The Architecture of Cairo
Professor Nasser Rabbat Massachusetts Institute of Technology [email protected]
Course Description
Among the cities associated with the Islamic civilization, Cairo is perhaps the most representative culturally and certainly the richest architecturally. Founded in 634 at the strategic head of the Nile Delta, the city evolved from a military outpost to the seat of the ambitious and singular Fatimid caliphate between the 10th and 12th century. Its most spectacular age, however, was the Mamluk period (1250-1517) which established it as the uncontested center of a resurgent Sunni Islam and produced a wealth of religious, palatial, and commemorative structures that synthesized the achievements of previous periods and symbolized the image of the city for centuries to come. After that, Cairo was reduced to an Ottoman provincial capital until the end of the eighteenth century. Then it witnessed a short and capricious renascence under the independent-minded Muhammed 'Ali Pasha (1805-48) followed by a period of vacillation between conservatism and modernization that was exacerbated by the late-twentieth-century problems of population explosion and underdevelopment.
Yet, Cairo still shines as a cultural, political, and economic center in three spheres of influence: the Arab world, Africa, and the Islamic world. Moreover, many of its Islamic monuments (456 registered by the 1951 Survey of the Islamic Monuments of Cairo) still stand, although they remain largely unknown to the world's architectural community and their numbers are dwindling at an exceedingly alarming rate.
In this course we will recount the story of Cairo. We will review its urban and architectural developments form the initial settlement on the site to the twentieth century and interpret them in light of the cultural, political, and social history of the country, the region and the world. We will examine Cairene architectural types and urban patterns to see how they reflect various regional influences and relate to their counterparts in the wider Islamic and Mediterranean contexts.
Beginnings: History, Geography, and Religion
History and Geography
The Nile and the Site of Cairo
The Legacy of Ancient Egypt
Egypt on the Eve of Islam
Hellenism, Christianity, and the Copts
The coming of Islam The Foundation of al-Fustat
The Mosque of `Amru ibn al-`As: the first mosque in Africa
The vocabulary of the mosque: the minaret, the mihrab and the minbar
The Nilometer
Imperial Ambitions: Ibn Tulun and al-Ikhshid
The foundation of al-Qata'i`: The Mosque of Ibn Tulun
Buildings of the Ikhshidids
Reading:
Behrens-Abouseif, 3-34, 47-57.
Abu-Lughod, 3-25.
Briggs, 47-62.
Encyclopedia of Islam, 2d Ed., vol. 4, article "Kahira," vol. 5, art. "Mihrab," and "Minbar."
Dickie, James. "Allah and Eternity: Mosques, Madrasas, and Tombs," In: ed. G. Michell, Architecture of the Islamic World: Its History and Social
Meaning. 65-79.
Age of the Caliphate: The Fatimids
The foundation of Cairo
Fatimid palaces
Comparison with contemporary Islamic cities
Fatimid Mosques of Cairo: new traditions and old forms
The Azhar Mosque and the Institution of religious learning
The centrality of the mosque in a medieval Islamic urban setting
Mosques of al-Hakim, al-Aqmar, and al-Salih Tala'i`.
The Cult of Saints: mashhads and mausolea
Genealogy as a propaganda tool for the Fatimids
The evolving function of the dome
The appearance of the muqarnas: decorative purposes and symbolic meanings
The defenses of Cairo
The first walls of al-Mu`izz
The walls of Badr al-Jamali
The gates of Cairo and the question of regional influences
The Crusades, the fall of the Fatimids, and the rise of Salah al-Din
Reading:
Behrens-Abouseif, 58-77.
Briggs, pp. 63-75.
Rabbat, The Citadel of Cairo, pp. 1-17.
Rabbat, "Al-Azhar Mosque: An Architectural Chronicle of Cairo's History. "Muqarnas 13 (1996): 45-67.
Bloom, Jonathan. "The Mosque of al-Hakim in Cairo," Muqarnas 1 (1983) 15-36.
Behrens-Abouseif, "The Facade of the Aqmar Mosque in the Context of Fatimid Ceremonial," Muqarnas 9 (1992): 29-38.
Idem, "The Mosque of the Qarafa in Cairo," Muqarnas 4 (1987): 7-20.
Williams, Caroline. "The Cult of the `Alid Saints in the Fatimid Monuments of Cairo. Part1: The Mosque of al-Aqmar," Muqarnas 1 (1983): 37-52.
Idem, "The Cult of the `Alid Saints in the Fatimid Monuments of Cairo. Part 2: The Mausolea," Muqarnas 3 (1985) 39-60.
Sanders, Paula. Rituals, Politics and the City in Fatimid Cairo, N.Y., 1994. Pp. 39-67.
Rise to Prominence: Ayyubids and Bahri Mamluks
The relationship of the citadel to the city
The emerging importance of the citadel as the residence of the ruler
The Roda Citadel and the urban development of Cairo in the Ayyubid period
Ayyubid Architecture and the Sunni Revival
The Mausoleum of al-Imam al-Shafe`i
The introduction of the madrasa: The Madrasa of al-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub
The political and social functions of the madrasa
The mausoleum of the ruler
The Bahri Mamluks: continuity and change
A brief introduction to the Mamluk system
The Mosque of al-Zahir Baybars and traditional forms
The Complex of Qalawun and the Syrian import
The Apogee of Medieval Cairo
The City under al-Nasir Muhammad
The charitable institutions of al-Nasir Muhammad's princes
The Waqf system
Mamluk Madrasas and Khanqahs and the problem of the Four-Iwan Plan
The royal madrasas on the main thoroughfare of Cairo
The Madrasas of Sultan Hasan
Residential and Palatial architecture
A brief survey of residential architecture up to the Mamluk period Royal and princely palaces of the fourteenth century
The urban character of Mamluk architecture
A short film, Medieval Cairo by Nezar AlSayya Reading:
Behrens-Abouseif, pp. 35-44, 78-132.
