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Islamic Egypt
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Bab Zuwayla
Bab Zuweila was built by armies leader Badr El Gamali in 1092 in the western wall. It was one of the largest Cairo gates. It was set on the head of El Moez Li-Dinellah street from the western side.
Above it there were minarets of El Moayed King mosque. It was called El Moayed Bahr or Bab El Metwali.
Its dimension is
[width: 25.72m depth: 25 m, hight: 24 m]
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 Click on picture to see more pics. |
Badr ad-Din el-Gamali, an Armenian and the visor of El-Mustansir, employed three Armenian Christian monks from Edessa in eastern Turkey to build the three main gateways of the Fatimid wall made of stone which was to provide fortification. This explains their Byzantine-Syrian style These massive gates are called the Bab (gate) el-Futuh, Bab an-Nasr and Bab Zuwayla. They are each protected by flanking towers. These gates remain some of the grandest and oldest monuments in Cairo. This work marks the beginning of a newly cultivated taste for stone in Cairo.
Bab Zuwayla, sometimes called al-Mitwalli after El Kutb al-Mitwalli by some local inhabitants, defines the southern limits of the Fatimid City, though the city quickly moved beyond this gate. It is named after the al-Zawila, a Berber tribe whose Fatimid soldiers were quartered nearby. Bab al-Mitwalli is a name dating to Ottoman times since the wali of the janissaries or commander of the police force charged with maintaining public order, had his residence and headquarters near here. However, that same name is also that of a Islamic saint named Mitwalli al-Butb, who had lived by the gate and worked miracles. The gate became a venue for those in need of the saint's intercession. His spirit is supposed to live behind the west side of it, where he is said to sometimes flash a light to let one know he is there.
The two minarets that spring from the towers belong to the Mosque of al-Mu'ayyad, which is located just inside the gate. They were placed atop the gate some 400 years after it was built, and make it seem far mightier than the Northern Gates. These minarets sit on semi-circular towers that are solid stone for two thirds of their height. The inner flanks of the towers near the entrance are decorated with lobed arches. These arches had been used earlier in North African architecture, and must have been introduced by craftsmen accompanying the Fatimids conquest of Egypt. This type of arch is often seen in later Fatimid and Mamluk architecture.
The towers flank a recessed, highly articulated gateway and are joined above the gateway by a curtain wall.
Spherical, triangle pendentives are used to support the dome over the entrance passage of Bab Zuwayla. Inside the vestibule to the right, coming from the south, there is a half domed recess with two exquisitely carved arches at the corners. They have a tri-lobed curve and the upper part is treated like a shell. The left-hand side was modified when Sultan al-Mu'ayyad built his mosque.
Looking at Bab Zuwayla from within the city, one sees a gabled roof between the two towers that clearly show the Byzantine origins of the gate architecture. Indeed, most features of the walls and gates are completely foreign to Islamic art, aside from some Quranic inscriptions. The arabesque medallions at the apex of the panels on the towers and the medallion on the keystone of the vault of the loggia above its great archway are representative of Fatimid techniques. |
Islamic Architecture links "Bab Zuwayla"
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/zuwayla.htm
http://www.touregypt.net/historicalessays/cairogates.htm
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/643/he1.htm |
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