Ca i r <.1 M e Lt i e v a 1 Nee r o 1 o 1. , Architecture for the Dead "' Galila El Kadi • Alain Bonnamy fortheDea Cairo's Medieval Necropolis An Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement Edition The American University in Cairo Press Cairo New York All photographs are by Alain Bonnamy unless otherwise noted .. First published in Egypt in 2007 by The American University in Cairo Press 113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt . 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 www.aucpress.com Copyright © 2007 by the American University in Cairo Press / Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement This book was first published in French in 2001 under the title La Cite des Morts, copyright © Pierre Mardaga Editeur / Institut de Recherche pour le Developpernent, ISBN lRD 2-7099-1414-X, ISBN Pierre Mardaga 2-87009-772-7. Translated from the French by Philippe Dresner and Pascale Ghazaleh. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Dar el Kutub No. 24476/06 ISBN 978 977 416 0745 Dar el Kutub Cataloging-in-Publication Data El Kadi, Galila Architecture for the Dead: Cairo's Medieval Necropolis / Galila El Kadi and Alain Bonnamy.-Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2007 p. cm. ISBN 977 4160746 1. Architecture, Egyptian 2. Necropolis 1. Bonnamy, Alain 722.2 Printed in Egypt Contents 7 Preface 9 Introduction 13 Chapter 1 Continuity and Change in Religious Beliefs 21 Chapter 2 The Southern Necropolis: The Qarafa 127 Chapter 3 Bab al-Nasr. The Wood Necropolis 171 Chapter 4 The Eastern Necropolis: Tombs of the Caliphs 253 Chapter 5 City of the Dead: A Home for the Homeless 271 Chapter 6 Heritage and Challenges 284 Chapter 7 Where Do We Go from Here? 293 Bibliography 295 Glossary 297 Chronology 300 General Index 302 Index of Places To Hakim Preface The first edition of this book was published recent Guide Gallimard to Egypt, pub­ he showed in the subject and the material in French in 2001. It represented the cul­ lished in 1994.' As for the general condi­ and for the moral support his institution mination of a research project undertaken tion of the necropolis described in this provided in the initial phase of the project. jointly by the Institut de Recherche pour le book, it has deteriorated considerably: The team of young researchers assigned to Developpernent (IRD, formerly the sewage water has flooded the tombs of the help us during that first phase was later sup­ ORSTOM) and the General Organization southern and eastern necropolises, caus­ plemented by students at Cairo University's for Housing, Building, and Planning ing some buildings to collapse and visible faculty of urban planning. The motivation, Research (GOHBPR) between 1985 and damage to appear on those remaining dynamism, and curiosity of these young 1990. Several parts of this project appeared above ground level. As for the Bab al­ architects increased our enthusiasm, and we independently in various contexts­ Nasr necropolis, its beautiful wooden owe them much by way of gratitude. notably, in two articles and in a film, Le tombs are nothing but a pile of ruins. The We would also like to thank Emile Le Caire, la cite des marts, which was shown environs of restored, classified monu­ Bris and Jean-Paul Duchemin, respec­ at the International Film Festival on ments have grown denser as housing tively director and assistant director of Architecture (FIFARC) in 1987 and at the encroaches, canceling out all the efforts the IRD's former department D (urban­ Georges Pompidou Center as part of the undertaken since the early 1980s. Ruined ization and urban social systems). Their "Les magiciens de la terre" exhibition. buildings, fetid swamps, piles of rubbish, support and encouragement allowed this Some of the photographs in this book were and tombs devoured by housing: such is project to be carried through. Nor is it shown in an exhibition at the French the desolate spectacle that Cairo's Mus­ possible to overestimate what we owe Cultural Center in Cairo and at the head­ lim necropolis offers today. Unfortu­ Rene de Maximy, research director at the quarters of the GOHBPR in May 1990. nately, this observation confirms the IRD, and Francine Arakelian, both of The text was initially drafted as a report to conclusion of Chapter 5, which predicted whom read the manuscript scrupulously mark the end of the study, and was the worst: the gradual transformation of and provided very valuable comments. reworked for the 2001 French edition. the prestigious city of the dead into a The advice of Andre Raymond, professor More than seventeen years have passed fourth- or fifth-rate city. emeritus at the University of Provence since this research project began and this This new edition, then, provides a