Part 67

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Farther on this line of streets is called Shâria et-Tabbâneh. On the right rises the *=Mosque el-Merdani= (Pl. E, 5), one of the largest in Cairo. It was built by the cup-bearer of sultan Mohammed en-Nâsir (p. 448) in 1338–40 and after having almost fallen to ruin was recently restored. The sanctuary is still separated from the court by its old _maksûra_, or wooden screen. The prayer-recess and its sides are lavishly enriched with costly mosaics. The dome in front of the prayer-niche, partly restored with cement, rests on ancient Egyptian granite columns.

b. The South-Eastern Quarters.

Starting from the Place Atabet el-Khadra (p. 446) the featureless SHÂRIA MOHAMMED ALI (Pl. C-E, 3–6), 1860 yds. long, leads to the Citadel (tramway No. 6, p. 440). After 8 min. it crosses the former town-conduit _El-Khalîg_ (p. 446). On the left is the PLACE BÂB EL-KHALK, with the _Gouvernorat_ (government-house; Pl. D, 4; containing the _Police Office_, p. 442), and the superb new buildings of the _Arab Museum_ and the _Khedivial Library_ (1902).

The *=Arab Museum=, founded by _Franz Pasha_, a learned German architect, on the groundfloor of the building, contains a large and valuable collection of objects of art, mostly from old mosques and houses in Cairo. Adm., see p. 442; entrance on the E. side. Director, M. Herz Bey.

In the Vestibule is shown a chronological list of the Mohammedan dynasties of Egypt.—Room I. Tombstones.—Room II. Sculptures in stone.—Room III. Stone sculptures, casts, mosaics.

Rooms IV-VIII. Wood-carving, including pulpits (mimbar), reading-desks for the Koran and tables (kursi), movable prayer-niches and Koran-boxes from mosques, mashrebîyehs (p. 445).

Rooms IX & X. Metal-work. Fine bronze doors from the mosque of Sâlih Telâyeh (p. 450) and elsewhere; a Koran-case with brass cover and silver enrichment, candlesticks, lustres in metal, bronze candelabra (tannûr).—Rooms XI & XII. Fayence, including tiles of European make, a favourite wall-decoration in Arabian houses of the 18–19th centuries.

Room XIII. Wall-incrustations in stucco; Arabian room from Rosetta.—Room XIV. Specimens of textiles; two Koran-cases covered with leather from the Hasan mosque (p. 452).—Rooms XV & XVI. Enamelled *Mosque Lamps, the richest collection of the kind, mostly from the Hasan mosque.

The first floor of the building contains the =Khedivial Library= (_Kutubkhâneh_, entered from the Shâria Mohammed Ali), founded in 1870 and arranged by German savants. It consists of 68,000 vols. (about 32,000 being Oriental), including 2700 Korans. The illuminated Persian MSS. are extremely valuable. The Exhibition Room (adm., see p. 442) contains also a fine collection of the coins of the Moslem rulers of Egypt.

We now follow, to the S.W., the long SHÂRIA KHALÎG EL-MASRI (Pl. D, C, 4–6; tramways Nos. 2 & 9, p. 440) to a small square with the _Gâmia es-Seiyideh Zeinab_ (Pl. C, 6, 7), and then turn to the S.E. into the SHÂRIA EL-MARÂSÎN (Pl. C, 7), near the end of which the Derb Tanaïfa leads to the right to the—

*=Medreseh Kâït Bey= (Pl. C, 7), in the _Kalat el-Kabsh_ quarter of the city. Built in 1475, shortly after the sultan’s burial-mosque (p. 458), and recently restored by Herz Bey, it offers a good example of the architecture of the second Mameluke dynasty (see p. 445). The minaret is one of the most tasteful in Cairo. In the richly decorated interior we specially note the fine ornaments on the arches of the court-façades, the stalactites of the window-niches, the mosaic pavement, and the pulpit. The dome is modern.

