon the +Copts, and Saladin’s brother el-‘Adil was stern and tyrannical towards +his Christian subjects. His son el-Kámil often interceded for them +successfully, and when he came to the throne of Egypt himself, he +displayed a spirit of toleration rare indeed in that age. He received St +Francis of Assisi courteously, when the good friar came to teach him the +truth as he perceived it, and the Christians of Egypt unanimously +regarded Kámil as the kindest ruler they had ever known. His son es- +Sálih seems to have followed in his steps during his short reign, for he +wrote to Innocent IV to express his regret that he could not converse +with the Dominicans by reason of his ignorance of Latin. + +The Crusade of Louis IX naturally upset these amicable relations, and it +is not surprising that the Muslims wreaked their vengeance upon many +churches in Egypt. Nor was the temper of the succeeding mamlúk sultans, +excited by repeated victories over the remnant of the Franks in Syria, +conducive to a good understanding with their Christian subjects. The new +colleges founded by Saladin and his successors were working a change in +Cairo, and a fanatical spirit was encouraged by the teachers of these +divinity schools, whose influence grew stronger as time went on. In 1280 +all the Coptic scribes employed at the war-office were dismissed and +their places supplied by Muslims. In 1301 the old humiliating sumptuary +rules prescribing distinctive dresses and the like were revived. In 1321 +occurred a series of outbreaks which brought terrible persecution on the +Christians. The disturbance began when en-Násir’s workmen, digging a +lake called Nasir’s Pool, near the Lion’s Bridge (west of the Lúk and +close to the mosque of Taybars) undermined the church of ez-Zuhry, which +en-Násir had commanded to be respected. Without the knowledge of the +government the people rushed to the church one Friday after prayers and +utterly demolished it. Thence they went to the church of St Mina in the +Hamra and sacked it, and did the like to the “Church of the Maidens” by +the seven watermills, dragging out the nuns, and pillaging and burning +everything. The sultan was indignant when the smoke of the burning +churches told the tale of disaster, and sent troops at once to coerce +the mob. Meanwhile news arrived of the destruction of two other churches +in the quarters of Zuweyla and of the Greeks, and it was found that the +mob was attacking the Mo‘allaka in the fortress of Babylon. Here the +sultan’s troops happily arrived in time to protect the church. There was +evidently a popular excitement difficult to quell. Wild fakírs got up in +the mosques and shouted “Down with the infidels’ churches! To the +foundations! To the foundations!” The same thing was going on all over +Egypt; at Alexandria, at Damascus, at Kus, churches were burning. + +A month later mysterious fires began to break out at Cairo. One after +the other great conflagrations burst forth, and a strong wind carried +the flames far and wide. People went up the minarets and cried to God, +thinking that the whole city would be burnt down, and there was groaning +and weeping over the loss of homes and possessions. Every effort was +made to extinguish the fires. All the water-carriers were impressed, and +twenty-four emírs of the highest rank worked at the head of the lines of +men carrying water from the baths and cisterns, and demolishing acres of +fine houses to clear a space round the burning buildings. The street +from the Deylem quarter to the Gate of Zuweyla ran with water like a +river. No sooner was one fire extinguished than another began. Almost +every day witnessed a fresh conflagration. + +It was noticed that these fires were apparently aimed at mosques, and +that they were the work of incendiaries was evident from clothes soaked +in oil and pitch and naphtha that were discovered. A Christian was +caught at the mosque of ez-Záhir with packets of naphtha and pitch, +which he was lighting in the mosque. Put to the torture he confessed +that the conflagrations were the organized work of Christians. Two +monks, under torture, admitted that they had set the fires afoot to +avenge the destruction of the churches. The Coptic patriarch was called +in, and, with tears, denounced the incendiaries as wild enthusiasts who +were paying off the foolish church-destroyers in their own coin. He was +sent back to his house in honour. The populace however were in no mood +to see a patriarch respected, and would gladly have torn him in pieces, +but for the sultan’s guard. As it was they burned four monks from the +Melekite “Convent of the Mule” (el-Kuseyr) in the Mukattam hills. Two +Christians caught in the act of arson were by the sultan’s orders burnt +alive in a pit in the presence of an exulting multitude, and an innocent +Coptic secretary, passing by, only escaped being thrown to the flames by +hasty apostasy. The mob was becoming dangerous, and the sultan, who, +though much alarmed, had done his utmost to calm the people, took strong +measures. Troops were sent through the whole of Cairo with orders to +charge the crowds and spare none. The news had preceded them, and they +found the bazars closed and the streets deserted. Not a man was to be +seen between the Citadel and the Gate of Succour. Some two hundred were +arrested near the Nile, and brought before the sultan, who ordered them +to be executed or to lose their hands. In vain they pleaded innocence; +even the emírs interceded for them; en-Násir was resolved to make an +example of somebody. Gallows were set up all the way from the Gate of +Zuweyla to the Rumeyla, and there the unlucky Muslims were hung by their +hands in order to teach other people not to raise an uproar. + +The result of this excitement was the revival of the old regulations as +to dress which Násir had endeavoured to drop since 1301. Any Christian +found riding a horse or wearing a white turban might be killed at sight. +The Copts were compelled to wear blue turbans, to carry a bell round +their necks at the baths, and to ride only the ass, and that with the +face to the tail. The emírs were not allowed to employ Christian +servants, nor were the Copts any more to hold posts in the government +offices. They hardly dared to show themselves abroad, and a great many +became Muslims. This was probably the worst persecution since the days +of el-Hákim, three centuries before, but it must be admitted that there +was grave provocation on both sides, and that the outrages sprang from +popular fury, not from the fanaticism of the rulers. Similar +persecution, though scarcely on so large a scale, went on throughout the +mamlúk period, and the Copts, who had perhaps waxed over-fat and kicked +during the tolerant epoch of the later Fátimids, paid dearly for their +past favour. They were gradually reduced to the state of suffering +insignificance from which they are only now being to some extent raised. + +Whilst churches were being thus destroyed mosques were rising with +amazing prodigality. There never was such a harvest for the builder and +the architect as in the reign of en-Násir. The sultan set the example +himself. He was a man of fine taste and high culture, the patron of +scholars, and the intimate friend of the learned historian Abu-l-Fida, +whom he restored to the princedom of Hamáh, which had been held by his +family since the days of his ancestor, Saladin’s brother. It was an age +of brilliant artistic production, and the immense sums spent by the +sultan and his emírs on building and decorative works show that the +wealth of the country was vast, and was nobly expended. Some of Násir’s +own furniture has been preserved—there are two exquisite inlaid-silver +tables of his in the Arab Museum at Cairo—and his two chief buildings, +the college in Beyn-el-Kasreyn (1304), next to the Maristán, with its +Gothic gateway brought from ‘Akka by his brother Khalíl, and the old +mosque (1318) in the Citadel, are worthy memorials of his taste, though +unhappily they show but few traces of their original splendour. The +great dome which once surmounted the Citadel mosque has fallen in, and +most of the marble mosaics which adorned the kibla have vanished, as +well as the iron grille which enclosed the sultan’s place of prayer +(_maksúra_). There is still a range of clerestory windows all round the +mosque, but the tracery and stained glass is almost all gone; yet the +ten great granite columns, and the marble mosaics on the south wall, and +other relics, show what the mosque must once have been. Its most +remarkable feature is the coating of the minarets with green tiles, +which may probably be ascribed to the Tatar influence of Násir’s wife, +who belonged to the royal family of the Golden Horde. That the Citadel +mosque is not wholly destroyed is due to the care of Colonel C. M. +Watson, C.M.G., who rescued it from the degradation of an army +storehouse, and removed the wooden partitions which had been set up when +the beautiful building was converted into a prison. There was once a +“Hall of Columns” belonging to Násir’s “Striped Palace” of black and +white stone in the Citadel (which cost, it is said, twenty millions, but +the figure is incredible), which still stood three quarters of a century +ago; the fortress was largely rearranged and added to in his reign, and +the aqueduct which brought the Nile water to the citadel, though +commonly ascribed to Saladin and probably a reconstruction of some +Ayyúbid conduit, was Násir’s work (1311), afterwards restored in stone +by el-Ghúry. He also built a mosque beside the shrine of Seyyida Nefísa, +the Kubbat-en-Nasr near the Red Hill, and other chapels. + +[Illustration: AQUEDUCT AND HOUSE OF THE “SEVEN WATERMILLS”] + +Where the sultan led, the court followed. The emírs of that day were +never content till they had built a mosque, a college, or a tomb-chapel, +to celebrate their piety and lay up riches where they stood most in need +of a balance. The Moorish traveller, Ibn-Batúta, who was at Cairo in +1326, was impressed by the zealous emulation of the emírs in founding +mosques and monasteries for recluses, such as the Khankah or convent of +Beybars Gashnekír, still standing, and he gives a curious account of the +monastic rules.[70] One cannot count the colleges (medresas), he says, +and he is lost in admiration of the great hospital of Kalaún, with its +excellent apparatus and drugs, and its revenue amounting, he was told, +to 1000 dinárs a day. More than forty mosques and colleges were erected +between 1320 and 1360—more than a fourth of the total number recorded +from the Arab conquest to the time of Makrízy—and many of them still +survive to bear witness to the munificence of the great nobles of the +time. Such are the mosques (_gami‘_) of the emír Hoseyn (founded A.H. +719, A.D. 1319), Almás, the chamberlain (730), Kusún (730), Beshták +(736), Altunbugha el-Maridány, the cupbearer (740), Aslam, the armour- +bearer (746), Aksunkur (747), Arghún el-Isma‘íly (748), Mangak, the +proconsul (750), Sheykhú (750); the colleges (_medresa_) of Almelik, the +polo-master (719), Sengar el-Gáwaly (723), Ahmad, the master of the +ceremonies (Mihmandár, 725), Akbugha, the major domo (734), Sarghitmish, +captain of the guard (757); the monasteries (_Khankáh_) of Kusún (736), +el-Gáwaly (723), Sheykhú (756); besides the mosque of “the Lady Miska” +(a slave of Násir’s named Hadak, 740), the college of Násir’s daughter, +the Lady Tatar el-Higazíya (761), and the great mosque of his son Sultan +Hasan facing the Citadel (757-60). + +[Illustration: MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASAN] + +To describe these mosques of the Násiry epoch in detail would demand a +whole volume. Some of them indeed are sadly ruined and present but +fragments of their original building. Some, like Aksunkur’s and el- +Isma‘íly’s were restored, the one with much taste by Ibrahím Agha in +1652; the other, with none, fifty years ago by one of the Khedivial +family. But even in what remains of the original work of the twenty-one +mosques enumerated above there is so much variety in plan, in treatment +of the parts, and in decoration, that no verbal description can take the +place of ocular study on the spot. Almost every one of these buildings +deserves separate and attentive examination. Three features, however, +may here be signalized as characteristic. The old mosques had no +external decoration; their enclosing walls were plain, and only in the +late Fátimid mosque el-Akmar do we find the beginning of a façade. The +mamlúk mosques, copying no doubt the buildings of the Crusaders in +Palestine, generally present fine façades, with sunk panels, portals in +recess, and decorative cornice and crownwork. The next characteristic is +the development of the minaret, which becomes more graceful, is built of +well-faced stone, and shows delicate articulations and gradations of +tapering from the square to the polygon and cylinder, with skilful use +of “stalactite” or pendentive treatment of angles and transitions and +supports for the balconies. The third is the construction of large +domes. Hitherto small cupolas over the mihráb or above the entrance were +the utmost achievements of the earlier architects. The feature of a +great dome was introduced by Saladin’s successors, for example in the +dome of the tomb-mosque of esh-Sháfi‘y in the Karáfa, and probably in +other edifices, but too little remains of the Ayyúbid period to permit +of very exact definition. + +The mamlúks were dome-builders _par excellence_. A large proportion of +their mosques and colleges were also the founders’ tombs; the tomb- +chapel adjoined the main building, and the dome, as we have said, is +pre-eminently a sepulchral canopy. From the mamlúk period begins that +adornment of the city with those beautiful bulbs which still form its +dominant architectural note. From the plain dome with a small cupola on +top comes the fluted dome, and next the dome covered with ornament, +chevrons, arabesques, or geometrical _entrelacs_, all chiselled in the +stone. The most elaborate ornament belongs to the work of the Circassian +sultans of the fifteenth century, but already in the fourteenth the dome +had taken its place among the leading features of Saracenic +architecture. + +As an example of the fourteenth century style we cannot do better than +take the great mosque of Sultan Hasan, which includes most of the +characteristics of the Násiry epoch, and displays them on the grandest +scale. Sultan Hasan,—who sat on the throne from 1347 to 1351, was +deposed by the emírs, and then restored from 1354 to 1361,—was far from +an interesting or estimable character, and his mosque was his one good +deed. It was built between 1356 and 1359 (A.H. 757-760) and is said to +have cost him 1000 dinárs a day, but one distrusts the round figures of +Eastern chroniclers. The sultan was so charmed with his masterpiece that +he cut off the architect’s hand in the vague idea that its loss would +cripple his genius and prevent his repeating his success. The mosque is +of the usual form of medresa, a cross formed of a central court and four +deep transepts or porticoes, and the founder’s tomb may be compared to a +lady-chapel behind the chancel or eastern portico. The outside does not +of course reveal the cruciform character of the interior, since the +angles are filled with numerous rooms and offices.[71] The prevailing +impression from without is one of great height, compared with other +mosques. The walls are 113 feet high and built of fine cut stone from +the pyramids, and have the peculiarity, rare in Saracen architecture, of +springing from a socle. Windows—two with horseshoe arches, the rest +simple grilles—slightly relieve the monotony of the broad expanse of +wall; but the most beautiful feature is the splendid cornice built up of +six tiers of stalactites each overlapping the one below, which crowns +the whole wall. There are some graceful pilasters or engaged columns at +the angles, and a magnificent portal set in an arched niche, 66 feet +high, vaulted in a half sphere which is worked up to by twelve tiers of +pendentives. Bold arabesque medallions and borders, geometrical panels, +and corner columns with stalactite capitals, enrich this stately gate. + +[Illustration: GATEWAY OF SULTAN HASAN’S MOSQUE] + +Inside, the first impression again is of size rather than detail. The +great span of the four arches—that at the east is 90 feet high and +nearly 70 wide—is unmatched in Cairo, but the plaster coating of the +interior of the transepts detracts from the general effect, nor are the +mosaics and marbles, handsome as they are, equal in delicacy of design +or harmony of colour to many others in the _mihrábs_ of earlier and +later mosques. The black, white, and yellow panels are too garish, and +so is the colouring of the pulpit; but the concave niche itself is +singularly rich in decoration, and the tribune, instead of being as +usual an unpretentious wood platform, stands upon graceful stone columns +of alternate drums of coloured marbles. A fine Kufic inscription forms a +frieze round the top of the walls. The tomb-chamber, entered from the +sanctuary by a noble door plated with arabesques in bronze, is +surrounded by a marble dado 25 feet high, above which is the Throne- +Verse from the Korán carved in wood, whilst the angles are gradually +worked up to the circle of the dome by stalactites also carved in wood +and much decayed. In the centre is the plain marble grave of the +founder. The dome itself is comparatively modern, and quite unworthy of +the great mosque. The original great dome, admired by Pietro della Valle +in 1616, collapsed in 1660. There were to have been four minarets, but +scarcely was the third built when it fell (1360), crushing some three +hundred children in the school below. Thirty-three days later Sultan +Hasan was murdered. Of the two that then remained, one minaret became +ruined and was rebuilt too short in 1659. The great bronze lanterns and +many of the enamelled glass lamps are preserved in the Arab Museum; and +the fine bronze-plated entrance door was removed by el-Muáyyad to his +own mosque in 1410. + +The mosque of Sultan Hasan suffered greatly from its position. Its wide +terrace-roof was an excellent post of vantage for cannon and musketry +during the constant émeutes of the Mamlúk period, and shots were +frequently exchanged between it and the Citadel down to the time of +Mohammad ‘Aly: some of the balls may still be seen in the masonry. +Barkúk found the mosque so dangerous as a place of attack that he +demolished its handsome steps and closed the great door. At one time it +remained closed for half a century, and the students and worshippers had +to slink in by a window or a side-door. The tall minaret was even used +in the middle of the fifteenth century to support a tight-rope stretched +to the Citadel on which a European gymnast disported himself to the +tremulous delight of the populace. In a quieter situation the mosque +might have escaped injury, but even as it is, scarred with bullets and +lopped of its original dome and minarets, it remains the most superb if +not the most beautiful monument of Saracenic art in the fourteenth +century. + +[Illustration: TOMB-MOSQUE OF BARKUK AND FARAG] + + + 2. THE MAMLÚKS OF THE FORT. + + +When the feeble descendants of en-Násir, after enduring rather than +enjoying a mock sovereignty for forty years under the tyranny of a +series of powerful emírs—Kusún, Sheykhú, Sarghitmish, and the rest—gave +way to the usurpation of the emír Barkúk in 1382, the change made little +difference in the government of Egypt. The hereditary principle was +gone, indeed, and was never reaffirmed until the latter part of the +nineteenth century; and the new dynasty consisted of isolated emírs, who +sometimes bequeathed their throne to a son until some other emír deposed +him, but who never founded a royal house like that of Kalaún. The new +line was known as the Burgy Mamlúks, or “slaves of the fort,” because +they belonged to a brigade of troops which had been quartered in the +Citadel ever since their original enrolment by Kalaún a century before. +They are also called the “Circassian Sultans,” from their common race, +for none of them were Turks, though two were Greeks. There was little to +choose, however, in character, between the Circassians and their Turkish +predecessors, and the change on the whole was for the worse. The sultans +of the new line were even more at the mercy of the leaders of military +factions than before. The mamlúk guard of each king formed a distinct +party, calling itself after his throne-title—as Ashrafy, Muáyyady, +Násiry—and after his death or deposition they remained a separate factor +in politics and contributed to the bloodshed, confusion, and intrigues +of the period. The sultans could scarcely restrain their own soldiery, +much less these formidable relics of their predecessors, and the +frequent changes of rulers show how unstable the royal authority had +become. Six of the twenty-three Burgy sultans reigned for 103 out of the +total of 134 years covered by the dynasty, leaving but thirty-one years +for the remaining seventeen, or less than two years apiece. + +The character of the rulers was much the same as before, but everything +was on a meaner scale. There was hardly one warrior-king among them, and +this accounts in a large degree for the lack of the prestige that had +kept a soldier like Beybars or Kalaún on the throne. The Circassians +were not soldiers but schemers; they relied less upon success in war or +personal courage than on ruse, chicanery, and corruption, to retain +their hold of power. The Greek Khushkadam excelled the rest in his +adroit management of the contending factions and the heavy bribes he +extorted in the sale of public offices. The governorship of Damascus +cost its possessor 45,000 dinárs in fees to the sultan, and his previous +post was sold to another man for 10,000. Ministers of state were put out +of the way if their enemies made it worth the Greek’s while, and the +ceremonious visits of this ingenious sultan were apt to be expensive to +those he honoured with a call. Throughout the domination of the +Circassian dynasty corruption reigned unchecked; justice was bought and +sold; and even the Sheykh-el-Islám, the religious chief justice, stole +trust-money. The soldiers, who were purchased white slaves, Greeks, +Circassians, Turks and Mongols, ran riot in the streets, insomuch that +decent women dared not leave their houses and the fellahín feared to +bring their stock to market lest it should fall a prey to the mamlúks or +the government. In the country the population diminished under the +oppression of the troops; in the capital there was seldom peace or +order, and sometimes rival factions pounded each other from the Citadel +ramparts and the opposite roof of Sultan Hasan’s mosque, barricaded the +streets, and made cockpits of the bazars, where processions of rebels +nailed to camel-saddles till they died were no uncommon sights. + +In spite of this corruption and violence the Burgy sultans contrived not +only to preserve the power of Egypt but even to enlarge its dominions +and greatly extend its trade. They withstood the invasion of Tamerlane +boldly in 1399, though in the end they found it politic to accept his +terms; but at least the great conqueror never ventured to attack Egypt. +They fought several campaigns in Asia Minor, where for some time they +secured the submission of Karaman, Cæsarea, Iconium, and Larenda. They +even conquered Cyprus—a nest of the pirates who disturbed the Egyptian +shipping—in 1426, with a fleet of galleys built at their port of Bulák, +not long risen from the Nile; and King James of Lusignan, captured at +the battle of Chierocitia, was brought in triumph to the Citadel of +Cairo, with the crown of Cyprus and his disgraced standards, and made to +kiss the ground before the Sultan Bars-Bey. He was ransomed by the +Venetian consul and European merchants, and rode through the streets and +bazars in great state, after becoming a vassal of the Egyptian king. +Cyprus paid tribute until the end of the Circassian dynasty, but several +attempts upon Rhodes in 1440-4 were successfully repelled by the +knights. To the end of the dynasty the Egyptian frontier still extended +north as far as the Pyramus and Euphrates. + +Among the strange anomalies of Oriental history none perhaps is more +surprising than the combination of extreme corruption and savage cruelty +with exquisite refinement in material civilization and an admirable +devotion to art which we see in the mamlúk sultans. The Circassians were +not inferior to their Turkish forerunners as great architects. +Personally some of the second line of sultans were men of considerable +culture. Barkúk, Muáyyad, Gakmak, and Káit-Bey were fond of learned +society and literary talents; Bars-Bey, though he knew little Arabic, +liked to listen to Turkish histories read to him by el-‘Ayny; and +Timurbugha the Greek was a philologist, historian, and theologian. They +were also good Muslims, fasted regularly and even supererogatorily, +abstained from wine, made pilgrimages, and insured their place in the +next world by building mosques, colleges, hospitals, schools, and every +kind of religious establishment, in this. El-Muáyyad, for example, +though utterly unable to control the disorders of his time, “was +personally a devout man and a learned, a good musician, poet, and +orator, scrupulous in the observance of the rules of his religion, very +simple and unpretentious in his dress and mode of life, bearing himself +in all religious functions as a plain Muslim among fellow worshippers, +and robing himself in common white wool in mourning for the pestilence +that ravaged the land.” The eastern arcade of his splendid mosque +(1415-21) is still preserved in the Sukkaríya street, and a number of +boys may there be seen at their lessons under the brilliant gold +inscriptions and frescoes of the sanctuary, which has been carefully +restored by Herz Bey, who discovered traces of the original polychromy +beneath the whitewash of ages. The minarets of the mosque are built on +the flanking towers of the Zuweyla gate. There is also a ruined hospital +(el-Maristán el-Muáyyady, 1418), near the Citadel, that commemorates his +pious benefactions. Bars-Bey’s great mosque, the Ashrafiya (1423), is +still a place where congregations meet, at the corner of the Musky, +where one turns into the Ghuríya. Barkúk built (1386) an exquisite +medresa in Beyn-el-Kasreyn, which has recently been restored by Herz +Bey; and his tomb-mosque with the two domes, begun by himself but +completed by his son, the Sultan Farag, in 1410, is one of the most +picturesque features in that beautiful group of fawn-coloured domes and +slender minarets, the eastern cemetery. But the gem of the group is the +perfect tomb-mosque (1472) of Káit-Bey, which represents the highest +achievement of the later mamlúk school. The admirable arabesques of its +shapely dome, the skilfully graduated transitions of its stately minaret +from square to octagon, and from octagon to circle, with every ingenuity +of stalactite concealment of angles, and the fine inlaid marbles in the +_liwán_, are treasures of indestructible beauty even after centuries of +neglect and spoliation. + +[Illustration: EASTERN CEMETERY: SO-CALLED “TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS”] + +Káit-Bey, whose long reign of twenty-eight years (1468-96) was +phenomenal in this quickly changing dynasty, had worked his way up from +the usual humble beginning. Bought by Bars-Bey for twenty-five guineas, +he had passed from master to master, and rank to rank, till he became +commander-in-chief, under the Greek Timurbugha, of an army which cost +the state nearly £300,000 a year—a very large military budget for the +fifteenth century. “He was an expert swordsman, and an adept at the +javelin play. His career had given him experience and knowledge of the +world; he possessed courage, judgment, insight, energy, and decision. +His strong character dominated his mamlúks, who were devoted to him, and +overawed competitors. His physical energy was sometimes displayed in +flogging the president of the council of state or other high officials +with his own arm, with the object of extorting money for the treasury. +Such contributions and extraordinary taxation were absolutely necessary +for the wars in which he was obliged to engage. Not only was the land +taxed to one-fifth of the produce, but an additional tenth (half-a- +dirhem per ardebb of corn) was demanded. Rich Jews and Christians were +remorselessly squeezed. There was much barbarous inhumanity, innocent +people were scourged, even to the death, and the chemist ‘Aly ibn el- +Marshúshy was blinded and deprived of his tongue, because he could not +turn dross into gold. + +“The Sultan had the reputation of miserliness, yet the list of his +public works, not only in Egypt, but in Syria and Arabia, shows that he +spent the revenue on admirable objects. His two mosques at Cairo—one +outside among the so-called ‘Tombs of the Caliphs’ (1472), the other +near Ibn-Tulún (1475)—and his wekálas or caravanserais are among the +most exquisite examples of elaborate arabesque ornament applied to the +purest Saracenic architecture. He diligently restored and repaired the +crumbling monuments of his predecessors, as numerous inscriptions in the +mosques, the schools, the Citadel, and other buildings of Cairo +abundantly testify. He was a frequent traveller, and journeyed in Syria, +to the Euphrates, in Upper and Lower Egypt, besides performing the +pilgrimages to Mekka and Jerusalem; and wherever he went he left traces +of his progress in good roads, bridges, mosques, schools, +fortifications, or other pious or necessary works. No reign, save that +of en-Násir ibn Kalaún, in the long list of mamlúk sultans, was more +prolific in architectural construction or in the minor industries of +art. The people suffered for the cost of his many buildings, but a later +age has recognized their matchless beauty.”