Cairo, Jerusalem, and Damascus: . ld thethrone of Egypt for eighty-three years, from 1169 to1252, and consisted of nine sovereigns; but otherbranches of the family ruled simultaneously, and forsome time after the power of Egyptian Ayyubidshad fallen, in various parts of Syria and during the greater part of this time Damas-cus rather than Cairo would hâve been called thechief city of the Empire; for Saladin during the lifeof Nur al-din recognised the latters suzerainty, whileafter his death he contrived to gain possession of hisempire and to extend it by f resh conquests in order
Cairo, Jerusalem, and Damascus: . ld thethrone of Egypt for eighty-three years, from 1169 to1252, and consisted of nine sovereigns; but otherbranches of the family ruled simultaneously, and forsome time after the power of Egyptian Ayyubidshad fallen, in various parts of Syria and during the greater part of this time Damas-cus rather than Cairo would hâve been called thechief city of the Empire; for Saladin during the lifeof Nur al-din recognised the latters suzerainty, whileafter his death he contrived to gain possession of hisempire and to extend it by f resh conquests in order tobring a united Islam to deal with the Frankish in-vaders of the East. In the Mameluke period thegovernors of the Syrian cities were the Deputies of the Egyptian Sultan; but in Ayyubid times thisrelation did not yet exist. Although the greater part of Saladins time wasspent in Syria, he found time to arrange for the con-struction in Cairo of a number of buildings religiousor philanthropie in character. One of thèse was a [92]. DOOR OF A MOSgUE, CAIRO. THE AYYUBID PERIOD collège or school (madrasah) in the neighbourhoodof the grave of al-Shafii, known as the Imam, orfounder of an orthodox System of Law. Provisionw^as made in this school for teaching that great jur-ists doctrine, it being of importance that facilitiesshould be provided for bringing Egypt back to ortho-doxy after so many years of Fatimide collège w^as of enormous size, equal, accordingto one enthusiastic visitor, to a town; the site onw^hich it was built had previously been a prison. Sa-ladins successor apparently made some additions,but in Makrizis time it w^as in ruins, and in 1761Abd al-Rahman Ketkhuda, whose name has alreadymet us in connection with al-Ahzar, pulled downwhat was left of it, and built on the site the présentMosque of Shafîi. Another prison w^hich had oc-cupied part of the old Fatimide Palace was turnedby him into a hospital ; and—a yet greater innovation—a house call
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1912
