Cairo Mosques

Thursday, January-06-11 9:20 PM

In an earlier post I spoke about our visit to the Ibn Tulum mosque. I was mistaken. I have no idea which of the dozens of mosques in Cairo we did visit then but today we went to the real McCoy. It’s difficult to adequately describe these places and pictures don’t capture their essence. In the mid-9^th century Ibn Tulum seized power in the region and built a city with a palace and with this vast fortress-like mosque at its centre. In the 11^th century when the city was besieged by the invading Franks, the vizer ordered the city burned. The mosque is all that survived. In the 19^th century it served as a military hospital, a salt warehouse, and finally a debtor’s prison. Toward the end of the century it was declared a national monument and work continues to the present day to restore it to its original condition. There were few others in the mosque during our visit so it was possible to walk along the corridors that fringed the immense courtyard. Doing so I reflected that over a thousand years ago this building would have been pulsing with life, much as one sees in the mosques and bazaars that are in use in today’s Cairo. We climbed to the top of the minaret, the only one in Egypt with an external staircase – a much easier climb than the interior one that we attempted over a week ago. Because the air was clear we had an excellent view of the city.

Beside the mosque is a museum called the Gayer-Anderson, named after a former British army officer who lived there from 1935 until the outbreak of WWII. The museum is in fact a luxurious old Cairo house, or I should say, double house, as it is in reality two houses joined together by a bridge on the third floor. The buildings belonged to the Egyptian Antiquities Dept when permission was given to Gayer-Anderson and his family to take up residence. He was a medical doctor who joined the army in 1904; soon afterward he was seconded to the Egyptian Army and moved here in 1907. He retired from the army in the 1920 but continued to live in Egypt with his wife (whom I presume he returned to England to meet and marry), and their son. He was an avid collector, gathering a trove of antiquities of Pharonic, Roman, and medieval Egypt periods. When he moved into the dual Antiquities house, his collection was catalogued and exhibited throughout. He returned to England before the beginning of WWII, eventually bequeathing his considerable collection to the Egyptian people.

The houses are of medieval construction. Entering the first, one comes upon a courtyard where servants would prepare food, clean clothes, and perhaps supervise children. Above was a comfortable summer room open to the courtyard but only for the use of men (not in Gayer-Anderson’s household, I’m sure). Inside was another, more sheltered but equally comfortable space for men to use in the winter. Along a hallway one comes to a much larger, beautifully appointed room with couches, chairs, tables, and the latticed windows from which things could be seen but little revealed. This was the women’s room. The tour of the house took us up into the third floor, across the bridge to the other house. There were bedrooms in Turkish, Persian, and Chinese decor, each done with antique pieces. Cabinets of exhibited collections lined halls and rooms. In the centre of the house was an immense gathering hall, the dimensions of which surprised us. It was at least as large as a medium-sized church. Outside were gardens. The first of the two houses in particular gave us a sense of the way of life of a wealthy family of the late medieval/early modern period.

From the museum we walked along another succession of streets to reach the mosque of Sultan Hassan. This vast building is set across a square from the Citadel. Its size and grandeur remind one of the cathedrals of Europe. Hassan was the son and grandson of earlier Sultans, living in the mid-12^th century. At the age of 22 he began this enormous project by gathering architects from throughout the Middle East and abroad, with whom to confer. Three years later he was assassinated and the mosque was never completed in the fashion that he had envisioned. Nonetheless, it is a powerful and beautiful building. A large inner room off the courts holds his tomb. An Iman sang some prayers for a couple of tourists while we were visiting. His lovely music rang off the surrounding walls.

Leaving this mosque we found our way through the Egyptian bazaar once again to the Khan Al Kalili. On our way we were accosted by a formidable gentleman who insisted that it was his duty to guide visitors to Cairo. He pulled a notebook from a pocket of his robe to show us letters of recommendation from other travellers. We knew our way and our destination well enough and had no inclination to being picked up once again. He refused to be put off by my rejection of assistance, however, and turned to Mark to persuade him to make use of his services. He was genuinely affronted when we finally just moved on through the bustling streets of the bazaar.

At the souk we had a bite of lunch and then went to confront once again my watch salesman. I refused to take another watch from him in place of the second one that had ceased working. He protested that he could not return my money and that he had no other goods to give to me in recompense. An older man in the same shop then took over, saying that he would solve the problem by giving me one of his blouses. These, however, being so excellently well-made (they were very lovely) would cost well over the 120 EL I had paid for the watch. I could give him the difference. I was in no mood for putting out any more cash into that particular den of thieves and let them know this quite clearly. Finally there was little choice other than to accept another watch. Both men promised that if it failed me before we leave Cairo on Monday, my money would be returned. We shall see. At any rate, this was all conducted quite amicably, with lots of “my sister,” to me, and, “my brother” to Mark, as well as bits of, “your magic eyes” from the younger fellow. In the meantime another young lad from a shop close-by came in to tease the two men and to chat with me. His English was pretty good and he was very amused by all of the jockeying back and forth between me and the two salesmen.

We went back to the El Fishari cafe for tea and to try to get photos that would grasp some of the atmosphere of this place. It’s a lively experience being in the midst of such activity and such an international crowd. It was fun. We headed back to the hotel via the Egyptian Museum gift shop to buy a book on Egypt and a portfolio of drawings by a 19^th century traveller that we had seen earlier. It was a long, tiring but very interesting day.