1Shagaret al dor had to marry aybak so the abbaside caliphate would not say anything about her being a woman.
al Mansur ali was shagaret al dor and aybak’s son, while turan was the son of aybak. Turan wanted to take over the throne but the army of negm al deen didn’t like that so she had him killed as well as the mamlukes, as turan came with his army and he removed the mamlukes of nejm al deen army, so she conspired with the mamlukes and had him killed.
The atabeg of al Mansur aly was “Qutuz”, also shagaret al dor got killed after aybak.

Outside of Egypt, the Muslim world was chaotic, the crusades had “acer” still, and the mongols movement was still there, as genghis khan has managed to unite the mongols tribes and he became extremely powerful and ambitious, and he made this kharakorum, the seat of his power/ the capital, his ambitions was to conquer the world. He restructured the army and he redefined the mongols law, he put together the customary law and added some laws and the whole thing was called “Yasa”, which is the new law written by “genghis khan”.
The yasa was kept in a safe and was read once a year to the people by the khan, the ruler, and it’s important as it was used in Egypt when they came.
Genghis khan died in 1227, and a general called “Hulagu”, the brother of the khan, who was sent by the khan “Mongke” and he sent him to conquer the muslims empires, they destroyed all the cities in asia until they reached Baghdad, and they sent a letter to the caliphate to surrender, but he doesn’t and the end result is that the caliphate was killed and it was a horrifying event that they mascaraed people and they destroyed everything.

In 1258, the abbasid empire ended and it was the end of the abbasid caliphate and now there was no abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, and they entered the territory of the the mamluk dynasty in damascus, Syria. When the mongols entered Syria, the mamluks realized the dangers of the mongols, so Qutuz took over from al Mansur ali, and proclaimed himself as the caliphate, and now the ruler of Egypt was the a mamluke and now the dynasty was named mamluke dynasty. And it was referred as the “slave dynasty” as they were slaves before.
So now they had to stop the mongols, Qutuz at the head of the army and his most famous general “Baybars”, they gathered the army and went to fight and stop the mongles. But before this, “Baybars” put some conditions to the mongols caliphate, and his condition was, if he wants them to lead the army against the mongols, he had to give him the revenue of “Aleppo” as his Iqta.
The mongols ended the assassins in “Almut” around 1251, before going to Baghdad.

And they had to go through jerusalem, which was ruled by the crusades, so Qutuz had to ask permission for them to pass, and they granted it as they were afraid of the mongols, and they accepted and signed an agreement with Qutuz to face the mongols.
And now the two armies, the mamluks and the mongols face each other in “3en jalut”/”Ain Jalut”, and the mamluks are able to defeat the mangules.
The mongols were defeated, as in karakurum the great khan had died, and in the mongols tradition all the rulers of the various regions had to go back to the capital for the burial as well as the selection of a new great khan, so hulagu went back to karakurum, but he left part of the army in Syria, and this was where the battle took place, and hulagu was not present during the battle of “3en galout” as he had to go back to the selection of the new great khan.

And now the mamluks had control over the area, and now the mongols were kicked out of the mamluks empire, but they were still in possession of most of the land, and they created “Al khanet” dynasty, in mesopotamia and persia as well as Baghdad, they weren’t converted to islam, but at the end 14th century they converted when “Ghazan Khan” converted to islam and he declared islam the official religion of his empire.
And even though they were converted, they were still considered to be mamluks enemies, and they signed a peace agreement, it was between the mamluke ruler was “Al Nasir Muhhamed” and the magules ruler “Abn Said”, in the 14th century.
The golden horde was also under the mongules as well. But the monglues started to integrate and someone restored them in the 15th century.

