History's Greatest Cities Cairo
Jul 5, 2024
Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Emeritus professor of Islamic art and Cairo history, guides listeners through Cairo's layered past. She traces its rise from Fustat to Fatimid and Mamluk capitals. Short stops highlight surviving monuments, medieval skylines, hidden sites and street food tips. The conversation also touches on modernizing 19th-century reforms and surprising lost infrastructure.
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Mamluk Cairo Reached Global Prominence
- The Mamluk era was Cairo's golden age with rapid urban expansion, monumental patronage and international prominence.
- Under sultans like an-Nasir Muhammad the city grew to about a million people and controlled key trade routes including the spice trade.
How The Mamluk System Produced Rulers
- The Mamluks were soldier-slaves bought, trained, converted and elevated to rule, creating a durable military-elite system rather than hereditary succession.
- They recruited mainly from Central Asia and perpetuated a merit-based, purchased soldiery that later produced sultans.
Muhammad Ali Sparked Western Expansion
- Muhammad Ali's 19th-century rule began Cairo's westward modern expansion as European experts and expatriates settled outside the medieval city.
- The new western quarter grew from the area near Gezira and the Hishkekah pond and introduced European architecture into Cairo.