[72] + +[Illustration: MOSQUE OF KAIT-BEY IN EASTERN CEMETERY] + +In the buildings of Káit-Bey and his contemporaries we see the +perfection of the art of pure arabesque and elaborate geometrical +ornament. In the early days of Saracenic architecture the ornament was +worked in soft gypsum or plaster, and the use of a tool (never a mould) +in the soft material gave extraordinary freedom and boldness to the +lines—for example, in the scroll-work of the mosque of Ibn-Tulún. +Plaster continued to be the base of decorative friezes and borders +throughout the Fátimid period: it may be seen in the original arcades of +the Azhar and in the eastern sanctuary of el-Hákim. The most exquisite +specimen of plaster ornament, however, is seen in the tomb-mosque of +Kalaún, where the borders of the arches that supported the original +dome, and of the clerestory windows above, are formed of a delicate +lace-like tracery in plaster foliate designs, broadly treated and worked +into a pattern so continuous that it is almost impossible to break off +at any middle point. After en-Násir, who also used stucco, however, it +was generally abandoned in favour of stone, though we still see +admirable examples of plaster decoration in the dome of Aksunkur and the +beautiful designs in the cupola of el-Fadawíya. In the mosque of the +Sultan Hasan all the sculpture except the Kufic frieze is in stone, and +as the material is unyielding we find at once a certain hardness of +treatment, a loss of freedom in the lines, and a tendency to substitute +geometrical design for the pure arabesque of earlier work. The stone +pulpit erected by Káit-Bey in 1483 in Barkúk’s tomb-mosque is one of the +finest examples of geometrical chiselling in Cairo. Its side view is +triangular, like the wooden pulpits of other mosques, but instead of +carved or inlaid wooden panels making up the designs on each side, the +whole is of stone slabs, admirably joined, and chiselled with +geometrical figures produced outwards, so as to cover the whole surface +with a network of interlacing lines forming a star-like pattern, the +interstices of which are filled with floral arabesques. Similar carving +enriches the walls of the staircase and the canopy of this unique +pulpit. + +Káit-Bey was the most scrupulous of all Cairo architects: he allowed no +detail of his numerous edifices to be neglected, and the wealth of +ornament which he lavished upon them was all cut in limestone or +marble.[73] One may realize the richness of this decoration in his +mosque within the city, near Ibn-Tulún’s, where the chief arch is formed +of twenty-three blocks of stone on each side, alternately red and white, +and every one of the white blocks is covered with arabesque or +geometrical designs, no two of which appear to be alike. The arabesques +consist of the usual trefoil surrounded by very beautifully intertwined +foliage conventionally treated. The geometrical patterns, though at +first sight composed of irregular pentagons and hexagons, are all +symmetrically arranged, and form one elaborate design. On the spandrils +of the arch will be noticed medallions—there are many such in +Cairo—containing the name of the Sultan and a benediction upon him. A +broad band of Koranic inscription, separated by arabesque patterns, runs +as a frieze under the sculptured cornice. The general effect of the +whole is wonderfully rich, and there is hardly a space that is not +filled by some delicate design. Even in his wekálas, or inns, Káit-Bey +was no less careful in details. Few buildings in Cairo are more fertile +in varied designs than his wekála in the street on the south side of the +Azhar. The interior, unhappily, is deserted and in decay, but once, no +doubt, it was richly ornamented. The façade is still in good +preservation, and deserves careful study by all who wish to understand +arabesque and geometrical ornament at its best.[74] When we say at its +best, some objection may be taken to the fact that certain designs are +systematically repeated in reverse, in contrast to the honest way of the +older artists who scorned to repeat themselves. But by the time of Káit- +Bey the beauty of uniformity had been realized, and it was seen that a +certain symmetry and recurrence of the designs really improved their +effect. This change was part of the general tendency towards symmetrical +finish and architectural proportion, which distinguishes the later from +the earlier Mamlúk style. There is, however, abundant variety in the +numerous panels of arabesque and geometrical ornament which form the +borders above the thirteen shops of the inn front, in the superb arched +gateway in the centre, and in the beautiful engaged column in the +corner, next the sebíl or fountain, with its carved drums and stalactite +capital. In its original state this wekála must have been a noble +building: even as it is, one may call it almost a text-book of Saracenic +decoration. + +[Illustration: TOMB-MOSQUES] + +Indeed the epoch of Káit-Bey was almost a repetition of the great +building epoch of en-Násir. The Circassian mosques are usually the +favourites with architects as well as with the unprofessional sight- +seer: their exquisite proportions, delicate minarets, beautifully +sculptured domes, elaborate stalactites in portals, cornices, and +wherever angles had to be masked, and their rich marble mosaics and +incrustated kiblas, are perfect in taste and disposition. Besides the +two exquisite mosques of Káit-Bey, those of the emírs Ezbek el-Yúsufy +(1495), Kheyr Bek (1502), and the Master of the Horse (emír akhór) Kany +Bek (1503), are full of fine work, whilst for a little gem of the best +Circassian type nothing is better worth seeing than the Medresa of Kady +Abu-Bekr ibn Muzhir or Mazhar (1480) which has been restored with +exceptional skill by the Commission for the Preservation of the Arab +Monuments, whose architect, Herz Bey, has devoted the greatest pains to +tracing the original colours and designs and faithfully reproducing +them. Another careful restoration is that of the mosque of the emír +Kagmás el-Isháky (1481), and both show conspicuous improvement upon the +earlier experiments in restoring the Barkukíya medresa. + +It is to be noticed that, in the majority of the medresas of the +fifteenth century, the original cruciform shape is considerably +modified. The medresa, though still a college, gradually usurped the +position of the gámi‘ or congregational mosque. Friday prayers were held +in the medresa, since few new gámi‘s were erected—the most important +were those of Muáyyad, Bars-Bey and Ezbek—and the court and the eastern +transept (sanctuary or chancel) were enlarged, whilst the side transepts +became smaller, and even dwindled to mere recesses. Probably the +reduction of the side transepts was due in some measure to the fact that +only two of the four orthodox schools, the Sháfi‘y and the Hánafy, had +any great following in Egypt, and there was thus no necessity for the +retention of the original plan of four separate lecture halls. The +result is that we find under the Circassian Sultans that a compromise +has been made between the gámi‘ and the medresa, and the form of the +latter has been modified to suit the requirements of the former. This +modified medresa form is almost universal in the Circassian period of +architecture, and the salient features—the enlargement of the sanctuary +and the diminishing of the side transepts—is particularly conspicuous in +the medresa of Kagmás.[75] + +[Illustration: TOMBS OF THE MAMLUKS] + +Even to the end, when the Ottoman conquest was obviously at hand, the +Circassian mamlúks retained much of their vigour and all their aesthetic +powers. There are few more interesting figures in their line than the +old sultan el-Ghúry, called to the throne in 1501, after four +incompetent rulers in as many years had succeeded Káit-Bey. He was a man +of bold decision and boundless energy. He restored order in the anarchy +of Cairo, levied ten months’ taxes at a stroke to replenish his +treasury; taxed water-wheels, boats, camels, Jews, Christians, servants, +every possible source; increased the customs-dues, confiscated vast +estates and levied enormous death-duties. Having restored the revenue, +and earned an evil name for extortion, he proceeded to spend it on great +public works. Canals, roads, fortifications on the coast, the +strengthening of the Citadel of Cairo, the improvement of the pilgrims’ +route to Mekka, these were among his good deeds. His college (1503) and +tomb-mosque (where, however, he is not buried) still face each other at +opposite sides of the street that bears his name, the Ghuríya, though +badly mauled by the injudicious restoration of thirty years ago. He also +built a minaret for the Azhar, the mosque of the Nilometer on the island +of Roda, the Sebíl-el-Muminín or Fountain of the Faithful in the +Rumeyla, the watermills at Masr-el-‘Atíka, and restored the aqueduct to +the Citadel. He was sumptuous in his court, and generous to poets and +musicians, whilst he mulcted the heirs of his nobles and robbed orphans +of their dower. Fully alive to the importance of the Indian trade, then +menaced by the Portuguese, he furnished a fleet in the Red Sea and sent +it to India, where with the help of the governor of Diu it defeated the +interloping senhors under the younger Almeida in an engagement off Chaul +in 1508. Finally, but too late, he led his army into Syria to do battle +with the advancing Ottomans, and fell fighting at the age of seventy-six +on the fatal field of Marg Dábik, near Aleppo, where the desertion of +the two wings under Kheyr Bek and el-Ghazzály left the old sultan alone +with his bodyguard to be trampled under the horses of the troopers he +vainly tried to rally (24th August, 1516). An engagement near Heliopolis +to the north of Cairo completed the rout of the mamlúks. Tumán Bey tried +to make a stand against the invaders at the Bab-en-Nasr, but Selím took +him in the flank, and after hand to hand fighting in the streets, the +Citadel was stormed, Tumán was crucified at the Gate of Zuweyla, and +Egypt became a province of the Ottoman Empire. + +[Illustration: SKETCH PLAN SHOWING THE GROWTH OF CAIRO] + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + _The City of the Arabian Nights_ + + +IN the preceding chapter we finished the story of Cairo as the capital +of an independent state, and described some of the beautiful buildings +with which the Mamlúk Sultans and nobles adorned the city. But the life +of a town does not consist in the doings of the court, and we should +form a very incomplete picture of mediæval Cairo if we looked no deeper +than the Sultans and their mosques and colleges and tombs. Though +trampled under the hoofs of the dominant troopers, the city had a +vigorous life of its own, a life of prosperous commerce, of social +enjoyment, and of literary culture. Cairo society was no longer the +limited palace coterie cooped up within the high walls of the Fátimid +palaces. It spread on all sides save the east. It had flowed out beyond +the northern gates, and formed the new suburb of the Hoseyníya, where +many mosques and chapels grew up. It had spread to the west over the +space between the old Fátimid wall and the Nile, and the river had +conveniently receded and allowed the new port of Bulák and a whole +colony of houses to be formed on what had been the Nile bed till the +wreck of the good ship _Elephant_ helped to make a sand bank, called the +Elephant’s Isle (Gezírat-el-Fil), which altered the river’s course and +provided an excellent building site. To the south the space between the +Fátimid walls and the Citadel and the mosque of Ibn-Tulún, where only +gardens and summer villas and pools flooded at high Nile had been seen +in Saladin’s day, was now covered with houses, among which rose the +domes and minarets of the mamlúks. + +The expansion of the city may readily be traced in the Topographer’s +careful record of the building of mosques, which necessarily implies a +neighbouring population. The mosque of Yúnus (c. A.H. 719) and of Ibn- +et-Tabbákh (“the son of [Násir’s] cook,” 746), in the quarter of el-Luk, +point to the recession of the Nile which formerly ran close by. In the +same way the foundation of the mosques of Ibn-Gházy (741) and et-Tawáshy +(745) on the outside (or west) of the old Bab-el-Bahr, and the Záwiya of +Abu-s-Su‘úd (c. 724) outside the Bab-el-Kantara, point to a westward +extension, though here the land was not formerly under water. The great +expansion to the north, caused by the upheaval of the Elephant’s Isle, +before 1200 A.D., and the emergence of Bulák a century later, may be +fully traced in the annals of the mosques. Makrízy tells us that the +Elephant’s Isle was flooded only at high Nile, and during the rest of +the year it was a links of sandbanks and coarse grass, where the mamlúks +used to practise archery, in their unhappy ignorance of golf. But as the +Nile receded “people began in 1313 to erect houses, in consequence of +the improvements made in that part by en-Násir,” who had dug the new +canal then known as the Khalíg en-Násiry and now as the Isma‘ilíya, +which drained the tract; “and a proclamation was made in Káhira and Misr +inviting every one to build there without delay. So the emírs and +soldiers and merchants and common folk built houses there, and Bulák was +created at this period.”[76] He adds that water was drawn from the Nile +by a sákiya wheel which stood on the spot where the mosque of el-Khatíry +was afterwards built, which shows that the river has not retreated much +since, for it still runs very near this mosque, which was founded by +Aydemir in 737 on a site which was under water thirty years before. +Other mosques at Bulák were those of Ibn-Sárim and el-Básity (817). + +Behind or east of Bulák, on what is now called the ‘Abbasíya road, was a +plot of land beside the Elephant’s Isle, known as Ard-et-Tabbála or the +“demesne of the tamburina,” because it was presented by the caliph +Mustansir to a singing girl who celebrated the glories of the Fátimids +to the accompaniment of her drum. There also houses began to be built, +and the mosque of el-Keymakhty was founded there, on the New Canal, in +A.H. 790. Before this another mosque, that of el-Asyúty, had been +erected about 740 on the Elephant’s Isle, as well as that of Sarúga on +the New Canal near the Pool of er-Ratly. Still further to the east we +find a number of mosques rising in the new quarters outside the old city +walls. Such were the gámi‘s of Almelik (732) and Ibn-el-Felek in the +Hoseyníya quarter, those of Akúsh and Ibn-el-Maghraby on the canal +outside; the convents of Yúnus, Algibugha (c. 750) and Ibn-Ghuráb (798), +and the Záwiyas of el-Ga‘bary (c. 687), Nasr (c. 719), el-Kalendaríya +(c. 722), and el-Khiláty (c. 737), outside the Bab-en-Nasr, all of which +testify to the expansion of the city towards the north. + +Cairo had in fact attained much the same dimensions as it measured fifty +years ago, before the new European suburbs near the Nile were developed. +There was probably little difference either in outward aspect or in the +life of the middle and lower classes between the Cairo of the fifteenth +century and the city which Europeans such as Wilkinson, Burckhardt, +Lane, John Phillip, and Hay visited and described or painted in the +first half of the nineteenth. Some of Hay’s and his companion’s, O. B. +Carter’s, drawings, sketched about 1830, are here reproduced, and they +may fairly be taken as true representations of a town which still +retained its essential mediæval characteristics. + +How different Cairo must then have appeared to the newly arrived +visitor, who landed at Bulák after coming through the Mahmudíya Canal +from Alexandria and then ascending the Nile. There was a mile’s ride +from the river bank at Bulák to the Bab-el-Hadíd by which you entered +Cairo at the north-west corner, and instead of the crowded villa suburb +of to-day, there was scarcely a house to be seen. “Two principal roads,” +writes Lane,[77] “of nearly the same length lead from Bulák to Cairo; +the northern, which is somewhat irregular, but is the chief route of +commerce [there were of course no railways then], leads to the Bab-el- +Hadíd; and the southern, after having crossed two canals, enters the +western side of the Ezbekíya. We pass the picturesque mosque of +Abu-l-‘Ola on our right as we enter the latter road. The French, during +their occupation of Egypt, raised this road, intending also to continue +it through the town as far as the Citadel. It is straight and wide, but +very uneven, and wanting a row of trees on its southern side to shade +it. It is raised a few feet above the level of the plain, so as to be +above the reach of the inundation. On either side during the inundation +are marshes and inundated fields. These, as soon as the waters have +subsided, are sown with corn, beans, trefoil, etc. Here and there are +clusters of palm trees, and a few sycamores and acacias. The plain was +formerly bounded on the east by extensive mounds of rubbish [doubtless +the ruins of Maks], behind which the capital was nearly concealed. The +road crosses two canals, over each of which is a stone bridge. . . . +Along the western side of the second canal, on the right of the road, is +a long ridge of rubbish. From the top of this ridge, about a quarter of +a mile from the gate of the Ezbekíya, we obtain a view of Cairo.” + +This was how one approached Cairo in the first half of the nineteenth +century. The description reads drearily enough, but it has the merit of +showing what the place was like before the European builder took it in +hand. When the traveller plodded along the uneven road between the bean- +fields in 1835 he was traversing precisely the same scene as had been +trodden by the mamlúk horsemen for centuries, and he was approaching a +city which was still to all intents the city of the Arabian Nights. +There is no manner of doubt, from internal evidence, that it was in +Cairo that these famous tales took their definite shape. Their origins +have of course been traced to a large extent in Persia and India, but +their final form and colour are Egyptian. Though many of the scenes are +laid at Baghdád, where the famous Harún er-Rashíd played so conspicuous +and erratic a part, it is obvious to any student of the topography that +the writers were very imperfectly acquainted with the caliph’s city. It +is Cairo that they know and describe, whatever names they please to give +to their scenes. There are incidental touches that make it probable that +the Arabian Nights assumed their present form, in all essentials, before +the middle of the fourteenth century. The latest historical personage +mentioned is Saladin, and there are many reasons for believing that the +tales were collected and written very nearly in their final shape during +the revival of letters that ennobled the golden age of mamlúk +civilization on the Nile. The society they describe is precisely what we +know of mamlúk times: it is orthodox Muslim society of the Cairene type. + +It may be wondered that there should be any speculation at all about the +date of so famous a book; but the explanation is simple. Scholars and +learned men in the East have always looked with contempt upon stories +such as these, which are wholly devoid of the literary preciosity which +was the special pride of the true man of letters. Hence they did not +deign even to mention the Thousand and One Nights, save in two or three +slight references which do not determine the date of the existing +redaction. The Nights were written for the people, for the audiences who +gathered in the coffee-shops to listen to the professional reciter, for +the large uneducated middle class of Cairo. This is what constitutes +their special merit in the eyes of the student of mediæval Egypt. The +doings of kings and emírs we learn from the detailed pages of Makrízy +and many other scholarly writers: it is from the Thousand and One Nights +that we gain our insight into the life of the people—a life divided from +that of the great by a gulf over which the Oriental historian rarely +leaps. The tales are above all the adventures of merchants and shop- +keepers. We are introduced no doubt to caliphs and sultans and vezírs, +as well as to the ginn, ’efrits and márids and other members of the +spirit-world; but the real actors in the stories are traders, men who +keep shop and who have ventures upon the seas, and often make voyages +themselves. Sindibad might easily have heard many of his own adventures +from the lips of the motley crowd that gathered on the quays at Misr +from all parts of the known world. Ibn-Sa‘íd stood and watched the +shipping in 1246 and noticed vessels arriving from all lands: “as for +the merchandise from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea that comes to +Misr it is past describing; here is it bonded, not at Cairo, and hence +it is distributed throughout Egypt.” What was true of Misr and Maks was +also true of their successor, the fourteenth century port at Bulák. It +was from Bulák that ‘Aly of Cairo, after spending all his inheritance +making merry with his wife on the island of Roda, took ship for Damietta +and set forth on his quest of a new fortune. The constantly recurring +references to commercial voyages and great profits are exactly what +would occur to a people whose wealth was made not only by a prodigiously +fertile soil, but by a copious foreign trade. + +What the transit trade of Egypt was worth in mamlúk times may be judged +from a few facts. A single vessel clearing cargo at Alexandria paid +£21,000 in customs. The great Italian republics found it necessary to +maintain consular agents in Egypt, and that there was a wealthy colony +of European merchants is shown by their being able, headed by the consul +of Venice, to guarantee the king of Cyprus’s ransom of £100,000. The +Venetians had enjoyed special privileges in Egypt since the time of +el-‘Adil, in 1208, who allowed them to build a mart (funduk) of their +own at Alexandria; the Pisans had a consul there; and the concessions to +Venice were renewed in 1238. On the other side, in the Red Sea, there +were the ports of Suez, Tor, Koseyr, ‘Aydháb, Dehlek and Sawákin, where +the mamlúk sultans levied customs of a tenth _ad valorem_. The Indian +trade had greatly developed under the later mamlúk sultans, and there +was much rivalry and a tariff war between the Arabian and Egyptian ports +in the Red Sea in the effort to secure the heavy customs dues, which +were pressed beyond the customary tenth. In 1426 we read of forty +vessels from India and Persia paying £36,000 in duties at Gidda, the +port of Mekka, which, like Yenbu‘, was then Egyptian. Nor were the +government duties limited to importation. There were certain monopolies: +sugar, pepper, wood, metalwork could be sold only at government +warehouses, at government prices, subject to duty. A consignment of +pepper that was bought at Cairo for fifty dinárs was sold to Europeans +at Alexandria for one hundred and thirty under government regulations. +The Venetians, after vain consular remonstrance, sent a fleet to +Alexandria to bring away all their merchants, and Bars-Bey was obliged +to reduce his exorbitant terms. + +How much store the Circassian sultans set by the transit trade between +India and Europe has been seen in the vigorous effort made by el-Ghúry +to crush the Portuguese in the Arabian Sea as soon as he realized the +dangerous rivalry of the Cape route. Indeed the transit trade must have +been a chief source of wealth. As Mr Cameron, our consul at Port Sa‘íd, +has well put it, the mamlúk sultans, “masters of both Egypt and Syria, +held the ports and caravan routes between Europe and her Indian trade, +and levied customs dues on every bale of Oriental produce which arrived +from the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea for transfer to the harbours +between Alexandria and Alexandretta and for transhipment to Venice. +Until the discovery of the Cape route in 1498, and its subsequent +development, they enjoyed the monopoly of the entire volume of Indian +trade with the Levant; and Venice, by her commercial capitulations with +them, was their sole agent on the continent. Let us try and estimate +what this monopoly meant. An Arab merchant like Sindbad the Sailor, . . +. buys £10,000 worth of raw silks, nutmegs, pepper, indigo, cloves, and +mace in Persia or at Calicut and lands them at Basra or Suez. The sea +route up the Persian Gulf would be shorter than the voyage up the Red +Sea; but the caravan road from Basra to Aleppo would be more perilous +than the short journey across Egypt. At landing, the customs would +amount to some £4000 [this is much above the mark], and the goods would +then be worth, say, £20,000. A second Arab merchant on the Mediterranean +coast [or perhaps at the wharves of Bulák] would sell the consignment +for £30,000 to the Venetian, who would have to pay another £5000 customs +dues before he could clear his cargo. Thus, whether in customs or in +tolls, or in presents to local governors and escorts, a quarter of the +£35,000 paid by the Venetian would go to the mamlúk sultan and +aristocracy merely for the privilege of transit.”