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, the first city to be founded in Egypt by the Muslim conquerors and the first place of residence of the Arab governors. It was built on the east bank of the Nile, alongside the Greco-Coptic township of Babylon or Bābalyūn [ q.v.], traces of which are still preserved in the ramparts of the Ḳaṣr al-S̲h̲amʿ. A bridge of boats, interrupted by the island of al-Rawḍa [ q.v.], linked the Ḳaṣr with the city of Giza (al-D̲j̲īza) on the other bank of the Nile. Al-Fusṭāṭ was partly built beside the river, which at that time followed a more easterly course, and partly on …

, Maḥmūd Pas̲h̲a , was born in 1230/ 1815 at al-Ḥiṣṣa (province of al-G̲h̲arbiyya), and received his early schooling in Alexandria. He subsequently attended, firstly as a pupil, and then as an officer-instructor, the polytechnic school at Būlāḳ (Muhandisk̲h̲āne) founded by Muḥammad ʿAlī. In 1850-1 he was sent to Paris, to specialize in astronomy under Arago. He returned to Cairo in 1859. Afterwards he directed the team which, on the orders of the Khedive Saʿīd, mapped Egypt. H…

, or dikkat al-muballig̲h̲ . During the prayer on Fridays (or feast-days) in the mosque, a participant with a loud voice is charged with the function of muballig̲h̲ . While saying his prayer he has to repeat aloud certain invocations to the imām, for all to hear. In mosques of any importance he stands on a dikka . This is the name given a platform usually standing on columns two to three metres high, situated in the covered part of the mosque between the miḥrāb and the court. In Cairo numerous undated platforms are to be found. The oldest dated inscription, with the word d-k-t, dates back to Sulṭā…

, ʿAbd Allāh Pas̲h̲a , an Egyptian statesman, poet and prose-writer, regarded as one of the authors who have helped to give a simpler, more modern character to Arabic literary style. Born in 1250/1834 in Mecca where his father, an Egyptian officer, was serving, and later brought up in Cairo, he studied at al-Azhar and consorted with the Ṣūfīs. From 1267/1851 he was an administrative official and attracted the attention of Khedive Ismāʿīl who, in 1284/1866, chose him to teach Ar…

, king of Egypt. Aḥmad Fuʾād was born in the Gizeh palace on 26 March 1868, of a Circassian mother. In 1879 his father, the Khedive Ismāʿīl, who had been deposed by the Sublime Porte, took him with him into exile. He studied in Geneva and Turin, and in 1885 entered the Italian military academy. At Rome in 1887, as a second-lieutenant in the artillery, he frequently visited the Italian royal family. Having been Ottoman military attaché at Vienna, he finally returned (1892) to Egypt after a stay a…

, one of the centres of intellectual and scientific life in present-day Cairo. Its history is in fact that of two separate institutes. (a) The first was the Institut d’Égypte founded by Bonaparte in Cairo, under the presidency of Monge, on 20 August 1798 (3 Fructidor). Its creation had been made possible by the existence in Bonaparte’s expedition of a “Commission of the Sciences and the Arts”, in effect an intellectual general staff which Bonaparte had decided should accompany him when he left France. The Institut d’É…

, a small town quite close to the Cairo of Mamlūk and Ottoman times, and its port on the Nile for traffic with Lower Egypt. It was built on the sand which the Nile left when its bed shifted one to one-and-a-half kilometres westwards between the time of Saladin and the 8th/14th century [see al-kāhira ]. It was separated from Cairo by the Nāṣirī canal, dug in 725/1325 by the sultan Muḥammad b. Ḳalāʾūn, who encouraged people of affluence to build their villas ( manẓara ) at Būlāḳ, to which were added later mosques, ḥammāms , etc. The customs transferred there from Cairo…

, leader of the caravan of pilgrims to Mecca. In 9/630, after which date non-Muslims were excluded from the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ , the Prophet nominated Abū Bakr to conduct the pilgrimage and to prevent pagans from taking part in it. In 10/631 he presided over it himself. There-after this duty belonged directly to the caliphs, who either undertook it themselves or nominated an official to act in their place (e.g. the Governor of Mecca or Medina, a high official etc.). When the authority of the Caliph wa…

( al-ḏj̲āmiʿ al-azhar ). This great mosque, the ‘brilliant one’ (a possible allusion to Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ, although no ancient document ¶ confirms this) is one of the principal mosques of present-day Cairo. This seat of learning, obviously Ismāʿīlī from the time of its Fāṭimid foundation (4th/9th century), whose light was dimmed by the reaction under the Sunnī Ayyūbids, regained all its activity—Sunnī from now on—during the reign of Sultan Baybars. Its influence is due on the one hand to the geographical and politic…

