Numbers of blind persons are seen in the streets of Cairo; and many more with a bandage over one eye; but I seldom see a woman with diseased eyes.
Shops, which (I have before remarked) are merely small recesses, and most of which are poorly stocked, generally occupy the front part of the ground-floor of each house in a great street; and the houses, with few exceptions, are two or three stories high. Their fronts, above the ground-floor, projecting about two feet, and the windows of wooden lattice-work projecting still further, render the streets gloomy, but shady and cool. On either side of the great streets are by-streets and quarters.
A darb, or by-street, differs from a shárë’ in being narrower, and not so long. In most cases, the darb is about six or eight feet wide, is a thoroughfare, and has, at each end, a gateway, with a large wooden door, which is always closed at night. Some darbs consist only of private houses; others contain shops.
A hárat, or quarter, is a particular district consisting of one or more streets or lanes. In general, a small quarter contains only private houses, and has but one entrance, with a wooden gate, which, like that of a darb, is closed at night.
The sooks, or markets, are short streets, or short portions of streets, having shops on either side. In some of them, all the shops are occupied by persons of the same trade. Many sooks are covered overhead by matting, extended upon rafters, resembling those I observed at Alexandria, and some have a roof of wood. Most of the great thoroughfare-streets, and many by-streets, consist wholly, or for the most part, of a succession of sooks.
Many of the kháns of Cairo are similar to the sooks just described; but in general, a khán consists of shops or magazines surrounding a square or oblong court.
Khán El-Khaleelee, which is situated in the centre of that part which constituted the original city, a little to the east of the main street, and occupies the site of the cemetery of the Fawátim (the Khaleefehs[[25]] of Egypt), particularly deserves to be mentioned, being one of the chief marts of Cairo. It consists of a series of short lanes, with several turnings, and has four entrances from different quarters. The shops in this khán are mostly occupied by Turks, who deal in ready-made clothes and other articles of dress, together with arms of various kinds, the small prayer-carpets used by the Muslims, and other commodities. Public auctions are held there (as in many other markets in Cairo) twice in the week, on Monday and Thursday, on which occasions the khán is so crowded, that, in some parts, it is difficult for a passenger to push his way through. The sale begins early in the morning, and lasts till the noon-prayers. Clothes (old as well as new), shawls, arms, pipes, and a variety of other goods, are offered for sale in this manner by brokers, who carry them up and down the market. Several water-carriers, each with a goat-skin of water on his back, and a brass cup for the use of any one who would drink, attend on these occasions. Sherbet of raisins, and bread (in round, flat cakes), with other eatables, are also cried up and down the market; and on every auction day, several real or pretended idiots, with a distressing number of other beggars, frequent the khán .
Another of the principal khán of Cairo is that called the Kamzáwee, which is the principal market of the drapers and silk-mercers.
[25]. The bones of the Khaleefehs were thrown on the mounds of rubbish outside the city.
There are few other kháns in Cairo, or rather few other buildings so designated; but there are numerous buildings called wekálehs, which are of the same description as most of the kháns, a wekáleh generally consisting of magazines surrounding a square court.