Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4

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_Tombs of the Caliphs and Mamelukes._--Beyond the eastern wall of the city
are the splendid mausolea erroneously known to Europeans as the tombs of
the caliphs; they really are tombs of the Circassian or Burji Mamelukes, a
race extinguished by Mehemet Ali. Their lofty gilt domes and fanciful
network or arabesque tracery are partly in ruins, and the mosques attached
to them are also partly ruined. The chief tomb mosques are those of Sultan
Barkuk, with two domes and two minarets, completed AD. 1410, and that of
Kait Bey (c. 1470), with a slender minaret 135 ft. high. This mosque was
carefully restored in 1898. South of the citadel is another group of
tomb-mosques known as the tombs of the Mamelukes. They are architecturally
of less interest than those of the "caliphs". Southwest of the Mameluke
tombs is the much-venerated tomb-mosque of the Imam esh-Shafih or Shaf'i,
founder of one of the four orthodox sects of Islam. Near the imam's mosque
is a family burial-place built by Mehemet Ali.

[Illustration]

_Old Cairo: the Fortress of Babylon and the Nilometer._--About a mile south
of the city is Masr-el-Atika, called by Europeans Old Cairo. Between Old
Cairo and the newer city are large mounds of debris marking the site of
Fostat (see below, _History_). [v.04 p.0955] The road to Old Cairo by the
river leads past the monastery of the "Howling" Dervishes, and the head of
the aqueduct which formerly supplied the citadel with water. Farther to the
east is the mosque of Amr, a much-altered building dating from A.D. 643 and
containing the tomb of the Arab conqueror of Egypt. Most important of the
quarters of Masr-el-Atika is that of Kasr-esh-Shama (Castle of the Candle),
built within the outer walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon. Several
towers of this fortress remain, and in the south wall is a massive gateway,
uncovered in 1901. In the quarter are five Coptic churches, a Greek convent
and two churches, and a synagogue. The principal Coptic church is that of
Abu Serga (St Sergius). The crypt dates from about the 6th century and is
dedicated to Sitt Miriam (the Lady Mary), from a tradition that in the
flight into Egypt the Virgin and Child rested at this spot. The upper
church is basilican in form, the nave being, as customary in Coptic
churches, divided into three sections by wooden screens, which are adorned
by carvings in ivory and wood. The wall above the high altar is faced with
beautiful mosaics of marbles, blue glass and mother-of-pearl. Of the other
churches in Kasr-esh-Shama the most noteworthy is that of El Adra (the
Virgin), also called El Moallaka, or The Suspended, being built in one of
the towers of the Roman gateway. It contains fine wooden and ivory screens.
The pulpit is supported on fifteen columns, which rest on a slab of white
marble. The patriarch of the Copts was formerly consecrated in this church.
The other buildings in Old Cairo, or among the mounds of rubbish which
adjoin it, include several fort-like _ders_ or convents. One, south of the
Kasr-esh-Shama, is called Der Bablun, thus preserving the name of the
ancient fortress. In the Der Abu Sephin, to the north of Babylon, is a
Coptic church of the 10th century, possessing magnificent carved screens, a
pulpit with fine mosaics and a semi-circle of marble steps.

Opposite Old Cairo lies the island of Roda, where, according to Arab
tradition, Pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the bulrushes. Two bridges,
opened in 1908, connect Old Cairo with Roda, and a third bridge joins Roda
to Giza on the west bank of the river. Roda Island contains a mosque built
by Kait Bey, and at its southern extremity is the Nilometer, by which the
Cairenes have for over a thousand years measured the rise of the river. It
is a square well with an octagonal pillar marked in cubits in the centre.