Now in Egypt,
Babers, wanted his Iqta which was aleppo, as it was a beacon of resources and has money and resources, so Qutuz realized the dangers of that, and he refused to give alebu as Iqta, so now he was mad as he felt he was fooled and played. But he had many friends and they were all brought up together in the same karezen city and they were brought up which was referred to as, “Khushdashiyya”, so they supported him against Qutuz, and now barbers conspires with all the big commanders and they get rid of Qutuz, and they do so during a hunting expeditions, as they liked hunting and it was one of their fav passing time, so during that these two commanders killed qutuz, and they proclaimed “Baybars” as the new leader, and some say that he is the first effective ruler of the mamluks, as he ruled for a long period of time and he did a lot.
1st Baybars:
1.     Outside of Egypt,
a.     He engaged in the fighting of the remaining of the crusades, and he brought down many of the crusades camps a
b.     He accomplished a lot of things
c.     He did many campaigns, military campaigns that assured safety to the muslim world
d.     And even during 3en galout, “ibn khaldoun” said that, baybars is considered to be the savior of muslim world as he defeated the mongules, who distiroed the abbasid caliphate
e.     He had fought the mongule and the crusaders (the outside atchivements)
f.      He tried to have good diplomatic relations even with the Christians states,
                                               i.     With the bezenteen empire, he got a promise to restore a mosque, that was in Constantinople that was demolished by the crusades, for those who wants to pray in it
                                             ii.     He signed commercial treadies, as he knew the importance of trade and to attrack the trade of the country, with the king of cicilly and with the king of aragon, spain, he signed a peace tready.
                                            iii.     And due to all of that trade was booming, due to all these diplomatic relations.
g.     He destroyed the crusaders fortires that they built in the latin states as well as jeruslume as they wanted them for protection against the arabs, and some compared him to salah al deen as he is also fighting the crusades.

2.     In Egypt, baybars, all this was taking place between 1262 and 1277,
a.     He built a “Mosolya”, where a leader is buried.
b.     He restructrured the society
c.     The reformed the economy
d.     The legal system
                                               i.     He appointed new caliphate
                                             ii.     He decided that he will appoint khady or judges for the four legal schools, as prior to that Egypt had one major khady, khady al kouda, “Al shafi’s kady”, up until baybars tookover, as the khady was appointing people and small kady’s. so babrs decided to appoint the three other khadies, as he didn’t want him to have too much power also by appointing them the population would be pleased as now there is different people that represents the sunni and also to have people check al shaf3y’s powers, such as Ibn hambali, Hanafi, Malaki, and shaf3y and they all had the same power, but al shaf3y had more privileges.
1.     for example, in ceremonies he was sitting next to the caliphate
2.     he was the one supervision the “Wafs”.
e.     And he saved the abbasid caliphate, as he brought the uncle of the abbaside caliphate to protect him and revived him, and he brought him back and he is also under the control of the ruler, and he also gave him a palace as well as a salary, Iqta. He was treated as one of the members of the army in Egypt, treated like one of the armies.
                                               i.     But the abbaside caliphate wanted to go back to Baghdad, so bayabars sent with him an army to get back Baghdad from the mongules, but he was killed
                                             ii.     So baybars appointed a new abbasid caliphate, who was “Al hakim”, which is an abbasid caliphate not the fatimids.
f.      The army, he reformed the army.
g.     He invested a lot of money in agriculture, as he knew the money was very important
                                               i.     HE invested in irrigation projects and he revived lands and took care of
h.     He built “madrasas”, educational places, a school, as during the Fatimid period there was nothing called a madrasa, yes there were a school called “dar al Ilm”, “al hakim” introduced it but it was only done in a palace and even women were attending. And he had confrances were taking place between the scholars and people in the palace was taugh there, but there was no madrasa, a building to be taught in, so baybars built it, as well as salah al deen.
i.      He built a huge mosque, that is located in quarted in cairo, the quarter of al “Dahr”, which was built bs “Al zahir Baybars”, he built it due to his admiration for a sufy she5 for the blessing of this she5, she5 “khidr” who was always with him and he decided that he will built that mosque for him.
j.      He asked the abbaside caliphate to write for him a diploma of investiture, to designate the lands of Baghdad…. And he would be the ruler of it, so he would be recognized by the people in egypt and be a legitimized leader, also people were still sending for him asking for the diploma of investetsure.


The mamluk system,
They chose the leader by themselves but they need to set him in place of how they were all equal, and later on they lived in al kal3a, and they also didn’t marry until the 14th century, and those who were brought in al rouda, were “al bahary” mamlukes.

