Cairo, Egypt

Long History

Over the millennia, Cairo's urban development followed a vague layering or mosaic pattern, where new additions were constructed not at the expense of existing quarters but adjacent to them. This pattern still underlies much of Cairo's city-scape, which is a mosaic of elements from different historical eras displaying vastly varying styles and spatial conceptualizations that produced a multitude of spatial forms and social and cultural practices.

On the Nile, where Giza and Misr Al-Qadimah are today, there has been, for millennia, a river crossing point. A small settlement developed by this small port on the east bank. Under Roman occupation, this settlement (“Babylon”) was fortified. With the rise of Christianity in Egypt, Babylon was slowly surrounded by churches and developed into today's Misr Al-Qadimah (Old/Coptic Cairo). Some of its old churches still exist. Cairo's oldest synagogue, built in AD 882 (site of the Cairo Geniza), is located on the eastern edge of this quarter. When the Muslim forces under Amr Ibn Al-Aas [Page 98]conquered and settled in Egypt in AD 641, they built their first mosque (the first in Africa), the Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque, immediately north of Misr Al-Qadimah. Muslim troops then built the city of Fustat as an expansion to the existing town. Fustat became the capital of the province of Egypt. Arab rulers and dynasties that followed continued the city's northward expansion. The Tulinids under Ahmad Ibn Tulun built the splendid Ibn Tulun Mosque (AD 879), which once more moved the town center north. In AD 969, the Fatimid rulers started building the walled city of Al-Qahirah north of the existing city. The Fatimid mosque and university of Al-Azhar (AD 972) came to be the oldest university in the world and remains a central institution of Muslim learning. The Ayyubids under Salah al-Din added the citadel above the city (AD 1182) to the east and further fortified the city. Under the Fatimids, Ayyubids, and the Mamluks (1250–1517), Cairo was a vibrant merchant city and the site of magnificent palaces, mosques, and large trading yards. In the fourteenth century Cairo had around 500,000 residents and was one of the largest cities in the world, larger than its European contemporaries.

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