Islamic Cairo ( Arabic : قاهرة المعز , romanized : Qāhira al-Muʿizz , lit. ' Al-Mu'izz's Cairo'), or Medieval Cairo , officially Historic Cairo (القاهرة التاريخية al-Qāhira tārīkhiyya ), refers mostly to the areas of Cairo , Egypt, that were built from the Muslim conquest in 641 CE until the city's modern expansion in the 19th century during Khedive Ismail's rule, namely: the central parts within the old walled city, the historic cemeteries , the area around the Citadel of Cairo , parts of Bulaq , and Old Cairo (Arabic: مصر القديمة , lit. 'Misr al-Qadima') which dates back to Roman times and includes major Coptic Christian monuments.
221-451: The name "Islamic" Cairo refers not to a greater prominence of Muslims in the area but rather to the city's rich history and heritage since its foundation in the early period of Islam , while distinguishing it from with the nearby Ancient Egyptian sites of Giza and Memphis . This area holds one of the largest and densest concentrations of historic architecture in the Islamic world . It
442-456: A Muslim Agricultural Revolution ) and the arts and sciences (considered a Muslim Scientific Revolution ) also prospered under Abbasid caliphs al-Mansur (ruled 754–775), Harun al-Rashid (ruled 786–809), al-Ma'mun (ruled 809–813) and their immediate successors. Many non-Muslims, such as Christians , Jews and Sabians , contributed to the Islamic civilization in various fields, and
663-468: A bent entrance and a bridge over a moat or ditch . Initially identified as Bab al-Barqiyya , it is possible that it was actually known as Bab al-Jadid ("New Gate"), one of the three eastern gates mentioned by al-Maqrizi . If so, then the name Bab al-Barqiyya most likely corresponded to another gate a short distance to the northeast. The latter gate, originally discovered in the 1950s, dates from Badr al-Gamali's time and, according to an inscription,
884-553: A language family of some 30 languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean , to Siberia and Manchuria and through to the Middle East. Some 170 million people have a Turkic language as their native language; an additional 20 million people speak a Turkic language as a second language . The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish proper , or Anatolian Turkish,
1105-508: A Turkic language. Some scholars believe they were probably a confederation of various ethnic and linguistic groups. According to a study by Alexander Savelyev and Choongwon Jeong, published in 2020 in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences by Cambridge University Press, "the predominant part of the Xiongnu population is likely to have spoken Turkic". However, genetic studies found a mixture of western and eastern Eurasian ancestries, suggesting
1326-528: A contentious matter of debate, which has been extensively discussed both among Muslim scholars and Non-Muslim scholars within the academic field of Islamic studies . Various authors, Islamic activists, and historians of Islam have proposed several understandings of Muhammad's intent and ambitions regarding his religio-political mission in the context of the pre-Islamic Arabian society and the founding of his own religion: Was it in Muhammad's mind to produce
1547-590: A court to rival that of Constantinople . He expanded the frontiers of the empire, reaching the edge of Constantinople at one point, though the Byzantines drove him back and he was unable to hold any territory in Anatolia . Sunni Muslims credit him with saving the fledgling Muslim nation from post- civil war anarchy. However, Shia Muslims accuse him of instigating the war, weakening the Muslim nation by dividing
1768-538: A few more decades until 905 when the Abbasids sent an army to reestablish direct control and burned al-Qata'i to the ground, sparing only the mosque. After this, Egypt was ruled for a while by another dynasty, the Ikhshidids , who ruled as Abbasid governors between 935 and 969. Some of their constructions, particularly under Abu al-Misk Kafur , a black eunuch (originally from Ethiopia ) who ruled as regent during
1989-572: A final end to the Crusader states in the Levant . Under the reign of the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (1293–1341, including interregnums), Cairo reached its apogee in terms of population and wealth. A commonly-cited estimate of the population towards the end of his reign, although difficult to evaluate, gives a figure of about 500,000, making Cairo the largest city in the world outside China at
2210-694: A fruit) 'just fully ripe'; (of a human being) 'in the prime of life, young, and vigorous'". Hakan Aydemir (2022) also contends that Türk originally did not mean "strong, powerful" but "gathered; united, allied, confederated" and was derived from Pre- Proto-Turkic verb * türü "heap up, collect, gather, assemble". The earliest Turkic-speaking peoples identifiable in Chinese sources are the Yenisei Kyrgyz and Xinli , located in South Siberia. Another example of an early Turkic population would be
2431-596: A generic name for Inner Asians (whether Turkic- or Mongolic-speaking). Only in modern era do modern historians use Turks to refer to all peoples speaking Turkic languages , differentiated from non-Turkic speakers. According to some researchers (Duan, Xue, Tang, Lung, Onogawa, etc.) the later Ashina tribe descended from the Tiele confederation . The Tiele however were probably one of many early Turkic groups, ancestral to later Turkic populations. However, according to Lee & Kuang (2017), Chinese histories do not describe
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#17327754988532652-695: A great portion of the Turkic groups, and several of the princes in India were Shia. The political unity of Islam began to disintegrate. Under the influence of the Abbasid caliphs, independent dynasties appeared in the Muslim world and the caliphs recognized such dynasties as legitimately Muslim. The first was the Tahirids in Khorasan , which was founded during the caliph Al-Ma'mun 's reign. Similar dynasties included
2873-545: A justification for the emancipation of science and philosophy from official Ash'ari theology; thus, Averroism has been considered a precursor to modern secularism . Early Middle Ages According to Arab sources in the year 750, Al-Saffah , the founder of the Abbasid Caliphate, launched a massive rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate from the province of Khurasan near Talas. After eliminating
3094-487: A lack of zoning enforcement allowed traditional houses to be replaced with high-rise buildings. Thefts and illegal constructions have since decreased, but environmental problems remain. Various efforts to restore historic Cairo have been ongoing in recent decades, with the involvement of both Egyptian government authorities and non-governmental organisations such as the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). In 1998
3315-508: A large genetic diversity within the Xiongnu. The Turkic-related component may be brought by eastern Eurasian genetic substratum. Using the only extant possibly Xiongnu writings, the rock art of the Yinshan and Helan Mountains , some scholars argue that the older Xiongnu writings are precursors to the earliest known Turkic alphabet, the Orkhon script . Petroglyphs of this region dates from
3536-513: A lower frequency of the Baikal component (c. 22%) and a lack of the Han-like component, being closer to other Indo-Iranian groups. A subsequent study in 2022 also found that the spread of Turkic-speaking populations into Central Asia happened after the spread of Indo-European speakers into the area. Another 2022 study found that all Altaic‐speaking (Turkic, Tungusic, and Mongolic) populations "were
3757-522: A mixture of dominant Siberian Neolithic ancestry and non-negligible YRB ancestry", suggesting their origins were somewhere in Northeast Asia, most likely the Amur river basin . Except Eastern and Southern Mongolic-speakers, all "possessed a high proportion of West Eurasian-related ancestry, in accordance with the linguistically documented language borrowing in Turkic languages". A 2023 study analyzed
3978-569: A mosque, madrasa, khanqah (for Sufis ), water distribution centers (sabils), and mausoleum for themselves and their families. Among the best-known examples of Mamluk monuments in Cairo are the huge Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan , the Mosque of Amir al-Maridani , the Mosque of Sultan al-Mu'ayyad (whose twin minarets were built above the gate of Bab Zuwayla ), the Sultan Al-Ghuri complex ,
4199-437: A new push to renovate the old city, including the areas around the historic city gates, partly with the aim to boost tourism. The effort would also involve restoring buildings that are not officially listed as monuments and pedestrianizing some zones. In some cases the owners or tenants of certain buildings have been relocated elsewhere while restoration is ongoing. History of Islam The history of Islam concerns
4420-509: A number of the proponents of contemporary da'wah activity in the West trace their inspiration to the prophet himself, claiming that he initiated a worldwide missionary program in which they are the most recent participants. [...] Despite the claims of these and other writers, it is difficult to prove that Muhammad intended to found a world-encompassing faith superseding the religions of Christianity and Judaism . His original aim appears to have been
4641-772: A period. Weakened by the civil wars, the Umayyad lost supremacy at sea, and had to abandon the islands of Rhodes and Crete . Under the rule of Yazid I , some Muslims in Kufa began to think that if Husayn ibn Ali the descendant of Muhammad was their ruler, he would have been more just. He was invited to Kufa but was later betrayed and killed. Imam Husain's son, Imam Ali ibn Husain , was imprisoned along with Husain's sister and other ladies left in Karbala war. Due to opposition by public they were later released and allowed to go to their native place Medina. One Imam after another continued in
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#17327754988534862-786: A political crisis during the Seventh Crusade . Between 1250 and 1517, the throne passed from one mamluk to another in a system of succession that was generally non-hereditary, but also frequently violent and chaotic. Nonetheless, the Mamluk Empire continued many aspects of the Ayyubid Empire before it, and was responsible for repelling the advance of the Mongols in 1260 (most famously at the Battle of Ain Jalut ) and for putting
5083-820: A possible source for this folk etymology, yet Golden thinks this connection requires more data. It is generally accepted that the name Türk is ultimately derived from the Old-Turkic migration-term 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰 Türük / Törük , which means 'created, born' or 'strong'. Turkologist Peter B. Golden agrees that the term Turk has roots in Old Turkic , yet is not convinced by attempts to link Dili , Dingling , Chile , Tele , and Tiele , which possibly transcribed * tegrek (probably meaning ' cart '), to Tujue , which transliterated to Türküt . Scholars, including Toru Haneda, Onogawa Hidemi, and Geng Shimin believed that Di , Dili , Dingling , Chile and Tujue all came from
5304-619: A powerful faction of northern China. They created two other dynasties, including the Later Jin and Later Han and Northern Han (Later Han and Northern Han were ruled by the same family, with the latter being a rump state of the former). The Shatuo Liu Zhiyuan was a Buddhist and he worshipped the Mengshan Giant Buddha in 945. The Shatuo dynasties were replaced by the Han Chinese Song dynasty . The Shatuo became
5525-548: A project to radically expand the city's fortifications. This project included the construction of the Citadel of Cairo and of a 20 kilometer-long wall to connect and protect both Cairo (referring to the former royal city of the Fatimid caliphs) and Fustat (the main city and earlier capital of Egypt a short distance to the southwest). The entirety of the envisioned course of the wall was never quite completed, but long stretches of
5746-634: A provincial city. In 661 the Islamic world came under the control of the Umayyads , based in their capital at Damascus , until their overthrow by the Abbasids in 750. The last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II , made his last stand in Egypt but was killed on August 1, 750. Thereafter Egypt, and Fustat, passed under Abbasid control. The Abbasids marked their new rule in Egypt by founding a new administrative capital called al-'Askar , slightly northeast of Fustat, under
