CAIRO, the capital of modern Egypt and the most populous city in Africa, on the Nile,
S. of the apex of the Delta, in 3o° 3' N. and 31° 21' E. It is 130m. S.E. of Alexandria, and 148m. W. of Suez by rail, though only 84m. from the last-named port by the overland route across the desert, in use before the opening of the Suez canal. Cairo occupies a length of 5m. on the east bank of the Nile, stretching north from the old Roman fortress of Babylon, and covers about 8 sq.m. It is built partly on the alluvial plain of the Nile valley and partly on the rocky slopes of the Mokattam hills, which rise 55oft. above the town.
The citadel, on a spur of the Mokattam hills, occupies the south-east angle of the city; the prospect from the ramparts is strikingly picturesque. Below lies the city with its ancient walls and lofty towers, its gardens and squares, its palaces and its mosques, with their delicately-carved domes and minarets covered with fantastic tracery, the broad river studded with islands, the valley of the Nile dotted with groups of trees, with the pyramids on the south horizon, and on the east the barren cliffs, backed by a waste of sand. The newer quarters of Cairo, situated near the river, are laid out in the fashion of French cities, but mediaeval Cairo can still be seen in scores of narrow, tortuous streets and busy bazaars in the eastern parts of the town.
From the cita del a straight road runs north to the Ezbekia gardens, which form the central point of the foreign colony. About half a mile north of the gardens is the Central railway station, approached by a broad road. The Arab city and the quarters of the Copts and Jews lie east of the two streets named. West of them lies the
port or riverside district, with the arsenal, foundry and railway
works, a paper manufactory and
the Government printing press,
founded by Mohammed Ali. A
little distance south-east of the
Ezbekia is the Place Atabeh, the
chief point of intersection of
the electric tramways. From the
Place Atabeh a narrow street, the
Muski, with its continuation, the
rue Neuve, leads east into the
heart of the Arab city. Another
street leads south-west to the
Nile, at the point where the
en-Nil or Great Nile bridge spans
the river, leading to Gezira, a
large island with Ismail's
ace, now turned into a hotel, polo,
cricket and tennis grounds and
a racecourse. Yet another street,
running due south, leads to the
Abdin square; and in the far
south, opposite old Cairo, across
a narrow arm of the river, lies
Roda island, where a progressive
housing policy has been carried
out by the municipality.
The Government offices and other modern public buildings, as well as the European residential quarters, are nearly all in the western half of the city. On the south side of the Ezbekia are the post office, the courts of the Mixed Tribunals, and the opera house. On the east side are the bourse and the Credit Lyonnais, on the north the buildings of the American Mission. On or near the west side of the gardens are most of the larger European hotels. Facing the river immediately north of the Great Nile bridge are the large barracks, called Kasr-en-Nil, and the fine Egyptian museum. South of the bridge are the Ismailia palace (a royal residence), the British residency, and other buildings. Farther removed from the river are the offices of the ministries of public works and of war—a large building surrounded by gardens—and of justice and finance. On the east side of Abdin square is Abdin palace, an unpretentious building used for official receptions. Adjoining the palace are barracks. North-east of Abdin square, in the Sharia Mehemet Ali, is the Arab museum and khedivial library. In Shari Dawarrin are the new Houses of Parliament.
The eastern half of Cairo is divided into many quarters. These quarters were formerly closed at night by massive gates, of which a few remain. In addition to the Moham medan quarters, usually called after the trade of the inhabitants or some notable building, there are the Copt or Christian quarter, the Jews' quarter, and the old "Frank" quarter in the Muski dis trict where, since the days of Saladin, "Frank" merchants have been permitted to live and trade. Some of the principal Euro pean shops are still to be found in this street. The Copt and Jew ish quarters lie north of the Muski. The modern Coptic cathe dral, dedicated to St. Mark, is in the basilica style. The oldest Coptic church in Cairo is, probably, the Keniset-el-Adra, or church of the Virgin, which is stated to preserve the original type of Coptic basilica. In the Copt quarter are also Armenian, Syrian, Maronite, Greek and Roman Catholic churches. In the Arab city the streets as a rule are winding and narrow; but fine sebils or public fountains abound, and the houses of the wealthier citizens are picturesque and ample. They are built generally round an open courtyard, in a style of elaborate arabesque, the windows shaded with projecting cornices of graceful woodwork (mushre biya) and ornamented with stained glass. The principal apart ment is often paved with marble ; in the centre a decorated lantern is suspended over a fountain, while round the sides are richly in laid cabinets and windows of stained glass ; and in a recess is the divan, a low, narrow, cushioned seat. The lower storey is generally built of the soft calcareous stone of the neighbouring hills, and the upper storey, which contains the harem, of painted brick. The shops of the merchants are small and open to the street. The greater part of the trade is done, however, in the bazaars or markets, which are held in large khans or storehouses, of two storeys and of considerable size. Access to them is gained from the narrow lanes which usually surround them. The khans often possess fine gateways. The principal bazaar, the Khan-el-Khalil, marks the site of the tombs of the Fatimite caliphs.