, a journal of Muslim thought and doctrine which appeared in Cairo from 1898 to 1940. Its work was the counterpart of that of a printing-house, of the same name, which, besides its other publications, re-issued articles previously published in the review, such as the famous modern commentary on the Ḳurʾān ( Tafsīr al-Manār ). Without forming part of any particular school, the Manār subscribed to the reformist line of the salafiyya [ q.v.]; this movement of cultural resistance towards colonial encroachment sought to restore to Islam its former power and to re-establis…

, Egyptian teacher and preacher, whose father’s family came from the village of S̲h̲abrāk̲h̲ūm (formerly the markaz of Zifta, now that of Ḳuwaysna in Lower Egypt). He himself was born in 1212/1797 in Cairo, where he was to spend his whole life. After he had followed the course of studies at the kuttāb and then at al-Azhar (S̲h̲āfiʿī rite) until 1234/1819, his whole career was spent as a teacher at al-Azhar. His biographers give the titles of his works and mention his zeal for work and for reading, but in fact little is known…

, lit. “pebble”, (pl. d̲j̲mār ). The name is given to three halts in the Vale of Minā, where pilgrims returning from ʿArafāt during their annual pilgrimage ( ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ ) stop to partake in the ritual throwing of stones. The Lisān al-ʿArab explains that the place acquired its name either through the act of throwing, or through the stones themselves, which accumulate as more pilgrims perform the rite. Travelling from ʿArafāt, one comes first to al-d̲j̲amra al-ūlā (or al-dunyā ), then, 150 metres further on, to al-d̲j̲amra al-wusṭā . They are in the middle of th…

, al-Sayyid Muḥammad b. Ṣafdar , was one of the most outstanding figures of nineteenth century Islam. Cultured and versed in mediaeval Muslim philosophy, he devoted his life and talents to the service of the Muslim revival. He was, in the words of E. G. Browne, at the same time a philosopher, writer, orator and journalist. Towards colonial powers he was the first to take the political attitude since adopted by many movements of national liberation. He is known above all as the f…

(modern pronunciation of the word vocalised by the lexicographers maḥmil or miḥmal ), a type of richly decorated palanquin, perched on a camel and serving in the past to transport people, especially noble ladies, to Mecca (cf. al-Samʿānī, Kitāb al-Ansāb , under the word al-maḥāmilī ). The famous al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ b. Yūsuf is said to have been the first to use them. In a more restricted and precise sense, the word designates palanquins of this same type which became political symbols and were sent from the 7th/13th century by sovereigns with their caravan…

or the “House of Sciences”, (a) an establishment for higher instruction founded in 1872 by ʿAlī Pas̲h̲a Mubārak [ q.v.]. Its aim was to introduce a certain number of students of al-Azhar [ q.v.] to modern branches of learning by means ¶ of a five year course, in order to fit them for teaching in the new schools. In fact, as other centres were created in Cairo for the teaching of science, its curriculum was remodelled a number of times and the exact sciences were relegated to the background. The length of the course was reduced to four …

, the most famous sanctuary of Islam, called the temple or house of God ( Bayt Allāh ). It is situated almost in the centre of the great mosque in Mecca. Muslims throughout the whole world direct their prayers to this sanctuary, where every year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims make the greater ( ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ ) or lesser ( ʿumra ) pilgrimage. Around it they gather and make their ritual circuits; around the Kaʿba the young Muslim community spent the early years of Islam. For the Muslim community the Kaʿba holds a place analogous to that of the temple in Jerusalem for ancient Jewry. I. The Kaʿba and …

, maṣdar of the verb aḥrama , is an “act of declaring (or making) sacred or forbidden”. The opposite is iḥlāl “act of declaring permitted”. The word iḥrām had become a technical term for the state of temporary consecration of someone who is performing the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ or the ʿumra ; a person in This state is referred to as muḥrim . The entering into This holy state (also called iḥlāl) is accomplished, for men and women, by the statement of intention, accompanied by certain rites and in addition, for men, by the donning of the ritual garment. When making the intenti…

(a.), pilgrimage to Mecca, ʿArafāt and Minā, the fifth of the five “pillars” ( arkān ) of Islam. It is also called the Great Pilgrimage in contrast to the ʿumra [ q.v.] or Little Pilgrimage. Its annual observance has had, and continues to have, a profound influence on the Muslim world. Those not taking part follow the pilgrims in thought; the religious teachers, and nowadays the press, radio and television help them in this by providing doctrine and news bulletins. For the Muslim community itself this event is the occasion fo…