5967-527: A shared "Neolithic Hongshan ancestry", but in contrary primary Ancient Northeast Asian (ANA) Neolithic ancestry from the Amur region , supporting an origin from Northeast Asia rather than Manchuria. Around 2,200 BC, the (agricultural) ancestors of the Turkic peoples probably migrated westwards into Mongolia , where they adopted a pastoral lifestyle, in part borrowed from Iranian peoples . Given nomadic peoples such as Xiongnu , Rouran and Xianbei share underlying genetic ancestry "that falls into or close to
6188-450: A short time in 744, before he abdicated. Marwan II ruled from 744 until he was killed in 750. He was the last Umayyad ruler to rule from Damascus. Marwan named his two sons Ubaydallah and Abdallah heirs. He appointed governors and asserted his authority by force. Anti-Umayyad feeling was very prevalent, especially in Iran and Iraq. The Abbasids had gained much support. Marwan's reign as caliph
6409-596: A significant portion of the Uyghur population abandoned their nomadic lifestyle for a sedentary one. The Uyghur Khaganate produced extensive literature, and a relatively high number of its inhabitants were literate. The official state religion of the early Uyghur Khaganate was Manichaeism , which was introduced through the conversion of Bögü Qaghan by the Sogdians after the An Lushan rebellion . The Uyghur Khaganate
6630-579: A successful military campaign known as the Ridda wars , whose momentum was carried into the lands of the Byzantine and Sasanian empires. By the end of the reign of the second caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb , the Arab Muslim armies, whose battle-hardened ranks were now swelled by the defeated rebels and former imperial auxiliary troops, invaded the eastern Byzantine provinces of Syria and Egypt , while
6851-463: A syncretic religion. The Göktürks were the first Turkic people to write Old Turkic in a runic script, the Orkhon script . The Khaganate was also the first state known as "Turk". It eventually collapsed due to a series of dynastic conflicts, but many states and peoples later used the name "Turk". The Göktürks ( First Turkic Kaganate ) quickly spread west to the Caspian Sea. Between 581 and 603
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7072-416: A world religion or did his interests lie mainly within the confines of his homeland? Was he solely an Arab nationalist —a political genius intent upon uniting the proliferation of tribal clans under the banner of a new religion—or was his vision a truly international one, encompassing a desire to produce a reformed humanity in the midst of a new world order? These questions are not without significance, for
7293-416: Is characterized by hundreds of mosques , tombs, madrasas , mansions, caravanserais , and fortifications dating from throughout the Islamic era of Egypt . In 1979, UNESCO proclaimed Historic Cairo a World Cultural Heritage site , as "one of the world's oldest Islamic cities, with its famous mosques, madrasas, hammams and fountains" and "the new centre of the Islamic world, reaching its golden age in
7514-511: Is located on a promontory of the nearby Muqattam Hills overlooking the city. The Citadel remained the residence of the rulers of Egypt until the late 19th century, and was repeatedly transformed under subsequent rulers. Notably, Muhammad Ali Pasha built the 19th-century Mosque of Muhammad Ali which still dominates the city's skyline from its elevated vantage point. The Mamluks, and the later Ottomans, also built wikala s ( caravanserais ; also known as khan s) to house merchants and goods due to
7735-650: Is to be associated with the Xinglongwa culture and the succeeding Hongshan culture , based on varying degrees of specific East Asian genetic substratum among modern Turkic speakers. According to historians, "the Proto-Turkic subsistence strategy included an agricultural component, a tradition that ultimately went back to the origin of millet agriculture in Northeast China". This view is however questioned by other geneticists, who found no evidence for
7956-840: The Tongdian , they were "mixed barbarians" ( 雜胡 ; záhú ) who migrated from Pingliang (now in modern Gansu province , China ) to the Rourans seeking inclusion in their confederacy and protection from the prevailing dynasty. Alternatively, according to the Book of Zhou , History of the Northern Dynasties , and New Book of Tang , the Ashina clan was a component of the Xiongnu confederation. Göktürks were also posited as having originated from an obscure Suo state (索國), north of
8177-604: The 9th millennium BCE to the 19th century, and consists mainly of engraved signs (petroglyphs) and few painted images. Excavations done during 1924–1925 in Noin-Ula kurgans located in the Selenga River in the northern Mongolian hills north of Ulaanbaatar produced objects with over 20 carved characters, which were either identical or very similar to the runic letters of the Turkic Orkhon script discovered in
8398-567: The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development , a Kuwaiti organisation. By 2010, about 100 of the 149 monuments designated by the HCRP had been restored. The HCRP has also been criticized, however, for creating an open-air museum geared towards tourists while imparting few benefits on the surrounding community. Around the same period, another initiative launched by the AKTC focused on revitalizing
8619-570: The Arab conquests , with other examples such as Qayrawan in Tunisia or Kufa in Iraq .) The foundation of Fustat was also accompanied by the foundation of Egypt's (and Africa 's) first mosque, the Mosque of 'Amr ibn al-'As , which has been much rebuilt over the centuries but still exists today. Fustat quickly grew to become Egypt's main city, port, and economic center, with Alexandria becoming more of
8840-843: The Banu Qays Arabs against Yemenis and non-Arab Muslims , and Yazid received further support from the Qadariya and Murji'iya (believers in human free will ). Walid was shortly thereafter deposed in a coup . Yazid disbursed funds from the treasury and acceded to the Caliph. He explained that he had rebelled on behalf of the Book of God and the Sunna. Yazid reigned for only six months, while various groups refused allegiance and dissident movements arose, after which he died. Ibrahim ibn al-Walid , named heir apparent by his brother Yazid III, ruled for
9061-537: The Battle of Tours ). In the east, Islamic armies under Muhammad ibn al-Qasim made it as far as the Indus Valley . Under Al-Walid, the caliphate empire stretched from the Iberian Peninsula to India. Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf played a crucial role in the organization and selection of military commanders. Al-Walid paid great attention to the expansion of an organized military, building the strongest navy in
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9282-746: The Berber Revolt . He was also faced with a revolt by Zayd ibn Ali . Hisham suppressed both revolts. The Abbasids continued to gain power in Khurasan and Iraq. However, they were not strong enough to make a move yet. Some were caught and punished or executed by eastern governors. The Battle of Akroinon , a decisive Byzantine victory, was during the final campaign of the Umayyad dynasty. Hisham died in 743. Al-Walid II saw political intrigue during his reign. Yazid III spoke out against his cousin Walid's "immorality" which included discrimination on behalf of
9503-475: The Byzantine Empire ) also existed. Each wanted the capital of the newly established Islamic empire to be in their area. As ʿUthmān became very old, Marwan I , a relative of Muawiyah slipped into the vacuum, becoming his secretary and slowly assuming more control. When ʿUthmān was assassinated in 656 CE, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib , cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, assumed the position of caliph and moved
9724-606: The Caliphate of Córdoba , which lasted until 1031 before falling due to the Fitna of al-Andalus . The Bayt al-mal, the Welfare State then continued under the Abbasids. At its largest extent, the Umayyad dynasty covered more than 5,000,000 square miles (13,000,000 km ) making it one of the largest empires the world had yet seen, and the fifth largest contiguous empire ever. Muawiyah beautified Damascus, and developed
9945-473: The Caucasus , China, and northern Iraq. The Turkic language family was traditionally considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family . Howeover since the 1950s, a majority of linguists have rejected the proposal, after supposed cognates were found not to be valid, hypothesized sound shifts were not found, and Turkic and Mongolic languages were found to be converging rather than diverging over
10166-531: The Day of Ashura . Political unrest called the second Muslim civil war (the "Second Fitna") continued, but Muslim rule was extended under Muawiyah I to Rhodes , Crete , Kabul , Bukhara , and Samarkand , and expanded into North Africa . In 664 CE, Arab Muslim armies conquered Kabul , and in 665 CE pushed further into the Maghreb . The Umayyad dynasty (or Ommiads), whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams ,
10387-708: The Dingling . In Late Antiquity itself, as well as in and the Middle Ages , the name "Scythians" was used in Greco-Roman and Byzantine literature for various groups of nomadic " barbarians " living on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe who were not related to the actual Scythians. Medieval European chroniclers subsumed various Turkic peoples of the Eurasian steppe as "Scythians". Between 400 CE and
10608-446: The Fatimids , Seljuks , Ayyubids , and Mamluks were among the most influential powers in the world. Highly Persianized empires built by the Samanids , Ghaznavids , and Ghurids significantly contributed to technological and administrative developments. The Islamic Golden Age gave rise to many centers of culture and science and produced notable polymaths , astronomers , mathematicians , physicians , and philosophers during
10829-451: The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period starting with Later Tang. The Shatuo chief Zhuye Chixin's family was adopted by the Tang dynasty and given the title prince of Jin and the Tang dynasty imperial surname of Li, which is why the Shatuo of Later Tang claimed to be restoring the Tang dynasty and not founding a new one. The official language of these dynasties was Chinese and they used Chinese titles and names. Some Shaotuo Turk emperors (of
11050-407: The Fourth Fitna . Al-Ma'mun 's general Tahir ibn Husayn took Baghdad , executing Al-Amin. The war led to a loss of prestige for the dynasty. The Abbasids soon became caught in a three-way rivalry among Coptic Arabs, Indo-Persians , and immigrant Turks. In addition, the cost of running a large empire became too great. The Turks, Egyptians, and Arabs adhered to the Sunnite sect; the Persians,
11271-680: The Jin in the Spring and Autumn period . Historically they were established after the 6th century BCE. The Tiele were first mentioned in Chinese literature from the 6th to 8th centuries. Some scholars (Haneda, Onogawa, Geng, etc.) proposed that Tiele , Dili , Dingling , Chile , Tele , & Tujue all transliterated underlying Türk ; however, Golden proposed that Dili , Dingling , Chile , Tele , & Tiele transliterated Tegrek while Tujue transliterated Türküt , plural of Türk . The appellation Türük ( Old Turkic : 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰) ~ Türk (OT: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰚) (whence Middle Chinese 突厥 * dwət-kuɑt > * tɦut-kyat > standard Chinese : Tūjué )
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#173277549885311492-417: The Maghreb (north-west Africa), the Sahel , the Swahili Coast , Somalia , southern Iberia ( al-Andalus ), Transoxania ( Central Asia ), Hindustan (including modern-day North India , Bangladesh , and Pakistan ), and Anatolia (modern-day Turkey ). It is necessarily an approximation, since rule over some regions was sometimes divided among different centers of power, and authority in larger polities
11713-420: The Middle Ages . By the early 13th century, the Delhi Sultanate conquered the northern Indian subcontinent , while Turkic dynasties like the Sultanate of Rum and Artuqids conquered much of Anatolia from the Byzantine Empire throughout the 11th and 12th centuries. In the 13th and 14th centuries, destructive Mongol invasions , along with the loss of population due to the Black Death , greatly weakened
11934-435: The Ongud Turks living in Inner Mongolia after the Song dynasty conquered the last Shatuo dynasty of Northern Han. The Ongud assimilated to the Mongols. The Yenisei Kyrgyz allied with China to destroy the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 840 AD. From the Yenisei River , the Kyrgyz pushed south and eastward in to Xinjiang and the Orkhon Valley in central Mongolia, leaving much of the Uyghur civilization in ruins. Much of
