The Architecture of Cairo

Calendar

For full reading citations, please see the readings section.  And for a printable version of this calendar, please click here (PDF).

Part 1 - Beginnings - History, Geography, and Religion

SES #	TOPICS	REQUIRED READINGS
1	Egypt from Alexander to the Islamic Conquest History and geography.    The Nile and the site of Cairo.    The legacy of ancient Egypt.    Egypt on the eve of Islam      Hellenism.    Christianity and the Copts.    The coming of Islam: Arabia and Egypt.	Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. Islamic Architecture of Cairo: An Introduction. Leiden: Brill, 1989, pp. 3-34 and 47-57. Raymond, Andre. Cairo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 7-30. Kaegi, Walter. “Egypt on the Eve of the Muslim Conquest.” In The Cambridge History of Egypt. Vol. 1, Islamic Egypt 640-1517. Edited by Carl F. Petry. Cambridge, 1998, pp. 34-61. Rodenbeck, Max. Cairo: The City Victorious. New York: Knopf, 1999, pp. 1-56. Abu-Lughod, Janet. Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorious. Princeton, 1971, pp. 3-25. Briggs, Martin. Muhammadan Architecture in Egypt and Palestine. New York, reprint 1974, pp. 47-62. “Kahira.” In Encyclopedia of Islam. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Dickie, James. “Allah and Eternity: Mosques, Madrasas, and Tombs.” In Architecture of the Islamic World: Its History and Social Meaning. Edited by G. Michell. pp. 65-79.
2	Foundation of al-Fustat What is a misr?    The Mosque of ‘Amru ibn al-‘As: the first mosque in Africa.    The vocabulary of the mosque: the minaret, the mihrab and the minbar.    The Nilometer.
3	Abbasids and Tulunids (8th and 9th Century) Imperial ambitions: Ibn Tulun and al-Ikhshid.    The foundation of al-Qata‘i.    The Mosque of Ibn Tulun.    Buildings of the Ikhshidids.

Part 5 - Modernization and After - Muhammad ‘Ali to the Present

SES #	TOPICS	REQUIRED READINGS
17	Cairo From Napoleon to Muhammad `Ali The architectural and urban works of Muhammad Ali.    The Mosque at the Citadel.    The Westernization of the palatial architecture.	Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. Islamic Architecture of Cairo: An Introduction. Leiden: Brill, 1989, pp. 167-70. Abu-Lughod, Janet. Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorious. Princeton, 1971, pp. 83-117. Raymond, Andre. Cairo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 291-377. Idem. “Cairo.” In The Modern Middle East. Edited by A. Hourani, P. Khoury and M. Wilson. Berkeley, 1993, pp. 311-37. Lane, Edward William. Cairo Fifty Years Ago. Edited by Stanley Lane-Poole. London, 1896. al-Asad, Mohammad. “The Mosque of Muhammad ‘Ali in Cairo.” Muqarnas 9 (1992): 39-55. Idem. “The Mosque of al-Rifa’i in Cairo.” Muqarnas 10 (1993): 108-24. Asfour, Khaled. “The Domestication of Knowledge: Cairo at the Turn of the Century.” Muqarnas 10 (1993): 125-37. Michael Meinecke, ed. Islamic Cairo: Architectural Conservation and Urban Development of the Historic Centre. AARP, June 1980, pp. 8-46. Ilbert, Robert, and Mercedes Volait. “Neo-Arabic Renaissance in Egypt, 1870-1930.” Mimar 13 (1984): 26-34. Rabbat, Nasser. “Writing the History of Islamic Architecture of Cairo.” Design Book Review 31 (Winter 1994): 48-51. Idem. “The Formation of the Neo-Mamluk Style in Modern Egypt.” In The Education of the Architect: Historiography, Urbanism and the Growth of Architectural Knowledge. Pollak, Martha. Essays Presented to Stanford Anderson on his Sixty-Second Birthday. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1997, pp. 363-86. Idem. “Restoration Projects in Islamic Cairo Critiqued.” Medina 13 (May-June 2000): 48-51. Lewcock, Ronald. “Working with the Past.” In Theories and Principles of Design in the Architecture of Islamic Societies. AKPIA, 1988, pp. 87-96. Williams, Caroline. “Islamic Cairo: Endangered Legacy.” Middle East Journal 39, no. 3 (1985): 231-246. Bierman, Irene A. “Urban Memory and the Preservation of Monuments.” In The Restoration and Conservation of Islamic Monuments in Egypt. Edited by Jere Bacharach. Cairo: AUC Press, 1995, pp. 1-10. Rodenbeck, John. “The Present Situation of the Historic City: a Road Not Taken.” In The Cairo Heritage. pp. 327-40.
18	The Modernization of Cairo Orientalism and the fascination of Egypt.    Ethnographer-painters and the romanticization of Cairo.    The Comité de preservation des monuments du Caire and preservation.    Cairene architecture in the late nineteenth century.    Historicism and the Mamluk revival.      Other Orientalizing styles.   Cosmopolitan architecture.
19	Competing Neo Styles in the Early Twentieth Century The emergence of vernacular style in the 1940’s.
20	Historicism in Twentieth-Century Cairo Cairo’s expansion and modernization.    The works of Hasan Fathy, Ramses Wissa Wasef, and their students.    Population explosion and urban chaos.    Problems of preservation and accommodation.    The image of Cairo: past and present.