mosque), a large palace complex, and a street that
bisected the city lengthwise from the southwest
to the northeast. The city soon developed its
own commercial district to serve the needs of its
residents, and increased prosperity caused it to
grow beyond the limits of the original walled city.
Additional mosques and public areas were built,
and special attention was given to establishing
shrines for ahl al-bayt, descendants of Muham-
mad. The most famous of these shrines are those
of hUsayn ibn ali (located within Cairo’s walls),
and the tombs of the women saints Ruqayya and
Nafisa (located in the open area south of Cairo
and east of Fustat). The two cities, Fustat and
Cairo, thus became symbiotically connected, but
distinct urban centers.
During the 11th century, famines and fires
contributed to a decline in Fustat’s population,
while Cairo grew and became more prosperous.
Common people were allowed to live there start-
ing in 1073, and its population began to occupy
new residential areas just outside the city gates.
Under the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty (r. 1173–
1250), it entered a new phase in its history. In
terms of religion, the Ayyubid conqueror saladin
(r. 1174–1193) and his heirs put an end to the
Fatimid Shii missionary activities that had not
been very successful in Egypt, and they promoted
Sunni Islam instead. They sponsored a building
program that involved erecting 25 madrasas to
propagate Sunni religious learning, especially
jurisprudence (fiqh), in addition to a number of
congregational mosques and Sufi hospices. They
also built a mausoleum for Imam al-shaFii (d.
820), the founder of one of the four Sunni legal
schools, and an adjacent madrasa. To enhance
Cairo’s defenses and to reinforce their control of
the city, the Ayyubids built a massive citadel on a
rocky spur overlooking Cairo and Fustat on the
east side, and they built a single defensive wall
that enclosed both cities and the citadel. During
the Mamluk era (1250–1517), this large urban
conglomeration grew in size, with more markets
and residential areas, palaces, mosques, hospices,
and hospitals. This was also when Cairo became
the most important center for Islamic learning in
the world, especially after the Mongol invasions
destroyed many of the cities of Persia and iraq
in the 13th century. The city played host to many
scholars and mystics from the East as well as from
North Africa and Andalusia, despite the political
turmoil it endured at the hands of the Mamluk
rulers at this time.
After the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt
in the early 16th century, Cairo functioned as its
administrative capital for the region, and it con-
tinued to be a major intellectual and commercial
center. Its population actually grew from less than
200,000 to about 263,000 during this time. As
they had done in previous eras, the Ulama served
as intermediaries between commoners and the
ruling elites, who were foreigners. Al-Azhar domi-
nated religious life as the main congregational
mosque and madrasa in Egypt, and it even rivaled
the religious institutions of Istanbul, the Ottoman
capital.
Cairo was briefly occupied by Napoleon’s
French expeditionary force from 1798 to 1801.
The French scholars who accompanied the army
produced a detailed account of Egypt at the time,
the massive 23-volume Description de l’Égypte,
which included important information about
Cairo and its institutions. The construction of
modern Cairo, however, did not begin until later
in the 19th century, when Egypt was ruled by
the Turko-Albanian dynasty of Muhammad Ali
(1805–1952). Bolstered by increased revenues
from the Suez Canal and cotton exports, Khe-
dive Ismail (r. 1863–1879) laid the foundations
for a new planned city on vacant land between
the old caliphal city of Cairo and the east bank
of the Nile River. He had been inspired by the
geometric pattern of streets and boulevards he
discovered during his travels in Europe, especially
by those conceived by the French planner Baron
Haussmann (d. 1891). This newly developed area
soon became the political, economic, and cultural
heart of the city, graced by parks and European-Cairo 123 J