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Cairo: A Sociological Profile
| Article
# : |
11062 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1986 |
6,204 Words |
| Author
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Saad Eddin Ibrahim
Saad Eddin Ibrahim is professor of sociology, American
University, Cairo. He is Secretary-General of the Arab Human
Rights Organization and has written widely on various aspects
of social evolution in Egypt, the Middle East, and the Third
World. This article will appear in the book The Middle East
City, edited by Abdulaziz Y. Saqqaf, forthcoming this year
from Paragon House. This article is printed with the
permission of the Professors World Peace Academy, which
sponsored the conference on the Middle East city at which this
article was first presented. |
The history and sociology to Cairo are those of Egypt and to some extent those of the entire Arab region. Its size, splendor, power, and functions have been a reflection of this fact for the past eleven centuries. It is not surprising, therefore, that Egyptians themselves have used the same name Misr both for their country and for their capital city, and Arabs generally have admiringly dubbed this complex entity "the Mother of the World" (Misr Umma Dunia).
This equation does not relate merely to a concrete physical entity; it describes a state of mind and spirit. To Egyptians and their fellow Arabs, Cairo is at once a seat of political power, of artistic creativity and cultural pacesetting, of religious shrines and religious learning, of scholarships and higher education, of industry as well as entertainment. For Egyptians and fellow Arabs, Cairo therefore represents singularly what many cities pluralistically represent to their respective nations. In terms of regional influence, Cairo is the equivalent of Paris, the Vatican, Oxford, Hollywood, and Detroit combined.
As a giant national, regional, and international center with all the above functions and feats, Cairo is also gripped by giant problems. As much as the city is enriched and stimulated by the input of these concentric zones, it also carries their burdens. No one has analyzed the unfolding of this dialectic better than Janet Abu-Lughod in her masterpiece Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorious (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971). She skillfully recounted the story of Cairo, woven into its broader canvas--nationally, regionally, and international. In the following few pages, I shall identify a number of sociopolitical forces that have shaped this unique city more recent times.
Present-day Cairo has evolved historically through a series of grand political designs. The four physical formations which constituted premodern Cairo were all envisioned and initially carried out by great military-political commanders or empire builders. Al-Fustat was built by Amre Ibn al-Aas in 641 (A.H. 21); the Abbasid dynasty built Al-Askar northeast of it in 751 (A.H. 133); Ahmed Ibn Tulun added a third settlement adjacent to the second called Al-Qataai in 870 (A.H. 256); and the Fatimid Jawhar al-Sikkli built Al-Qahira northeast of the three settlements in 969 (A.H. 358). These four formations all started as military settlements for commanders and soldiers with a mosque and often a palace at the center of each. They were spaced by the 100-years Khaldunian cycle of the rise and fall of Muslim dynasties. The four settlements were finally joined and fenced by yet another
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