Besides the citadel, the prin cipal edifices in the Arab quarters are the mosques and the ancient gates. The citadel or El-Kala was built by Saladin about I177, and now contains a palace and a mosque of Oriental alabaster erected by Mohammed Ali. The dome and the two slender minarets of this mosque are among the most picturesque features of Cairo. In the centre is a well called Joseph's Well, sunk in the solid rock to the level of the Nile. There are four other mosques within the citadel walls, the chief being that which was built in A.D.
by Sultan Nasir ibn Kalaun, recently renovated. The upper parts of the minarets are covered with green tiles, and crowned by bulbous cupolas. Adjoining the citadel is the mosque of Sultan Hasan, one of the finest in the city. It dates from A.D. 1357, and is cele brated for the grandeur of its porch and cornice and the delicate stalactite vaulting which adorns them. Isolated from the others, the oldest mosque in the city is that of Tulun (c. A.D. 879) exhibit ing very ancient specimens of the pointed arch. Near the west end of the Khan-el-Khalil lie the mosque, the ruined hospital and the tomb of Kalaun, a group of buildings in a style resembling the contemporaneous mediaeval work in Europe, with pointed arches in several orders. At the east end of the Khan-el-Khalil is the mosque of El Hasanen, which is invested with peculiar sanctity as containing relics of Hosain and Hasan, grandsons of the Prophet. But to foreigners the most interesting of all is the mosque el Azhar, founded in the 1 oth century and immediately converted into a university. And the chief theological seminary of the Is lamic world it still remains, with 1 2,000 students from all Muslim lands. Its influence on orthodox Mohammedan sentiment and policy is waning, but is yet unique. In all, Cairo contains over 26o mosques, and nearly as many zawias or chapels. Of the gates the finest are the Bab-en-Nasr, in the north wall of the city, and the Bab-ez-Zuwela, the only surviving part of the southern fortifications.
Beyond the eastern wall of the city are the splendid, but decaying, mausolea errone ously known to Europeans as the tombs of the caliphs; they really are tombs of the Circassian or Burji Mamelukes, a race extin guished by Mohammed Ali. The chief tomb mosques are those of Kait Bey, the finest of its kind in Egypt ; of el-Ashraf Burshey and of Sultan Barkuk, with two domes and two minarets, com pleted A.D. 1410. South of the citadel is another group of tomb mosques known as the tombs of the Mamelukes. They are archi tecturally of less interest than those of the "caliphs." South-west of the Mameluke tombs is the much-venerated tomb-mosque of the Imam esh-Shaf'i, founder of one of the four orthodox sects of Islam; and close to it lies the family burial-place of the reigning family.
South of the present city lie the mounds of the earlier Fostat. But the most important part of Old Cairo is the walled Roman fortress of Babylon. Several towers of this fortress remain, and in the south wall is a massive gateway, uncovered in 1901. The Nile once flowed under it, and from very early days it has been inhabited by a Christian colony. It now contains five Coptic churches, a Greek convent and two churches and a synagogue. The principal Coptic Church is that of Abu Serga (St. Sergius). The crypt dates from about the 6th century and is dedicated to Sitt Miriam (the Lady Mary), from a tradition that in the flight into Egypt the Virgin and Child rested at this spot. The wall above the high altar is faced with beautiful mosaics of marbles, blue glass and mother-of-pearl. Of the other churches in Babylon the most noteworthy is that of El Adra (the Virgin), also called El Moallaka, or The Suspended, being built in one of the towers of the Roman gateway. The other buildings in Old Cairo, or among the mounds of rubbish which adjoin it, include several fort-like ders or convents.
Opposite Old Cairo lies the island of Roda, where, according to Arab tradition, Pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the bulrushes. It contains a mosque built by Kait Bey, and at its southern ex tremity is the Nilometer, by which the Cairenes have for over a thousand years measured the rise of the river. It is a square well with an octagonal pillar marked in cubits in the centre.