12155-406: The Orkhon Valley . The earliest certain mentioning of the politonym "Turk" was in the Chinese Book of Zhou . In the 540s AD, this text mentions that the Turks came to China's border seeking silk goods and a trade relationship. A Sogdian diplomat represented China in a series of embassies between the Western Wei dynasty and the Turks in the years 545 and 546. According to the Book of Sui and
12376-413: The Persian Gulf . There was also a yearning for a more "spiritual form of religion", and "the choice of religion increasingly became an individual rather than a collective issue." While some Arabs were reluctant to convert to a foreign faith, those Abrahamic religions provided "the principal intellectual and spiritual reference points", and Jewish and Christian loanwords from Aramaic began to replace
12597-606: The Proto-Turkic language originated in Central-East Asia, potentially in Altai-Sayan region , Mongolia or Tuva . Initially, Proto-Turkic speakers were potentially both hunter-gatherers and farmers; they later became nomadic pastoralists . Early and medieval Turkic groups exhibited a wide range of both East Asian and West-Eurasian physical appearances and genetic origins, in part through long-term contact with neighboring peoples such as Iranic , Mongolic , Tocharian , Uralic and Yeniseian peoples. Many vastly differing ethnic groups have throughout history become part of
12818-403: The Reconquista . Nonetheless, in the early modern period , the gunpowder empires —the Ottomans , Timurids , Mughals , and Safavids —emerged as world powers. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, most of the Muslim world fell under the influence or direct control of the European Great Powers . Some of their efforts to win independence and build modern nation-states over the course of
13039-415: The Saffarids , Samanids , Ghaznavids and Seljuqs . During this time, advancements were made in the areas of astronomy, poetry, philosophy, science, and mathematics. Turkic peoples The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West , Central , East , and North Asia as well as parts of Europe , who speak Turkic languages . According to historians and linguists,
13260-454: The Samanid Empire . In Persia the Ghaznavids snatched power from the Abbasids. Abbasid influence had been consumed by the Great Seljuq Empire (a Muslim Turkish clan which had migrated into mainland Persia) by 1055. Two other Turkish tribes, the Karahanids and the Seljuks , converted to Islam during the 10th century. Later, they were subdued by the Ottomans, who share the same origin and language. The Seljuks played an important role in
13481-473: The Umayyad dynasty . After Muhammad's death, Abū Bakr , one of his closest associates, was chosen as the first caliph ("successor"). Although the office of caliph retained an aura of religious authority, it laid no claim to prophecy. A number of tribal Arab leaders refused to extend the agreements made with Muhammad to Abū Bakr, ceasing payments of the alms levy and in some cases claiming to be prophets in their own right. Abū Bakr asserted his authority in
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#173277549885313702-427: The Ummah , fabricating self-aggrandizing heresies slandering the Prophet 's family and even selling his Muslim critics into slavery in the Byzantine empire. One of Muawiyah's most controversial and enduring legacies was his decision to designate his son Yazid as his successor. According to Shi'a doctrine, this was a clear violation of the treaty he made with Hasan ibn Ali. In 682, Yazid restored Uqba ibn Nafi as
13923-434: The Western Turkic Khaganate in Kazakhstan separated from the Eastern Turkic Khaganate in Mongolia and Manchuria during a civil war. The Han-Chinese successfully overthrew the Eastern Turks in 630 and created a military Protectorate until 682. After that time the Second Turkic Khaganate ruled large parts of the former Göktürk area. After several wars between Turks, Chinese and Tibetans, the weakened Second Turkic Khaganate
14144-424: The angel Gabriel , which would later form the Quran . These inspirations urged him to proclaim a strict monotheistic faith , as the final expression of Biblical prophetism earlier codified in the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity; to warn his compatriots of the impending Judgement Day ; and to castigate social injustices of his city. Muhammad's message won over a handful of followers (the ṣaḥāba ) and
14365-414: The classical period of Islamic civilization . It was built in 876–879 AD in a style inspired by the Abbasid capital of Samarra in Iraq . It is one of the largest mosques in Cairo and is often cited as one of the most beautiful. One of the most important and lasting institutions founded in the Fatimid period was the Mosque of al-Azhar , founded in 970 AD, which competes with the Qarawiyyin in Fes for
14586-430: The compilation of the Quran was finished some time between 650 and 656 CE, and copies were sent out to the different centers of the expanding Islamic empire. After Muhammad's death, the old tribal differences between the Arabs started to resurface. Following the Roman–Persian wars and the Byzantine-Sasanian wars , deep-rooted differences between Iraq (formerly under the Sasanian Empire ) and Syria (formerly under
14807-484: The divisions of the world theologically would form. These trends would continue into the Fatimid and Ayyubid periods. Politically, the Abbasid Caliphate evolved into an Islamic monarchy ( unitary system of government .) The regional Sultanate and Emirate governors' existence, validity, or legality were acknowledged for unity of the state. In the early Islamic philosophy of the Iberian Umayyads , Averroes presented an argument in The Decisive Treatise , providing
15028-406: The funerary complex of Sultan Qaytbay in the Northern Cemetery , and the trio of monuments in the Bayn al-Qasrayn area comprising the complex of Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun , the Madrasa of al-Nasir Muhammad , and the Madrasa of Sultan Barquq . Some mosques include spolia (often columns or capitals ) from earlier buildings built by the Romans , Byzantines , or Copts . Islamic Cairo is also
15249-447: The kinship -based society of the Arabs and were perceived as a lower class within the Umayyad empire. Islamic ecumenism , promoted by the Abbasids, refers to the idea of unity of the Ummah in the literal meaning: that there was a single faith. Islamic philosophy developed as the Shariah was codified, and the four Madhabs were established. This era also saw the rise of classical Sufism . Religious achievements included completion of
15470-415: The plague , starting with the Black Death in the mid-14th century. Cairo's population declined and took centuries to recover, but it remained the major metropolis of the Middle East. Under the Ayyubids and the later Mamluks, the Qasaba avenue became a privileged site for the construction of religious complexes, royal mausoleums, and commercial establishments, usually sponsored by the sultan or members of
15691-437: The political , social , economic , military , and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization . Most historians believe that Islam originated with Muhammad's mission in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE, although Muslims regard this time as a return to the original faith passed down by the Abrahamic prophets , such as Adam , Noah , Abraham , Moses , David , Solomon , and Jesus , with
15912-605: The "western Eurasian origin and multiple origin hypotheses". However, they also noted that "Central Steppe and early Medieval Türk exhibited a high but variable degree of West Eurasian ancestry, indicating there was a genetic substructure of the Türkic empire." The early medieval Türk samples were modelled as having 37.8% West Eurasian ancestry and 62.2% Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry and historic Central Steppe Türk samples were also an admixture of West Eurasian and Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry, while historic Karakhanid, Kipchak and
16133-704: The 13th century; in the 14th century, Islam became the official religion under Uzbeg Khan where the general population (Turks) as well as the aristocracy (Mongols) came to speak the Kipchak language and were collectively known as " Tatars " by Russians and Westerners. This country was also known as the Kipchak Khanate and covered most of what is today Ukraine , as well as the entirety of modern-day southern and eastern Russia (the European section). The Golden Horde disintegrated into several khanates and hordes in
16354-556: The 14th century." The history of Cairo begins, in essence, with the conquest of Egypt by Muslim Arabs in 640, under the commander 'Amr ibn al-'As . Although Alexandria was the capital of Egypt at that time (and had been throughout the Ptolemaic , Roman , and Byzantine periods), the Arab conquerors decided to establish a new city called Fustat to serve as the administrative capital and military garrison center of Egypt. The new city
16575-615: The 15th and 16th century including the Crimean Khanate , Khanate of Kazan , and Kazakh Khanate (among others), which were one by one conquered and annexed by the Russian Empire in the 16th through 19th centuries. In Siberia, the Siberian Khanate was established in the 1490s by fleeing Tatar aristocrats of the disintegrating Golden Horde who established Islam as the official religion in western Siberia over
16796-488: The 16th century, Byzantine sources use the name Σκύθαι ( Skuthai ) in reference to twelve different Turkic peoples. In the modern Turkish language as used in the Republic of Turkey, a distinction is made between "Turks" and the "Turkic peoples" in loosely speaking: the term Türk corresponds specifically to the "Turkish-speaking" people (in this context, "Turkish-speaking" is considered the same as "Turkic-speaking"), while
17017-532: The 18th century. Other extant monuments from the Fatimid era include the large Mosque of al-Hakim , the al-Aqmar mosque , Juyushi Mosque , Lulua Mosque , and the Mosque of Salih Tala'i . The most prominent architectural heritage of medieval Cairo, however, dates from the Mamluk period , from 1250 to 1517 AD. The Mamluk sultans and elites were eager patrons of religious and scholarly life, commonly building religious or funerary complexes whose functions could include
17238-631: The 5th–16th centuries, partially overlapping with the Mongol Empire period. Based on single-path IBD tracts, the common Turkic ancestral population lived prior to these migration events, and likely stem from a similar source population as Mongolic peoples further East. Historical data suggests that the Mongol Empire period acted as secondary force of "turkification", as the Mongol conquest "did not involve massive re-settlements of Mongols over
17459-775: The 8th century, and the alphabets were generally replaced by the Old Uyghur alphabet in the East and Central Asia , Arabic script in the Middle and Western Asia, Cyrillic in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans, and Latin alphabet in Central Europe. The latest recorded use of Turkic alphabet was recorded in Central Europe's Hungary in 1699 CE. The Turkic runiform scripts, unlike other typologically close scripts of
17680-524: The Al-Darb al-Ahmar neighbourhood following the construction of the nearby al-Azhar Park. This project aimed for a more bottom-up approach to improve the community's urban fabric and the socioeconomic situation of residents, as well as involving more public and private participation. Examples of more recent restoration projects include the rehabilitation of the 14th-century Mosque of Amir al-Maridani in Al-Darb al-Ahmar, which began in 2018 and whose first phase
17901-472: The Arab clan of Quraysh , which was the chief tribe of Mecca and a dominant force in western Arabia. To counter the effects of anarchy (particularly raiding for booty between tribes), they upheld the institution of "sacred months" when all violence was forbidden and travel was safe. The polytheistic Kaaba shrine in Mecca and the surrounding area was a popular pilgrimage destination for surrounding Arabs, which
18122-532: The Arabian peninsula entered into various agreements with him, some under terms of alliance, others acknowledging his claims of prophethood and agreeing to follow Islamic practices, including paying the alms levy to his government, which consisted of a number of deputies, an army of believers, and a public treasury. The real intentions of Muhammad regarding the spread of Islam, its political undertone, and his missionary activity ( da'wah ) during his lifetime are
