Cairo is full of masterpieces of medieval art and architecture reflecting the status of Egypt as the centre of several significant Muslim empires. This book redresses the cultural balance and examines the art and architectural treasures of Cairo from the Arab to the Ottoman conquests (642-1517). It is fully illustrated with over 200 photographs.

A portable, easy-to-use map guide that locates over 700 hundred Islamic-era monuments in historic Cairo using the most sophisticated Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology This portable, easy-to-use map guide helps you locate over seven hundred Islamic-era monuments in Cairo's historic core, stretching from the city's northern walls all the way southward to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun and the Citadel, and beyond to Coptic Cairo, which includes monuments that pre-date Islamic rule. Clearly divided into six digestible main sections, the first five contain clusters of monuments, while the sixth covers structures scattered all around the old Cairene urban fabric. The clear, uncluttered cartographic style makes finding where you want to go a pleasure, and the maps are accompanied by a comprehensive index of monuments that gives their dates where known, their location referenced to their corresponding map pages, and a timeline of key periods and dynasties. Attractively designed in full color and including over twenty photographs of key monuments, this guide is conveniently packed into a slim 104 pages--handy enough to take anywhere and great for planning and remembering excursions. It is not only an ideal companion for the city's visitors and residents but an invaluable resource for historians, writers, and students.

Walks the visitor around two hundred of the city's most interesting Islamic monuments

Cairo contains the greatest concentration of Islamic monuments in the world, and its mosques, mausoleums, religious schools, baths, and caravanserais, built by prominent patrons between the seventh and nineteenth centuries, are among the finest in existence. Jim Antoniou takes his readers on a guided walk through the very heart of historic Cairo, among many of its greatest architectural treasures. Illustrated throughout with the author's own detailed maps and plans and lively sketches, the walk begins at the monumental gates in the north walls of the Fatimid city, follows the ancient thoroughfare of al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah south past Khan al-Khalili and al-Ghuriya to the Street of the Tentmakers, turns left along the famous Darb al-Ahmar of the Arabian Nights, and ends at the magnificent mosque of Sultan Hasan at the foot of the Citadel. Over ninety historic buildings along the way are identified and described, many of them open to visitors. This is an enthralling walk that everybody can enjoy, whether on foot or in an armchair.

In rich detail Jonathan Berkey interprets the social and cultural consequences of Islam's regard for knowledge, showing how education in the Middle Ages played a central part in the religious experience of nearly all Muslims. Focusing on Cairo, which under Mamluk rule (1250-1517) was a vital intellectual center with a complex social system, the author describes the transmission of religious knowledge there as a highly personal process, one dependent on the relationships between individual scholars and students. The great variety of institutional structures, he argues, supported educational efforts without ever becoming essential to them. By not being locked into formal channels, religious education was never exclusively for the elite but was open to all. Berkey explores the varying educational opportunities offered to the full run of the Muslim population--including Mamluks, women, and the "common people." Drawing on medieval chronicles, biographical dictionaries, and treatises on education, as well as the deeds of endowment that established many of Cairo's schools, he explains how education drew groups of outsiders into the cultural center and forged a common Muslim cultural identity. Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Emile Prisse d'Avennes (1807-79) spent a total of nineteen years in Egypt, traveling throughout the country to collect the stunning images that he later published in Paris in two collections, Atlas de l'histoire de l'art egyptien and L' Art arabe. It is the illustrations from the latter that make up this volume. Prisse's masterly renderings of Cairo's mosques and their decorations more than retain their impact today: they still have the power to amaze and delight, while at the same time carrying valuable historical and artistic information for specialists studying Islamic art and architecture.

Previous work with same title published in 1984 with far smaller scope and less attention to architecture.