The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

Upper pumping
station with
oxen-operated
waterwheel
Lower pumping
station
above: Joseph’s Well.
Enclosed spiral staircase
around shaft of well
Shaft of well:
cut 87 metres through
solid rock to the level
of the Nile
108 The Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo
witness to their restoration work. The entrance is original, with a
round-arched opening leading to a pointed inner doorway over
which is the foundation inscription written in one of the earliest
examples of Naskhi script. Inside is a vestibule roofed with a shallow
dome, at the centre of which is a painted relief bearing the name of
the Bahri Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad. The two other gates, the Bab
al-Qarafa and Eastern Gate, are situated respectively on the south
and east side of the northern enclosure. Burg al-Imam was once
approached by a bridge across the moat, and both gates are flanked
by semi-circular towers, with bent, right-angled entrances and inner
courts to foil and trap potential invaders. In 1501, Sultan Janbalat
had the gates bricked up and filled with rubble as a defensive
measure against the Ottoman Turks.
Joseph’s well (Bir Yusuf) in the western enclosure is attributed
to Salah al-Din, although it is probable that it existed in Fatimid
times and was simply enlarged by Salah al-Din. Cut 87 metres
through the limestone down to the water table, this double-shafted
well is a remarkable piece of hydraulic engineering. Ibn Abd al-Zahir
(1223–92) described it as follows:
At the top of the well cattle move in a circle to raise
the water from a reservoir located at its mid-point
[in depth], where other cattle raise the water from
the lowest depths of the well. It has a path to the
water by which the cattle descend to its spring. All
this is cut into the rock; there is no building in it. 8
The spiral staircase, down which cattle could be conducted, was
lit from the inner well-shaft by intermittent pairs of windows.
The water wheels and pumping mechanisms were not unique to
this structure and there were other wells and cisterns on the
Citadel. According to Behrens-Abouseif, Salah al-Din constructed
an aqueduct, which, with the help of water wheels, conveyed and
raised water from the Nile. 9
After Salah al-Din’s death in 1193 his son al-Aziz and grandson
al-Mansur succeeded in turn to the sultanate, but al-Mansur was
ousted in 1200 by his elderly uncle, al-Adil. Al-Adil was a distinguished
politician and diplomat who had successfully worked in
close partnership with his brother, Salah al-Din. He had acted as
chief mediator between Richard the Lionheart and Salah al-Din
(Richard and Salah al-Din never met) during the final settlement of
the third Crusade. In the course of these negotiations Richard had