The tramway having come to stay, it is as well to make the best of it, and to use its cars along the couple of miles which bisect the city from north to south. From this route many a peep into some old courtyard, or the back of a mosque or palm-shaded shrine, may induce a descent from the cars and a tramp along the dusty road.
Just beyond the present governorat was an angle of the enclosure known as the ‘guarded city.’ This formed more or less of a square of rather more than half a mile each way, and its western wall stood on the east side of the present filled-in canal. The building of this enclosure marks such an important date in the mediæval history of Egypt that a few words here may not be amiss.
Stanley Lane Poole tells us, in the Story of Cairo, how in 959 Gawhar, the victorious general of el-Mo’izz (the first Khalif of the Fatimid dynasty), entered Masr, as the capital of Egypt was then called, and still is by its native inhabitants. Plague and famine had so reduced the population, that scarcely any resistance was offered to the troops which Gawhar had led from Tunis into the valley of the Nile. His first thought was to build a fortified place away from the plague-stricken city, and yet near enough to keep it in subjection. Beyond its northern extremity he pitched his camp on a sandy waste, unobstructed by any buildings save an old convent. The prevailing winds being from the north, hygienic reasons were also in favour of this site.
When the boundaries of the enclosure were marked out, astrologers were consulted as to an auspicious hour in which to start digging the foundations. From poles stuck in the ground ropes were stretched, from which bells were hung, and thousands of men stood ready with shovel and pick to dig out the trenches as soon as the astrologers shook the poles, and by the tinkling of the bells announced the auspicious moment. The intentions of the astrologers were, however, forestalled by a raven who, alighting on a rope, set the bells aringing, and every spade was instantly stuck into the soil. It was during the hour when the planet Mars (el-Káhir) was in the ascendant—an evil omen for the future peace of the place. ‘Masr el-Káhira’ thus became the name, not only of the fortified enclosure, but also of the adjacent city. ‘El-Káhira,’ or the Martial, is that from which we get our Cairo. The omen was turned to good account by the astrologers. Messengers were sent to Mo’izz to announce that the foundations of a triumphant Masr had been laid; the name of the last of the Abbasid Khalifs was no more heard in the prayers which were offered up in the mosque of Amr, and Mo’izz was proclaimed the ruler of Egypt. His conquests now extended from the Atlantic to the Arabian desert, and for two centuries the Fatimid dynasty ruled the country.
Walls, described as being thick enough to allow four horses to be driven abreast on them, were built round the enclosure; the foundations of a vast palace worthy of the great Khalif were laid; and buildings were planned to accommodate his court, and those who would guard his sacred person. The common folk were not admitted within the gates of the enclosure after the Khalif had taken up his residence. It was then designated ‘Kahira-el-Mahrusa,’ or the guarded city.
MOSQUE OF MOHAMMED BEY
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The Sheea heresy which Mo’izz had fostered, whether from conviction or from policy, had a far-reaching influence on the destiny of the country.