The mongols ended the assassins in “Almut” around 1251, before going to Baghdad.


Mamlukes:
They were brought by najm al deen, when he was a prince, but when he became the ruler he trained them for his army, and now they were commanders in chief and he relied totally on their loyalty. Where they would go and buy children, between 7 and 9 years old, and get them to al rouda, convert them to islam and teach them islam, and then train them to become his soldiers. So now they are loyal to the leader, salih nijm al deen, as they have no family and they are loyal to their masters such as people didn’t have a family. and whenever there was a mamluke prince who finished his education there and who was recently appointed his position, they would go to the tomb of salih nejm al deen as he was the master of it, and to show how they are so loyal to him, they built their own mosolya beside the mosolya of salih nijm al deen, so many of these sultans tried to be buried beside him.

The mongols had taken Baghdad and has established themselves in iran and Iraq territories and they were called as “al khanet” and the greatest khan was in kerakoroum. And all the small cities were under the roling of al khan’s relatives, these cities were called al khanet. And when they first entered they weren’t muslims but later they converted to islam by “ghazan”. But that doesn’t mean that they were okay with the mamluks. Until they signed the peace treaty in 1330, the treaty was between abu said and al nasir muhammad.

When baybars died, he had two young sons who had an atabig, and they didn’t last long, as when the sultan dies the amiirs and the commander in chief would come together, and they would decide who would take over the ruler that’s what usually happen, and the atabig of the two young sons was called “Qala’um”, and around 1290sth, the mongles, who are still there and they formed al khaned dynasty, they decided to go and invade Syria. So “Qala’um” takes over and overthrow the young son “Salamish”, as now people agreed that he is the new sultan, and “Qala’um” wanted to start a hereditary position, which was interesting as they weren’t allowed to marry, but that didn’t apply to the sultan’s as some of them had married and even they married mongles women, and the mongles had a influence on mamlukes as some of the mongles during baybars had fought with their leaders and escaped to Egypt and asked for the shelter of baybars and he accepted to give them shelters and he also gave them a position in the army they were about 100th or so, and they are refured to them as the “Wafidiyya”.
These monglues built themselves palaces and mosolya’s for them and the women had power. They were called “Khawazya”, who are the mongles who escaped and became princes and mosolya’s and positions in the mamluke’s empire. And the women had fancy mozolya’s and some of them had a lot of power from their husbands or their sons, they had the title of “Khuwayda”.
So the mongles wanted to came back and attack Syria, Qala’um defeated them. Also the crusades were still there and they were in Acer still, and the goal of the mamlukes was to kick the crusades from there and it was done by “Al ashraf Khalil” in 1291, and he kicked the crusades and it was the last time they occupied a land.

“Maristan”: it’s a persian term referring to a hospital, and it was more famous for the eye diseases and the eye surgeries, and people used to come from all parts of the muslim world to have surgery in this hospitals, “Qalau’m built it. And the foundation of this complex was still there which includes more than one of the institution, as it includes a mosolya, madrasa and a hospital. And it still stands in the form of a “Waqfiyya” which is a document that shows the building foundation and the unit of the foundations and it’s function and it gives details about the people who is working on the foundation, and the salaries of the people and were they should meet and the functioning of the building, such as the madrasa.

“The fasat” was the complex of the buildings, also the crusaders were influenced by those and they also influenced muslims and one of them was the windows that had the iron them, and the entrance of madrasa, it was taken from a church.

“Al Qala’um dynasty”, as his descendants ruled for a long time.

A mamalik’s tradition was,
Every beginning of the month, all the caliphate and all the princes and all the khady’s had to go to the mamluk prince and wish him a good month in citidal.