[78] + +It was not the government alone that made the profit. The Cairo merchant +who brought the precious bales from India and the Spice Islands, or at +least bought them from the Indian traders at the Red Sea ports, made his +fortune too. The Thousand and One Nights are full of such successful +ventures. Did not the Second Sheykh, who led the Two Black Hounds, +describe how “we then prepared merchandise and hired a ship and embarked +our goods, and proceeded on our voyage for the space of a whole month, +at the end of which we arrived at a city where we sold our merchandise, +and for every piece of gold we gained ten”? Such fortunate speculations +were no doubt of everyday occurrence, and the trade represented by these +ventures did not all go out of the capital: a large part found its way +into the bazars to be retailed to the good people of Cairo and to +minister to the luxurious tastes of the thousands of hangers-on to the +mamlúk court. We can form but a meagre notion of the mediæval _funduk_ +from the present bazars. A _funduk_, or _khan_, or _wekála_—there is +little difference between the three terms—is a great collection of +warehouses and shops, generally surrounding a court, but sometimes more +like a covered arcade, where the merchants keep their reserves of +stores, and where traders find lodgings for themselves and stabling for +their beasts between their journeys. One great mediæval khan is still +familiar to every tourist—the Khan el-Khalíly or “Turkish bazar,” built +by Garkas el-Khalíly, the Master of the Horse of Sultan Barkúk in 1400 +on the site once occupied by the graves of the Fátimid caliphs, whose +bones were dug up and carted away on asses to the rubbish-mounds outside +the eastern Gate. Another khan, the Hamzáwy, or cloth market, is also +well known; and two of Káit-Bey’s wekálas, the façades of which are +finely ornamented with arabesque panels and intricate geometrical +designs, and wooden medallions carved with the sultan’s name, still +remain beside the Azhar and in the Surugíya. When Lane described Cairo +in 1835 there were about two hundred wekálas, and even now one can +scarcely pass down a street without finding one of these big courts +surrounded by rooms—the inn of the east—opening out through a tall +gateway. + +In the fifteenth century the khans of Cairo were busy marts of the +merchants; and the mamlúk emírs, who had clear ideas as to the value of +house property, emulated one another in building handsome wekálas, every +room of which might be expected to bring in a substantial rent. There +was the khan of Mesrúr, one of the most famous. The young man in the +Story of the Humpback “put up” there, and stored his merchandise, and +after a night’s rest took some of his goods and went to the “kaysaríya +of Garkas,” another famous market of mediæval Cairo dating from Fátimid +days, to sell to the merchants. “Do as other merchants,” said the sheykh +of the brokers to the stranger; “sell thy merchandise upon credit for a +certain period, employing a scrivener, a witness, and a moneychanger, +and receive a portion of the profits every Thursday and Monday: so shalt +thou make of every piece of silver two—besides thou wilt have leisure to +enjoy the amusements of Egypt and its Nile.” So the young man followed +his advice and left his goods to be sold for him, whilst he lived +joyously at the khan of Mesrúr, breakfasted on wine and chicken and +mutton and sweetmeats, and perfumed himself elegantly, till he met the +damsel at the shop of Bedr-ed-din, the gardener, and there happened what +fate had decreed, to be a warning to such as would be admonished. That +the young man should have his hand cut off by the executioner at the +Gate of Zuweyla was exactly what might be expected in the days of the +mamlúks. This khan of Mesrúr (or rather two khans, one large and the +other small) was built on a part of the site of the Fátimid Great Palace +where the slaves used to be sold, by Mesrúr, a favourite slave of +Saladin, who left it as a legacy for the benefit of the poor. The larger +building had a hundred rooms, and was the chief resort of merchants from +Syria,—“the most renowned and greatest of the khans,” says the +Topographer, but its prosperity declined after the tribulation of Syria +at the hands of Tamerlane, “its honour departed and many of its +apartments were ruined.” + +[Illustration: SLAVE MARKET] + +Another famous khan was that of Bilál, a slave of es-Sálih, the grand- +nephew of Saladin, so favoured that the sultan Kalaún used to say, “God +have mercy on our late master es-Sálih! I used to carry the slippers of +this eunuch Bilál whilst he went into the presence!” The slave was very +rich and abounded in good deeds, many poets praised him and were amply +rewarded, and among his worthy acts was the building of the khan, where +the merchants would deposit their chests of great value. “I used to +enter this funduk,” says Makrízy, “and lo! around it were chests piled, +little and great, so that only a small space was left in the middle, and +these chests contained gold and silver enough to amaze one.” Then there +was the “Khan of the Sebíl,” outside the Bab-el-Futúh, founded by +Saladin’s vezír, Karakúsh, for “sons of the road,” poor wayfarers, who +were received without payment; and the Wekála Kusún, built by Násir’s +son-in-law, near the mosque of el-Hákim, where Syrian merchants stored +oil, and sesame, and soap, and preserves, and pistachio-nut, almonds, +syrups, and the like, every store-room being let by the emír’s order at +no more than five dirhems of silver, without extortion, and no one being +turned away. It was a busy place in Makrízy’s time, very popular on +account of its cheapness, full of people and bales of goods, and noisy +with the shouts of the porters. There were 360 lodgings above the store- +rooms, all occupied, and 4000 people lived there. The Tatar devastation +of Syria ruined this khan too. Opposite the Zuweyla Gate stood the +fruit-market where the produce of the gardens round Cairo was sold; it +was roofed over, like most of the bazars in former days, to keep off the +rays of the sun, and the fruit, which smelt like the gardens of +Paradise, was tastefully arranged and decorated with flowers and sweet +herbs.[79] + +There were many more great buildings of this kind, the history of which +is related by the laborious Topographer, whose descriptions enable us +almost to reconstruct in imagination the city of the fifteenth century. +Cairo was a sumptuous and beautiful place in those days. The old mamlúk +palaces—of which we have but relics in the huge blank walls of Beshták’s +palace, the fine gateway of Yeshbek’s _dar_ next to Sultan Hasan’s +mosque, and the better preserved mansions of Káit-Bey and of the emír +Mamáy (known as the Beyt-el-kady)—were then in their full glory. The +various quarters were still separated by their strong gates barred at +night. The súks were shaded by matting or wooden roofs, and the lattice- +windows with their delicate tracery overhung the streets. Makrízy +enumerates and describes 37 _Háras_ or quarters, 30 districts (_khutt_), +65 streets (_darb_), 21 by-streets and alleys (_zukák_ and _khawkha_), +49 squares or _places_ (_rahba_), 50 markets (_suk_), 23 great markets +(_kaysaríya_), 11 hostelries (_khan, funduk, wekála_), 55 famous palaces +and mansions (_kasr, dar_), 44 public baths (_hammám_), 28 closes and +gardens (_hakar, bustán_), 11 racecourses (_meydán_), and numerous +pleasure-houses or belvederes (_manzara_). + +Many of the streets still run in their old places, and some of their +names survive, such as the Salíba or cross-ways, Beyn-el-Kasreyn, Beyn- +es-Sureyn, Harat Bargawán, Suk-es-Siláh, Khan-el-Khalíly, Darb-el-Asfar, +Habbaníya, Khurunfísh. The old quarters of Cairo have changed much less +than the old parts of London; but the reason is melancholy. London has +changed because it has grown; Cairo remained comparatively unaltered +because it was slowly decaying. The loss of much of the Indian trade, +the dependence upon Turkey, the misrule of pashas and mamlúk beys, all +tended to reduce the prosperity of the city which had flourished +exceedingly under the Turkish and Circassian sultans. + +With decline of trade came decline in the arts. There is still a little +good work made in Cairo in brass chasing, jewellery, and silk weaving, +but it is a poor relic of what once went on there. One has only to visit +the Arab Museum to realize what magnificent work the artists of Cairo +produced in the mamlúk period. The arts were closely related to the +mosques, which attained their greatest perfection of ornament in the +same period, and the chief objects in the museum were once parts of the +decoration or furniture of the mosques. The beautiful inlaid and chased +silver and brass tables, with delicate designs in open tracery, Koran +cases, lamps and chandeliers, bowls, censers, candlesticks, enamelled +glass lamps with inscriptions in blue picked out with carmine and gold, +generally came from mosques and centre round the fourteenth century. The +carved panels inlaid with ivory and ebony and choice woods once enriched +the doors and pulpits of the mosques, and the cast bronze bosses and cut +brass filigree work belong chiefly to the same period. There are many +admirable examples of these arts in the South Kensington Museum, and the +British Museum possesses an unsurpassed collection of Saracenic metal +work. There is unhappily no “Market of the Inlayers” now at Cairo, as +there was in Makrízy’s time. This silver and gold inlay of arabesques +and inscriptions on a brass base was one of the most elaborate and +characteristic of Saracenic arts. It was not Egyptian in origin, but +derived from the old Sasanian silversmiths of Mesopotamia. The oldest +specimens we know came from Mosil on the Tigris, which was a famous home +of metal-workers, within reach of the mines of the Taurus country. No +doubt these Mosil smiths were attracted to Cairo in the flourishing days +of the mamlúk sultans, or even earlier. At least it is certain that some +of their finest work was done for the Egyptian market, and even bears +the names of well-known Cairene rulers and emírs. There is the casket, +for example, engraved with the name and titles of el-‘Adil II, Saladin’s +grand-nephew, who sat on the throne of Egypt from 1238 to 1240, and was +succeeded by es-Sálih, the husband of “Spray of Pearls.” It is in the +Mosil style of the earliest period; the sides are ornamented with dotted +eight-foils (exactly resembling the ornament on the silver coins of the +family of Saladin) containing hunting scenes, a combat with a lion, a +horseman with falcon on wrist (which is covered with the falconer’s +glove), etc.; the intervening ground is decorated with fine arabesques, +and an inscription on the bevel of the lid gives the name and titles of +the sultan. On the top are personifications of the six planets (of +Arabian science) surrounding the sun (the seventh):—the Moon, a seated +figure holding a crescent; Mercury, with his writing materials; Venus, a +woman playing on the lyre; Mars, a warrior brandishing a sword and +holding a bleeding head; Jupiter, a throned judge; and Saturn, patron of +thieves, with his bludgeon and purse. Outside these is a band of the +twelve signs of the Zodiac, represented much in the usual manner. On the +bottom of the box is an inscription stating that it was made “for the +royal wardrobe of el-‘Adil.” + +The hunting-scenes and representations of human figures and animals are +characteristic of Mesopotamian silver work, and we see medallions of +two-headed eagles on a splendid inlaid perfume-burner in the British +Museum, “made,” as the silver letters inform us, “by order of his +excellency, the generous, the exalted lord, the great emír, the +honourable master, marshal, warrior for the faith, warden of Islám, +mighty, heaven-supported, victorious, Full Moon of the Faith Beysary, +mamlúk of ez-Záhir (Beybars),” etc. The date must be before 1279, and +the vessel carries us back to the days of Kalaún and the beginning of +mamlúk splendour. Beysary was one of the greatest and most sumptuous of +the early mamlúk emírs, and his perfume burner was typical of the +luxurious refinements of his palace. He valued his comfort more than +ambition, and twice refused the precarious honour of the throne during +the unsettled period succeeding Kalaún’s death, when the sultanate was +open to the strongest emír. Even so he could not escape the consequences +of being wealthy and distinguished, and in spite of his retiring +character he was suspected of pretensions to power, fleeced of his +treasures, and often confined to the dungeons of the Citadel. His +palace, which stood in Beyn-el-Kasreyn, covered four acres, and +possessed the richest mosaics and the handsomest carved doors in Cairo. +Bedr-ed-din Beysary was indeed the most sumptuous man of his time. He +loved to surround himself with beautiful things, and his slave body- +guard was the best appointed of the day. No fortune could support his +lavish extravagance. He not only spent upon himself, but gave prodigally +to all who asked him. Hospitality was his foible, and his gifts to the +poor ran in round sums of five hundred or a thousand dirhems (say +francs) to each applicant. He would daily distribute three thousand +pounds of meat, and a single present consisted of a thousand pieces of +gold, five thousand bushels of corn, and a thousand hundredweight of +honey. One of his mamlúks used every day to draw ninety pounds of meat +and seventy rations of barley, which it is to be presumed neither he nor +his horses could possibly digest. Naturally Beysary was perpetually in +debt. The constant amount of his liabilities is placed at 400,000 +dirhems, for as soon as one debt was paid off, the generous soul +hastened to contract another of the same figure. A considerable part of +his expenditure must have gone in table equipage, for it is recorded +that he never drank twice out of the same cup; and as Makrízy mentions +that at one time this thirteenth century epicure was wholly given over +to wine and hazard, the number of cups required must have been +considerable. But a great and cultivated emír needed more than cups for +his comfort: he must have inlaid tables on which to put the broad brass +tray incrusted with chased silver and gold, which carried his service of +the forbidden fruit of the grape; he must have his beautiful hall +lighted by candles placed in elaborate stands, covered with silver +inlay; his very tubs and cooking-pots must be chased with arabesques and +complicated designs, and his palace must be perfumed with incense rising +from perfume-burners on which the artist had engraved representations of +horsemen at the chase, hounds and quarry, falcons and waterfowl, and all +the decorative subjects of the Saracen silversmith. + +[Illustration: IN THE DARB-EL-AHMAR] + +The earliest and finest examples of metal work connected with the names +of Cairo kings and nobles are of Mosil origin, though very probably made +in Cairo in the “Market of the Inlayers” by artists who had been +attracted to the court. There was undoubtedly an early Fátimid art of a +similar character, but beyond a very few rare examples, such as the +Bayeux casket at Paris and some specimens of cut crystal at Venice, we +know almost nothing of its style. Under the mamlúk sultans, however, +Cairo soon acquired a school of her own, which seems to have possessed +traditions coming from a different source than that of Mosil. The Cairo +style is what we see on the numerous trays, bowls, cups, censers, and +other vessels of the mamlúks of Egypt of the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, preserved in our museums and private collections. Some points +of resemblance to the Mosil work may be noticed, but the new elements +are very distinct. The figures of horsemen and seated princes have for +the most part disappeared, as it was natural they should when the +Turkish princes became habituated to the puritanical prescriptions of +Islám concerning the treatment of living things in art; but borders +representing beasts of the chase, and a ground covered with wild duck +and other fowl, still remain. The prevalence of the duck, which was +easily explicable in the swamps of Mesopotamia, finds another _raison +d’être_ in Egypt, for the founder of the line of sultans who ruled in +Cairo for nearly a century was a Turk of Kipchak, whose name, Kalaún, +means in his native Mongol tongue “duck.” We may compare Abbot Islip’s +plastic puns on his own name in his chapel in Westminster Abbey. The +ornament of the mamlúk metalwork is essentially different in style from +that of Mosil. The inscriptions are arranged in broad bands, with large +surfaces of silver inlay, divided by medallions filled with the sultan’s +name on a fess, or else by some heraldic coat of arms borne by the +owner, among which the cup and polo-stick (indicating the court offices +of cup-bearer and polo-master), the lozenge, and a curious imitation of +a hieroglyphic inscription common on the ancient monuments of Egypt, but +doubtless unintelligible to the copyists, are the most usual. Round the +medallions are belts of flowers and leaves, reminding one of the designs +of Damascus tiles; and similar leaves and flowers, interspersed with +birds, cover the ground. The execution is no less admirable than the +design. There was no scamped work among these Saracen smiths. They cut +away the whole design in the brass, and undercut the edges to hold the +thin plates of silver or gold, to be hammered and burnished in, which +formed the design; and they chased with the graver every plate of +silver, were it only a pin’s head in size, with wings or eyes or floral +scrolls—a work of infinite labour; and then they covered the +interstices, where the brass showed, with a black bituminous composition +which set off the precious metal to advantage. Much of the silver and +coating has been lost by wear and time, and it is difficult to realize +the beauty of the original state of most of the vessels and trays that +have come down to us; but a careful examination only reveals more fully +the exquisite skill, care, and fine honest workmanship that no time or +injury can destroy. + +This art of silver inlay, like architecture and wood and ivory carving +and every other variety of æsthetic expression, culminated in the +wonderful efflorescence of art and culture in the reign of en-Násir, +Kalaún’s son, in the first half of the fourteenth century. Whenever in +any museum we see a fine specimen of metalwork, we may be almost sure to +find the name of a Násiry emír—that is a courtier or mamlúk of en- +Násir—in its inscription, and sometimes even the name of the sultan +himself. + +The Topographer tells us that in his day, in the early part of the +fifteenth century, this beautiful art had fallen into disrepute. It +used, he says, to be a favourite taste, and “we have seen inlaid work +(_keft_) in such quantities that it could not be counted; there was +hardly a house in Cairo or Misr that had not many pieces of inlaid +copper,”—he means brass. A stand of inlaid bowls and plates ranged on a +frame of carved wood and ivory was a usual part of a bride’s trousseau, +and cost as much as two hundred dinárs. But, he adds, “the art is now +lacking in Misr; . . . the demand for this inlaid copper-work has fallen +off in our times, and since many years the people have turned away from +buying what was to be sold of it, so that but a small remnant of the +workers of inlay subsists in this market.”[80] + +The art was not dead, however; it had merely passed on elsewhere. The +heritage which Cairo received from Mosil was bequeathed to Venice. We +have seen that the Venetians were the European agents of the Egyptian +merchants, and it is not too much to say that Venice was half an +oriental city. Italy was full of Eastern influences. We know that a +twelfth century poet lamented that Pisa was “delivered over to Moors, +Indians and Turks”; that there was a via Sarracena at Ferrara, and +Lucera was deeply tinged with Muslim traditions, dating from Frederick +II’s importation of Saracen archers. But Venice felt this influence most +of all. Her commerce and colonies brought her merchants into relations +with the artistic work of the East; her ambassadors brought home the +splendid gifts of the mamlúk sultans; and she soon began to import the +artists as well as the art. The _opus Salomonis_ or Jews’ work was the +name given to this Saracenic style, often referred to in early romances. +Chaucer had heard of it, for he writes in Sir Thopas:— + + + “And over that a fyn hawberk + + Was all i-wrought of jewes work.” + + +Especially did Venice excel in the chasing of great salvers in the +Saracenic manner, though with considerable differences both in design +and in technique. The silver is applied chiefly in narrow threads +instead of broad plates, and the designs are chiefly arabesque, whilst +the forms of the vessels show marked improvement upon the somewhat crude +outlines of the Cairo silversmith. Native Italian artists began to copy +the art introduced by Mahmúd the Kurd and his Saracen comrades. They +called themselves Azzimine, _i.e._ workers in the Persian style _all’ +Agemina_—for it has long been the fashion to miscall every form of +Saracenic art Persian—and we read of Italian artists, such as Giorgio +Ghisi Azzimina of Mantua, and Paulus Ageminius, who excelled in the art +which had been imported from Egypt. + +We have singled out the silver-inlay from among the arts of mediæval +Cairo because it is a branch in which the development can be traced with +certainty by a series of dated examples. But the chief decorative arts +of the mosque builders were wood-carving and marble mosaic. The +beautiful panelled work of mosque pulpits and doors, originally +suggested, no doubt, by the necessity of small surfaces in a hot climate +where warping had to be prevented, are among the most characteristic +forms of Cairo ornament; and the use of variegated marbles in the +mihrábs of the mosques produces a rich (if sometimes rather glaring) +effect, which was imitated in the dados of the houses of the nobles, now +unhappily for the most part destroyed. The extensive use of wood in +Cairo architecture is the more remarkable when it is considered how +little suitable wood grows in Egypt. On the other hand the dry climate, +though it warps, preserves timber for centuries. The original wooden +ties of the pillars of Ibn-Tulún’s mosque have stood for more than a +thousand years and are still sound, and a portion even of the ceiling of +the arcades has been preserved. This wooden ceiling shows that in the +ninth century the same method was used as is seen in all periods of +Saracenic art previous to the introduction of European styles. It +consists of joists of palm trunks sawn in two, with the three exposed +sides faced with planks to square the outline. The hollows between the +squared joists were divided by cross pieces into shallow compartments or +“coffers.” In private houses the joists were often left uncovered in +their natural half-round shape. Whether planked or left in the round, +the joists and the coffers between were coated with plaster, generally +laid on canvas, and the plaster was painted with arabesques in deep +blue, carmine, and gold. These coffered ceilings, which may still be +seen in many houses, have a wonderfully rich effect with their deep +tones of red and blue, lighted up by gold outlines; and the transition +from the ceiling to the walls is skilfully masked by arching and +stalactite pendentives, richly painted with similar designs. Inferior to +the coffered ceilings, but still very effective, are those composed of +boards nailed flat across the joists and covered with a thin coating of +stucco, worked into arabesque and floral patterns, and then painted and +gilt; or with a geometrical design formed by appliqué strips of wood, +gilt shaded with red, the interstices being filled with arabesques in +painted stucco. + +Wood-carving had ample opportunities for display in the pulpits, Korán +desks, interior doors and cupboards of mosques. Some of the oldest +examples, from the mosques of Ibn-Tulún and el-Hákim, may be seen in the +Arab Museum at Cairo, and the deep volutes carved in the panels are +clearly of Byzantine origin, resembling the still earlier but undated +panels found in the tract of ‘Ayn-es-Síra, south of Cairo. In the +thirteenth century the style alters. Instead of the bold foliate designs +we find more intricate and delicate ornament distributed in much smaller +geometrical panels. A peculiarly beautiful example is the Sheykh’s tomb- +casing of 1216, of which one side is in the Museum at South Kensington, +and the other three in the Arab Museum. Another is the carved casing of +the tomb of es-Sálih Ayyúb (1249):—“the little panels are formed into +hexagonal stars and delicately carved, and here appears the +representation of fruit-stalks, which is a common feature in thirteenth +century wood-carving. The mihráb or prayer niche from the chapel of +Seyyida Rukeyya, which belongs probably to the same century, deserves +special notice for its characteristic ornamentation of stems branching +out of a vase.”