18343-634: The Ashina and the Göktürks as descending from the Dingling or the Tiele confederation. It has even been suggested that the Xiongnu themselves, who were mentioned in Han dynasty records, were Proto-Turkic speakers. The Turks may ultimately have been of Xiongnu descent. Although little is known for certain about the Xiongnu language(s), it seems likely that at least a considerable part of Xiongnu tribes spoke
18564-517: The Ayyubid dynasty faltered and power transitioned to a regime controlled by the Mamluks . The mamluks were soldiers who were purchased as young slaves (often from various regions of Central Eurasia ) and raised to serve in the army of the sultan. They became a mainstay of the Ayyubid military under Sultan al-Salih and eventually became powerful enough to assume control of the state for themselves in
18785-620: The Byzantine Empire and moved on into Carthage and across to the west of North Africa. Muslim armies under Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and began to conquer the Iberian Peninsula using North African Berber armies. The Visigoths of the Iberian Peninsula were defeated when the Umayyad conquered Lisbon . The Iberian Peninsula was the farthest extent of Islamic control of Europe (they were stopped at
19006-710: The Byzantine side proved decisive. The Muslims sustained heavy losses. Sulayman died suddenly in 717. Yazid II came to power on the death of Umar II. Yazid fought the Kharijites, with whom Umar had been negotiating, and killed the Kharijite leader Shawdhab. In Yazid's reign, civil wars began in different parts of the empire. Yazid expanded the Caliphate's territory into the Caucasus, before dying in 724. Inheriting
19227-469: The Caliph after the defection of a large contingent of Slavs . The Islamic currency was then made the exclusive currency in the Muslim world. He reformed agriculture and commerce. Abd al-Malik consolidated Muslim rule and extended it, made Arabic the state language, and organized a regular postal service . Al-Walid I began the next stage of Islamic conquests. Under him the early Islamic empire reached its farthest extent. He reconquered parts of Egypt from
19448-560: The Caliphate from Damascus to Baghdad marked the accession of a new family to power. As the state grew, the state expenses increased. Additionally the Bayt al-mal and the Welfare State expenses to assist the Muslim and the non-Muslim poor, needy, elderly, orphans, widows, and the disabled, increased, the Umayyads asked the new converts (mawali) to continue paying the poll tax. The Umayyad rule, with its wealth and luxury also seemed at odds with
19669-598: The DNA of Empress Ashina (568–578 AD), a Royal Göktürk, whose remains were recovered from a mausoleum in Xianyang , China . The authors determined that Empress Ashina belonged to the North-East Asian mtDNA haplogroup F1d , and that approximately 96-98% of her autosomal ancestry was of Ancient Northeast Asian origin, while roughly 2-4% was of West Eurasian origin, indicating ancient admixture. This study weakened
19890-614: The Fatimid Caliphate in 1171. Cairo thus returned to Sunni rule, and a new chapter in the history of Egypt, and of Cairo's urban history, opened. Salah ad-Din's reign marked the beginning of the Ayyubid dynasty , which ruled over Egypt and Syria and carried forward the fight against the Crusaders. He also embarked on the construction of an ambitious new fortified Citadel (the current Citadel of Cairo ) further south, outside
20111-504: The Fatimid period there were many gardens along the walls. A chain of gardens ran past Bab al-Nasr and the garden of al-Mukhtar al-Saqlabi existed outside Bab al-Futuh. Bab al-Nasr and Bab al-Futuh are both are on the northern section of the wall, about two hundred yards from each other. Bab al-Nasr, which translates to "the Gate of Victory," was originally called Bab al-Izz, meaning "the Gate of Glory," when constructed by Gawhar al-Siqilli. It
20332-573: The Fatimids had conquered Abbasid Egypt, building a capital there in 973 called " al-Qahirah " (meaning "the planet of victory", known today as Cairo ). During its decline, the Abbasid Caliphate disintegrated into minor states and dynasties, such as the Tulunid and the Ghaznavid dynasty . The Ghaznavid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty established by Turkic slave-soldiers from another Islamic empire,
20553-725: The First Turkic Khaganate. The original Old Turkic name Kök Türk derives from kök ~ kö:k , "sky, sky-coloured, blue, blue-grey". Unlike its Xiongnu predecessor, the Göktürk Khaganate had its temporary Khagans from the Ashina clan, who were subordinate to a sovereign authority controlled by a council of tribal chiefs. The Khaganate retained elements of its original animistic- shamanistic religion, that later evolved into Tengriism , although it received missionaries of Buddhist monks and practiced
20774-547: The Islamic faith and mosques, separated by doctrine, history, and practice, were pushed to cooperate. The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking the Umayyads' moral character and administration. According to Ira Lapidus , "The Abbasid revolt was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Marw with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali ". The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali , who remained outside
20995-568: The Islamic message preached by Muhammad. All this increased discontent. The descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib rallied discontented mawali , poor Arabs, and some Shi'a against the Umayyads and overthrew them with the help of the general Abu Muslim , inaugurating the Abbasid dynasty in 750, which moved the capital to Baghdad . A branch of the Ummayad family fled across North Africa to Al-Andalus, where they established
21216-584: The Jewish Yahweh and the Christian Jehovah ." In their view, Mecca was originally dedicated to this monotheistic faith that they considered to be the one true religion, established by the patriarch Abraham . According to the traditional account , the Islamic prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca , an important caravan trading center, around the year 570 CE. His family belonged to
21437-910: The Kangar union was located in the Ulytau mountains. Among the Pechenegs, the Kangar formed the elite of the Pecheneg tribes. After being defeated by the Kipchaks , Oghuz Turks , and the Khazars , they migrated west and defeated Magyars , and after forming an alliance with the Bulgars , they defeated the Byzantine Army. The Pecheneg state was established by the 11th century and at its peak carried
21658-696: The Later Jin, Later Han and Northern Han) also claimed patrilineal Han Chinese ancestry. After the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907, the Shatuo Turks replaced them and created the Later Tang dynasty in 923. The Shatuo Turks ruled over a large part of northern China, including Beijing . They adopted Chinese names and united Turkic and Chinese traditions. Later Tang fell in 937 but the Shatuo rose to become
21879-543: The Levant , Egypt , and North Africa . Alongside the growth of the Umayyad Caliphate , the major political development within early Islam in this period was the sectarian split and political divide between Kharijite , Sunnī , and Shīʿa Muslims ; this had its roots in a dispute over the succession for the role of caliph. Sunnīs believed the caliph was elective and any Muslim from the Arab clan of Quraysh ,
22100-574: The Mamluk caste which continued to exist as part of the country's elites despite the demise of the Mamluk sultanate. Cairo continued to be a major economic center and one of the empire's most important cities. It remained the principal staging point for the pilgrimage ( Hajj ) route to Mecca . While the Ottoman governors were not major patrons of architecture like the Mamluks, Cairo nonetheless continued to develop and new neighbourhoods did grow outside
22321-681: The Masts in 655 CE, opening up the Mediterranean Sea to Muslim ships. Early Muslim armies stayed in encampments away from cities because ʿUmar feared that they may get attracted to wealth and luxury, moving away from the worship of God, accumulating wealth and establishing dynasties. Staying in these encampments away from the cities also ensured that there was no stress on the local populations which could remain autonomous. Some of these encampments later grew into cities like Basra and Kufa in Iraq and Fustat in Egypt. When ʿUmar
22542-642: The Muslim community during the Rashidun Caliphate . The early Muslim conquests were responsible for the spread of Islam . By the 8th century CE, the Umayyad Caliphate extended from Iberian Al-Andalus in the west to the Indus River in the east. Polities such as those ruled by the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates (in the Middle East and later in Spain and Southern Italy ),
22763-412: The Ottoman period, as do a number of sabil - kuttabs (a combination of water distribution kiosk and Qur'anic reading school). Napoleon 's French army briefly occupied Egypt from 1798 to 1801, after which an Albanian officer in the Ottoman army named Muhammad Ali Pasha made Cairo the capital of an independent empire that lasted from 1805 to 1882. The city then came under British control until Egypt
22984-1049: The Proto-Turkic Urheimat: the southern Altai-Sayan region, and in Southern Siberia , from Lake Baikal to eastern Mongolia . Other studies suggested an early presence of Turkic peoples in Mongolia, or Tuva . A possible genealogical link of the Turkic languages to Mongolic and Tungusic languages, specifically a hypothetical homeland in Manchuria , such as proposed in the Transeurasian hypothesis , by Martine Robbeets , has received support but also criticism, with opponents attributing similarities to long-term contact. The proto-Turkic-speakers may be linked to Neolithic East Asian agricultural societies in Northeastern China , which
23205-467: The Sasanids lost their western territories , with the rest of Persia to follow soon afterwards. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb improved the administration of the fledgling Islamic empire, ordering improvement of irrigation networks, and playing a role in foundation of cities like Basra . To be close to the poor, he lived in a simple mud hut without doors and walked the streets every evening. After consulting with
23426-599: The Tang dynasty in fighting against their fellow Turkic people in the Uyghur Khaganate . In 839, when the Uyghur khaganate (Huigu) general Jueluowu (掘羅勿) rose against the rule of then-reigning Zhangxin Khan , he elicited the help from Zhuye Chixin by giving Zhuye 300 horses, and together, they defeated Zhangxin Khan, who then committed suicide, precipitating the subsequent collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate. In
23647-589: The Turkic Karluk samples had 50.6%-61.1% West Eurasian ancestry and 38.9%–49.4% Iron Age Yellow River farmer ancestry. A 2020 study also found "high genetic heterogeneity and diversity during the Türkic and Uyghur periods" in the early medieval period in Eastern Eurasian Steppe . The earliest separate Turkic peoples, such as the Gekun (鬲昆) and Xinli (薪犁), appeared on the peripheries of
23868-618: The Turkic peoples through language shift , acculturation , conquest , intermixing , adoption , and religious conversion . Nevertheless, Turkic peoples share, to varying degrees, non-linguistic characteristics like cultural traits, ancestry from a common gene pool , and historical experiences. Some of the most notable modern Turkic ethnic groups include the Altai people , Azerbaijanis , Chuvash people , Gagauz people , Kazakhs , Kyrgyz people , Turkmens , Turkish people , Tuvans , Uyghurs , Uzbeks , and Yakuts . The first known mention of
24089-457: The Turkic word Türk , which means 'powerful' and 'strength', and its plural form is Türküt . Even though Gerhard Doerfer supports the proposal that türk means 'strong' in general, Gerard Clauson points out that "the word türk is never used in the generalized sense of 'strong'" and that türk was originally a noun and meant "'the culminating point of maturity' (of a fruit, human being, etc.), but more often used as an [adjective] meaning (of
24310-610: The Two Palaces"). The city's main mosque, the Mosque of al-Azhar , was founded in 972 as both a Friday mosque and as a center of learning and teaching, and is today considered one of the oldest universities in the world. The city's main street, known today as Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah Street (or al-Mu'zz street ) but historically referred to as the Qasabah or Qasaba, ran from one of the northern city gates ( Bab al-Futuh ) to