When salah al deen took over, he didn’t built a madrasa in the palace, he built a madrasa beside the mosolini of al emam al shaf3y, in share3 al mo3ez.
Salah al deen used the building of the madrasa and the education of the madrasa as a mean of erasing all the fatimids and their supporters and for feer of having the resergents of having Fatimid supporters, as the da3wa was still there and they were still spreading, so in order to counter the idea of da3y’s he decided to educate people about the sunni and the scholars will fight the idea of the da3wa. So he but the education as a priority to help him overcome any Fatimid residue.
Salah al deen also built al “Khanqah” where he took a palace and transformed it into a “Khanqah” for the sufi, and it was a sufi institution. “mistif” people who dedicate their lives to dedicate it to god and meditate, and living with the minimum. There were no organized Sufis before the  ayubids, but now they had a whole building dedicated to them and they had a leader who is “she5 al sofya” who made sure that they would follow the rules and regulations.
And the one who puts on the regulations is a “waqf” which is an in document where you find a description of the building itself and the people who will benefit from it, also the amount of money that will be/ was spend. And the foundation of the building and the function of that building and what would it do.

Salah al deen developed these institution, but we don’t see salah al deen building any mosques, as his focus was on getting rid of the fatimids influence. When baybars the 2nd  took over, he built a huge “Khanqa”.
To show the loyality of najm al deen, whenever a mamluk was appointed as a prince he would go to najm al deen mosolya and pay respect to him, and they tried building their mosolya beside him in al shar3 al mo3ez. And with sultan “Qala’um” this ritual was moved to the tomb of “Qala’um”.
Mamluks made a madrasa and a mosque/ game3 integrated together, where people can pray and pray a Friday, as in a mosque it’s the only place where there is a khotba. And they would also come and learn about the islam. So they transformed a madrasa into a mosques as well.
And the mosque of al hakim was build outside of al kahera, which was built by bricks by jawhar al siqili, and when badr al jamali came he rebuilt it by stone, as it’s stronger. And the mosque of al hakim is inside of the new wall that was built by badr al jamali. And it was built outside, as there was already a mosque inside which was “Al azhar” which was built during al mo3ez.
But al naser Mohamed ebn kalaun built a mosque in the citadel, as now it’s the new residence for the ruler family and the people of power there
Baybars appointed 4 other kady’s in the laws, a year after bringing the abbasid caliphate, and now there is 4 kady al quad, and it was a movement giving more flexibility for the legal system and now the population could resort to one or the other of the kadies for laws and each mazhab had difference in the interpretations of the laws. And as far as the non-muslims, as each community had their own legal system, the jews had the rabai, the Christians had the patriarchs, but if they were not pleased with the ruling of their own judge they can go back to the kady and apply the share3a.
This lead to corruption as now the kadies would be bribed and the people would get what they want. And the kady had his seat, the ayoubids built “dar al 3adl” that was relocated by baybars around 1262 at the citadel. Where the sultan himself can go and attend the meetings with them. And this was the official legal system that was using the share3a.

During that time, “khawarizm” happened, people who were running away from the mongles and they were escaping and going deeper inside the west, and they are the ones in 1244 who captured jeruslume. And some of the khawarizm immigrated to Egypt and they were called “Wafidya” and baybars accepted them and he gave them shelter, land and iqta.

Also among the things that influenced the system of the law in Egypt, was “siyasa” or “Yasa”, which was the mongols codified law that was done by genghis khan, and some other laws Genghiskhan introduced.
When khawarizm entered Egypt, the mamlukes who came from central asia, they were taking some laws from the “yasa” that suited them. And muslim scholars refers to it as “seyasa”.
The “hajib” was a high military official who controlled the “syasa”, and his role was to educate between the members of the army, whenever there was an issue it would go to the hajib. And in time, the hajb now had powers to members of the populations as well, as they could always go to the hajib.

The restrictions of the non-muslims, they had to wear different colors of turbens and different belts, and one color was yellow which was for the jews and the color was blue for Christians, which is a form of discrimination, and the mohtaseb had to make sure that these things are implemented. The mohtaseb could go around all around the city except for private places such as the lanes, or the houses. As the lane was considered to be a private place. And he had to make sure that the restrictions of the buildings of non-muslims, lower than muslims buildings, is followed. Also if people did sth they could always buy the mohtasab.
When al “Mohtaseb” sees a shop keeper who is cheating, he would give a warning at first, and then if there was a complaint with two parties, like the merchant and the costumer, he takes the petition and submit it to al kady, and the kady is the one who can issue a ruling not al mohtaseb, the mohtaseb can’t punish the shop keeper.