[81] But it was under the Mamlúk Sultans, and especially +in the great period of en-Násir that wood-carving attained its most +exquisite development. Woods of different colours were employed to +produce the effect of relief, and inlay was largely adopted in place of +carving in the solid block. Sometimes each little carved panel was set +in a frame of ebony beading, which was itself carved, and often +consisted of two or three distinct frames, one outside the other; whilst +the central design was hardly ever the same in two panels out of many +hundreds. The amount of careful work demanded in carving and putting +together a large surface of this intricate panelling must have been +immense. Many beautiful examples may be seen in the mosques, and even +finer are the carved doors in wood and ivory panelling in the Coptic +churches of Babylon, from which there can be little doubt that the +Muslims learnt the art; but to see Mamlúk carving at its best one need +not leave London. A large number of the very finest specimens were taken +away from their lawful guardians during the reign of the Khedive +Isma‘íl, and even earlier, and have found their way to the Museum at +South Kensington. There we may study at leisure some of the rich yet not +over-elaborate arabesque carvings abstracted from the pulpit set up in +the mosque of Ibn-Tulún by Lagín in 1296; others of extraordinary beauty +from the mosque of el-Maridány, 1339, absurdly set in the top of a +French table; others, probably from the pulpit of the mosque of Kusún, +also set in coarse modern framework, but preserving all the delicate +grace of the arabesque carvings absolutely intact; and finally the +complete pulpit bearing the inscription of Káit-Bey, but from what +mosque is not known. The whole forms a singularly rich and beautiful +exhibition of Saracenic wood-carving of the best period.[82] + +There are differences and even decadence in the series, however, and a +careful study of the designs will show that the art reached its highest +point in the carvings of el-Maridány, _i.e._ immediately after the reign +of en-Násir. Sheykhú’s pulpit of 1358 is not so good; Sultan Hasan’s is +of stone; el-Muáyyad’s of 1420 is distinctly inferior; and even Káit- +Bey’s, prince though he was of Cairo builders, is not to be compared +with the work of the middle of the fourteenth century. The designs have +become less spontaneous, the lines are harder and more mechanical, and +(as in stone carving) there is a tendency to repetition utterly foreign +to the earlier work. Part of this may be explained by the introduction +of ivory as the material for the inlaid panels, for ivory, though +capable of even more delicate carving, is less easy to work in flowing +lines. But the main cause was probably the preponderating attention +given to carving in stone. No sooner does stone become the predominant +material for decoration than wood-carving, like stucco-tooling, falls +into comparative neglect. The middle of the fourteenth century was the +parting of the ways. Stone became the favourite material, and the +carvers of wood, if they did not lay aside the graver for the stone- +chisel, at least moulded their style upon the harder outlines of the +sculptors, and the result was deterioration. + +If wood-carving decayed after the middle of the fourteenth century, +another branch of woodwork was notably developed. One charming feature +of the exterior of a Cairo house is the _meshrebíya_ of delicate turned +tracery. There is no reason to doubt that this kind of work is very old, +but whether by reason of its fragility or the frequent conflagrations +that afflicted the city, no ancient examples have been preserved. The +few wooden lattices that still remain in the older mosques are of quite +a different style: they are made of stout clumsy quarterings, divided +into compartments filled by square or round upright balusters, such as +are seen in the tomb of Kalaún. Others are mere grilles of large open +squares, with no pretension to artistic design. A finer kind is seen in +Lagín’s pulpit in the mosque of Ibn-Tulún (1296), where the mesh is +close and the knobs are inlaid and carved. It is curious that the true +meshrebíya, with its varied designs and lace-like effect, first appears +in the screen of the sanctuary in the mosque of el-Maridány, which also +shows the highest development of wood-carving. As the one art decayed, +the other improved. There are fine examples of meshrebíya work of the +early part of the fifteenth century, as in the pulpit of el-Muáyyad, but +it attained its greatest perfection in the age of Káit-Bey, of which a +fine specimen is preserved in the pulpit of Abu-Bekr ibn Muzhir. Most of +the house meshrebíyas are comparatively modern, though it is impossible +to fix their precise date. Their inevitable disappearance is an æsthetic +loss that nothing can replace; but it must be admitted that they formed +the most dangerous conductors of fire from house to house and street to +street that the ingenuity of man could well devise. + +There is this to be said about every branch of artistic work of mediæval +Cairo, whether it be architecture, carving in wood or stone, metal +chasing, or glass—it is always distinctively original. The Saracens +brought no art with them; indeed they appear to have been singularly +lacking in the æsthetic sense. They learned their arts from their +foreign subjects, yet they invariably introduced an element of +differentiation which marks their work as characteristically Saracenic. +They learned their metal chasing from Persia, but they soon made it +their own; they copied Byzantine and Coptic wood-carving, and added the +essential personal equation which constitutes a distinct art; they found +glass making and blowing in Egypt, acquired the secrets of enamelling +and gilding from Constantinople, and then produced a style of enamelled +lamps totally unlike any other in the world. It is not only a variation +in design or shape that makes the difference: the whole character of the +work, in every branch of Saracenic art, is distinct and absolutely _sui +generis_. They were not only wonderful assimilators, they also had the +genius of development on original lines. Perhaps the strangest part of +the matter is that the highest development was achieved in the troubled +times of singularly uncultivated and sanguinary foreign masters. Yet the +age of the Mamlúk Sultans was the Saturnian age of Mohammedan Egypt in +art and also in literature. For it must not be forgotten that some of +the greatest names in Muslim theology, jurisprudence, criticism, and +history were associated as kádis or professors with the mosques and +medresas of Cairo, and that the mamlúk period produced or encouraged +such writers as Ibn-Khaldún, Nuweyry, Ibn-Dukmák, Makrízy, Ibn-Hagar, +el-‘Ayny, Ibn-‘Arab-shah, Abu-l-Mahásin, es-Suyúty, and Ibn-Iyás, who +either were born in Egypt, or, like Abu-l-Fida, spent many years in +Cairo. The fifteenth century was perhaps the most prolific period in +Egyptian literature, and this activity was more than rivalled in the +neighbouring province of Syria under the same sultans. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + _Beys and Pashas_ + + +NO one has had the heart to write the history of Egypt during the three +centuries of its subjection to the Sultans of Turkey, from its conquest +by Selím the Grim in 1516 to Mohammad ‘Aly’s foundation of a virtually +independent dynasty in 1805. The annals of this period are monotonous, +and the great figures of the earlier mamlúk period are wanting. The +whole action seems to be played upon a smaller stage by inferior +performers. The incentives to public spirit supplied by foreign wars +were withdrawn from a merely provincial government, and the profuse +expenditure and sumptuous luxury of a sovereign court no longer +stimulated art and handicrafts or quickened the emulation of the emírs. +The cramping influence of dependence and the grasping fiscal policy of +the Ottoman empire destroyed much of the old magnificence of the +mamlúks. Yet there was no such vivid contrast between Cairo under the +pashas and the city that Makrízy describes as has sometimes been +imagined. Everything in the East changes by almost imperceptible +degrees, and the mills of God in Egypt grind with the tedious slowness +of the creaking sákiyas of the country. Deterioration there was, but it +came very gradually. The emírs were still the dominant power, and the +chief difference was that instead of a sultan elected by themselves they +had over them a pasha appointed by the Sublime Porte. The pasha’s +authority was checked by a council of mamlúk emírs—or beys, as they came +to be called—and he was frequently deposed by them or by the intrigues +of the mutinous soldiery. Though a pasha might arrive with a suite of +twelve hundred persons, and scatter handkerchiefs full of gold coins on +festal occasions, he could seldom make head against the military +oligarchy. The chief mamlúk, or sheykh-el-beled (mayor of the city) as +he was entitled, was a far more powerful personage than the pasha. The +emírs were much what they had been under the Circassian dynasty: they +were not the same men, because Selím had massacred as many as he could +catch, but they were similar—Turks, Georgians, Circassians, risen from +slavery to office and rank,—and they maintained great state in their +palaces beside the Ezbekíya lake or on the Birket-el-Fil, in the +Crossway, or the Street of Arms; were followed by large bands of +retainers, and carried on their jealousies, civil wars, and street +fights with as much fervour as before. A new element of discord was +introduced by the Turkish battalions of ‘Azabs and Janizaries in the +Citadel barracks, and the commanders of these troops became the most +powerful emírs in Egypt. But these too were of precisely the same +character as the earlier mamlúks, and save for the absence of a +controlling influence such as a strong sultan sometimes exerted, but a +delegated pasha almost never, there was little to choose between the +state of Cairo under the new régime and its anarchic condition under the +impotent direction of most of the later Circassian kings. + +Egypt in fact was still ruled by mamlúks. Its pashas were perpetually +changed, and lived in terror of their own garrison; the emírs held the +real power, and used it in the old way for their own benefit and for the +ruin by exile or execution of their rivals. They formed themselves into +powerful cliques, such as the Kásimis and the Fikáris, and their +retainers fought each other in the streets, and besieged the government +‘Azab troops for months together. They had already discovered that the +Citadel could be commanded by artillery on the hill behind. We read in +Gabárty’s chronicle of bands of troops fortifying themselves in the +mosques of Ibn-Tulún, Almás, Mahmudíya, and so forth, and discharging +cannon balls from the adjacent minarets. The anarchy at times was +indescribable; streets were deserted, houses plundered, and no man dared +to go as far as Bulák or Old Misr; then followed an interval of +tranquillity assured by the temporary supremacy of some great lord. It +is difficult to discover any very notable distinction between these +later emírs and those of the golden age of mamlúk civilization. Their +opportunities were less, because they could no longer carry on wars in +Syria or Asia Minor in their own behoof, for the contingents that were +constantly drafted in Egypt for foreign service were merely employed as +an insignificant part of the Ottoman armies. But their characters, +occupations, and tastes appear to have been much what they had been for +the preceding two centuries. There was a difference in degree but not in +kind: they were not as a rule such big men with large opportunities as +their forerunners, but in race, in character, in action, they were the +same. + +Indeed some of them were remarkable personages fit to compare with those +of the old school. ‘Othmán Bey Dhu-l-fikár, for example, in the first +half of the eighteenth century,—after playing a bold part in the faction +fight that centred round his patron Dhu-l-fikár Bey and Cherkes Bey, and +seeing eleven emírs of rank done to death in the palace of the +Defterdár, himself narrowly escaping with a sabre-cut in his +turban,—became the most eminent noble in Cairo, with power to raise his +own mamlúks to the rank of emír. He was chief of the pilgrimage (emír- +el-hagg), one of the most coveted posts in Egypt, in 1739; and when ‘Aly +el-Gelfy the deputy[83] was assassinated, ‘Othmán Bey deposed the pasha +and appointed Rudwán to be deputy over the ‘Azab battalions. ‘Othmán was +the first emír who ventured to invite the pasha of Egypt to a feast in +his palace, and the other nobles were completely subject to him. He held +a court in his own house to decide causes of complaint, and, +incorruptible himself, he severely punished any cases of extortion or +oppression that came before him, watched the market-inspector closely, +prescribed a fixed tariff for bread and other necessaries of life, and +insisted on the due payment of pious benefactions to their proper uses. +Lofty in character, of noble ideas and thoughts, just, able, +disinterested, of honest life, and proud as Lucifer, he left such an +impression behind him, when the intrigues of his rivals banished him +from Egypt, that he created an era: one heard people say, “such a thing +happened so many years after the departure of ‘Othmán Bey,” or “I was +such and such an age when ‘Othmán Bey left.” + +Rudwán el-Gelfy, just referred to, was another notable figure of the +eighteenth century. Whilst he and another deputy, Ibrahím, held office, +the country enjoyed absolute peace, food was cheaper than was ever known +before, and plenty reigned in all classes. In those days every great man +kept open house twice a day, noon and evening, in a spacious hall to +which all might enter. The lord and his guests sat at the head of the +table, and his mamlúks and followers lower down, as it were “below the +salt,” and it was held disgraceful to refuse admission to any stranger +who presented himself. On feast days great dishes of rice and honey or +milk were distributed to the poor, and sweetmeats were served on Fridays +and festivals. One of Rudwán’s houses was on the Ezbekíya, on the border +of the lake (as it then was, at least at high Nile). Its halls were +surmounted by cunningly designed domes, in which gold arabesques on a +blue ground harmonized with stained glass of many colours in charming +combination. He built kiosks in a garden beside the canal, where he had +laid out a lake and cascade, and there, when his ambition was satisfied, +he took his pleasure, which savoured, it must be confessed, of debauch. +Indeed Rudwán was no stern moralist, like ‘Othmán Bey, but allowed a +considerable licence to the fair ladies of Cairo. The police had his +orders not to disturb them or baulk their admirers,[84] and “Cairo then +resembled a land of gazelles, a paradise of houris and darlings; its +inhabitants drank their fill in the cup of delight, as though there were +no reckoning to be paid on the day of judgment.” No wonder that poets +sang his praises in such verses as “the Impurpled Wine” and “the Perfume +of Paradise.” Rudwán’s palace is no more to be seen in the Ezbekíya, but +his gate, the Bab-el-‘Azab, leading into the Citadel from the Rumeyla, +preserves his memory. His end was tragic. Conspirators surrounded his +house in the street of Kusún, and bullets began to pour in whilst he was +engaged in the meditative process of having his head shaved. He fought +while he had strength, and then, with a broken leg, struggled on +horseback and fled to die in upper Egypt. He was the last great +commander of the ‘Azabs. + +It was not only the emírs who owned such splendid houses as Rudwán. +Another house on the Ezbekíya belonged to a famous merchant, Ahmad esh- +Sharáiby (the apothecary), whose family had produced emírs and owned +mamlúks. They possessed immense wealth, and they used it as high-minded, +honest gentlefolk. Learned men frequented their house, which was full of +rare manuscripts as well as ordinary works of reference. Whatever book +was in the market, if it was not in their library they bought it +regardless of the price; and once there it was immediately placed at the +disposal of every visitor. A scholar was sure to find any book he +required in the Sharáiby library, and he was at liberty to carry it off +on loan, or even to keep it altogether; for the princely merchants would +never think of asking its return, but would merely seek out and buy +another copy. From the scholar’s point of view it seems impossible to +improve upon this system. The members of this family were more than +enlightened book collectors and book lenders: they were strict observers +of the austere rule of the Málikis, tenacious of sound morals, and +exclusive in their connexions. They married only among their own large +family circle, and their daughters never left the house except when they +were married or borne to their grave. It was well to be cautious in days +when the luxurious Rudwán was encouraging amatory adventures, and when a +party of high-born dames, riding out to “smell the air,” as Cairo ladies +do now, at the proper season, were set upon near the Ezbekíya and +stripped of their jewels and every garment they had on. But the Sharáiby +folk, though strict, could unbend. When marriage feasts were afoot, for +example, they gave splendid entertainments, but so careful were they of +their daughters that they waited till all the guests were safely engaged +in prayer at the mosque of Ezbek[85] opposite the house, and then +hurried the bride off to her husband’s abode under guard of a discreet +body of matrons: after which there was plenty of gunfiring and torch +waving, and all was merry. + +[Illustration: STREET NEAR BAB-EL-KHARK] + +The family had the custom of appointing one of their number trustee of +all their property and business. It was his duty to collect the rents, +gather the harvest and crops, receive the profits of their ventures, and +pay all expenses, including the family’s dress and pocket-money. At the +end of the year he drew up his balance sheet and paid each member his +share. This excellent plan was not likely to last for ever, and one is +not surprised to learn that at last the younger members quarrelled over +the accounts, and the joint-stock company broke up in disorder. This was +no doubt an exceptional family; but there were many of the kind, and +there are some yet in Cairo, sterling honest folk, who walk in the old +paths and guard a severe self-respect. + +The zeal for books displayed by this family casts an interesting light +upon the education and learning of the times. During the earlier mamlúk +days many important libraries had been formed in Cairo, partly from the +spoils of Syrian mosques, and if we are to take as evidence the long +biographies of numerous sheykhs, professors, divines, historians, and +poets, related with enthusiastic admiration by el-Gabarty, there was a +vast deal of intellectual energy expended in Egypt in the seventeenth +and eighteenth centuries, though perhaps it was hardly in the first rank +of original genius. He reports a curious conversation, however, in 1750, +between Ahmad pasha, a governor of mathematical tastes, and the sheykh +‘Abdallah esh-Shubrawy, of the Azhar. The pasha remarked that he had +continually heard of the wonderful merits of Egypt as the home of +learning, but he would like to see the results. “True, O my master,” +replied the sheykh, “Egypt is as you have heard, the mine of sciences +and knowledge.” “But where are they?” asked the pasha. “As far as I can +see, you know nothing but law and metaphysic and other less important +studies, and disdain practical science altogether.” The sheykh had to +admit that at the Azhar they did not teach mathematics, beyond +arithmetic, which was useful for the law of inheritance. “How about +astronomy?” suggested the pasha. “It is needed for the hours of prayer, +times of fast, and many other things.” The sheykh admitted that few +studied astronomy, which demanded special aptitudes, and instruments, +and physiological conditions, and a “sweet and tranquil disposition,” +for its proper pursuit; but he said he could find the man whom the pasha +wanted, though not in the Azhar. When the man appeared, it seems his +arithmetical problems delighted the governor, who gave him a fur cloak, +which the sage afterwards sold for 800 dinars. He drew beautiful sun- +dials, on marble, to show the hours of prayer, with appropriate mottoes, +and two of these were set up in the Azhar and on the roof of the mosque +of the Imám esh-Sháfi‘y.[86] One gathers from this anecdote, as well as +from the lists of works described by the historian, that study in Cairo +at that time was rather zealous than profound, and that learning was +decidedly in its decadence. + +Religion, on the other hand, was more powerful than ever. The annals of +the pashalik are full of references to the influence of the Azhar +professors and of the seyyids, and we hear of something very near a +revolution when a Turkish preacher got up in the mosque of el-Muáyyad +and fulminated against the invocation of saints, a popular accretion +which is certainly no part of the creed of Mohammad. The preacher urged +the crowd to demolish the cupolas over the saints’ tombs, and the +orthodox professors of divinity had much trouble to silence him and +appease the crowd. There was often a very severe regulation of public +behaviour in deference to religious notions, and we find, for example, a +stern prohibition of smoking in the streets. Police marched up and down +three times a day, and if any smoker was caught he had to eat his pipe- +bowl. An old custom, mentioned by Násir-i-Khusrau (above, p. 109), was +still in force: a man who had falsified documents was paraded on +camelback through the streets, whilst a crier proclaimed, “Behold the +punishment of forgers!” The Cairenes were clearly very superstitious, +and when in 1735 a circumstantial rumour went round that the +Resurrection would certainly take place on the next Friday, in two days’ +time, they bade each other last farewells, and wandered about the fields +and roads saying good-bye to the land they loved, whilst the people of +Giza, moved by a superstition which ran in their minds from ages long +before Islám was discovered, bathed hysterically in the Nile, both men +and women. There was nothing but panic and repentance and prayer till +Saturday—when behold! nothing had happened. + +An age that attached so much importance to religion was not likely to +neglect its shrines. It is a mistake to ascribe the ruin of so many of +the mosques of Cairo to the period of the Turkish pashas. On the +contrary, the danger was that they might be “restored” out of all +knowledge. Cairo is full of “Turkish” mosques, that is Turkish of the +Othmanly style, which, if they cannot compare with the buildings of the +earlier mamlúks, are nevertheless very creditable examples of their +kind, and far superior to anything built, say, in England, during the +past century. Indeed the mosques of Seyyida Safíya (1604) and of +Mohammad Abu-dh-Dhahab (1774), are exceedingly noble buildings, and that +little gem of Turkish mosaic work, el-Burdeyny, is beautiful in its own +way. The architects of the Ottoman period abandoned the medresa style +introduced by Saladin, which, as we have seen, had lost much of its +original cruciform plan when the medresas were used as congregational +mosques under the Circassian Mamlúks; but, whilst reverting to the older +and simpler plan of the gámi‘, they modified it by substituting cupolas +of Byzantine form for the level ceilings which formerly covered the +sanctuary. In fact, the Ottoman mosque is practically a basilica. A +special feature of the mosques and restorations of the Othmanly period +is the introduction of faïence. The medresa of Aksunkur was restored by +Ibrahím Aga in 1652, and the whole east wall covered with fine blue +tiles, chiefly of the Damascus style, with a few so-called Rhodian, +probably from Constantinople. It was not often that restoration proved +so successful, and one has frequently to deplore the patching of Turkish +additions upon the old masterpieces. Ahmad pasha restored the then +dilapidated mosque of el-Muayyad in 1690; another pasha built the +Arba‘ín mosque by the Karameydan Gate in 1704; Ahmad the deputy restored +the Fátimid mosque of ez-Záfir, known as el-Fakahány, in 1735. + +But the prince of restorers was ‘Abd-er-Rahmán Kiahya (Ketkhuda), who +enjoyed great influence before the time when ‘Aly Bey—himself the +restorer of the dome of the tomb-mosque of Imám Sháfi‘y and builder of +the Bulák bazar—deposing the reigning pasha made himself king of Egypt +from 1768 to 1772. ‘Abd-er-Rahmán’s father, ‘Othmán Ketkhuda, had +architectural tastes. Out of his very ill-gotten gains he built his +mosque, school, and fountain by the Ezbekíya lake, and on the day of +opening filled the great central basin and all the ewers he could +collect with sherbet for the congregation. He also built the school for +the blind at the Azhar, and other benefactions. His son, however, far +surpassed him. Every tourist knows his little _sebíl_—elegant like its +founder, who was dainty in person and dress, and very fair—at the end of +Beyn-el-Kasreyn, with its tiles, and open arched school above; but this +was the least of his works. He built a mosque outside the Bab-el-Futúh, +and another by the Bab-el-Ghureyyib, with a cistern, fountain, and +school; a great reservoir, with fountain and school, near the Ezbekíya +cemetery, for the sakkas or water-carriers; rebuilt the chapels of +Seyyida Zeyneb and Seyyida Sekína, and erected others near the Karáfa +Gate, in the Musky, in the Hoseyníya quarter, and in the ‘Abdín street, +etc. Of his restorations the best known is that of the Azhar, which owes +its present aspect largely to ‘Abd-er-Rahmán’s work. He put in fifty +marble columns supporting groins of faced stone covered with costly +woods; erected a new _mihráb_ and pulpit, built the two archways, one +with a school for orphans above it, the other with a minaret; set up a +tomb in the court, added libraries, reading-rooms, kitchens, and other +apartments for the benefit of students from Upper Egypt; enlarged the +Taybarsíya and Akbughawíya medresas attached to the Azhar, and built the +splendid portal between them, opposite the wekála