Preliminary Report: Excavations at Fustat, 1964

Author(s): George T. Scanlon

Source: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 4 (1965), pp. 6-30
Published by: American Research Center in Egypt
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40000997
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 Preliminary Report: Excavations at Fustat, 1964
George T. Scanlon
FRONTISPIECEAND PLATES I-XV
INTRODUCTION
On the 9th April 641 (20 A.H.), the Byzantine
fortress of Babylon (Bab al-Lun) capitulated
after a siege of six months to the Arab Muslim
general, cAmr ibn al-'As. It had been thought
that the flashing victories in Syria and Iraq
would be repeated in Egypt ; but the resistance
was more stubborn and the defence more
thoughtfully organized. Siege by assault failed,
and this point of access to the wide Nile Delta
and the capital of Alexandria had to be reduced
by attrition. cAmr was forced to construct a
semi-permanent encampment for his agglomer-
ation of tribal levies, who settled themselves
within it under their tribal banners. A ditch
girdled the settlement ; a ditch, no doubt, riddled
with pointed sticks and caltrops to diminish the
effect of any sudden cavalry sortie. Such a ditch
was called fustat in Arabic, a transliteration
from the Greek and having the same sense as
fossatum in Latin.
In the following year Alexandria capitulated;
but the queen city of the Mediterranean was
doomed to eleven and a half centuries of
eclipse. cUmar, the Caliph in Madinah, ordered
cAmr to return to his tent-city of Fustat and
make it the administrative capital of the newest
province of the Islamic empire. Thus, Fustat
became one more of the camp-capitals of the
nascent ddr al-Isldm, like Basrah and Kufah in
Iraq, and later Ifriqiyah (the staging area for
the conquest of the Maghrib): a place of surveil-
lance over the conquered populations, but one
of isolation from their religions and mores.
The tents were replaced by dwellings of mud
and baked brick, though the streets retained the
earlier narrowness, a width just sufficient for
two horses to pass. (Amr built his mosque, the
earliest Islamic structure in Egypt, at what
must have been the southeastern corner of the
encampment, north of Babylon and the ancient
village of Misr attending it. Conversion among
the indigenous population and emigration of
tribal congeners from Najd and the Hijaz
caused Fustat to spill beyond to the east and
north.
In 750 (132 A.H.) the cAbbasidarmy pursued
the last Caliphof the Umayyads to an ignomini-
ous death in Egypt. The provincial capital was
unable to take on the numbers of adminis-
trative and military personnel which such a
political shift involved. A new military-cum-
administrative suburb was laid out to the north
(probablyin the area around and to the north of
the present mosque of Abu Sucud - which, in
turn, is slightly to the north and west of the
factory in Plan I) to accommodate the 'Abbasid
governing elements and called al-'Askar. When,
between 868 and 870 (254-6 A.H.), Ahmad ibn
Tulun achieved his autonomy vis-a-vis the
Baghdad-Samarra axis, the combination of
Fustat and al-'Askar likewise proved insuf-
ficient, and he built the vast administrative
suburb of al-Qatacic,stretching north and east
to the plain fronting the present Citadel. Here
he built his famous mosque and governed Egypt
and parts of Syria from a ddr al-Imdrah ad-
joining it, and lived in a palace connected with
it by colonnaded streets and rich bazaars.
7
 However, Fustat remained the commercial
and social focus of Egypt. Its domestic archi-
tecture came to involve elaborations of the
Samarra style, and the decoration showed the
strength of the same influence. Al-cAskar fell
into ruins so offensive to the eye that the
Fatimid Caliph had fences built to shut them
from his sight when he traveled from his new
royal quarter of Al-Qahirah to pray at the
mosque of cAmr. This royal quarter was built
about a kilometer due north of the Mosque of
Ibn Tulun in 969 (358 A.H.), and it was meant
to house the royal court and entourage and the
troops from the Maghrib. In the last decade of
the eleventh century this quarter was girdled
with splendid stone walls of unexampled
masonry. But once again, as in the days of Ibn
Tulun, Fustat retained it commercial primacy.