In the military, they would be payed by Iqta, so the hajib was payed by Iqta, and it means that the state didn’t have to disperse money from the treasury, they only had to pay money during festivity, like for al 3eed, like additional salaries that wasn’t part of iqta. And the iqta during the mamliukes wasn’t haridetary, but in rare cases it was.
 But by the end of the 15th century, corruption started to appear, and now some people were selling the iqta to people who aren’t in the military, which wasn’t suppose to happen as “Diwan al gesh” was a place where it keeps track of iqta and how much they gain from it and all of that, and the worth of the iqta was calculated by the worth of “Dinar jayshi” just for the purpose of the calculations. And when the officials receive those iqta they would be given a lot of power, and they became a threat to the ruler, and often the mamluke ruler started shifting people from their positions of all of that.

There were two parts of the society, either part of the elite or the normal populations
The elite were:
1      Religious scholars
2      The amirs
3      Military people
4      Merchants, those who are involved in international trade and they were making a lot of money from the capital, and they were really rich that some of the rulers borrowed money from them.
The population were called “Re’aya”, and they relied on the elite to provide them the services, like education and legal systems.

Services provided to the population:
·            Services of Madrasa:
1.     For education, they were building madrasa by the elite and they were only built by the elites and they had these responsibility. Madrasa was important, and one of the impact of having so many madrasa, apart from reading and writing at an upper level and finding a good job, when you were younger children would also be educated in al “Kuttab”. And it was often associated with a “Sabil”, and the whole system where they accumulate the watr is called “Sahrij” and once a year they would empty it and clean it, like “5azan maya”,and it served as a place of distribution of the water, and the water was carried on camels backs. Also rich houses had sahrij, and some they use to cool down the temperature. And the marbles that had water running on it to cool down the room is called “Shadirwan”.
2.     Water distribution, Each madrasa, kuttab, it had under it a system and these water was distributed to the population and people that are passing by and it was a service that provided by the madrasa. Also through the madadrasa, you could get social mobility. As sometimes students from the suburbs are recommended by the she5, and they get “Ijaza”, which is a document given by the teacher that they master the book, and that you have total command of the material, you can have ijaza of the bo5ary, where you mastered everything about him, and you can have as many ijaza as you can, and there is no curriculum and you go and study and you choose what to study like studying with a professor of al hades or a professor of “Tafseer”. And going through these stages, and accouring many ijaza’s you can end up getting important religious positions such as assistant kady, or even appointed as kady or mohtaseb, as now you know the law. And these are the privileges that you get. And you have the opportunity to move freely. So you enter the madrasa and later you can become a kady such as social mobility.
3.     It could be served as a hospital, aka a “Maristan” or “Bimaristan”, that provided services for the sick people and the most famous one was the Bimaristan of “Qala’um”:
a.     Which had a reputation beyond the Egyptian boarders, so also non-Egyptians had knowledge about it as It had especially in eye surgery. And students were coming from outside Egypt to study and they had their training here. These doctors in the hospital, they got knowledge by reading the theoretical books and then practice, also it offered other services as it had a hall for the people who were suffering from mental disorder and they were treated in the Bimaristan and there was a separation for men and women, and they used music to calm down the patience and treat them, also hygiene was very important for them, to the point where they described that the food that is provided to them, the food should be covered and each of the patient should have their own drinking glass.
b.     There was also part of the Bimaristan where they had a house call to treat the individuals and see the medications they need and provide the medication free of charge. And these were provided by the revenue and the money of the waqf, so they didn’t pay anything, and this was done as a charitable service.
c.     The bimarisran was built by the ruler themselves.
·            The law system in Mamluke: (there was two legal systems, the yeyasa and the share3a)
1.     “Mazalim” is when people feel that they were given a not fair ruling they would go to the mazalim and submit their petition to get other results, it was taken place in “dar al 3adl”, that was related to the seyasa that was inspired by the wafidiya.

2.     and for the Normal Kadies, if people wanted to complain they would go to the mosque, and kady al kouda usually had assisinats, they are kadies that are younger and they could also be trained, and there was also kutab’s at the door of the kady and they were there to help people write their petitions.

