The lost city of al-Qata’i‘

Just decades after it was founded, ibn Tulun’s capital al-Qata’i‘ was razed to the ground. The Great Mosque of ibn Tulun, the oldest mosque in Africa to survive in its original form, still stands in Cairo today, and through its magnificent architecture offers a chance to encounter the former glory of al-Qata’i‘. Nigel Fletcher-Jones is our guide to this lost city.

There are few places within the bustling metropolis of modern Cairo that might be described as serene, but, of those that are, the most deserving of the description is the Great Mosque built by Ahmad ibn Tūlūn (ibn Tulun; AD 835-884) as part of his short-lived city al-Qata’i‘, once capital of an independent Egyptian state. By historical account, al-Qata’i‘ (‘The Quarters’, reflecting the division of the city among groups of ibn Tulun’s followers and army contingents) contained some of the finest buildings to have been constructed in Egypt for centuries. Most were quickly destroyed, but the exquisitely decorated Great Mosque survives, and it stands as a manifestation of ibn Tulun’s architectural vision.

Above The serene Great Mosque of ibn Tulun, built in the 9th century, still stands in bustling modern Cairo. From the side arcades, the fountain pavilion built in 1296 by Sultan Lajin during his restoration of the mosque acts as the focus point. — The serene Great Mosque of ibn Tulun, built in the 9th century, still stands in bustling modern Cairo. From the side arcades, the fountain pavilion built in 1296 by Sultan Lajin during his restoration of the mosque acts as the focus point.

Al-Qata’i‘ was not the first new capital to be built in the area. When Arab forces arrived in Egypt in 641, they rejected Alexandria as their capital and established a new centre that more easily allowed for land communication with their homelands. They first chose a site to the east of the Roman fortress of Babylon (the area known today as ‘Old Cairo’) that sat near the beginning of the Nile Delta and protected an ancient canal and overland route to the Red Sea. Fustāt, as this site was called, remained the capital of Egypt for most of the period up to 1168, when the administration of Egypt moved to Cairo (al-Qāhirah). However, when descendants of al-‘Abbās ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib (an uncle of the Prophet Muhammad) established the Abbasid Caliphate in 750, they shifted the capital slightly to the north of Fustāt to a new site, al-‘Askar.

By the reign of Caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 813-833), the directly ruled or client-state boundaries of the Abbasid Empire were immense. It was one of the largest empires to have arisen since the time of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC and stretched from the Indus Valley in the east to the Atlantic in the west. Recognising the difficulty of ruling the empire from Baghdad, and in order to consolidate his power over it, al-Ma’mun implemented an extensive system of appanage (grants of land and position) throughout his domains.

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