of Káit-Bey; furnished +_riwáks_ (or partitions) for students from Mekka and from the Sudán; and +settled rents in trust for the maintenance of these benefactions, +besides giving every day in Ramadán to the Azhar kitchen a large +quantity of rice, butter, oil, and meal for the evening refreshment of +the students after the day’s fast. ‘Abd-er-Rahmán also restored the +mosque of the Imám Sháfi‘y, and paved the corridor with variegated +marbles; repaired the tomb of Seyyida Nefísa and the Maristán of Kalaún +(then a madhouse), but after pulling down the dome he neglected to +rebuild it, and merely boarded it over, and so it remains to this day. +He took great pains to trace the bequests left by the founder and his +successors to the hospital, and succeeded in recovering the title-deeds +and restoring the revenues. By whatever means he acquired his wealth, +and it was said the means were not above suspicion, there was no end to +this man’s charitable acts. At winter time he distributed woollen +clothes to crowds of the blind, who always abound at Cairo, and also to +the muezzins to protect them from cold when chanting the nightly calls +to prayer. The poor clamoured about his door in the evenings of Ramadán, +waiting for the plates of food which were never refused, and after the +meal they went away happy with two loaves and two paras ready for next +day’s breakfast. Altogether, ‘Abd-er-Rahmán Kiahya built or rebuilt +eighteen mosques, besides chapels, fountains, schools, bridges, and +every sort of edifice. He had an architectural passion, and fortunately +excellent taste in its gratification, and the people well named him “the +great benefactor.” He died at Cairo in 1776 at a great age, after twelve +years’ exile in Arabia; for all his charity could not protect him from +the suspicions of ‘Aly Bey. All the ‘ulema, professors, students, and +poor of his numerous benefactions, escorted his splendid funeral to the +Azhar, where he lies in the tomb which he had built near the south gate. + +The last great mosque built during the period of the pashalik was that +of Mohammad Bey, known as Abu-dh-Dhahab, or “father of gold,” from his +munificent way of scattering gold coins among the crowd. He was the +favourite and trusted mamlúk of the great ‘Aly Bey, and he rewarded his +patron by manœuvring his downfall and exile, and finally accomplishing +his death. He was a brilliant soldier, fought successful campaigns in +Arabia and Syria for his master, and achieved extraordinary popularity +by his delightful manners and open hand. Egypt had peace whilst he held +the reins of power, and the Sublime Porte, whilst appointing pashas as +before, wisely left the real authority in the hands of the capable and +popular emír. In 1774 Mohammad Bey founded his handsome _medresa_ +opposite the Azhar, and there he lies in his tomb. It was built on the +plan of an earlier mosque at Bulák (the Senaníya), and was “a marvel of +architecture and richness: gilded ceilings, marble porticoes, and +stupendous dome, with bronze dormers admirably worked,” etc. There were +porticoes for the Hanafis, Málikis, and Sháfi‘is, and celebrated doctors +came to profess the law there, and, contrary to the usual custom, +received salaries, some as much as 150 paras a day (you could sometimes +buy a pound of meat for 2 paras), and none less than 10 paras a day and +an annual gift of 50 bushels of corn. On the day of opening the great +man clothed the divines with cloaks of sables or white fur, according to +their rank—a handsome form of university hood. + +Mohammad Bey’s is the last of the great mosques of Cairo, with the +exception of Mohammad Aly’s sumptuous and very effective mosque in the +Citadel, where it forms a conspicuous feature in the view from every +side. This, however, is too obviously a foreign importation, a child of +Stambúl, to harmonize with the true Cairo style, and, though it is +perhaps a narrow prejudice, we confess we can never quite reconcile +ourselves to Ottoman architecture in the old mamlúk city. + +Enough has been said to show that it was not during the rule of pashas +and beys that the mosques of Cairo suffered damage or demolition. They +were well cared for. Their evil day came when Mohammad ‘Aly, a second +but more successful ‘Aly Bey, made himself master of Egypt and +inaugurated a new régime, compared with which the rule of the sternest +of the mamlúks was mildness itself. It was Mohammad ‘Aly, who, in +1808-1810, laid hands on the Wakfs or religious endowments, which the +piety of many centuries had placed in trust for the maintenance of the +mosques and colleges of Egypt, and amidst the tears and curses of all +the ‘ulema of Cairo, deprived them of the right to control the sacred +monuments confided to their charge. From this act of confiscation, when +title-deeds were lost or destroyed, and trust-funds confused and +malversed, dates the most serious decay of the monuments of Cairo. The +Europeanizing movement of the nineteenth century, inevitable, and in +many ways most desirable as it was, brought with it a large destruction +of mosques and other historic buildings which impeded carriage-traffic +or stood in the way of the new streets and squares which the viceroys of +Egypt planned with little or no regard to existing antiquities. The +Shari‘ Mohammad ‘Aly was the most flagrant example of a street cutting +its way remorselessly through historic monuments, but similar vandalism +occurred in almost every part of the city, and the department which +attends to the alignment of the streets has often exercised its powers +in the narrowest spirit of county-councildom. That much worse has not +happened is wholly due to the vigilance and firmness of the “Commission +for the Preservation of the Monuments of Arab Art,” an official body in +which happily large powers are vested, and to which we owe the +maintenance of a multitude of Saracenic monuments of every class and all +periods, which, but for its timely interposition, would now have +disappeared or have been on the high road to ruin. It is impossible to +over-estimate the excellent and patient work of the Commission. The +seventeen annual reports it has issued—solid volumes, with plans and +illustrations—form a library of valuable information, and testify in +every page to the care and sense of responsibility shown by the members. +I may here be permitted to quote a report on the results and methods of +the Commission which I made at Earl Cromer’s request in 1895, and which +was published in his annual survey of the progress of Egypt presented to +Parliament in 1896. + + + _The Athenæum, London, December_ 12, 1895. + +“MY LORD,—In accordance with your Lordship’s invitation, I have the +honour to submit a few remarks on the work of the Commission for the +Preservation of Arab Monuments, of which I made a detailed examination +in the summer of this year. + +The Commission was instituted by Decree of His Highness the late Khedive +on the 18th December, 1881. Its duties were:— + +1. To make an inventory of the Arab monuments of Egypt which possess +historical or artistic interest. + +2. To watch over the preservation of these monuments, and report to the +Minister of Wakfs such repairs as were considered necessary for their +maintenance. + +3. To prepare plans for such repairs and scrupulously superintend their +execution. + +4. To see that plans of all the work executed should be preserved in the +Ministry of Wakfs, and to indicate any fragments or detached objects +which should be transferred to the Museum of Arab Art. + +Political disturbance prevented much being done before the close of +1882; but when I made a general inspection of the Arab monuments of +Cairo in January to March 1883, the Commission was in working order. I +was then able to see the beginning of its labours, and am therefore in a +position to compare the state of the monuments at the time when the +Commission first took them seriously in hand with their present +condition after the Commission has been over twelve years at work. + +I can state with confidence that, comparing the general state of the +mosques in 1883 and 1895, they are in a far safer and better preserved +condition now than they were twelve years ago. Several monuments that +then seemed inevitably doomed to destruction have been strengthened and +supported, and, generally speaking, weak places have been detected and +repaired, whilst a more vigilant supervision and protection against +vandalism and robbery now prevail. These happy results are especially +due to the energy and archæological or technical knowledge of the late +Rogers Bey, of Franz Pasha, and of his Excellency Yakub Artin Pasha, +whose name will always be honourably associated with the intellectual +progress of Egypt. Some of their French colleagues have also rendered +useful services from time to time, and the presence on the Commission of +successive Under-Secretaries of Public Works, and notably at the present +time of Mr [now Sir] W. E. Garstin, has proved a valuable source of +strength. The most vital appointment under the Commission is, of course, +that of the Architect, who surveys the monuments, recommends such +repairs as are necessary or desirable, and personally superintends their +execution. Since the creation of the Special Department (Bureau Spécial) +of the Commission, which was separated at the beginning of 1890 from the +Bureau Technique of the Wakfs, Mr Max Herz [Hon. F. S. A.] has been the +Architect in charge of the work of the Commission, and it is bare +justice to say that to his industry and considerable technical and +archæological attainments much of the present improved manner of +supervising and preserving the monuments is undoubtedly due. Herz Bey +joins to the technical training of an architect a familiarity with the +history of Arab art, together with a genuine enthusiasm for his work. +His “Catalogue of the Arab Museum,” published this year in French, but +shortly to be reissued in an English translation [published, 1896], +furnishes proofs of an extensive study of the periods of development of +Arab or Saracenic art, and of the literature, Arabic and European, +relating to this subject; and the complete restorations he has made of a +few of the smaller mosques are evidence of his insight into Arab +construction and decoration, of his technical skill, and of his +scrupulous fidelity to the original design. On this vexed subject of +restoration, however, I shall have something to say later; but whatever +may be thought of the principle, it is impossible to doubt that in the +appointment of Herz Bey the Commission has been exceptionally fortunate. + +_Preservation._ It must never be forgotten that the prime duty of the +Commission is the preservation, not the restoration, of the monuments. A +fairly complete list of the monuments which, on historical or artistic +grounds, ought to be preserved has been drawn up by Sub-Committee 1, and +the first obligation laid upon the Commission is to watch over the +preservation of every monument in this list. So far as my observation +went, its members are clearly alive to this obligation, and have +endeavoured to fulfil it as far as their limited funds permitted. To +enumerate the long catalogue of repairs, from the stablishing of the +entire walls of a mosque to the removal of whitewash or dirt from a +carved inscription or a mosaic, would extend these notes to an undue +length. The details may be read in the excellent Annual Reports of the +Commission, which, if they are scarcely as prompt in their appearance as +they might be, leave little to be desired in point of accuracy or +completeness. Much more, however, remains to be done, and many of the +repairs already executed can only be regarded as temporary cheap make- +shifts, pending the possibility of more thorough works when finances +permit. The adequate and enduring preservation of the monuments is +essentially a question of money. The Commission and its Architect know +what ought to be done, but they cannot do it without an increased staff +and a larger budget. + +Meanwhile, there are two or three points to which the attention of the +Commission should, I think, be specially and immediately directed, since +they can be dealt with even on the present insufficient annual grant. + +1. In cases where a thorough repair would be too costly to be undertaken +on the present budget, there is a mode of preservation, in a literary +and artistic sense, which ought to be invariably adopted when there is +any risk of further immediate decay. The great mosque of Sultan Hasan is +an instance in point. In such a case, where many thousands of pounds +would be required for substantial preservation, the Commission cannot at +present entertain the plans which have been drawn up for so elaborate a +work. But what they can do is to prepare an exact record of the present +state of the mosque, to draw full architectural plans and elevations, +photograph every detail of ornament or inscription, reproduce mosaics +and other coloured decoration in the colours of the originals, and +generally to make it possible at any time to reproduce the entire mosque +in its true proportions and exact details of ornament.[87] To students +of the history of Arab art such a record would be invaluable, whilst it +would make the task of preservation possible even should want of funds +postpone the work till the mosque had fallen into much more lamentable +decay. To prepare such records would necessitate an increase in the +staff of the Commission, but if the memoirs were published, with +adequate historical introductions and explanations, the sale would +probably repay a large part of the expense. At the same time, these +records should not of course be regarded as a substitute for actual +preservation, or as a reason for deferring necessary repairs. They +should be used merely as a safeguard against the total or partial +obliteration of a monument by a sudden catastrophe (which might happen +any day to one of the minarets of Sultan Hasan), not as a ground for +refusing to avert the ruin. + +2. Another and much simpler precaution should be taken in the case of +the numerous small mosques of Cairo which are more or less roofed in. +These have generally windows of open tracery, or grille-work, and often +a small opening in the centre over the court. The central opening should +be covered with glass to keep out the weather, and the open windows +should invariably be furnished with wire-netting outside to exclude the +birds, which do much mischief in the interiors. All covered-in mosques +require frequent inspection with this view, and every cranny which could +admit rain or birds should be carefully stopped. + +3. A more expensive but absolutely necessary step is the compulsory +expropriation of the shops or booths which cling like limpets to the +façades of many of the mosques. The proprietors of these shops use the +mosques behind as dust-bins, and throw their refuse and broken crockery +through the windows. The appearance of the mosques, both inside and out, +is seriously impaired by these excrescences which narrow the street +(_e.g._, the Suk-en-Nahhasin), impede traffic, and prevent the façades +of the mosques being seen in their true proportion and effect. + +In order to avoid the risk of any historical monument being overlooked +and neglected, it would be well if the Commission were to divide Cairo +into a certain number of definite quarters, and that the scheduled +monuments in each quarter should be periodically visited by the Sub- +Committee of Inspection and the architect at least once a year. The +number of monuments in the list is so large, that it might be impossible +to arrange more than one or two inspections of each in every season. +Such visits should be recorded, with notes on the condition of each +monument, in a special book. + +An important question is that of the private monuments, whether mosques, +houses, _sebils_, _wekalas_, or other buildings. The Government +apparently has no power either to compel owners to maintain and preserve +the historical buildings which they inhabit or let, or to force them to +sell. The few mediæval houses still standing in Cairo are artistically +more valuable than the mosques maintained by private wakfs, for they +form almost the sole remaining examples of the domestic style of Arab +art. It is greatly to be wished that they could be brought under the +control of the Commission, and if due compensation were made for +ejectment or interference, the owners would have little ground for +complaint. + +_Restoration._—The Commission has not confined its labours strictly to +preservation, it has also undertaken the complete restoration of several +monuments. There is a well-founded prejudice in artistic and +archæological circles against restoration of any and every description; +but I believe that an examination of some of the recent restorations +carried out by Herz Bey would remove these natural and generally just +apprehensions. This architect’s principle, as he explained it to me, +appears sound and reasonable. It is this. No unique monument (_e.g._, +the Mosque of Ibn-Tulun) or monument belonging to an architectural +period of which there are very few examples (_e.g._, the Fátimid +Mosques), must on any account be restored; preservation is the only +possible treatment for such cases, and nothing more must be done than is +absolutely necessary for the stability of the building, and its security +from weather and other injury. But when there are numerous mosques of +the same period, nearly resembling one another in style, and often even +in detail of ornament (_e.g._, at the period of Kait-Bey), then a few +may safely be selected for complete restoration at all points, so as to +present as nearly as possible their original appearance, as when first +opened for public worship. Herz Bey has given a few examples of his +theory of restoration in mosques of a well-represented period. They are +not equally successful, and it is evident from the latest specimens that +experience has taught him much, especially in regard to colour. But I +think the most rigid opponent of restoration would find very little to +criticize in the careful and beautiful manner in which the little mosque +of [Kády] Abu-Bekr ibn Muzhir in the Bargawan has been restored to +almost its original condition; and whatever may be said about the +tampering to which the mosque of el-Muayyad was subjected under a former +régime, there is no doubt that the inscriptional frieze and the painted +ceiling have been restored as perfectly and as scrupulously as skill and +knowledge could attain. I can assert from personal observation that +nothing can exceed the care and precautions which are observed by the +architect of the Commission in order to make sure that he has really +discovered the original design and colouring beneath centuries of dirt +and whitewash, or the pains he takes to reproduce them faithfully. And I +may here observe that the staff of the Commission includes workers in +metal and wood, who are able to copy the designs so accurately, that it +is almost impossible to distinguish them from the originals. (They are +not yet successful in stained glass, however.) This merit has the +obvious drawback that, unless great care is taken, the details of the +monuments (_e.g._, the bronze bosses and plaques on doors, or the wood +and ivory carvings and inlay work of doors and _minbars_) may be +falsified. + +In recent restorations of Arabic inscriptions the inscription itself is +made to tell the date of its restoration; but many small details of +ornament are not distinguished at all from the original work whose gaps +they supply. This defect calls for immediate correction before the +distinction is forgotten by the restorers themselves. Every _plaque_ of +metal or panel of wood or mosaic should bear an unmistakable +distinguishing mark, such as the date of restoration in Arabic cyphers; +and detailed plans of all restored monuments should be preserved in the +archives of the Commission, in which the new portions should be clearly +distinguished by colour or shading. If this rule is carefully observed I +confess I can see nothing but advantage in the complete restoration of a +_limited_ number of mosques _under the restrictions_ already mentioned. +When the work is executed with the skill and honesty which one observes +in the case of the Mosque of Abu-Bekr ibn Muzhir, there is no +falsification but rather preservation in the most complete and +satisfactory sense. The beauty of these restored mosques seems to appeal +to the eyes of the worshippers, and there is no doubt that the Mosque of +el-Muayyad has been far more frequented for prayer since its _liwan_ was +restored to something of its original beauty and richness of gold and +colour. This is a consideration to which the Ministry of Wakfs can +hardly fail to attach considerable importance. At the same time there is +possibly some risk of the vital work of preservation being sometimes +neglected in order that restorations, which are naturally more +interesting and effective to both the architect and the public, should +be carried out. + +At present there are five mosques in course of restoration,[88] viz., +those of Zeyn-ed-din Yahya, near the Musky; Gami‘-el-Benat; of +Asunbugha, in the Darb-es-Sa‘ada, and of Kagmas el-Ishaky; besides el- +Muayyad and Abu-Bekr ibn Muzhir, which may be regarded as finished. Two +of these mosques, however, are private wakfs, and are being paid for by +private persons. Still, in my opinion, enough restoration has been +undertaken for the present, and the chief attention of the Commission +should be directed for the next two or three years to a fresh and +complete examination of all the monuments on their list with a view to +their thorough preservation. At all events the selection of a new mosque +for complete restoration should be a subject of anxious thought, and +should not be lightly undertaken. Restoration, it must be remembered, is +costly, and cannot judiciously be embarked upon so long as the funds of +the Commission are scarcely sufficient for preservation alone. . . . + +Such, my Lord, are the conclusions which suggested themselves to me +after my inspection of the results of the Commission’s labours. I have +confined my remarks to Cairo, because I had no opportunity this year to +examine the work that has been done in other towns of Egypt. In Cairo, +as I have endeavoured to show, the Commission has done excellent work, +and has accomplished a great deal in face of inadequate funds and +frequent obstruction and opposition. The few suggestions and criticisms +I have ventured to make are trifles in comparison with the quantity and +generally high quality of the work of preservation and restoration +carried out under the authority of the Commission. In my opinion the +Wakfs and the Public Works together should raise the annual budget of +the Commission to £10,000, and then leave it to manage its own affairs, +as it is fully competent to do. Were it possible to create a Ministry of +Fine Arts, which should include the Archæological Directorate as well as +the Commission, the Giza as well as the Arab Museum, this would probably +be the most satisfactory course. But the consideration of so thorough a +reconstruction is beyond the scope of the Report which your Lordship has +asked me to submit.” + +To these remarks I have nothing to add. All subsequent observation has +confirmed the belief that the Commission has done and is still doing a +noble work for the monuments of Cairo. The passages omitted in the +preceding extracts related to the financial status of the Commission, +and the result of these recommendations is thus stated in Lord Cromer’s +covering report, which also strongly supported the various suggestions +offered for the better protection of the monuments, and added some +excellent provisions for the inclusion of the Coptic churches in the +field of operation of the Commission. Lord Cromer wrote:— + +“I have for long been well aware that the grants heretofore obtained +from the Wakf Administration were inadequate, and that, if greater +activity was to be displayed in this branch of the Administration, +additional expenditure would have to be incurred. Indeed, one of the +main objects I had in view in consulting Mr Stanley Lane-Poole was to +obtain suggestions from him as to the best method of spending more +money, supposing it to be available. + +“On receipt of Mr Stanley Lane-Poole’s Report, I placed myself in +communication with the authorities of the Financial and Public Works +Department with the result that a proposal was made to the Commissioners +of the Public Debt that they should grant a sum of £20,000 from the +Reserve Fund at their disposal to be spent under the direction of the +Preservation Committee during the years 1896 and 1897. I am glad to say +that this proposal was received by the Commissioners in a very friendly +spirit. The money has been granted, and the details of the expenditure +now alone remain to be settled. . . . + +“I should add that, in addition to the £20,000, which is to be spent +exclusively on works of different sorts, the Egyptian Government has +consented to give a permanent grant of £1000 a-year from the Treasury in +order to provide for the additional staff which will without doubt be +required.” + +The effects of this munificent addition to the funds placed at the +disposal of the Commission have been far-reaching. The list of monuments +that have benefited by the timely succour is too long to quote, but the +repairs effected in the great mosque of el-Maridány at a cost of £4000 +must be specially mentioned: it was a work greatly needed, and the money +has been well spent. Every visitor to Cairo is struck by the difference +in the condition of the mosques since the Commission took them under its +charge. Many which seemed doomed are now safe; others have their lives +at least prolonged; and no fragment of Arab art, no vestige of the city +wall, no piece of carving or inscription, is beneath the watchful care +of the Commission. When a monument cannot be preserved, such fragments +of ornament or inscriptions as remain are carefully gathered and +transported to the Arab Museum, which itself is evidence of the good +work that has been done in the past twenty years. These years have +indeed been fruitful in serious labour to repair the injury which +natural decay, and unnatural confiscation, neglect, and vandalism have +worked in the past upon the relics of mediæval Cairo. + +[Illustration: A MUSLIM GRAVEYARD] + + + + + RULERS AND MONUMENTS OF CAIRO[89] + + * * * * * + + + 1. ARAB PERIOD + + A.D. A.H. A.H. + + 640-868 20-254 Ninety-eight governors †Mosque of ‘Amr 21 + under caliphs of + Damascus and Baghdād + + Town of the Tent 21 + (el-Fusṭāṭ) + + First Nilometer at 98 + er-Rōḍa + + Faubourg el-‘Askar 133 + + *Second Nilometer 247 + at er-Rōḍa + + 2. TURKISH PERIOD + + HOUSE OF ṬŪLŪN + + 868 254 Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn Faubourg el-Ḳaṭāi‘ 256 + + Palaces of 256 ff. + el-Ḳaṭāi‘ + + Māristān 259 + + *Mosque of Ibn-Ṭūlūn 263-5 + + 883 270 Khumāraweyh b. Aḥmad Palaces of 270 ff. + el-Ḳaṭāi‘ + + 895 282 Geysh b. Khumāraweyh + + 896 283 Hārūn b. Khumāraweyh + + 904 292 Sheybān b. Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn + + CALIPHS’ GOVERNORS + + 905-934 292-323 Thirteen governors + + HOUSE OF EL-IKHSHĪD + + 934 323 Moḥammad el-Ikhshīd Palace in Kāfūr’s + Garden and at Rōḍa + + 946 334 Abū-l-Ḳāsim Ūngūr b. Māristān at Fusṭāṭ 346 + el-Ikhshīd + + 960 349 Abū-l-Ḥasan ‘Aly b. Mosque of el-Gīza 350 + el-Ikhshīd + + 966 355 Abū-l-Misk Kāfūr + + 968 358 Abū-l-Fawāris Aḥmad b. + ‘Aly + + 3. FĀṬIMID PERIOD + + 969 358 el-Mo‘izz Foundation of 358 + el-Ḳāhira + + Great East Palace, 358 + etc. + + *Mosque el-Azhar 359 + + 975 365 el-‘Azīz West Palace, etc. + + *Mosque of el-Ḥākim 380-403 + + 996 386 el-Ḥākim Mosque of Rāshida 393-5 + + „ el-Maḳs + + 1021 411 eẓ-Ẓāhir + + 1036 427 el-Mustanṣir *Mosque el-Guyūshy 478 + + *Bāb-en-Naṣr, 480-484 + *Bāb-el-Futūḥ, + *Second wall, + *Bāb-Zuweyla + + Mosque of Nilometer 485 + + 1094 487 el-Musta‘ly + + 1101 495 el-Āmir *Mosque el-Aḳmar 519 + + Several mesgids + (Yānis, Kāfūry, + Bāb-el-Khawkha) + + *Mihrābs of Azhar + and Seyyida Ruḳeyya + + 1131 524 el-Ḥāfiẓ + + 1149 544 eẓ-Ẓāfir †Mosque el-Afkhar 543 + + 1154 549 el-Fāiz + + 1160 555 el-‘Āḍid *Mosque of eṣ-Ṣālih 555 + Ṭalāi‘ + + 4. HOUSE OF SALADIN + + 1169 565 en-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ-ed-dīn Mosque of 566 + (Saladin) ibn Ayyūb Negm-ed-dīn Ayyūb + + College Nāṣirīya 566 + + „ Ḳamḥiya 566 + + „ Ḳuṭbīya 570 + + „ Ibn-el-Arsūfy 570 + + „ Suyūfīya 572 + + Citadel and 3rd 572 + Wall begun + + Māristān 575 + + College el-Fāḍilīya 580 + + 1193 589 el-‘Azīz, son of Saladin Mosque of c. 591 + Ibn-el-Benā + + College Ushkushīya 592 + + 1198 595 el-Manṣūr b. el-‘Azīz „ Ghaznawīya + + 1200 596 el-‘Adil Seyf-ed-dīn „ ‘Ādilīya + + „ Sherīfīya 612 + + 1218 615 el-Kāmil b. el-‘Ādil Restor. of M. of 607 + Shāfi‘y + + *College Kāmilīya 622 + + „ Fakhrīya 622 + + Zāwiya Ḳaṣry c. 633 + + M. Ibn-esh-Sheykhy c. 633 + + 1238 635 el-‘Ādil II. b. el-Kāmil College Ṣayramīya c. 636 + + „ Fāizīya 636 + + 1240 637 eṣ-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb b. „ *Ṣāliḥīya 639 + el-Kāmil + + Mosque, etc., of + er-Rōḍa + + 1249 647 el-Mu‘aẓẓam Tūrān-Shāh Zāwiya Khaddām 647 + b. eṣ-Ṣāliḥ + + 5. TURKISH MAMLŪKS + + 1250 648 Queen Sheger-ed-durr *Tomb of eṣ-Ṣāliḥ 648 + + 1250 648 el-Mo‘izz Aybek College Ḳuṭbīya 650 + + „ Ṣāḥibīya 654 + + 1257 655 el-Manṣūr ‘Aly b. Aybek + + 1259 657 el-Muẓaffar Ḳuṭuz + + 1260 658 eẓ-Ẓāhir Beybars *College Ẓāhirīya 660 + + Meshhed el-Ḥoseyny 662 + + College Megdīya 663 + + Mosque el-Afram 663 + + *Mosque eẓ-Ẓāhir 665 + + College + Muhedhdhibīya + + „ Fārikānīya 676 + + 1277 676 es-Sa‘īd Baraka b. + Beybars + + 1279 678 el-‘Ādil Selāmish b. + Beybars + + 1279 679 el-Manṣūr Ḳalā’ūn *College Manṣūrīya 684 + and Māristān Ḳalā’ūn + + Zāwiya el-Gemīzy 682 + + „ el-Ga‘bary 687 + + „ el-Halāwy 683 + + Convent 688 + el-Bunduḳdārīya + + 1290 689 el-Ashraf Khalīl b. *Gate from ‘Akka + Ḳalā’ūn + + 1293 693 en-Nāṣir Moḥammad b. + Ḳalā’ūn + + 1294 694 el-‘Ādil Ketbughā + + 1296 696 el-Manṣūr Lāgīn Restor. M. of 696 + Ibn-Ṭūlūn + + College Ṭafagīya c. 698 + + „ Mangūtimurīya 698 + + 1298 698 en-Nāṣir, second reign „ *Nāṣirīya 699-703 + + „ Karāsunḳurīya 700 + + „ Gemālīya 703 + + Restor. of Ḥākim, 703-4 + Azhar, Ṭalāi‘ + + Mosque of Ṭaybars 707 + + 1308 708 el-Muẓaffar Beybars *Convent of Beybars 706-9 + _Gāshnekīr_ + + 1309 709 en-Nāṣir, third reign *College Ṭaybarsīya 709 + + Zāwiya of el-Ḥimṣy 709 + + Mosque of el-Gāky 713 + + *Citadel palace, 713 + aqueduct + + College Sa‘īdīya 715 + + Convent of Arslān c. 717 + + *Mosque of Citadel 718 + + *Mosque of emīr 719 + Ḥoseyn + + *College Ālmelikīya 719 + + *College Gāwalīya 723 + + *Tomb of Ordūtegīn 724 + + *College 725 + Mihmandāriya + + „ Buktumurīya 726 + + Mosque of 729 + el-Khazāny + + „ *of Almās 730 + + „ el-Barḳīya 730 + + *Mosque of Ḳūṣūn 730 + + „ of Sārūgā c. 730 + + *College Aḳbughawīya 734 + + *Tomb of Tāshtimur 734 + + *Palace of Beshtāk c. 735 + + *Convent of Ḳūṣūn 736 + + „ at Siryāḳūs 736 + + †Mosque of Beshtāk 736 + + „ Aydemir 737 + + „ et-Turkmāny 738 + + „ *el-Māridāny 740 + + 1341 741 el-Manṣūr Abū-Bekr} „ *Sitta Miska 740 + } + } „ Ibn-Ghāzy 741 + } + 1341 742 el-Ashraf Kuguk } + } + 1342 742 en-Nāṣir Aḥmad }sons + } of + 1342 743 eṣ-Ṣāliḥ Ismā‘īl }en- Mosque of 745 + }Nāṣir eṭ-Ṭawāshy + } + 1345 746 el-Ḳāmil Sha‘bān } „ Ibn-eṭ-Ṭabbākh 746 + } + 1346 747 el-Muẓaffar Ḥāggy } „ *Kuguk 747 + } + 1347 748 en-Nāṣir Ḥasan } „ †Āḳsunḳur 747 + + „ †el-Ismā‘īly 748 + + „ *Ḳutlubugha 748 + + „ el-Asyūṭy c. 749 + + *Convent of Umm-Anūk c. 749 + + „ Algībughā c. 750 + + *Mosque of Mangak 750 + + „ *Sheykhū 750 + + College of 750 + el-Kharrūba + + *Cistern of Lāgīn 750 + + College Ḳaysarānīya 751 + + „ Ṣaghīra 751 + + 1351 752 eṣ-Ṣāliḥ Ṣāliḥ b. Nāṣir + + 1354 755 Ḥasan, second reign *Convent of Sheykhū 756 + + College Fārisīya 756 + + „ 756 + *Ṣarghitmishīya + + „ *Sulṭān Ḥasan 757 ff. + + „ Bedīrīya 758 + + „ *Ḥigāzīya 761 + + „ Beshīrīya 761 + + „ Sābiḳīya 763 + + 1361 762 el-Manṣūr } „ Sābiḳīya 763 + Moḥammad } grand-sons + } of + 1363 764 el-Ashraf } en-Nāṣir *Tomb of Ṭulbīya 765 + Sha‘bān } + + *Mosque of Sha‘bān 771 + + *College Bubekrīya 772 + (Asunbughā) + + *College of Gāy 775 + el-Yūsufy + + „ Baḳrīya c. 775 + + 1376 778 el-Manṣūr ‘Aly b. Sha‘bān „ Ibn-‘Irām 782 + + 1381 783 eṣ-Ṣāliḥ Ḥāggy b. Tomb of Umm-Ṣāliḥ 783 + Sha‘bān (dep. 1382, + restored 1389-90) + + 6. CIRCASSIAN MAMLŪKS + + 1382 784 eẓ-Ẓāhir Barḳūḳ *Tomb of Anas 783 + + [interrupted 791-2 by *College of Aytmish 785 + Ḥāggy] + + *College of Barḳūḳ 788 + + *Mosque of 790 + Zeyn-ed-dīn + + *College of Īnāl 795 + _Ustāddār_ + + „ Maḥmūdīya 797 + + „ *Muḳbil 797 + Zemāmīya + + „ Ibn-Ghurāb 798 + + 1399 801 en-Nāṣir Farag b. Barḳūḳ M. of 803 + Ibn-‘Abd-eẓ-Ẓāhir + + *College of Sūdūn 804 + + „ Mahally c. 806 + + 1405 808 el-Manṣūr ‘Abd-el-‘Azīz *Convent and Tomb 803-13 + b. Barḳūḳ of Barḳūḳ and + Farag, and College + of Farag + + 1405 809 Farag, second reign *College of 811 + Gemāl-ed-dīn + + Mosque of Hōsh 812 + (Citadel) + + 1412 815 el-Musta‘īn (caliph) „ 814 + Birket-er-Raṭly + + 1412 815 el-Mu’ayyad Sheykh M. of eḍ-Ḍiwa 815 + (Citadel) + + Mosque of el-Bāsiṭy 817 + + „ el-Ḥanafy 817 + + „ ez-Zāhid 818 + + *Māristān of 818 + el-Mu’ayyad + + *Mosque of 819-23 + el-Mu’ayyad + + *Coll. of 821 + ‘Abd-el-Ghany + + Mosque of el-Fakhry 821 + + *Coll. of Ḳāḍy 823 + ‘Abd-el-Bāsiṭ + + 1421 824 el-Muẓaffar Aḥmad b. + Sheykh + + 1421 824 eẓ-Ẓāhir Ṭaṭar + + 1421 824 eṣ-Ṣāliḥ Moḥammad b. + Ṭaṭar + + 1422 825 el-Ashraf Bars-Bey *College of Bars-Bey 827 + + *Mosque of Gāny-Bek 830 + + *College of Feyrūz 830 + + *Conv. and tomb of 835 + Bars-Bey + + 1438 842 el-‘Azīz Yūsuf b. + Bars-Bey + + 1438 842 eẓ-Ẓāhir Gaḳmaḳ *College of 844 + Taghry-Berdy + + *Mosque of Ḳāny-Bey 845 + + 1453 857 el-Manṣūr ‘Othmān b. *M. and tomb Ḳāḍy 848-50 + Gaḳmaḳ Yaḥyā + + *Mosque of Gaḳmaḳ 853 + + 1453 857 el-Ashraf Īnāl *Coll., Conv., tomb 855-60 + of Īnāl + + 1461 865 el-Mu’ayyad Aḥmad b. Īnāl + + 1461 865 eẓ-Ẓāhir Khūshḳadam *Tomb of Gāny-Bek 869 + + *Mosque of 870 + Nūr-ed-dīn + + *Mosque of Sūdūn c. 870 + + *College of Ḳānim c. 870 + + 1467 872 eẓ-Ẓāhir Yel-Bey + + 1467 872 eẓ-Ẓāhir Timurbughā + + 1468 873 el-Ashraf Ḳā’it-Bey *Mosque of Timrāz 876 + + *M. of Ezbek b. 880 + Tutush + + *Palace of Yeshbek 880 + + *Ḳā’it-Bey’s Coll. 879 + and tomb + + „ *Coll. in town 880 + + „ *Wekāla by 882 + Azhar + + „ *Sebīl 884 + + „ Wekāla, B. 885 + en-Naṣr + + „ *Wek., c. 885 + Surūgīya + + „ *Faḍawīya c. 886 + cupola + + „ *Palace and 890 + mekān + + „ *Restor. of 890 + S. gates + + „ *Coll. at 896 + er-Rōḍa + + *Mosque of Gānim 883 + + *Coll. of Abū-Bekr 885 + b. Muzhir + + *Mosque of Ḳagmās 886 + + *Coll. of Ezbek 900 + el-Yūsufy + + 1496 901 en-Nāṣir Moḥammad b. *Palace of Mamāy 901 + Ḳā’it-Bey (Beyt-el-Ḳāḍy) + + 1498 904 eẓ-Ẓāhir Ḳānṣūh *Tomb of Ḳānṣūh 904 + + 1500 905 el-Ashraf Gānbalāt + + 1501 906 el-‘Ādil Ṭūmān-Bey + + 1501 906 el-Ashraf Ḳānṣūh el-Ghūry *Tomb el-‘Ādil 906 + Ṭūmān-Bey + + *Mosque of Kheyr-Bek 908 + + *Coll. Ḳāny-Bek 908 + emīr akhōr + + *Coll. of el-Ghūry 909 + + †Tomb-mosque of 909 + el-Ghūry + + *Tomb of Sūdūn c. 910 + + *College of 911 + Ḳāny-Bek Ḳarā + + Restoration of + aqueduct to + + Citadel 911 + + 1516 922 el-Ashraf Ṭumān-Bey + + 1517 922 ‘OTHMĀNLY CONQUEST OF EGYPT + + +[Illustration: CAIRO.] + + + + + TABLE FOR CONVERTING HIJRA YEARS INTO ANNI DOMINI. + + + +----+----+-------+ + |A.H.|A.D.|BEGINS | + +----+----+-------+ + | 1| 622|Jy. 16| + | | | | + | 2| 623|Jy. 5| + | | | | + | 3| 624|Ju. 24| + | | | | + | 4| 625|Ju. 13| + | | | | + | 5| 626|Ju. 2| + | | | | + | 6| 627|My. 23| + | | | | + | 7| 628|My. 11| + | | | | + | 8| 629|My. 1| + | | | | + | 9| 630|Ap. 20| + | | | | + | 10| 631|Ap. 9| + | | | | + | 11| 632|M. 29| + | | | | + | 12| 633|M. 18| + | | | | + | 13| 634|M. 7| + | | | | + | 14| 635|F. 25| + | | | | + | 15| 636|F. 14| + | | | | + | 16| 637|F. 2| + | | | | + | 17| 638|Ja. 23| + | | | | + | 18| 639|Ja. 12| + | | | | + | 19| 640|Ja. 2| + | | | | + | 20| 640|D. 21| + | | | | + | 21| 641|D. 10| + | | | | + | 22| 642|N. 30| + | | | | + | 23| 643|N. 19| + | | | | + | 24| 644|N. 7| + | | | | + | 25| 645|O. 28| + | | | | + | 26| 646|O. 17| + | | | | + | 27| 647|O. 7| + | | | | + | 28| 648|S. 25| + | | | | + | 29| 649|S. 14| + | | | | + | 30| 650|S. 4| + | | | | + | 31| 651|Ag. 24| + | | | | + | 32| 652|Ag. 12| + | | | | + | 33| 653|Ag. 2| + | | | | + | 34| 654|Jy. 22| + | | | | + | 35| 655|Jy. 11| + | | | | + | 36| 656|Ju. 30| + | | | | + | 37| 657|Ju. 19| + | | | | + | 38| 658|Ju. 9| + | | | | + | 39| 659|My. 29| + | | | | + | 40| 660|My. 17| + | | | | + | 41| 661|My. 7| + | | | | + | 42| 662|Ap. 26| + | | | | + | 43| 663|Ap. 15| + | | | | + | 44| 664|Ap. 4| + | | | | + | 45| 665|M. 24| + | | | | + | 46| 666|M. 13| + | | | | + | 47| 667|M. 3| + | | | | + | 48| 668|F. 20| + | | | | + | 49| 669|F. 9| + | | | | + | 50| 670|Ja. 29| + | | | | + | 51| 671|Ja. 18| + | | | | + | 52| 672|Ja. 8| + | | | | + | 53| 672|D. 27| + | | | | + | 54| 673|D. 16| + | | | | + | 55| 674|D. 6| + | | | | + | 56| 675|N. 25| + | | | | + | 57| 676|N. 14| + | | | | + | 58| 677|N. 3| + | | | | + | 59| 678|O. 23| + | | | | + | 60| 679|O. 13| + | | | | + | 61| 680|O. 1| + | | | | + | 62| 681|S. 20| + | | | | + | 63| 682|S. 10| + | | | | + | 64| 683|Ag. 30| + | | | | + | 65| 684|Ag. 18| + | | | | + | 66| 685|Ag. 8| + | | | | + | 67| 686|Jy. 28| + | | | | + | 68| 687|Jy. 18| + | | | | + | 69| 688|Jy. 6| + | | | | + | 70| 689|Ju. 25| + | | | | + | 71| 690|Ju. 15| + | | | | + | 72| 691|Ju. 4| + | | | | + | 73| 692|My. 23| + | | | | + | 74| 693|My. 13| + | | | | + | 75| 694|My. 2| + | | | | + | 76| 695|Ap. 21| + | | | | + | 77| 696|Ap. 10| + | | | | + | 78| 697|M. 30| + | | | | + | 79| 698|M. 20| + | | | | + | 80| 699|M. 9| + | | | | + | 81| 700|F. 26| + | | | | + | 82| 701|F. 15| + | | | | + | 83| 702|F. 4| + | | | | + | 84| 703|Ja. 24| + | | | | + | 85| 704|Ja. 14| + | | | | + | 86| 705|Ja. 2| + | | | | + | 87| 705|D. 23| + | | | | + | 88| 706|D. 12| + | | | | + | 89| 707|D. 1| + | | | | + | 90| 708|N. 20| + | | | | + | 91| 709|N. 9| + | | | | + | 92| 710|O. 29| + | | | | + | 93| 711|O. 19| + | | | | + | 94| 712|O. 7| + | | | | + | 95| 713|S. 26| + | | | | + | 96| 714|S. 16| + | | | | + | 97| 715|S. 5| + | | | | + | 98| 716|Ag. 25| + | | | | + | 99| 717|Ag. 14| + | | | | + | 100| 718|Ag. 3| + | | | | + | 101| 719|Jy. 24| + | | | | + | 102| 720|Jy. 12| + | | | | + | 103| 721|Jy. 1| + | | | | + | 104| 722|Ju. 21| + | | | | + | 105| 723|Ju. 10| + | | | | + | 106| 724|My. 29| + | | | | + | 107| 725|My. 19| + | | | | + | 108| 726|My. 8| + | | | | + | 109| 727|Ap. 28| + | | | | + | 110| 728|Ap. 16| + | | | | + | 111| 729|Ap. 5| + | | | | + | 112| 730|M. 26| + | | | | + | 113| 731|M. 15| + | | | | + | 114| 732|M. 3| + | | | | + | 115| 733|F. 21| + | | | | + | 116| 734|F. 10| + | | | | + | 117| 735|Ja. 31| + | | | | + | 118| 736|Ja. 20| + | | | | + | 119| 737|Ja. 8| + | | | | + | 120| 737|D. 29| + | | | | + | 121| 738|D. 18| + | | | | + | 122| 739|D. 7| + | | | | + | 123| 740|N. 26| + | | | | + | 124| 741|N. 15| + | | | | + | 125| 742|N. 4| + | | | | + | 126| 743|O. 25| + | | | | + | 127| 744|O. 13| + | | | | + | 128| 745|O. 3| + | | | | + | 129| 746|S. 22| + | | | | + | 130| 747|S. 11| + | | | | + | 131| 748|Ag. 31| + | | | | + | 132| 749|Ag. 20| + | | | | + | 133| 750|Ag. 9| + | | | | + | 134| 751|Jy. 30| + | | | | + | 135| 752|Jy. 18| + | | | | + | 136| 753|Jy. 7| + | | | | + | 137| 754|Ju. 27| + | | | | + | 138| 755|Ju. 16| + | | | | + | 139| 756|Ju. 5| + | | | | + | 140| 757|My. 25| + | | | | + | 141| 758|My. 14| + | | | | + | 142| 759|My. 4| + | | | | + | 143| 760|Ap. 22| + | | | | + | 144| 761|Ap. 11| + | | | | + | 145| 762|Ap. 1| + | | | | + | 146| 763|M. 21| + | | | | + | 147| 764|M. 10| + | | | | + | 148| 765|F. 27| + | | | | + | 149| 766|F. 16| + | | | | + | 150| 767|F. 6| + | | | | + | 151| 768|Ja. 26| + | | | | + | 152| 769|Ja. 14| + | | | | + | 153| 770|Ja. 4| + | | | | + | 154| 770|D. 24| + | | | | + | 155| 771|D. 13| + | | | | + | 156| 772|D. 2| + | | | | + | 157| 773|N. 21| + | | | | + | 158| 774|N. 11| + | | | | + | 159| 775|O. 31| + | | | | + | 160| 776|O. 19| + | | | | + | 161| 777|O. 9| + | | | | + | 162| 778|S. 28| + | | | | + | 163| 779|S. 17| + | | | | + | 164| 780|S. 6| + | | | | + | 165| 781|Ag. 26| + | | | | + | 166| 782|Ag. 15| + | | | | + | 167| 783|Ag. 5| + | | | | + | 168| 784|Jy. 24| + | | | | + | 169| 785|Jy. 14| + | | | | + | 170| 786|Jy. 3| + | | | | + | 171| 787|Ju. 22| + | | | | + | 172| 788|Ju. 11| + | | | | + | 173| 789|My. 31| + | | | | + | 174| 790|My. 20| + | | | | + | 175| 791|My. 10| + | | | | + | 176| 792|Ap. 28| + | | | | + | 177| 793|Ap. 18| + | | | | + | 178| 794|Ap. 7| + | | | | + | 179| 795|M. 27| + | | | | + | 180| 796|M. 16| + | | | | + | 181| 797|M. 5| + | | | | + | 182| 798|F. 22| + | | | | + | 183| 799|F. 12| + | | | | + | 184| 800|F. 1| + | | | | + | 185| 801|Ja. 20| + | | | | + | 186| 802|Ja. 10| + | | | | + | 187| 802|D. 30| + | | | | + | 188| 803|D. 20| + | | | | + | 189| 804|D. 8| + | | | | + | 190| 805|N. 27| + | | | | + | 191| 806|N. 17| + | | | | + | 192| 807|N. 6| + | | | | + | 193| 808|O. 25| + | | | | + | 194| 809|O. 15| + | | | | + | 195| 810|O. 4| + | | | | + | 196| 811|S. 23| + | | | | + | 197| 812|S. 12| + | | | | + | 198| 813|S. 1| + | | | | + | 199| 814|Ag. 22| + | | | | + | 200| 815|Ag. 11| + | | | | + | 201| 816|Jy. 30| + | | | | + | 202| 817|Jy. 20| + | | | | + | 203| 818|Jy. 9| + | | | | + | 204| 819|Ju. 28| + | | | | + | 205| 820|Ju. 17| + | | | | + | 206| 821|Ju. 6| + | | | | + | 207| 822|My. 27| + | | | | + | 208| 823|My. 16| + | | | | + | 209| 824|My. 4| + | | | | + | 210| 825|Ap. 24| + | | | | + | 211| 826|Ap. 13| + | | | | + | 212| 827|Ap. 2| + | | | | + | 213| 828|M. 22| + | | | | + | 214| 829|M. 11| + | | | | + | 215| 830|F. 28| + | | | | + | 216| 831|F. 18| + | | | | + | 217| 832|F. 7| + | | | | + | 218| 833|Ja. 27| + | | | | + | 219| 834|Ja. 16| + | | | | + | 220| 835|Ja. 5| + | | | | + | 221| 835|D. 26| + | | | | + 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651|1253|M. 3| + | | | | + | 652|1254|F. 21| + | | | | + | 653|1255|F. 10| + | | | | + | 654|1256|Ja. 30| + | | | | + | 655|1257|Ja. 19| + | | | | + | 656|1258|Ja. 8| + | | | | + | 657|1258|D. 29| + | | | | + | 658|1259|D. 18| + | | | | + | 659|1260|D. 6| + | | | | + | 660|1261|N. 26| + | | | | + | 661|1262|N. 15| + | | | | + | 662|1263|N. 4| + | | | | + | 663|1264|O. 24| + | | | | + | 664|1265|O. 13| + | | | | + | 665|1266|O. 2| + | | | | + | 666|1267|S. 22| + | | | | + | 667|1268|S. 10| + | | | | + | 668|1269|Ag. 31| + | | | | + | 669|1270|Ag. 20| + | | | | + | 670|1271|Ag. 9| + | | | | + | 671|1272|Jy. 29| + | | | | + | 672|1273|Jy. 18| + | | | | + | 673|1274|Jy. 7| + | | | | + | 674|1275|Ju. 27| + | | | | + | 675|1276|Ju. 15| + | | | | + | 676|1277|Ju. 4| + | | | | + | 677|1278|My. 25| + | | | | + | 678|1279|My. 14| + | | | | + | 679|1280|My. 3| + | | | | + | 680|1281|Ap. 22| + | | | | + | 681|1282|Ap. 11| + | | | | + | 682|1283|Ap. 1| + | | | | + | 683|1284|M. 20| + | | | | + | 684|1285|M. 9| + | | | | + | 685|1286|F. 27| + | | | | + | 686|1287|F. 16| + | | | | + | 687|1288|F. 6| + | | | | + | 688|1289|Ja. 25| + | | | | + | 689|1290|Ja. 14| + | | | | + | 690|1291|Ja. 4| + | | | | + | 691|1291|D. 24| + | | | | + | 692|1292|D. 12| + | | | | + | 693|1293|D. 2| + | | | | + | 694|1294|N. 21| + | | | | + | 695|1295|N. 10| + | | | | + | 696|1296|O. 30| + | | | | + | 697|1297|O. 19| + | | | | + | 698|1298|O. 9| + | | | | + | 699|1299|S. 28| + | | | | + | 700|1300|S. 16| + | | | | + | 701|1301|S. 6| + | | | | + | 702|1302|Ag. 26| + | | | | + | 703|1303|Ag. 15| + | | | | + | 704|1304|Ag. 4| + | | | | + | 705|1305|Jy. 24| + | | | | + | 706|1306|Jy. 13| + | | | | + | 707|1307|Jy. 3| + | | | | + | 708|1308|Ju. 21| + | | | | + | 709|1309|Ju. 11| + | | | | + | 710|1310|My. 31| + | | | | + | 711|1311|My. 20| + | | | | + | 712|1312|My. 9| + | | | | + | 713|1313|Ap. 28| + | | | | + | 714|1314|Ap. 17| + | | | | + | 715|1315|Ap 7| + | | | | + | 716|1316|M. 26| + | | | | + | 717|1317|M. 16| + | | | | + | 718|1318|M. 5| + | | | | + | 719|1319|F. 22| + | | | | + | 720|1320|F. 12| + | | | | + | 721|1321|Ja. 31| + | | | | + | 722|1322|Ja. 20| + | | | | + | 723|1323|Ja. 10| + | | | | + | 724|1323|D. 30| + | | | | + | 725|1324|D. 18| + | | | | + | 726|1325|D. 8| + | | | | + | 727|1326|N. 27| + | | | | + | 728|1327|N. 17| + | | | | + | 729|1328|N. 5| + | | | | + | 730|1329|O. 25| + | | | | + | 731|1330|O. 15| + | | | | + | 732|1331|O. 4| + | | | | + | 733|1332|S. 22| + | | | | + | 734|1333|S. 12| + | | | | + | 735|1334|S. 1| + | | | | + | 736|1335|Ag. 21| + | | | | + | 737|1336|Ag. 10| + | | | | + | 738|1337|Jy. 30| + | | | | + | 739|1338|Jy. 20| + | | | | + | 740|1339|Jy. 9| + | | | | + | 741|1340|Ju. 27| + | | | | + | 742|1341|Ju. 17| + | | | | + | 743|1342|Ju. 6| + | | | | + | 744|1343|My. 26| + | | | | + | 745|1344|My. 15| + | | | | + | 746|1345|My. 4| + | | | | + | 747|1346|Ap. 24| + | | | | + | 748|1347|Ap. 13| + | | | | + | 749|1348|Ap. 1| + | | | | + | 750|1349|M. 22| + | | | | + | 751|1350|M. 11| + | | | | + | 752|1351|F. 28| + | | | | + | 753|1352|F. 18| + | | | | + | 754|1353|F. 6| + | | | | + | 755|1354|Ja. 26| + | | | | + | 756|1355|Ja. 16| + | | | | + | 757|1356|Ja. 5| + | | | | + | 758|1356|D. 25| + | | | | + | 759|1357|D. 14| + | | | | + | 760|1358|D. 3| + | | | | + | 761|1359|N. 23| + | | | | + | 762|1360|N. 11| + | | | | + | 763|1361|O. 31| + | | | | + | 764|1362|O. 21| + | | | | + | 765|1363|O. 10| + | | | | + | 766|1364|S. 28| + | | | | + | 767|1365|S. 18| + | | | | + | 768|1366|S. 7| + | | | | + | 769|1367|Ag. 28| + | | | | + | 770|1368|Ag. 16| + | | | | + | 771|1369|Ag. 5| + | | | | + | 772|1370|Jy. 26| + | | | | + | 773|1371|Jy. 15| + | | | | + | 774|1372|Jy. 3| + | | | | + | 775|1373|Ju. 23| + | | | | + | 776|1374|Ju. 12| + | | | | + | 777|1375|Ju. 2| + | | | | + | 778|1376|My. 21| + | | | | + | 779|1377|My. 10| + | | | | + | 780|1378|Ap. 30| + | | | | + | 781|1379|Ap. 19| + | | | | + | 782|1380|Ap. 7| + | | | | + | 783|1381|M. 28| + | | | | + | 784|1382|M. 17| + | | | | + | 785|1383|M. 6| + | | | | + | 786|1384|F. 24| + | | | | + | 787|1385|F. 12| + | | | | + | 788|1386|F. 2| + | | | | + | 789|1387|Ja. 22| + | | | | + | 790|1388|Ja. 11| + | | | | + | 791|1388|D. 31| + | | | | + | 792|1389|D. 20| + | | | | + | 793|1390|D. 9| + | | | | + | 794|1391|N. 29| + | | | | + | 795|1392|N. 17| + | | | | + | 796|1393|N. 6| + | | | | + | 797|1394|O. 27| + | | | | + | 798|1395|O. 16| + | | | | + | 799|1396|O. 5| + | | | | + | 800|1397|S. 24| + | | | | + | 801|1398|S. 13| + | | | | + | 802|1399|S. 3| + | | | | + | 803|1400|Ag. 22| + | | | | + | 804|1401|Ag. 11| + | | | | + | 805|1402|Ag. 1| + | | | | + | 806|1403|Jy. 21| + | | | | + | 807|1404|Jy. 10| + | | | | + | 808|1405|Ju. 29| + | | | | + | 809|1406|Ju. 18| + | | | | + | 810|1407|Ju. 8| + | | | | + | 811|1408|My. 27| + | | | | + | 812|1409|My. 16| + | | | | + | 813|1410|My. 6| + | | | | + | 814|1411|Ap. 25| + | | | | + | 815|1412|Ap. 13| + | | | | + | 816|1413|Ap. 3| + | | | | + | 817|1414|M. 23| + | | | | + | 818|1415|M. 13| + | | | | + | 819|1416|M. 1| + | | | | + | 820|1417|F. 18| + | | | | + | 821|1418|F. 8| + | | | | + | 822|1419|Ja. 28| + | | | | + | 823|1420|Ja. 17| + | | | | + | 824|1421|Ja. 6| + | | | | + | 825|1421|D. 26| + | | | | + | 826|1422|D. 15| + | | | | + | 827|1423|D. 5| + | | | | + | 828|1424|N. 23| + | | | | + | 829|1425|N. 13| + | | | | + | 830|1426|N. 2| + | | | | + | 831|1427|O. 22| + | | | | + | 832|1428|O. 11| + | | | | + | 833|1429|S. 30| + | | | | + | 834|1430|S. 19| + | | | | + | 835|1431|S. 9| + | | | | + | 836|1432|Ag. 28| + | | | | + | 837|1433|Ag. 18| + | | | | + | 838|1434|Ag. 7| + | | | | + | 839|1435|Jy. 27| + | | | | + | 840|1436|Jy. 16| + | | | | + | 841|1437|Jy. 5| + | | | | + | 842|1438|Ju. 24| + | | | | + | 843|1439|Ju. 14| + | | | | + | 844|1440|Ju. 2| + | | | | + | 845|1441|My. 22| + | | | | + | 846|1442|My. 12| + | | | | + | 847|1443|My. 1| + | | | | + | 848|1444|Ap. 20| + | | | | + | 849|1445|Ap. 9| + | | | | + | 850|1446|M. 29| + | | | | + | 851|1447|M. 19| + | | | | + | 852|1448|M. 7| + | | | | + | 853|1449|F. 24| + | | | | + | 854|1450|F. 14| + | | | | + | 855|1451|F. 3| + | | | | + | 856|1452|Ja. 23| + | | | | + | 857|1453|Ja. 12| + | | | | + | 858|1454|Ja. 1| + | | | | + | 859|1454|D. 22| + | | | | + | 860|1455|D. 11| + | | | | + | 861|1456|N. 29| + | | | | + | 862|1457|N. 19| + | | | | + | 863|1458|N. 8| + | | | | + | 864|1459|O. 28| + | | | | + | 865|1460|O. 17| + | | | | + | 866|1461|O. 6| + | | | | + | 867|1462|S. 26| + | | | | + | 868|1463|S. 15| + | | | | + | 869|1464|S. 3| + | | | | + | 870|1465|Ag. 24| + | | | | + | 871|1466|Ag. 13| + | | | | + | 872|1467|Ag. 2| + | | | | + | 873|1468|Jy. 22| + | | | | + | 874|1469|Jy. 11| + | | | | + | 875|1470|Ju. 30| + | | | | + | 876|1471|Ju. 20| + | | | | + | 877|1472|Ju. 8| + | | | | + | 878|1473|My. 29| + | | | | + | 879|1474|My. 18| + | | | | + | 880|1475|My. 7| + | | | | + | 881|1476|Ap. 26| + | | | | + | 882|1477|Ap. 15| + | | | | + | 883|1478|Ap. 4| + | | | | + | 884|1479|M. 25| + | | | | + | 885|1480|M. 13| + | | | | + | 886|1481|M. 2| + | | | | + | 887|1482|F. 20| + | | | | + | 888|1483|F. 9| + | | | | + | 889|1484|Ja. 30| + | | | | + | 890|1485|Ja. 18| + | | | | + | 891|1486|Ja. 7| + | | | | + | 892|1486|D. 28| + | | | | + | 893|1487|D. 17| + | | | | + | 894|1488|D. 5| + | | | | + | 895|1489|N. 25| + | | | | + | 896|1490|N. 14| + | | | | + | 897|1491|N. 4| + | | | | + | 898|1492|O. 23| + | | | | + | 899|1493|O. 12| + | | | | + | 900|1494|O. 2| + | | | | + | 901|1495|S. 21| + | | | | + | 902|1496|S. 9| + | | | | + | 903|1497|Ag. 30| + | | | | + | 904|1498|Ag. 19| + | | | | + | 905|1499|Ag. 8| + | | | | + | 906|1500|Jy. 28| + | | | | + | 907|1501|Jy. 17| + | | | | + | 908|1502|Jy. 7| + | | | | + | 909|1503|Ju. 26| + | | | | + | 910|1504|Ju. 14| + | | | | + | 911|1505|Ju. 4| + | | | | + | 912|1506|My. 24| + | | | | + | 913|1507|My. 13| + | | | | + | 914|1508|My. 2| + | | | | + | 915|1509|Ap. 21| + | | | | + | 916|1510|Ap. 10| + | | | | + | 917|1511|M. 31| + | | | | + | 918|1512|M. 19| + | | | | + | 919|1513|M. 9| + | | | | + | 920|1514|F. 26| + | | | | + | 921|1515|F. 15| + | | | | + | 922|1516|F. 5| + | | | | + | 923|1517|Ja. 24| + | | | | + | 924|1518|Ja. 13| + | | | | + | 925|1519|Ja. 3| + | | | | + | 926|1519|D. 23| + | | | | + | 927|1520|D. 12| + | | | | + | 928|1521|D. 1| + | | | | + | 929|1522|N. 20| + | | | | + | 930|1523|N. 10| + | | | | + | 931|1524|O. 29| + | | | | + | 932|1525|O. 18| + | | | | + | 933|1526|O. 8| + | | | | + | 934|1527|S. 27| + | | | | + | 935|1528|S. 15| + | | | | + | 936|1529|S. 5| + | | | | + | 937|1530|Ag. 25| + | | | | + | 938|1531|Ag. 15| + | | | | + | 939|1532|Ag. 3| + | | | | + | 940|1533|Jy. 23| + | | | | + | 941|1534|Jy. 13| + | | | | + | 942|1535|Jy. 2| + | | | | + | 943|1536|Ju. 20| + | | | | + | 944|1537|Ju. 10| + | | | | + | 945|1538|My. 30| + | | | | + | 946|1539|My. 19| + | | | | + | 947|1540|My. 8| + | | | | + | 948|1541|Ap. 27| + | | | | + | 949|1542|Ap. 17| + | | | | + | 950|1543|Ap. 6| + | | | | + | 951|1544|M. 25| + | | | | + | 952|1545|M. 15| + | | | | + | 953|1546|M. 4| + | | | | + | 954|1547|F. 21| + | | | | + | 955|1548|F. 11| + | | | | + | 956|1549|Ja. 30| + | | | | + | 957|1550|Ja. 20| + | | | | + | 958|1551|Ja. 9| + | | | | + | 959|1551|D. 29| + | | | | + | 960|1552|D. 18| + | | | | + | 961|1553|D. 7| + | | | | + | 962|1554|N. 26| + | | | | + | 963|1555|N. 16| + | | | | + | 964|1556|N. 4| + | | | | + | 965|1557|O. 24| + | | | | + | 966|1558|O. 14| + | | | | + | 967|1559|O. 3| + | | | | + | 968|1560|S. 22| + | | | | + | 969|1561|S. 11| + | | | | + | 970|1562|Ag. 31| + | | | | + | 971|1563|Ag. 21| + | | | | + | 972|1564|Ag. 9| + | | | | + | 973|1565|Jy. 29| + | | | | + | 974|1566|Jy. 19| + | | | | + | 975|1567|Jy. 8| + | | | | + | 976|1568|Ju. 26| + | | | | + | 977|1569|Ju. 16| + | | | | + | 978|1570|Ju. 5| + | | | | + | 979|1571|My. 26| + | | | | + | 980|1572|My. 14| + | | | | + | 981|1573|My. 3| + | | | | + | 982|1574|Ap. 23| + | | | | + | 983|1575|Ap. 12| + | | | | + | 984|1576|M. 31| + | | | | + | 985|1577|M. 21| + | | | | + | 986|1578|M. 10| + | | | | + | 987|1579|F. 28| + | | | | + | 988|1580|F. 17| + | | | | + | 989|1581|F. 5| + | | | | + | 990|1582|Ja. 26| + | | | | + | 991|1583|Ja. 25*| + | | | | + | 992|1584|Ja. 14| + | | | | + | 993|1585|Ja. 3| + | | | | + | 994|1585|D. 23| + | | | | + | 995|1586|D. 12| + | | | | + | 996|1587|D. 2| + | | | | + | 997|1588|N. 20| + | | | | + | 998|1589|N. 10| + | | | | + | 999|1590|O. 30| + | | | | + |1000|1591|O. 19| + +----+----+-------+ + +* Here the change to the Gregorian New Style occurs. + + + + + INDEX + + [Cross references are within square brackets.] + + + A. + + ‘Abbās, Fāṭimid vezīr, 158. + + ‘Abbāsids [Caliphs]. + + ‘Abdallāh ibn Meymūn, Shī‘y, 114. + + ‘Abdallāh ibn Ṭāhir, governor, 43, 67. + + ‘Abdallāh ibn ez-Zubeyr, 35. + + ‘Abd-el-‘Azīz, governor, 61. + + ‘Abd-el-Ḥakam, Ibn, historian, 77, 185. + + ‘Abd-el-Laṭīf, geographer, 191, 194. + + ‘Abd-er-Raḥmān Kiaḥya, 298-301. + + ‘Ab’dīn, 34, 299. + + ‘Abid-esh-shera, 145. + + Abī-th-Thanā, Funduḳ, 111. + + Abū-‘Aly, vezīr, 154, 157. + + Abū-Bekr [Muzhir]. + + Abū-dh-Dhahab [Moḥammad Bey]. + + Abū-l-Fidā, 220. + + Abū-l-‘Ola, mosque, 260. + + Abū-Sarga, church, 56. + + Abū-s-Seyfeyn, church, 121. + + Abū-s-Su‘ūd, mosque, 258. + + Abulusteyn, 203. + + Abyssinians’ lake (Birkat-el-Ḥabash), 172. + + Academies, 97 [Medresa, Mosque]. + + Acre [‘Akkā]. + + Adhana, 86. + + ‘Āḍid, el-, Fāṭimid caliph, 123, 169, 170, 181. + + ‘Ādil, el-, Seyf-ed-dīn, Ayyūbid sultan, 176, 193-5, 263. + + ‘Ādil, el-, II., casket, 272. + + Afḍal, el-, Fāṭimid vezīr, 80, 154, 157. + + Ageminius, 280. + + Aghlabids of Tunis, 116. + + Aḥmad [Ṭūlūn]. + + Aḥmad Pasha, 298. + + Akbar, emperor, 142. + + Aḳbughāwīya, medresa, 224, 299. + + Akhdar, el-, mosque [Fakahany]. + + Akhōr, emīr, master of the horse, [Ḳāny Bek]. + + ‘Akkā (Acre), 149, 172, 205, 223. + + Aḳmar, mosque, 157, 160, 227. + + Aḳsunḳur, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 223, 227, 245, 298. + + Aḳūsh, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 259. + + Alexandria, 39, 40, 67, 117, 169, 180, 181, 195, 207, 263. + + Alfonso, of Seville, 206. + + Algibughā, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 259. + + ‘Alids, 114 _ff._ + + Almās, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 224, 289. + + Almelik, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 224, 259. + + Almohades, 180. + + ‘Aly, caliph, 19, 113, 119. + + ‘Aly Bey, 298-301. + + ‘Aly el-Gelfy, ketkhudā, 290. + + Amalric, k. of Jerusalem, 110, 130, 167-9. + + Ambassadors, 125, 139-2, 204. + + Amber, 94. + + Amīr [Emīr]. + + Āmir, el-, Fāṭimid caliph, 97, 123, 157, 160, 163. + + Amnis Trajanus, 40. + + ‘Amr ibn el-‘Āṣy, conqueror of Egypt, 34-43, 59, 61; mosque, 33, + 42-48, 66, 69, 89, 94, 97, 104, 107, 111, 142, 185, 188. + + “Antar’s stable,” 41. + + Anthropophagy, 148, 195. + + Antioch, 86, 205. + + Anwar, el-, mosque (el-Ḥākim), 137. + + Aqueducts, 76, 77, 223, 253. + + Arab conquest, 34 _ff._; tribes, 42, 60, 66, 67, 88. + + Arabia, 144. + + Arabian Nights [Thousand and One Nights]. + + Arch, keelform or Persian, 124, 138; pointed, 8, 85. + + Archery, 258. + + Architects, Christian, 78, 153. + + Architecture— + + Byzantine, 54, 83, 85, 153. + + Franco-Syrian, 153, 175, 180. + + Saracenic (Arab), 4 [Medresa, Mosque, Palace]. + + Turkish (Ottoman), 298-301. + + Arḍ-eṭ-Ṭabbāla, 259. + + Arghūn el-Ismā‘īly, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 224, 227. + + Ark in Coptic church, 55. + + Armenians, 121, 122, 149-157, 216. + + Armour, 94, 125; horse-, 134, 145. + + Army, 34, 37, 42, 60, 76, 88, 89, 91, 92, 94, 109, 117, 139, 143, 144, + 146, 147, 149, 158, 173, 197, 198, 203-5, 207, 209, 210, 235, 241, + 288. + + Arsūf, 205. + + Artīn Pasha, Ya‘ḳūb, 304. + + Arts, Saracenic, 271 _ff._ + + Ascalon, 167. + + Ashraf, el- [Bars-Bey, Sha‘bān]. + + Ashrafīya mosque, 233, 250. + + Ashrafy mamlūks, 210. + + ‘Ashūra (10th Moḥarram), 22, 23. + + ‘Aṣim, Ibn el-, poet, 100. + + ‘Askar, el-, official faubourg, 32, 75, 89, 91; mosque, 65. + + ‘Aṣmat-ed-dīn [Sheger-ed-durr]. + + Assassins (Ismā‘īlīs), 116, 137, 205. + + Astrology, 118, 142. + + Astronomy, 296. + + Asunbughā, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 311. + + Aswān, 215. + + Asyūṭy, el, mosque, 259. + + Aybek, Mamlūk sultan, 201, 202. + + Aydemir el-Khaṭīry, 259. + + ‘Aydhāb, port on Red Sea, 205, 263. + + ‘Ayn-eṣ-Ṣīra, 85, 282. + + ‘Ayny, el-, historian, 238. + + Ayyūb [Ṣāliḥ]. + + Ayyūbid dynasty, 196, 170-201. + + Azab troops, 288-291. + + ‘Azab [Bāb]. + + Azhar, el-, university mosque, 123-125, 163, 188, 245, 253, 296, 297, + 299. + + ‘Azīz, el-, Fāṭimid caliph, 121, 122, 126, 127, 134, 137. + + ‘Azīz, Ibn, painter, 134. + + Azzimina, 280. + + B. + + Bāb (gate)— + + Bāb-el-‘Azab, 291. + + B.