The Shâria er-Rahaba and the winding Shâria Kalat el-Kabsh lead to the E. in a few minutes to the picturesque Shâria ez-Ziyadeh (Pl. D, 7), on the S.W. side of the—

*=Gâmia Ibn Tulûn= (Pl. D, 7), the oldest in Cairo next to the Amru mosque (p. 460). It stands near the N. border of what was once the Katâi quarter, on the rocky _Gebel Yeshkûr_ (33 ft.). It was erected by Ahmed ibn Tulûn (p. 443) on Mesopotamian models in 876–9, immediately after the last extension of the Kairwan mosque (p. 374), and was the largest of that period in all the lands of Islam. The total area of its precincts is 30,720 sq. yds., while the mosque itself, without the courts, forms a huge square of 150 by 132 yds. The external façades, which are almost undecorated, are relieved by pointed windows and niches and with shell-shaped half-domes and are crowned with pinnacles. We first pass through the E. forecourt to the sanctuary.

The chief quadrangle, about 99 yds. square, is enclosed by double arcades on three sides, while the sanctuary has four arcades (originally five, the fifth having collapsed in 1875). The façades of the court are relieved by pointed windows and rosettes in the spandrels above the brick pillars; still higher runs a frieze of rosettes, and the whole is crowned with pinnacles. In the interior the ornamentation framing the arcades and the foliage frieze on the wall-spaces are carved in stucco, exhibiting as yet none of the intricate forms of the Byzantine-Arabian style. The old prayer-recess with its fine Byzantine capitals and fragments of Byzantine glass-mosaics is noteworthy. The dikkeh (p. 448) also dates from the earliest period. Above the dikkeh are remains of the original timber ceiling.

A prayer-recess in the fourth series of arcades dates from 1094. The pulpit, now bereft of its sumptuous incrustation, the wooden dome in front of the mihrâb, the plaster windows in the mihrâb wall, and also the dome in the court are all additions by the Mameluke sultan Melek el-Mansûr Lagîn (1296–1308).

The peculiar minaret in the great quadrangle, of which the square basement only was originally built of stone, offers a splendid *VIEW of the vast city. We look down the Nile, to the N., to the Delta, and to the W. and S.W. we see the Pyramids.

The small _Medreseh Serghatmash_ (Pl. D, 7) in Shâria el-Khedeiri, on the N. side of Ibn Tulûn’s mosque, built by a mameluke of sultan Hasan in the style of Hasan’s mosque (see below) in 1357, is interesting on account of its original unaltered dome.

We now turn to the E., past the effective marble _Sebîl of the Mother of Abbâs I._ (1849–54), and through the Shâria es-Salîbeh (Pl. D, 6) and the Shâria Shekhûn (Pl. D, E, 6), to the PLACE RUMEILEH (Pl. E, 6; tramway No. 6, p. 440), the starting-place of the Mecca caravans.

To the N. of this square, and at the end of the Shâria Mohammed Ali (p. 450), rise the modern _Gâmia Rifaîyeh_ (Pl. E, 6), of the reign of the khedive Ismaîl (p. 444), and the famous—

**=Gâmia Sultân Hasan= (Pl. E, 6), the grandest medreseh in Egypt, erected for the Mameluke Hasan en-Nâsir (1347–61) probably by a Syrian architect. It rises on a shelving rock opposite the Citadel (p. 453). The cruciform medreseh has been skilfully adapted to the precincts, an irregular pentagon, about 9470 sq. yds. in area.

The chief *Portal, 85 ft. high, whose side-pillars were originally to have borne two minarets, recall the Seljuk buildings of Konia. The façades terminate in a projecting stalactite cornice, crowned with modern pinnacles, and the walls are relieved by blind niches with round-arched windows in pairs. Over the detached mausoleum, which projects from the S.E. façade, rises a dome 181 ft. high, restored in 1616 in the Arabian-Turkish style, but said to have been originally egg-shaped. The minaret of 267 ft., at the S. angle of the medreseh, is the loftiest in Cairo, and after that of the Kutubia at Marakesh the highest in N. Africa.

INTERIOR (undergoing restoration). The old court of ablutions on the N.W. side of the building is again in use. The chief portal of the medreseh leads into a vestibule with a stalactite dome. We then pass through a second vestibule and a corridor to the main quadrangle, 38½ by 35 yds., containing the ruinous _meidâ_, or basin for ablutions, and a Turkish fountain (_hanefîyeh_), both disused. The four lîwâns, with their massive barrel-vaulting, are entered from the court by lofty marble portals, and are in this exceptional case all used as halls of prayer. The four small medresehs in the angles of the outer precincts, each with its court and lîwân, served as lecture-rooms and dwellings.

