ore than the
Mahomedans, welcomed the moment which promised to free them from their
religious adversaries; and the traitor John Mecaukes, governor of
Memphis, persuaded them to conclude a treaty with the invaders, by which
it was stipulated that two dinars of gold should be paid for every
Christian above sixteen years of age, with the exception of old men,
women, and monks. From this time Fostat became the Arabian capital of
Egypt. In the year 879 Sultan Tayloon, or Tooloon, built himself a
palace, to which he added several residences or barracks for his guards,
and the great mosque, which still exists, with pointed arches, between
Fostat and the present citadel of Cairo. It was not, however, till the
year 969 that Goher, the general of El Moez, Sultan of Kairoan, near
Tunis, having invaded Egypt, and completely subdued the country, founded
a new city near the citadel of Qattaeea, which acquired the name of El
Kahira from the following circumstance. The architect having made his
arrangements for laying the first stone of the new wall, waited for the
fortunate moment, which was to be shown by the astrologers pulling a
cord, extending to a considerable distance from the spot. A certain
crow, however, who had not been taken into the council of the wise men,
perched upon the cord, which was shaken by his weight, and the architect
supposing that the appointed signal had been given, commenced his work
accordingly. From this unlucky omen, and the vexation felt by those
concerned, the epithet of Kahira ("the vexatious" or "unlucky") was
added to the name of the city, Masr el Kahira meaning "the unlucky (city
of) Egypt." Kahira in the Italian pronunciation has been softened into
Cairo, by which name this famous city has been known for many centuries
in Europe, though in the East it is usually called Masr only. From this
time the Fatemite caliphs of Africa, who brought the bones of their
ancestors with them from Kairoan, reigned for ten generations over the
land of Egypt. The third in this succession was the Caliph Hakem, who
built a mosque near the Bab el Nassr, and who was the founder of the
sect of the Druses, and, as some say, of the Assassins. In the year 1171
the famous Saladin usurped the throne from the last of the race of
Fatema. His descendant, Moosa el Ashref, was deposed in his turn, in
1250; from which time till the year 1543 Cairo was governed by the
curious succession of Mameluke kings, who were mostly Circassian sla