Two visitors described Fustat in its Fatimid
prime. Al-Muqaddasiwas there in 985 (375A.H.)
and spoke of richly decorated houses four and
five stories high, and bazaars selling the wares of
al-Andalus (Spain), of the Turkish lands and of
China. That slight national impetus which Ibn
Tulun imparted to Egypt had flowered into the
renaissanceof the arts familiarto any who study
the Fatimid dynasty. The rich textiles, the
blown and cut glass, the lustre pottery were
exported to the markets of the Mediterranean
world from the stalls of Fustat within the first
two decades of the establishment of the dynasty
in Egypt.
The apogee of that renaissance and of Fustat
can be gleaned from the travel book of the
Persian client of the Fatimids, Nasir-i Khusraw,
who was in Egypt in 1046 (439 A.H.). He claims
to have seen houses seven to fourteen storeys
high, some on thirty cubit square foundations
(a cubit for the eleventh century in Egypt was
between 68 and 70 cm.) and accommodatingup
t 35 people. The streets were seldom more
than 2 meters wide, and some were lighted
throughout the day and night. Though these
were unpaved there seemed to be little dust
about. In the open markets fronting the mosque
of cAmr,merchants from all parts of the known
world could be encountered.The sheer volume of
8
trade and the number of ateliers and manu-
facturies dazzled the visitor.
Yet on 22 November 1168 (564 A.H.) this
fabulous entrepot was almost wholly destroyed.
Rather than have it fall into the hands of a
Crusading army sent by Amaury, King of
Jerusalem, who might then use it as a point
d'appui against Cairo (the walled royal quarter
of Al-Qahirah), Shawar, the Fatimid Wazir, put
it to the torch. Twenty thousand vessels of
naptha were thrown upon the structures in the
thickest part of the city and lit. The fire lasted
fifty-four days, and the site smouldered for
months afterwards. Some areas escaped, and
other parts were rebuilt, but for all intents and
purposes the centricity of Fustat in Egyptian
Islamic history had ended.
There was some economic recovery after the
fire. Shirkuh, the uncle of Saladin and Wazir
under the last faineant Fatimid, al-'Adid,
brought back a good portion of the inhabitants,
and when Saladin conceived the new defenses of
Cairo, centering on the Citadel, he included
Fustat within the southern girdling wall,
traces of which can be seen today. The Anda-
lusian visitor, Ibn Sa'Id, writing in the finale of
the Ayyubid period (c. 1250/648 A.H.) found a
continuing prosperity amid the ruins. Ships
debouched their merchandise at Fustat rather
than at the usual customs port of al-Maqs
farther to the north, the port which served the
capital before the Mamluksbuilt the great suc-
cessor port of Bulaq. Ibn Duqmaq (writing
c. 1399/801 A.H.) says that Fustat became the
administrative capital of Upper Egypt. This
hardly seems credible in the face of Maqrizl's
litany of disasters visited upon the ruined city,
and he is writing but a quarter of a century
later (c. 1427/830 A. H.). He evokes for us the
mounds of ruins and rubbish which is the
Fustat one sees today, the rubbish heap and
dumping ground of a Cairo which for seven
centuries pursued a history which had little to
do with its parent site.1
1 The best general descriptionof Cairo'sgrowth is
Becker'sarticle "Cairo"in the Encyclopediaof Islam,
1st edition, I, pp. 815-820. Jomier's article "AL-
 Though many had picked through these
mounds in search of objects throughout the
nineteenth century, it was Aly Bahgat who com-
menced in 1912 a controlled excavation of
Fustat, work that engaged him for the next
thirteen years. His reports to the Committee of
Conservation of Egyptian Monuments and his
study of Fustat (published in collaboration
with his architect Albert Gabriel) are the guide
lines to all later work. Bahgat was the Curatorof
the Arab (now Islamic) Museum, and his and all
subsequent work in Fustat was carriedout under
the aegis of that institution. He concentrated on
the area due east (but not contiguous to) the
Mosque of (Amr, and made soundings in many
other sections, but never connected these
systematically to the other portions which he
published. Oddly enough, there was never a
plan or overall diagram of the excavated area in
its entirety, Bahgat and Gabriel contenting
themselves with plans and elevations of sepa-
rate complexes. Thus, what would be today the
most exciting aspect of Fustat in ruins, viz., the
'
"town-planning' or, perhaps more correctly if
less elegantly, mediaeval "town-happening,"
FUSTAT" in the El, 2nd edition, II, pp. 957fl, is
more discursive, but makes very little point of the
excavations carriedout at Fustat subsequentto those
of Bahgat. Thoughthese may not have been published,
they can be seen in Cairo,the normalresidenceof the
author.