The sanctuary, 76 ft. in height, is adorned with a *Frieze bearing an inscription in Cufic (or old Arabic) characters, carved in stucco on a beautiful groundwork of arabesques. The wall of the mihrâb is richly decorated with marble. Of the once sumptuous furnishings the mimbar (pulpit), the dikkeh (reading-stand), and the wire-chains of the countless lamps (see p. 451) and candelabra are now the sole relics.

To the right of the pulpit a bronze door, inlaid with gold and silver, leads into the sultan’s *Mausoleum, a domed chamber of 23 yds. square, 92 ft. in height. The only remains of the original dome are the wooden spandrels of the stalactites. The inscriptions on the wooden frieze are in the round characters (naskhi) used since the time of Saladin.

The =Citadel= (Pl. E, F, 6; ‘El-Kala’), commanding the city but itself overtopped by the Mokattam hills (p. 454), was built by Saladin after 1166, in connection with the third town-wall (p. 444), on the model of the Crusaders’ castles in Syria. The only remains of that building are the E. outer wall and several towers in the interior. The palaces of the Aiyubides (1171–1250), already half in ruins when Selim I. entered the city (1517), have entirely disappeared. The first restoration of the fortress dates from the reign of El-Ghûri (1501–16).

The direct way to the Citadel from the Place Rumeileh is by a street beyond the huge gate-tower _Bâb el-Azab_ (Pl. E, 6), where the Mameluke leaders were shot by order of Mohammed Ali (p. 444) in 1811. The chief approaches, ascending from the broad Shâria el-Maghar (Pl. E, 6), are the Shâria Bâb el-Gedîd and the Shâria ed-Defterkhâneh. The latter, for foot-passengers only, passes the S. side of the _Defterkhâneh_ (Pl. F, 6; state-archives). The _Bâb el-Gedid_ (Pl. F, 6; ‘new gate’) leads into the outer court of the Citadel. We then pass through the _Bâb el-Wastâni_ (‘middle gate’) into the main court, where the ‘alabaster mosque’ faces us and the mosque of Nâsir rises on the left.

The =Gâmia en-Nâsir= (Pl. F, 6), built by En-Nâsir (p. 448) in 1317, later used as a military storehouse and a prison, has now been cleared out, but may be seen by leave of the British military authorities. The fortress-like façade, and the portals in particular, show traces of Romanesque influence. The peculiar minarets, with their bulbous domes, are adorned with coloured fayence in the Persian style. The finest columns in the court are Byzantine; others are antique. The sadly disfigured lîwâns still retain their old coloured fretwork ceiling. The dome in front of the prayer-niche, which has collapsed with the exception of its drum, rests on ancient Egyptian granite columns, as in the mosque of Merdani (p. 450).

The =Gâmia Mohammed Ali= (Pl. E, F, 6), known as the ‘alabaster mosque’ from the building-material chiefly used, was begun by Mohammed Ali in 1824 but completed only in 1857 by his successor Saîd. The architect was the Greek _Yûsuf Boshna_ of Constantinople, who built it on the model of the Nuri Osmanieh mosque (p. 550) with a staff of Greek workmen. The tall and unduly slender minarets form one of the chief landmarks of Cairo. The forecourt, with its hanefîyeh (fountain with taps), is flanked with arcades. The *Sanctuary, a domed Byzantine hall, borne by four square pillars, is grandly proportioned and beautifully lighted. To the left of the entrance is Mohammed Ali’s tomb (d. 1849).

From the S.W. wall of the Citadel, opposite the _Viceregal Palace_, we enjoy, especially towards evening, a magnificent *View of the city with its countless minarets and domes. To the N. and W. are the windmill-hills and the green plains watered by the Nile. To the W. rise the Pyramids of Gîzeh.

The view is far grander from the **=Mokattam Hills=, or _Gebel Giyûshi_, a fine standpoint being the conspicuous _Gâmia Giyûshi_, a Fatimite mosque (1085), reached in ½ hr. from the Bâb el-Gebel (Pl. F, 6), the ‘hill-gate’ of the citadel. A side-path to the right leads to the _Convent of the Bektashi_ (Turkish dervishes), picturesquely situated on the bare hill-side.

From the _Bâb el-Attaba_ (Bâb el-Atabeg; Pl. F, 5), the N. gate of the Citadel, we proceed past the cemetery _Karâfet Bâb el-Wezîr_ (Pl. F, 5) to the Mameluke tombs (comp. p. 458).

c. The New Town.