_Northern and Western Suburbs._--Two miles N.E. of Cairo and on the edge of
the desert is the suburb of Abbasia (named after the viceroy Abbas),
connected with the city by a continuous line of houses. Abbasia is now
largely a military colony, the cavalry barracks being the old palace of
Abbas Pasha. In these barracks Arabi Pasha surrendered to the British on
the 14th of September 1882, the day after the battle of Tel el-Kebir.
Mataria, a village 3 m. farther to the N.E., is the site of the defeat of
the Mamelukes by the Turks in 1517, and of the defeat of the Turks by the
French under General Kleber in 1800. At Mataria was a sycamore-tree, the
successor of a tree which decayed in 1665, venerated as being that beneath
which the Holy Family, rested on their flight into Egypt. This tree was
blown down in July 1906 and its place taken by a cutting made from the tree
some years previously. Less than a mile N.E. of Mataria are the scanty
remains of the ancient city of On or Heliopolis. The chief monument is an
obelisk, about 66 ft. high, erected by Usertesen I. of the XIIth dynasty. A
residential suburb, named Heliopolis, containing many fine buildings, was
laid out between Mataria and Abbasia during 1905-10.

On the west bank of the Nile, opposite the southern end of Roda Island, is
the small town of Giza or Gizeh, a fortified place of considerable
importance in the times of the Mamelukes. In the viceregal palace here the
museum of Egyptian antiquities was housed for several years (1889-1902).
The grounds of this palace have been converted into zoological gardens. A
broad, tree-bordered, macadamized road, along which run electric trams,
leads S.S.W. across the plain to the Pyramids of Giza, 5 m. distant, built
on the edge of the desert.

_Helwan._--Fourteen miles S. of Cairo and connected with it by railway is
the town of Helwan, built in the desert 3 m. E. of the Nile, and much
frequented by invalids on account of its sulphur baths, which are owned by
the Egyptian government. A khedivial astronomical observatory was built
here in 1903-1904, to take the place of that at Abbasia, that site being no
longer suitable in consequence of the northward extension of the city. The
ruins of Memphis are on the E. bank of the Nile opposite Helwan.

_Inhabitants._--The inhabitants are of many diverse races, the various
nationalities being frequently distinguishable by differences in dress as
well as in physiognomy and colour. In the oriental quarters of the city the
curious shops, the markets of different trades (the shops of each trade
being generally congregated in one street or district), the easy merchant
sitting before his shop, the musical and quaint street-cries of the
picturesque vendors of fruit, sherbet, water, &c., with the ever-changing
and many-coloured throng of passengers, all render the streets a delightful
study for the lover of Arab life, nowhere else to be seen in such
perfection, or with so fine a background of magnificent buildings. The
Cairenes, or native citizens, differ from the fellahin in having a much
larger mixture of Arab blood, and are at once keener witted and more
conservative than the peasantry. The Arabic spoken by the middle and higher
classes is generally inferior in grammatical correctness and pronunciation
to that of the Bedouins of Arabia, but is purer than that of Syria or the
dialect spoken by the Western Arabs. Besides the Cairenes proper, who are
largely engaged in trade or handicrafts, the inhabitants include Arabs,
numbers of Nubians and Negroes--mostly labourers or domestics in nominal
slavery--and many Levantines, there being considerable colonies of Syrians
and Armenians. The higher classes of native society are largely of Turkish
or semi-Turkish descent. Of other races the most numerous are Greeks,
Italians, British, French and Jews. Bedouins from the desert frequent the
bazaars.

At the beginning of the 19th century the population was estimated at about
200,000, made up of 120,000 Moslems, 60,000 Copts, 4000 Jews and 16,000
Greeks, Armenians and "Franks." In 1882 the population had risen to
374,000, in 1897 to 570,062, and in 1907, including Helwan and Mataria, the
total population was 654,476, of whom 46,507 were Europeans.

_Climate and Health._--In consequence of its insanitary condition, Cairo
used to have a heavy death-rate. Since the British occupation in 1882 much
has been done to better this state of things, notably by a good
water-supply and a proper system of drainage. The death-rate of the native
population is about 35 per 1000. The climate of the city is generally
healthy, with a mean temperature of about 68 deg. F. Though rain seldom falls,
exhalations from the river, especially when the flood has begun to subside,
render the districts near the Nile damp during September, October and
November, and in winter early morning fogs are not uncommon. The prevalent
north wind and the rise of the water tend to keep the air cool in summer.

