are
allowed rations of food, there being an endowment for this purpose. It
is, however, still used to a certain extent as a mosque; but it does not
now preserve the regular plan of a mosque, having been remodelled and
added to several times. It has six minarets and a spacious court
covering three thousand six hundred square yards, with one hundred and
forty columns and numerous side chambers which are devoted to lectures,
libraries, and laboratories.

At the time of our visit this court was filled with individual groups of
about thirty students, each around a professor; they were sitting
cross-legged on the floor, and were chanting their lessons with a
swaying motion of the body. A class of small children was of special
interest, studying passages of the Koran from cards. The Mosque of El
Hakim was completed in 1013, and was so resplendent throughout that it
was known as the "Brilliant." This mosque has suffered more indignities
than even the old Amr, but the vast, empty court, with its partly ruined
arches, still has a certain dignity. There were originally five
minarets.

[Illustration: _The interior of the Tomb Mosque of Kalaun_]

Leaving the Mosque of El Hakim on the right, we have Bab El-Futuh, the
Gate of Capture, which is connected by the city wall with the companion
Bab En-Nasr, or Gate of Victory. These two gates guard the strong
northeast extremity of the old city fortifications, and in 1799 formed a
strong position for the troops of Napoleon. With Bab Zuweyler, they are
the most important of the sixty gates which once existed in the wall of
Cairo. They have an inner and outer entrance and resemble a Roman
gateway.

The Fatimid rulers outvied each other in embellishing Kahira with
artistic structures; this seems surprising because, on account of the
charge of heresy, Kahira was cut off from the Arabian centres of art and
learning,--from Bagdad, Damascus, and Cordova,--and of course the
artists and students, who formerly frequented the mosques, could not do
so when they were in the hands of heretics. This condition of affairs,
together with other causes, produced a crisis, as will be seen.

The advance of Amalric and the Crusaders, in 1168, not only resulted in
the downfall of the Fatimids, but in the destruction of old Fustat,
Shawar, the ruler, having issued a mandate for it to be burned in order
to prevent the city from becoming a refuge for the Crusaders. The fire
lasted fifty-five days, and the city