Cairo

Cairo

In the A.D. 640's, Arabs from the east conquered Egypt. At the time, Egypt was a province of the Byzantine, or East Roman, Empire. Its people--descendants of the ancient Egyptians--were Christians. In 640, the Arab conquerors set up a large military camp near what is now southern Cairo. They later built houses, mosques, and palaces, and the camp became the Arab capital, Fustat.

The Fatimids (Arabs who controlled part of northern Africa) conquered Egypt in 969. General Jawhar established a new capital at Cairo for al-Muizz, the Fatimid caliph (ruler). Jawhar built up the area north of the first Arab settlement, and Cairo soon became one of the most important cities of the Arab world. The Fatimids founded al-Azhar University, which attracted students of Islam from many countries. The Fatimids called their city Al Qahirah, perhaps because the planet Mars (al-Qahir in Arabic) was rising in the sky when they began building. The name Cairo comes from Al Qahirah.

Saladin, the founder of Egypt's Ayyubid dynasty (family of rulers), expanded the city's boundaries and built the Citadel in the late 1100's. The Mamelukes, who had been the Ayyubids' bodyguards, ruled Egypt from 1250 to 1517. They built many of Cairo's finest mosques and extended the city to its present boundaries.

Excerpt adapted from the "Cairo" article, The World Book Encyclopedia © 1999