3.     And there was al mohtaseb, and he had a job in the market and he was going around, unlike the kady who had a place that people knew and they would go to. And that was inspired by the greeks and the market was called “Agora” where people would sell and buy things.  And the mohtasab was one of the services that was provided to the public. He also can’t get into private places, he only operates in public places.

For the military:
They used to distribute Iqta in the fatimids as a reward, but they didn’t grand them the land, but when salah al deen entered Egypt, he had a big project, which was to recapture jeruslume, and he wanted the army by that, and also he had to fight the fatimids, the remaining of them and get ride of them and then think of the outside places, and to get a strong army, he introduced the “Iqta” system, which consisted to the grand of agriculture land that is given to the soldier and the leaders of the army as a salary and to provide people. “Diwan al Jaysh” kept track of iqta and the lands and had the name of the people in it.

If you are a small ameer, you are an ameer of ten for example, that is responsible for ten people and if you are more important meet you had more responsibility, he was called a “Mokta3”. And they had Iqta and the higher the responsibility, the higher the land, and he would pay for all the soldiers needs, the housing, equipments, food and clothes. And whoever the ruler wanted to go to war, they would prepare their soldiers. And they would go to soaq al sela7, and it would become extremely active as the officer had to make sure that all the soldiers under him were equipped. The Iqta part of it was for the high official and the other part was for the soldiers. The ruler didn’t own the land and if he died or left the land goes back to diwan al jaysh and redistributed. And non of the iqta was in one place, so he doesn’t acquire too much power. All the mokte3’s were living in the capital, as the ruler wanted to control them, also he was responsible for all the land needs and the irrigation systems, like open cannals and build dams and he would pay for the crops, and everything concerning the land is part of the responsibility of the mokte3.

The mokte3 couldn’t live in his iqta, to prevent him from having good relations with the people or with anyone and gain power which can be a threat to people, so he can visit the land to take care of it and anything dealing with irrigation and to make sure the land is going to produce the proper crops,  but not live in it. And the higher the position of the mokte3, the bigger the lands that he is given, but the whole Iqta won’t be given in the same place so he won’t be able to accumulate wealth and power. And the mokte3 was in residence in the capital and most of the mokte3 they lived in the citadel, and they built their palaces there secluded from the people, and the young mamlukes were not allowed to marry before but after the 15th century they started marrying but before that they were secluded and they lived in the citadel. And when they married, the kids were not considered full mamlukes, and these children were occupying the positions like kadies and mohtaseb, and they were called “Awlad Al nas”, they were the offspring of the pure mamlukes and others, and they were considered to be elite, they were not given the same rights as the pure mamlukes but they were well respected and they were elites.

 And due to the land not being theirs, the didn’t care about the land as they cared about getting money as much as possible, and this resulted in a bad effect as the revenues of the lands were lost and that had a negative effect on the land, or they just built


Celebrations:
Read the “popular culture in Medieval Cairo” & and as well as
Some of the festivals revolved around the nile and the cycles of Egypt and It was from the pharaonic times, such as “thowing a virgin in the nile”, and it was stopped and it was adopted by copts and it was known as “3ed al Shaheed”.
All the population shared the celebration regardless their relgion, and religious scholars criticized the people’s behavior and said that this is unislamic, and despite them  not accepting it, it was still taking place. And the rulers took part in it, as in the Fatimid period they would camp infront of the nile and watch the celebrations and the caliphate and his family would celebrate it and distributed money.
During the mamlukes it was an occasion for the caliphate to celebrate with them, and the caliphate with the religious scholars and they would go to the nilometer and the whole celebration of it, Another festivity was, “Wafaq al neel”, where the nile would at least reach 16 zera3, which is 16 cubic meters. Which meant that they would have a promising season, as Egypt relied on the nile for irrigation. During this celebration, the caliphate would be dressed in the best clothing and he would distribute things on the population, and the caliphate and his family would go visit the “Nile trometer” in al rouda, and the oen in charge of the nilometer at the fatimids was Ibn radad, and whenever the water reached a high level they would spread the news. And when the caliphate came to visit he gave him plants with good smells, and the “radad” would put these plants on the column and people would hail and celebrate, which was the core of the celebration, and it lasted more than one day, and they had also the same attack of improper behavior.

