Al-Ahram Weekly   Al-Ahram Weekly
18 - 24 May 2000
Issue No. 482
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Nuts, bolts and weavers' looms

In some areas of Cairo, residents don't care much for history -- they are more interested in upgrading their quarter with cement and mortar. Fayza Hassan visits a corner of Cairo where the past is being forgotten
LOCK, SMITH AND BARREL: Most property owners involved in building, decorating or renovating have at one time or another visited the winding street situated behind and to the right of one of Cairo's oldest department stores, Sednaoui Khazindar. Factory owners are also thoroughly acquainted with Al-Ruway'i, the only street market retailing light hardware. Shops huddled underneath one-storey buildings supported by arcades offer a variety of specialised merchandise which cannot be purchased anywhere else. This is where plumbers, carpenters and interior decorators buy locks, bolts, hinges, nails, hooks, racks, shelves and curtain rods. A little further to the north, toward Clot Bey Street, one finds a bustling trade in sewing and knitting machines and accessories -- some new, but mostly second-hand.

On weekdays, Al-Ruway'i (sometimes known to the older generation as Taht Al-Bawaki, under the arcades) shares Ataba Square's general chaos. Not long ago, the rows of small, dark and untidy shops under the crumbling arcades and off the gutted footpaths were difficult to reach from the narrow one-lane street where donkey carts and pedestrians vied for space with honking trucks, mounds of garbage and stray animals.

BRINGING DOWN THE CEILING: A fortnight ago, on a Sunday, I accompanied industrialist Edward Hasbani who often shops at Al-Ruway'i for the tools needed in his line of business. The object was not to acquire an electrical saw or a few nuts and bolts. Recently, on one of his errands, casually raising his eyes to the floor above a dilapidated retail store, Hasbani had observed a room of majestic proportions -- previously used as a storeroom and in the process of being demolished -- which featured a superb carved and painted wood ceiling, now clearly visible from the street. Surprised at the unusual spectacle, he had attempted to make more inquiries. The building belonged to the Ministry of Endowments and was "probably" going to be sold, a couple of shopkeepers told him rather reluctantly, insisting that as long as no one encroached on their premises, what the ministry did was none of their business.


Clockwise from top left: Poussielgue (t); Ya'qoub (b); Al-Ruway'i mosque; Al-Gami' Al-Ahmar; weaver's workshop (Description de l'Egypte); erasing the past; the doomed ceiling

When we arrived, Al-Ruway'i was unusually quiet on this day of rest, with one or two merchants idly drinking tea in front of their half-raised awnings. I was particularly delighted by the way the area had changed in a very few years. The enlarged street was spotless, lined with a perfectly designed steel-reinforced footpath, probably the most impressive in Cairo; the shop-fronts were enhanced by a fresh coat of paint and part of the overhanging floor, where the storerooms are located, was in the process of being renovated; and a recent addition, a four-storey building (the only "high-rise" in the street) situated at the corner of Al-Ruway'i Street, sported fashionable pastel colours. The old arcades were all but gone, however.

Seeing our eyes trained towards the incongruously palatial ceiling, an old man volunteered that, in his childhood, he had seen it through the windows, shining brightly with mother-of-pearl inlay. "That's all gone now," he said with an ironic gleam in his eyes. "You are too late -- but of course you could buy the painted wood: it is of no use to us, or the ministry."

Within minutes, we are hearing the usual story of skyrocketing real estate prices and the futility of preserving relics of the past. They occupy land that is sorely needed. Besides, it costs a great deal to repair and maintain old buildings; even the ministry cannot afford it, bystanders say. "And if there is so much money to spare, they should distribute it to poor people like us," the old man chirps. No one seems aware of the history of the place, although someone does mention Poussielgue (Napoleon's financial supervisor). Having elicited a favourable reaction with his historical reference, the man now insists that Poussielgue actually lived in the room with the splendid ceiling. "Where was the printing press located, then?" I ask, rather petulantly. Here his knowledge dries up and he points at the mosque on his right. "This is the mosque of Al-Ruway'i," he says proudly. "Do you want to visit it?"

A MOSQUE IN A CEMETERY: Before modern times, the name of Azbakiya was not applied to the northern shore of the pond, which was still called Al-Maqs (or Al-Maqsam); it encompassed the whole area between Qantaret Al-Dikka to the west and the Khalig to the east, writes Doris Behrens-Abouseif in Azbakiyya and its environs from Azbak to Ismail, 1476-1879 (IFAO, 1985). This area was later to become the main Christian quarter of Cairo. Until the end of the 16th century, however, the western shore of the Khalig featured small mosques founded by members of the Sufi orders or of the religious establishment. The mosque of Al-Ruway'i was one such edifice, built during the 15th century (according to Behrens-Abouseif, the style of the minaret would suggest it dates to the 1450s) by the head of the Cairo merchants. It was situated opposite a mausoleum, "perhaps indicating that the mosque was erected within a cemetery, as persons who were not members of the ruling class did not build their tombs in urban areas."

