The History behind Egyptian Cotton

      Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the "genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae”. The fibre is almost pure cellulose. 

COTTON PLANT

The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, Egypt and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds.

COTTON HARVEST

The fibre is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times; fragments of cotton fabric dated to the fifth millennium BC have been found in the Indus Valley Civilization. Although cultivated since antiquity, it was the invention of the cotton gin (a machine that separate the cotton from the seed) that lowered the cost of production that in turn led to its widespread use, and it is the most widely used natural fibre cloth in clothing today.

COTTON FEILDS

Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tones or 110 million bales annually, accounting for 2.5% of the world's arable land. China is the world's largest producer of cotton, but most of this is used domestically. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years.

The earliest evidence of cotton use in the Indian subcontinent has been found at the site of Mehrgarh and Rakhigarhi where cotton threads have been found preserved in copper beads; these finds have been dated to the Neolithic (5th millennium BC). Cotton cultivation in the region is dated to the Indus Valley Civilization, which covered parts of modern eastern Pakistan and northwestern India between 3300 and 1300 BC. The Indus cotton industry was well-developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the industrialization of India. Between 2000 and 1000 BC cotton became widespread across much of India. For example, it has been found at the site of Hallus in Karnataka dating from around 1000 BC.

OLD MAN SPINNING COTTON

LONG FIBRE
EGYPTIAN COTTON

For thousands of years cotton has grown in Egypt yet they used flax to create linen.

They would turn almost ripe stems into yarn after soaking them in water for around a week. Then they would carefully separate the fibres and by using a spinning tool they would expertly twist and spin the fibres into yarns then weave them into fabric on a loom. Back in the early 1800s a guy named Jumel from France persuaded Egypt’s head of state Muhammad Ali to sample a piece of cotton he had named Maho an extra-long cotton staple. 

Muhammad Ali was so impressed he made him a plantation manager and then built up his cotton crops and spread them all over the Delta region of the River Nile. 

HARVESTING COTTON

He dominated the cotton business and started selling his crops for a set price annually. This gave a huge boost to the economy and also sparked interest from Europe. Muhammad Ali continued to dominate the industry and developed Egypt into a cotton colony connecting with the textile industry in Europe.  Egypt under Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century had the fifth most productive cotton industry in the world, in terms of the number of spindles per capita which brought huge profits for Egypt.

Chourbagy & Aboud are some of the big names associated with the cotton industry when the industry of cotton was flourishing in El-Mahala El-Kobra and Zakazik.

COTTON SOLD LOCALY BY THE POUND

After Muhammad Ali passed away the next generation of heads of state used the cotton success and started to get loans from some banks in Europe. They wanted to modernize the production of cotton so they could increase the exports. These loans had high interest rates but because of the vast amount of cotton being produced Egypt could manage the debt. This revolutionized Egypt in to a modern country that became knowledgeable in credit systems.

COTTON PLANTATION

Unfortunately the American civil war cut off Europe from their cotton exports and so in Egypt the prices went crazy and in the space of just two years the price rose to many folds, Egyptian exports reached 1.2 million bales a year by 1903.. Muhammad Ali’s grandson Ismail decided to do something and so he looked to develop a part of Cairo into a city like Paris which he did and later was called ‘Paris on the Nile’ he also build the Suez Canal which became a valuable resource for Egypt. But once the war ended America started exporting cotton back to Europe which was a disaster for the cotton industry in Egypt.

MAHALA MODERN TEXTILE FATORY

SPINNING FACTORY

Finally when France and England forced Ismail to abdicate in 1879 they ruled Egypt and turned it into a colony. They gained control of the Egyptian cotton industry right through until Egypt gained independence.

Many will remember the famous "Linon" an Egyptian cotton made into a fabric in Switzerland and made to measure for fancy dress shirts at tailors like Swelam in Cairo.  

Today raw or manufactured cotton is still one of Egypt’s major exports!

Information and pictures from Internet

Egyptian National Railways (ENR)

Translated to Arabic as the (metal road)

 Al-Sikak al-Ḥadīdiyyah

In 1833, Muhammad Ali Pasha considered building a railway between Suez and Cairo to improve transit between Europe and India. Muhammad Ali had proceeded to buy the rail when the French who had an interest in building a canal instead, pressured him to abandon the rail project.

