[641 – 1516] The Rise of Cairo

Our story unfolds between the years 641 and 1516, a vast expanse of nearly nine centuries that witnesses a city’s birth, its glorious ascent to the center of the world, and the twilight of its imperial power. When the Arab general Amr ibn al-As conquered the Roman province of Egypt in 641, he did not seize the ancient capital of Alexandria. Instead, on the east bank of the Nile, near the imposing Roman fortress of Babylon, he established a new military encampment. He called it Fustat, named for his command tent, the *fustat*. It was a raw, pragmatic settlement, a garrison town for a new faith and a new order. For the next two hundred years, Fustat grew from a camp into a sprawling, organic city, the administrative and commercial heart of Egypt, but true imperial splendor was yet to come. By the 9th century, the central Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad was losing its grip on the empire's fringes. In 868, a Turkic soldier of slave origin named Ahmad ibn Tulun was sent to govern Egypt. Ambitious and independent, he refused to be a mere puppet. He stopped sending vast tax revenues to Baghdad and used Egypt's immense wealth to forge his own dynasty. He created a new, lavish administrative capital just north of Fustat called al-Qata'i. At its heart, he erected a monument that still defines Cairo’s skyline: the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. Completed in 879, it is a statement of power and piety. Its vast, sun-drenched courtyard could hold his entire army. Its walls, crenelated like a fortress, enclose a sanctuary of profound simplicity and grace. Its most unique feature, a massive brick minaret with a spiraling outer staircase, stands as a symbol of this new, defiant Egyptian autonomy. Tales from his era speak of a palace with a hall of gold and a garden pool filled not with water, but with shimmering mercury, a testament to the legendary opulence his rule brought to the Nile valley. The Tulunid dynasty was a brilliant but brief flame. A far more transformative power was gathering in North Africa. In 969, the Fatimids, a revolutionary Isma'ili Shia dynasty claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima, conquered Egypt. Their general, Jawhar al-Siqilli, did not settle in Fustat. Instead, he marked out a new, grander city to its north. As his soldiers began construction, the planet Mars—al-Qahir in Arabic—was in ascension. Seizing the omen, he named the city *al-Qahira*, The Victorious. This was not a city for the people; it was a royal enclosure for the Fatimid Caliph-Imam and his court. It was sealed off by massive stone walls, punctuated by monumental gates like Bab al-Nasr (Gate of Victory) and Bab Zuweila, the southern gate that would later become a site of public proclamations and grim executions. Inside these walls, the Fatimids built a world of unparalleled luxury, with two grand palaces facing each other across a vast plaza. They also founded a lasting intellectual legacy. In 970, they established the Al-Azhar Mosque, which soon evolved into the world's foremost center for Islamic learning, a university that predates Oxford and Cambridge and remains a beacon of scholarship to this day. For two centuries, Cairo was the capital of a formidable empire, and its rulers, the Fatimid Caliphs, were figures of immense wealth and ceremony, their public appearances meticulously choreographed displays of power. The city's wealth was staggering, fueled by its control over trade routes that brought gold and ivory from sub-Saharan Africa and spices from India and the Far East. The markets of Fustat, now the economic suburb of the royal city of Cairo, teemed with goods from across the known world. Its population of diverse Muslims, Coptic Christians, and Jews created a vibrant, cosmopolitan metropolis. By the mid-12th century, however, the Fatimid dynasty was decaying from within, weakened by palace intrigue and the looming threat of the European Crusader kingdoms established in Jerusalem and along the coast. It was in this chaotic environment that a new figure emerged: a Kurdish general named Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known to the West as Saladin. Sent to Egypt to aid the failing Fatimids, Saladin proved to be a master strategist and politician. He consolidated his power, and in 1171, he performed a quiet coup. At Friday prayers, the sermon was read in the name of the Sunni Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad, not the Fatimid Caliph in Cairo. Just like that, two centuries of Shia rule in Egypt vanished. Saladin's vision for Cairo was different. He saw it not as a secluded royal paradise, but as a fortified heart of a united Sunni front against the Crusaders. He tore down parts of the old Fatimid walls, uniting Cairo and Fustat into a single entity. On the rocky Muqattam Hills overlooking the city, he began construction of his masterpiece of military architecture: the Citadel. This imposing fortress would serve as the seat of government in Egypt for the next 700 years, a symbol of military might watching over the sprawling metropolis below. Saladin's dynasty, the Ayyubids, relied heavily on an elite corps of slave soldiers known as Mamluks. Recruited as young boys from the steppes of Central Asia, primarily of Turkic and later Circassian origin, they were converted to Islam and rigorously trained in the arts of war and governance. They were loyal only to their masters. But in the chaos that followed Saladin's death, this instrument of power developed a will of its own. In 1250, they overthrew the last Ayyubid sultan and seized power for themselves. This began the incredible Mamluk Sultanate, a period when Egypt was ruled by a self-perpetuating military caste of former slaves. Succession was rarely hereditary; it was a brutal meritocracy where the most cunning and powerful Mamluk emir could fight his way to the throne, often through assassination and civil war. Just a decade into their rule, the Mamluks faced an existential threat. The Mongol hordes, who had already laid waste to Persia and destroyed Baghdad in 1258, were marching on Egypt. In 1260, at a place called Ain Jalut (the Spring of Goliath) in Palestine, the Mamluk army, led by the brilliant and ruthless Sultan Baibars, achieved the impossible. They shattered the Mongol army, halting their westward expansion and saving Egypt and North Africa from devastation. This victory cemented Mamluk legitimacy and made Cairo the undisputed capital of the Islamic world, a refuge for scholars and artisans fleeing the Mongol destruction. Baibars and his successors, particularly the long-reigning al-Nasir Muhammad, presided over Cairo's golden age. The city's population swelled to perhaps half a million people, making it larger than London and Paris combined. Mamluk emirs, competing for prestige, sponsored breathtaking works of architecture. They built dozens of mosques, schools (*madrasas*), and public hospitals (*bimaristans*), often as part of massive, multifunctional complexes. Structures like the magnificent Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan, built in the 1360s, showcase the pinnacle of Mamluk art, with its soaring entrance, intricate stonework, and grand courtyard, a testament to the incredible wealth and artistic sophistication of the age. Yet, this golden age carried the seeds of its own demise. The brutal internal politics of the Mamluks led to constant instability. A far greater catastrophe arrived in 1347: the Black Death. The plague ravaged Cairo, killing as much as a third of its population and crippling its economy and administration. The city never fully regained its former vitality. Then, at the end of the 15th century, a fatal economic blow was struck when Portuguese explorers successfully navigated a sea route around Africa, bypassing the Mamluk-controlled land routes for the spice trade. Deprived of this vital income, the Mamluk state withered. In 1517, the armies of the Ottoman Sultan, Selim I, equipped with modern cannons and firearms, marched into Egypt. The Mamluk cavalry, with their lances and swords, were brave but outmatched. The final Mamluk sultan was captured and, in a final indignity, hanged from Bab Zuweila. Cairo’s long reign as an imperial capital was over. The Victorious had become a provincial city in a new, larger empire.