_Commerce._--The commerce of Cairo, of considerable extent and variety,
consists mainly in the transit of goods. Gum, ivory, hides, and ostrich
feathers from the Sudan, cotton and sugar from Upper Egypt, indigo and
shawls from India and Persia, sheep and tobacco from Asiatic Turkey, and
European manufactures, such as machinery, hardware, cutlery, glass, and
cotton and woollen goods, are the more important articles. The traffic in
slaves ceased in 1877. In Bulak are several factories founded by Mehemet
Ali for spinning, weaving and printing cotton, and a paper-mill established
by the khedive Ismail in 1870. Various kinds of paper are manufactured, and
especially a fine quality for use in the government offices. In the Island
of Roda there is a sugar-refinery of considerable extent, founded in 1859,
and principally managed by Englishmen. Silk goods, saltpetre, gunpowder,
leather, &c., are also manufactured. An octroi duty of 9% _ad valorem_
formerly levied on all food stuffs entering the city was abolished in 1903.
It used to produce about L150,000 per annum.

_Mahommedan Architecture._--Architecturally considered Cairo is still the
most remarkable and characteristic of Arab cities. The edifices raised by
the Moorish kings of Spain and the Moslem [v.04 p.0956] rulers of India may
have been more splendid in their materials, and more elaborate in their
details; the houses of the great men of Damascus may be more costly than
were those of the Mameluke beys; but for purity of taste and elegance of
design both are far excelled by many of the mosques and houses of Cairo.
These mosques have suffered much in the beauty of their appearance from the
effects of time and neglect; but their colour has been often thus softened,
and their outlines rendered the more picturesque. What is most to be
admired in their style of architecture is its extraordinary freedom from
restraint, shown in the wonderful variety of its forms, and the skill in
design which has made the most intricate details to harmonize with grand
outlines. Here the student may best learn the history of Arab art. Like its
contemporary Gothic, it has three great periods, those of growth, maturity
and decline. Of the first, the mosque of Ahmed Ibn-Tulun in the southern
part of Cairo, and the three great gates of the city, the Bab-en-Nasr,
Bab-el-Futuh and Bab-Zuwela, are splendid examples. The design of these
entrance gateways is extremely simple and massive, depending for their
effect on the fine ashlar masonry in which they are built, the decoration
being more or less confined to ornamental disks. The mosque of Tulun was
built entirely in brick, and is the earliest instance of the employment of
the pointed arch in Egypt. The curve of the arch turns in slightly below
the springing, giving a horse-shoe shape. Built in brick, it was found
necessary to give a more monumental appearance to the walls by a casing of
stucco, which remains in fair preservation to the present day. This led to
the enrichment of the archivolts and imposts with that peculiar type of
conventional foliage which characterizes Mahommedan work, and which in this
case was carried out by Coptic craftsmen. The attached angle-shafts of
piers are found here for the first time, and their capitals are enriched,
as also the frieze surmounting the walls, with other conventional patterns.
The second period passes from the highest point to which this art attained
to a luxuriance promising decay. The mosque of sultan Hasan, below the
citadel, those of Muayyad and Kalaun, with the Barkukiya and the mosque of
Barkuk in the cemetery of Kait Bey, are instances of the second and more
matured style of the period. The simple plain ashlar masonry still
predominates, but the wall surface is broken up with sunk panels, sometimes
with geometrical patterns in them. The principal characteristics of this
second period are the magnificent portals, rising sometimes, as in the
mosque of sultan Hasan, to 80 or 90 ft., with elaborate stalactite vaulting
at the top, and the deep stalactite cornices which crown the summit of the
building. The decoration of the interior consists of the casing of the
walls with marble with enriched borders, and (about 20 ft. above the
ground) friezes 3 to 5 ft. in height in which the precepts of the Koran are
carved in relief, with a background of conventional foliage. Of the last
style of this period the Ghuriya and the mosque of Kait Bey in his cemetery
are beautiful specimens. They show an elongation of forms and an excess of
decoration in which the florid qualities predominate. Of the age of decline
the finest monument is the mosque of Mahommad Bey Abu-Dahab. The forms are
now poor, though not lacking in grandeur, and the details are not as well
adjusted as before, with a want of mastery of the most suitable decoration.
The usual plan of a congregational mosque is a large, square, open court,
surrounded by arcades of which the chief, often several bays deep, and
known as the Manksura, or prayer-chamber, faces Mecca (eastward), and has
inside its outer wall a decorated niche to mark the direction of prayer. In
the centre of the court is a fountain for ablutions, often surmounted by a
dome, and in the prayer-chamber a pulpit and a desk for readers. When a
mosque is also the founder's tomb, it has a richly ornamented sepulchral
chamber always covered by a dome (see further MOSQUE, which contains plans
of the mosques of Amr and sultan Hasan, and of the tomb mosque of Kait
Bey).