-el-Baḥr or el-Ḥadīd, 107, 175, 258, 260. + + B.-el-Barḳīya or el-Ghureyyib, 126, 129, 266, 299. + + B.-el-Farag, 129. + + B.-el-Futūḥ, 126, 129, 145, 150-154, 188, 299. + + B.-el-Gedīd, 129. + + B.-el-Ḳantara, 129, 145, 166, 188, 258. + + B.-el-Ḳarāfa, 299. + + B.-el-Kharḳ, 293. + + B.-el-Khawkha, 129. + + B.-el-Lūk, 107, 217, 258. + + B.-el-Maḥrūḳ, 129. + + B.-el-Mudarrag, 176. + + B.-en-Naṣr, 129, 145, 150-154, 188, 219, 254, 259. + + B.-Sa‘āda, 129, 188. + + B.-el-Wezīr, 174, 175. + + B.-Zuweyla (Zawīla), 10, 80, 126, 129, 145, 150-154, 158, 159, 168, + 181, 188, 203, 211, 218, 219, 238, 254, 269, 270. + + Babylon, fortress, 34, 37, 39, 40, 41, 48-57, 63, 107, 218. + + Baghdād, 65, 72, 91, 92, 104, 119, 144, 148, 158, 164, 190, 201, 261. + + Baḥr [Bāb]. + + Bahrām, Fāṭimid vezīr, 154. + + Baḥry (Turkish) Mamlūks, 198-232. + + Baḳār, el-, Ḳāḍy, 99. + + Bakbak, 72. + + Bakhtary, el-, 100. + + Balsam, 50. + + Banquets, 101, 102. + + Baraka, khān of the Golden Horde, 206. + + Barbara, St, church, 56. + + Bargawān, Fāṭimid emīr, 139; quarter, 128, 145. + + Barḳīya quarter, 128; troops, 168. + + Barḳīya [Bāb]. + + Barḳūḳ, Mamlūk sultan, 235, 238, 266; medresa, 241, 250; tomb-mosque, + 241, 245. + + Bars-Bey, el-Ashraf, Mamlūk sultan, 237, 238; mosque, 238, 250. + + Basil, emperor, 134. + + Bāsiṭy, el-, mosque, 259. + + Baṣra, el-, painters from, 133. + + Bastions, 153, 179. + + Bath (ḥammām), 17, 66, 148, 184. + + Bath, Night of the (Leylat-el-Ghiṭās), 95. + + Bāṭilīya quarter, 145. + + Baṭūṭa, Ibn, 215, 224. + + Bāzār (market, sūḳ), 24. + + Beacon, Castle of the [Babylon]. + + Bedawīs, 146, 157, 215 + + Bedr-el-Gemāly, Fāṭimid vezīr, 80, 149-154, 157, 164, 174, 175. + + Bedrooms, 17. + + Beer, 140, 207. + + Belvedere (manẓara), 90. + + Benāt, Gāmi‘-el-, 311. + + Benjamin of Tudela, 48, 146. + + Berbers, 116, 139, 143, 146, 147, 148. + + Berchem, M. van, 86, 138, 139, 153, 175, 253, 296. + + Bernard, bishop of Palermo, 196. + + Bersīm, 3. + + Beshtāk, Mamlūk emīr, palace, 270; mosque, 224. + + Beybars, eẓ-Ẓāhir, Mamlūk sultan, 198, 203, 205-9, 218, 273; mosque, + 207, 212, 218. + + Beybars el-Gashnekīr (taster), Mamlūk sultan, 128, 137, 138, 144, 204, + 211; convent, 128. + + Beyn-el-Ḳaṣreyn (square “between the two palaces”), 126, 128, 139, + 157, 160, 188, 196, 212, 220, 273. + + Beyn-es-Sūreyn (street “between the two walls”), 126. + + Beysary, Mamlūk emīr, 273, 274. + + Beyt-el-Ḳāḍy, chief judge’s court, 271. + + Bilāl, khān of, 269. + + Bilbeys, 34, 40, 110, 168, 169. + + Bīra, el-, 203. + + Birkat-el-Fīl (elephant’s lake), 288. + + Birkat-el-Ḥabash (Abyssinians’ lake), 172. + + Black robes, 118; troops [Sūdānīs]. + + Boats, 95, 109, 146. + + Brass work [Metal work]. + + Brick, used for piers, 79. + + Bridal procession, 3. + + Bridges, 65, 96, 109. + + Brienne, John de, 195. + + Bronze [Metal work]. + + Buḳalamūn, 108. + + Būlāḳ, 237, 257-260, 263, 299, 301. + + Burdeyny, el-, mosque, 298. + + Burg-eẓ-Ẓafar, 175. + + Burgy (Circassian) Mamlūks, 228, 235-254. + + Burko‘, 2. + + Bustān, 271 [Gardens]. + + Butler, A. J., 37, 41, 54, 123. + + Byzantine architecture, 54, 83, 85, 153. + + Byzantine empire [Constantinople, Romans]. + + C. + + Cæsaræa, 203, 237;—205. + + Cage for caliph, 144. + + Cairo proper [Ḳāhira]. + + Caliphs [‘Aly, ‘Omar]. + + „ ‘Abbāsid, 64-72, 86, 91, 94, 118, 144, 164, 170, 201, 206. + + „ Fāṭimid, 92, 116-171; graves, 266. + + „ Omayyad, 59. + + „ Tombs of the, 241, 242. + + Cameron, D. A., 264, 265. + + Canals (Khalīg), 40, 132, 145, 146, 207, 258, 260. + + Cantonments [‘Askar]. + + Carmathians (Ḳarmaṭis), 116, 117. + + Carpet, Holy (Kiswa), 22. + + Carter, O. B., 260. + + Carving [Wood-carving]. + + Castle of the Beacon [Babylon]. + + Castle of the Mountain [Citadel]. + + Castle of the Ram, 90, 121. + + Catholicos, 39. + + Ceilings, painted, 281, 282. + + Cemetery, eastern, 241, 242. + + „ southern [Ḳarāfa]. + + Censers, 138, 273. + + Charles of Anjou, 206. + + Chaul, naval engagement off, 254. + + Cherkes Bey, 289. + + Chess, 140. + + Chibouk [Shibūk]. + + Christians [Architects, Armenians, Copts]. + + Circassian Mamlūks, 228, 235-254. + + Citadel, 27, 65, 175-180, 196, 223, 232, 237, 242, 253, 288, 290. + + Cloisters in mosques, 47, 79. + + Coins, 59, 119, 201, 301. + + Colleges, 111 [Medresa]. + + Commerce, 262-270 [Trade]. + + Commission for the Preservation of the Monuments of Arab Art, 160, + 303-314. + + Conquest, Mosque of, 42. + + Constantinople, 173, 215, 298. + + Convents, 118, 123, 128, 259. + + Coppersmiths’ bāzār [Sūḳ-en-Naḥḥāsīn]. + + Copts, 38, 39, 44, 61-64, 68, 109, 120-123, 157; churches, 53-57, 61; + art, 55, 62, 85; persecutions, 61-3, 69, 122, 141, 183, 216-220. + + Corbett, E. K., 43. + + Corvée labour, 179. + + Court, Mamlūk, 209. + + „ of house, 13. + + Cromer, Earl, 303, 313, 314. + + “Crown of Mosques,” 42. + + Crusades, 110, 111, 137, 164-173, 176, 181, 195, 196, 198, 201, 205, + 217, 227. + + Cumhdach, 56. + + Cyprus, 205, 237. + + Cyrus, patriarch of Alexandria, 37, 38. + + D. + + Dā‘īs, Shī‘a missionaries, 115. + + Dam of canal, cutting the, 132, 145, 146. + + Damascus, 59, 65, 88, 93, 103, 108, 149, 164-173, 204, 236; tiles, 56, + 278, 298. + + Damietta, 93. + + Dār (mansion, hall), 271. + + Dār-el-‘Adl (Hall of Justice), 207. + + Dār-el-Ḥadīth (Hall of Tradition), 196. + + Dār-el-‘Ilm (Hall of Science), 142, 160. + + Dār-el-Ma’mūn (Ma’mūn’s palace), 159, 160, 185. + + Dār-el-Wezīr (Palace of Vezīrs), 128, 160, 171; also a khān at Miṣr, + 110. + + Darb (street), 271. + + Darmūn, ed-, gate of, 76. + + Defterdār, palace, 289. + + Dehlek, Red Sea port, 263. + + Deylemīs, quarter, 128, 145, 146, 218. + + Dhahab, Abū-dh- [Moḥammad Bey]. + + Dikka (tribune of mosque), 80. + + Dīnār (half-guinea), 59. + + Diodorus, 50. + + Ḍirghām, eḍ-, Fāṭimid vezīr, 167, 168. + + Disert Ulidh, 62. + + Divorce, 19, 99. + + Docks, 96, 132. + + Dome, in mosques, 83-85, 228; in Coptic churches, 54. + + Dome of the Air (Ḳubbat-el-Ḥawā), 65, 68, 75. + + Dominicans, 217. + + Donkeys, 109. + + Druzes, 142, 143. + + Dukas, 92, 99. + + E. + + Earthquakes, 92, 104, 195. + + “Easterns, the,” 146. + + Edessa, architects from, 153. + + Embāba, battles at, 43. + + Emesa, battles at, 204. + + Emīr Akhōr, master of the horse, [Ḳāny Bek]. + + Emīrate or Government House, 65, 75, 94. + + Emīrs, Mamlūk, 209 _ff._, 224, 235 _ff._ + + Epiphany tank, 54. + + Eudoxus, 49. + + Euphrates, 75, 205, 215, 237. + + Europe, trade with, 91, 263-5. + + Eutychius, 96. + + Evetts, B.T.A., 122, 123. + + Ezbek ibn Tutush, mosque, 295. + + Ezbek el-Yūsufy, mosque, 249, 250. + + Ezbekīya, 150, 260, 288, 291, 292, 295, 299. + + F. + + Fāḍil, el-, Ḳāḍy, 171, 191. + + Faïence, 298 [Tiles]. + + Fā’iz, el-, Fāṭimid caliph, 158. + + Fakahāny, el-, mosque, 159, 298. + + Falconry, 215, 273. + + Famine, 117, 143, 148, 194, 195, 207. + + Farag, Mamlūk sultan, 241. + + Farag [Bāb]. + + Far‘ūn, Maṣṭaba [Pharaoh]. + + Fasts, 44, 57, 94. + + Fāṭima, 113, 116, 119. + + Fāṭimids [Caliphs]. + + Felek, Ibn-el-, mosque, 259. + + Ferghāna, architect from, 85. + + Feudal system in East, 197, 198. + + Festivals and festivities, 22-26, 94, 101-103, 128, 146, 204. + + Fieffees or grantees, 72, 197. + + Fiḳārīs, 289. + + Fīl (elephant) [Birkat Gezīrat]. + + Fires, 104, 110, 218. + + Firro, Ibn, 191. + + Flabellum, 55. + + Fleet, 72, 93, 116, 132, 134, 207, 254. + + Flowers, 87, 108; market, 270. + + Forgers, 297. + + Fortress, 175 [Citadel]. + + Fortress, Roman [Babylon]. + + Fountain [Sebīl]. + + Franz Pasha, 304. + + Frederick II., 195, 196, 280. + + Fruits, 108, 270. + + Fulcher, Geoffrey, 130-132. + + Fum-el-Khalīg [Dam]. + + Funduḳ (hostelry), 111, 263-271. + + Furāt, Ibn-el-, poet, 99. + + Fusṭāṭ (Miṣr, Maṣr), 32, 36, 40-48, 50, 59-61, 64-69, 76, 86, 89, + 91-112, 132, 134, 148, 174, 185, 186, 279. + + Futūḥ [Bāb]. + + G. + + Ga‘bary, el-, mosque, 259. + + Gabarṭy, el-, historian, 44, 289, 295, 296. + + Gāmi‘ (congregational mosque), 123, 187. + + Gardens, 20, 57, 87, 89, 93, 96, 109, 145. + + Garkas el-Khalīly, 266. + + Garstin, Sir W. E., 304. + + Gāshnekīr (taster) [Beybars II]. + + Gate [Bāb]—of Succour [Bāb-en-Naṣr], of Conquests [Bāb-el-Futūḥ], of + the Bridge [Bāb-el-Ḳanṭara], of Iron [Bāb-el-Ḥadīd], of el-Ḳaṭāi‘, 76. + + Gawdarīya quarter, 128, 145. + + Gawhar, Fāṭimid general, 117-127, 132, 141. + + Gedīd [Bāb]. + + Gelfy, el-, 290. + + Gemālīya, 128. + + George, church of St, 56. + + Gezīra, el- (island of Būlāḳ), 107. + + Gezīrat-el-Fīl (island of the elephant), 257, 258. + + Ghāzy, Ibn, mosque, 258. + + Ghurāb, Ibn, mosque, 259. + + Ghureyyib [Bāb]. + + Ghūrīya street, 6, 159, 253. + + Ghūry, el-, Ḳānṣūh, Mamlūk sultan, 253-4, 264; mosques, 253. + + Gidda, 263. + + Giorgio Ghisi, Azzimina, 280. + + Gīza, el-, 41, 92, 96, 109, 117, 123, 176. + + Gīza, el-, dike of, 180. + + Glass, 108, 232, 272, 286. + + Golden Horde, 205, 206, 215, 223. + + Golden House, 61;—87. + + Governors under caliphs, 59-72. + + Granaries, 48, 146. + + Greeks, 49, 75, 236, 238, 241. + + „ quarters of the, 128, 150. + + Grey mosque (el-Aḳmar), 157, 158. + + Gubeyr, Ibn, 111, 171, 176-187. + + Guyūshy, el-, mosque, 139. + + Gypsum, decoration in, 79, 85. + + H. + + Ḥadīd [Bāb]. + + Ḥāfiẓ, el-, Fāṭimid caliph, 122. + + Ḥagg, Emīr-el-, 290. + + Haggarīn, el-, 129. + + Hair, appeal by, 158, 169. + + Ḥakar (close), 271. + + Ḥākim, el-, Fāṭimid caliph, 122, 137, 139-143; mosque, 107, 126, + 137-139, 160, 163, 169, 188, 245, 282. + + Hall of Columns, 223. + + „ of Justice, 207. + + „ of the Ḳāḍy, 271. + + „ of el-Ma’mūn, 159, 160, 185. + + „ of Science, 142, 160. + + „ of Tradition, 196. + + „ of the Vezīrs, 128, 171. + + „ of Yūsuf, 179, 223. + + Ḥamāh, 204, 220. + + Ḥammām [Bath]. + + Ḥamrā (“red” place), 42, 65, 217. + + Ḥamzāwy khān (cloth-market), 266. + + Ḥanafīs, 97, 301. + + Ḥanbalīs, 97. + + Ḥāra (quarter), 128, 271. + + Ḥarbaweyh, Ibn, 93. + + Ḥarīm, 17-21. + + Hārūn-er-Rashīd, ‘Abbāsid caliph, 66, 67, 147, 261. + + Ḥasan, Mamlūk sultan, mosque of, 190, 228-235, 237, 245, 284, 306, + 307. + + Ḥasaneyn, mosque and festival, 23-26, 128, 181-183, 185. + + Hawdag, 97, 157. + + Ḥawkal, Ibn, geographer, 104. + + Hay, Robert, 259, 260. + + Heliopolis (On), 35, 37, 49, 118, 150, 254. + + Helwān, 61. + + Heraclius, emperor, 37. + + Herz Bey, Max, 138, 160, 231, 238, 250, 282, 305 _ff._ + + Ḥigāz, el-, 104, 204. + + Ḥigāzīya, Ṭaṭar el-, mosque, 224. + + Historians, 286. + + Holy family, 49, 56. + + Holy War, 172, 173, 205, 216. + + Horse-armour, 134, 145. + + Horse, statue, 94. + + Ḥoseyn, the martyr, 23, 114, 147, 181-183, 185; festival, 23-26. + + Ḥoseyn, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 224. + + Ḥoseynīya quarter, 257, 259, 299. + + Houses, 9-17; 109, 145, 290, 292, 308. + + Household of Mamlūk sultan, 209. + + Hugh of Cæsarea, 130-132. + + Hūlāgū, Mongol of Persia, 203. + + Humphrey of Toron, 193. + + I. + + Ibn. _See_ under second name. + + Ibrāhīm Aga, 227, 298. + + Iḥrām, 170. + + Ikhshīd, el- Moḥammad, 93-100. + + Illuminations, 23, 24, 95, 101. + + Imām (preacher or precentor), 170, 171, 297. + + Imām, Shī‘a doctrine of the, 114-116, 154. + + Incarnation, 114-116, 142, 143. + + Incrustation [Metalwork]. + + Indian trade, 91, 211, 254, 263-5. + + Industries, 271 _ff._ + + Inlaying, 272 _ff._ + + Inscriptions, 80, 85, 124, 138, 154, 160, 163, 245, 246. + + Investiture, 94, 206. + + Irish art, 54-56, 62. + + Irrigation, 196, 207, 253. + + Ismā‘īlīs (Shī‘a), 116, 157, 205. + + Ismā‘īlīya canal, 258. + + Ismā‘īly [Arghūn]. + + Italy, relations with, 263, 280 [Venice]. + + Ivory carving, 284. + + J. + + Jacobites, 38. + + Jaffa, 172, 205. + + James of Aragon, 206. + + James of Lusignan, 237. + + Janizaries, 288. + + Jerusalem, 167, 172, 193, 196, 205. + + Jews, 44, 50, 86, 120, 121, 122. + + Jews’ work, 280. + + John de Brienne, 195. + + John the Monk, 153. + + John of Nikiu, 34, 35. + + Joseph’s granaries, 48, 146. + + Joseph’s Hall, 179, 223. + + Joseph’s Well, 179. + + K. + + Ka‘a, 17. + + Ka‘ba, 132, 150. + + Ḳāḍy, 33, 69. + + Kāfūr, Ikhshīdid vezīr, 100-104. + + Kāfūr, Garden of, 93, 104, 118, 126, 128, 139, 188. + + Kagmās, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 250, 311. + + Ḳāhira, el- (Cairo proper), 118 _ff._ + + Ḳā’it-Bey, el-Ashraf, Mamlūk sultan, 238, 241-250; medallion, 246; + mosques, 242-249, 284, 285; pulpits, 245; palace, 270; wekālas, 246, + 249, 266. + + Ḳal‘at-el-Gebel (Castle of the Hill) [Citadel]. + + Ḳal‘at-el-Kebsh (Castle of the Ram), 90, 121. + + Ḳalā’ūn, el-Manṣūr, Mamlūk sultan, 203, 204, 211, 212, 269, 273, 278; + Māristān, 126, 300; minaret, 139; mosques, 212, 245, 283, 285. + + Ḳalendarīya, el-, mosque, 259. + + Kāmil, el-, Ayyūbid sultan, 179, 195, 196, 216; medresa Kāmilīya, 196. + + Ḳanāṭīr-el-Gīza, 180. + + Ḳanṭara [Bāb]. + + Ḳāny Bek, emīr akhōr (master of the horse), 250. + + Ḳarāfa, southern cemetery, 184, 185, 227; mosque of, 133, 134 [Bāb]. + + Ḳarāḳūsh, vezīr of Saladin, 176, 179; khān, 270. + + Ḳarāḳūsh (Punch), 25, 176. + + Ḳarmaṭīs [Carmathians]. + + Ḳārūn, pool of, 104. + + Ḳāsimīs, 289. + + Ḳaṣr (palace), 289. + + Ḳaṣr-el-‘Ayny, 107. + + Ḳaṣr-ed-Dubāra, 107. + + Ḳaṣr-esh-Shawk, 145. + + Ḳaṣr-esh-Shema‘, 41 [Babylon]. + + Ḳaṣr-Yūsuf (Joseph’s Hall), 179, 223. + + Ḳaṣreyn [Beyn-el-Ḳaṣreyn]. + + Ḳaṭāi‘, el-, Ṭūlūnid faubourg, 33, 75, 76, 89, 107. + + Ḳayrawān, 116, 117. + + Ḳayṣarīya (great market), 266, 271. + + Keelform arch, 124, 138. + + Kells, Book of, 55. + + Kenna, Ibn, monk, 157. + + Kerbelā, 114, 119. + + Ketkhudā (kiaḥyā, kikhyā), 290, 298, 299. + + Kettāmy, el-, painter, 134. + + Keymakhty, el-, mosque, 259. + + Khabushāny, el-, 184. + + Khalangy, el-, 91. + + Khalāṭy, el-, 94. + + Khalīg [Canal]. + + Khalīl, el-Ashraf, Mamlūk sultan, 210, 211, 223; ‘Akka gate. + + Khalīly, Garkas el-, 266 [Khān]. + + Khān (inn), 109, 265-271. + + Khān el-Khalīly, 24, 126, 128, 210, 266. + + Khāriga, 19. + + Kharḳ [Bāb]. + + Khaṭīb (preacher), 170, 171, 297. + + Khaṭīry, el-, Aydemir, mosque, 258. + + Khaṭma (recital of Ḳor’ān), 22, 25. + + Khawkha, 271 [Bāb]. + + Kheyr Bek, 254; mosque, 250. + + Khilāṭy, el-, mosque, 259. + + Khumāraweyh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, 87-89, 92. + + Khūshḳadam, Mamlūk sultan, 236. + + Khuṭba (bidding-prayer, sermon), 170, 171. + + Khuṭṭ (district), 271. + + Kiaḥyā (Kikhya), 290 [‘Abd-er-Raḥmān, ‘Othmān, Ruḍwān]. + + Ḳibla (point towards Mekka), 78, 80. + + Kieman, Casr, 41. + + Killis, Ibn, Fāṭimid vezīr, 137. + + Kindy, el-, historian, 100. + + King, title of Fāṭimid vezīrs, 159. + + Kiosks, 95, 109, 291. + + Kipchak, 202, 205. + + Kiswa (holy carpet), 22. + + Kitāma, 146; quarter, 128. + + Kléber, general, 49. + + Knighthood conferred on Muslims, 193. + + Ḳor’ān, 67-69, 88, 97, 107, 149, 185, 212, 232, 246. + + Ḳubbat-el-Ḥawā [Dome of the air]. + + Ḳubbat-en-Naṣr, 223. + + Kufic [Inscriptions]. + + Kufīya, 2. + + Ḳulla, 11. + + Kumiz, 207. + + Ḳuseyr, el-, convent, 219. + + Ḳuseyr, Red Sea port, 263. + + Ḳūṣūn, Mamlūk emīr, 197, 216, 235, 291; mosque, 224, 283, 296; wekāla, + 270. + + Ḳuṭb [Mutawelly]. + + Ḳuṭuz, Mamlūk sultan, 203, 207. + + L. + + Labour, forced, 179. + + Lāgīn, Mamlūk sultan, 211; his restoration of mosque of Ibn-Ṭūlūn, 80, + 83, 283, 285. + + Lamps, 108; enamelled glass, 232, 272. + + Lamps, Street of, at Miṣr, 108, 111. + + Lane, E. W., 259, 266. + + Larenda, 237. + + Lattice [Meshrebīya]. + + Lectern, 56. + + Le Strange, Guy, 111, 171. + + Leylet-el-Ghiṭās, 95. + + Libraries, 148, 171, 292, 295. + + Lions’ Bridges, 42, 217. + + Literature, 95, 98-100, 103, 120, 124, 295, 296. + + Līwān (sanctuary, S.-E. end of mosque), 80. + + Lock, 12. + + Louis IX., crusade of, 198, 201, 217. + + Lūḳ [Bāb]. + + Lunatics, 186, 300. + + M. + + Macer [Miṣr]. + + Mādarā’y, el-, treasurer, 92, 93. + + Maghraby, Ibn-el-, mosque, 259. + + Mahdy, el-, doctrine of, 115, 116, 154, 157. + + Maḥmal, 22. + + Maḥmūd el-Kurdy, 280. + + Maḥmūdīya canal, 260. + + Maḥmūdīya mosque, 289. + + Maḥrūḳ [Bāb]. + + Maḥrūsa, el-, 125. + + Maidens’ convent, 217. + + Maḳrīzy, el-, topographer, 41 et passim. + + Maḳs, el-, port of Cairo, 96, 132, 174, 175; mosques, 141, 189, 260. + + Maḳṣūra (royal pew), 223. + + Mālikīs (orthodox school of theology), 97, 185, 292. + + Mamā’y, palace of Mamlūk emīr, 270. + + Mamlūks, 197-301. + + Ma’mūn, el-, ‘Abbāsid caliph, 68. + + Ma’mūn, el-, Fāṭimid vezīr [Dār]. + + Mandara (manẓara, guest-room), 14. + + Manfred, 206. + + Mangak, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 224. + + Manṣūra, el-, battle, 198, 208. + + Manṣūrīya, el-, quarter of Sūdānīs, 181. + + Manṣūrīya medresa (Ḳalā’ūn), 83. + + Manẓara (belvedere), 90, 271. + + Marble mosaic, 246. + + Marg-Dābiḳ, battle, 254. + + Marg-es-Suffar, battle, 204. + + Māridāny, el-, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 224, 283-285, 314. + + Māristāns, 126, 185, 186, 212, 224, 238, 300. + + Marshūshy, el-, ‘Aly, 242. + + Martyrs, Place of, 185. + + Marwān, last Omayyad caliph, 64, 65. + + Maskat vines, 99. + + Masmūda, 145, 146. + + Maṣr (for Miṣr, name of Egypt and of its capital), 33 [Fusṭāṭ, Miṣr]. + + Maṣr-el-‘Atīḳa (old Miṣr, “Old Cairo”), 34, 36, 41, 48, 107, 146, 253. + + Maṣṭaba Far‘ūn (Pharaoh’s Seat), 90. + + Mas‘ūdy, el-, historian, 95, 96. + + Maṭarīya, el-, 48; battle, 49. + + Medallion of Ḳā’it-Bey, 246. + + Medīna, el-, 104, 144, 182, 205. + + Medresa (academy, college), 111, 173, 183-192, 224, 250, 298 [Mosque]. + + Mekka, 22, 86, 104, 132, 205, 253, 263, 299. + + Melekites (orthodox Greek church), 38, 39, 121, 219. + + Melons, ‘Abdallāwy, 68. + + Memdūd, Ibn, 66. + + Memphis, 34, 37, 41. + + Menageries, 75, 88, 134. + + Menāẓir-el-Kebsh (belvederes of the ram), 90. + + Mercurius, St., 121. + + Mercury, lake of, 87. + + Mesgid, 188 [Mosque]. + + Meshrebīya, 5, 11, 284, 285. + + Mesopotamia, 86, 115, 116. + + Mesrūr, khān of, 266, 268. + + Metal-work, 108, 271-280, 310. + + Meydān (racecourse), 75, 271. + + Meymūn, Ibn, 114. + + Mibkhara (censer), 138. + + Mihmandār (master of the ceremonies), Aḥmad, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 224. + + Miḥrāb (niche for prayer in mosque), 80, 83, 163, 231, 299. + + Mina, St, 217. + + Minarets, 43, 83; of Ibn-Ṭūlūn, 83; of el-Ḥākim, 83, 138, 139; of + Ḳalā’ūn and Āḳbughā, 83; of el-Mu’ayyad, 153, 238; of Sultan Ḥasan, + 232, 307. + + Minbar [Pulpit]. + + Miska, Sitta, mosque, 224. + + Miṣr (Maṣr), 34-36, 41, 42 [Fusṭāṭ]. + + Missionaries, Shī‘a, 115. + + Mo‘allaḳa, el-, church, 56, 57, 218. + + Moḥammad, the Prophet, 20, 95, 113. + + Moḥammad ‘Aly, viceroy, 179, 302; mosque, 301; street, 302. + + Moḥammad Bey, Abū-dh-Dhahab, 301. + + Moḥammad el-Mādarā’y, treasurer, 92, 93. + + Moḥammad ibn Suleymān, ‘Abbāsid general, 89. + + Moḥammad ibn ez-Zubeyr, 36. + + Moḥarram festival, 22, 23, 119. + + Mo‘izz, el-, Fāṭimid caliph, 116-119, 125-127, 129, 132, 133, 147. + + Mōlids (birthday festivals), 22. + + Monasteries, 61, 123, 128. + + Mongols, 203, 204, 236. + + Monks, 62, 123, 219. + + Monopolies, 264. + + Mosaic, 246. + + Mōṣil artists, 272 _ff._ + + Mosques:— + + Abū-dh-Dhahab [Moḥammad Bey], 301. + + Abū-l-‘Olā, 260. + + Abū-s-Su‘ūd, 258. + + Aḳbughā, 224, 299. + + Akhdar [Fakahāny]. + + Aḳmar, 157, 160, 227. + + Aḳsunḳur, 223, 224, 227, 245, 298. + + Aḳūsh, 259. + + Algibughā, 259. + + Almās, 224, 289. + + Almelik, 224, 259. + + ‘Amr, 42-48, etc. [_q.v._]. + + Anwar [Ḥākim]. + + Arghūn el-Ismā‘īly, 224, 227. + + Ashraf, 238, 250. + + ‘Askar, 65. + + Asunbugha, 311. + + Asyūṭy, 259. + + Aydemir [Khaṭīry]. + + Azhar, 123-5, etc. (_q.v._). + + Barḳūḳ, 241, 250. + + „ and Farag, 241, 245. + + Bars-Bey, 238, 250. + + Bāsiṭy, 259. + + Benāt, 311. + + Beshtāk, 224. + + Beybars, Ẓāhir, 207, 212, 218. + + Beybars, Gāshnekīr, 128. + + Burdeyny, 298. + + Emīr Akhōr [Ḳāny Bek]. + + Ezbek ibn Tutush, 295. + + Ezbek el-Yūsufy, 249, 250. + + Fakahāny, 159, 298. + + Farag [Barḳūḳ]. + + Felek, Ibn-el-, 259. + + Ga‘bary, 259. + + Ghāzy, Ibn, 258. + + Ghurāb, Ibn, 259. + + Ghūry, 253. + + Guyūshy, 139. + + Ḥākim, 107, 126, 137-9 (_q.v._). + + Ḥasan, 190, 224, 228-37, 245, 284, 306. + + Ḥasaneyn, 128, 181-185. + + Ḥigāzīya, 224. + + Ḥoseyn, emīr, 224. + + Ibrāhīm Aga (Aḳsunḳur), 227, 298. + + Ismā‘īly [Arghūn]. + + Ḳagmās, 250, 311. + + Ḳā’it-Bey, 242-9, 284, 285. + + Ḳalā’ūn, 212, 245, 283, 285. + + Ḳalendarīya, 259. + + Kāmilīya, 196. + + Ḳāny Bek, emīr Akhōr, 250. + + Ḳarāfa, 133, 134. + + Keymakhty, 259. + + Khaṭīry, 258. + + Kheyr Bek, 250. + + Khilāṭy, 259. + + Ḳūṣūn, 224, 283, 296. + + Maghraby, Ibn-el-, 259. + + Maḥmūdīya, 289. + + Maḳs, 141, 189, 260. + + Mangak, 224. + + Māridāny, 224, 283-5, 314. + + Mihmandār, 224. + + Miska, Sitta, 224. + + Moḥammad ‘Aly, 301. + + Moḥammad Bey, 300. + + Mu’ayyad, 232, 250, 284-5, 297, 311. + + Muzhir (Mazhar) Abū-Bekr ibn, 250, 285, 309-311. + + Nāṣir in Citadel, 179, 223. + + „ Naḥḥāsīn, 220, 223. + + Naṣr, 259. + + Nefīsa, Seyyida, 202, 206, 223, 300. + + Rāshida, 141. + + Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb, 212, 282. + + Ṣāliḥ Ṭalāi‘. + + Ṣarghitmish, 224. + + Ṣārim, Ibn-, 259. + + Sāriyat-el-Gebel, 185. + + Sārūgā, 259. + + Sennānīya, 301. + + Sengar el-Gāwaly, 224. + + Seyf-ed-dīn, 185. + + Shāfi‘y, Imām, 184, 225, 296, 298, 300. + + Shem, 129. + + Sheykhū, 224, 284. + + Ṭabbākh, Ibn-eṭ, 258. + + Ṭalāi‘ ibn Ruzzīk, 163, 167. + + Ṭawāshy, 258. + + Ṭaybars, 217, 299. + + Ṭulbīya, 215. + + Ṭūlūn, Aḥmad ibn, 77-86 [_q.v._]. + + Yūnus, 258, 259. + + Ẓāhir [Beybars]. + + Zeyneb, Seyyida, 185, 299. + + Zeyn-ed-dīn Yaḥyā, 311. + + [See also Table of Monuments, pp. 317-22]. + + Mu’ayyad, el-, Mamlūk sultan, 238; mosque, 10, 126, 232, 250, 284, + 285, 297, 298, 311. + + Mudarrag [Bāb]. + + Muedhdhin or Muezzin (prayer crier), 43. + + Muḳaṭṭam, el-, hills, 41, 42, 59, 65, 88, 121, 134, 142, 175, 219. + + Muḳawḳis, el-, Roman governor of Egypt, 37-39. + + Mule, Convent of the, 219. + + Murād Bey, 43, 44. + + Mūsā el-‘Abbāsy, governor, 67. + + Muṣallā-l-‘Id (oratory of the Festival), 141. + + Musebbiḥy, el-, author, 99, 100. + + Museum of Arab Art, 85, 138, 163, 282, 304, 305, 312. + + Museum, British, 272, 273. + + „ South Kensington, 272, 282, 283. + + Music, 102. + + Musky street, 6, 126. + + Mustanṣir, el-, Fāṭimid caliph, 144-154, 259. + + Mutanebby, el-, poet, 100. + + Mutawelly, Ḳuṭb el-, 10 [Bāb-Zuweyla]. + + Muwaffaḳ, el-, ‘Abbāsid, 86. + + Muzhir (Mazhar), Abū-Bekr ibn, Ḳāḍy, mosque, 250, 285, 309-311. + + N. + + Naḥḥāsīn [Sūḳ]. + + Narthex, 54. + + Nāṣir, en-, title of Saladin, 176. + + Nāṣir, en-, Moḥammad, Mamlūk sultan, 90, 204, 209-228; mosque in + Citadel, 179, 223; mosque in Naḥḥāsīn, 220, 223; artistic epoch, 279, + 282, 284. + + Nāṣir, en-, pool of, 217. + + Nāṣir-i-Khusrau, philosopher and traveller, 83, 107-110, 127, 129, + 132, 144, 145. + + Naṣr [Bāb, Ḳubba]. + + Naṣr ibn ‘Abbās, 158. + + Nefīsa, Seyyida, 202, 206, 223, 300. + + Nestorius, Ibn, Fāṭimid vezīr, 122. + + Niche of mosque [Miḥrāb]. + + Night of the Bath, 95. + + Nikiu, John, bishop of, 35. + + Nile, change of bed, 107, 257, 259; festivals, 95, 96, 132, 146. + + Nilometers, 61, 85, 96, 147; mosque of, 253. + + Niẓām-el-mulk, Seljūḳ vezīr, college of, 190. + + Nubians, 35, 36, 62. + + Nūr-ed-dīn, sultan of Damascus, 167, 190, 191, 198. + + O. + + ‘Okba, 185. + + Old Cairo [Maṣr-el-‘Atīḳa]. + + ‘Omar, caliph, 34, 40. + + ‘Omar, secretary, 67. + + ‘Omāra, poet, 160. + + Omayyads [caliphs]. + + On, 49 [Heliopolis]. + + Osāma, treasurer, 96. + + Osāma ibn Munkidh, Arab chief, 158. + + ‘Othmān Bey Dhū-l-Fiḳār, 289, 