Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the year 1792 to 1798

by William George Browne

Kahira is the only mint for Egypt, where they strike in gold mahbûbs and half mahbûbs; the first about five shillings in value. In copper washed with silver the small coins worth about a halfpenny, and called in Turkish paras, in Arabic diwani, fuddha, or maidi: by European writers, aspers, and medines. On one side is the name of the reigning Sultan, on the reverse, Misr, and the date.

The mint is fixed in the castle, built by the celebrated Yussuf abu Moddafar ibn Aiûb, whose title of honour was Salah-eddîn, in the sixth century of Mohammedism. The people of the country, who are in the habit of confounding all history and chronology, attribute it to Joseph the son of Isaac, whose palace they say it was; but it is unnecessary to confute an opinion wholly unsupported by facts. Including the quarters of the Janizaries and Assabs (the latter of whom no longer exist), the building occupies a large space. But it is irregular, and the Pasha’s apartments are mean and incommodious. The well is of great depth, and has been hewn with much labour through the solid rock, but as that rock is of a soft nature, the magnitude of the work is not comparable to that of some excavations which have been executed in several other places. The broken remains of the palace of Salah-eddîn, are indeed worthy of remark. An apartment of great length overlooks the city, the river, and the adjacent country; and several beautiful columns raise their heads out of the general wreck. In a chamber of this building is fabricated the embroidered cloth, which the munificence of the Porte annually devotes to the use of the Kaba.

Misr-el-Attiké, to the South of the present city, is pleasantly situated, and well inhabited. It can now only be esteemed a faux-bourg of the former. A mosque there, said, probably without reason, to have been built by order of the Chalîfé Omar, was lately rescued from the oblivion to which it was hastening, by the mandate of Murad Bey. This mosque is a building of great extent; there may be thirty or thirty-five columns remaining in their original position. The rest have been reversed, and again set up without any regard to order. The most perfect remain is a small octagon building in the middle of the mosque, supported by eight Corinthian columns, the shaft, about ten feet high, of blue-and-white marble. In this small edifice is a chamber, which is said never to have been opened. Multitudes of columns appear around, to the number of more than a hundred, some in black marble, one has a small cavity, fabled an impression made by the hand of the Prophet. The cement is so hard as to evince that the Saracens were no strangers to the antient mode of preparing it. Many arches of an elliptical form remain, and some inscriptions, on the West, probably the place of the antient gate, as it is of the modern.

Antient Arabic books, some of them in the Kuphic character, have been recently discovered here, in a cellar, under lock and key, and inclosed in a sycamore chest. Some of them are on vellum, and very beautiful. Such a number was found as filled a very large chest. Murad Bey, being informed that treasures were hid under the antient mosque, had recourse to the finesse of pretending to rebuild it; he did rebuild part of a wall; and the cellar and books were discovered in clearing the foundations.

From the convent of St. George, one distinguishes clearly on the west the ruins of an antient city, ascertained to have been the Babylon built by the Persians. They constitute merely a heap of rubbish, already described by former travellers.

Fostât is a long street, running parallel to the river, and occupying part of the space between Kahira and its bank. It nearly joins Misr-el-Attiké on the South.

Bulak is a large irregular town, which has gradually risen around the place of embarkation. It is marked by an extensive and convenient okal, built by Ali Bey the Great, and called the Alexandrian okal, being chiefly used for goods brought from that city. Gardens, filling the fertile grounds between the houses, and betwixt Bulak and Kahira, afford an ample supply of fruits and vegetables. Boats croud the river at Bulak, which is the port of Lower Egypt, as Misr-el-Attiké is of the Upper.

An island is situated in the middle of the river, nearly opposite Bulak, where Murad Bey has a kind of summer-house, or place of retirement. Here are also several gardens. On the opposite coast is Embabîl, a village, where cows are kept, that furnish excellent butter.

Farther to the south, and nearly opposite Misr-el-Attiké, is Jiza, a considerable town, fortified by Ismaîl Bey, who also built a palace there, completed and since inhabited by Murad Bey, by whom has been established a foundery, constructed by a Zanthiote, who has embraced Mohammedism. I found six mortars and twenty-three cannon, some of them however almost useless. Three of the mortars and six of the field-pieces, cast by that Zanthiote, were excellent, considering the place, the instruments, and the workmen. The guns are twenty-four, eighteen, and twelve pounders. These are in reserve, and the Bey has a larger number mounted, in different parts of the fort. The walls of Jiza are of great extent, and have only one gate to the country; they are ten feet high, three feet thick, and have six half-moons: but are only fit to resist cavalry, the original intention in raising them. Murad Bey has suffered the iron work about the loop-holes, &c. to be plundered or ruined.

The palace is in the southern quarter of Jiza, close to the water. It has numerous apartments for the Mamlûks, and every convenience for ease or luxury.