b. The South-Eastern Quarters.
Starting from the Place Atabet el-Khadra (p. [446]) the featureless Shâria Mohammed Ali (Pl. C-E, 3–6), 1860 yds. long, leads to the Citadel (tramway No. 6, p. [440]). After 8 min. it crosses the former town-conduit El-Khalîg (p. [446]). On the left is the Place Bâb el-Khalk, with the Gouvernorat (government-house; Pl. D, 4; containing the Police Office, p. [442]), and the superb new buildings of the Arab Museum and the Khedivial Library (1902).
The *Arab Museum, founded by Franz Pasha, a learned German architect, on the groundfloor of the building, contains a large and valuable collection of objects of art, mostly from old mosques and houses in Cairo. Adm., see p. [442]; entrance on the E. side. Director, M. Herz Bey.
In the Vestibule is shown a chronological list of the Mohammedan dynasties of Egypt.—Room I. Tombstones.—Room II. Sculptures in stone.—Room III. Stone sculptures, casts, mosaics.
Rooms IV-VIII. Wood-carving, including pulpits (mimbar), reading-desks for the Koran and tables (kursi), movable prayer-niches and Koran-boxes from mosques, mashrebîyehs (p. [445]).
Rooms IX & X. Metal-work. Fine bronze doors from the mosque of Sâlih Telâyeh (p. [450]) and elsewhere; a Koran-case with brass cover and silver enrichment, candlesticks, lustres in metal, bronze candelabra (tannûr).—Rooms XI & XII. Fayence, including tiles of European make, a favourite wall-decoration in Arabian houses of the 18–19th centuries.
Room XIII. Wall-incrustations in stucco; Arabian room from Rosetta.—Room XIV. Specimens of textiles; two Koran-cases covered with leather from the Hasan mosque (p. [452]).—Rooms XV & XVI. Enamelled *Mosque Lamps, the richest collection of the kind, mostly from the Hasan mosque.
The first floor of the building contains the Khedivial Library (Kutubkhâneh, entered from the Shâria Mohammed Ali), founded in 1870 and arranged by German savants. It consists of 68,000 vols. (about 32,000 being Oriental), including 2700 Korans. The illuminated Persian MSS. are extremely valuable. The Exhibition Room (adm., see p. [442]) contains also a fine collection of the coins of the Moslem rulers of Egypt.
We now follow, to the S.W., the long Shâria Khalîg el-Masri (Pl. D, C, 4–6; tramways Nos. 2 & 9, p. [440]) to a small square with the Gâmia es-Seiyideh Zeinab (Pl. C, 6, 7), and then turn to the S.E. into the Shâria el-Marâsîn (Pl. C, 7), near the end of which the Derb Tanaïfa leads to the right to the—
*Medreseh Kâït Bey (Pl. C, 7), in the Kalat el-Kabsh quarter of the city. Built in 1475, shortly after the sultan’s burial-mosque (p. [458]), and recently restored by Herz Bey, it offers a good example of the architecture of the second Mameluke dynasty (see p. [445]). The minaret is one of the most tasteful in Cairo. In the richly decorated interior we specially note the fine ornaments on the arches of the court-façades, the stalactites of the window-niches, the mosaic pavement, and the pulpit. The dome is modern.