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150-535: Ibn Battuta ( / ˌ ɪ b ən b æ t ˈ t uː t ɑː / ; 24 February 1304 – 1368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of thirty years from 1325 to 1354, Ibn Battuta visited much of Africa , the Middle East , Asia , and the Iberian Peninsula . Near the end of his life, he dictated an account of his journeys, titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate

300-515: A Somali sultan, Abu Bakr ibn Shaikh 'Umar. He noted that Sultan Abu Bakr had dark skin complexion and spoke in his native tongue (Somali), but was also fluent in Arabic. The Sultan also had a retinue of wazirs (ministers), legal experts, commanders, royal eunuchs , and other officials at his beck and call. Ibn Battuta continued by ship south to the Swahili coast , a region then known in Arabic as

450-558: A harat , which in many cases had gates that could be closed off at night or during disturbances. When the traveller Ibn Battuta first came to Cairo in 1326, he described it as the principal district of Egypt. When he passed through the area again on his return journey in 1348, the Black Death was ravaging most major cities. He cited reports of thousands of deaths per day in Cairo. Although Cairo avoided Europe 's stagnation during

600-463: A province , with Cairo as its capital. For this reason, the history of Cairo during Ottoman times is often described as inconsequential, especially in comparison to other time periods. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Cairo still remained an important economic and cultural centre. Although no longer on the spice route, the city facilitated the transportation of Yemeni coffee and Indian textiles , primarily to Anatolia , North Africa , and

750-618: A centre of the region's political and cultural life, and is titled "the city of a thousand minarets " for its preponderance of Islamic architecture . Cairo's historic center was awarded World Heritage Site status in 1979. Cairo is considered a World City with a "Beta +" classification according to GaWC . Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industry in the Arab world , as well as Egypt's oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University . Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in

900-401: A chief judge and married into the royal family of Omar I . Ibn Battuta took on his duties as a judge with keenness and strived to transform local practices to conform to a stricter application of Muslim law. He commanded that men who did not attend Friday prayer be publicly whipped, and that robbers' right hand be cut off. He forbade women from being topless in public, which had previously been

1050-508: A commander of Turkic origin named Bakbak was sent to Egypt by the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'taz to restore order after a rebellion in the country. He was accompanied by his stepson, Ahmad ibn Tulun , who became effective governor of Egypt. Over time, Ibn Tulun gained an army and accumulated influence and wealth, allowing him to become the de facto independent ruler of both Egypt and Syria by 878. In 870, he used his growing wealth to found

1200-482: A desire long-cherished in my bosom to visit these illustrious sanctuaries. So I braced my resolution to quit my dear ones, female and male, and forsook my home as birds forsake their nests. My parents being yet in the bonds of life, it weighed sorely upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow at this separation. He travelled to Mecca overland, following the North African coast across

1350-466: A feature of most Anatolian towns in the 13th and 14th centuries. The members were young artisans and had at their head a leader with the title of Akhil . The associations specialised in welcoming travellers. Ibn Battuta was very impressed with the hospitality that he received and would later stay in their hospices in more than 25 towns in Anatolia. From Antalya Ibn Battuta headed inland to Eğirdir which

1500-576: A feature of the city's housing during the later Ottoman period. These apartments were often laid out as multi-story duplexes or triplexes. They were sometimes attached to caravanserais, where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants. The oldest partially-preserved example of this type of structure is the Wikala of Amir Qawsun , built before 1341. Residential buildings were in turn organized into close-knit neighbourhoods called

1650-719: A guest for three days. Ibn Battuta then sailed to a state called Kaylukari in the land of Tawalisi , where he met Urduja , a local princess. Urduja was a brave warrior, and her people were opponents of the Yuan dynasty . She was described as an "idolater", but could write the phrase Bismillah in Islamic calligraphy . The locations of Kaylukari and Tawalisi are disputed. Kaylukari might referred to Po Klong Garai in Champa (now southern Vietnam), and Urduja might be an aristocrat of Champa or Dai Viet . Filipinos widely believe that Kaylukari

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1800-543: A journey up the Nile valley, then east to the Red Sea port of ʿAydhab . Upon approaching the town, however, a local rebellion forced him to turn back. Ibn Battuta returned to Cairo and took a second side trip, this time to Mamluk-controlled Damascus . During his first trip he had encountered a holy man who prophesied that he would only reach Mecca by travelling through Syria . The diversion held an added advantage; because of

1950-665: A large caravan of pilgrims returning to Iraq across the Arabian Peninsula . The group headed north to Medina and then, travelling at night, turned northeast across the Najd plateau to Najaf , on a journey that lasted about two weeks. In Najaf, he visited the mausoleum of Ali , the Fourth Caliph . Then, instead of continuing to Baghdad with the caravan, Ibn Battuta started a six-month detour that took him into Iran . From Najaf, he journeyed to Wasit , then followed

2100-761: A major power in the region and was responsible for repelling the advance of the Mongols (most famously at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260) and for eliminating the last Crusader states in the Levant. Despite their military character, the Mamluks were also prolific builders and left a rich architectural legacy throughout Cairo. Continuing a practice started by the Ayyubids, much of the land occupied by former Fatimid palaces

2250-1215: A major role in spreading Bedouin Arabic to rural areas such as the countryside and steppes, and as far as the southern areas near the Sahara . The varieties of Maghrebi Arabic form a dialect continuum . The degree of mutual intelligibility is high between geographically adjacent dialects (such as local dialects spoken in Eastern Morocco and Western Algeria or Eastern Algeria and North Tunisia or South Tunisia and Western Libya), but lower between dialects that are further apart, e.g. between Moroccan and Tunisian Darija. Conversely, Moroccan Darija and particularly Algerian Derja cannot be easily understood by Eastern Arabic speakers (from Egypt, Sudan, Levant, Iraq, and Arabian peninsula) in general. Maghrebi Arabic continues to evolve by integrating new French or English words, notably in technical fields, or by replacing old French and Italian/Spanish ones with Modern Standard Arabic words within some circles; more educated and upper-class people who code-switch between Maghrebi Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic have more French and Italian/Spanish loanwords, especially

2400-433: A much higher population density than formal housing. By 2009, over 63% of the population of Greater Cairo lived in informal neighbourhoods, even though these occupied only 17% of the total area of Greater Cairo. According to economist David Sims, informal housing has the benefits of providing affordable accommodation and vibrant communities to huge numbers of Cairo's working classes, but it also suffers from government neglect,

2550-447: A neighbourhood of urban villas with gardens and curved streets. The British occupation was intended to be temporary, but it lasted well into the 20th century. Nationalists staged large-scale demonstrations in Cairo in 1919, five years after Egypt had been declared a British protectorate . Nevertheless, this led to Egypt's independence in 1922 . The King Fuad I Edition of the Qur'an

2700-509: A new administrative capital, al-Qata'i ( Arabic : القطائـع , lit.   'the allotments'), to the northeast of Fustat and of al-Askar. The new city included a palace known as the Dar al-Imara , a parade ground known as al-Maydan , a bimaristan (hospital), and an aqueduct to supply water. Between 876 and 879 Ibn Tulun built a great mosque, now known as the Mosque of Ibn Tulun , at

2850-525: A number of towns in central Anatolia, but not in the order in which he describes. When Ibn Battuta arrived in İznik , it had just been conquered by Orhan , sultan of the Ottoman Beylik . Orhan was away and his wife was in command of the nearby stationed soldiers, Ibn Battuta gave this account of Orhan's wife: "A pious and excellent woman. She treated me honourably, gave me hospitality and sent gifts." Ibn Battuta's account of Orhan: The greatest of