The largest of the two cemeteries known to have existed in the area was situated southeast of the Emir Azbak's magnificent gardens, later encroaching upon them -- an indication that, after the splendour the quarter had briefly witnessed during the prince's lifetime, it had sharply declined. The city continued to grow southward from Bab Zuweila, as it had since the construction of the Citadel. It is only at the beginning of the 18th century that Al-Azbakiya witnessed the boom that led to its complete urbanisation. Even then, though, the area surrounding the cemeteries and Ghayt Al-Nubi (now Darb Al-Barabra) did not flourish.

A MIRACULOUS BEVERAGE: The introduction of the coffee trade to Egypt in the beginning of the 16th century seems to have been responsible, in large part, for awakening the area from its long slumber. Very soon after it began to pass through Egypt on its way to Europe, coffee had become widely used, although coffee houses did not at once gain public approval. In one description of Cairo in 1599, they are referred to as "centres of opium consumption by soldiers of the Ottoman army." Traveller Johann Wild reported in 1610 that magicians and young boys used to entertain the customers of the coffee houses, adding that musicians and story-tellers also performed. Despite the opposition, especially from religious quarters, by the early 17th century, Cairo had around 650 coffee houses, a number which steadily increased to the 1,200 tallied at the time of the French Expedition.

IN THE NUBIAN'S GARDEN: In 1649, a Nubian judge, Shehabeddin Abul-Abbas Ahmed Al-Nubi, acquired a 12-feddan garden known as Ghayt Al-Hamzawi, which had belonged to an emir during the reign of Sultan Al-Ghuri. It was planted with different sorts of fruit trees and stretched between the mosque of Al-Ruway'i to the north and the quarter of Azbak to the south. He also built a mosque bearing his name around which he established a number of dwellings and shops, a hosh, a mill and a waterwheel.

HAGG HIGAZI'S INVESTMENT: At the beginning of the 18th century, two families of coffee merchants became interested in investing around the pond of Azbakiya. The Sharaybi family concentrated their efforts around Al-Ataba Al-Zarqa', as Azbak's quarter was called at the time; and Hagg Hegazi Ibn Ahmed El-Sayyad chose Al-Maqs on the northern shore of the pond where he bought and built several properties between the mosques of Al-Ruway'i and Al-Gami' Al-Ahmar. These properties consisted mainly of dwellings and weaving workshops. His own house was located among Christian buildings in the vicinity of Al-Gami' Al-Ahmar. "Besides two dwelling complexes, two mills, a camel stable, a number of dwellings, a coffee house, two bakeries and several shops, Hagg Hegazi owned seven weaving workshops," writes Behrens-Abouseif. "These workshops, called qa'at hiyaka, had a capacity each of between four and six looms and were located in different places around [the two mosques]. Attached to his own house was a wing containing a weaving shop. He also had a dyeing workshop near the mosque of Al-Ruway'i. Obviously acquired as investments, these properties were passed on by Hegazi to his children and descendants. Two centuries later, the properties... were still divided between his grandchildren and their families."

Although a few wikalas dealing with textiles existed in the area at the time, the main form of economic activity was production rather than trade. Hagg Higazi's investment was not a unique case, stresses Behrens-Abouseif; many other weaving workshops of the same type and size are mentioned in the documents of the same period in Al-Maqs and its environs. Most had a capacity of three to 10 looms, but it is not clear what kind of material was woven. The proximity of the following souqs, however, may provide a hint: Al-Aqqadin (the cord-weavers); Al-Aqbayyin (cap-makers); Al-Sawwaf (wool-maker); Al-Fuwatiyya (towel-makers); Al-Battaniyyin (blanket-makers; Darb Al-Daqqaq (cloth-refiner); Al-Hariri (silk weavers); Darb Al-Fattalin (thread-makers); Al-Bayda (bleachers); Al-Bustiyyin (carpet-weavers)... "Interestingly," adds Behrens-Abouseif, "today this area still specialises among other things in a certain type of material used for military clothing and upholstery; it is also a centre for the trade in sewing machines (industrial), their spare parts and their repair." SMALL-SCALE ENTERPRISE: Typically, the weaving factories that began to develop around Al-Ruway'i mosque included a qa'at hiyaka (sewing hall), which could be reached from a courtyard, a latrine and a storeroom. A staircase in the courtyard led to the upper floor with one or two apartments. Sometimes, several qa'as were accessible from the same courtyard. These low buildings, tucked away from what was to become the fashionable Azbakiya, did not affect the area's general character.

