Cairo, Arabic Al-Qahirah (“The Victorious”), city, capital of Egypt, and one of the largest cities in Africa. Cairo has stood for more than 1,000 years on the same site on the banks of the Nile, primarily on the eastern shore, some 500 miles (800 km) downstream from the Aswan High Dam. Located in the northeast of the country, Cairo is the gateway to the Nile delta, where the lower Nile separates into the Rosetta and Damietta branches. Metropolitan Cairo is made up of the Cairo governorate.
The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, which was the old capital of Egypt, had long been a focal point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the modern city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance, the Romans established a fortress town along the east bank of the Nile. This fortress, known as Babylon, was the nucleus of the Roman and then the Byzantine city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, which separated from the Roman and Byzantine churches in the late 4th century. Many of Cairo's oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo.
Following the Muslim conquest in AD 640, the conqueror Amr ibn Aas settled to the north of the Babylon in an area that became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp (Fustat signifies "City of Tents") Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt.
In 750, following the overthrow of the Umayyad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar (the city of sections, or cantonments) as it was laid out like a military camp.
A rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qatta'i ("the Quarters"), to the north of Fustat and closer to the river. Al Qatta'i was centred on a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun.
In 905, the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their governor returned to Fustat, razing al-Qatta'i to the ground.
In 969, the Fatimids conquered Egypt from their base in Ifriqiya and a new fortified city northeast of Fustat was established. It took four years to build the city, initially known as al-Maná¹£uriyyah, which was to serve as the new capital of the caliphate. During that time, the construction of the al-Azhar Mosque was commissioned by order of the Caliph, which developed into the third-oldest university in the world. Cairo would eventually become a center of learning, with the library of Cairo containing hundreds of thousands of books. When Caliph al-Mu'izz li Din Allah arrived from the old Fatimid capital of Mahdia in Tunisia in 973, he gave the city its present name, Qahirat al-Mu'izz ("The Vanquisher of al-Mu'izz").
For nearly 200 years after Cairo was established, the administrative center of Egypt remained in Fustat. However, in 1168 the Fatimid vizier Shawar set fire to Fustat to prevent its capture by Amalric, the Crusader king of Jerusalem. Egypt's capital was permanently moved to Cairo, which was eventually expanded to include the ruins of Fustat and the previous capitals of al-Askar and al-Qatta'i. As al Qahira expanded these earlier settlements were encompassed, and have since become part of the city of Cairo as it expanded and spread; they are now collectively known as "Old Cairo".
While the Fustat fire successfully protected the city of Cairo, a continuing power struggle between Shawar, King Amalric I of Jerusalem, and the Zengid general Shirkuh led to the downfall of the Fatimid establishment.
In 1169, Saladin was appointed as the new vizier of Egypt by the Fatimids and two years later he seized power from the family of the last Fatimid caliph, al-'aá¸id. As the first Sultan of Egypt, Saladin established the Ayyubid dynasty, based in Cairo, and aligned Egypt with the Abbasids, who were based in Baghdad.[29] During his reign, Saladin constructed the Cairo Citadel, which served as the seat of the Egyptian government until the mid-19th century.
In 1250, slave soldiers, known as the Mamluks, seized control of Egypt and like many of their predecessors established Cairo as the capital of their new dynasty.
Continuing a practice started by the Ayyubids, much of the land occupied by former Fatimid palaces was sold and replaced by newer buildings.
Construction projects initiated by the Mamluks pushed the city outward while also bringing new infrastructure to the centre of the city.
Meanwhile, Cairo flourished as a center of Islamic scholarship and a crossroads on the spice trade route among the civilisations in Afro-Eurasia.
The historic traveler Ibn Battuta travelled thousands of miles during the course of his trek. One city he stopped in was Cairo, Egypt. One significant note Ibn Battuta made was that Cairo was the principal district of Egypt, meaning Cairo was Egypt's most important and most influential city (Ibn Battuta, 2009). Ibn Battuta also acknowledges the importance of the Nile River to all of Egypt, including Cairo, as he often travelled via boat to arrive at Cairo and to leave to continue his journey. The Nile was not just a means for transportation, it was the source of a plethora of other tangibles as well. The Nile's most influential attribute was its ability to sustain rich soil for agriculture. Part of the Agricultural Revolution thrived in Egypt, predominantly off the back of the Nile. The Nile also served as a source of food and a pathway for trade. Without it, Egypt we know today wouldn't have been the same.
The French occupation was short-lived as British and Ottoman forces, including a sizeable Albanian contingent, recaptured the country in 1801. Cairo itself was besieged by a British and Ottoman force culminating with the French surrender on 22 June 1801.
The British vacated Egypt two years later, leaving the Ottomans, the Albanians, and the long-weakened Mamluks jostling for control of the country.
Continued civil war allowed an Albanian named Muhammad Ali Pasha to ascend to the role of commander and eventually, with the approval of the religious establishment, viceroy of Egypt in 1805.
Muhammad Ali Pasha instituted a number of social and economic reforms that earned him the title of founder of modern Egypt. Bigger changes came to Cairo under Isma'il Pasha (r. 1863–1879), who continued the modernisation processes started by his grandfather. Drawing inspiration from Paris, Isma'il envisioned a city of maidans and wide avenues; due to financial constraints, only some of them, in the area now composing Downtown Cairo, came to fruition. Isma'il also sought to modernize the city, which was merging with neighboring settlements, by establishing a public works ministry, bringing gas and lighting to the city, and opening a theatre and opera house.
Cairo’s economy has been based on governmental functions, commerce, trade, and industrial production.
Land Marks of Cairo:
- Tahrir Square
·Egyptian Museum
·Grand Egyptian Museum
·Cairo Tower
·Old Cairo
·Islamic Cairo
·Citadel of Cairo
·Khan el-Khalili
- Cairo Airport