DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0413
CAIRO.
379
exceptions, the modern additions extend only from the Ezbekiyeh to the river, and consist of a
number of parallel boulevards and rondes places whose only merit is that their designers, in
borrowing Western ugliness and uniformity, have also followed a Western fashion in the
planting of trees.*
To understand the topography of the old Arab city, which lies to the east of the canal
on the side farthest from the Nile, we must imagine a white ensign with the red St. George's
cross dividing it into four quarters. The rectangular oblong forming the flag represents the
old part of Cairo, between the canal and the eastern wall. It is not set square to the cardinal
points of the compass, but midway between them. The horizontal line of the St. George's
cross is the old High Street of Cairo, and runs from the Bab El-Futuh in the north wall in a
south-westerly direction till it joins the new-fangled " Boulevard Mohammad 'Aly," almost in
front of the citadel. It is called in various parts of its course by different names—first the Suk
En-Nahhasin, or Coppersmith's Market; then the Ghuriyeh, or Street of Sultan El-Ghury; then
the Sukkariyeh, or Sugar Bazaar, and so on. The perpendicular line of the cross is formed by
the Musky, so called after its builder, the Emir Musik, a kinsman of Saladin's. The Musky
starts from the Ezbekiyeh, in the European quarter, and, crossing the canal, cuts the High Street
in two and goes out through the east wall at the Bab El-Ghureyyib. Around these two main
thoroughfares which, crossing one another at right angles, form the cross of the ensign to which
we have compared the old quarter of Cairo, are grouped those endless byways and culs-de-sac
in which the Muslim population chiefly resides, and that wilderness of bazaars and streets of
shops where most of the trade of the city is transacted.
As we turn into one of the narrow lanes that intersect the Mohammadan city, we are
struck, not only by the vivid incongruities of the street scenes which travellers have
described so often, but by the contrast between the noise and bustle of the crowded alley and
the quiet and silence of the tall houses that overhang it on either side. Here there is no sign
of life ; the doors are jealously closed, the windows shrouded by those beautiful screens of
net-like woodwork which delight the artist and tempt the cupidity of the collector. If we
enter one of these gates, through the bent passage which bars the view of the interior from the
profane eyes of the passing throng, we shall find the inner court almost as silent and deserted
as the oaiarded windows which overlook the street. We shall see nothing of the domestic life
of the inhabitants ; for the women's apartments are carefully shut off from the court, into which
only the guest rooms and groom's chambers and the like semi-public apartments open. We
cannot penetrate through the closed door which leads to the rooms of the family, we can only
notice the spacious and airy appearance of the interior court. After the bustle of the street this
quiet and ample space is very refreshing, and it is impossible not to felicitate the Egyptian
architects on their success in meeting the requirements of Mohammadan building. They make
the streets narrow and overshadowed by projecting meshrebzyehs (lattice windows), because the
sun beats down too fiercely for the wide street of European towns to be endurable. But they
* " Egypt," by S. Lane-Poole, pages 36—43 (Low's " Foreign Countries "), of which several paragraphs are reproduced in the present work,
379
exceptions, the modern additions extend only from the Ezbekiyeh to the river, and consist of a
number of parallel boulevards and rondes places whose only merit is that their designers, in
borrowing Western ugliness and uniformity, have also followed a Western fashion in the
planting of trees.*
To understand the topography of the old Arab city, which lies to the east of the canal
on the side farthest from the Nile, we must imagine a white ensign with the red St. George's
cross dividing it into four quarters. The rectangular oblong forming the flag represents the
old part of Cairo, between the canal and the eastern wall. It is not set square to the cardinal
points of the compass, but midway between them. The horizontal line of the St. George's
cross is the old High Street of Cairo, and runs from the Bab El-Futuh in the north wall in a
south-westerly direction till it joins the new-fangled " Boulevard Mohammad 'Aly," almost in
front of the citadel. It is called in various parts of its course by different names—first the Suk
En-Nahhasin, or Coppersmith's Market; then the Ghuriyeh, or Street of Sultan El-Ghury; then
the Sukkariyeh, or Sugar Bazaar, and so on. The perpendicular line of the cross is formed by
the Musky, so called after its builder, the Emir Musik, a kinsman of Saladin's. The Musky
starts from the Ezbekiyeh, in the European quarter, and, crossing the canal, cuts the High Street
in two and goes out through the east wall at the Bab El-Ghureyyib. Around these two main
thoroughfares which, crossing one another at right angles, form the cross of the ensign to which
we have compared the old quarter of Cairo, are grouped those endless byways and culs-de-sac
in which the Muslim population chiefly resides, and that wilderness of bazaars and streets of
shops where most of the trade of the city is transacted.
As we turn into one of the narrow lanes that intersect the Mohammadan city, we are
struck, not only by the vivid incongruities of the street scenes which travellers have
described so often, but by the contrast between the noise and bustle of the crowded alley and
the quiet and silence of the tall houses that overhang it on either side. Here there is no sign
of life ; the doors are jealously closed, the windows shrouded by those beautiful screens of
net-like woodwork which delight the artist and tempt the cupidity of the collector. If we
enter one of these gates, through the bent passage which bars the view of the interior from the
profane eyes of the passing throng, we shall find the inner court almost as silent and deserted
as the oaiarded windows which overlook the street. We shall see nothing of the domestic life
of the inhabitants ; for the women's apartments are carefully shut off from the court, into which
only the guest rooms and groom's chambers and the like semi-public apartments open. We
cannot penetrate through the closed door which leads to the rooms of the family, we can only
notice the spacious and airy appearance of the interior court. After the bustle of the street this
quiet and ample space is very refreshing, and it is impossible not to felicitate the Egyptian
architects on their success in meeting the requirements of Mohammadan building. They make
the streets narrow and overshadowed by projecting meshrebzyehs (lattice windows), because the
sun beats down too fiercely for the wide street of European towns to be endurable. But they
* " Egypt," by S. Lane-Poole, pages 36—43 (Low's " Foreign Countries "), of which several paragraphs are reproduced in the present work,