After centuries of neglect efforts are now made to preserve the monuments
of Arabic art, a commission with that object having been appointed in 1881.
To this commission the government makes an annual grant of L4000. The
careful and syste-matic work accomplished by this commission has preserved
much of interest and beauty which would otherwise have gone utterly to
ruin. Arrangements were made in 1902 for the systematic repair and
preservation of Coptic monuments.

_Museums and Library._--The museum of Egyptian antiquities was founded at
Bulak in 1863, being then housed in a mosque, by the French savant Auguste
Mariette. In 1889 the collection was transferred to the Giza (Ghezireh)
palace, and in 1902 was removed to its present quarters, erected at a cost
of over L250,000. A statue of Mariette was unveiled in 1904. The museum is
entirely devoted to antiquities of Pharaonic times, and, except in
historical papyri, in which it is excelled by the British Museum, is the
most valuable collection of such antiquities in existence.

The Arab museum and khedivial library are housed in a building erected for
the purpose, at a cost of L66,000, and opened in 1903. In the museum are
preserved treasures of Saracenic art, including many objects removed from
the mosques for their better security. The khedivial library contains some
64,000 volumes, over two-thirds being books and MSS. in Arabic, Persian,
Turkish, Amharic and Syriac. The Arabic section includes a unique
collection of 2677 korans. The Persian section is rich in illuminated MSS.
The numismatic collection, as regards the period of the caliphs and later
dynasties, is one of the richest in the world.

_History._--Before the Arab conquest of Egypt the site of Cairo appears to
have been open country. Memphis was some 12 m. higher up on the opposite
side of the Nile, and Heliopolis was 5 or 6 m. distant on the N.E. The most
ancient known settlement in the immediate neighbourhood of the present city
was the town called Babylon. From its situation it may have been a north
suburb of Memphis, which was still inhabited in the 7th century A.D.
Babylon is said by Strabo to have been founded by emigrants from the
ancient city of the same name in 525 B.C., _i.e._ at the time of the
Persian conquest of Egypt. Here the Romans built a fortress and made it the
headquarters of one of the three legions which garrisoned the country. The
church of Babylon mentioned in 1 Peter v. 13 has been thought by some
writers to refer to this town--an improbable supposition. Amr, the
conqueror of Egypt for the caliph Omar, after taking the town besieged the
fortress for the greater part of a year, the garrison surrendering in April
A.D. 641. The town of Babylon disappeared, but the strong walls of the
fortress in part remain, and the name survived, "Babylon of Egypt," or
"Babylon" simply, being frequently used in medieval writings as synonymous
with Cairo or as denoting the successive Mahommedan dynasties of Egypt.

Cairo itself is the fourth Moslem capital of Egypt; the site of one of
those that had preceded it is, for the most part, included within its
walls, while the other two were a little to the south. Amr founded
El-Fostat, the oldest of these, close to the fortress which he had
besieged. Fostat signifies "the tent," the town being built where Amr had
pitched his tent. The new town speedily became a place of importance, and
was the residence of the naibs, or lieutenants, appointed by the orthodox
and Omayyad caliphs. It received the name of Masr, properly Misr, which was
also applied by the Arabs to Memphis and to Cairo, and is to-day, with the
Roman town which preceded it, represented by Masr el-Atika, or "Old Cairo."
Shortly after the overthrow of the Omayyad dynasty, and the establishment
of the Abbasids, the city of El-'Askar was founded (A.D. 750) by Suleiman,
the general who subjugated the country, and became the capital and the
residence of the successive lieutenants of the Abbasid caliphs. El-'Askar
was a small town N.E. of and adjacent to El-Fostat, of which it was a kind
of suburb. Its site is now entirely desolate. The third capital, El-Katai,
was founded about A.D. 873 by Ahmed Ibn Tulun, as his capital. It continued
the royal residence of his successors; but was sacked not long after the
fall of the dynasty and rapidly decayed. A part of the present Cairo
occupies its site and contains its great mosque, that of Ahmed Ibn Tulun.

