Hakem, the fanatical patron of the Druzes, founded in 1003, the Mosque Al Azhar ("The Splendid"), which is principally famous as the seat of a Mahometan university, in which gratuitous instruction is given in the Koran ; and the Mosque of Sultan Kalaoou, attached by its founder to the great Morostan or madhouse, which he established in 1287. The Morostan is no longer used for its original purpose, having been superseded by an asylum at Bulak. There is also a large general hospital situated between
Bulak and Old Cairo, under the charge of native doctors.On the east of the city are the splendid structures erroneously known to Europeans as the tombs of the caliphs ; they really belong to the Circassian or Borgite Mamelukes, a race extinguished by Mehemet Ali. Their lofty gilt domes and fanciful network of arabesque tracery are falling to ruins, and the mosques attached to them are the haunts of a few solitary sheikhs, and of hordes of Arab beggars.
Among the buildings which owe their existence to modern European influence, the Italian opera, the French theatre, and the hippodrome may be mentioned. In Bulak is situated the Government printing-press, established by Mehemet Ali, from which numerous Oriental works and translations of French originals are issued from time to time ; and in a building by the river side is accommodated the unrivalled collection of Egyptian antiquities made by M. Mariette for the khedive. The manuscripts which were formerly scattered among the various mosques and other institutions were recently collected to form a public library in the palace of the Darb Algamamiz or Sycamore Street. The catalogue already occupies 333 pages, and the collec tion is especially rich in copies of the Koran and works of grammatical exegesis. In 1875 a geographical society was founded by the khedive for purposes of African discovery. A few periodicals are published in the city, but in this respect Cairo is much behind Alexandria. The scheme of public instruction is mainly that which was organized by Mehemet Ali, and embraces primary, preparatory, and special schools. In 1872 there were 1025 students and 141 teachers in the Government colleges, and the national schools were attended by 4721 pupils, while in the Mosque Al Azhar 6774 were enrolled. The higher scholastic in stitutions comprise a commercial and a juridical school at the Darb Algamamiz, a school of arts and industry at Bulak, and military schools at the Abbasseeyah. There are several Christian churches and missionary stations in the city, and most of these maintain some educational machinery, so that there are Armenian, Greek, Coptic, Roman Catholic, and Protestant schools. Of special in terest to Englishmen is Miss Whately s institution in the Abbasseeyah road.
The commerce of Cairo is of considerable extent and variety, but consists mainly in the transit of goods. Gum, ivory, hides, and ostrich feathers from the interior, 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 woollen goods, are the more important articles. The traffic in slaves, which was at one time so striking a feature of the place, is still carried on to a certain extent. In Bulak are several factories founded by Mehemet Ali for spinning, weaving, and printing cotton, and a paper-mill established by the khedive in 1870 at a cost of about 80,000. Various kinds of paper are manufactured, and especially a fine quality for use in the Government offices. In the island of Pthoda, or Roudah, there is a sugar-refinery of considerable extent, founded in 1859, and principally managed by Englishmen. Silk goods, saltpetre, gunpowder, leather, &c., are also manu factured. An iron bridge has been erected over the Nile between the Kasr ed Dubbara on the right bank and Gezirah on the left ; and new carriage roads, bordered by acacias and sycamore trees, have been constructed to Heliopolis and the pyramids of Gizeh respectively. The terminus of the railway lines of the delta and isthmus is situated to the north of the city, but the Upper Egypt line stops short on the left bank of the river at Embabah opposite Bulak, and the trains have to be taken across by a ferry.
From the central situation of Cairo, and its proximity to the hot sandy deserts, the temperature is much higher there than near the coast ; but the diseases which infest it, such as the plague, ophthalmia, and malignant fevers, seem to originate in its " stilled filth," and other local causes, which advancing civilization will greatly remove, rather than in the unhealthiness of its situation. Its death-rate is greater than that of any European capital, but this is partly to be accounted for by the fact that numbers of natives come to the city in order that their last hours may be spent within its walls. The greatest mortality is during winter, and a larger proportion of deaths is caused by consumption than by any other disease. The average temperature throughout the year is 71 16 Fahr.; but the mean of the separate months varies from 54 in January to 86 in August. The temperature by night is sometimes 40 below the highest point reached during the day, more especially in March and April, when the south and south-west winds prevail, and the thermometer frequently rises to upwards of 100 in the shade. In 1871 the number of rainy days was only ( J, and the total duration of the fall was 9 hours 8 minutes.
The population of Cairo is of a very mingled description, and presents a very picturesque and interesting appearance. About the beginning of this century it was estimated to amount to about 200,000, which was supposed to comprise 121,000 Mahometans, 60,000 Copts, 4000 Jews, and a number of Franks, Greeks, and Armenians. It now num bers about 350,000, which may be distributed in the fol lowing proportions .: 285,000 natives, 25,000 Nubians and natives of the Soudan, 10,000 Turks, 30,000 Jews and Levantines, and upwards of 19,000 Europeans. The Ger man and English colonies are both pretty numerous, and possess each its own church.
the S.W. angle of the city, lies the town of Misr-al-'Atikah, or Old Cairo, situated on the Nile near the mouth of the canal which now flows through Cairo, and opposite to the famous Nilometer at the south end of the Island of Raudah. It occupies the site of the ancient Roman city or fortress of Babylon, of whose origin various stories of apparently little value are told by Diodorus and others. The place appears in Ptolemy s Tables, arid Strabo mentions that it was the headquarters of one of the three Roman legions that garrisoned Egypt. Roman masonry survives as part of a convent enclosure, which is known by the names Kasr-es-Shammah (" Palace of Perfume ") and Dair-en- Nasarah (" Convent of Christians "). The name Babylon of Egypt, or Babylon simply, is frequently employed in mediceval writings as synonymous with Cairo, or as denoting the successive Mahometan dynasties of Egypt. This use may have been influenced by the association of the other Babylon, as represented by Baghdad, with the power of Islam ; but at the same time it was a real survival from the ancient name ; for Babylon on the Nile is mentioned by Gregory of Tours (circa 580 A.D.), in connection with the Granaries of Joseph i.e., the Pyramids. Here Amru the famous conqueror of Egypt for the Caliph Omar (638) founded a city to which was given the name of Fostat, it is said from Amru s skin tent (so called in Arabic). Thi continued to be the capital of Egypt for upwards of 330 years. In 973 it was superseded by a new city founded
shortly before by Jauher (Gowher), captain of the first