24531-435: The Umayyad era. This tactic was crucial for the expansion to the Iberian Peninsula. His reign is considered to be the apex of Islamic power. Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik was hailed as caliph the day al-Walid died. He appointed Yazid ibn al-Muhallab governor of Mesopotamia . Sulayman ordered the arrest and execution of the family of al-Hajjaj , one of two prominent leaders (the other was Qutayba ibn Muslim ) who had supported
24752-561: The Umayyad family had been killed by the revolting Abbasids, one family member, Abd ar-Rahman I , escaped to Spain and established an independent caliphate there in 756. In the Maghreb , Harun al-Rashid appointed the Arab Aghlabids as virtually autonomous rulers, although they continued to recognize central authority. Aghlabid rule was short-lived, and they were deposed by the Shiite Fatimid dynasty in 909. By around 960,
24973-403: The Uyghur population relocated to the southwest of Mongolia, establishing the Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom in Gansu where their descendants are the modern day Yugurs and Qocho Kingdom in Turpan, Xinjiang. The Kangar Union ( Qanghar Odaghu ) was a Turkic state in the former territory of the Western Turkic Khaganate (the entire present-day state of Kazakhstan , without Zhetysu ). The capital of
25194-445: The Volga region and mixed with local Volga Finns to become the Volga Bulgars in what is today Tatarstan . These Bulgars were conquered by the Mongols following their westward sweep under Ogedei Khan in the 13th century. Other Bulgars settled in Southeastern Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries, and mixed with the Slavic population, adopting what eventually became the Slavic Bulgarian language . Everywhere, Turkic groups mixed with
25415-438: The Xiongnu. The Ashina tribe were famed metalsmiths and were granted land south of the Altai Mountains (金山 Jinshan ), which looked like a helmet , from which they were said to have gotten their name 突厥 ( Tūjué ), the first recorded use of "Turk" as a political name. In the 6th-century, Ashina's power had increased such that they conquered the Tiele on their Rouran overlords' behalf and even overthrew Rourans and established
25636-406: The advance of the Fatimids and of Shi'a factions in the Middle East. In 1099 the First Crusade captured Jerusalem , and the new Crusader states became a sudden and serious threat to Egypt. New Muslim rulers such as Nur al-Din of the Turkish Zengid dynasty took charge of the overall offensive against the Crusaders. In the 12th century the weakness of the Fatimids became so severe that under
25857-463: The al-Khayamiyya area whose name comes from the decorative textiles ( khayamiyya ) still being sold here. Much of this historic area suffers from neglect and decay, in this, one of the poorest and most overcrowded areas of the Egyptian capital. In addition, thefts of Islamic monuments and artifacts in the Al-Darb al-Ahmar district threaten their long-term preservation. In the aftermath of the 2011 uprising theft increased among historic monuments and
26078-441: The area up to the Ganges river had fallen. In sub-Saharan West Africa, Islam was established just after the year 1000. Muslim rulers were in Kanem starting from sometime between 1081 and 1097, with reports of a Muslim prince at the head of Gao as early as 1009. The Islamic kingdoms associated with Mali reached prominence in the 13th century. The Abbasids developed initiatives aimed at greater Islamic unity. Different sects of
26299-448: The beginning of Islam post-date the events by several generations, al-Tabari having died in 923 CE. Differing views about how to deal with the available sources has led to the development of four different approaches to the history of early Islam. All four methods have some level of support today. Nowadays, the popularity of the different methods employed varies on the scope of the works under consideration. For overview treatments of
26520-430: The caliphate from his brother, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik ruled an empire with many problems. He was effective in addressing these problems, and in allowing the Umayyad empire to continue as an entity. His long rule was an effective one, and renewed reforms introduced by Umar II. Under Hisham's rule, regular raids against the Byzantines continued. In North Africa, Kharijite teachings combined with local restlessness to produce
26741-431: The canonical collections of Hadith of Sahih Bukhari and others. Islam recognized to a certain extent the validity of the Abrahamic religions , the Quran identifying Jews , Christians , Zoroastrians , and Sabians (commonly identified with the Mandaeans ) as " people of the book ". Toward the beginning of the high Middle Ages, the doctrines of the Sunni and Shia , two major denominations of Islam , solidified and
26962-474: The capital to Kufa in Iraq. Muawiyah I, the governor of Syria, and Marwan I demanded arrest of the culprits. Marwan I manipulated every one and created conflict, which resulted in the first Muslim civil war (the "First Fitna"). ʿAlī was assassinated by the Kharijites in 661 CE. Six months later, ʿAlī's firstborn son Ḥasan made a peace treaty with Muawiyah I, in the interest of peace. In the Hasan–Muawiya treaty , Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī handed over power to Muawiyah I on
27183-499: The centuries. Opponents of the theory proposed that the similarities are due to mutual linguistic influences between the groups concerned. The Turkic alphabets are sets of related alphabets with letters (formerly known as runes ), used for writing mostly Turkic languages . Inscriptions in Turkic alphabets were found in Mongolia . Most of the preserved inscriptions were dated to between 8th and 10th centuries CE. The earliest positively dated and read Turkic inscriptions date from
27404-410: The city ablaze. While historians debate the extent of the destruction (as Fustat appears to have continued to exist after this), the burning of Fustat nonetheless marks a pivotal moment in the decline of that city, which was later eclipsed by Cairo itself. Eventually, Salah ad-Din (Saladin), a Zengid commander who was given the position of al-'Adid's vizier in Cairo, declared the end and dismantlement of
27625-406: The city of Yathrib (now known as Medina ), where he began to unify the tribes of Arabia under Islam, returning to Mecca to take control in 630 and order the destruction of all pagan idols. By the time Muhammad died c. 11 AH (632 CE), almost all the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, but disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of
27846-464: The collection of the jizya, or the tax on non-Muslims. Islam nearly doubled within its territory from 8% of residents in 750 to 15% by the end of Al-Mansur's reign. Al-Mahdi , whose name means "Rightly-guided" or "Redeemer", was proclaimed caliph when his father was on his deathbed. Baghdad blossomed during Al-Mahdi's reign, becoming the world's largest city. It attracted immigrants from Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Persia and as far away as India and Spain. Baghdad
28067-440: The condition that he would be just to the people and not establish a dynasty after his death. Muawiyah I subsequently broke the conditions of the agreement and established the Umayyad dynasty , with a capital in Damascus . Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī , by then Muhammad's only surviving grandson, refused to swear allegiance to the Umayyads; he was killed in the Battle of Karbala the same year, in an event still mourned by Shīʿa Muslims on
28288-513: The conquered territories. Instead, the Mongol war machine was progressively augmented by various Turkic tribes as they expanded, and in this way Turkic peoples eventually reinforced their expansion over the Eurasian steppe and beyond." A 2018 autosomal single-nucleotide polymorphism study suggested that the Eurasian Steppe slowly transitioned from Indo European and Iranian -speaking groups with largely western Eurasian ancestry to increasing East Asian ancestry with Turkic and Mongolian groups in
28509-471: The construction of the modern Suez Canal . Along with this enterprise, he also undertook the construction of a vast new city in European style to the north and west of the historic center of Cairo. The new city emulated Haussman 's 19th-century reforms of Paris , with grand boulevards and squares being part of the planning and layout. Although never fully completed to the extent of Isma'il's vision, this new city composes much of Downtown Cairo today. This left
28730-573: The development of Cairo's urban character was the growing number of waqf establishments, especially during the Mamluk period . Waqfs were charitable trusts under Islamic law which set out the function, operations, and funding sources of the many religious/civic establishments built by the ruling elite. They were typically drawn up to define complex religious or civic buildings which combined various functions (e.g. mosque, madrasa , mausoleum, sebil ) and which were often funded with revenues from urban commercial buildings or rural agricultural estates. By
28951-482: The earliest periods in Islamic history is made difficult by a lack of sources. For example, the most important historiographical source for the origins of Islam is the work of al-Tabari . While al-Tabari is considered an excellent historian by the standards of his time and place, he made liberal use of mythical, legendary, stereotyped, distorted, and polemical presentations of subject matter—which are however considered to be Islamically acceptable—and his descriptions of
29172-451: The early Islamic empire. Local populations of Jews and indigenous Christians , who lived as religious minorities and were forced to pay the jizya tax under the Muslim rule in order to finance the wars with Byzantines and Sasanids, often aided Muslims to take over their lands from the Byzantines and Persians, resulting in exceptionally speedy conquests. As new areas were conquered, they also benefited from free trade with other areas of
29393-455: The east, on the wall salient around the northern minaret of the al-Hakim Mosque. Inside Bab al-Futuh, through its eastern flanking doorway, is the tomb of an unidentified figure, and through its western flanking doorway is a long vaulted chamber. The third surviving gate, Bab Zuwayla, sits in the southern section of the wall. Badr al-Gamali rebuilt the original Bab Zuwayla further south than Gawhar al-Siqilli's original gate. A neighboring mosque,
29614-442: The eastern wall was built out of mudbrick, while the gates were built in stone. Since 1999, the preserved northern section of Fatimid walls has been cleared of debris and part of a local urban regeneration. The founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, Salah ad-Din, restored and/or reconstructed the Fatimid walls and gates in 1170 or 1171. He reconstructed parts of the Fatimid walls, including the eastern wall. In 1176, he then began embarked on
29835-431: The elderly. When he felt that a governor or a commander was becoming attracted to wealth or did not meet the required administrative standards, he had him removed from his position. The expansion was partially halted between 638 and 639 CE during the years of great famine and plague in Arabia and the Levant, respectively, but by the end of ʿUmar's reign, Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and much of Persia were incorporated into
30056-401: The entire Umayyad family and achieving victory at the Battle of the Zab , Al-Saffah and his forces marched into Damascus and founded a new dynasty. His forces confronted many regional powers and consolidated the realm of the Abbasid Caliphate. In Al-Mansur 's time, Persian scholarship emerged. Many non-Arabs converted to Islam. The Umayyads actively discouraged conversion in order to continue
30277-424: The establishment of a succinctly Arab brand of monotheism , as indicated by his many references to the Qurʾān as an Arab book and by his accommodations to other monotheistic traditions. After the death of Muhammad in 632 CE, his community needed to appoint a new leader, giving rise to the title of caliph ( Arabic : خَليفة , romanized : khalīfa , lit. 'successor'). Thus,
30498-402: The exceptions of Iran and Oman . Muhammad's closest companions ( ṣaḥāba ), the four " rightly-guided " caliphs who succeeded him, continued to expand the Islamic empire to encompass Jerusalem , Ctesiphon , and Damascus , and sending Arab Muslim armies as far as the Sindh region . The early Islamic empire stretched from al-Andalus (Muslim Iberia) to the Punjab region under the reign of
