Overview

Al-Suyuti says that in 572 AH Salah al-Din ordered the building of the great wall surrounding Egypt and Cairo, and put Baha' al-Din Qaraqush in charge of its building. ²

The wall and the citadel

Al-Suyuti quotes Ibn al-Athir that the circuit of the wall was twenty-nine thousand three hundred cubits by the Hashimi measure. In the same year he ordered a citadel built on the Muqattam mountain, which became the seat of the sultanate. It was not completed until the days of al-Malik al-Kamil, the first to live in it. ²

He says that Salah al-Din also built the tomb of Imam al-Shafi'i. ²

Ending the Ubaydid Khutba and Restoring the Abbasid Khutba in Egypt

Al-Imad al-Katib: Salah al-Din opened the year 567 with Egypt's greatest obedience — the Abbasid khutba, first Jumu'a at Fustat's mosque, the second at Cairo; al-Adid died that Ashura, and the palace's treasures sold for ten years. Shihab al-Din ibn Abi Asrun bore the news to Baghdad, and al-Imad wrote a general proclamation read across the lands of Islam — 'no minbar remains in those lands but the khutba for our lord al-Mustadi' is upon it'. Ibn al-Athir adds: Nur al-Din ordered it, Salah al-Din feared an Egyptian rising, and the Ajami called al-Amir al-Alim mounted the minbar before the khatib and prayed for al-Mustadi' — 'not two goats butted over it'. The khutba spread to Yemen, Barqa, Tawzar and Egypt to Aswan; Ibn al-Jawzi wrote his book al-Nasr ala Misr.

Building the wall of Egypt and the Citadel

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Overview

The wall and the citadel

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Ending the Ubaydid Khutba and Restoring the Abbasid Khutba in Egypt