Gateway to victory
The 1,000-year-old south gate to the Fatimid city of Al-Qahira has been restored to its former glory without disrupting the life of the surrounding area and its residents, Jill Kamil writes
The grand medieval gateway which once graced the south entrance to the princely Fatimid city of Al-Qahira ("the victorious", from which "Cairo" is derived) has been restored to the elegance of its younger days. Bab Zuweila now stands cleaned and rehabilitated, flanked by information panels which give a stimulating chronicle of its history without overwhelming the space around it. A pleasant circulation route and an exquisite view of medieval Cairo -- unencumbered by unnecessary fencing -- are some of the most welcome facets of the project, one of many such archaeological and conservation schemes in the heart of historic Cairo being carried out by the Egyptian- USAID programme.
This masterpiece of pre-Crusader military architecture was one of three gates built by caliph Badr Al-Gamali in the 11th century. Bab Al-Futuh, Bab Al-Nasr and Bab Zuweila, along with the stretches of wall extending between them, are the work of three brothers from Odessa, Armenian Christians who were skilled masons and engineers. As late as the 19th century the dressed stone gate of Bab Zuweila, named after the Berber tribe quartered near it, marked the southern limit of the city.
The Fatimid dynasty (909 to 1171), whose members were Shi'ites from north Africa, claimed direct descent from the Prophet Mohamed through his daughter Fatima, and thus regarded themselves as rightful heirs to the leadership of the Muslim world. Egypt, exhausted by plague, famine and civic unrest following an earthquake, fell easy prey to the fourth Fatimid caliph, Al-Mu'izz when he entered Egypt at the head of a huge army.
The new leaders captured Fustat, which had been founded by 'Amr Ibn Al'As near the Old Roman fortress of Babylon, and Al-Askar ("the cantonments" to the north), and laid out a new royal quarter which they called Al-Qahira. The massive fortifications, stone walls with gates and towers soaring to a height of 20 metres above the street were designed to withstand the invaders who, as it turned out, never came.
Nowadays the Cairo bazaar is quartered in the old Fatimid area, so that one normally approaches Bab Zuweila by meandering past the shops and stalls of the Tentmakers' Street. The gate itself is entered from the mosque of Al- Mu'ayyad, whose twin minarets rise from the gate's projecting towers.
The history of the monument is told through archaeology, while the exhibition sequence which guides visitors through the tower leads up a new staircase built to ensure they circulate smoothly. The Information panels are designed for a general audience of tourists and schoolchildren, with the first three areas featuring chronological aspects and the remaining areas containing archaeological stories. Each has self-contained information under a title which clearly states its content; they can consequently be read at random, providing relaxed access to a wealth of information. Exhibition space is extensive and, as one makes one's way through, it is clear that the locations of the panels were carefully placed in the most relevant and least intrusive places.
Of the 14 Fatimid caliphs who reigned in Egypt, some were good and capable rulers, others less so, but on the whole they were efficient and tolerant.
Indeed, the convivial relations between Muslims and Copts under most of the Fatimids was exemplified by the words of Patriarch Kirollos in 1086, when he told lay Copts to lead virtuous lives and obey the laws and practices of the country. The spirit of the age is expressed, among other things, in the employment of Copts in the government and Muslim participation in Christian feasts. The Hanging Church in Old Cairo (Al-Mo'allaqa) was restored under the Fatimids, and later acquired distinction under the Coptic reformer Christodoupolis (Anba Akhristudulus) when the Coptic patriarchate moved from Alexandria to Cairo from the year 1049 to 1078. It became the place for the election, consecration or enthronement of the patriarchs and a centre for theologians, lawyers and astronomers.
