According to tradition, the original location was chosen by a bird. Amr ibn al-As, by order of Caliph Umar, was the Arab general that liberated Egypt
According to tradition, the original location was chosen by a bird. Amr ibn al-As, by order of Caliph Umar, was the Arab general that liberated Egypt from the Romans. In 641, before he and his army attacked their capital city of Alexandria (at the northwestern part of the Nile river delta), Amr had set up his tent on the eastern side of the Nile, at the southern part of the delta. As the story is told, shortly before Amr set off to battle, a dove laid an egg in his tent. When Amr returned victorious, he needed to choose a site for a new capital city, since Umar had decreed that it could not be in far-away Alexandria. So Amr declared the site of the dove's egg sacred, and made it the center of his new city, Fustat, or Misr al-Fustat, "City of the Tents". Later, the Mosque of Amr was built on the same location Taken @Cairo, Egypt
Size: 6026px × 4026px
Photo credit: © Tjetjep Rustandi / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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