Fustat

Fustat الفسطاط
Capital of Egypt, 641–750, 905–1168
A drawing of Fustat, from Rappoport's History of Egypt
Nickname:  City of the Tents
Fustat Historical location in Egypt
Coordinates: 30°00′18″N 31°14′15″E / 30.00500°N 31.23750°E / 30.00500; 31.23750
Currently part of	Old Cairo
Rashidun Caliphate	641–661
Umayyad Caliphate	661–750
Abbasid Caliphate	750–969
Fatimid Caliphate	969–1168
Founded	641
Founded by	'Amr ibn al-'As
Population  (12th century)
• Total	200,000

Fustat (

The city reached its peak in the 12th century, with a population of approximately 200,000.[1] It was the centre of administrative power in Egypt, until it was ordered burnt in 1168 by its own vizier, Shawar, to keep its wealth out of the hands of the invading Crusaders. The remains of the city were eventually absorbed by nearby Cairo, which had been built to the north of Fustat in 969 when the Fatimids conquered the region and created a new city as a royal enclosure for the Caliph. The area fell into disrepair for hundreds of years and was used as a rubbish dump.

Today, the ruins of Fustat lie within the modern district of Old Cairo, with few buildings remaining from its days as a capital. Many archaeological digs have revealed the wealth of buried material in the area. Many ancient items recovered from the site are on display in Cairo's Museum of Islamic Art.

Egyptian capital

Fustat was the

For thousands of years, the capital of Egypt was moved with different cultures through multiple locations up and down the Nile, such as Thebes and Memphis, depending on which dynasty was in power. After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt around 331 BC, the capital became the city named for him, Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast. This situation remained stable for nearly a thousand years. After the army of the Arabian Caliph Umar captured the region in the 7th century, shortly after the death of Muhammad, he wanted to establish a new capital. When Alexandria fell in September 641, Amr ibn al-As, the commander of the conquering army, founded a new capital on the eastern bank of the river.^[2]

The early population of the city was composed almost entirely of soldiers and their families, and the layout of the city was similar to that of a garrison. Amr intended for Fustat to serve as a base from which to conquer North Africa, as well as to launch further campaigns against Byzantium.^[6] It remained the primary base for Arab expansion in Africa until Qayrawan was founded in Tunisia in 670.^[9]

Fustat developed as a series of tribal areas, khittas, around the central mosque and administrative buildings.

Fustat was the centre of power in Egypt under the Umayyad dynasty, which had started with the rule of

In the mid-12th century, the caliph of Egypt was the teenager

Seeing that Amalric's attack was imminent, Shawar ordered Fustat city burned, to keep it out of Amalric's hands.[20] According to the Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi (1346–1442):

Shawar ordered that Fustat be evacuated. He forced [the citizens] to leave their money and property behind and flee for their lives with their children. In the panic and chaos of the exodus, the fleeing crowd looked like a massive army of ghosts.... Some took refuge in the mosques and bathhouses...awaiting a Christian onslaught similar to the one in Bilbeis. Shawar sent 20,000 naphtha pots and 10,000 lighting bombs [mish'al] and distributed them throughout the city. Flames and smoke engulfed the city and rose to the sky in a terrifying scene. The blaze raged for 54 days....^[20]

Ayyubid dynasty.^[19]

With Fustat no more than a dying suburb, the center of government moved permanently to nearby Cairo. Saladin later attempted to unite Cairo and Fustat into one city by enclosing them in massive walls, although this proved to be largely unsuccessful.[2]

In 1166 Maimonides went to Egypt and settled in Fustat, where he gained much renown as a physician, practising in the family of Saladin and in that of his vizier Ḳaḍi al-Faḍil al-Baisami, and Saladin's successors. The title Ra'is al-Umma or al-Millah (Head of the Nation or of the Faith), was bestowed upon him. In Fustat, he wrote his Mishneh Torah (1180) and The Guide for the Perplexed.^[21] Some of his writings were later discovered among the manuscript fragments in the geniza (storeroom) of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, located in Fustat.

While the Mamluks were in power from the 13th century to the 16th century, the area of Fustat was used as a rubbish dump, though it still maintained a population of thousands, with the primary crafts being those of pottery and trash-collecting. The layers of garbage accumulated over hundreds of years, and gradually the population decreased, leaving what had once been a thriving city a wasteland.^[5]

Modern Fustat

Today, little remains of the grandeur of the old city. The three capitals, Fustat,

garbage dumps.^[5][22]

The oldest-remaining building from the area is probably the

Mosque of Amr, is still in use, but has been extensively rebuilt over the centuries, and nothing remains of the original structure.^[5] In February 2017 the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation was inaugurated on a site adjacent to the mosque.^[23]

It is believed that further archaeological digs could yield substantial rewards, considering that the remains of the original city are still preserved under hundreds of years of rubbish.[5] Some archaeological excavations have taken place, the paths of streets are still visible, and some buildings have been partially reconstructed to waist-height. Some artifacts that have been recovered can be seen in Cairo's Museum of Islamic Art.^{[24][unreliable source?]}