Two miles north-east of Cairo and on the edge of the desert is the suburb of Abbasia (named after the viceroy Abbas), with the military barracks where Arabi Pasha surrendered to the British on Sept. 14, 1882, the day after the battle of Tel el-Kebir. Mataria, a village 3m. farther to the north-east, is the site of the defeat of the Mamelukes by the Turks in 1517, and of the defeat of the Turks by the French under Gen. Kleber in 1800. At Mataria was a sycamore tree, the successor of a tree which decayed in 1665, venerated as being that beneath which the Holy Family rested on their flight into Egypt. Less than a mile north-east of Mataria are the scanty remains of the ancient city of On or Heliopolis, with a fine obelisk, about 66f t. high, erected by Usertesen I. of the XIIth dynasty. A perfectly equipped residential suburb is named Heliopolis, and adjoining it is a large aerodrome, which is the chief air station in North Africa.
On the west bank of the Nile, opposite the southern end of Roda island, is the small town of Giza or Gizeh, a fortified place of considerable importance in the times of the Mamelukes. The grounds of this palace have been converted into zoological gardens. A broad, tree-bordered, macadamized road, along which run elec tric trams, leads south-south-west across the plain to the Pyramids of Giza, 5m. distant, built on the edge of the desert.
The inhabitants of Cairo are of many diverse races, the various nationalities being frequently distinguishable by differences in dress as well as in physiognomy and colour. The Cairenes, or native citizens, differ from the fellahin in having a much larger mixture of Arab blood, and are at once keener witted and more conservative than the peasantry. The Arabic spoken by the middle and higher classes is generally inferior in gram matical correctness and pronunciation to that of the Bedouins of Arabia, but is purer than that of Syria or the dialect spoken by the Western Arabs. Besides the Cairenes proper, who are largely engaged in trade or handicrafts, the inhabitants include Arabs, numbers of Nubians and Negroes—mostly labourers or domestics in nominal slavery—and many Levantines, there being consider able colonies of Syrians and Armenians. The higher classes of native society are largely of Turkish or semi-Turkish descent. Of other races the most numerous are Greeks, Italians, British, French and Jews. Bedouins from the desert frequent the bazaars.
At the beginning of the 19th century the population was esti mated at about 200,000 ; in 1882 it had risen to 374,000; and in 1927 it was 1,064,567, including 81,835 foreigners.
In consequence of its insanitary con dition, Cairo used to have a heavy death-rate. Since the British occupation in 1882 much has been done to better this state of things, notably by a good water-supply and a proper system of drainage. New suburbs have been laid out, new bridges thrown across the Nile, and a progressive housing policy established. The hospitals have been cleaned and modernized : and a fine new ophthalmic laboratory has been built at Giza, as a gift by the British in memory of Egyptians who lost their lives in the World War. The climate in winter is dry, healthy and often cold : in summer it is hot and stifling; and though the rainfall is negligible, exhalations from the river, especially when the flood has begun to subside, render the districts near the Nile damp during Sep tember, October and November.
The commerce of Cairo, of considerable extent and variety, consists mainly in the transit of goods. Gum, ivory, hides and ostrich feathers from the Sudan, cotton, sugar and grain from Upper Egypt, indigo and shawls from India and Persia, sheep and tobacco from Asiatic Turkey, and European manufac tures, such as machinery, hardware, cutlery, glass and cotton and woollen goods, are the more important articles. The traffic in slaves ceased in 1877. The local industries include cotton fac tories, paper mills and a sugar refinery. Silk goods, saltpetre, gunpowder, leather, and a number of other products, are also manufactured.
Architecturally considered Cairo is still the most remarkable and characteristic of Arab cities. The outstanding feature of its architecture is its extraor dinary freedom from restraint, shown in the wonderful variety of its forms, and the skill in design which has made the most in tricate details to harmonize with grand outlines. Here the student may best learn the history of Arab art. Like its contemporary Gothic, it has three great periods, those of growth, maturity and decline. Of the first, the mosque of Ahmed Ibn-Tulun and the three great gates of the city, the Bab-en-Nasr, Bab-el-Futuh and Bab-Zuwela, are splendid examples. The design of these entrance gateways is extremely simple and massive, depending for their effect on the fine ashlar masonry in which they are built, the decoration being more or less confined to ornamental disks. The mosque of Tulun was built entirely in brick, and is the earliest instance of the employment of the pointed arch in Egypt. The curve of the arch turns in slightly below the springing, giving a horse-shoe shape. The stucco facing of the brick walls led to the enrichment of the archivolts and imposts with that peculiar type of conventional foliage which characterizes Mohammedan work, and which in this case was carried out by Coptic craftsmen. The second period passes to a luxuriance promising decay, as in stanced in the mosque of Sultan Hasan, below the citadel, those of Muayyad and Kalaun, with the Barkukiya and the mosque of Barkuk in the cemetery of Kait Bey. The simple plain ashlar masonry still predominates, but the wall surface is broken up with sunk panels, sometimes with geometrical patterns in them. The principal characteristics of this second period are the magni ficent portals, rising sometimes, as in the mosque of Sultan Hasan, to 8o or 9oft., with elaborate stalactite vaulting at the top, and the deep stalactite cornices which crown the summit of the build ing. The decoration of the interior consists of the casing of the walls with marble with enriched borders, and (about 2oft. above the ground) friezes 3 to 5ft. in height in which the precepts of the Koran are carved in relief, with a background of conventional foliage. Of the age of decline the finest monument is the mosque of Mohammed Bey Abu-Dahab.