The most exhaustive study of the nature,tempo and
dispersal of the early settlements is Paul Casanova's
Essai de reconstitutiontopographiquede la ville d'al
Foustdtou Misr, volumeI in threeparts (MIFAOt. 35),
Cairo 1913-19. Cf. A. R. Guest, "The Foundations of
Fustat", JRAS (1907),pp. 80ff. Gaston Wiet's recent
Cairo:City of Art andCommerce (Centersof Civilization
Series, U. of OklahomaPress, Norman: 1964) is too
conglomerateand confusing to be truly contributive.
In the sleeve at the rear of Vol. II of Creswell's
Muslim Architecturein Egypt (London 1959) is a map
of Cairoshowing the Muslimmonuments,and though
the scale is 1 :5000 it gives the best relativerelationship
of Fustat to the other parts of the city and most of the
place names in this report can be thereonlocated. The
finest bibliographicalsurvey on the subject of Fustat
accompaniesCreswell'sdiscussion of the houses ex-
cavated by Aly Bahgat: Muslim Architecturein Egypt,
Vol. I (Oxford1952), pp. 116-130.
was completely overlooked or unthought of, and
hence remains to be done if any systematic,
scientific truth is to be gained from the site.
Between 1930 and the present, various
Islamic scholars in Egypt have worked the site,
generally when they were associated with the
Islamic Museum.These include Hassan Hawary,
Hussein Rachid, Muhammad Mustafa, Ahmad
Fikry, cAbdal-cAzizMarzuk,and cAbdal-Racuf
Yusuf. In recent years, the site has come under
the administration of the Department of Anti-
quities; and the Chief Inspector of the Islamic
Section, Dr. Gamal Mehris,has excavated most
systematically part of the areabetween Bahgat's
excavation and the Mosque of (Amr. It is most
regrettable that, except for Hawary's single
article on the Tulunid house, no archaeological
results of these operations have been published
to date.2
CAMPAIGN:MARCH - JULY 1964
In the spring of 1963 it was announced in the
newspapers that the governorate of Cairo was
about to embarkon an ambitious redevelopment
scheme for Old Cairo, a scheme which involved
the remainingunexcavated section of Fustat. A
series of roads were to cut through from the
Corniche (along the Nile) to a great super-
highway coming in from behind the Cairo
suburbs of Helwan and Macadi. These roads
were to converge at the natural springs of cAyn
Sirah, where it was proposed to put a green belt
and a "tourist city". Finally, to the north and
east of the Mosque of Abu Su'ud, on the south
2 The progressof Bahgat's workwill be found in the
ComptesRendusdes Exercises of the Comite de Con-
servation (publishedby the Egyptian Department of
Antiquities): in the volume 1915-19 pp. 267-70, 275-8,
279-300, 301-6; and in the volume 1920-24pp. 159-64.
For the synopsis of his work to 1920 see Aly Bahgat
and Albert Gabriel, Les Fouilles d'al Foustat, Paris
1921. (The Arabic translation of this work by Aly
Bahgat and Mahmud 'Akkush appeared in Cairo in
1928.) In 1932 Hassan al-Hawary excavated a house
between the Mosque of Abu Su'ud and the Great
Aqueduct,and publishedhis resultsin "Une maisonde
l'cpoque toulounide," Bulletin de VInstitutEgyptien,
xv, pp. 79-87.
9
side of the new highway, Shanc Salah Salim (not
shown on the 1:5000 map), a huge tract was
allocated to various co-operative societies for
the construction of low-cost housing. This last
proposal would have continued the process of
the precedingdecade, whereby the land between
the Great Aqueduct and SharicSalah Salim was
gradually given over to low-cost housing
monoliths, whose foundations were laid without
any archaeologicalsounding whatsoever. Hence
a good part of northeastern Fustat and/or
southern al-Qatacicdisappearedwithout yielding
a fact or artifact to our understanding of
mediaeval ''town-happening."