References

1. ^ Williams, p. 37
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Petersen (1999) p. 44
3. ISBN 978-0674047860
   .
4. ^ Yeomans, p. 15
5. ^ ^{a b c d e} Eyewitness, p. 124
6. ^ ^{a b c} David (2000) p. 59
7. ^ Since it lacks the article on the word Miṣr it would not be "The Pavilion of the Metropolis".
8. Jewish Quarterly Review
   . pp. 1–39.
9. ^ Lapidus, p. 41
10. ^ ^{a b c} Petersen (1999) p. 91
11. ^ Lapidus, p. 52. "In general, Arabic became the language of written communication in administration, literature, and religion. Arabic also became the primary spoken dialect in the western parts of the Middle East – Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia and Iraq – where languages close to Arabic, such as Aramaic, were already spoken. The spread of Arabic was faster than the diffusion of Islam, but this is not to say that the process was rapid or complete. For example, Coptic was still spoken in Fustat in the 8th century."
12. JSTOR 40000079
    .
13. ^ Kjeilin, Tore. "Fustat". Encyclopaedia of the Orient. Archived from the original on 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
14. Saudi Aramco World. pp. 24, 26–30. Archived from the original
    on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
15. ISBN 90-04-09626-4
    .
16. ISBN 0-8225-3221-2
    .
17. ^ Mason (1995) pp.5–7
18. ^ Maalouf, pp. 159–161
19. ^
    ISBN 978-0-674-02387-1
    .
20. ^
    Saudi Aramco World. pp. 20–27. Archived from the original
    on 2011-06-09. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
21. ISBN 978-1-590-30517-1
    .
22. ISBN 978-90-04-21859-8
    .
23. ^ "9 stunning photos of the newly opened National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation". Cairo Scene. Feb 21, 2017. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
24. ^ Alison Gascoigne. "Islamic Cairo". egyptvoyager.com. Archived from the original on 2014-12-02. Retrieved 2007-08-13.

Bibliography

• Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorious (Princeton University Press, 1971).
  ISBN 0-691-03085-5
  .
• Antoniou, Jim (March 1998). "Historic Cairo – rehabilitation of Cairo's historic monuments". Architectural Review.
• David, Rosalie (2000). The Experience of Ancient Egypt. London; New York: Routledge.
  ISBN 0-415-03263-6
  .
• Eyewitness Travel: Egypt. Dorlin Kindersley Limited, London. 2007.
  ISBN 978-0-7566-2875-8
  .
• Ghosh, Amitav, In an Antique Land (Vintage Books, 1994).
  ISBN 0-679-72783-3
  .
• Lapidus, Ira M. (1988). A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge University Press.
  ISBN 0-521-22552-3
  .
• Maalouf, Amin (1984). The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. Al Saqi Books.
  ISBN 0-8052-0898-4
  .
• Mason, Robert B. (1995). "New Looks at Old Pots: Results of Recent Multidisciplinary Studies of Glazed Ceramics from the Islamic World". Muqarnas: Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture. XII. Brill Academic Publishers.
  ISBN 90-04-10314-7
  .
• Petersen, Andrew (1999). Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. London; New York: Routledge.
  ISBN 0-415-21332-0
  .
• Yeomans, Richard (2006). The Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo. Garnet & Ithaca Press.
  ISBN 1-85964-154-7
  .
• Williams, Caroline (2002). Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide. American University in Cairo Press.
  ISBN 977-424-695-0
  .

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fustat.

• Bacharach, Jere L. (2004). Fustat Finds: Beads, Coins, Medical Instruments, Textiles, and Other Artifacts from the Awad Collection. American University in Cairo Press.
  ISBN 977-424-393-5
  .
• Barekeet, Elinoar (1999). Fustat on the Nile: The Jewish Elite in Medieval Egypt. BRILL.
  ISBN 90-04-10168-3
  .
• Kubiak, Wladyslaw (1987). Al-Fusṭāṭ, its foundation and early urban development. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press.
  ISBN 977-424-168-1
  .
• Scanlon, George T. (1974). "The Pits of Fustat: Problems of Chronology". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 60. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 60: 60–78.
  JSTOR 3856171
  .
• Scanlon, George T.; Pinder-Wilson, Ralph (2001). Fustat Glass of the Early Islamic Period: Finds Excavated by the American Research Center in Egypt, 1964–1980. Altajir World of Islam Trust.
  ISBN 1-901435-07-5
  .
• Stewart, W. A. (July 1921). "The Pottery of Fostat, Old Cairo". The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs. 39 (220): 11–13 + 16–18.
• Toler,Pamela D. 2016. "In Fragments from Fustat, Glimpses of a Cosmopolitan Old Cairo." Aramco World. Volume 67 (1), pages 4–9. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/895830331.