Was a Major Muslim City and One of the Largest in the World
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THE MAMLUK CITY1 Doris Behrens-Abouseif From Fustat to al-Qahira Cairo under Mamluk rule (1250–1517) was a major Muslim city and one of the largest in the world. Its evolution from the Ayyubid double capital Fustat-Qahira to the Mamluk metropolis was a tremendous transformation shaped by the intensive patronage of the ruling estab- lishment. After having legitimized their rule by victories against the Crusaders and Mongols, the Mamluks set out to pursue a pious patron- age of unparalleled dimensions. The magnitude of their endowment of mosques, colleges, khanqâhs, and other charitable foundations was coupled by urban expansion and a fl orescence of architecture in the cities of their empire. The Mamluk capital Cairo, seat of a shadow Abbasid caliphate installed by al-Zahir Baybars, succeeded Baghdad as the foremost capital of the Muslim world. Mamluk Cairo covered a gigantic area that stretched from the mau- soleum of Imam Shafi {i in the south, to the Dome of Yashbak, in what is today {Abbasiyya in the north, and from the Nile to the desert in the east. This area was not a homogenous agglomeration however. When the Mamluks came to power in 1250, Cairo was an unfocused double agglomeration, which consisted of the old capital Fustat, the Arab foundation and its subsequent satellites, and al-Qahira, the Fatimid city founded in the tenth century which was gradually losing its exclusive palatial character. Salah al-Din planned to unify Fustat with al-Qahira by encompassing them in a set of walls connected with his citadel and future princely residence on the Muqattam hill, between al-Qahira to the north and Fustat to the south. Instead of the fusion envisaged by Salah al-Din, al-Qahira thrived as the Mamluk capital and metropolis, expanding on all sides without fully merging with Fustat. 1 This article is inevitably very similar to chapter 8 in my book Cairo of the Mamluks. 296 doris behrens-abouseif The fi rst monuments of the Mamluks indicate that the preference given to al-Qahira over Fustat took some time to materialize; however, from the outset the sultans expanded the buildings of the royal residence at the Citadel. The earliest buildings of the Mamluk period were the mausoleum dedicated to the last Ayyubid sultan al-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub and a funerary madrasa, both founded in the same year, 1250, by Shajar al-Durr, al-Salih’s widow, and herself the fi rst sultan of the Mamluks for three months. The madrasa was built in the cemetery of Sayyida Nafi sa to the southeast of the Citadel, in the vicinity of Fatimid shrines, notably the mausoleums of Sayyida Nafi sa and Sayyida Ruqayya.2 Near her madrasa and mausoleum, Shajar al-Durr built a hammam and a palace with gardens. No other ruler had been buried in this cemetery before; Shajar al-Durr’s choice of the site could have been motivated by its vicinity to the royal residence in the Citadel and also to tombs of female saints. Her husband’s mausoleum was erected beside his madrasa at Bayn al-Qasrayn Street in al-Qahira. The allegiance of the fi rst Mamluks to the last Ayyubid sultan al-Salih, epitomized in this memorial building, enhanced the signifi cance of Bayn al-Qasrayn with its inherited regal and religious traditions. As in the past, this site continued to be the heart of the Egyptian capital also under the Mamluks. The toponym Bayn al-Qasrayn, Between-the-Two-Palaces, referred to the Fatimid palatial centre and to Mamluk palaces built later in this area. Shajar al-Durr’s successor and her second husband, al-Mu{izz Aybak (r. 1250–57), preferred to build his madrasa (1256–7) in the area of southern Fustat, near the Nile shore, facing the Nilometer on the island of Rawda.3 Its endowed estates, a double hammam, an apart- ment complex (rab{), a large commercial building, and a piece of land, were located nearby. This was the fi rst and last Mamluk royal founda- tion in the capital to be built that far south. Sultan al-Mu{izz Qutuz (r. 1259–60) chose a different site by erecting his madrasa in the vicin- ity of the Citadel, in the quarter of Hadarat al-Baqar, where Sultan Hasan later erected his mosque.4 During the reign of al-Zahir Baybars (r. 1260–77), Fustat continued to enjoy religious and monumental patronage; the sultan’s interest in 2 Maqrîzî, Khitat, 1:343; Behrens-Abouseif, “Lost Minaret.” 3 Maqrîzî, Sulûk, 4:302; Ibn Duqmâq, 4:92; Ibn Taghrîbirdî, Nujûm, 7:14. 4 Ibn Iyâs, I/1:308..