30719-471: The first time since Roman rule was established in 30 BC. Ibn Tulun founded his own new administrative capital in 870, called al-Qata'i , just northwest of al-Askar. It included a new grand palace (still called Dar al-'Imara ), a hippodrome or military parade ground, amenities such as a hospital ( bimaristan ), and a great mosque which survives to this day, known as the Mosque of Ibn Tulun , built between 876 and 879. Ibn Tulun died in 884 and his sons ruled for
30940-472: The following results: The following timeline can serve as a rough visual guide to the most important polities in the Islamic world prior to World War I . It covers major historical centers of power and culture, including the Arabian peninsula (modern-day Oman , Saudi Arabia , United Arab Emirates , and Yemen ), Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq ), Persia (modern-day Iran ), Levant (modern-day Syria , Lebanon , Jordan , and Israel/Palestine ), Egypt ,
31161-517: The gains of the earlier Caliphates . Initially, they conquered Mediterranean islands including the Balearics and, after, in 827 the Southern Italy . The ruling party had come to power on the wave of dissatisfaction with the Umayyads, cultivated by the Abbasid revolutionary Abu Muslim . Under the Abbasids Islamic civilization flourished. Most notable was the development of Arabic prose and poetry , termed by The Cambridge History of Islam as its " golden age ". Commerce and industry (considered
31382-490: The generation of Imam Husain but they were opposed by the Caliphs of the day as their rivals till Imam Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah came in power as first Caliph of Fatimid in North Africa when Caliphate and Imamate came to same person again after Imam Ali. These Imams were recognized by Shia Islam taking Imam Ali as first Caliph/Imam and the same is institutionalized by the Safavids and many similar institutions named now as Ismaili , Twelver , etc. The period under Muawiya II
31603-455: The government launched the Historic Cairo Restoration Project (HCRP) which aimed to restore 149 historic monuments. In the following years numerous restorations were completed under the supervision of the HCRP in the area between Bab Zuweila and Bab Futuh, especially around al-Mu'izz street. A restoration of Bay al-Suhaymi and the Darb al-Asfar street in front of it was also completed in 1999 by independent Egyptian conservators with funding from
31824-402: The governor of Syria after the previous governor died in a plague along with 25,000 other people. To stop the Byzantine harassment from the sea during the Arab–Byzantine wars , in 649 Muawiyah set up a navy, with ships crewed by Monophysite Christians , Egyptian Coptic Christians , and Jacobite Syrian Christians sailors and Muslim troops, which defeated the Byzantine navy at the Battle of
32045-461: The governor of North Africa. Uqba won battles against the Berbers and Byzantines. From there Uqba marched thousands of miles westward towards Tangier , where he reached the Atlantic coast, and then marched eastwards through the Atlas Mountains . With about 300 cavalrymen , he proceeded towards Biskra where he was ambushed by a Berber force under Kaisala. Uqba and all his men died fighting. The Berbers attacked and drove Muslims from north Africa for
32266-409: The great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph, ruled from 661 to 750 CE. Although the Umayyad family came from the city of Mecca , Damascus was the capital. After the death of Abdu'l-Rahman ibn Abu Bakr in 666, Muawiyah I consolidated his power. Muawiyah I moved his capital to Damascus from Medina , which led to profound changes in the empire. In the same way, at a later date, the transfer of
32487-405: The growing Islamic empire, where, to encourage commerce, taxes were applied to wealth rather than trade. The Muslims paid zakat on their wealth for the benefit of the poor. Since the Constitution of Medina , drafted by the Islamic prophet Muhammad , the Jews and the Christians continued to use their own laws and had their own judges. In 639 CE, ʿUmar appointed Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan as
32708-414: The helicoidal vaults being the first of their kind in this architectural context. The façade of Bab al-Nasr has a frieze containing Kufic inscriptions in white marble, including a foundation inscription and the Shi'a version of the Shahada which was representative of the Fatimid caliphate's religious beliefs. Bab al-Futuh features no inscriptions on the gate itself, but an inscription can be seen nearby to
32929-453: The historical, social, political, economic, and religious context of Late Antiquity in the Middle East . The second half of the 6th century CE saw political disorder in the pre-Islamic Arabian peninsula , and communication routes were no longer secure. Religious divisions played an important role in the crisis. Judaism became the dominant religion of the Himyarite Kingdom in Yemen after about 380 CE, while Christianity took root in
33150-407: The history of early Islam, the descriptive approach is more popular. For scholars who look at the beginnings of Islam in depth, the source critical and tradition critical methods are more often followed. After the 8th century CE, the quality of sources improves. Those sources which treated earlier times with a large temporal and cultural gap now begin to give accounts which are more contemporaneous,
33371-441: The important role of trade and commerce in Cairo's economy. The most famous and best-preserved example is the Wikala al-Ghuri , which nowadays also hosts regular performances by the Al- Tannoura Egyptian Heritage Dance Troupe. The famous Khan al-Khalili is a famous souq and commercial hub which also integrated caravanserais. Another example of historic commercial architecture is the 17th-century Qasaba of Radwan Bay , now part of
33592-471: The information gap is so substantial that any connection of these ancient people to the modern Turks is not possible. The Chinese Book of Zhou (7th century) presents an etymology of the name Turk as derived from 'helmet', explaining that this name comes from the shape of a mountain where they worked in the Altai Mountains . Hungarian scholar András Róna-Tas (1991) pointed to a Khotanese-Saka word, tturakä 'lid', semantically stretchable to 'helmet', as
33813-407: The initiative of their governor Abu 'Aun. The city was completed with the foundation of a grand mosque (called Jami' al-'Askar ) in 786, and included a palace for the governor's residence, known as the Dar al-'Imara. Nothing of this city remains today, but the foundation of new administrative capitals just outside the main city became a recurring pattern in the history of the area. Ahmad Ibn Tulun
34034-406: The institution known as the House of Wisdom employed Christian and Persian scholars to both translate works into Arabic and to develop new knowledge. The capital was moved from Damascus to Baghdad , due to the importance placed by the Abbasids upon eastern affairs in Persia and Transoxania . At this time the caliphate showed signs of fracture amid the rise of regional dynasties. Although
34255-432: The last Fatmid Caliph, al-'Adid , they requested help from the Zengids to protect themselves from the King of Jerusalem , Amalric , while at the same time attempting to collude with the latter to keep the Zengids in check. In 1168, as the Crusaders marched on Cairo, the Fatimid vizier Shawar , worried that the unfortified city of Fustat would be used as a base from which to besiege Cairo, ordered its evacuation and then set
34476-516: The last two centuries continue to reverberate to the present day, as well as fuel conflict-zones in regions such as Palestine , Kashmir , Xinjiang , Chechnya , Central Africa , Bosnia , and Myanmar. The oil boom stabilized the Arab States of the Gulf Cooperation Council (comprising Bahrain , Kuwait , Oman , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , and the United Arab Emirates ), making them the world's largest oil producers and exporters, which focus on capitalism , free trade , and tourism . The study of
34697-417: The late Xiongnu confederation about 200 BCE (contemporaneous with the Chinese Han dynasty ) and later among the Turkic-speaking Tiele as Hegu (紇骨) and Xue (薛). The Tiele (also known as Gaoche 高車, lit. "High Carts"), may be related to the Xiongnu and the Dingling . According to the Book of Wei , the Tiele people were the remnants of the Chidi (赤狄), the red Di people competing with
34918-457: The late 11th century, the Fatimid vizier Badr al-Gamali ordered a reconstruction of the walls primarily out of stone and further outward than before to expand the space within Cairo's walls. Construction began in 1087. The architectural elements of the walls were informed by Badr al-Gamali's Armenian background, and were innovative in the context of Islamic military architecture in Egypt. The walls are composed of three vertical levels. The lower level
35139-554: The late 15th century Cairo also had high-rise mixed-use buildings (known as a rab' , a khan or a wikala , depending on exact function) where the two lower floors were typically for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants . Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1517, under Selim I , and remained under Ottoman rule for centuries. During this period, local elites fought ceaselessly among themselves for political power and influence; some of them of Ottoman origin, others from
35360-447: The later part of this period, may have influenced the future Fatimids' choice of location for their capital, since one of Kafur's great gardens along the Khalij canal was incorporated into the later Fatimid palaces. The Fatimids , an Isma'ili Shi'a caliphate which was based in Ifriqiya (Tunisia), conquered Egypt in 969 CE during the reign of Caliph al-Mu'izz . Their army, composed mostly of North African Kutama Berbers ,
35581-417: The local populations to varying degrees. The Volga Bulgaria became an Islamic state in 922 and influenced the region as it controlled many trade routes. In the 13th century, Mongols invaded Europe and established the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe, western & northern Central Asia, and even western Siberia. The Cuman-Kipchak Confederation and Islamic Volga Bulgaria were absorbed by the Golden Horde in
35802-412: The location of Fustat at the intersection of Lower Egypt (the Nile Delta ) and Upper Egypt (the Nile Valley further south) made it a strategic place from which to control a country that was centered on the Nile river, much as the Ancient Egyptian city of Memphis (located just south of Cairo today) had done. (The pattern of founding new garrison cities inland was also one that was repeated throughout
36023-411: The location of several important religious shrines such as the al-Hussein Mosque (whose shrine is believed to hold the head of Husayn ibn Ali ), the Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i (founder of the Shafi'i madhhab , one of the primary schools of thought in Sunni Islamic jurisprudence ), the Tomb of Sayyida Ruqayya , the Mosque of Sayyida Nafisa , and others. Some of these shrines are located within
36244-400: The message of the Quran from the sacred texts of Christianity and Judaism. Armed conflict with the Arab Meccans and Jewish tribes of the Yathrib area soon broke out. After a series of military confrontations and political manoeuvres, Muhammad was able to secure control of Mecca and allegiance of the Quraysh in 629 CE. In the time remaining until his death in 632 CE, tribal chiefs across
36465-434: The mosque of al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh, has two minarets that sit on top of the two towers that flank the Bab Zuwayla. Similar to Bab al-Nasr and Bab al-Futuh, Bab Zuwayla was also adjacent to gardens, namely the gardens of Qanṭara al-Kharq. One of the eastern gates of the city, part of the Ayyubid reconstruction of the walls, was also uncovered in 1998 and subsequently studied and restored. It has a complex defensive layout including
36686-530: The next few years, when Uyghur Khaganate remnants tried to raid Tang borders, the Shatuo participated extensively in counterattacking the Uyghur Khaganate with other tribes loyal to Tang. In 843, Zhuye Chixin, under the command of the Han Chinese officer Shi Xiong with Tuyuhun, Tangut and Han Chinese troops, participated in a raid against the Uyghur khaganate that led to the slaughter of Uyghur forces at Shahu mountain. The Shatuo Turks had founded several short-lived sinicized dynasties in northern China during