women who appeared in the market, were not part of the aristocracy, but the elite ones were served by other woman. Like for example, when the mother or the wife of the sultan goes ob pilgrimage they are accompanied by ameers and when she comes back the sultan would go out of the palace, walking till al sahara and welcoming his mother back to al sahara. And that’s when we hear about the women elites, and we don’t hear about them or see them, but we hear about the slaves and the ones that were surving them. And contrary to women who were going outside of the houses to go to “Al hamam”, while women of aristocracy, they didn’t need to go out and go to al hamma as they had It in their house, and they wouldn’t go to the market as well, as the women surving them would go.

Such women had money, so they would participate in the economy without leaving the house, and they would invest their money but an agence such as her husband or father..etc. so they had a part in economy as they would buy and sell houses or they would make jobs and they participated in a lot
Also there was a development in the north, which would be located now in al azbakya, towards 3en shams, it was all empty area and nothing but gardens and areas with all sorts of roots. And sometimes they would built mayadeen to train, like train their hourses and arrows and just put on a show for people to enjoy, and one of the midan was built in the north outside of Egypt.  So outside of cairo, it was all a garden area. Rich people were investing, the sultans then the ameers and then the rich merchants, they all built religious foundations, but not all of them as building mosques you had to have a permission from the ruler as it was the ruler’s responsibility to build a mosque, and there was a large number of madrasas built by ameers as well as religious high officials such as quadies and mofties.
Women as well participated in the urbanization of the Egypt, espically women frokm the sultan’s household as well as women who were married to aristocracies and they built foundations and palaces in Egypt that are still standing, they were also building religious foundation as well as madrasas, the famous one is “Om sultan sha3ban” in al darb al ahmar. They were also building “Ribat”, which is a foundation that is reserved for people who needed shelter like retired military, also ribats from women who had no other place to stay such as divorced women and widows, as well as old women. Women were also building zawya’s for she5s, they would put the money to build zawya and help the she5s, they were also building commercial foundations, as well as men, such as “Wakala”, they were commercial foundations were by the merchants could bring their commodities and on the top floors there were some cells where merchants could stay for the period of time until they sell their goods. There were some “Wakala” espicalized in items such as “wekalat al tofah” and clothing. And khan al khalely was full of wakalas and even they had wakalas for slaved. Thus, the women participated in the economy investing their own money and gaining profit.

We know about all of these from waqfyas, indunmtent, which is a indand also wakala was a good way to have revenue and it would benefit the maintenance of the religious places.
Also the merchants kept their goods outside of cairo where it’s called “Funduq”, where the forigens kept their goods after paying customes and they would carry the goods in cairo and keep it in a “Funduq”, and there is a discibtion by the funduq by the forigenrs merchants, and they discriped the bed as chicken.

The direction that started to boom, was the area in the direction of the nile, the area of Bolaq, it was the area where the rich people started building their houses as it was near the water so it was pleasant and there was enternatiment at the niles and they would rent boats in the parties and the balconies were looking on water, and it started developing more during the ottoman period.
The poor people, towards the 19th century, and in the 16-17 century, the copts started to regroup due to the otimids having striked rules against them, and accordning on the packt of Ummar such as, the houses of the non-muslims has to be lower and due to that it pushed the non-muslims to live together as it was easier to built houses then as well as the jews, so religion didn’t make a restriction, money only made the restriction of where you live. Also the very poor people lived in the outscarts of the city in the “Hawsh”/7osh, it’s a space inclosed by a wall and people would live, and they would take a space in the large area and they would build bricks and to deperate themselves from people and they would devide the space among themselves.
The religious scholars, they lived around the buildings of mosques and madrasas as they were involved in it, and the means of transportation for the rich ones were horses and for the poor is donkeys, and for the goods they used camels. And in the streets you can see that there was a curved buildings and that the camels when they wre carrying things in the narrow streets the goods wouldn’t fall.

Also people invested in “Hammams” and it was foundations that brought money, and it had it’s own waqf. Also those who had money built bakers and oil services, and they could afford to invest in these institution.