Around the workshops, most of the dwellings were occupied by middle-class Christians, who do not seem to have played a leading role in the area's industrial activities, since they are not recorded as owners of textile factories, writes Behrens-Abouseif. She suggests that they must have been hired as workers, mainly because they lived in the neighbourhood. "Textiles were a craft in which Copts specialised, and they are often mentioned in legal documents related to this quarter as tailors and silk-weavers."

A MODEST NEIGHBOURHOOD: There were no aristocratic mansions and palaces in Al-Maqs. One large house stood out, however: it belonged to Mu'allim Girgis El-Gawhari, head of the Coptic paymasters' guild at the turn of the 19th century. El-Gawhari was one of those who benefited, albeit indirectly, from the policies initiated by Ali Bey El-Kebir, who replaced Jews by Syrian Christians and Copts in high government office. Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey, who succeeded him, maintained the same disposition. Mu'allim Rizq was the first of the Copts who came to wield enormous influence in the financial administration at the time. After his death, Girgis El-Gawhari and his brother Ibrahim played a prominent role in the management of Egypt's finances. They also had a great impact on the life of the Coptic community, and in particular on the Coptic quarter of Al-Maqs. Under the French, Girgis was promoted to the post of Ra'is Al-Ru'asa (head of the financial clerks), and maintained this position for a long time after their departure.

Among the many contributions the Gawhari brothers made to their community was the foundation of a church in the Al-Maqs area -- the first to be built in this area since the reign of Al-Hakim, according to Behrens-Abouseif.

HERE COME THE FRENCH: When Bonaparte came to Cairo, he chose Al-Azbakiya not only as his place of residence, but as the location of the Expedition's many administrative offices as well. These were set up north of Alfi Bey's palace, allowing the French leader to keep an eye on the country's bureaucratic affairs. The French press, the first in Egypt (which was later shipped away, together with the departing members of the Expedition), was set up at Al-Ruway'i, as were the Pharmacy and the Diwan (a representative council of the notables of Cairo). The General Accountant (the same Poussielgue mentioned by one of the present merchants of Al-Ruway'i) had his offices in the vicinity, while the financial administration was located on the southern shore of the pond.

During the uprisings of the Cairene population against the French occupation, the quarters around the mosque of Al-Ruway'i were burned down and the mosque itself turned into a tavern as a punitive measure. To assist the French, a Copt named Ya'qoub built a fortress within the Coptic quarter near Al-Gami' Al-Ahmar after the first Cairo uprising; he placed canons on its towers and, in the ensuing battle, the quarter as well as that surrounding the mosque of Osman Katkhuda were destroyed.

This did not prevent the French from transforming Al-Azbakiya into a "little Paris," complete with sidewalk restaurants and coffee shops, amusement parks and theatres, baths, menageries and a hippodrome.

A CAMPAIGN OF URBANISATION: Soon after his accession to power, Mohamed Ali directed his attention towards improving Al-Azbakiya. The cemeteries, now situated in a densely populated area, were removed. The bones were collected and interred in the Gami' Al-'Izam, or Mosque of Bones, built for this purpose between Al-Azbakiya and Abdin. It took four years to transform the quarter to the new ruler's satisfaction. Edward Lane, writing in the 1830s, commented that the Coptic quarter, which "a few years ago presented a row of lofty but dilapidated and sometimes entirely ruined houses [now featured] a row of houses in the Turkish and European styles, tolerably well built and in good repair."

AL-RUWAY'I 2000: Al-Azbakiya's northern shore did not partake in the subsequent development of the area, but remained immersed in the grain trade and the textile industry. It retained its humble urban profile, and has been unaffected by crises, neither promoted nor abandoned in the end. While the weavers began to disappear with the dawn of the 20th century, they were replaced by other artisans and, later still, by retailers. A stone's throw from the building with the painted ceiling slated for demolition, Ataba Square will wake up tomorrow to its usual pandemonium. On its periphery, Al-Ruway'i will cater to its specialised clientele in its slightly mediaeval setting, while its residents watch expectantly for the demolition crews to finish erasing the last traces of the past. Will the area then be propelled towards the affluent and "modern" future they have been dreaming of ?


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