pic­ and eminent connoisseur of Cairo, were text first appeared. Six additional years ture of what the city of the dead still was at also of immense value in putting together separate the publication of the French edi­ the close of the second millennium. Some the final manuscript. tion from the current English one. In these of the topographical and iconographic Thanks are also due to Aliyya Sherif for two decades, many things have changed information, however, remains relevant. welcoming us when the photographs were in the city of the dead. The number of Equally relevant are the importance of the being developed in Cairo; to those respon­ inhabitants has been growing continu­ architectural heritage and the urgent need sible for publication on both sides of the ously, as we saw during our regular visits to save it and bring it to light. Mediterranean (Neil Hewison at the there to seek out additional information, We would like to thank all those who American University in Cairo Press; show colleagues and friends around, and helped us carry out the work that yielded Marie-Noelle Favier and Thomas Mourrier serve indirectly as guides to foreign visi­ this book in its French and English editions. at the IRD); and, last but not least, to the tors, since we also drew up an itinerary Our thanks go first to Abu Zeid Rageh, for­ translators, Philippe Dresner and Pascale through the Cairo necropolis for the most mer head of the GOHBPR, for the interest Ghazaleh. Note , Egypte, (Paris: Gallimard, NouveauxLoisirs Editions, 1994). 7 "Of all the monuments, tombs mayofferthe widest scopefor thestudies of the archaeologist, theartist, eventhephilosopher. Civilizations of every kindhavemade manifest the nature of theirbeliefin an afterlife in the waytheyhavetreated theirdead." Viol/et le Due, Dictionnaire raisonne de l'architecture, vol. 3, bk. 9, p. 21. Source: Description de l'Egypte: Etat Moderne, Cairo, vol. 1, pI. 66. Y. 8 Introduction It all began with stories in the Egyptian press My father's family tomb was like a villa, intermediate world where the dead waited, in about staggering numbers of people-as with high stone outer walls surrounding an limbo, for the day of resurrection. We would many as a million according to some-living open courtyard on either side of which there press our ears to the ground, straining to hear in the cemeteries of Cairo. The figures, it later stood two similar-looking, single-story, rec­ a snatch of their conversations or wails, des­ transpired, had been grossly exaggerated, but tangular buildings. One was the oratory. Up perate for a tangible sign of their presence, we were not to know that at the time. The four steps and across a veranda was a front but in vain. So we let our imagination run capital, although not blighted by shanty­ door flanked by symmetrical windows and wild, seeing a reincarnated soul.in a passing towns, seemed to be facing its own particular leading to a room with three ceremonial sar­ black cat or the ghost we were so longing to brand of urban calamity: mass necropolitan cophagi marking the places where the vaults meet in the white robes of a muqri' as he dis­ squatter settlements. were located below ground. Two were made appeared around a bend in the road, at which Intrigued by the idea of the living cohabit­ of marble, and rising from each was a marble point we would take to our heels and flee. ing with the dead, we set out to investigate column crowned with a carving, a plait of Our frequent visits and the childish games what seemed to be a vast field of research for hair on one and a turban on the other to mark that kept us busy made these places more sociologists and urban planners alike: 1,000 the different sexes. Promiscuity had to be familiar to us, and helped tear down the hectares of tombs, a thirtieth of the Greater avoided in death as in life, and so men and myths built up around the afterworld. Cairo urban area, inhabited by hundreds of women were kept apart in separate vaults. As customs changed from the 1950s thousands of people. The French Institut de The third sarcophagus, made of finely onward, the tradition of visiting the cemeter­ Recherche pour le Developpernent (IRD) crafted wood and much smaller than the oth­ ies-although still popular among the lower became interested, and Egypt's General ers, was for the children. Across the c1asses-gradually died out among the bour­ Organization for Housing, Building and courtyard stood the building for the living: a geoisie. Our visits became less and less Planning Research (GOHBPR) seized the tomb keeper's lodge, which was occupied frequent, and increasingly shorter, just long opportunity to diagnose a situation of some year-round, and reception areas equipped enough to perform a couple of rituals.