To insure against a repetition of this historic
waste, the Egyptian Department of Antiquities
granted a concession to the American Research
Centerin Egypt to excavate and make soundings
in Fustat relative to the redevelopment scheme.
The concession granted took the form of three
sections :
Fustat "A": a tract lying between the northern ex-
tremity of Aly Bahgat's excavations and
the fertilizer factory; an area roughly
200 x 250 m. (See Plan I wherethe dotted
lines definethe concessionarea.)Through
this tract a thirty-meterwide roadwas to
be cut (the broken lines in an approxi-
mately east-westdirection) a routewhich
would have to be soundedand excavated
first. Later, it was hoped that the entire
tract would be surveyed and excavated
and connected directly with Bahgat's
work. The huge mound at the southern
tip of the concession, a mound 9.80 m.
high, was thought to contain the remains
of a buildingwith parts of a secondstorey
intact, a fact inferred but never cor-
roborated by earlier excavations. (See
Plate I, figs. 1-2 for two views of this
tract.)
Fustat "B": a tract approximately125 X200 m. lying
between the Mosque of Abu Su'ud and
the fertilizer factory. This section was
part of the area allocatedfor housingand
it was proposed to make soundings
throughoutthe site, and on the basis of
such results to propose to the Gover-
norate and the Department of An-
tiquities a scheme for more precise ex-
cavation. Further, it was just con-
ceivable that this area might tell us
10
something about al-'Askar, if not al-
Qata<i<itself.3
Fustat "C": a narrow tract twenty meters wide
stretching due east from the Wall of
Saladin at its most northern revealed
extremity to the huge quarryof Batn al-
Baqqarah.Earlierexcavationshadreveal-
ed some structures on the far east
summitof the quarry,andit was proposed
now to trenchfromthe wall to the western
edge to ascertain,if possible,how far east
the city stretched,and whetheror not the
quarry was workedafterthe destruction
of Fustat. It is quite obvious to the
nakedeye that Saladin'sWall cut through
the ruins and not simply around them.
Hence, if the city stretchedat least to the
present quarry, if not beyond, more
credence might be allowed Nasir-i
Khusraw's contentions about the vast
size and population of eleventh-century
Fustat.4
The conceded areas are large enough to ensure
systematic excavation after wide-rangingsound-
ings, and the present concessionis renewable on
a yearly basis. Future work in Fustat will
depend upon continued support from abroad,
continuing co-operation with the Governorate
(which this season contributed light and water
without expense to the Expedition), and inte-
gration of the tempo of excavation with that of
the redevelopment scheme.
3 As the excavation in "A" grew and became more
complicated it proved impossible to do more than
a sounding in "B". A section was chosen where the
ragged edges of two columns stuck above the debris.
These proved to be engaged within the masonry of a
doorwaywhich in turn gave on to a room pavemented
in the usual herringbone fashion. There was no
intrusivesecondaryconstruction,and the masonryhad
the expert laying and finish of most of the complexes
unearthed by Bahgat. The gabal (the outstretching
shelf of the Muqattam Hills on which Fustat was
built) was between fifty and seventy centimeters
beneath the stone flooring. (See Plate II, fig. 4). This
revelation augurswell for more extensive work in this
area next season.
4 Again, the complicationsand complexity of "A"
militated against any work being initiated in "C",nor
was it possibleto make any surveyof the site. That the
wall went through the ruins can be gleaned from
Plate XIV in Bahgat and Gabriel,op. cit. supra n. 2.
 The staff assembled to conduct the work in-
cluded: Dr. George T. Scanlon, Director; Mr.
Wladyslaw Kubiak, Assistant Director and
Archaeologist; Mr.Voyiech Kollontay, Architect
(the services of these two experts were made
possible through the cooperation of the Polish
Center for MediterraneanArchaeology and the
permission of its distinguished Director, Profes-
sor Michaelowski); Mr.Kenneth Pawula, Artist ;
Mrs. Elinor Pawula, supervising ceramics and
organizing the pottery typology; and Mr. Erik
Gronborg, photographer and conservator of
metals. Mr. Fahmi cAbd al-'Alim was the
Inspector from the Department of Antiquities,
and ra'is Hamid Mahmud took charge of the
work force. At the peak of the season the latter
numbered one hundred and thirty, of whom
forty-four were skilled diggers and apprentices
from Quft. One hundred and twenty days
marked the season, of which twenty-one were
given over to the weekly Friday rest-day and
various religious and political holidays.