Great wealth flowed into the country from the sea-borne commerce of the Fatimids, whose fleet of ships traded all over the Mediterranean, and public order was such that it was possible for shops, jewellers and moneylenders to leave their doors open. However, it is hard to recreate in the mind's eye the gilded and enamelled court of the caliphate with a reputed 30,000 dependents and courtiers robed in rich garments. A traveller to Cairo in 1046 described five and six-storey houses surrounded by gardens and orchards. It was a period in which the population was allowed full freedom and equality: Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims, Armenians, Copts, Jews, Melkites (Chalcedonians), and Syrians.
But despite the prosperity and fair government there were frequent civil wars. In the last resort, the power of the dynasty rested with the troops, who were mercenaries of many countries -- including Berbers, Sudanese and Turkish slaves. Rivalries, quarrels and intrigues of rival viziers, coupled with anarchy and epidemics, resulted in a "great crisis" which came to an end only when Salaheddin put an end to the to the Fatimid Caliphate.
From the top of Bab Zuweila there is a remarkable view of Cairo's historic zone, most of which is much in need of continued conservation. But little of what we see is the Fatimid city itself. When the Citadel, one of the greatest of mediaeval fortresses, became the seat of the government and official residence of Egypt's rulers in the time of Salaheddin, imposing new enclosure walls were built to house a multitude of military and civil buildings and the older Fatimid structures were marred by development. Houses and factories were built beside, on or even within the towers of the Fatimid fortifications.
The city that now grew up was almost entirely composed of short streets, twisting alleys and innumerable dead-ends. It is little wonder that the French academics who accompanied Napoleon's army to Egypt towards the end of the 18th century should find the task of producing the first accurately-scaled map of Cairo baffling. Nor is it surprising that in 1881, at the time of the Khedive Tawfiq, when the Museum of Arab Art (later the Islamic Museum) and the Comité de conservation des monuments de l'art Arabe (simply, the Comité) were founded, they faced a difficult task. French troops, incidentally, occupied some of the upper floors of the Fatimid towers and crenellations.
The Comité was affiliated to the Ministery of Awqaf (Endowments), and its first mission was to list monuments considered worthy of preservation. Chosen were representative examples of Tulunid, Fatimid, Ayubid, Bahri and Burji Mameluk, or Ottoman, styles, which were to be "monumentalised" as "antiquities".
A consensus was hard to reach. Although orientalists and Egyptians (pointing to crumbling buildings and rubbish heaps that endangered public health) agreed that Al-Qahira had decayed under the Ottoman Turks, not all Egyptians hailed the Westernised buildings of the reigning dynasty as signs of civilisation and progress. One member of the Comité, Ahmed Zaki, a bibliophile and scholar of Arabic literature, declared that European neo-Islamic architecture was a failure and worked towards the revival of Arab art extinguished by the Ottoman conquest four centuries earlier.
Nevertheless, a philosophy of preservation was formulated. The Comité would repair such portions of historical buildings as were in urgent need of repair, while endeavouring to maintain them in their current state. In other words, they would stabilise the monuments and not permit rash restoration. This was a most worthy outlook, on paper at least. But unfortunately, in order to create grand vistas for tourists to photograph them, the monuments were stripped of the living fabric into which they were woven. The Comité's emphasis on mosques and mausolea was to the exclusion of houses and smaller structures. In the frenzied rush to modernise the city on European lines, it was inevitable that there would be dissent between advocates of the artistic and historical value of certain monuments and those who attached religious associations to these holy places. Should, for example, the fountain near Bab Zuweila be moved -- as indeed it eventually was -- because it obstructed carriage and pack-animal traffic? And was the unpleasant historic fact that Bab Zuweila was once used for hanging criminals be expunged or propagated?
This excellent Egyptian-USAID conservation and restoration programme within Cairo's historic zone is now complete. The restorers have used the latest methods of conservation and restoration while preserving the living environment in which the monument is located. Little shops in the gateway have been restored, while those outside the gateway, along with fruit sellers' carts, itinerant traders, hawkers remain. Bab Zuweila should be used as a model for mediaeval Cairo restoration to be enthusiastically followed.