290. + + ‘Othmān Ketkhudā, 299. + + ‘Othmānly (Osmānli, Ottoman) Turks, 49, 206; mosques, 298-301. + + P. + + Palaces, Fāṭimid, 126-8, 130, 131, 160; Mamlūk, 223, 270, 274, + 288-290; Ṭūlūnid, 75, 76, 87, 88. + + Patriarchs, 37, 38, 61, 62, 121, 122, 219. + + Paulus Ageminius, 280. + + Pavilions, 88, 127, 139. + + Pelusium, 34. + + Perfumes, 102, 134, 273. + + Persia, Mongol khāns of, 203, 206. + + Persian arch, 124, 138, 153; art, 133, 280; troops, 146. + + Pharaoh’s Oven, 78; Seat, 90. + + Physicians, 86, 120, 128. + + Pictures, 53, 55, 133. + + Pigeon post, 208; tower, 87. + + Pilgrims, 22. + + Plague, 117. + + Planets, 273. + + Plaster-work, 79, 85, 245. + + Plato, 49. + + Pococke, R., 41. + + Poets, 98-101. + + Polo, 76. + + Pottery, 108. + + Preacher, 170, 171, 297. + + Professors, 97, 107, 124, 297, 300, 301. + + Pulpit (minbar), 43, 57, 80, 283, 284, 299. + + Punch (Ḳarāḳūsh), 25. + + Q. + + Quicksilver Lake, 87. + + R. + + Raḥba (square), 271. + + Rā’ik, Ibn, 93. + + Rain, prayers for, 44. + + Ram, Castle of the, 90. + + Ramaḍān, fast, 44, 57, 94. + + Ramla, er-, Peace of, 172. + + Rashīd [Hārūn]. + + Rāshida, mosque at, 141. + + Raṭly, Birkat-el-, 259. + + Ravaisse, M., 128. + + Red [Ḥamrā]; tower, 202; sea, 205. + + Rents, 145, 195, 266, 270. + + Restoration of mosques, 309-312. + + Revenue, 59. + + Review, 94. + + Rhodes, 237; tiles, 56, 298. + + Riwāḳs (partitions in Azhar), 291. + + Rōḍa, er-, Island, 61, 65, 94-96, 109, 132, 157, 198. + + Rogers, E. T., 206, 304. + + Romans (Eastern Empire), 34, 35, 39, 58, 86. + + Ruḍwān, Fāṭimid vezīr, 158. + + Ruḍwān el-Gelfy, 290, 291. + + Ruḳeyya, Seyyida, 163. + + Rūm, Ḥārat-er-, 128, 145. + + Rumeyla, 75, 179, 219, 253. + + Ruzzīk, 159 [Ṭalāi‘]. + + S. + + Sa‘āda [Bāb]. + + Ṣafīya, Seyyida, mosque, 298. + + Sāg (teak wood), 76. + + Sa‘īd, Ibn, 44, 94, 96, 112, 262. + + Sāḳiya (water-wheel), 258. + + Saḳḳa (water carrier), 109, 299. + + Saladin (Ṣalāḥ-ed-dīn), Ayyūbid sultan, 33, 159, 164-193, 198, 212, + 216. + + Sālār, Ibn es-, Fāṭimid vezīr, 158, 167. + + Ṣalība (crossway) street, 288. + + Ṣāliḥ, eṣ-, Ayyūb, 90, 198, 212, 217, 269; tomb, 212, 282. + + Ṣāliḥ, eṣ- [Ṭalāi‘]. + + Ṣāliḥ, Abū-, 122, 153. + + Salomonis opus, 280. + + Sanctuary [Līwān]. + + Saphadin [‘Ādil]. + + Sarga, Abu-, 56. + + Ṣarghitmish, Mamlūk emīr, 235; mosque, 224. + + Ṣārim, Ibn, mosque, 259. + + Sāriyat-el-Gebel, 185. + + Sārūgā, mosque, 259. + + Sawākin, 205, 215, 263. + + Schefer, C., 107. + + Schools or sects of Islām, 97, 190, 208, 300. + + Screens, Coptic, 53-55, 57. + + Sebīl (street fountain), 249, 253, 299. + + Sebīl, khān of the, 270. + + Sekīna, Seyyida, 299. + + Selīm, ‘Othmānly sultan, 254. + + Seljūḳs, sultans of western Asia, 164, 167, 190, 203. + + Sennānīya, es-, mosque, 301. + + Sengar el-Gāwaly, mosque, 224. + + Sergius, St, 56. + + Severus, bishop of el-Ushmūneyn, 121. + + Seyf-ed-din, college, 185 [‘Ādil]. + + Seyfeyn, Abū-s-, 121. + + Sha‘bān, el-Ashraf, Mamlūk sultan, 90. + + Shāfi‘īs, 97, 185, 301. + + Shāfi‘y, esh-, Imām, mosque, 184, 225, 296, 298, 300. + + Sharā’iby family, 292. + + Shāri‘ (street), 6. + + Shāwar, Fāṭimid vezīr, 110, 159, 167-169. + + Sheger-ed-durr, ‘Aṣmat-ed-dīn, Mamlūk queen, 198, 201, 202, 212. + + Shem, son of Noah, muṣallā of, 129. + + Sherbetly, 3. + + Sheykh-el-beled, 288. + + Sheykh-el-Islām, 236. + + Sheykhū, Mamlūk emīr, 235; mosque, 224, 284. + + Shī‘a, 113-120, 180-182. + + Shibūk, 5, 288. + + Shipbuilders’ island, 96. + + Shīrkūh, 168-170. + + Shops, 6-9, 24, 108, 145. + + Shubrawy, esh-, Aḥmad, 295, 296. + + Silversmiths, 272 _ff._ + + Slaves, 197, 236, 269, 288. + + Slavonians, 139. + + Smoking, 288. + + Spain, refugees from, 67. + + Statues, 87. + + Stone-work, 138, 139, 245, 284. + + Strabo, 49, 50. + + Streets of Cairo, 271. + + Striped decoration, 50. + + Striped Palace (Ḳaṣr-el-Ablaḳ), 223. + + Stucco-work, 79, 85, 245, 284. + + Sūdān trade, 108, 134; students, 299. + + Sūdānīs, black troops, 75, 89, 127, 130, 143, 144, 146, 147, 148, 181. + + Suez, 263. + + Sūḳ (bazar, market), 271;—Sūḳ-en-Naḥḥāsīn, 93, 126, 185. + + Sukkarīya (sugar bāzār), 159, 238. + + Sun-dials, 296. + + Sunnīs (orthodox Muslims), 113, 119. + + Superstition, 297. + + Surūgīya, 266. + + Syria, 75, 89, 93, 137, 143, 144, 164-173, 175, 196, 203-207, 217, 301 + [Damascus]. + + Syrian trade, 269, 270. + + T. + + Ṭabary, eṭ-, historian, 95. + + Ṭabāṭabā poets, 98. + + Ṭabbākh, Ibn-eṭ-, mosque, 258. + + Ṭāhir, Ibn, 43, 67. + + Ṭalāi‘ ibn Rūzzīk, Fāṭimid vezīr, 158, 159; mosque, 163, 167. + + Ṭamweyh, monastery, 61. + + Ṭarsūs, 72, 75, 86. + + Ṭawāshy, eṭ-, mosque, 258. + + Taxes, 36, 60, 72, 134, 207, 216, 241, 253. + + Ṭaybars, Mamlūk emīr, mosque, 217; medresa, 299. + + Ṭaylasan, 170. + + Templars, 158. + + Ṭendunyās, 35. + + Tent [Fusṭāṭ]; state tents, 148. + + Textus case, 56. + + Thedosius, edict of, 38. + + _Thousand and One Nights_, 261-263. + + Throne, ‘Abbāsid, 144. + + Tiles, 56, 298, 299. + + Tīmūr (Tamerlane), 237. + + Tīmūrbughā, 238, 241. + + Tombs, 83, 84, 89, 101, 184, 185, 228 [Mosque]. + + Ṭōr, eṭ-, 263. + + Trade, transit, 91, 262-265. + + Treasurers, 92, 93. + + Treaty, Arab, 35-37. + + Tripolis, 167, 205. + + Truffles, 134. + + Ṭulbīya, wife of en-Nāṣir, 215. + + Ṭūlūn, Aḥmad ibn, 72-87, 197, 212; faubourg and palace, 75-77; mosque, + 77-86, 107, 187, 188, 245, 281-3, 285, 289; Nilometer, 96. + + Ṭūmān-Bey, 254. + + Tunis, 116. + + Turkish governors, 70 _ff._; troops, 139, 143, 147-149. + + Tyre, 167. + + Tyre, William of, 33, 130-132, 168. + + U. + + ‘Ulamā (learned men), 300, 302. + + Umarā, Hārat-el- (emīrs’ quarter), 145. + + Umm-Duneyn, 34, 35. + + Umm-Khalīl, 201. + + Umm-Kulthūm, 185. + + Ustaddār (major domo). + + ‘Uṭūfīya quarter, 128. + + University [Azhar]. + + V. + + Valle, Pietro della, 232. + + Venice, consuls, 237, 263-265; art, 277, 279, 280. + + Vezīrs’ Palace, 128, 171. + + Vezīrs, Fāṭimid, 147 _ff._ + + W. + + Waḳf (religious trusts), 302-5, 311-313. + + Wālīs [Governors]. + + Walls of Cairo, 118, 123, 125-128, 150. + + Wardān, 36. + + Wards [Ḳaṭāi‘]. + + Watermills, the Seven, 42, 217. + + Watson, Colonel C. M., 223. + + Wekāla (hostelry), 265-267. + + Well in Citadel, 179. + + Wine, 98, 99, 102, 140, 207. + + Women, 4, 11, 18-20, 117, 121, 122, 140, 141, 144, 159, 160, 198, 201, + 202, 212, 215. + + Wood-work, 281-285, 310. + + Y. + + Yānis, Fāṭimid vezīr, 154. + + Yāzūry, el-, Fāṭimid vezīr, 122, 146-148. + + Yelbughā, Mamlūk emīr, 160. + + Yenbu‘, port of Mekka, 263. + + Yeshbek, Mamlūk emīr, palace, 270. + + Yeshkur, hill, 65, 75, 78, 90. + + Yūnus, mosque, 258, 259. + + Z. + + Ẓāfir, eẓ-, Fāṭimid caliph, 158; mosque, 159. + + Ẓāhir, eẓ-, Fāṭimid caliph, 148, 298. + + Ẓāhir, eẓ- [Beybars Barḳūḳ]. + + Zawīla or Zuweyla [Bāb]; quarter, 128, 145, 218. + + Zāwiya (chapel), 189, 259. + + Zemzem, 150. + + Zeyneb, Seyyida, 185, 299. + + Zeyneby, ez-, poet, 99. + + Zeyn-ed-dīn Yaḥya, mosque, 311. + + Zeyn-el-‘Abidīn, 75, 185. + + Ziggurat, 83. + + Zikrs, 25. + + Zodiac, 273. + + Zubeyr, ez-, 36, 185. + + Zuhry, ez-, church, 217. + + Zuḳāḳ, 271. + + Zureyḳ, 87. + + Zuweyla [Bāb]. + + + TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[Footnote 1: See my _Cairo Sketches_ (Virtue, 1897), 120-140.] + +[Footnote 2: See _Cairo Sketches_, 174-5.] + +[Footnote 3: See my _History of Egypt in the Middle Ages_, 4.] + +[Footnote 4: On the very obscure subject of the Mukawkis see Dr A. J. +Butler’s recent paper in the _Proc. Soc. Bibl. Archæology_, 1902, in +which he seeks to identify the Mukawkis with Cyrus, the patriarch of +Alexandria. This identification, however, finds no support from any +Arabic authorities.] + +[Footnote 5: Dr Butler’s suggestion is rather strengthened by Pococke’s +statement that in his time the Kasr-esh-Shema‘ was also known by the +name of “Casr Kieman.” It is not, however, quite certain that this Kasr- +esh-Shema‘ represents the principal part of Babylon. There was another +Roman building on a rocky hill, formerly washed by the Nile, south-east +of the Kasr-esh-Shema‘, which according to several Arabic writers quoted +by Makrízy was the town of Misr or Babylon besieged by ‘Amr, and +contained the fortress known as Kasr Babelyún. Possibly the remains of +this are commemorated in “Antar’s Stable,” of which massive foundations +exist. See Lane, _Cairo Fifty Years Ago_, 146. Traces of walls beside +the bed of the Nile have been noticed south of Masr el-‘Atíka, and it is +probable that here we have vestiges of the vanished pre-Muslim city of +Misr, guarded by its two forts. That Misr was a northern extension of +the old but decayed capital, Memphis, is not so impossible as it seems. +The distance it is true between the present ruins of Memphis and the +fortress of Babylon is over ten miles, but it must be remembered that +Memphis once had a circuit of seventeen miles, and stretched as far as +Giza.] + +[Footnote 6: In later times the Hamra became known as the quarter of the +“Lions’ Bridges” (over the canal), so-called from the lions sculptured +on them, and the quarter of the “Seven Watermills,” referring to the +machines for raising the Nile water to the aqueduct. _Makrízy_, i. 286.] + +[Footnote 7: See Mr E. K. Corbett’s exhaustive and masterly essay on +“the History of the Mosque of ‘Amr at Old Cairo” in _Journal of the +Royal Asiatic Society_, N.S., xxii., 1891.] + +[Footnote 8: Lane, _Cairo Fifty Years Ago_, 142, 143.] + +[Footnote 9: Jeremiah xliii. 13.] + +[Footnote 10: See Dr A. J. Butler’s _Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt_ +(i. 86-9), which for the first time presents a thorough and scholarly +account of these wonderful monuments. Dr Butler’s zeal and research need +no praise of mine to augment their value, but I cannot resist this +opportunity of saying how grateful every one who is interested in the +art of Egypt must be to his admirable and laborious investigations of +every detail of Coptic antiquities. His work is the highest authority we +possess on this fascinating subject, and from it much of this +description is derived.] + +[Footnote 11: The dinár was a gold coin of about the weight of a half- +guinea.] + +[Footnote 12: For the annals of the governors see my _History of Egypt +in the Middle Ages_, 18-58.] + +[Footnote 13: _Korán_, xliv. 50, and vii. 133; _History_, 37, 38.] + +[Footnote 14: See _History_, 60-71; Makrízy, i. 313, 315.] + +[Footnote 15: He is called by Makrízy merely a Nasrány, Christian, but +had he been a Greek he would certainly have been given the epithet Rúmy. +El-Mas‘údy gives a long account of the conversations of an aged and very +intelligent Copt of Upper Egypt, a great favourite with Ibn-Tulún, who +used to spend much time in his company and learned many curious things +from the ancient man.] + +[Footnote 16: See _Art of the Saracens in Egypt_, 54-59. The grilles are +probably of later date.] + +[Footnote 17: The _liwán_ of the mosque of Ibn-Tulún has been +considerably altered since its foundation. The vezír Bedr el-Gemály made +some repairs in 1077, after the injuries inflicted during the troubles +of el-Mustansir’s reign; and his son the vezír el-Afdal built a _mihráb_ +in 1094; but the chief restoration was made in 1296 by the Mamlúk Sultan +Lagín, whose pulpit still stands in the mosque and bears his +inscriptions.] + +[Footnote 18: Makrízy says (_Khitat_, ii. 284) that the minaret of the +small mosque of Akbugha included in the Azhar buildings and erected in +1331 was “the first minaret built of stone in the land of Egypt after +the Mansuríya” of Kalaún; from which we infer that Kalaún’s minaret (of +1284) was the first stone minaret known to the topographer. He would +probably not call the tower of Ibn-Tulún strictly a minaret, and he +evidently knew nothing of the stone minarets of the mosque of el-Hákim +(see below, p. 138).] + +[Footnote 19: There is a small cupola over the niche, but this, like the +pulpit and most of the decoration of the liwán, belongs to the +restoration by Lagín in 1296. The central domed ablution tank is also a +later addition, replacing the original marble basin resting on columns +under a roof.] + +[Footnote 20: There are some remarkable specimens of arabesque +woodcarving from the mosque of Ibn-Tulún in the Cairo Museum of Arab +Art.] + +[Footnote 21: See M. van Berchem, _Notes d’Archéologie Arabe_, Extr. du +Journal Asiatique, 125 (1891).] + +[Footnote 22: Makrízy, i. 318 ff.] + +[Footnote 23: This curious building, of which a drawing is given on p. +177, was built (very probably on an ancient foundation) by Saladin’s +great-nephew es-Sálih about 1245, and was used as a royal palace. Here +the ‘Abbásid caliph Hakim was installed by Beybars. En-Násir rebuilt the +Castle (or Belvedere) of the Ram in 1323, and the emír Sarghitmish lived +there and built the gate and round towers. It was partly destroyed by +el-Ashraf Sha‘ban, and then used for tenements. Makrízy ii. 133.] + +[Footnote 24: Ibn-Sa‘íd, ed. Tallqvist, Arabic text, 14.] + +[Footnote 25: The Ikhshíd had a passion for amber, and people used to +give him quantities of it at the New Year and Spring festivals, and he +would sell it for great sums. After his death his widow’s house was +burnt down, and with it £50,000 worth of amber (Ibn-Sa‘íd).] + +[Footnote 26: Mas‘údy, _Murúg_, ii. 364, 365. He met the historian +Eutychius at Misr, and it was there that he finished the work entitled +_Kitáb et-Tenbíh_ in A.H. 345.] + +[Footnote 27: See my “Arab Classic,” in _Among my Books_, 90.] + +[Footnote 28: See _History_, 88, 89, and Dr Tallqvist’s excellent +edition of part of Ibn-Sa‘id, 78 ff.] + +[Footnote 29: See Makrízy, ii. 177, 114, 115, 163, 185, etc.] + +[Footnote 30: Nasir-i-Khusrau, _Safar Náma_, ed. Schefer, 145 ff.] + +[Footnote 31: See my _Saladin_, 93, and see below, p. 169.] + +[Footnote 32: Ibn-Gubeyr, ed. Wright, 51. I owe this reference to Mr Guy +le Strange.] + +[Footnote 33: Quoted in Makrízy, i. 341.] + +[Footnote 34: As evidence may be cited his complete breach with the +Carmathians, although they were the source of the Fátimid revolution. +Twice they invaded Egypt shortly after the Fátimid conquest, in 971 and +again in 974, and even laid siege to Cairo, and forced their way through +one of the gates. The invincible hostility of Mo‘izz to these Arabian +brigands had doubtless a political basis, but had he held the advanced +views of the Shí‘a propaganda he would hardly have quarrelled with its +grand master.] + +[Footnote 35: See my _History_, 103, 104.] + +[Footnote 36: Abu-Sálih, ed. Evetts, fol. 35.] + +[Footnote 37: There are numerous notices of this intimacy between the +caliphs and the Coptic monks in the work of the Armenian Christian Abu- +Salih, written between 1173 and 1208, and excellently edited, +translated, and annotated by Mr B. T. A. Evetts with the assistance of +Dr A. J. Butler (_The Churches and Monasteries of Egpyt_, Anecdota Oxon, +1895): see especially foll. 7_b_, 34_b_-36, 40_b_, 46_b_, 84_a_.] + +[Footnote 38: Makrízy, i. 377.] + +[Footnote 39: He is clearly referring to the _palace_ wall, for he +distinctly says that the _city_ wall did not then exist. Ed. Schefer, +128.] + +[Footnote 40: _Mémoires de la Mission archéologique française au Caire_, +tomes i. and iii., to which every student of the Fátimid palaces should +refer.] + +[Footnote 41: Zuweyla is the popular pronunciation; the correct form is +Zawíla, the name of a Berber tribe.] + +[Footnote 42: Makrízy, i. 381.] + +[Footnote 43: William of Tyre, _Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis +gestarum_, lib. xix., cap. 19, 20, epitomized in my _Saladin_, 86-88. +The embassy is not recorded by the Arabic chroniclers.] + +[Footnote 44: _Safar Náma_, ed. Schefer, 126. Broad-bottomed tubs we +should call these ships.] + +[Footnote 45: For details of Fátimid art and industries, see my _Art of +the Saracens_, 10, 163, 201, 241, etc.] + +[Footnote 46: Makrízy, ii. 318.] + +[Footnote 47: See M. van Berchem, _Notes d’Archéologie arabe_ (1891), +27-36.] + +[Footnote 48: El-Hákim also built the “Oratory of the Feast” +(Musalla-l-‘Id) beside the Bab-en-Nasr, a mosque at Maks beside the +Nile, and another in the district called Ráshida to the south of Katái‘, +near Mukattam. See _History_, 126.] + +[Footnote 49: It was even believed that the ‘Abbásid caliph would be +sent a prisoner to Cairo, and his Fátimid rival had a gilt cage +constructed for him, and spent a couple of million dinárs in preparing +the West Palace for his expected guest. The ‘Abbásid throne and royal +robes and turban were actually deposited in Cairo, and remained there +till the time of Saladin, who restored the robes, but the throne was +kept, and afterwards set up in the mosque of Beybars the Gashnekír. See +_History_, 139.] + +[Footnote 50: Násir-el-Khusrau states that the city was then divided +into ten quarters, namely, the Hárat Bargawán, H. Zuweyla, H. el- +Gawdaríya (certain troops originally from Barbary), H. el-Umara (of the +emírs), H. ed-Deylima (Persians), H. er-Rum (Greeks), H. el-Batilíya +(originally some of Gawhar’s veterans), Kasr-esh-Shawk (a subsidiary +palace), ‘Abid-esh-Shera (bought slaves), H. el-Masámida (Masmúda +Berbers). He mentions only five gates: the Bab en-Nasr, B. el-Futúh, B. +el-Kantara, B. Zuweyla, and B. el-Khalíg.] + +[Footnote 51: Makrízy gives an inventory of the caliph’s _objets de +virtù_ far too long to quote. It includes (apart from immense stores of +precious stones, plate, crystal and gold vases, rich brocades and cloth +of gold, and all kinds of pottery), cups of bezoar engraved with the +name of Harún er-Rashíd, enamelled plates, the gift of a Roman emperor +to ‘Azíz; the sword of the Prophet, the breastplate of the martyr +Hoseyn, the sword of Mo‘izz, and quantities of jewelled daggers, +javelins, and other arms; inlaid gold dishes, inkstands, etc.; chess +boards worked in gold on silk, with gold and silver, ivory and ebony +pieces; steel mirrors, amber cups, a table of sardonyx, a peacock of +gold with eyes of ruby and feathers of enamel, an antelope spotted with +pearls, and a turban, the jewels of which weighed 17 lbs.; thirty-eight +state-barges, one of silver; the caliph Záhir’s tent of gold thread +resting on silver poles, and the marquee of Yazúry, a mass of exquisite +designs which took fifty artists nine years to complete, the pole of +which was 120 feet high, and the circumference of the tent nearly 1000 +feet.] + +[Footnote 52: The verse of course refers to the battle of Bedr in the +early career of Mohammad.] + +[Footnote 53: Abu-Sálih, f. 51_a_, Makrízy, i. 381. See the admirable +_Notes_ of M. van Berchem (1891), 37-72, for an architectural +examination of the walls and gates.] + +[Footnote 54: Published by Mr H. C. Kay, _Journal R. Asiatic Soc._, +N.S., xviii., from a squeeze which he and I caused to be taken with some +difficulty when we were at Cairo in 1883.] + +[Footnote 55: The scene is described by the Arab prince Osáma, who was +at Cairo at the time, and was a friend of ‘Abbás, the murderer both of +the vezír and of the caliph. See Derenbourg, _Vie d’Ousama_, 205-260.] + +[Footnote 56: This palace, founded by an earlier vezír, was turned into +a college by Saladin. It stood near the present mosque of el-Ashraf in +the Ghuríya street.] + +[Footnote 57: The mosque of ez-Záfir, founded by that caliph in 1129, +still exists at the corner of the Sukkaríya, and is known as the Gámi‘ +el-Fakihiyín (or el-Fakahány), but it was entirely rebuilt in 1735.] + +[Footnote 58: Herz Bey, _Catalogue of the National Museum of Arab Art_, +edited by S. Lane-Poole, xxiv.] + +[Footnote 59: _Ibn-Gubeyr_, ed. Wright, 46, 47. This and the following +extracts from the travels of the Spanish Arab are translated by Mr Guy +le Strange.] + +[Footnote 60: _Saladin_, 358-360.] + +[Footnote 61: See M. van Berchem, _Notes_ (1891), 55, 68-70.] + +[Footnote 62: Ibn-Gubeyr, ed. Wright, 49. See Makrízy, ii. 151, on the +“Kanatír el-Giza.”] + +[Footnote 63: Ibn-Gubeyr, ed. Wright, 41, 42.] + +[Footnote 64: Ibn-Gubeyr, ed. Wright, 44, 45. This intelligent traveller +to whom we owe so many interesting details of Saladin’s period, gives a +curious description of the great Karáfa cemetery to the south of Cairo, +which is one of the few places that carry one back to the days of the +Arab conquest. Here lie the bones of most of the early warriors and +poets and divines of the Town of the Tent, though nothing but tradition +identifies their graves now. In Ibn-Gubeyr’s time the identification was +evidently doubtful, for he declines to be responsible for what he has +taken from the histories, though he adds, piously, that “their +authenticity is above suspicion, if it please God.” Passing by such +legendary tombs as those of the Prophet Sálih, and Reuben son of Jacob, +and Pharaoh’s wife Asiya, we find descriptions of fourteen tombs of the +male descendants of ‘Aly and five women, each in its own beautiful +chapel with its keeper and endowment. Among them were Zeyn-el-‘Abidín, +the son of the martyr Hoseyn, Zeyneb his great-granddaughter, and Umm- +Kulthúm, the daughter of the sixth Imám Ga‘far es-Sádik. There were also +the tombs of ‘Okba, the standard-bearer of the Prophet, of Abu-l-Hasan +his goldsmith, of Sáriya of the Hill (who is also commemorated by a +mosque in the Citadel, though there is nothing to connect him with +Egypt), of two sons and a daughter of the caliph Abu-Bekr, of the son of +ez-Zubeyr the general under ‘Amr, of Ibn-‘Abd-al-Hakam, of el-Gawhary; +besides such notabilities as the Man of the Water-Pot, famous for +wonders, the man who quoted the Korán when he was laid in his grave, the +man who never spoke for forty years, and the bride to whom a miracle was +vouchsafed when she unveiled to her husband. There was the Place of the +Martyrs, where are buried the warriors who fell fighting for Islám under +Sáriya, and the plain was dotted all over with the mounds of their +graves. “All the buildings of the Karáfa, whether mosques or chapels, +give hospitable shelter to all learned and pious strangers, as well as +to mendicants, each building being provided with a grant of money, paid +monthly on behalf of the Sultan, and the same in the case with the +colleges both of Misr and Cairo. It was told us that the sum of those +grants exceeded 2000 Egyptian dinárs a month, which is equal to 4000 +Morocco dinárs; and as to the great mosque of ‘Amr at Misr we were +informed that its revenues amounted to about thirty Egyptian dinárs a +day for its upkeep and the salaries of the guardians, precentors, and +Korán readers.”—_Ibid._ 42-6.] + +[Footnote 65: Makrízy describes only nineteen _mesgids_ (apart from +those in the Karáfa cemetery), as compared with eighty-seven _gámi‘s_; +and all the nineteen seem to have been unimportant. They were chiefly of +Fátimid or Ayyúbid foundation, and situate outside the Zuweyla, Nasr, +Kantara, and Sa‘áda Gates, or in the garden of Kafúr, though three were +in or near Beyn-el-Kasreyn. None of them is standing now. Makrízy +enumerates twenty-five _Záwiyas_, all but one being Mamlúk foundations, +of which seven were outside the Bab-en-Nasr or B. el-Futúh, four outside +other gates, five at or near Maks. In short, mesgid would appear to be +applied in the Topographer’s time chiefly to the earlier suburban +chapels, and záwiya to outlying chapels of the Mamlúk period.] + +[Footnote 66: _Saladin_, 20.] + +[Footnote 67: The only coin known of Sheger-ed-durr is in the British +Museum (see my _Catalogue of Oriental Coins_, iv. p. 136). Her surname +was ‘Asmat-ed-din, “Defender of the Faith,” and her title Sultán. +“Sultana” is not an Arabic title.] + +[Footnote 68: The extinction of the Crusaders was completed by the +conquest of Margat and Tripolis by Kalaún, and the storming of ‘Akka by +Khalíl in 1292: the few remaining cities fell immediately, and the work +of the Crusaders was wiped out.] + +[Footnote 69: The tombs of two of the ‘Abbásid caliphs of Egypt and some +of their relations were discovered by E. T. Rogers Bey in 1883, close to +the mosque of Sitta Nefísa at the southern side of Cairo.] + +[Footnote 70: Ibn-Batúta, ed. Defremery, i. 71-4.] + +[Footnote 71: See plan, p. 190. Compare the elaborate work of Herz Bey, +_La Mosquée du Sultan Hasan_, full of admirable photographs, drawings, +reconstructions, and plans.] + +[Footnote 72: _History of Egypt in the Middle Ages_, 344.] + +[Footnote 73: Marble was not commonly used before the thirteenth +century, when it began to be veneered on portals. It is best seen in +tessellated pavements and mural mosaics. The latter, composed of pieces +of various coloured marbles, were either set in mortar or let into a +solid marble slab.] + +[Footnote 74: When I was in Cairo in 1883 I made paper squeezes +(strengthened by layers of plaster of Paris mixed with glue) of the +whole of the ornament of this wekála, and plaster casts made from these +squeezes may now be examined in one of the galleries of the Museum at +South Kensington.] + +[Footnote 75: See M. van Berchem, _Corpus Inscr. Arabic._, 533 ff., for +an exhaustive discussion of the development of the _plan cruciforme +déformé_.] + +[Footnote 76: Makrízy, ii. 130, 131.] + +[Footnote 77: _Cairo Fifty Years Ago_, 34, 35.] + +[Footnote 78: D. A. Cameron, _Egypt in the Nineteenth Century_, 14, 15.] + +[Footnote 79: Makrízy, ii. 91 _ff._] + +[Footnote 80: _Khitat_, ii. 105.] + +[Footnote 81: See Herz Bey, _Catalogue of the Arab Museum_, 47, 48, a +little handbook which is invaluable to students of Saracenic art.] + +[Footnote 82: See my _Art of the Saracens_, 111-150, for detailed +descriptions of these exquisite carvings.] + +[Footnote 83: By “deputy” is meant the Ketkhuda, commonly pronounced +Kiahya, or in Egypt Kikhya, who was the deputy of the pasha, and often +corresponded loosely with what we should call Minister of the Interior +or Home Secretary.] + +[Footnote 84: Gabarty, ii. 124-143.] + +[Footnote 85: Pulled down in 1869. It was built by the famous emír Ezbek +ibn Tutush, from whom the Ezbekíya took its name.] + +[Footnote 86: M. van Berchem describes some curious sun-dials in his +_Notes d’Archéologie arabe_ (1892), 13-18. One was set up in the mosque +of Ibn-Tulún in 696 (1296) by Lagín; another may still be seen in the +mosque of Kusún, and is dated 785 (1383); a third exists in the tomb- +mosque of Inál, and bears the date 871 (1466).] + +[Footnote 87: [This has been done in the case of Sultan Hasan in the +sumptuous work, _La Mosquée du Sultan Hassan au Caire_, par Max Herz +Bey, published by the Commission, 1899.]] + +[Footnote 88: All these are now completed.] + +[Footnote 89: Monuments still standing, or of which parts still remain, +are distinguished by an asterisk. An obelus † indicates a restoration on +the same site. b stands for ibn (son). Tables for converting Hijra dates +into A.D. are given at the end.] + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78916 *** |