3000-407: A peculiar way. Southern merchants brought various goods and placed them in an open area on the snow in the night, then returned to their tents. Next morning they came to the place again and found their merchandise taken by the mysterious people, but in exchange they found fur-skins which could be used for making valuable coats, jackets, and other winter garments. The trade was done between merchants and

3150-420: A place called "Mul Jawa" (island of Java or Majapahit Java) which was a center of a Hindu empire . The empire spanned 2 months of travel, and ruled over the country of Qaqula and Qamara. He arrived at the walled city named Qaqula/Kakula, and observed that the city had war junks for pirate raiding and collecting tolls and that elephants were employed for various purposes. He met the ruler of Mul Jawa and stayed as

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3300-476: A political and economic hub for North Africa and the Arab world , with many multinational businesses and organisations, including the Arab League , operating out of the city. In 1979 the historic districts of Cairo were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . In 1992, Cairo was hit by an earthquake causing 545 deaths, injuring 6,512 and leaving around 50,000 people homeless. Cairo's Tahrir Square

3450-542: A relative lack of services, and overcrowding. The "formal" city was also expanded. The most notable example was the creation of Madinat Nasr , a huge government-sponsored expansion of the city to the east which officially began in 1959 but was primarily developed in the mid-1970s. Starting in 1977 the Egyptian government established the New Urban Communities Authority to initiate and direct

3600-590: A result of the Mongol invasion in 1220 and subsequent infighting. From there, he journeyed south to Afghanistan , then crossed into India via the mountain passes of the Hindu Kush . In the Rihla , he mentions these mountains and the history of the range in slave trading. He wrote, After this I proceeded to the city of Barwan, in the road to which is a high mountain, covered with snow and exceedingly cold; they call it

3750-564: A series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil disobedience, and labour strikes. Millions of protesters from a variety of socio-economic and religious backgrounds demanded the overthrow of the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Despite being predominantly peaceful in nature, the revolution was not without violent clashes between security forces and protesters, with at least 846 people killed and 6,000 injured. The uprising took place in Cairo, Alexandria, and in other cities in Egypt, following

3900-552: A sizeable city existed. The city was important enough that its bishop , Cyrus, participated in the Second Council of Ephesus in 449. The Byzantine-Sassanian War between 602 and 628 caused great hardship and likely caused much of the urban population to leave for the countryside, leaving the settlement partly deserted. The site today remains at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, which separated from

4050-528: A triangle encompassing Roman towns and cities such as Tangier , Salé and Walili , Moroccan Arabic began to take form. Arabization was widespread in cities where both Arabs and Berbers lived, as well as Arab centers and surrounding rural areas. Nevertheless, the Arabization process in the countryside remained gradual until the Hilalian invasions of the 11th century. Maghrebi Arabic originates from

4200-453: A variety of offences. His plan to leave on the pretext of taking another hajj was stymied by the Sultan. The opportunity for Battuta to leave Delhi finally arose in 1341 when an embassy arrived from the Yuan dynasty of China asking for permission to rebuild a Himalayan Buddhist temple popular with Chinese pilgrims. Ibn Battuta was given charge of the embassy but en route to the coast at

4350-497: Is a patronymic , literally meaning 'son of the duckling'. His most common full name is given as Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battuta. In his travelogue , The Rihla , he gives his full name as " Shams al-Din Abu’Abdallah Muhammad ibn’Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf Lawati al- Tanji ibn Battuta". All that is known about Ibn Battuta's life comes from the autobiographical information included in

4500-461: Is another Coptic name for Cairo, although others think that it is rather a name for the Abbasid province capital al-Askar . Ⲕⲁϩⲓⲣⲏ ( Kahi•ree ) is a popular modern rendering of an Arabic name (others being Ⲕⲁⲓⲣⲟⲛ [Kairon] and Ⲕⲁϩⲓⲣⲁ [Kahira]) which is modern folk etymology meaning 'land of sun'. Some argue that it was the name of an Egyptian settlement upon which Cairo was built, but it

4650-521: Is attested in the modern Coptic text Ⲡⲓⲫⲓⲣⲓ ⲛ̀ⲧⲉ ϯⲁⲅⲓⲁ ⲙ̀ⲙⲏⲓ Ⲃⲉⲣⲏⲛⲁ (The Tale of Saint Verina ). Lioui ( Ⲗⲓⲟⲩⲓ Late Coptic: [lɪˈjuːj] ) or Elioui ( Ⲉⲗⲓⲟⲩⲓ Late Coptic: [ælˈjuːj] ) is another name which is descended from the Greek name of Heliopolis ( Ήλιούπολις ). Some argue that Mistram ( Ⲙⲓⲥⲧⲣⲁⲙ Late Coptic: [ˈmɪs.təɾɑm] ) or Nistram ( Ⲛⲓⲥⲧⲣⲁⲙ Late Coptic: [ˈnɪs.təɾɑm] )

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4800-801: Is derived from the Arabic al-Qāhirah ( القاهرة ), meaning 'the Vanquisher' or 'the Conqueror', given by the Fatimid Caliph al-Mu'izz following the establishment of the city as the capital of the Fatimid dynasty. Its full, formal name was al-Qāhirah al-Mu'izziyyah (القاهرة المعزيّة), meaning 'the Vanquisher of al-Mu'izz'. It is also supposedly due to the fact that the planet Mars , known in Arabic by names such as an-Najm al-Qāhir ( النجم القاهر , 'the Conquering Star'),

4950-437: Is dominated by wide boulevards, open spaces, and modern architecture of European influence, the eastern half, having grown haphazardly over the centuries, is dominated by small lanes, crowded tenements, and Islamic architecture . Northern and extreme eastern parts of Cairo, which include satellite towns , are among the most recent additions to the city, as they developed in the late-20th and early-21st centuries to accommodate

5100-468: Is doubtful. In all likelihood, he went directly from Ta'izz to the important trading port of Aden , arriving around the beginning of 1329 or 1331. From Aden , Ibn Battuta embarked on a ship heading for Zeila on the coast of Somalia . He then moved on to Cape Guardafui further down the Somali seaboard, spending about a week in each location. Later he would visit Mogadishu , the then pre-eminent city of

5250-568: Is either a calque meaning 'man breaker' ( Ϯ- , 'the', ⲕⲁϣ- , 'to break', and ⲣⲱⲙⲓ , 'man'), akin to Arabic al-Qāhirah , or a derivation from Arabic قَصْر الرُوم ( qaṣr ar-rūm , "the Roman castle"), another name of Babylon Fortress in Old Cairo . The Arabic name is also calqued as ⲧⲡⲟⲗⲓⲥ ϯⲣⲉϥϭⲣⲟ , "the victor city" in the Coptic antiphonary. The form Khairon ( Coptic : ⲭⲁⲓⲣⲟⲛ )

5400-548: Is informally referred to as Cairo by people from Alexandria ( IPA: [ˈkæjɾo] ; Egyptian Arabic : كايرو ). The area around present-day Cairo had long been a focal point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location at the junction of the Nile Valley and the Nile Delta regions (roughly Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt ), which also placed it at the crossing of major routes between North Africa and

