It
is a non-planned trip that will be related here. I had the intention of
visiting as much as I can of the Old Islamic Cairo for a long time, but this
was procrastinated many times for many reasons. Lately I had bought an English
booklet-guide on Islamic Cairo, which was by the way so well-written, the week
before and read most of it, and the idea reappeared on the surface, that I must
see for myself. While I was in Cairo for a work-abroad interview, and after
finishing it, I found that it is still early till the time of the train back to
Alexandria. So, I decided to get back to downtown Cairo and decide there, where
I will spend the next six hours exactly and from where to start. I took a rapid
meal first, then back on feet towards Opera Square. While I was walking, after
consulting the map several times, I decided to start with the ‘Al Azhar’
district. Haphazardly, I followed a sign in Opera Square and while walking in
its direction, I heard a woman yelling towards the driver of a small minibus to
take her to ‘Ghureya’. So, this will be the start of my adventure. I hopped in, with two companions, the woman
and her girl who were going there.
I
asked the driver to drop me by the ‘Wekalet El Ghuri’. Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh El Ghuri, the second to last Burji Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Sham who ruled since 1501 to 1516 AD. The Complex of EL Ghuri was built in 1504 AD. The driver headed there and on
arriving, he told me, to get off because I am near it. He was not accurate. It
was a chaotic place, that I found myself near, and completely unaided, searched
around for clues to identify the place and buildings. At first, I was
discouraged from the mess, the crowd, the traffic, the filthy streets and the
noise, but I decided to discover more. I distinguished - what I knew later from a search after
returning to my city – that I am in a part of the El Mu3ez Le Deen Ellah
street, which proved to be the southern part, which is known as El Ghureya. It
is a market that infiltrates many historic monuments of different Islamic era.
It was not Wekalet El Ghuri that I dropped by, but another salient feature of
the Ghuri complex, his mosque-madrasa. I climbed the stairs cautiously and had
a rapid peep inside, then returned discouraged to the street level. In front of
it, I saw another feature of his complex, the mausoleum-khankah. I didn’t take
any photographs, giving the bad
appearance and fearing to be mugged . I decided to drop going to the Wekala
(caravanserai) this time and carry on inside the street to learn more.
Continuing inside the street-market, I felt as if I am flashing-back in
history, though the people had different outfits, modernity and some trivial
additions. I presumed that the ancestors of the street vendors and those of the
multitude of small shops on both sides of the street were working in the same
trade. Every few meters your eyes will catch a monument of a different era,
identifiable in its architecture and evidently variable in its bad neglected current state. People may be even living in or using the
monument itself in such a way, that you feel that one day it will crumble on
their heads. The condition has gone worth after the revolt of January 2011,
when the state weakened greatly. To my astonishment, I found that some old
raba3 (quarter) were demolished randomly and incompletely to make way for high
rise apartment buildings, which is completely and lawfully forbidden here, but
that a handful had seen the light of the day defying the law, the state and
history. A complete architectural discord note among a melody of historical
monuments!
(First Part ends here. To be cont.)
NB. (The pictures are not mine, they are from the Internet, the first depicts the Mausoleum of El Ghouri then his Mosque, then two pictures of his Wekala, from top to bottom.)
