STREETS OF ISLAMIC CAIRO A CONFIGURATION OF URBAN THEMES AND PATTERNS BY NEZAR M, AL-~AYYAD BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING 1977 DIPLOMA OF HIGHER STUDIES IN TOWN PLANNING 1979 CAIRO UNIVERSITY, CAIRO EGYPT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ARCHITECTURE STUDIES MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. MAY 1981 ©NEZAR AL-SAYYAD THE AUTHOR HEREBY GRANTS TO M.I.T. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND TO DISTRIBUTE PUBLICLY COPIES OF THIS THESIS DOCUMENT IN WHOLE OR IN PART, SIGNATURE OF AUTHOR NEZAR AL-SAYYAD, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE MAY, 1981 CERTIFIED BY .- .. ...,-__ . ... -..-_ _ PROFESSOR WILLIAM PORTER, DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING THETIS SUPERVISOR ACCEPTED BY PR ESSOR JULI ENART, CHAIRMAN OF THE \\dARTMENTAL C MITTEE FOR GRADUATE STUDIES MASSACHUMTS INSTITUTF OF TECI-!OLGY - MAY 2 8 1981 LIBBARIES ~pL STREETS OF ISLAMIC CAIRO A Configuration of Urban Themes and Patterns by NEZAR AL-SAYYAD Submitted to the Department of Architecture on May 8, 1981, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Architecture Studies ABSTRACT This study presents a closer look at a Muslim-built environment. It examines streets as one of the major structuring elements in a city. It traces the history and the physical development of three major streets in Medieval Cairo within the overall structure of the city at the end of each ruling dynasty. The hypothesis presented in this study is that streets in a Muslim city (Cairo) possessed some common themes and patterns that created for them a characteristic structure. The purpose of this study is to verify the existence of such a structure and to explore some of the implicit principles that may have governed its shaping The lessons learnt from the analysis of the street structure and its development, provide a better understanding of the history of a built environment and of the physical factors that shaped its urban form. Ultimately, it may be possible to generate from the study a general set of criteria which could identify the extent of traditionality in a given project. These rules could also assist urban designers in the formulation of design criteria extracted from the history of the built environment. Thesis Supervision: Professor William Porter Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning CONTENTS PREFACE 1. INTRODUCTION 7 Why and How? (Hypothesis and lthod) 2. AL-QAHIRA AL-FATIMIA 10 The First Streets 3. CAIRO OF SALAH AL-DIN 24 The Evolution of Street Patterns 4. CAIRO: BAHRI MAMLUKS AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 33 Variety and Change in Street Composition 5. THE URBAN FABRIC OF BURJI MAMLUK CAIRO 48 The Complexity of Street Structure 6. CAIRO: A REDUCED ROLE IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 61 Stabilization of Street Forms 7. A SUMMARY OF PHYSICAL THEMES 74 The Development of Forms and Patterns 8. CONCLUSIONS 87 The Islamic Cairene Street APPENDIX 90 List of Rulers and Glossary BIBLIOGRAPHY 6 Streets of zslamic Cairo PREFACE will provide a better understanding of the history of a built environment and of the physical factors that shaped Studying Cairo is truly a challenge. What may one its urban form. The study attempts to develop a methodology discover? Can a pattern, a form, a rationale be extracted by which one would be able to extract from the history of from what appears to the casual observer a capricious a built environment some measurements to assist urban disorder? But order there must be. Perhaps no creation designers in the formulation of design criteria. of-man is capable of retaining its underlying organization In this endeavor I have benefited from the Aga Khan so obdurately as the urban fabric he has built over history. Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University It was that challenge that interested me in my study of and M.I.T. and from the Technology Adaptation Program Cairene physical patterns. at Cairo University and M.I.T. Both programs have The initial idea of the study was generated some years supplied me with a great deal of the necessary references. ago during a discussion with some of my colleagues at Cairo I gratefully acknowledge the guidance, support, and University. The intellectual atmosphere at M.I.T. friendship of Dean William L. Porter, who allowed me some focused my interests more and more on the subject of this of his very valuable time and gladly supervised this work. thesis. The idea of studying the history and physical I sincerely appreciated the critique and remarks of development of particular streets mainly originated from Professor Kevin Lynch and Mr. Reinhard Goethert during the availability of resources on the subject. The various the initial stages of the study. I wish to express my travellers' accounts and historic documentations of Cairo gratitude to Richard Dewey and Leigh Cochran for their at different time periods provided