36907-460: The northeast Asian gene pool", the proto-Turkic language likely originated in northeastern Asia. Genetic data found that almost all modern Turkic peoples retained at least some shared ancestry associated with populations in "South Siberia and Mongolia" (SSM), supporting this region as the "Inner Asian Homeland (IAH) of the pioneer carriers of Turkic languages" which subsequently expanded into Central Asia. The main Turkic expansion took place during
37128-399: The northeast corner of the walls, was known as Bab al-Jadid up to the present day and thus possibly contributed to confusion over the identification of the Ayyubid gate uncovered in 1998, with which it shares a similar layout. Salah ad-Din (Saladin) began the construction of an extensive Citadel in 1176 to serve as Egypt's seat of power, with construction finishing under his successors. It
37349-444: The old city walls. Ottoman architecture in Cairo continued to be heavily influenced and derived from the local Mamluk-era traditions rather than presenting a clear break with the past. Some individuals, such as Abd ar-Rahman Katkhuda al-Qazdaghli, a mamluk official among the Janissaries in the 18th century, were prolific architectural patrons. Many old bourgeois or aristocratic mansions that have been preserved in Cairo today date from
37570-403: The old historic districts of Cairo, including the walled city, relatively neglected. Even the Citadel lost its status as the royal residence when Isma'il moved to the new Abdin Palace in 1874. While the first mosque in Egypt was the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat , the Mosque of Ibn Tulun is the oldest mosque to retain its original form and is a rare example of Abbasid architecture, from
37791-409: The old pagan vocabulary of Arabic throughout the peninsula. The Ḥanīf ("renunciates"), a group of monotheists that sought to separate themselves both from the foreign Abrahamic religions and the traditional Arab polytheism , were looking for a new religious worldview to replace the pre-Islamic Arabian religions, focusing on "the all-encompassing father god Allah whom they freely equated with
38012-428: The partly Islamized native Siberian Tatars and indigenous Uralic peoples. It was the northernmost Islamic state in recorded history and it survived up until 1598 when it was conquered by Russia. The Uyghur Khaganate had established itself by the year 744 AD. Through trade relations established with China, its capital city of Ordu Baliq in central Mongolia's Orkhon Valley became a wealthy center of commerce, and
38233-441: The past 4000 years, including extensive Turkic migrations out of Mongolia and slow assimilation of local populations. A 2022 report suggested that Turkic and Mongolic populations in Central Asia formed via admixture events during the Iron Age between "local Indo-Iranian and a South-Siberian or Mongolian group with a high East-Asian ancestry (around 60%)". Modern day Turkmens form an outlier among Central Asian Turkic-speakers with
38454-403: The poor, ʿUmar established the Bayt al-mal , a welfare institution for the Muslim and Non-Muslim poor, needy, elderly, orphans, widows, and the disabled. The Bayt al-mal ran for hundreds of years under the Rāshidūn Caliphate in the 7th century CE and continued through the Umayyad period and well into the Abbasid era . ʿUmar also introduced child benefit for the children and pensions for
38675-423: The quality of genre of available historical accounts improves, and new documentary sources—such as official documents, correspondence and poetry—appear. For the time prior to the beginning of Islam—in the 6th century CE—sources are superior as well, if still of mixed quality. In particular, the sources covering the Sasanian realm of influence in the 6th century CE are poor, while the sources for Byzantine areas at
38896-447: The remaining course of the wall. More sections of the wall were completed by 1218, but by 1238 work was apparently still ongoing. Many gates existed along the walls of Fatimid Cairo, but only three remain today: Bab al-Nasr, Bab al-Futuh, and Bab Zuwayla (with "Bab" translating to "gate"). A restoration project from 2001 to 2003 successfully restored the three gates and parts of the northern wall between Bab al-Nasr and Bab al-Futuh. During
39117-410: The remains of which still stand today and were expanded under later Ayyubid rule. The late 11th century was also a time of major events and developments in the region. It was at this time that the Great Seljuk (Turkish) Empire took over much of the eastern Islamic world. The arrival of the Turks , who were mainly Sunni Muslims , was a long-term factor in the so-called " Sunni Revival " which reversed
39338-420: The revival of Sunnism when Shi'ism increased its influence. The Seljuk military leader Alp Arslan (1063 – 1072) financially supported sciences and literature and established the Nezamiyeh university in Baghdad. Expansion continued, sometimes by force, sometimes by peaceful proselytising . The first stage in the conquest of India began just before the year 1000. By some 200 (from 1193 to 1209) years later,
39559-431: The rival Sunni Abbasid Caliphate. During the reign of Caliph al-Mustansir (1036–1094), the longest of any Muslim ruler, the Fatimid Empire reached its peak but also began its decline. A few strong viziers , acting on behalf of the caliphs, managed to revive the empire's power on occasion. The Armenian vizier Badr al-Jamali (in office from 1073–1094) notably rebuilt the walls of Cairo in stone, with monumental gates,
39780-476: The ruling class. This is also where the major souqs of Cairo developed, forming its main economic zone of international trade and commercial activity. As the main street became saturated with shops and space for further development there ran out, new commercial structures were built further east, close to al-Azhar Mosque and to the shrine of al-Hussein , where the souq area of Khan al-Khalili , still present today, progressively developed. One important factor in
40001-402: The southern gate ( Bab Zuweila ) and passed between the palaces via Bayn al-Qasrayn. Under the Fatimids, however, Cairo was a royal city which was closed to the common people and inhabited only by the Caliph's family, state officials, army regiments, and other people necessary to the operations of the regime and its city. Fustat remained for some time the main economic and urban center of Egypt. It
40222-416: The speakers of which account for about 40% of all Turkic speakers. More than one third of these are ethnic Turks of Turkey , dwelling predominantly in Turkey proper and formerly Ottoman -dominated areas of Southern and Eastern Europe and West Asia ; as well as in Western Europe, Australia and the Americas as a result of immigration. The remainder of the Turkic people are concentrated in Central Asia, Russia,
40443-510: The submission ( Islām ) to the will of God . According to the traditional account , the Islamic prophet Muhammad began receiving what Muslims consider to be divine revelations in 610 CE, calling for submission to the one God, preparation for the imminent Last Judgement , and charity for the poor and needy. As Muhammad's message began to attract followers (the ṣaḥāba ) he also met with increasing hostility and persecution from Meccan elites . In 622 CE Muhammad migrated to
40664-441: The subsequent Islamic empires were known as " caliphates ", and a series of four caliphs governed the early Islamic empire: Abū Bakr (632–634), ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (Umar І, 634–644), ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (644–656), and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (656–661). These leaders are known as the rāshidūn ("rightly-guided") caliphs in Sunnī Islam . They oversaw the initial phase of the early Muslim conquests , advancing through Persia ,
40885-473: The succession of al-Walid's son Yazid, rather than Sulayman. Al-Hajjaj had predeceased al-Walid, so he posed no threat. Qutaibah renounced allegiance to Sulayman, though his troops rejected his appeal to revolt. They killed him and sent his head to Sulayman. Sulayman did not move to Damascus on becoming Caliph, remaining in Ramla . Sulayman sent Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik to attack the Byzantine capital ( siege of Constantinople ). The intervention of Bulgaria on
41106-811: The term Türki refers generally to the people of modern "Turkic Republics" ( Türki Cumhuriyetler or Türk Cumhuriyetleri ). However, the proper usage of the term is based on the linguistic classification in order to avoid any political sense. In short, the term Türki can be used for Türk or vice versa. [REDACTED] Crimea ( disputed by Ukraine and Russia) [REDACTED] Sunan Yugur Autonomous County [REDACTED] Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District (Russian Federation) Possible Proto-Turkic ancestry, at least partial, has been posited for Xiongnu , Huns and Pannonian Avars , as well as Tuoba and Rouran , who were of Proto-Mongolic Donghu ancestry. as well as Tatars , Rourans' supposed descendants. The Turkic languages constitute
41327-551: The term Turk ( Old Turkic : 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰 Türük or 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰:𐰜𐰇𐰛 Kök Türük , Chinese : 突厥 , Pinyin : Tūjué < Middle Chinese * tɦut-kyat < * dwət-kuɑt , Old Tibetan : drugu ) applied to only one Turkic group, namely, the Göktürks , who were also mentioned, as türüg ~ török , in the 6th-century Khüis Tolgoi inscription , most likely not later than 587 AD. A letter by Ishbara Qaghan to Emperor Wen of Sui in 585 described him as "the Great Turk Khan". The Bugut (584 CE) and Orkhon inscriptions (735 CE) use
41548-684: The terms Türküt , Türk and Türük . During the first century CE, Pomponius Mela refers to the Turcae in the forests north of the Sea of Azov , and Pliny the Elder lists the Tyrcae among the people of the same area. However, English archaeologist Ellis Minns contended that Tyrcae Τῦρκαι is "a false correction" for Iyrcae Ἱύρκαι, a people who dwelt beyond the Thyssagetae , according to Herodotus ( Histories , iv. 22), and were likely Ugric ancestors of Magyars . There are references to certain groups in antiquity whose names might have been foreign transcriptions of Tür(ü)k , such as Togarma , Turukha / Turuška , Turukku and so on; but
41769-778: The time are of a respectable quality, and complemented by Syriac Christian sources for Syria and Iraq. Until the early 1970s, Non-Muslim scholars of Islamic studies—while not accepting accounts of divine intervention—did accept its origin story in most of its details. On the dates said, historians called Revisionist school of Islamic studies began to use relevant archaeology , epigraphy , numismatics and contemporary non-Arabic literature to crosscheck writings from 150 to 250 years after Muhammad. The school included scholars such as John Wansbrough and his students Andrew Rippin , Norman Calder , G. R. Hawting , Patricia Crone and Michael Cook , as well as Günter Lüling , Yehuda D. Nevo and Christoph Luxenberg . These studies yielded
41990-443: The time. Despite being a largely military caste, the Mamluks were prolific builders and sponsors of religious and civic buildings. An extensive number of Cairo's historical monuments date from their era, including many of the most impressive. The city also prospered from the control of trade routes between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean . After the reign of al-Nasir, however, Egypt and Cairo were struck by repeated epidemics of
42211-406: The title of oldest university in the world. Today, al-Azhar University is the foremost center of Islamic learning in the world and one of Egypt's largest universities with campuses across the country. The mosque itself retains significant Fatimid elements but has been added to and expanded in subsequent centuries, notably by the Mamluk sultans Qaitbay and al-Ghuri and by Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda in
42432-442: The traditional centers of the Muslim world, stretching from Persia to Egypt, but saw the emergence of the Timurid Renaissance and major economic powers such as the Mali Empire in West Africa and the Bengal Sultanate in South Asia . Following the deportation and enslavement of the Muslim Moors from the Emirate of Sicily and elsewhere in southern Italy , the Islamic Iberia was gradually conquered by Christian forces during
42653-419: The tribe of Muhammad, might serve as one. Shīʿītes, on the other hand, believed the title of caliph should be hereditary in the bloodline of Muhammad , and thus all the caliphs, with the exceptions of Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and his firstborn son Ḥasan , were actually illegitimate usurpers . However, the Sunnī sect emerged as triumphant in most regions of the Muslim world , with
