the 10th century, it had developed into a thriv-
ing commercial center linking the Mediterranean
region and sub-Saharan Africa with the Red Sea
and Indian Ocean trade networks. It took several
centuries for Fustat to reach its peak as an urban
center, but once it did, visitors compared it to
legendary Baghdad because of its large markets,
parks, and beautiful gardens. Al-Muqaddasi, a
10th-century geographer, called Fustat “the glory
of Islam and the commercial center of the uni-
verse” (Raymond, 30). Among the products it
was known for were textiles, refined sugar, paper,
glass, and ceramics. Its population, estimated to
be 175,000, was large for cities of that time. The
rich tended to live alongside the poor, and some of
the people were housed in large multistory apart-
ment buildings that could hold 350 residents.
In addition to a growing population of Muslims,
Fustat also had Christian and Jewish inhabitants.
An area now known as Old Cairo had several
antique churches, one of which was believed to
stand on the spot where the infant Jesus and his
family had stayed when they fled Palestine during
the reign of Herod the Great (r. 37–34 b.c.e.). The
Ben Ezra synagogue was one place of worship for
Jews in Fustat, and it became famous late in the
19th century because of the large cache of papers,
known as the Geniza documents, that were dis-
covered there. These documents shed light on the
social and economic life of the medieval city and
on relations between Jews, Christians, and Mus-
lims. Fustat’s cemetery was situated to the east
of the city, and it later became the site of many
of Cairo’s major funerary monuments, as well as
an important center of social life, as families went
there to remember the dead, worship at the tombs
of saints, and give charity to the poor.
The story of Cairo, however, is really a tale of
two cities—one for the common people and one
for the rulers. As Fustat grew, officials moved the
center of government outside the populated quar-
ters to vacant hills just beyond the northeast edge
of the city. The first of these governmental cities
was call al-Askar (“cantonment”), built in 751,
which was replaced by another called al-Qatai
(“wards”) in 869. In 969, a Shii dynasty known
as the Fatimids (r. 909–1171) arrived from North
Africa and founded a new governmental city
that replaced al-Qatai. They named it al-Qahira
(“conqueror”), from which comes the English
name Cairo, and they wanted it to serve as the
new capital for their caliphate, which rivaled that
of the Abbasids in Baghdad. The original Cairo
was built about three miles northeast of Fustat;
it was rectangular in shape, enclosed by a strong
defensive wall, and oriented toward Mecca. Inside
lived the Fatimid caliph, his household, officials,
and the army. The most prominent architectural
features were al-Azhar (the rulers’ congregationalMedieval Cairo (Source: unknown)K 122 Cairo