TRACKS MESURMENTS

In 1851 Muhammad Ali successor Abbas the First  contracted Robert Stephenson to build Egypt's first standard gauge railway. A “1435 mm gauge” track. (The width from one rail to the other) Broader gauge railways are generally more expensive to build, but offer higher speed, stability, and capacity. For routes with high traffic, greater capacity may more than offset the higher initial cost of construction.

The first section, between Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast and Kafr el-Zayyat on the Rosetta branch of the Nile was opened in 1854. This was the first railway in the Ottoman Empire as well as in Africa and the Middle East. This same year Abbas died and was succeeded by Sa'id Pasha, in whose reign the section between Kafr el-Zayyat and Cairo was completed by the year 1856 followed by an extension from Cairo to Suez in 1858. This completed the first modern transport link between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, 11 years before Ferdinand de Lesseps completed the Suez Canal waterway in 1869.

At Kafr el-Zayyat the line between Cairo and Alexandria originally crossed the Nile with an 80 feet (24 m) car float. However, on 15 May 1858 a special train conveying Sa'id's heir presumptive Ahmad Rifaat Pasha fell off the float into the river and the prince was drowned.

EARLY MAP OF TRAIN STATIONS IN THE DELTA

Stephenson then replaced the car float with a swing bridge nearly 500 metres (1,600 ft) long. By the end of Sa'id's reign branches had been completed from Banha to Zagazig on the Damietta branch of the Nile in 1860, to Mit Bera in 1861 and from Tanta to Talkha further down the Damietta Nile in 1863.

Sa'id's successor Isma'il Pasha strove to modernize Egypt and added momentum to railway development. In 1865 a new branch reached Desouk on the Rosetta Nile and a second route between Cairo and Talkha was opened, giving a more direct link between Cairo and Zagazig. The following year a branch southwards from Tanta reached Shibin El Kom. The network started to push southwards along the west side of the Nile with the opening of the line between Imbaba near Cairo and Minya in the south in 1867. A short branch to Faiyum was added in 1868. A line between Zagazig and Suez via Nifisha was completed in the same year. The following year the line to Talkha was extended to Damietta on the Mediterranean coast and a branch opened to Salhiya and Sama'ana.

TRAIN TO ALEXANDRIA EARLY 1890'S

Imbaba had no rail bridge across the Nile to Cairo until 1891. However, a long line between there and a junction west of Kafr el-Zayyat opened in 1872, linking Imbaba with the national network. From Minya the line southwards made slower progress, reaching Mallawi in 1870 and Assiut in 1874. The rails lines on the West bank reach Nag Hammadi from where it crosses to the east bank of the Nile till Aswan.

ROYAL TRAIN

A shorter line southwards linked Cairo with Tura / Maadi in 1872 and was extended to Helwan in 1875. In the Nile Delta the same year a short branch reached Kafr el-Sheikh and in 1876 a line along the Mediterranean coast linking the termini at Alexandra and Rosetta was completed.

By 1877, Egypt had a network of key main lines and the Nile Delta had quite a network, but with this and other development investments, Isma'il had gotten the country deeply into debt.

EARLY EGYPT TRAINS

For its first 25 years of operation Egypt's national railway had never even produced an annual report. Council of Administration with Egyptian, British and French members was then appointed in 1877 to put the railway's affairs in order. They published its first annual report in 1879, and in the same year, the British Government had Isma'il Pasha deposed, exiled and replaced with his son Tewfik Pasha. 

In 1882, the British essentially invaded and occupied Egypt since that time until 1956.

With these developments, the Egyptian Railway Administration's rail network stagnated until 1888, but it also put its management in much better order. In 1883 the ERA appointed Frederick Harvey Trevithick, as Chief Mechanical Engineer. Trevithick found a heterogeneous fleet of up to 246 steam locomotives of many different designs from very different builders in England, Scotland, France and the USA. This lack of standardization of locomotives or components complicated both locomotive maintenance and general railway operation.

ALEXANDRIA RAILWAY STATION

From 1877 to 1888, the ERA struggled to keep up with even basic maintenance but by 1887 Trevithick managed to start a program to renew 85 of the very mixed fleet of locomotives with new boilers, cylinders and motion. For the others he started to replace them with four standard locomotive types introduced from 1889 onwards: one class of 0-6-0 for freight, one class of 2-4-0 for mixed traffic, one 0-6-0T tank locomotive for shunting and one class of only ten 2-2-2 locomotives for express passenger trains. Trevithick ensured that these four classes shared as many common components as possible, which simplified maintenance and reduced costs still further.