5550-535: Is mainly a spoken and vernacular dialect , although it occasionally appears in entertainment and advertising in urban areas of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. In Algeria, where Maghrebi Arabic was taught as a separate subject under French colonization, some textbooks in the dialect exist but they are no longer officially endorsed by the Algerian authorities. Maghrebi Arabic has a mostly Semitic Arabic vocabulary. It contains Berber loanwords, which represent 2–3% of

5700-470: Is rather doubtful as this name is not attested in any Hieroglyphic or Demotic source, although some researchers, like Paul Casanova, view it as a legitimate theory. Cairo is also referred to as Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ( Late Coptic: [ˈkɪ.mi] ) or Ⲅⲩⲡⲧⲟⲥ ( Late Coptic: [ˈɡɪp.dos] ), which means Egypt in Coptic, the same way it is referred to in Egyptian Arabic. Sometimes the city

5850-400: Is sparse and only happens in the colder months, but sudden showers can cause severe flooding. The summer months have high humidity due to its coastal location. Snowfall is extremely rare; a small amount of graupel , widely believed to be snow , fell on Cairo's easternmost suburbs on 13 December 2013, the first time Cairo's area received this kind of precipitation in many decades. Dew points in

6000-575: Is surrounded with a strong wall, and its founder is said to be one of the great non-Muslim kings, called Tara". Upon his arrival in Sindh , Ibn Battuta mentions the Indian rhinoceros that lived on the banks of the Indus . The Sultan was erratic even by the standards of the time and for six years Ibn Battuta veered between living the high life of a trusted subordinate and falling under suspicion of treason for

6150-703: Is the capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate , being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa , the Arab world and the Middle East . The Greater Cairo metropolitan area is the 12th-largest in the world by population with over 22.1 million people. Cairo is associated with ancient Egypt , as the Giza pyramid complex and

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6300-580: The Arabian Desert to Mecca. Ill with diarrhoea, he arrived in the city weak and exhausted for his second hajj . Ibn Battuta remained in Mecca for some time (the Rihla suggests about three years, from September 1327 until autumn 1330). Problems with chronology, however, lead commentators to suggest that he may have left after the 1328 hajj . After the hajj in either 1328 or 1330, he made his way to

6450-517: The Balkans . Cairene merchants were instrumental in bringing goods to the barren Hejaz , especially during the annual hajj to Mecca . It was during this same period that al-Azhar University reached the predominance among Islamic schools that it continues to hold today; pilgrims on their way to hajj often attested to the superiority of the institution, which had become associated with Egypt's body of Islamic scholars . The first printing press of

6600-531: The Bedouin Arabic varieties brought in by the Bedouin Arab tribes of Banu Hilal , Banu Sulaym and Ma'qil in the 11th and 12th centuries, termed as Hilalian Arabic . The Pre-Hilalian varieties were largely bedouinized by the Hilalian migrations in the 11th century, producing hybrid varieties that combined both pre-Hilalian and Hilalian features. This led to the choice of Banu Hilal's Arabic as

6750-580: The Bedouin Arabic varieties that were introduced to the Maghreb in the 11th century by Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym , who effectively accelerated the Arabization of a great part of the Berbers . Sources estimate that around 1 million Arabs migrated to the Maghreb in the 11th century. Their impact was profound and reshaped the demographic situation and living conditions across the Maghreb. They played

6900-631: The Belgian industrialist Édouard Empain and his Egyptian counterpart Boghos Nubar , built a suburb called Heliopolis (city of the sun in Greek) ten kilometers from the center of Cairo. In 1905–1907 the northern part of the Gezira island was developed by the Baehler Company into Zamalek , which would later become Cairo's upscale "chic" neighbourhood. In 1906 construction began on Garden City,

7050-507: The Bilad al-Zanj ("Land of the Zanj ") with an overnight stop at the island town of Mombasa . Although relatively small at the time, Mombasa would become important in the following century. After a journey along the coast, Ibn Battuta next arrived in the island town of Kilwa in present-day Tanzania , which had become an important transit centre of the gold trade. He described the city as "one of

7200-545: The British invasion in 1882. The city's economic centre quickly moved west toward the Nile , away from the historic Islamic Cairo section and toward the contemporary, European-style areas built by Isma'il. Europeans accounted for five percent of Cairo's population at the end of the 19th century, by which point they held most top governmental positions. In 1906 the Heliopolis Oasis Company headed by

7350-513: The Golden Horde realm. He went to the port town of Azov , where he met with the emir of the Khan, then to the large and rich city of Majar . He left Majar to meet with Uzbeg Khan 's travelling court ( Orda ), which was at the time near Mount Beshtau . From there he made a journey to Bolghar , which became the northernmost point he reached, and noted its unusually short nights in summer (by

7500-475: The Khalij , continued to be a major feature of Cairo's geography and of its water supply until the 19th century. In 861, on the orders of the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil , a Nilometer was built on Roda Island near Fustat. Although it was repaired and given a new roof in later centuries, its basic structure is still preserved today, making it the oldest preserved Islamic-era structure in Cairo today. In 868

7650-624: The Khyber Pass and Peshawar , or further south. He crossed the Sutlej river near the city of Pakpattan , in modern-day Pakistan, where he paid obeisance at the shrine of Baba Farid , before crossing southwest into Rajput country. From the Rajput kingdom of Sarsatti, Battuta visited Hansi in India, describing it as "among the most beautiful cities, the best constructed and the most populated; it

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7800-551: The Late Middle Ages , it could not escape the Black Death, which struck the city more than fifty times between 1348 and 1517. During its initial, and most deadly waves, approximately 200,000 people were killed by the plague, and, by the 15th century, Cairo's population had been reduced to between 150,000 and 300,000. The population decline was accompanied by a period of political instability between 1348 and 1412. It

7950-724: The Levant . Memphis , the capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom and a major city up until the Ptolemaic period , was located a short distance south west of present-day Cairo. Heliopolis , another important city and major religious center, was located in what are now the modern districts of Matariya and Ain Shams in northeastern Cairo. It was largely destroyed by the Persian invasions in 525 BC and 343 BC and partly abandoned by

8100-509: The Mamluks and Ottomans further contributed to expansion on the east bank of the river. Because of the Nile's movement, the newer parts of the city— Garden City , Downtown Cairo , and Zamalek—are located closest to the riverbank. The areas, which are home to most of Cairo's embassies , are surrounded on the north, east, and south by the older parts of the city. Old Cairo , located south of

8250-455: The Mamluks , partly with the help of al-Salih's wife, Shajar ad-Durr , who ruled for a brief period around this time. Mamluks were soldiers who were purchased as young slaves and raised to serve in the sultan's army. Between 1250 and 1517 the throne of the Mamluk Sultanate passed from one mamluk to another in a system of succession that was generally non-hereditary, but also frequently violent and chaotic. The Mamluk Empire nonetheless became

8400-420: The Mappila Muslims, who were also followers of Imam Al-Shafi‘i. At that time Samudra Pasai marked the end of Dar al-Islam , because no territory east of this was ruled by a Muslim. Here he stayed for about two weeks in the wooden walled town as a guest of the sultan, and then the sultan provided him with supplies and sent him on his way on one of his own junks to China. Ibn Battuta first sailed for 21 days to

8550-416: The Shi'a Isma'ili Fatimid empire conquered Egypt after ruling from Ifriqiya. The Fatimid general Jawhar Al Saqili founded a new fortified city northeast of Fustat and of former al-Qata'i. It took four years to build the city, initially known as al-Manṣūriyyah, which was to serve as the new capital of the caliphate. During that time, the construction of the al-Azhar Mosque was commissioned by order of

