The Planning of Islamic Cities: Al-Fusṭāṭ

Introduction

The Muslim Arabs took care to spread building and development in the regions they entered. One of their most important means for this was the establishment of new cities. The number of new cities founded by the Arabs by the end of the Umayyad period reached about twenty-five. Among these cities were Basra, Kufa and Wasit in Iraq, al-Fusṭāṭ in Egypt, and Qayrawān in North Africa .

The Abbasids followed the same course: many new cities were founded in their time, just as other old cities were developed. Among the cities established in the Abbasid-Hashimite period were Baghdad and Sāmarrāʾ in Iraq , al-ʿAskar and Tinnīs and al-Qaṭāʾiʿ in Egypt, and Raqqāda, Sousse, Oran and Fez in the lands of the Maghrib.

As for the old cities that had the good fortune of increased building and development, they are too numerous to count. We may mention among them, by way of example, Mecca the Noble, Medina the Radiant, Damascus, Aleppo, Ṣanʿāʾ, Ṣaʿda , Zabīd in Yemen , and Rosetta in Egypt .

Category	Cities
New cities by end of Umayyad period	Basra, Kufa, Wasit, al-Fusṭāṭ, Qayrawān
Cities founded in Abbasid-Hashimite period	Baghdad, Sāmarrāʾ, al-ʿAskar, Tinnīs, al-Qaṭāʾiʿ, Raqqāda, Sousse, Oran, Fez
Old cities developed	Mecca the Noble, Medina the Radiant, Damascus, Aleppo, Ṣanʿāʾ, Ṣaʿda, Zabīd, Rosetta

These cities did not arise by chance; rather, their foundation was carried out according to a prior plan, whether as regards the choice of site, the division, the building, or the fortification. This is a matter for which the Islamic world has become famous in a number of cities whose development surpassed that of the capitals of the other contemporary non-Islamic states.

Section One: Al-Fusṭāṭ

ʿAmr did not remain long after affairs had settled in Alexandria before he returned to Babylon, where he founded in the year 21 AH (642 AD) a city that was to be the capital of Egypt. This was al-Fusṭāṭ, which is rightly regarded as the origin of present-day Cairo .

It is said that ʿAmr had wanted to take Alexandria as the centre of his rule, and he said when he took control of it: “We have already settled here.” However, the Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb prevented him from doing so, so that no water would separate him from the Muslims. ʿAmr was therefore compelled to found a new city at Babylon, which is al-Fusṭāṭ.

It is also said that the founding of the city of al-Fusṭāṭ as a capital was better than taking Alexandria. This satisfied the Egyptians who had been discontented with it, regarding it as a symbol of the oppression and tyranny of the Romans over them.

It is clear, however, that the site of al-Fusṭāṭ as the capital of Arab Islamic Egypt was far more suitable than Alexandria for many other reasons that would not escape the insight of a commander such as ʿAmr, who had previously visited Egypt before the conquest and was familiar with its political, social and geographical circumstances.

For with the entry of the Arabs into Egypt and its independence from the Byzantine Empire, Alexandria lost its importance as a centre connected by sea directly with Constantinople, the capital of the Empire. On the contrary, it became a position of threat from the enemies of this Empire in Egypt.

It was therefore safer for the Arabs to keep away from Alexandria, which at that time was the homeland of the ruling foreign elements and the centre of Greek-Roman culture, and to settle at Babylon in the heart of Egypt, where the peaceful local elements were, who looked to the Muslim Arabs as rescuers for them from the oppression of the Romans and their religious persecution.

In addition to that, the site of al-Fusṭāṭ combined many advantages: on the one hand it was possible to communicate from it directly with Medina, the centre of the Islamic caliphate in the Hijaz, by way of the desert which the Arabs were accustomed to traversing.

At the site of Babylon the Arabs were able to found a new city according to their Islamic traditions, on the pattern of what their armies had followed before that in Iraq when they founded the city of Basra in the year 14 AH (635 AD) and the city of Kufa in the years 16–17 AH (637–638 AD).

On the other hand the site enjoyed natural fortification: it was protected by the hills from the east and the south, and protected from the west by a natural watercourse which is the Nile itself, which at that time connected the north and the south.

It is probable that ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, when he allowed the Banū Waddān and those with them to settle on the western bank of the Nile, where he built a fortress for them on the island in which they took refuge at times of danger, aimed thereby at increasing the security of the western side of the city of al-Fusṭāṭ.

Thus nothing remained for al-Fusṭāṭ except one open side, which is the northern side. ʿAmr did not concern himself with fortifying this side, perhaps because at that time ʿAmr did not fear that this side would be exposed to dangers, seeing that the road leading to it passed through regions ruled by the Arabs—that is, it was, on the contrary, a source of security for al-Fusṭāṭ and the route of supplies to it—and also because this side was the natural area for the extension of the city and its growth in the future.

Whatever the circumstances that occurred with ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ until he founded at Babylon the capital of Arab Egypt, this site which ʿAmr chose has proved the soundness of the location of the Egyptian capital up to the present day by its remaining the site of the Egyptian capital.

The name al-Fusṭāṭ came to be applied to this new city. Al-Qalqashandī says (with ḍamma of the fāʾ), and it is also said fusṭāṭ and fisṭāṭ with shadda of the sīn, and al-Jawharī says that it is permissible to pronounce the fāʾ with kasra in all of them.

A difference of opinion has arisen among researchers concerning the naming of the city al-Fusṭāṭ. The majority of the early narrators agree that the name of ʿAmr’s tent (fusṭāṭ)—that is, his pavilion—was applied to it. That is because ʿAmr, when he opened the fortress known as the Fortress of the Candle in the year twenty-one of the Hijra and took possession of it, pitched his tent near it. When he intended to set out for Alexandria to conquer it, he ordered his tent to be pulled down for the journey. Thereupon a dove that had nested in it was found, and he said: “It has sought sanctuary with us,” and ordered the tent to be left in its place and charged someone to look after the dove. He then set out for Alexandria, conquered it, and afterwards returned to his tent, alighted there, and the people settled around him and built their houses around him near the ancient mosque. From this the city that was founded at al-Fusṭāṭ took its name.¹

Some modern scholars, however, regard this story as a legend woven by the imagination, and of the type of legends that are usually told about the foundation of certain cities or the building of certain institutions.

Some Orientalists believe that the word fusṭāṭ is derived originally from a Greek word (fossatum), the name of the city or the fortress or the trench that was at Babylon, and that the Arabs arabised it to fusṭāṭ. This claim, however, has no support from any evidence in history and does not agree with the logic of events.

There is another opinion that says that fusṭāṭ means the camp, and that it took its name from the camp which ʿAmr’s army had pitched when he besieged the fortress of Babylon, and that the name then came to be applied to the city that was built in its place. What makes this more likely is the observation that (fusṭāṭ) is an Arabic word that was also applied to the city and the community. A ḥadīth has come from the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) in which he said: “Upon you is the community, for the hand of God is with the fusṭāṭ”—that is, with the city that contains the community of the people. Among the evidence for this is also that Basra was likewise called al-Fusṭāṭ.²

It is therefore more probable that the Arabs applied to the city they founded in Egypt the name al-Fusṭāṭ in the sense of the city, just as they also applied the same name to Basra.

Module Key Takeaways

Planned foundations: Islamic cities were founded according to prior planning in site, division, building, and fortification.
Strategic choice: Al-Fusṭāṭ was chosen over Alexandria for security, communication with Medina, and natural fortification.
Naming origin: The name al-Fusṭāṭ likely derives from the Arabic word for camp/city, not a Greek origin.

Horemheb