الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
, Architecture in the Muslim World has been developing through the ages, expressing the
, economic and social conditions of Muslim societies. After the death (AD 632) of the
uhammad, his followers spread his teachings through Egypt and North Africa, as far ~, Ilas Spain, and as far east as Sassanids Persia. Because of their rapid expansion and the
city of their artistic heritage, the Muslims derived their unique style from a synthesis of the
: of the Byzantines, the Copts, the Romans, and the Sassanids. In general, all Islamic
Ilitecture is the result of synthesis rather than origination 1 and one of the most remarkable
ects of this architecture was its capacity of borrowing from older, non-Muslim styles without
ng its own individuality.
”After ransacking the brains of Romans, Persians, Copts, Syrians, Byzantines,
Arminians, and Crusades, Saracenic architects continued to produce buildings which
could never be attributed to any of their heretogeneous sources of inspiration, but always
retained the unmistakable stamp of Islam ”2.
Muslim builders created an architecture that symbolized Islamic principles and fulfilled
spiritual and physical needs of Muslims. This architecture derived its unity from Islamic
lciples and traditions, and its varying styles from the environmental and climatic variations
Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, ~ Islamic art and architecture, ~ (USA: Microsoft Corporation, 1992).
S. Briggs, Muhmnmadan Architecture in Egypt and Palestine (London: Oxford University Press,
throughout the Islamic World. In short, it has achieved ”diversity within a unity”3.
r,>Cairo, throughout the ages, has played a major role in establishing characteristically architecture. Cairo was founded in AD 969, when the Ikhshid city of AI-Fustat was ••• ered by the Fatimid general Jawhar on behalf of the Caliph Al Mu’ezzledin Illah. Hardly lJawhar captured AI-Fustat when he set about constructing a brand-new palace-city to the 6, which he named’ Al Qaherah’ after the planet Mars (in Arabic Al Qaher) which was in . ascendant at the time. Jawhar’s city was, in fact, the fourth capital to be built on that site ce AD 641 AI-Fustat, which continued to exist long after the foundation of Al Qaherah was illy burned to the ground in AD 1168. The only thing that remains is the mosque of Amr
Al’as. Of the short-lived cities of Al Askar and Al Qata’i even less is left. Only the aarkable mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun built in AD 878 still stands. Al Qaherah was destined »ecome the capital of a large empire, first, as the exclusive palace-enclosure of its founding IaSty, the Fatimids, and, then, as a complete city under the family of Saladin El Ayuby. Al lerah endured varying fortunes under the rule of different dynasties known as the Mamluks. : Mamluks were originally slaves brought to Egypt by Fatimid caliphs in the 10th cent. Many e freed and rose to high rank. Aybak was the first Mamluk to actually become ruler (AD 0). For more than 250 years after that, Egypt was ruled by Mamluk sultans chosen from the e of warriors. In AD 1517 the Ottoman Turks captured Cairo and put an end to the Mamluk anate. The Mamlukes maintained their vast landholdings and their private armies, and ained provincial governors. As Turkish rule weakened, they reasserted their power, and by
3Ismail Serageldin, SPACE FOR FREEDOM (Boston, London: Butterworth Architecture, 1989), p. 6