TRAIN TO ASSIUT

By 1888, the ERA was in better order and could resume expanding its network. In 1890 a second line between Cairo and Tura opened. On 15 May 1892 the Imbaba Bridge was built across the Nile, linking Cairo with the line south following the west bank of the river. The civil engineer for the bridge was Gustave Eiffel. (It was reformed and renewed in 1924 which is still the only railway bridge across the Nile in Cairo.) Cairo's main Misr Station was rebuilt in 1892. The line south was extended further upriver from Assiut reaching Girga in 1892, Nag Hammadi in 1896, Qena in 1897 and Luxor and Aswan in 1898. With the railroad's completion, construction began the same year on the first Aswan Dam and the Assiut Barrage, main elements of a plan initiated in 1890 by the government to modernize and more fully develop Egypt's existing irrigated agriculture, export potential, and ability to repay debts to European creditors.

EGYPT RAILWAYS MAP

In 1891, a link line was opened between Damanhur and Desouk. The line to Shibin El Kom was extended south to Minuf in the same year and reached Ashum in 1896. By then a line across the Nile Delta from a junction north of Talkha on the line to Damietta had reached Biyala. By 1898 this reached Kafr el-Sheikh, completing a more direct route between Damietta and Alexandria. An important extension along the west bank of the Suez Canal linking Nifisha with Ismaïlia, Al Qantarah West and Port Said was completed in 1904. Thereafter network expansion was slower but two short link lines north of Cairo were completed in 1911 followed by a link between Zagazig and Zifta in 1914.

TRAIN PASSING BY ZAGAZIG

Sinai

PALESTINE RAILWAY SYSTEM
FROM CAIRO TO BEIRUT
AND HIGAZ

The first El Ferdan Railway Bridge over the Suez Canal was completed in April 1918 for the Palestine Military Railway. It was considered a hindrance to shipping so after the First World War it was removed. During the Second World War a steel swing bridge was built in 1942 but this was damaged by a steamship and removed in 1947. A double swing bridge was completed in 1954 but the 1956 Israeli invasion of Sinai severed rail traffic across the canal for a third time. A replacement bridge was completed in 1963 but destroyed in the Six-Day War in 1967. A new double swing bridge was completed in 2001 and is the largest swing bridge in the World. However, the construction of the New Suez Canal has since disconnected the Sinai from the rest of Egypt’s rail network again. Instead of the bridge, two rail tunnels are planned under the canal, one near Ismailia and one in Port Said.

TRAIN TICKET FROM
EL KANTARA EGYPT
 TO TEL AVIV PALESTINE

Historically, the Palestine Railways main line linked Al Qantarah East in Egypt with Palestine and Lebanon. It was built in three phases during the First and Second World Wars. Commenced in 1916, it was extended to Rafah on the border with Palestine as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's Sinai and Palestine Campaign against the Ottoman Empire. The route was extended through to Haifa in Mandate Palestine after World War I, to Tripoli, Lebanon in 1942 and became a vital part of the wartime supply route for Egypt.

Many Syro-Lebaneese living in Egypt would board the train from Cairo and travel to Haifa then to Lebanon for the summer vacations departing from the Cairo rail station for  a 24 hours long ride.

EL-FERDAN THE LONGEST DOUBLE SWING BRIDGE 
IN THE WOLD
CROSSING THE SUEZ CANAL 

As a result of the 1946–48 Israeli War of Independence and subsequent 1948 Arab-Israeli War the Palestine Railways main line was severed at the 1949 Armistice Line. The 1956 Israeli invasion severed Sinai's rail link with the rest of Egypt but reconnected its rail link with Israel. Israel captured a 4211 class 0-6-0 diesel shunting locomotive and five 545 class 2-6-0 steam locomotives. Israel also captured rolling stock including a six-wheel coach dating from 1893 and a 30-ton steam crane built in 1950, both of which Israel Railways then appropriated into its broken down fleet. 

Before being forced to withdraw from Sinai in March 1957, Israel systematically destroyed infrastructure including the railway. By 1963 the railway in Sinai was reconnected to the rest of Egypt but remained disconnected from Israel.

TRAIN STATION IN EGYPT

In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured more Egyptian railway equipment including one EMD G8, four EMD G12 and three EMD G16 diesel locomotives all of which were appropriated into Israel Railways stock. After 1967 Israel again destroyed the railway across occupied Sinai and this time used the materials in the construction of the Bar Lev Line of fortifications along the Suez Canal.

