The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

Ibn Jubayr’s account is supported by other observers, and it was
estimated that up to 50,000 prisoners of war could have been working
in Egypt well before Salah al-Din’s major offensive against the
Franks in 1187. 7 These numbers may be exaggerated, but it is most
probable that they were prisoners captured in the campaigns of
1179. The digging of the fosse, as both a resource and defensive
measure, was established engineering practice. It calls to mind the
Crusader fortress of Saone, with its spectacular, sheer-sided chasm
of a fosse excavated by the Byzantines and Franks.
The building of the Citadel began in 1176, although the
foundation inscription on the main public entrance, the Bab
al-Mudarraj (Gate of the Steps), is dated 1183. The inscription most
likely marks the termination of the first stage of building, for it
dates from the year after which Salah al-Din finally left Cairo. 8 The
Citadel site was not virgin territory and had been built on since
Abbasid times. The pavilion of the Dome of the Winds had stood
here, and a number of Fatimid mosques and tombs were demolished
in order to clear the site. Salah al-Din’s building activity was
mainly confined to the northern section of the citadel, and with
the possible exception of Joseph’s well, there is no archaeological
evidence that he was responsible for any substantial building on
the western side. According to Creswell, the original walls and
towers of Salah al-Din extended for 1,400 metres, and most of the
smaller semi-circular towers, faced with smooth dressed stone, can
be attributed to him. Built mainly on rock to prevent undermining,
they contain cruciform inner chambers with arrowslits, and project
from the curtain wall at 100-metre intervals. The connecting
curtain walls, surmounted by ramparts, contain a continuous
inner gallery which is illuminated by the light of small rooms,
pierced with arrowslits, set at 10-metre intervals.
Three of the original Citadel gates, all dated 1183, the Bab
al-Muddaraj, Bab al-Qarafa (the Cemetery Gate) and Eastern Gate
or Rector’s Tower (at Burg al-Imam), have survived in somewhat
restored and altered conditions. The main gate, the Bab
al-Muddaraj, is now sandwiched between Muhammad Ali’s
nineteenth-century Bab al-Gadid (the New Gate, 1826) and the
original Ayyubid walls. It was approached via the Ramp Road,
and a part of the original rock-cut ramp still leads up to the
gate, although access to the northern enclosure was blocked
by Muhammad Ali in the early nineteenth century. The gate is
surmounted by a square Ottoman tower and the fifteenth-century
inscriptions of Sultans Jaqmaq, Qa’it Bay and Tuman Bay I bear
top: Bab al-Mudarraj, Cairo Citadel.
above: Foundation inscription.
Ayyubid Architecture 107