Fatimid
Building Bab al-Futuh
Badr al-Jamali raises Cairo's gates, 1087
480 AH / 1087 CE
Educational historical reconstructionWhere
Bab al-Futuh, in al-Qahira (Cairo), in Egypt
30.0548, 31.2625 · View on OpenStreetMap
Background
This scene shows the rebuilding, around 480 AH (1087 CE), of the northern stone gate of al-Qahira, the Cairo of the Fatimid caliphs. The Fatimids had founded al-Qahira in 358 AH (969 CE) as a new walled palace-city beside the older towns of Misr on the Nile, the seat of their caliphate and the home of their court, their armies and the mosque-college of al-Azhar; the topographer al-Maqrizi (rahimahu Allah), in his Khitat, preserves the fullest account of the city and its monuments. The first enceinte, ascribed to the commander Jawhar, was of mud-brick. In 480 AH the powerful vizier and amir al-juyush Badr al-Jamali, an Armenian convert who had restored order to a Fatimid Egypt convulsed by famine and factional strife, rebuilt the walls and the principal gates in fine cut stone. Al-Maqrizi records that the work was carried out by three brothers, master builders said to have come from al-Ruha (Edessa) in the Jazira, who brought with them the rounded-tower and ashlar fortress craft of north Mesopotamia and Armenia; the later historians Ibn Taghribirdi (rahimahu Allah), in al-Nujum al-Zahira, and Ibn Khallikan (rahimahu Allah), in Wafayat al-A'yan, carry the career of Badr al-Jamali and the rebuilding of the capital. The three great surviving gates of his work, Bab al-Futuh and Bab al-Nasr to the north and Bab Zuwayla to the south, are reckoned among the masterpieces of medieval Islamic military architecture. Bab al-Futuh, the Gate of Conquests, is a massive and sober gateway flanked by two rounded towers, with a semicircular arch and a machicolation gallery above; its rounded towers distinguish it from the square towers of nearby Bab al-Nasr. From its archway the main street, lined later with mosques and markets, runs south through the heart of the city. The gates were raised in an age of danger, the Crusaders soon to fall upon Syria and Egypt later threatened, and they served the city for centuries. They stand to this day. This scene depicts the gate itself under construction, the masons dressing and hoisting the stone and a caravan bringing material to the works. In keeping with the project's ethics every figure is anonymous and at a distance.
What you see
A monumental gate is rising between two great rounded towers of finely coursed ashlar limestone, set in a long crenellated curtain wall. A round, semicircular arch springs from carved imposts in the recessed portal, and a corbelled machicolation gallery is being fitted over it; this is sober military stonework, not yet weathered, its blocks still bright.
The wall is a building site. Masons in plain tunics dress and lay cut blocks, a wooden lifting frame with a pulley hoists a stone in a rope cradle, and fresh ashlars are stacked in courses; paving is being laid and ropes, mallets and a water bucket lie about the ground. The defences are being raised, not garrisoned.
This is Bab al-Futuh, the Gate of Conquests, the northern gate of al-Qahira, the walled palace-city of the Fatimid caliphs. Around 480 AH it is being rebuilt in stone by the vizier and commander Badr al-Jamali, who girded the royal city with a new enceinte; its rounded towers distinguish it from Bab al-Nasr nearby, whose towers are square.
Through the open archway the city's main street runs south into the heart of the capital, with distant figures and rooftops visible in the passage; the new gate is at once a fortress and the ceremonial way by which the caliph and his armies enter and leave the royal city.
Along the foot of the wall a train of laden donkeys, mules and camels brings building stone and timber to the works, driven by labourers and watched by a few armed men. The masons were said to be brought from al-Ruha (Edessa) in the Jazira, heirs to the cut-stone fortress craft of north Mesopotamia and Armenia.
Beyond the wall the land falls away toward an older town on the river plain, its skyline carrying a slender minaret and low domes: the older settlements of Misr beside the Nile, over which the Fatimids founded their new capital in 969 as the seat of their caliphate, their court and the mosque-college of al-Azhar.
Bab al-Futuh, Bab al-Nasr and Bab Zuwayla, the three great stone gates of this rebuilding, still stand in Cairo, among the masterpieces of medieval Islamic military architecture. The scene shows the gate under construction; no person is depicted by likeness, the few figures distant and anonymous.
Further reading & cross-references
al-Maqrizi, al-Mawa'iz wa-al-I'tibar fi Dhikr al-Khitat wa-al-Athar (al-Khitat) (15th c.): The canonical topography of Cairo. The primary literary source for the founding of al-Qahira, the rebuilding of the walls and gates by Badr al-Jamali, and the tradition of the Edessan master builders.
Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nujum al-Zahira fi Muluk Misr wa-al-Qahira (15th c.): Sunni chronicle of Egypt. Used for the vizierate and career of Badr al-Jamali and the chronology of the rebuilding under the year 480 AH.
Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-A'yan (13th c.): Biographical dictionary. Used for the figure of Badr al-Jamali as amir al-juyush and his restoration of order in Egypt; does not detail the gate's fabric.
Bab al-Futuh, Bab al-Nasr and the Fatimid walls of Cairo (extant monuments and inscriptions): The standing fabric. Used for the rounded towers, the semicircular arch, the machicolation and the ashlar curtain wall, and to date the work to Badr al-Jamali's rebuilding.
K. A. C. Creswell, The Muslim Architecture of Egypt, and studies of medieval Islamic military architecture: Western architectural survey, used for date and material only: the design of the gates, the north-Mesopotamian / Armenian masonry tradition, and the contrast of rounded (Bab al-Futuh) and square (Bab al-Nasr) towers.
Medieval Cairo and the qasaba (al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah street) (material/geographic context): The city, the northern wall and the main spinal street constrain the depiction and the view through the gate; not a claim about the figures shown.
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