Jauhar (Gohar) el-Kaid, the conqueror of Egypt for the Fatimite caliph
El-Moizz, founded a new capital, A.D. 968, which [v.04 p.0957] was named
El-Kahira, that is, "the Victorious," a name corrupted into Cairo. The new
city, like that founded by Amr, was originally the camp of the conqueror.
This town occupied about a fourth part, the north-eastern, of the present
metropolis. By degrees it became greater than El-Fostat, and took from it
the name of Misr, or Masr, which is applied to it by the modern Egyptians.
With its rise Fostat, which had been little affected by the establishment
of Askar and Katai, declined. It continually increased so as to include the
site of El-Katai to the south. In A.D. 1176 Cairo was unsuccessfully
attacked by the Crusaders; shortly afterwards Saladin built the citadel on
the lowest point of the mountains to the east, which immediately overlooked
El-Katai, and he partly walled round the towns and large gardens within the
space now called Cairo. Under the prosperous rule of the Mameluke sultans
this great tract was filled with habitations; a large suburb to the north,
the Hoseynia, was added; and the town of Bulak was founded. After the
Turkish conquest (A.D. 1517) the metropolis decayed, but its limits were
the same. In 1798 the city was captured by the French, who were driven out
in 1801 by the Turkish and English forces, the city being handed over to
the Turks. Mehemet Ali, originally the Turkish viceroy, by his massacre of
the Mamelukes in 1811, in a narrow street leading to the citadel, made
himself master of the country, and Cairo again became the capital of a
virtually independent kingdom. Under Mehemet and his successors all the
western part of the city has grown up. The khedive Ismail, in making the
straight road from the citadel to the Ezbekia gardens, destroyed many of
the finest houses of the old town. In 1882 Cairo was occupied by the
British, and British troops continue to garrison the citadel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--S.L. Poole, _The Story of Cairo_ (London, 1902), a
historical and architectural survey of the Moslem city; E. Reynolds-Ball,
_Cairo: the City of the Caliphs_ (Boston, U.S.A., 1897); Prisse d'Avennes,
_L'Art arabe d'apres les monuments du Caire_ (Paris, 1847); P. Ravaisse,
_L'Histoire et la topographie du Caire d'apres Makrizi_ (Paris, 1887); E.W.
Lane, _Cairo Fifty Years Ago_ (London, 1896), presents a picture of the
city as it was before the era of European "improvements," and gives
extracts from the _Khitat_ of Maqrizi, written in 1417, the chief original
authority on the antiquities of Cairo; Murray's and Baedeker's _Guides_,
and A. and C. Black's _Cairo of To-day_ (1905), contain much useful and
accurate information about Cairo. For the fortress of Babylon and its
churches consult A.J. Butler, _Ancient Coptic Churches in Egypt_ (Oxford,
1884).