the basic information personal assistance and valuable remarks. I also wish upon which the study was developed. I have relied to a to extend my gratitude to my father Dr. M. Al-Sayyad, great extent on the descriptions provided by a number of and my closest friend Ahmed Refaat, who supplied me scholars and on their perceptions of the environment at with all the material I needed from Cairo during the different time periods. These scholars were Nasiri Khusraw, preparation of this study. Finally to my wife Nadia, 1047 (for the Fatimid period); Al-Baghdadi, 1194 and Ibn for her moral support, continuous assistance, love and Said 1243 (for the Ayyubid period); and Al-Maqrizi, 1364 patience. (f-r the Yamluk period); and Monsieur de Thevenot, 1686 and Ali Pasha Mubarak, 1880 (for the Turkish period). Recent work on the history of the urban development of Cairo by A. Zaki, 1966 (Cairo-AZ-Qahira) and J. Abu-Lughod, 1971 (Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorious)was of great assistance. The study examines the streets of Islamic Cairo in light of these documents. It attempts to verify the existance of a characteristic structure created by some common themes and principles. The study believes that the analysis of street patterns and their development Zn•oduction 7 INTRODUCTION understanding of the history of their built environments. 1Why and How? (Hypothesis and MNthod) To avoid going into the argument of what is and is not Islamic in the Muslim built environment, this study has The task of the architect is to create a physical chosen to concentrate on only one Muslim environment environment readily identifiable by a society as its (Cairo). It examines the features and traces the develop- own. Designing within contemporary societies sets before ment of one of its major elements (streets). Finally, the professional the challenge of identifying, under- it attempts to explore some of the constant common standing and creating forms and spaces whichare at once themes and principles that were extracted from the new and familiar, which convey a sense of specific physical history of that specific Muslim built environ- identity and which are non-alienating. To create such. ment. It is suggested that these themes could be con- architecture, an architecture that one can call Islamic, sidered the closest configuration of the notion of an is a very difficult task indeed. Doing so means Islamic urban form/pattern, if such a thing exists. accepting the assumption that there is a different, The choice of streets as an element of analysis was distinctive Islamic pattern, i.e., that there are not random, for no physical features of a city so some common characteristics found in all Muslim cities reflect its essence at its streets. Streets are the that could be called the physical characteristics of a basic structuring element in the creation of a physical certain Muslim built environment. Scholars like fabric; they are the vital arteries without which urban Lapidius (Aiddle Eastern Cities) and Hourani (The life would wither and die. Most important, however, Islamic City) attempted to examine similarities they create as well as solve problems and thereby stimu- of Muslim cities. Although a number of interesting late social intercourse and cultural creativity. The relations occurred in these studies, it seems that no study has concentrated on the highest level of citystreets one has gone very deeply into the analysis of the i.e., the major thoroughfares, because these were pre- physical fabric of such environments. cisely documented by different people at different To prove that there is a certain Islamic urbanism time periods. on the city level means that one must compare The hypothesis presented in this study is that the different physical patterns of different Muslim cities, street structure in a Muslim city has always followed and find their common features. Accordingly, one can some common themes and patterns, wherein all major ele.- extract from such a study the common physical charac- ments were positioned in relation to each other and to teristics of the Muslim city. Doing so means accepting the path. Results from the study suggest that the implicitly that there is already a pattern for each structure should probably be considered a result individual Muslim city. of conscious awareness of the concept of urban design, This study takes the position that such individual rather than an unintended accumulation of buildings. patterns have not been explored thoroughly. Accordingly, The streets chosen for the analysis were the three the results achieved by comparing different cities were streets presently named: AL-MU'IZZ, AL-JAMALIYA, and very general and did not provide planners and architects AL-DARB AL-AHMAR (fig. 1). The first two were among with a framework for future practices based upon an the major thoroughfares inside the walled city and the 1C 8 Streets of Islamic Cairo third was one of the major thoroughfares outside it.