42874-454: The vast cemetery areas known as the City of the Dead or al-Qarafa in Arabic, which adjoin the historic city. The cemeteries date back to the foundation of Fustat, but many of the most prominent and famous mausoleum structures are from the Mamluk era. When Cairo was founded as a palace-city in 969 by the Fatimid Caliphate, Gawhar al-Siqilli, a Fatimid general, led the construction of the city's original walls out of mudbrick . Later, during
43095-525: The wall were built, including the section to the north of the Citadel and a section near Fustat in south. Al-Maqrizi , a writer from the later Mamluk period, reports several details about the construction. In 1185–6, the wall around Fustat was being built. In 1192, a trench was being built for the eastern fortifications, by which time some of the eastern wall and its towers were probably in place. Work continued after Salah ad-Din's death under his successors, al-'Adil and al-Kamil . In 1200, orders went out to dig
43316-414: The walled city, which would house Egypt's rulers and state administration for many centuries thereafter. This ended Cairo's status as an exclusive palace-city and started a process by which the city became an economic center inhabited by common Egyptians and open to foreign travelers. Over the subsequent centuries, Cairo developed into a full-scale urban center. The decline of Fustat over the same period paved
43537-429: The way for its ascendance. The Ayyubid sultans and their Mamluk successors, who were Sunni Muslims eager to erase the influence of the Shi'a Fatimids, progressively demolished and replaced the great Fatimid palaces with their own buildings. The Al-Azhar Mosque was converted to a Sunni institution, and today it is the foremost center for the study of the Qur'an and Islamic law in the Sunni Islamic world. In 1250
43758-405: The world, do not have a uniform palaeography as do, for example, the Gothic runiform scripts, noted for their exceptional uniformity of language and paleography. The Turkic alphabets are divided into four groups, the best known of which is the Orkhon version of the Enisei group. The Orkhon script is the alphabet used by the Göktürks from the 8th century to record the Old Turkic language . It
43979-480: Was a Turkish military commander who had served the Abbasid caliphs in Samarra during a long crisis of Abbasid power. He became governor of Egypt in 868 but quickly became its de facto independent ruler, while still acknowledging the Abbasid caliph's symbolic authority. He grew so influential that the caliph later allowed him to also take control of Syria in 878. During this period of Tulunid rule (under Ibn Tulun and his sons), Egypt became an independent state for
44200-419: Was a significant source of revenue for the city. Most likely Muhammad was "intimately aware of Jewish belief and practices," and acquainted with the Ḥanīf . Like the Ḥanīf , Muhammad practiced Taḥannuth , spending time in seclusion at mount Hira and "turning away from paganism." When he was about 40 years old, he began receiving at mount Hira' what Muslims regard as divine revelations delivered through
44421-410: Was accepted as an arbitrator among the different communities of the city under the terms of the Constitution of Medina , Muhammad began to lay the foundations of the new Islamic society, with the help of new Quranic verses which provided guidance on matters of law and religious observance. The surahs of this period emphasized his place among the long line of Biblical prophets , but also differentiated
44642-412: Was almost entirely devoted to trying to keep the Umayyad empire together. His death signalled the end of Umayyad rule in the East, and was followed by the massacre of Umayyads by the Abbasids. Almost the entire Umayyad dynasty was killed, except for the talented prince Abd al-Rahman who escaped to the Iberian Peninsula and founded a dynasty there. The Abbasid dynasty rose to power in 750, consolidating
44863-402: Was also called Bab al-Tawfiq ("Gate of Success"). It would have replaced the earlier 10th-century Fatimid gate in this area. Archeologists discovered a number of ancient stones with Pharaonic inscriptions that were re-used in the gate's construction. It was likely replaced by an Ayyubid-era gate built in front of it, but as of 2008 this had not yet been excavated. Another gate further north, near
45084-432: Was assassinated in 644 CE, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān , second cousin and twice son-in-law of Muhammad, became the third caliph. As the Arabic language is written without vowels, speakers of different Arabic dialects and other languages recited the Quran with phonetic variations that could alter the meaning of the text. When ʿUthmān became aware of this, he ordered a standard copy of the Quran to be prepared. Begun during his reign,
45305-419: Was completed in 2021, led in part by the AKTC with additional funding from the European Union . Between 2009 and 2015 the World Monuments Fund and the AKTC completed a restoration of the 14th-century Mosque of Amir Aqsunqur (also known as the Blue Mosque). Another project completed in 2021 has restored the 18th-century Sabil-kuttab of Ruqayya Dudu in the Suq al-Silah area. In 2021 the Egyptian government began
45526-500: Was elevated above the street and contained the vestibules of the gates, which were accessible by ramps. The second level contained halls that connected different galleries and rooms. The third level was the terrace level, protected by parapets, where, near gates, belvederes were built for the caliph and his court to use. Although it was previously thought that the entirety of Badr al-Gamali's walls were built in stone, more recent archeological findings have confirmed that at least part of
45747-469: Was granted its independence in 1922. Under Muhammad Ali's rule the Citadel of Cairo was completely refurbished. Many of its disused Mamluk monuments were demolished to make way for his new mosque (the Mosque of Muhammad Ali ) and other palaces. Muhammad Ali's dynasty also introduced a more purely Ottoman style of architecture , mainly in the late Ottoman Baroque style of the time. One of his grandsons, Isma'il , as Khedive between 1864 and 1879, oversaw
45968-457: Was home to Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Zoroastrians, in addition to the growing Muslim population. Like his father, Al-Hadi was open to his people and allowed citizens to address him in the palace at Baghdad. He was considered an "enlightened ruler", and continued the policies of his Abbasid predecessors. His short rule was plagued by military conflicts and internal intrigue. The military conflicts subsided as Harun al-Rashid ruled. His reign
46189-416: Was initially reserved exclusively for the Göktürks by Chinese, Tibetans, and even the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs . In contrast, medieval Muslim writers, including Turkic speakers like Ottoman historian Mustafa Âlî and explorer Evliya Çelebi as well as Timurid scientist Ulugh Beg , often viewed Inner Asian tribes, "as forming a single entity regardless of their linguistic affiliation" commonly used Turk as
46410-475: Was later used by the Uyghur Empire ; a Yenisei variant is known from 9th-century Kyrgyz inscriptions, and it has likely cousins in the Talas Valley of Turkestan and the Old Hungarian script of the 10th century. Irk Bitig is the only known complete manuscript text written in the Old Turkic script. ( Tokhara Yabghus , Turk Shahis ) The origins of the Turkic peoples has been a topic of much discussion. Peter Benjamin Golden proposes two locations for
46631-408: Was led by the general Jawhar al-Siqilli . In 970, under instructions from al-Mu'izz, Jawhar planned, founded, and constructed a new city to serve as the residence and center of power for the Fatimid Caliphs. The city was named al-Mu'izziyya al-Qaahirah ( Arabic : المعزية القاهرة ), the "Victorious City of al-Mu'izz", later simply called "al-Qahira", which gave us the modern name of Cairo . The city
46852-527: Was located near a Roman-Byzantine fortress known as Babylon on the shores of the Nile (now located in Old Cairo ), southwest of the later site of Cairo proper (see below). The choice of this location may have been due to several factors, including its slightly closer proximity to Arabia and Mecca , the fear of strong remaining Christian and Hellenistic influence in Alexandria, and Alexandria's vulnerability to Byzantine counteroffensives arriving by sea (which did indeed occur). Perhaps even more importantly,
47073-429: Was located northeast of Fustat and of the previous administrative capitals built by Ibn Tulun and the Abbasids. Jawhar organized the new city so that at its center were the Great Palaces that housed the caliphs, their household, and the state's institutions. Two main palaces were completed: an eastern one (the largest of the two) and a western one, between which was an important plaza known as Bayn al-Qasrayn ("Between
47294-463: Was marked by civil wars ( Second Fitna ). This would ease in the reign of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan , a well-educated and capable ruler. Despite the many political problems that impeded his rule, all important records were translated into Arabic. In his reign, a currency for the Muslim world was minted. This led to war with the Byzantine Empire under Justinian II ( Battle of Sebastopolis ) in 692 in Asia Minor . The Byzantines were decisively defeated by
47515-440: Was marked by scientific, cultural and religious prosperity. He established the library Bayt al-Hikma ("House of Wisdom"), and the arts and music flourished during his reign. The Barmakid family played a decisive advisorial role in establishing the Caliphate, but declined during Rashid's rule. Al-Amin received the Caliphate from his father Harun Al-Rashid, but failed to respect the arrangements made for his brothers, leading to
47736-417: Was met with increasing persecution from Meccan notables . In 622 CE, a few years after losing protection with the death of his influential uncle ʾAbū Ṭālib ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib , Muhammad migrated to the city of Yathrib (subsequently called Medina ) where he was joined by his followers. Later generations would count this event, known as the hijra , as the start of the Islamic era. In Yathrib, where he
47957-446: Was often distributed among several dynasties. For example, during the later stages of the Abbasid Caliphate , even the capital city of Baghdad was effectively ruled by other dynasties such as the Buyyids and the Seljuks , while the Ottoman Turks commonly delegated executive authority over outlying provinces to local potentates , such as the Deys of Algiers , the Beys of Tunis , and the Mamluks of Iraq . Early Islam arose within
48178-400: Was only later that Cairo grew to absorb other local cities, including Fustat, but the year 969 is sometimes considered the "founding year" of the current city. Al-Mu'izz, and with him the administrative apparatus of the Fatimid Caliphate, left his former capital of Mahdia , Tunisia, in 972 and arrived in Cairo in June 973. The Fatimid Empire quickly grew powerful enough to stand as a threat to
48399-499: Was reconstructed by Badr al-Gamali between 1087 and 1092 about two hundred meters from the original site and was given its new name. Similarly, Bab al-Futuh was originally called Bab al-Iqbal, or "the Gate of Prosperity," and was later renamed Bab al-Futuh by Badr al-Gamali. Bab al-Nasr is flanked by two towers of square shape, with shield insignias carved into the stone, while Bab al-Futuh is flanked by round towers. The vaulted stone ceilings inside Bab al-Nasr are innovative in design, with
48620-426: Was replaced by the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 744. The Bulgars established themselves in between the Caspian and Black Seas in the 5th and 6th centuries, followed by their conquerors, the Khazars who converted to Judaism in the 8th or 9th century. After them came the Pechenegs who created a large confederacy, which was subsequently taken over by the Cumans and the Kipchaks . One group of Bulgars settled in
48841-606: Was tolerant of religious diversity and practiced variety of religions including Buddhism, Christianity, shamanism and Manichaeism. During the same time period, the Shatuo Turks emerged as power factor in Northern and Central China and were recognized by the Tang Empire as allied power. In 808, 30,000 Shatuo under Zhuye Jinzhong defected from the Tibetans to Tang China and the Tibetans punished them by killing Zhuye Jinzhong as they were chasing them. The Uyghurs also fought against an alliance of Shatuo and Tibetans at Beshbalik. The Shatuo Turks under Zhuye Chixin ( Li Guochang ) served
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