8700-422: The Sinai Peninsula to Palestine and then travelled north again through some of the towns that he had visited in 1326. From the Syrian port of Latakia , a Genoese ship took him (and his companions) to Alanya on the southern coast of modern-day Turkey. He then journeyed westwards along the coast to the port of Antalya . In the town he met members of one of the semi-religious fityan associations. These were

8850-468: The Strait of Hormuz then on to Mecca for the hajj of 1330 (or 1332). After his third pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Battuta decided to seek employment with the Sultan of Delhi , Muhammad bin Tughluq . In the autumn of 1330 (or 1332), he set off for the Seljuk controlled territory of Anatolia to take an overland route to India. He crossed the Red Sea and the Eastern Desert to reach the Nile valley and then headed north to Cairo . From there he crossed

9000-442: The Tunisian revolution that resulted in the overthrow of the long-time Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali . On 11 February, following weeks of determined popular protest and pressure, Hosni Mubarak resigned from office. Under the rule of President el-Sisi , in March 2015 plans were announced for another yet-unnamed planned city to be built further east of the existing satellite city of New Cairo , intended to serve as

9150-403: The i'rāb , with the exception of the adverbial accusative, which was unproductive. An n- prefix is added to the first person singular in some verb forms, which distinguishes maghrebi Arabic from all other varieties of Arabic. Darija , Derija or Delja ( Arabic : الدارجة ) means "everyday/colloquial dialect"; it is also rendered as ed-dārija , derija or darja . It refers to any of

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9300-441: The lingua franca of the Maghreb. This variety, with influences from Berber languages and Punic , gave rise to the modern Arabic varieties in the Maghreb spoken by the vast majority of Maghrebis. The Arabic language was spread across North Africa throughout the Rashidun and Umayyad conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries, during which about 150,000 Arabs settled in the Maghreb. As Arab-led forces established settlements in

9450-404: The new capital of Egypt . Cairo is located in northern Egypt , known as Lower Egypt , 165 km (100 mi) south of the Mediterranean Sea and 120 km (75 mi) west of the Gulf of Suez and Suez Canal . The city lies along the Nile River , immediately south of the point where the river leaves its desert-bound valley and branches into the low-lying Nile Delta region. Although

9600-400: The " Land of the Berbers " (بلد البربر Balad al-Barbar , the medieval Arabic term for the Horn of Africa ). When Ibn Battuta arrived in 1332, Mogadishu stood at the zenith of its prosperity. He described it as "an exceedingly large city" with many rich merchants, noted for its high-quality fabric that was exported to other countries, including Egypt . Battuta added that the city was ruled by

9750-467: The "Faruq edition" in honour of then ruler, King Faruq . British troops remained in the country until 1956. During this time, urban Cairo, spurred by new bridges and transport links, continued to expand to include the upscale neighbourhoods of Garden City, Zamalek, and Heliopolis. Between 1882 and 1937, the population of Cairo more than tripled—from 347,000 to 1.3 million —and its area increased from 10 to 163 km (4 to 63 sq mi). The city

9900-405: The 20th century Cairo continue to grow enormously in both population and area. Between 1947 and 2006 the population of Greater Cairo went from 2,986,280 to 16,292,269. The population explosion also drove the rise of "informal" housing ( 'ashwa'iyyat ), meaning housing that was built without any official planning or control. The exact form of this type of housing varies considerably but usually has

10050-399: The Albanians, and the long-weakened Mamluks jostling for control of the country. Continued civil war allowed an Albanian named Muhammad Ali Pasha to ascend to the role of commander and eventually, with the approval of the religious establishment , viceroy of Egypt in 1805. Until his death in 1848, Muhammad Ali Pasha instituted a number of social and economic reforms that earned him

10200-401: The Cairo metropolis extends away from the Nile in all directions, the city of Cairo resides only on the east bank of the river and two islands within it on a total area of 453 km (175 sq mi). Geologically, Cairo lies on alluvium and sand dunes which date from the quaternary period. Until the mid-19th century, when the river was tamed by dams, levees, and other controls,

10350-433: The Citadel, Saladin also began the construction of a new 20-kilometre-long wall that would protect both Cairo and Fustat on their eastern side and connect them with the new Citadel. These construction projects continued beyond Saladin's lifetime and were completed under his Ayyubid successors. In 1250, during the Seventh Crusade , the Ayyubid dynasty had a crisis with the death of al-Salih and power transitioned instead to

10500-527: The Hindu Kush, that is Hindu-slayer, because most of the slaves brought thither from India die on account of the intenseness of the cold. Ibn Battuta and his party reached the Indus River on 12 September 1333. From there, he made his way to Delhi and became acquainted with the sultan, Muhammad bin Tughluq . Muhammad bin Tughluq was renowned as the wealthiest man in the Muslim world at that time. He patronised various scholars, Sufis, qadis , viziers , and other functionaries in order to consolidate his rule. On

10650-426: The Maldives, Ibn Battuta took four wives. In his Travels he wrote that in the Maldives the effect of small dowries and female non-mobility combined to, in effect, make a marriage a convenient temporary arrangement for visiting male travellers and sailors. From the Maldives, he carried on to Sri Lanka and visited Sri Pada and Tenavaram temple . Ibn Battuta's ship almost sank on embarking from Sri Lanka, only for

10800-745: The Middle East, printing in Hebrew , was established in Cairo c.  1557 by a scion of the Soncino family of printers, Italian Jews of Ashkenazi origin who operated a press in Constantinople. The existence of the press is known solely from two fragments discovered in the Cairo Geniza . Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel. The city

10950-525: The Nile Corniche , and improved the city's network of bridges and highways. Meanwhile, additional controls of the Nile fostered development within Gezira Island and along the city's waterfront. The metropolis began to encroach on the fertile Nile Delta , prompting the government to build desert satellite towns and devise incentives for city-dwellers to move to them. In the second half of

11100-472: The Nile in the vicinity of Cairo was highly susceptible to changes in course and surface level. Over the years, the Nile gradually shifted westward, providing the site between the eastern edge of the river and the Mokattam highlands on which the city now stands. The land on which Cairo was established in 969 (present-day Islamic Cairo ) was located underwater just over three hundred years earlier, when Fustat

11250-518: The Roman and Byzantine churches in the late 4th century. Cairo's oldest extant churches, such as the Church of Saint Barbara and the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (from the late 7th or early 8th century), are located inside the fortress walls in what is now known as Old Cairo or Coptic Cairo . The Muslim conquest of Byzantine Egypt was led by Amr ibn al-As from 639 to 642. Babylon Fortress

11400-584: The Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling , but commonly known as The Rihla . Ibn Battuta travelled more than any other explorer in pre-modern history, totalling around 117,000 km (73,000 mi), surpassing Zheng He with about 50,000 km (31,000 mi) and Marco Polo with 24,000 km (15,000 mi). There have been doubts over the historicity of some of Ibn Battuta's travels, particularly as they reach farther East. "Ibn Battuta"

11550-798: The account of his travels, which records that he was of Berber descent, born into a family of Islamic legal scholars (known as qadis in the Muslim traditions of Morocco ) in Tangier on 24 February 1304, during the reign of the Marinid dynasty . His family belonged to a Berber tribe known as the Lawata . As a young man, he would have studied at a Sunni Maliki school, the dominant form of education in North Africa at that time. Maliki Muslims requested that Ibn Battuta serve as their religious judge, as he

