IN fact, the city called Cairo has been in existence since a little bit more than a thousand years ago; it developed from other settlements that started with the arrival of Islam 400 years earlier. Moreover, 5,000 years ago, near to its actual location, there was the Egyptian capital known as ‘Memphis’ in the time’ of the Pharaonic old kingdom, located near Saqqara in today’s Giza.
When the Arabs arrived in Egypt in the seventh century, Egypt was under the rule of the Romans and its capital was Alexandria. Yet, somewhere near Cairo now was a Roman fortress called Babylon and the area itself was named after this fortress. Then when the Arabs came to Egypt under the com¬mandment of Amr Ibn el·Ass, they defeated the Romans and settled their capital near the fortress and called it Fustat. Then Amr Ibn el-Ass built the first mosque in Egypt and Africa.
This area in the southern part of Cairo caries the name of Fustat up until now; it is sometimes called the “complex of religions” because it contains the oldest mosque, the oldest church and the oldest synagogue.
After that, Egypt was ruled by the Umayyad and the Abbasids, but the capital stayed where it was at Fustat. At the end of the Abbasid era, Egypt was ruled by the Toulounides with the main ruler Ahmed Ibn Touloun. He decided to move his headquarters from Fustat to a nearby area and called it Tala’e where he lived and built his main mosque, which is now considered a masterpiece of Islamic art and architecture. It has an exclusive minaret with staircase similar to the one in Samaraa, Iraq, his place of origin. After the Toulounides, the Fatimids came to Egypt under the commandment of Gawhar al-Seqelly. He was ordered by his master al-Moez- to build a new capital with the main palaces surrounded by a rampart.
The legend says that on the day they started building the city, the star Mars was meridian in the sky, so they called the city after it, which is al-Kahir in Arabic. The name became al· Kahirah (in English Cairo) and the Fatimid Khalif ‘al·Moez’ moved to the new capital as soon as it was completed. At that time, the two settlements existed as separate neighborhoods, al·Kahira and Fustat.
There used to be a road between them served by mules. Cairo was mainly inhabited by the rulers and the officials; Fustat was inhabited by people. A new mosque called al·Azhar was built in the Fatimid Cairo, which also served as a school.
At the end of the Fatimid era, Egypt came under the rule of the Ayyubids. They constructed a vast military compound, which contained the building of the government. This building is the Citadel of Salah el-Din, located just to the south east bor¬der of the Fatimid Cairo.
All these parts, mentioned above, constitute what is known now as historic Cairo, Cairo stayed, more or less, within these limits up till the 19th century when Ismail Pasha decided to build modem Cairo, which extended between the Fatimid Cairo and the Nile. Then it was followed in the 20th century by the building of Heliopolis and Garden City that shaped Cairo of today.
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