The Heart of Old Cairo
The story of Cairo:
Throughout history Cairo was known as Cairo of Al-Moez, which indicates about its owner and also the most important street in the heart of Cairo was named Al-Moez.
Cairo was built by an order of Al-Moez Le-Din Allah the Fatimid caliph after the Fatimid Caliphate entered Egypt in 358 A.H. by the general Jawhar Al- Saqlabi.
Jawhar gave the order for the workers to build in one condition, after seeing certain star as they used to believe in astronomical signs, so the workers used robes and tied it with bells in the corners of the city but unfortunately a crow landed on the robes and rang the bells so the workers started the constructions before the star appeared and the Fatimids took it as a bad Omen.
The street of Al-Moez:
The street is lying in the middle of Old Cairo and divides the city into two semi equal halves; this street was the political and spiritual center of the city. In Al-Moez Street you will find a big diversity of the most unique collection of Islamic architectural monuments in Cairo, and you will enjoy walking in the street either in the morning or in the night with its perfect light system and especially in the month of Ramadan, here the magic starts with the warm atmosphere and the friendly faces, you will have the best tour in this street in Ramadan as it’s a special Religious month in the entire Arabic world and specially in Egypt, you will enjoy the spiritual evening events with the most delicious Egyptian food that comes from another world with the famous Egyptian desserts that has no equal anywhere else and feel free to enjoy all this with the welcoming people of Egypt.
The most famous structures in Al-Moez Street:
A lot of decades passes and many rulers came to Egypt and many of them had left the most precious monuments in Al-Moez Street. As:
Hammam (Public Bath) of Sultan Inal:
In ancient times Egypt the Public Baths (Al- Hammam) were very, there were no private baths in the local houses so the locals used to use this baths to take showers. These Baths was consisted of two sections one for Men and the other for Women and each has its own privacy, there was a person to give the Locals towels and soap in the entrance and to take their clothes to keep it save.
These baths was Luxurious as there were more than one room; one for the hot water similar to the modern Sauna where the person sat there to open his body’s pores to clean his body probably, one for cold water to refresh his body and close his body pores, there was a scrubbing option in in some baths in other countries there are salt baths which was used for recharging the energy of the body and get rid of all the negative energy.
The bath is located in front of the palace of Prince Bashtak. It was built by Sultan Inal Ala’i in 861 AH/1456 AD. He was named ‘Ala’i after the merchant who brought him to Sultan Barquq, namely ‘Alaa al-Din Ali, who rose through the ranks of the emirate until he became the commander of one of the Mamluk army, and assumed the sultanate in 857 A.H./1453 A.D. We can see in the Hammam of Sultan Inal the corridor that prevent the Passersby see the inside, rom for changing clothes and rooms for bathing.
Sabil of Mohammed Ali Pasha:
What is the Sabil? Sabil was a place to quenches thirst of people passing by in the street. Rulers were very keen that the public have good services so they tried in various ways to ease their lives as we can see in the Sabil. The Sabil is a structure consisted of a square room having a tank under its floor where the water coming from the Nile River was stored they used to take the water through a well and to keep the water cool it was passing on a marble panel with zigzags and there are canals delivering water to the windows for people to drink and for more luxurious treatment they used to add rose water in the water.
We can see in the Sabil of Mohammed Ali Pasha the style unique style of the era of Mohammed Ali with the vegetal motifs and the influence of the European style. We can see the windows that people used to stop and drink from with its copper covers and the small opening in the lower part of the window in the shape of the Mihrab (Prayer Niche).
Khusraw Pasha's Sabil and Kuttab:
We have talked about the Sabil before so we will take this time about the Kuttab. The Kuttab was the first Primary school in Islam where the little children used to learn Quran and basic education in the Kuttab and if the student wanted to complete is education so he can go to the university or travel to get education from the real scholars face to face. The Kuttab was the core of the civilized Islamic world where the education was the core of the Islamic world. The Kuttab was always built as an attachment above the Sabil but by time the Kuttab became an independent department.
The Khusraw Pasha Sabil and Kuttab are located on Al-Moez Li-Din Allah Street in front of the Sultan Qalawun Complex, and are considered the oldest remaining Ottoman Sabil in Cairo.
The Sabil consists of a rectangular room with two rectangular windows. The first window overlooks Al-Moez Street on the southwestern side, and the other window overlooks the northeastern side, where the northwestern Iwan of the Salihiya School is located. The Sabil is entered from a passageway behind the Salihiya School. The fountain room is furnished on the inside with colored marble in the form of rectangles, squares, circles, diamonds, and triangles. The two windows are faced from the inside with three vertical entrances on each side. The middle entrance of each contains the shadhuran, or the marble slab on which water flows. It is connected to the Kuttab above the Sabil by a modern iron staircase. The Kuttab room has the same layout as the Sabil room. The two facades of the Kuttab overlook the outside with two adjacent arches resting on a pillar in the middle.