11700-531: The accounts of his travels to Sultan Öz Beg Khan (r. 1313–1341). Then he continued past the Caspian and Aral Seas to Bukhara and Samarkand , the latter of which he praised as "one of the grandest and finest cities, and the most perfect of them". Here he visited the court of another Mongol khan, Tarmashirin (r. 1331–1334) of the Chagatai Khanate . He also noted the ruined state of the city walls,

11850-610: The ancient cities of Memphis and Heliopolis are located in its geographical area. Located near the Nile Delta , the city first developed as Fustat following the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 next to an existing ancient Roman fortress, Babylon . Cairo was founded by the Fatimid dynasty in 969. It later superseded Fustat as the main urban centre during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods (12th–16th centuries). Cairo has long been

12000-403: The area now composing Downtown Cairo , came to fruition. Isma'il also sought to modernize the city, which was merging with neighbouring settlements, by establishing a public works ministry, bringing gas and lighting to the city, and opening a theatre and opera house. The immense debt resulting from Isma'il's projects provided a pretext for increasing European control, which culminated with

12150-650: The banks of the Sharavathi river next to the Arabian Sea . This area is today known as Hosapattana and lies in the Honnavar Taluk of Uttara Kannada . Following the overthrow of the sultanate, Ibn Battuta had no choice but to leave India. Although determined to continue his journey to China, he first took a detour to visit the Maldive Islands where he worked as a judge. He spent nine months on

12300-529: The boundaries of the Islamic world. Arriving in Constantinople towards the end of 1332 (or 1334), he met the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos. He visited the great church of Hagia Sophia and spoke with an Eastern Orthodox priest about his travels in the city of Jerusalem. After a month in the city, Ibn Battuta returned to Astrakhan, then arrived in the capital city Sarai al-Jadid and reported

12450-509: The caliph, which developed into the third-oldest university in the world. Cairo would eventually become a centre of learning, with the library of Cairo containing hundreds of thousands of books. When Caliph al-Mu'izz li Din Allah arrived from the old Fatimid capital of Mahdia in Tunisia in 973, he gave the city its present name, Qāhirat al-Mu'izz ("The Vanquisher of al-Mu'izz"), from which

12600-583: The capital of the caliphate in Arabia . Ibn al-As also founded a mosque for the city at the same time, now known as the Mosque of Amr Ibn al-As , the oldest mosque in Egypt and Africa (although the current structure dates from later expansions). In 750, following the overthrow of the Umayyad caliphate by the Abbasids , the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became

12750-522: The center of the city, next to the palace. After his death in 884, Ibn Tulun was succeeded by his son and his descendants who continued a short-lived dynasty, the Tulunids . In 905, the Abbasids sent general Muhammad Sulayman al-Katib to re-assert direct control over the country. Tulunid rule was ended and al-Qatta'i was razed to the ground, except for the mosque which remains standing today. In 969,

12900-417: The centre, holds the remnants of Fustat and the heart of Egypt's Coptic Christian community, Coptic Cairo . The Boulaq district, which lies in the northern part of the city, was born out of a major 16th-century port and is now a major industrial centre. The Citadel is located east of the city centre around Islamic Cairo , which dates back to the Fatimid era and the foundation of Cairo. While western Cairo

13050-642: The city walls in stone and constructed the city gates of Bab al-Futuh , Bab al-Nasr , and Bab Zuweila that still stand today. During the Fatimid period Fustat reached its apogee in size and prosperity, acting as a center of craftsmanship and international trade and as the area's main port on the Nile. Historical sources report that multi-story communal residences existed in the city, particularly in its center, which were typically inhabited by middle and lower-class residents. Some of these were as high as seven stories and could house some 200 to 350 people. They may have been similar to Roman insulae and may have been

13200-643: The city's infrastructure and cleanliness. Its economy and politics also became more deeply connected with the wider Mediterranean. Some Mamluk sultans in this period, such as Barbsay (r. 1422–1438) and Qaytbay (r. 1468–1496), had relatively long and successful reigns. After al-Nasir Muhammad, Qaytbay was one of the most prolific patrons of art and architecture of the Mamluk era. He built or restored numerous monuments in Cairo, in addition to commissioning projects beyond Egypt. The crisis of Mamluk power and of Cairo's economic role deepened after Qaytbay. The city's status

13350-597: The city's rapid growth. The western bank of the Nile is commonly included within the urban area of Cairo, but it composes the city of Giza and the Giza Governorate . Giza city has also undergone significant expansion over recent years, and today has a population of 2.7 million. The Cairo Governorate was just north of the Helwan Governorate from 2008 when some Cairo's southern districts, including Maadi and New Cairo , were split off and annexed into

13500-460: The city, from March to May and the air often becomes uncomfortably dry. Winters are mild to warm, while summers are long and hot. High temperatures in winter range from 14 to 22 °C (57 to 72 °F), while night-time lows drop to below 11 °C (52 °F), often to 5 °C (41 °F). In summer, the highs often exceed 31 °C (88 °F) but rarely surpass 40 °C (104 °F), and lows drop to about 20 °C (68 °F). Rainfall

13650-516: The city; the Arab League has had its headquarters in Cairo for most of its existence. Cairo, like many other megacities , suffers from high levels of pollution and traffic. The Cairo Metro , opened in 1987, is the oldest metro system in Africa, and ranks amongst the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, and 43rd globally on Foreign Policy 's 2010 Global Cities Index . The name of Cairo

13800-589: The colloquial dialects of more eastern Arab countries, such as Egypt, Jordan and Sudan, are usually known as al-‘āmmīya ( العامية ), though Egyptians may also refer to their dialects as el-logha d-darga . Maghrebi Arabic can be divided into two lineages in North Africa. One originates from the urban Arabs and dates back to the Arab Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the 7th and 8th centuries, referred to as Pre-Hilalian Arabic . The other stems from

13950-492: The custom. However, these and other strict judgements began to antagonise the island nation's rulers, and involved him in power struggles and political intrigues. Ibn Battuta resigned from his job as chief qadi , although in all likelihood it was inevitable that he would have been dismissed. Throughout his travels, Ibn Battuta kept close company with women, usually taking a wife whenever he stopped for any length of time at one place, and then divorcing her when he moved on. While in

14100-441: The development of new planned cities on the outskirts of Cairo, generally established on desert land. These new satellite cities were intended to provide housing, investment, and employment opportunities for the region's growing population as well as to pre-empt the further growth of informal neighbourhoods. As of 2014, about 10% of the population of Greater Cairo lived in the new cities. Concurrently, Cairo established itself as

14250-789: The early spring of 1326, after a journey of over 3,500 km (2,200 mi), Ibn Battuta arrived at the port of Alexandria , at the time part of the Bahri Mamluk empire . He met two ascetic pious men in Alexandria. One was Sheikh Burhanuddin, who is supposed to have foretold the destiny of Ibn Battuta as a world traveller and told him, "It seems to me that you are fond of foreign travel. You must visit my brother Fariduddin in India, Rukonuddin in Sind, and Burhanuddin in China. Convey my greetings to them." Another pious man, Sheikh Murshidi, interpreted

14400-446: The entrance of a canal connecting the Nile to the Red Sea that was created earlier by emperor Trajan (r. 98–117). Further north of the fortress, near the present-day district of al-Azbakiya , was a port and fortified outpost known as Tendunyas ( Coptic : ϯⲁⲛⲧⲱⲛⲓⲁⲥ ) or Umm Dunayn. While no structures older than the 7th century have been preserved in the area aside from the Roman fortifications, historical evidence suggests that