Abu-Lughod, pp. 27-36.
Briggs, pp. 76-109, 145-64 (Domestic Architecture).
MacKenzie, Neil D. Ayyubid Cairo: A Topographical Study, Cairo, 1992.
Rabbat, The Citadel of Cairo, 283-95.
Irwin, Robert. The Middle East in the Middle Ages, The Early Mamluk Sultanate 1250-1382, (Carbondale, 1986).
Bylinski, Janusz. "Darb Ibn al-Baba. A Quarter in Mamluk Cairo in the Light of Waqf Documents", Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 31, (1994): 203-22.
Fernandes, Leonor. "The Foundation of Baybars al-Jashankir: Its Waqf, History, and Architecture," Muqarnas 4 (1987): 21-42.
Grabar, Oleg. "Reflections on Mamluk Art," Muqarnas 2 (1984): 1-12.
Humphreys, R. Stephen. "The Expressive Intent of the Mamluk Architecture in Cairo: a Preliminary Essay," Studia Islamica 35 (1972): 69-119.
Ibrahim, Laila A. "Residential Architecture in Mamluk Cairo," Muqarnas 2 (1984): 47-59.
Williams, John Alden. "Urbanization and Monument Construction in Mamluk Cairo," Muqarnas 2 (1984) 33-45.
Afterglow of Empire: Burji Mamluks and Ottomans
The mosques, madrasas, and mausolea of the Burji Sultan
Urban complex from Barquq to Khayer Bak
The growth of Cairo and the development of the Qarafas
The royal charitable complexes from Umm Anuk to Qaytbay
The Mamluk style
The development of the dome, the minaret, and the Qa`a under the Mamluks The development of Mamluk decorative techniques and patterns
The coming of the Ottomans
The urban changes in Cairo from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries Ottoman mosques in Cairo: wavering between the local and the official
Cairene Ottoman houses
The stabilization of a hybrid type Comparison with houses of other Ottoman provinces
The legacy of the pre-modern city
The French Expedition and the Description de l'Egypt
Reading:
Behrens-Abouseif, pp. 133-67. Abu-Lughod, pp. 37-79. Briggs, pp. 110-44. Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. Azbakiyya and its Environs: From Azbak to Ismail (1476-1879). (Cairo, 1985). Idem, "The `Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda Style in 18th century Cairo," Annales Islamologiques 26 (1992): 117-26. Hanna, Nelly. An Urban History of Bulaq in the Mamluk and Ottoman Periods. (Cairo, 1983). Kessler, Christel. The Carved Masonry Domes of Medieval Cairo. (Cairo, 1976). Idem, "Funerary Architecture Within the City," Colloque International sur l'Histoire du Caire (27 Mars-5 Avril 1969). 257-67. Campo, Juan Eduardo. The Other Sides of Paradise: Explorations into the Religious Meanings of Domestic Space in Islam. Columbia, S C, 1991. Pp. 74-94. Gillispie, Charles C. and Michael Dewachter (eds), Monuments of Egypt: the Napoleonic Edition: the complete archaelogical plates from la Description de l'Egypte. Princeton, 1987. Pp.1-30.
Modernization and After: Muhammad 'Ali to the Present
The architectural and urban works of Muhammad Ali
The Mosque at the Citadel The Westernization of the palatial architecture The modernization of the city of Cairo
Orientalism and the Fascination of Egypt
Ethnographer-Painters and the romanticization of Cairo The Comite de preservation des monuments du Caire and preservation
Cairene architecture in the late nineteenth century Historicism and the Mamluk revival The Mosque of al-Rifa`i Other Orientalizing styles Cosmopolitan architecture
The emergence of vernacular style in the 1940s
The works of Hasan Fathy, Ramses Wissa Wasef, and their students
Cairo's expansion and modernization
Population explosion and urban chaos Problems of preservation and accommodation The image of Cairo: past and present
Reading:
Behrens-Abouseif, pp. 167-70. Abu-Lughod, pp. 83-117. Lane, Edward William. Cairo Fifty Years Ago. Edited by Stanley Lane-Poole. London, 1896. Al-Asad, Mohammad, "The Mosque of Muhammad `Ali in Cairo," Muqarnas 9 (1992): 39-55. Asfour, Khaled, "The Domestication of Knowledge: Cairo at the Turn of the Century," Muqarnas 10 (1993): 125-37. Al-Asad, Mohammad, "The Mosque of al-Rifa`i in Cairo," Muqarnas 10 (1993): 108-24. Raymond, Andre. "Cairo," in The Modern Middle East. A. Hourani, P. Khoury & M. Wilson (eds.), Berkeley, 1993. Pp. 311-37. Meinecke, Michael, ed. Islamic Cairo: Architectural Conservation and Urban Development of the Historic Centre. (AARP, June 1980) pp. 8-46. Ilbert, Robert, and Mercedes Volait, "Neo-Arabic Renaissance in Egypt, 1870-1930," Mimar 13 (1984): 26-34. Volait, Mercedes. L'architecture moderne en Egypte et la revue al-`Imara, Cairo, 1988. Caroline Williams, "Islamic Cairo: Endangered Legacy," Middle East Journal 39, 3 (1985): 231- 246.
Bibliography
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