The Citadel of Cairo

The Citadel of Cairo PDF

Author: Nasser O. Rabbat

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-11-15

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 9004492488

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This architectural history of the Citadel of Cairo uses indices from maps, photographs, plans of hitherto unstudied structures, and a large array of historical documents to chronologically reconstruct the Citadel's development from its foundation by Salah al-Din until it reached its most monumental form in the middle of the fourteenth century. The study analyzes the influence of Mamluk socio-political hierarchy on the conceptualization of the Citadel's spaces and forms; assesses its impact on medieval Cairo; proposes a new interpretation for the development of Mamluk royal architecture; and presents new definitions for a number of medieval architectural terms. By weaving the history of the Citadel together with the history of Cairo and the Mamluk system, this book is relevant to historians of architecture and urbanism and medieval historians.

The Citadel of Cairo, 1176-1341

The Citadel of Cairo, 1176-1341 PDF

Author: Nasser O. Rabbat

Publisher:

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 736

ISBN-13:

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This dissertation reconstructs one of the major works of military and palatial architecture in the Middle Ages, the Citadel of the Mountain (QaI'at aI-Jabal) in Cairo. It traces its development from its inception in 1176 under Salah aI-Din al-Ayyubi until it reached its definitive and most monumental form under aI-Nasir Muhammad (1293-1341, with two interruptions). The dissertation focuses on the part of the Citadel called today the southern enclosure, which was the residence of the sultan, and of which only the congregational mosque remains standing. It analyzes the different stages of its topographic and architectural development using primarily references collated from the chronicles, biographical compendia, and legal documents of the Mamluk period, and secondarily surface archeology, toponymy, and typological comparisons with extant Bahri Mamluk palaces in Cairo. Through the reconstruction of the Citadel, the study addresses a number of wider methodological and historical issues. It evaluates the influence of the Mamluk socio-political hierarchy on the structure of the palatial complex and on the conceptualization of its spaces and forms. It stresses the importance of construing the architectural vocabulary of the period in its proper historical context. And finally, the dissertation questions the modern perception of the architectural development in a medieval Islamic environment by emphasizing the difference between its secular and religious architecture, and by showing how this perception is disproportionately molded by the latter.

Cairo

Cairo PDF

Author: Nezar AlSayyad

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2011-09-30

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 0674060792

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From its earliest days as a royal settlement fronting the pyramids of Giza to its current manifestation as the largest metropolis in Africa, Cairo has forever captured the urban pulse of the Middle East. In Cairo: Histories of a City, Nezar AlSayyad narrates the many Cairos that have existed throughout time, offering a panoramic view of the city’s history unmatched in temporal and geographic scope, through an in-depth examination of its architecture and urban form. In twelve vignettes, accompanied by drawings, photographs, and maps, AlSayyad details the shifts in Cairo’s built environment through stories of important figures who marked the cityscape with their personal ambitions and their political ideologies. The city is visually reconstructed and brought to life not only as a physical fabric but also as a social and political order—a city built within, upon, and over, resulting in a present-day richly layered urban environment. Each chapter attempts to capture a defining moment in the life trajectory of a city loved for all of its evocations and contradictions. Throughout, AlSayyad illuminates not only the spaces that make up Cairo but also the figures that shaped them, including its chroniclers, from Herodotus to Mahfouz, who recorded the deeds of great and ordinary Cairenes alike. He pays particular attention to how the imperatives of Egypt's various rulers and regimes—from the pharaohs to Sadat and beyond—have inscribed themselves in the city that residents navigate today.

The Story of Cairo

The Story of Cairo PDF

Author: Stanley Lane Poole

Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 3849650359

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Cairo is in the fullest sense a medieval city. It had no existence before the Middle Ages; its vigorous life as a separate Metropolis almost coincides with the arbitrary millennium of the middle period of history; and it still retains to this day much of its mediaeval character and aspect. The aspect is changing, but not the life. The amazing improvements of the past hundred years have altered the Egyptian's material condition, but scarcely as yet touched his character.

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