After numerous years' of service on Israel Railways the Egyptian 30-ton crane, 1893 Belgian 6-wheel coach and one of the EMD G16 diesels are all preserved in the Israel Railway Museum in Haifa Museum.

OLD LOCOMOTIVE IN MUSEUM

Egypt's railway museum was built in 1932 next to Misr Station (now Ramses Station) in Cairo. The museum opened in January 1933 to mark the city's hosting of the International Railway Congress. Its stock of over 700 items includes models, historic drawings and photographs. Among its most prominent exhibits are three preserved steam locomotives:

(The X-X-X is the design standard called the Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement)

A graphic of the Whyte notation, with the wheel-arrangement shown being a 4-8-4. (Four leading wheels, eight drive wheels, and four trailing wheels.

2-4-2 no. 30, built by Robert Stephenson and Company in 1862

0-6-0 no. 986, built by Robert Stephenson and Company in 1861

4-4-2 no. 194, built by the North British Locomotive Company in 1905 Operations

4-4-0 locomotive number 694: one of a class of 15 built by the North British Locomotive Company in Scotland for Egyptian State Railways in 1905-06

In 2005 ENR operated 5,063 kilometres  of standard gauge 1,435 mm track. Most of the rail system is focused on the Nile delta with lines essentially fanning out from Cairo. In addition, there is a line to the west along the coast that eventually could link to Libya as it did during World War II. From Cairo goes a major line south along the east bank of the Nile to Aswan in Upper Egypt.

CAIRO RAILWAY MUSEUM

Neighbouring Israel uses the same standard gauge but has been disconnected since 1948. In the South the railway system of Sudan operates on a narrow gauge and was reached after using the ferry past the Aswan dam. After the new High dam was build and the Nasser lake was formed the rail system to Sudan was abandoned.

Rail service is a critical part of the transportation infrastructure of Egypt but of limited service for transit. 63 kilometres  of the network was electrified, namely commuter lines between Cairo-Helwan and Cairo-Heliopolis. In recent years the lines have been replaced by a new metro system and the network extended by many kilometres .

ENR buys locomotives and rail abroad but passenger coaches are built and refurbished in Egypt by the Société Générale Egyptienne de Matériel de Chemins de Fer (SEMAF).

Cargo volume transported by ENR is about 12 million tons annually.

On January 16, 2015 Egyptian National Railways signed a €100 million contract with Alstom to supply signaling equipment for the 240 km Beni Suef-Asyut line and maintain services for five years. Alstom will also provide smartlock electronic interlocking system to replace the existing electromechanical system, which in turn will increase the number of trains that operate on the route by more than 80%.

Passenger trains

Imbaba Train Bridge linking Cairo with Aswan
Bridge build by Mr. Gustave Eiffel

ENR is the backbone of passenger transportation in Egypt with 800 million passenger miles annually. Air-conditioned passenger trains usually have 1st and 2nd class service, while non-air-conditioned trains have 2nd and 3rd class. Most of the network connects the densely populated area of the Nile delta with Cairo and Alexandria as hubs. Train fares in commuter trains and 3rd class passenger trains are kept low as a social service.

Sleeper trains

The Alexandria–Cairo–Luxor–Aswan route is served daily in both directions by air-conditioned sleeper trains of Abela Egypt. This service is especially attractive to tourists who can spend the night on the train as it covers the stretch between Cairo and Luxor. A luxury express train also links Cairo with Marsa Matruh towards the Libyan border.

Data research and Pictures from internet

Egypt Post

The (El-Barid El-Maṣri) is the governmental agency responsible for postal service in Egypt. Established in 1865, it is one of the oldest governmental institutions in the country.

TOUT ANKH AMON

History

Modern Egyptian postal service began when Carlo Meratti, an Italian, living in Alexandria, established a post office to send and receive mail to and from foreign countries as early as 1821. Meratti took the responsibility of sending and distributing the letters for a price. He transferred his activity to Cairo and Alexandria through his office in Saint Catherine Square near Hannaux (formerly Qansal Square). After Meratti's departure his nephew, Tito Chini (who agreed with the importance of the project) succeeded his uncle with a friend, Giacomo Muzzi. The two partners upgraded the project, naming it the Posta Europea.