14550-762: The family of the last Fatimid caliph, al-'Āḍid . As the first Sultan of Egypt , Saladin established the Ayyubid dynasty , based in Cairo, and aligned Egypt with the Sunni Abbasids, who were based in Baghdad . In 1176, Saladin began construction on the Cairo Citadel , which was to serve as the seat of the Egyptian government until the mid-19th century. The construction of the Citadel definitively ended Fatimid-built Cairo's status as an exclusive palace-city and opened it up to common Egyptians and to foreign merchants, spurring its commercial development. Along with

14700-487: The finest and most beautifully built towns; all the buildings are of wood, and the houses are roofed with dīs reeds". Ibn Battuta recorded his visit to the Kilwa Sultanate in 1330, and commented favourably on the humility and religion of its ruler, Sultan al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman , a descendant of the legendary Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi . He further wrote that the authority of the Sultan extended from Malindi in

14850-505: The genesis of present-day Cairo to the foundation of Fustat. The choice of founding a new settlement at this inland location, instead of using the existing capital of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, may have been due to the new conquerors' strategic priorities. One of the first projects of the new Muslim administration was to clear and re-open Trajan's ancient canal in order to ship grain more directly from Egypt to Medina ,

15000-550: The holy places that lay along the way, including Hebron , Jerusalem , and Bethlehem , the Mamluk authorities kept the route safe for pilgrims. Without this help many travellers would be robbed and murdered. After spending the Muslim month of Ramadan , during August, in Damascus, he joined a caravan travelling the 1,300 km (810 mi) south to Medina , site of the Mosque of the Islamic prophet Muhammad . After four days in

15150-513: The islands, much longer than he had intended. When he arrived at the capital, Malé , Ibn Battuta did not plan to stay. However, the leaders of the formerly Buddhist nation that had recently converted to Islam were looking for a chief judge, someone who knew Arabic and the Qur'an. To convince him to stay they gave him pearls, gold jewellery, and slaves, while at the same time making it impossible for him to leave by ship. Compelled into staying, he became

15300-541: The kings of the Turkmens and the richest in wealth, lands and military forces. Of fortresses, he possesses nearly a hundred, and for most of his time, he is continually engaged in making a round of them, staying in each fortress for some days to put it in good order and examine its condition. It is said that he has never stayed for a whole month in any one town. He also fights with the infidels continually and keeps them under siege. Ibn Battuta had also visited Bursa which at

15450-696: The last Mongol ruler of the unified Ilkhanate, leaving the city and heading north with a large retinue. Ibn Battuta joined the royal caravan for a while, then turned north on the Silk Road to Tabriz , the first major city in the region to open its gates to the Mongols and by then an important trading centre as most of its nearby rivals had been razed by the Mongol invaders. Ibn Battuta left again for Baghdad, probably in July, but first took an excursion northwards along

15600-461: The late first century BC. However, the origins of modern Cairo are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium AD. Around the turn of the fourth century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance, the Romans established a large fortress along the east bank of the Nile . The fortress, called Babylon , was built by the Roman emperor Diocletian (r. 285–305) at

15750-409: The latter came from the time of al-Andalus . Maghrebi dialects all use n- as the first-person singular prefix on verbs , distinguishing them from Levantine dialects and Modern Standard Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic ( Arabic : الفصحى , romanized :  al-fuṣḥá ) is the primary language used in the government, legislation and judiciary of countries in the Maghreb. Maghrebi Arabic

15900-499: The meaning of a dream of Ibn Battuta as being that he was meant to be a world traveller. He spent several weeks visiting sites in the area, and then headed inland to Cairo , the capital of the Mamluk Sultanate . After spending about a month in Cairo, he embarked on the first of many detours within the relative safety of Mamluk territory. Of the three usual routes to Mecca, Ibn Battuta chose the least-traveled, which involved

16050-793: The meeting in 1345 CE, Ibn Battuta noted that Shah Jalal was tall and lean, fair in complexion and lived by the mosque in a cave, where his only item of value was a goat he kept for milk, butter, and yogurt. He observed that the companions of the Shah Jalal were foreign and known for their strength and bravery. He also mentions that many people would visit the Shah to seek guidance. Ibn Battuta went further north into Assam , then turned around and continued with his original plan. In 1345, Ibn Battuta travelled to Samudra Pasai Sultanate (called "al-Jawa") in present-day Aceh , Northern Sumatra , after 40 days voyage from Sunur Kawan. He notes in his travel log that

16200-493: The mysterious people without seeing each other. As Ibn Battuta was not a merchant and saw no benefit of going there he abandoned the travel to this land of darkness. When they reached Astrakhan, Öz Beg Khan had just given permission for one of his pregnant wives, Princess Bayalun, a daughter of Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos , to return to her home city of Constantinople to give birth. Ibn Battuta talked his way into this expedition, which would be his first beyond

16350-441: The name "Cairo" ( al-Qāhira ) originates. The caliphs lived in a vast and lavish palace complex that occupied the heart of the city. Cairo remained a relatively exclusive royal city for most of this era, but during the tenure of Badr al-Gamali as vizier (1073–1094) the restrictions were loosened for the first time and richer families from Fustat were allowed to move into the city. Between 1087 and 1092 Badr al-Gamali also rebuilt

16500-794: The new governorate, to 2011 when the Helwan Governorate was reincorporated into the Cairo Governorate. According to the World Health Organization , the level of air pollution in Cairo is nearly 12 times higher than the recommended safety level. In Cairo, and along the Nile River Valley, the climate is a hot desert climate ( BWh according to the Köppen climate classification system ). Wind storms can be frequent, bringing Saharan dust into

16650-415: The new provincial capital. This was known as al-Askar ( Arabic : العسكر , lit.   'the camp') as it was laid out like a military camp. A governor's residence and a new mosque were also added, with the latter completed in 786. The Red Sea canal re-excavated in the 7th century was closed by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur in al-Mansur ( r.  754–775 ), but a part of the canal, known as

16800-584: The north to Inhambane in the south and was particularly impressed by the planning of the city, believing it to be the reason for Kilwa's success along the coast. During this period, he described the construction of the Palace of Husuni Kubwa and a significant extension to the Great Mosque of Kilwa , which was made of coral stones and was the largest mosque of its kind. With a change in the monsoon winds, Ibn Battuta sailed back to Arabia, first to Oman and

16950-936: The plural noun morphemes -əsh / -osh that are common in northern Moroccan dialects, and probably the loss of gender in the second person singular of personal pronouns verbs, for example in Andalusian Arabic. The lexicon contains many loanwords from Latin, e.g. Moroccan/Algerian/Tunisian شَاقُور , shāqūr , 'hatchet' from secūris (this could also be borrowed from Spanish segur ); ببوش , 'snail' from babōsus and فلوس , 'chick' from pullus through Berber afullus . Maghrebi Arabic speakers frequently borrow words from French (in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia), Spanish (in northern Morocco and northwestern Algerian) and Italian (in Libya and Tunisia) and conjugate them according to

17100-470: The port of Chittagong in modern-day Bangladesh intending to travel to Sylhet to meet Shah Jalal , who became so renowned that Ibn Battuta, then in Chittagong, made a one-month journey through the mountains of Kamaru near Sylhet to meet him. On his way to Sylhet, Ibn Battuta was greeted by several of Shah Jalal's disciples who had come to assist him on his journey many days before he had arrived. At

