Defending Fatimid al-Qahira: Bab Zuwayla
- Defending Fatimid al-Qahira: Bab Zuwayla
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Neither French nor Arabic distinguishes between "gate" and "door." The Arabic noun for both items is, "bab." Bab Zuwayla is the most photogenic, the busiest,the most sociable and ceremontial, and the least important, defensively, of the three remaining gates of the eight original gates in the Fatimid rampart. The west Fatimid walls were removed so that al-Qahira might enjoy the Kkalig, and eventually so that interior streets would connect to Shaari Burr Sa'id. The east walls were taken down as the city conquered topography and expanded, everntually to the location of Shaari Salah Salem, which is the principal highway between Cairo and Heliopolis, the location of Cairo International Airport. Communication north to al-Husanayya and south to al-Darb al-Ahmar was never demanding enough to require wall removal. The areas beyond the north and south walls, too, were given over to burials as well as living quarters. It was not undeveloped land.
Foreign enemies threatened the caliphate only from the north. So long as the the Egyptian Sunnis, Christians, and Jews of al-Fustat were quiet, Bab Zuwayla would be more of a gathering place and a passage than barrier. And, while there were intermittant uprisings, peace genrally prevailed. The Ayyubids extended the city rampart south from the east Fatimid wall, and the Mamluks shifted the capitol from Rawda Island to the the Ayyubid Citadel to the east of that rampart after the coup of AD1250. After Baghdad fell, the Citadel would house the Abbasid caliph. However, Ayyubid and Mamluki politics rested on replacing the Fatimid Isma'ili Shi'a monuments in al-Qahira, both religious and royal, with Sunni ones or ones honoring Sunni sultans. Thus, the caliphal Great Eastern and Lesser Western Palaces became Ayyubid, then Mamluki, funerary complexes (including a hospital ("maristan") and madaaris, and amriral residences. Sultans were invested on Bayn al-Qasrayn, first in the tomb built by Shaggarat id-Durr for her husband, As-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub, then in the mausoleum of that greatest of Bahri Mamluks, Sultan al-Mansur Sayf id-Diin Qalawun al-Alfi. The gesture meant that the sutlans were as legitimate as had been the Fatimid caliphs. Indeed, each Mamluki sultan was blessed by an Abbasid caliph after AD1250, when (see above) the Sunni caliphate became refugees dependant upon Egyptian charity and protection.
Bab Zuwayla became the geat passage landmark for the sultan and his 'amr. It was also the gate through which those living in Fatimid Cairo, including in the 'amiral residences, could reach the caravan route through the Qarafa to Syria, the Hegaz, and the Red Sea. Practical passage could be elevated, on occaision, to the grandest ceremony. It was frequently a port through which the sultan led grand parades--this was not a small thing. The spectacles were wildly popular with the Arab majority, and reinforced local confidence in Mamluki strength. The sultan sat at on the bridge that spanned between the towers to honor the departure of Cairo's Hagg caravan: each pilgimage would surely contain members of his household. It was also a place of public execution and for the display of the heads of public enemies or of conquered sovereigns. Sultan al-Muzaffar Sayf id-Diin Qutuz entertained four Mongolian ambassadors from Hulagu Khan, who sent along with them an insulting ultimatum, he had the four killed and displayed there.
As a barrier, however, it still intimidates. The day of its completion, it awed even more powerfully. Between 1998 and 2008, the United States Agency for International Development funded the American Research Center in Egypt to excavate and restore the monument. Digging revealed AD1092 stone paving 3.3 meters below the current ground level. These granite blocks, some units clearly scavenged from pharaonic monuments, originated in Upper Egypt. The rock would have resisted wear from wagon and cart wheels and gave unsure footing to attacking cavalry mounts. The stone also prevented sappers (siege engineers) from undermining the gate threshold. After the dig, the 3.3 meters of earth was replaces. The original door hinges were 1.2 meters below current ground level. Each gate leaf, cleaned in the restoration, weighs 3.2 metric tonnes.
The minarets belong to the Masged Gumm'aa al-Muyy'ad Shaykh. One dates from AD1421 and the other from AD1422. There is cartouche on each with its date and builder, Bashmuhandis Mu'allim Muhammad ibn al-Qazzaz.
The gate took on the name Bab al-Mitwalli during Ottoman times, when it was headquarters for the wali ("sheriff"). Cairenes mistook the name for that of Mitwalli al-Qutb, a Sunni shaykh, and began leaving offerings, particularly teeth, at the site. There is also a model boat hanging from the interior of the gate. No one is quite sure why, or how long one has been there, but it may be a pharaonic reference.
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