POSTA EUROPEA EGYPT STAMP 

The post office began sending, receiving and delivering correspondence from the government and individuals, and the Posta Europea earned the public trust. At the inauguration of the first railway between Alexandria and Kafr el-Zayyat in 1845 the company established branches in Cairo, Atfeih, and Rashid (Rosetta), followed by another two branches (in Damanhour and Kafr El Zayyat) in 1855. When the railway was extended from Kafr El Zayyat to Cairo (via Tanta, Benha and Birket el-Sab), the company exploited this opportunity and used the railways to carry the post between Cairo and Alexandria for a five-year contract, beginning in January 1856. The contract was as a monopolistic franchise to transport the post to northern Egypt, where it stipulated a fine to be paid to the Posta Europea by anyone caught pilfering mail.

KHEDIVE ISMAIEL

Khedive Ismaiel realized the importance of the Posta Europea and purchased it from Muzzi (after the departure of his partner, Tito Chini) on October 29, 1864. The Egyptian government offered Muzzi the position of general manager of the post and on January 2, 1865, the private Posta Europea was transferred to the Egyptian government. This date is noted as Post Day.

Government administration

At it's beginning, Egypt Post was affiliated with the Ministry of Occupations; it was then transferred to a succession of ministries, and in 1865 Egypt Post was attached to the Ministry of Finance. On September 28, 1876, Egypt Post was put under the purview of the Rulings Council Chief and the Ministers of Interior and Finance. On May 19, 1875 it joined the Ministry of Justice and Trade and the Ministry of Finance again on December 10, 1878. The regulations related to the organization of a post office was issued by the Ministry of Finance on December 21, 1865, stipulating that transferring mail and issuing post stamps was the exclusive job of the Egyptian government. In March 1876 a decree was issued for all post offices providing all employees with two uniforms: one for work and the other for ceremonies. The decree was amended to specify the model and type of the uniform.

EARLY AIR-MAIL STAMP

In 1919, Law No. 7 was passed for the Ministry of Transportation appropriate the railways, telegraph, telephones, postal authority, ports, and road and air transportation. Comprehensive Law No. 9 was issued later to set fees for transporting the post and the postal-management headquarters was moved from Alexandria to Cairo, to it's building in Al-Ataba Square.

Since its establishment, the post (in addition to its regular postal activity) has sold salt and soda stamps (discontinued in 1899), steamboat tickets, debt and shares coupons, stamped paper, and telegraph and telephone service in return for fees paid to the Telephone Authority.

The Post in the 20th century

In 1934 the 10th conference of the Universal Postal Union was held in Cairo, on the 70th anniversary of the Egyptian Post. After the July 1952 revolution a separate budget was allocated for the post, giving it the right to direct its surplus revenues toward improving and boosting the postal service.

POSTA EUROPEA

In 1957 Presidential Decree No. 710 was issued, establishing the Egyptian Post Authority to replace the previous postal authority. In 1959 the civil-services system (including local post offices and agencies) began, and in 1961 a secondary postal school was established by presidential decree. In 1965 the Institute of Postal Affairs was also established; in 1975, it joined the trade department at Helwan University.

YOUNG KING FAROUK

In 1966 a presidential decree was issued establishing the General Post Authority to replace the Egyptian Post Authority, and in 1970 Law No. 16 was passed regulating the Egyptian post. 1982 saw the issuance of Law No. 19 establishing the National Post Authority, replacing the General Post Authority and attaching it to the Ministry of Transportation.

Ministerial Decree No. 70, in 1982, was a special regulation concerning Post Authority's personnel; Decree No. 55 that same year regulated the authority's finances. In 1999 the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology was established to supervise the National Post Authority, Egypt Telecom and the National Communications Institute.

SAVING

In 1861, Great Britain became the first nation to offer such an arrangement. Sir Rowland Hill, who successfully advocated the penny post, and William Ewart Gladstone, and then Chancellor of the Exchequer, who saw it as a cheap way to finance the public debt, supported it. At the time, banks were mainly in the cities and largely catered to wealthy customers. Rural citizens and the poor had no choice but to keep their funds at home or on their persons.

 The original Post Office Savings Bank was limited to deposits of £30 per year with a maximum balance of £150. Interest was paid at the rate of 2.5 percent per annum on whole pounds in the account. Later, the limits were raised to a maximum of £500 per year in deposits with no limit on the total amount. Within five years of the system's establishment, there were over 600,000 accounts and £8.2 million on deposit. By 1927, there were twelve million accounts—one in four Britons—with £283 million (£15,502 million today) on deposit.