17250-657: The port of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast. From there he followed the coast in a series of boats (known as a jalbah, these were small craft made of wooden planks sewn together, lacking an established phrase) making slow progress against the prevailing south-easterly winds. Once in Yemen he visited Zabīd and later the highland town of Ta'izz , where he met the Rasulid dynasty king ( Malik ) Mujahid Nur al-Din Ali. Ibn Battuta also mentions visiting Sana'a , but whether he actually did so

17400-480: The prototypes for the rental apartment complexes which became common in the later Mamluk and Ottoman periods. However, in 1168 the Fatimid vizier Shawar set fire to unfortified Fustat to prevent its potential capture by Amalric , the Crusader king of Jerusalem . While the fire did not destroy the city and it continued to exist afterward, it did mark the beginning of its decline. Over the following centuries it

17550-408: The reign of the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (1293–1341, with interregnums ), Cairo reached its apogee in terms of population and wealth. By 1340, Cairo had a population of close to half a million, making it the largest city west of China . Multi-story buildings occupied by rental apartments, known as a rab' (plural ribā' or urbu ), became common in the Mamluk period and continued to be

17700-655: The river Tigris south to Basra . His next destination was the town of Isfahan across the Zagros Mountains in Iran. He then headed south to Shiraz , a large, flourishing city spared the destruction wrought by Mongol invaders on many more northerly towns. Finally, he returned across the mountains to Baghdad, arriving there in June 1327. Parts of the city were still ruined from the damage inflicted by Hulagu Khan 's invading army in 1258. In Baghdad, he found Abu Sa'id ,

17850-530: The river Tigris. He visited Mosul , where he was the guest of the Ilkhanate governor, and then the towns of Cizre (Jazirat ibn 'Umar) and Mardin in modern-day Turkey. At a hermitage on a mountain near Sinjar , he met a Kurdish mystic who gave him some silver coins. Once back in Mosul, he joined a "feeder" caravan of pilgrims heading south to Baghdad, where they would meet up with the main caravan that crossed

18000-458: The ruler of Samudra Pasai was a pious Muslim named Sultan Al-Malik Al-Zahir Jamal-ad-Din, who performed his religious duties with utmost zeal and often waged campaigns against animists in the region. The island of Sumatra , according to Ibn Battuta, was rich in camphor , areca nut , cloves , and tin . The madh'hab he observed was Imam Al-Shafi‘i , whose customs were similar to those he had previously seen in coastal India , especially among

18150-578: The rules of their dialects with some exceptions (like passive voice for example). As it is not always written, there is no standard and it is free to change quickly and to pick up new vocabulary from neighboring languages. This is comparable to the evolution of Middle English after the Norman conquest . Cairo Cairo ( / ˈ k aɪ r oʊ / KY -roh ; Arabic : القاهرة , romanized :  al-Qāhirah , Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [el.qɑ(ː)ˈheɾɑ] )

18300-469: The same phonology as Modern Standard Arabic , with a few key differences. * From Old Hijazi diphthongs /ay/ and /aw/. * Old Hijazi /ɮˤ/ and /ðˤ/ merged with each other in all varieties of Arabic. Maghrebi regionalisms are mostly reduced forms of Arabic phrases. * ذَرْوَكْت (*ḏarwakt) < ذَا اَلوَقْت (ḏā al-waqt) * أشكون (*ʔaškōn) < أَيُّ شَيْء كَوْن (*ʔēš *kōn < ʔayy šayʔ kawn) Proto-Maghrebi had already lost all nunation and most of

18450-487: The standard for modern printings of the Quran for much of the Islamic world. The publication has been called a "terrific success", and the edition has been described as one "now widely seen as the official text of the Qur'an", so popular among both Sunni and Shi'a that the common belief among less well-informed Muslims is "that the Qur'an has a single, unambiguous reading". Minor amendments were made later in 1924 and in 1936 -

18600-480: The standards of the subtropics). Then he returned to the Khan's court and with it moved to Astrakhan . Ibn Battuta recorded that while in Bolghar he wanted to travel further north into the land of darkness. The land is snow-covered throughout ( northern Siberia ) and the only means of transport is dog-drawn sled. There lived a mysterious people who were reluctant to show themselves. They traded with southern people in

18750-587: The start of the journey to China, he and his large retinue were attacked by a group of bandits . Separated from his companions, he was robbed, kidnapped, and nearly lost his life. Despite this setback, within ten days he had caught up with his group and continued on to Khambhat in the Indian state of Gujarat . From there, they sailed to Calicut (now known as Kozhikode), where Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama would land two centuries later. While in Calicut, Battuta

18900-485: The strength of his years of study in Mecca, Ibn Battuta was appointed a qadi (judge) by the sultan. However, he found it difficult to enforce Islamic law beyond the sultan's court in Delhi , due to lack of Islamic appeal in India. It is uncertain by which route Ibn Battuta entered the Indian subcontinent but it is known that he was kidnapped and robbed by rebels on his journey to the Indian coast. He may have entered via

19050-406: The sultanates of Abd al-Wadid and Hafsid . The route took him through Tlemcen , Béjaïa , and then Tunis , where he stayed for two months. For safety, Ibn Battuta usually joined a caravan to reduce the risk of being robbed. He took a bride in the town of Sfax , but soon left her due to a dispute with the father. That was the first in a series of marriages that would feature in his travels. In

19200-588: The time was the capital of the Ottoman Beylik, he described Bursa as "a great and important city with fine bazaars and wide streets, surrounded on all sides with gardens and running springs". He also visited the Beylik of Aydin . Ibn Battuta stated that the ruler of the Beylik of Aydin had twenty Greek slaves at the entrance of his palace and Ibn Battuta was given a Greek slave as a gift. His visit to Anatolia

19350-465: The title of founder of modern Egypt. However, while Muhammad Ali initiated the construction of public buildings in the city, those reforms had minimal effect on Cairo's landscape. Bigger changes came to Cairo under Isma'il Pasha (r. 1863–1879), who continued the modernisation processes started by his grandfather. Drawing inspiration from Paris , Isma'il envisioned a city of maidans and wide avenues; due to financial constraints, only some of them, in

19500-549: The town, he journeyed on to Mecca while visiting holy sites along the way; upon his arrival to Mecca he completed his first pilgrimage, in November, and he took the honorific status of El-Hajji . Rather than returning home, Ibn Battuta decided to continue travelling, choosing as his next destination the Ilkhanate , a Mongol Khanate , to the northeast. On 17 November 1326, following a month spent in Mecca, Ibn Battuta joined

19650-751: The varieties of colloquial Maghrebi Arabic. Although it is also common in Algeria and Tunisia to refer to the Maghrebi Arabic varieties directly as languages, similarly it is also common in Egypt and Lebanon to refer to the Mashriqi Arabic varieties directly as languages. For instance, Algerian Arabic would be referred as Dzayri (Algerian) and Tunisian Arabic as Tounsi (Tunisian), and Egyptian Arabic would be referred as Masri (Egyptian) and Lebanese Arabic as Lubnani (Lebanese). In contrast,

19800-584: The vessel that came to his rescue to suffer an attack by pirates. Stranded onshore, he worked his way back to the Madurai kingdom in India. Here he spent some time in the court of the short-lived Madurai Sultanate under Ghiyas-ud-Din Muhammad Damghani, from where he returned to the Maldives and boarded a Chinese junk , still intending to reach China and take up his ambassadorial post. He reached