CAIRO, a city and the county-seat of Alexander county, Illinois, U.S.A., in
the S. part of the state, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers, 365 m. S. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 10,324; (1900) 12,566, of whom
5000 were negroes; (1910 census) 14,548. Cairo is served by the Illinois
Central, the Mobile & Ohio, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis,
the St Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, and the St Louis South-Western
railways, and by river steamboat lines. The city, said to be the "Eden" of
Charles Dickens's _Martin Chuzzlewit_, is built on a tongue of land between
the rivers, and has suffered many times from inundations, notably in 1858.
It is now protected by great levees. A fine railway bridge (1888) spans the
Ohio. The city has a large government building, a U.S. marine hospital
(1884), and the A.B. Safford memorial library (1882), and is the seat of St
Joseph's Loretto Academy (Roman Catholic, 1864). In one of the squares
there is a bronze statue, "The Hewer," by G.G. Barnard. In the N. part of
the city is St Mary's park (30 acres). At Mound City (pop. in 1910, 2837),
5 m. N. of Cairo, there is a national cemetery. Lumber and flour are
Cairo's principal manufactured products, and the city is an important
hardwood and cotton-wood market; the Singer Manufacturing Co. has veneer
mills here, and there are large box factories. In 1905 the value of the
city's factory products was $4,381,465, an increase of 40.6% since 1900.
Cairo is a shipping-point for the surrounding agricultural country. The
city owes its origin to a series of commercial experiments. In 1818 a
charter was secured from the legislature of the territory of Illinois
incorporating the city and bank of Cairo. The charter was soon forfeited,
and the land secured by it reverted to the government. In 1835 a new
charter was granted to a second company, and in 1837 the Cairo City & Canal
Co. was formed. By 1842, however, the place was practically abandoned. A
successful settlement was made in 1851-1854 under the auspices of the New
York Trust Co.; the Illinois Central railway was opened in 1856; and Cairo
was chartered as a city in 1857. During the Civil War Cairo was an
important strategic point, and was a military centre and depot of supplies
of considerable importance for the Federal armies in the west. In 1862
Admiral Andrew H. Foote established at Mound City a naval depot, which was
the basis of his operations on the Mississippi.

CAIROLI, BENEDETTO (1825-1889), Italian statesman, was born at Pavia on the
28th of January 1825. From 1848 until the completion of Italian unity in
1870, his whole activity was devoted to the Risorgimento, as Garibaldian
officer, political refugee, anti-Austrian conspirator and deputy to
parliament. He commanded a volunteer company under Garibaldi in 1859 and
1860, being wounded slightly at Calatafimi and severely at Palermo in the
latter year. In 1866, with the rank of colonel, he assisted Garibaldi in
Tirol, in 1867 fought at Mentana, and in 1870 conducted the negotiations
with Bismarck, during which the German chancellor is alleged to have
promised Italy possession of Rome and of her natural frontiers if the
Democratic party could prevent an alliance between Victor Emmanuel and
Napoleon. The prestige personally acquired by Benedetto Cairoli was
augmented by that of his four brothers, who fell during the wars of
Risorgimento, and by the heroic conduct of their mother. His refusal of all
compensation or distinction further endeared him to the Italian people.
When in 1876 the Left came into power, Cairoli, then a deputy of sixteen
years' standing, became parliamentary leader of his party, and, after the
fall of Depretis, Nicotera and Crispi, formed his first cabinet in March
1878 with a Francophil and Irredentist policy. After his marriage with the
countess Elena Sizzo of Trent, he permitted the Irredentist agitation to
carry the country to the verge of a war with Austria. General irritation
was caused by his and Count Corti's policy of "clean hands" at the Berlin
Congress, where Italy obtained nothing, while Austria-Hungary secured a
European mandate to occupy Bosnia and the Herzegovina. A few months later
the attempt of Passanante to assassinate King Humbert at Naples (12th of
December 1878) caused his downfall, in spite of the courage displayed and
the severe wound received by him in protecting the king's person on that
occasion. On the 3rd of July 1879 Cairoli returned to power, and in the
following November formed with Depretis a coalition ministry, in which he
retained the premiership and the foreign office. Confidence in French
assurances, and belief that Great Britain would never permit the extension
of French influence in North Africa, prevented him from foreseeing the
French occupation of Tunis (11th of May 1881). In view of popular
indignation he resigned in order to avoid making inopportune declarations
to the chamber. Thenceforward he practically disappeared from political
life. In 1887 he received the knighthood of the Annunziata, the highest
Italian decoration, and on the 8th of August 1889 died while a guest of
King Humbert in the royal palace of Capodimonte near Naples. Cairoli was
one of the most conspicuous representatives of that type of Italian public
men who, having conspired and fought for a generation in the cause of
national unity, were despite their valour little fitted for the responsible
parliamentary and official positions they subsequently attained; and who by
their ignorance of foreign affairs and of internal administration
unwittingly impeded the political development of their country.

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