Commemoration of King Farouk wedding

The British system first offered only savings accounts. In 1880, it also became a retail outlet for government bonds, and in 1916 introduced war savings certificates, which were renamed National Savings Certificates in 1920. In 1956, it launched a lottery bond, the Premium Bond, which became its most popular savings certificate. 

TAHA HUSSEIN

Post Office Savings Bank became National Savings Bank in 1969, later renamed National Savings and Investments (NS&I), an agency of HM Treasury. While continuing to offer National Savings services, the (then) General Post Office, created the National Giro in 1968 (privatized as Girobank and acquired by Alliance & Leicester in 1989).

Many other countries adopted such systems soon afterwards. Japan established a postal savings system in 1875 and the Netherlands government started systems in 1881.

Egypt implemented the saving system not much later. Low-income individuals, mainly in rural areas where no commercial banks are easily available make deposits into the Postal Authority savings fund striving postal system, which remains in function until today. Operations have evolved to include ATM’s and Debit cards in every imaginable little division in a village.

First Egyptian stamp issued on 1 January 1866.

Egyptian capital Cairo (Al-Qahira)

Known as Al-Qahira or El-Fustat or Memphis.

Memphis

Ramses II statue in Memphis

Memphis located close the Sakara Pyramids in now Gizeh became the capital of Ancient Egypt for over eight consecutive dynasties during the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC). The city reached a peak of prestige under the 6th dynasty as a centre for the worship of Ptah, the god of creation and artworks. The alabaster sphinx that guards the Temple of Ptah serves as a memorial of the city's former power and prestige. The Memphis triad, consisting of the creator god Ptah, his consort Sekhmet, and their son Nefertem, formed the main focus of worship in the city.

Alabaster Sphinx of Memphis

Memphis declined briefly after the 18th dynasty with the rise of (1549/1550 BC to 1292 BC.) Thebes and the New Kingdom, and was revived under the Persians before falling firmly into second place following the foundation of Alexandria. Under the Roman Empire, Alexandria remained the most important Egyptian City. Memphis remained the second city of Egypt until the establishment of Fustat (or Fostat) in 641 CE. It was then largely abandoned and became a source of stone for the surrounding settlements. It was still an imposing set of ruins in the 12th century but soon became a little more than an expanse of low ruins and scattered stone.

Babylon Fortress's remains in old Cairo

The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a focal point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the modern city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance, the Romans established a fortress town along the East bank of the Nile. This fortress, known as Babylon, was the nucleus of the Roman and then the Byzantine City and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, which separated from the Roman and Byzantine churches in the late 4th century. Many of Cairo's oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo.

Fustat

Rendering of Fustat landscape

El-Fustat (Arabic: الفسطاط), was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule. It was built by the Muslim general 'Amr ibn al-'As immediately after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, and featured the Mosque of Amr, the first mosque built in Egypt and in all of Africa.

The city reached its peak in the 12th century, with a population of approximately 200,000. 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 Fatimid’s (descents from Fatimah, the daughter of Islamic prophet Mohammed) 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.

Ben Ezra Synagogue in old Cairo (1892)

Today, Fustat is part 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.

Fustat was the capital of Egypt for approximately 500 years. After the city was founded in 641, its authority was uninterrupted until 750, when the Abbasid dynasty (descendents of El-Abas Ebn Abbi El-Moutalib uncle of prophet Mohammed) staged a revolt against the Umayyad (Umayya Ibn Shams from Syria). This conflict was focused not in Egypt, but elsewhere in the Arab world. When the Abbasids gained power, they moved various capitals to more controllable areas.

Rendering of Ibn Toulum mosque

They had established the centre of their caliphate in Baghdad, moving the capital from its previous Umayyad location at Damascus. Similar moves were made throughout the new dynasty. In Egypt, they moved the capital from Fustat slightly north to the Abbasid city of al-Askar (city of the solders مدينة العسكري ), which remained the capital until 868. When the Tulunid dynasty (from Turkish origins) took control in 868, the Egyptian capital moved briefly to another nearby northern city, Al-Qatta'I build by “Ahmed Ebn Tulun”. This lasted only until 905, when Al-Qatta'i was destroyed and the capital was returned to Fustat. The city again lost its status as capital city when its own vizier, Shawar, ordered it's burning in 1168. The capital of Egypt was ultimately moved to Cairo.