19950-411: The vocabulary of Libyan Arabic, 8–9% of Algerian and Tunisian Arabic, and 10–15% of Moroccan Arabic. The dialect may also possess a substratum of Punic . Additionally, Maghrebi Arabic has a Latin substratum, which may have been derived from the African Romance that was used as an urban lingua franca during the Byzantine Empire period. in morphology, this substratum is considered the origin of

20100-443: Was Cairo, the former palace-city, that became the new economic center and attracted migration from Fustat. While the Crusaders did not capture the city in 1168, a continuing power struggle between Shawar, King Amalric, and the Zengid general Shirkuh led to the downfall of the Fatimid establishment. In 1169, Shirkuh's nephew Saladin was appointed as the new vizier of Egypt by the Fatimids and two years later he seized power from

20250-407: Was at the height of Mamluk—and Cairene—influence in the mid-14th century. The French occupation was short-lived as British and Ottoman forces, including a sizeable Albanian contingent, recaptured the country in 1801. Cairo itself was besieged by a British and Ottoman force culminating with the French surrender on 22 June 1801. The British vacated Egypt two years later, leaving the Ottomans,

20400-465: Was besieged in September 640 and fell in April 641. In 641 or early 642, after the surrender of Alexandria (the Egyptian capital at the time), he founded a new settlement next to Babylon Fortress. The city, known as Fustat ( Arabic : الفسطاط , romanized :  al-Fusṭāṭ , lit.   'the tent'), served as a garrison town and as the new administrative capital of Egypt. Historians such as Janet Abu-Lughod and André Raymond trace

20550-426: Was devastated during the 1952 riots known as the Cairo Fire or Black Saturday, which saw the destruction of nearly 700 shops, movie theatres, casinos and hotels in downtown Cairo. The British departed Cairo following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 , but the city's rapid growth showed no signs of abating. Seeking to accommodate the increasing population, President Gamal Abdel Nasser redeveloped Tahrir Square and

20700-401: Was diminished after Vasco da Gama discovered a sea route around the Cape of Good Hope between 1497 and 1499, thereby allowing spice traders to avoid Cairo. Cairo's political influence diminished significantly after the Ottomans defeated Sultan al-Ghuri in the Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516 and conquered Egypt in 1517. Ruling from Constantinople , Sultan Selim I relegated Egypt to

20850-442: Was first built. Low periods of the Nile during the 11th century continued to add to the landscape of Cairo; a new island, known as Geziret al-Fil , first appeared in 1174, but eventually became connected to the mainland. Today, the site of Geziret al-Fil is occupied by the Shubra district. The low periods created another island at the turn of the 14th century that now composes Zamalek and Gezira . Land reclamation efforts by

21000-479: Was first published on 10 July 1924 in Cairo under the patronage of King Fuad . The goal of the government of the newly formed Kingdom of Egypt was not to delegitimize the other variant Quranic texts (" qira'at "), but to eliminate errors found in Qur'anic texts used in state schools. A committee of teachers chose to preserve a single one of the canonical qira'at "readings", namely that of the " Ḥafṣ " version, an 8th-century Kufic recitation . This edition has become

21150-533: Was from an area where it was practised. On 2 Rajab 725 AH (14 June 1325 AD), Ibn Battuta set off from his home town at the age of 21 on a hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca , a journey that would ordinarily take sixteen months. He was eager to learn more about far-away lands and craved adventure. He would not return to Morocco again for 24 years. I set out alone, having neither fellow-traveler in whose companionship I might find cheer, nor caravan whose part I might join, but swayed by an overmastering impulse within me and

21300-657: Was in present-day Pangasinan Province of the Philippines . Their opposition to the Mongols might indicate 2 possible locations: Japan and Java (Majapahit). In modern times, Urduja has been featured in Filipino textbooks and films as a national heroine. Numerous other locations have been proposed, ranging from Java to somewhere in Guangdong Province , China. However, Sir Henry Yule and William Henry Scott consider both Tawalisi and Urduja to be entirely fictitious. (See Tawalisi for details.) From Kaylukari, Ibn Battuta finally reached Quanzhou in Fujian Province, China. Maghrebi The common ancestor of Maghrebi Arabic had

21450-526: Was nonetheless in this period that the largest Mamluk-era religious monument, the Madrasa-Mosque of Sultan Hasan , was built. In the late 14th century, the Burji Mamluks replaced the Bahri Mamluks as rulers of the Mamluk state, but the Mamluk system continued to decline. Though the plagues returned frequently throughout the 15th century, Cairo remained a major metropolis and its population recovered in part through rural migration . More conscious efforts were conducted by rulers and city officials to redress

21600-436: Was rising at the time of the city's founding. Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr ( IPA: [mɑsˤɾ] ; مَصر ), the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the city's importance for the country. There are a number of Coptic names for the city. Tikešrōmi ( Coptic : Ϯⲕⲉϣⲣⲱⲙⲓ Late Coptic: [di.kɑʃˈɾoːmi] ) is attested in the 1211 text The Martyrdom of John of Phanijoit and

21750-432: Was sold and replaced by newer buildings, becoming a prestigious site for the construction of Mamluk religious and funerary complexes. Construction projects initiated by the Mamluks pushed the city outward while also bringing new infrastructure to the centre of the city. Meanwhile, Cairo flourished as a centre of Islamic scholarship and a crossroads on the spice trade route among the civilisations in Afro-Eurasia . Under

21900-525: Was the capital of the Hamidids . He spent Ramadan (June 1331 or May 1333) in the city. From this point his itinerary across Anatolia in the Rihla becomes confused. Ibn Battuta describes travelling westwards from Eğirdir to Milas and then skipping 420 km (260 mi) eastward past Eğirdir to Konya . He then continues travelling in an easterly direction, reaching Erzurum from where he skips 1,160 km (720 mi) back to Birgi which lies north of Milas. Historians believe that Ibn Battuta visited

22050-415: Was the first time in his travels he acquired a servant; the ruler of Aydin gifted him his first slave. Later, he purchased a young Greek girl for 40 dinars in Ephesus , was gifted another slave in İzmir by the Sultan, and purchased a second girl in Balikesir . The conspicuous evidence of his wealth and prestige continued to grow. From Sinope , he took a sea route to the Crimean Peninsula , arriving in

22200-421: Was the focal point of the 2011 Egyptian revolution against former president Hosni Mubarak . More than 50,000 protesters first occupied the square on 25 January, during which the area's wireless services were reported to be impaired. In the following days Tahrir Square continued to be the primary destination for protests in Cairo. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured

22350-433: Was the guest of the ruling Zamorin . While Ibn Battuta visited a mosque on shore, a storm arose and one of the ships of his expedition sank. The other ship then sailed without him only to be seized by a local Sumatran king a few months later. Afraid to return to Delhi and be seen as a failure, he stayed for a time in southern India under the protection of Jamal-ud-Din, ruler of the small but powerful Nawayath Sultanate on

22500-399: Was the second-largest in the empire, behind Constantinople, and, although migration was not the primary source of Cairo's growth, twenty percent of its population at the end of the 18th century consisted of religious minorities and foreigners from around the Mediterranean . Still, when Napoleon arrived in Cairo in 1798, the city's population was less than 300,000, forty percent lower than it

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