The oldest mosques (gâmia, or chief mosque; mesgid, smaller mosque or chapel), such as the Amru Mosque (p. [460]) and that of Ibn Tulûn (p. [451]), are simple in plan. A quadrangle (sahn), answering to the atrium of the Byzantine basilica, is flanked with four flat-roofed colonnades (lîwân), which on three sides are single or double, while on the fourth side, in the direction of Mecca, the chief lîwân (sanctuarium) is composed of several aisles or arcades. The cruciform medreseh (school-mosque), of Persian origin, was first introduced by Saladin the Aiyubide. The lîwâns were now roofed with massive barrel-vaulting, and in their four corners were introduced schools or lecture-rooms for the four orthodox sects of Islam (Hanefites, Shafiites, Malekites, and Hambalites). To the second Mameluke dynasty (1382–1517) Cairo owes its most beautiful specimens of Arabian architecture. In the smaller mosques the lateral lîwâns were shortened, the court reduced in size, roofed in, and lighted from above, and the transepts were again roofed with flat timber ceilings. In the Turkish period, as in the case of the mosque of Mohammed Ali (p. [454]), the four lîwâns were often replaced by a single vaulted hall, preceded by a forecourt.
The minarets, always in three stories, are of the Pharos or lighthouse type (p. [434]; Arabic manara, light).
Most of the mosques built since the middle of the 14th cent. have a sebîl attached. This is a public street-fountain, roofed over, with a chamber above it (kuttâb) used as an elementary school.
The tombs of sultans and emirs are always connected with the mosques. The tombs of saints or sheikhs, on the other hand, as everywhere in the East, are independent buildings, domed like the burial-chapels in the mosques. The ordinary tombs of the Moslems are underground chambers; above the vault usually stands a sarcophagus or cenotaph (tarkîbeh). Wealthy families enclosed their tombs with halls for funeral festivals, rooms for the mourners, a dwelling for the custodian, etc., collectively called a hôsh.
Of the old palaces and caravanserais a few ruins only remain. The latter (okellas; Arabic wakkâleh) served also as warehouses (khân). Of the mediæval dwelling-house the so-called Bookbinder’s House (p. [449]) is a good example.
Sculpture and painting existed as independent arts under the Tulunides and Fatimites, being favoured by the Persians and the sect of the Shiites, but in the later Egyptian-Arabian art they survived only in the ornamentation of walls. The main features of this surface decoration consisted in curiously interlaced geometrical figures (entrelacs) and conventional foliage (arabesques). Both mosques and private houses often have charming kamarîyehs, or windows of perforated slabs of plaster, inlaid with coloured glass. The façades of the older houses are adorned also with picturesque oriel-windows and with mashrebîyehs, or balcony-gratings or lattice-work of beech-wood rods.
a. Northern Quarters.
The main thoroughfare here is the Shâria Clot Bey (Pl. B, C, 2; tramway No. 7, p. [440]), leading from the Railway Stations and the Limûn Bridge (Pl. B, 1) to the Mîdân el-Khaznedâr (Pl. C, 3), adjoining which, between the old Arabian Cairo and the new town (p. [454]), is the—
Ezbekîyeh Garden, the chief rallying-point of strangers. The name is derived from the Ezbek mosque which once stood here, built in 1495 in honour of a general of the sultan Kâït Bey (p. [458]). The grounds (adm. ½ pias.), 20 acres in area, laid out by Barillet in 1870, contain many rare trees and plants. The open spaces are planted with Lippia nodiflora instead of grass, which does not thrive in this dry climate. Among the attractions are a café, a restaurant, a summer theatre, and evening concerts (see p. [442]).
To the S. of the Ezbekîyeh Garden rises the Opera House (p. [442]), between which and the Hôtel Continental is the Place de l’Opéra (Mîdân et-Teatro; Pl. B, C, 3), with the monument of the famous general Ibrâhîm Pasha (d. 1848). From this point the Shâria Abdîn leads to the S. to the spacious Mîdân Abdîn, where the Khedivial Palace (Pl. C, 4, 5) rises on the left.