According to legend, the location of Fustat was chosen by a bird: A dove laid an egg in the tent of 'Amr ibn al-'As (585–664), the Muslim conqueror of Egypt, just before he was to march against Alexandria in 646. His camp at that time was just north of the Roman fortress of Babylon. Amr declared the dove's nest as a sign from God, and the tent was left untouched as he and his troops went off to battle. When they returned victorious, Amr told his soldiers to pitch their tents around his, giving his new capital city its name, Miṣr al-Fusṭāṭ, or Fusṭāṭ Miṣr, popularly translated as "City of the tents", though this is not an exact translation.

Late 1800 picture Old Cairo

The word Miṣr was an ancient Semitic root designating Egypt, but in Arabic also has the meaning of a large city or metropolis (or, as a verb, "to civilize"), so the name Miṣr al-Fusṭāṭ could mean "Metropolis of the Tent". Fusṭāṭ Miṣr would mean "The Pavilion of Egypt". Egyptians to this day call Cairo "Miṣr", or, colloquially, Maṣr, even though this is properly the name of the whole country of Egypt. The country's first mosque, the Mosque of Amr, was later built in 642 on the same site of the commander's tent.

Moez Street in Al-Qahira

The Mosque of Amr ibn-al-As. Though none of the original structure remains was the first one built in Egypt, and it was around this location, at the site of the tent of the commander Amr ibn-al-As, that the city of Fustat was built.

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 after 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.

To the right the hanging church (2 bell towers)
To the left remains from Babylon fortress (round structure)

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. It remained the primary base for Arab expansion in Africa until Qayrawan was founded in Tunisia in 670.

Fustat developed as a series of tribal areas, khittas, around the central mosque and administrative buildings. The majority of the settlers came from Yemen, with the next largest grouping from western Arabia, along with some Jews and Roman mercenaries. Arabic was generally the primary spoken dialect in Egypt, and was the language of written communication. However Coptic was still spoken in Fustat in the 8th century.

Inside a very old building

Archaeological digs have found many kilns (high temperature ovens) and ceramic fragments in Fustat, and it was likely an important production location for Islamic ceramics during the Fatimid period.

Fustat was the centre of power in Egypt under the Umayyad dynasty, which had started with the rule of Muawiyah I, and headed the Islamic caliphate from 660 to 750. However, Egypt was considered only a province of larger powers, and was ruled by governors who were appointed from other Muslim centres such as Damascus, Medina, and Baghdad.

Fustat was a major city, and in the 9th century, it had a population of approximately 120,000.

Al Qahira

Entrance to the Hanging Church

When General Gawhar (Fatimit General) captured the region, he founded a new city just north of Fustat on August 8, 969, naming it Al Qahira (Cairo) "the Vanquisher" or "the Conqueror", supposedly due to the fact that the planet Mars, an-Najm al-Qāhir "the Conquering Star", was rising at the time when the city was founded, and in 971, the Fatimid Caliph al-Mo'ezz moved his court from al-Mansuriya in Tunisia to Al Qahira in Egypt. Al Qahira was not intended as a center of government at the time, it was used primarily as the royal enclosure for the Caliph and his court and army, while Fustat remained the capital in terms of economic and administrative power. The City thrived and grew, and in 987, the geographer Ibn Hawkal wrote that al-Fustat was approximately one-third the size of Baghdad. By 1168, it had a population of 200,000.

During that time, Jawhar also commissioned the construction of the al-Azhar Mosque by order of the Caliph, which developed into the third-oldest university in the world. Cairo would eventually become a centre of learning.

The city was known for its prosperity, with shaded streets, gardens, and markets. It contained high-rise residential buildings, some seven storey’s tall, which could reportedly accommodate hundreds of people. Al-Muqaddasi in the 10th century described them as Minarets, while Nasir Khusraw in the early 11th century described some of them rising up to 14 stories, with roof gardens on the top storey complete with ox-drawn water wheels for irrigation.

The Persian traveller, Nasir-i-Khusron, wrote of the exotic and beautiful wares in the Fustat markets: iridescent pottery, crystal, and many fruits and flowers, even during the winter months. From 975 to 1075, Fustat was a major production centre for Islamic art and ceramics, and one of the wealthiest cities in the world.  Modern archaeological digs have turned up trade artifacts from as far away as Spain, China, and Vietnam. Excavations have also revealed intricate house and street plans; a basic unit consisted of rooms built around a central courtyard, with an arcade of arches on one side of the courtyard being the principal means of access.

