Bāb Zuwayla and the minarets of the Mosque of al-Mu`ayyad Shaykh, June 24, 1994
Bāb Zuwayla and the minarets of the Mosque of al-Mu`ayyad Shaykh, June 24, 1994
The southern gate of the Fātimid city of al-Qāhira, Bāb Zuwayla sits on the main north-south artery of the city and provides a visually stunning entrance for those entering the sūqs of Cairo from the south. Built in AD 1092, the gate was one of Cairo's three main gates built by the Armenian vizier of the time. The gate takes its name from the Fātimid soldiers of the Berber tribe of al-Zawila (the Fātimid dynasty arose in the area of Tunisia), who were quartered nearby when the city and its original gates were built.
It was from this gate that the sultāns used to watch the departure of the annual pilgrimage caravan to Mecca, which included the kiswa, the cloth covering for the Ka`ba. The minarets are from the 1420s, when the Mamlūk sultān al-Mu`ayyad Shaykh built a mosque just inside the gate. In 1517, the gate was the scene of the hanging of the last Mamlūk sultān, Tumanbey, by the Ottoman sultān Selim I (the Grim) on the conquest of the city.
The right minaret from this picture was featured in the Americus Times-Recorder on Sunday, October 7, 2001.
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