After centuries of neglect efforts are now made to preserve the monuments of Arabic art, a commission with that object having been appointed in 1881; while a law of 1918 extended protection to all buildings dating from the Arab conquest to the reign of Mohammed Ali. Thus the Tulun mosque was saved, Coptic churches are being cared for, and important excavations have been made in the Roman fortress at Babylon.
The museum of Egyptian antiquities was founded at Bulak in 1863, being then housed in a mosque, by the French savant Auguste Mariette. In 1889 the collection was transferred to the Giza palace, and in 19o2 was removed to its present quarters, erected at a cost of over £250,000. A statue of Mariette was unveiled in 1904. The museum is mainly de voted to antiquities of Pharaonic times, and, except in historical papyri, in which it is excelled by the British Museum, is the most valuable collection of such antiquities in existence.
The Arab museum and royal library are housed in a building erected for the purpose, at a cost of L66,000, and opened in 2903. In the museum are preserved treasures of Saracenic art, including many objects removed from the mosques for their better security. The royal library contains over Ioo,000 volumes, one-half being books and mss. in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Amharic and Syriac. The Arabic section includes a unique collection of korans. The Persian section is rich in illuminated mss. The numismatic col lection, as regards the period of the caliphs and later dynasties, is one of the richest in the world.
History.—Before the Arab conquest of Egypt the site of Cairo appears to have been open country. Memphis was some 12m. higher up on the opposite side of the Nile, and Heliopolis was 5 or 6m. distant on the north-east. The most ancient known settlement in the immediate neighbourhood of the present city was the town called Babylon, which is said by Strabo to have been founded by emigrants from the ancient city of the same name in 525 B.c., i.e., at the time of the Persian conquest of Egypt. Here the Romans built a fortress and made it the headquarters of one of the three legions which garrisoned the country. Amr, the con queror of Egypt for the caliph Omar, after taking the town be sieged the fortress for the greater part of a year, the garrison surrendering in April A.D. 641. The town of Babylon disappeared, but the strong walls of the fortress in part remain.
Cairo itself is the fourth Mohammedan capital of Egypt ; the site of one of those that had preceded it is, for the most part, in cluded within its walls, while the other two were a little to the south. Amr founded El-Fostat, the oldest of these, close to the fortress which he had besieged. Fostat signifies "the tent," and the town thus built where Amr had pitched his tent is to-day, with the Roman town which preceded it, represented by Masr el-Atika, or "Old Cairo." Shortly after the overthrow of the Omayyad dynasty, and the establishment of the Abbasids, the city of El 'Askar was founded (A.D. 750) by Suleiman, the general who sub jugated the country, and became the capital and the residence of the successive lieutenants of the Abbasid caliphs. Its site is now entirely desolate. The third capital, El-Katai, was founded about A.D. 873 by Ahmed Ibn Tulun, as his capital. It continued the royal residence of his successors but was sacked not long after the fall of the dynasty and rapidly decayed. A part of the present Cairo occupies its site and contains its great mosque, that of Ahmed Ibn Tulun.
Jauhar (Gohar) el-Kaid, the conqueror of Egypt for the Fatim ite caliph El-Moizz, founded a new capital, A.D. 968, which was named El-Kahira, that is, "the Victorious," a name corrupted into Cairo. In A.D. I
Cairo was unsuccessfully attacked by the crusaders; shortly afterwards Saladin built the citadel on the lowest point of the mountains to the east, which immediately overlooked El-Katai, and he partly walled round the towns and large gardens within the space now called Cairo. Under the prosperous rule of the Mameluke sultans this great tract was filled with habitations; a large suburb to the north, the Hoseynia, was added: and the town of Bulak was founded. After the Turkish conquest (A.D. 1517) the metropolis decayed, but its limits were the same. In 1798 the city was captured by the French, who were driven out in 18or by the Turkish and British forces, the city being handed over to the Turks. Mohammed Ali, originally the Turkish viceroy, by his massacre of the Mamelukes in 1811, in a narrow street leading to the citadel, made himself master of the country, and Cairo again became the capital of a virtually independent kingdom. Under Mohammed and his suc cessors all the western part of the city has grown up. In 1882 Cairo was occupied by the British, and its subsequent history is merged in that of Egypt generally.