Destruction and decline

Sabil (water fountain) in old Cairo

In the mid-12th century, the caliph of Egypt was the teenager Athid, but his position was primarily ceremonial. The true power in Egypt was that of the vizier, Shawar. He had been involved in extensive political intrigue for years, working to repel the advances of both the Christian Crusaders, and the forces of the Nur al-Din from Syria. Shawar managed this by constantly shifting alliances between the two, playing them against each other, and in effect keeping them in a stalemate where neither army could successfully attack Egypt without being blocked by the other.

However, in 1168, the Christian King Amalric I of Jerusalem, who had been trying for years to launch a successful attack on Egypt in order to expand the Crusader territories, had finally achieved a certain amount of success. He and his army entered Egypt, sacked the city of Bilbeis, slaughtered nearly all of its inhabitants, and then continued on towards Fustat. Amalric and his troops camped just south of the city, and then sent a message to the young Egyptian caliph Athid, only 18 years old, to surrender the city or suffer the same fate as Bilbeis.

According to the Egyptian historian Al-Maqrizi (1346–1442):

Seeing that Amalric's attack was imminent, Shawar ordered Fustat City burned, to keep it out of Amalric's hands.

Mosaic found in Fustat ruins

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.....

After the destruction of Fustat, the Syrian forces arrived and successfully repelled Amalric's forces. Then with the Christians gone, the Syrians were able to conquer Egypt themselves. The untrustworthy Shawar was put to death, and the reign of the Fatimids was effectively over. The Syrian general Shirkuh was placed in power, but died due to ill health just a few months later, after which his nephew Saladin became vizier of Egypt on March 2, 1169, launching the Ayyubid dynasty.

With Fustat no more than a dying suburb, the center of government moved permanently to nearby El-Qahira (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.

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 as an effective wasteland.

Today, little remains of the grandeur of the old city. The three capitals, Fustat, Al-Askar and Al-Qatta'i were absorbed into the growing city of Cairo. Some of the old buildings remain visible in the region known as "Old Cairo", but much of the rest has fallen into disrepair, overgrows with weeds or used as garbage dumps.

Courtyard of old house

The oldest-remaining building from the area is probably the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, from the 9th century, which was built while the capital was in Al-Qatta'i. The first mosque ever built in Egypt (and by extension, the first mosque built in Africa), the Mosque of Amr, is still in use, but has been extensively rebuilt over the centuries, and nothing remains of the original structure. In February 2017 the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization was inaugurated on a site adjacent to the mosque.

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. Some archaeological excavations have taken place, the paths of streets are still visible, and some buildings have been partially reconstructed to waist-height. But the site is difficult and dangerous to access because of the nearby slums. However, some artifacts that have been recovered so far can be seen in Cairo's Museum of Islamic Art.

Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel. The city became the second largest in the empire, behind Constantinople,

When Napoleon arrived in Cairo in 1798, the city's population was less than 300,000 forty percent lower than it was at the height of Mamluk influence in the mid-14th century.

Saladin / Mohamed Ali  Citadel

The French occupation was short-lived as British and Ottoman forces, including a sizeable Albanian contingent, recaptured the country in 1801. Cairo itself was besieged by a British and Ottoman force culminating with the French surrender on 22 June 1801. The British vacated Egypt two years later, leaving the Ottomans, the Albanians, and the long-weakened Mamluks jostling for control of the country. Continued civil war allowed an Albanian officer named Muhammad Ali Pasha to ascend to the role of commander and eventually, with the approval of the religious establishment, viceroy of Egypt in 1805.

The opera house of Egypt (before burning)

Until his death in 1848, Muhammad Ali Pasha instituted a number of social and economic reforms that earned him the title of founder of modern Egypt. However, while Muhammad Ali initiated the construction of public buildings in the city, those reforms had minimal effect on Cairo's landscape. Bigger changes came to Cairo later under Ismail Pasha (r. 1863–1879), who continued the modernization processes started by his grandfather. 

Midan Talaat Harb / Soliman Pacha

Drawing inspiration from Paris, Ismail envisioned a city of maidans (roundabout) and wide avenues; due to financial constraints, only some of them, in the area now composing Downtown Cairo, came to fruition. Ismail also sought to modernize the city, which was merging with neighbouring settlements, by establishing a public works ministry, bringing gas and lighting to the city, and opening a theater and opera house.

Parts of the article and the pictures from Internet sources.

Bonus 

سيد درويش - طلعت يا محلا نورها