Fifty-by-fifty meter grids were laid out on
the plan of Fustat "A", and these were subdivid-
ed into ten-by-ten meter quadrants. The route
of the proposed road dictated the origin of our
work, so the first quadrants were cleared and
trenches marked out and excavated in Grid I,
adjacent to the cemetery whose southern wall
marked the boundary of the proposed road.
Various squatters had first to be removed, and
a dirt road connecting the squatters' area south
of the cemetery and the fertilizer factory
blocked from further usage. (A total of forty-
two quadrants were worked fully or partially in
"A". See Plan I for parts worked by trenches;
the area outlined by hatching and fronting the
fertilizer factory is the substance of Plan II.)
Work began with the clearing of the mounds
above the three quadrants in the northern part
of Grid I. These mounds had a uniform strati-
graphy, undifferentiated layers of broken pot-
tery and the refused or outmoded addenda of a
burgeoning capital. Very little chronological
data could be gauged; for example, the same
type of late Mamluk pottery shards came from
the base of the mound as was picked from its
surface. This held true for S'ung celadon
shards, which were found at all depths. The
majority of the pottery shards from these
mounds were of late 13th, 14th and 15th century
Mamlukglazed wares. (See Frontispiece: c, d, e,
f, g, and h. Even a and b, though unearthed
below excavation levels, wrere embedded in
layers of rubble comparable in composition to
the mounds above.) Even when the quadrant
was cleared to a reasonably smooth surface
wherein a trench could be laid out and dug (and
it is in this sense that the term "excavation
level^ applies), more often than not the rubble
continued down quite a distance.
The first three trenches revealed the same
stratigraphy below the excavation level : layers
of rubble and carbonized streaks in rich earth
which had gone through many centuries of the
nitrogen cycle, a fertilized and fertilizing earth
called in Arabic, sibdkh.5This combination of
rubble and sibdkh continued down to the gabal
and/or the streets and floors throughout the
excavation.
Having uncovered nothing, we shifted our
operation, still relative to the path of the road,
to Grid IV, adjacent to the seepage pond of the
fertilizer factory. Mounds above IV-16, 17, 21
and 22, some of which reached heights of four
and five meters above the excavation level, were
removed and trenches, two meters wide, dug in
the NE-SW direction. A tip-heap formedaround
the SE edge of the seepage pond, outside the
concession area. Mud appeared in IV-17 at
1.50 meters, and water started seeping at a
further ten centimeters. Four stone pieces, ir-
regularly dressed, and laid parallel on the soft
earth,gave a premonitionof structuralremainsin
the area,though we werestill belowthe gabalshelf.
In IV-16 water appearedat 1.60 m. A further
twenty centimeters were dug after two days'
drying, but no building elements were revealed.
However, at a depth of 1.20 m., remains of a
structure appeared in IV-22 ; two sections of a
column laid parallel atop very unevenly laid
5 It is interesting to note that Aly Bahgat financed
his excavation by acquiringthe concessionto sell this
sibdkh.See Bahgat and Gabriel,op. cit., Plate II.
II
[PLAN I|
bricks and what appears to be burnt stone.
Though seepage water bubbled through the
mud very shortly after, it was clear that we
had hit an inhabited area, but one still below
the shelf. It was a matter of opening out the
trench along the lines of the structure. Doing so
brought us into GridVIII, where the men began
clearing the mounds above quadrants i and 2.
Traces of a badly eroded wall appearedin IV-21
at 1.30 m., but nothing further was yielded when
the trench was opened out along the path of
this segment. At 1.50 m. water engulfed the
entire base of the trench. All of this water was
at the same level as the seepage pond, so it was
obvious exactly how high the Nile water table
was and had been. Since no pumping equipment
was available, it was more important than ever
that the gabal shelf be found.
Finally the gabalappeared,fifteen centimeters
below a pavement of dressed stone, which was
revealed at a depth of about one meter in the
trench laid out in VIII-2. Since the traces of
brick walls came out of the clearing for laying
the trench in VIII-i, it was clear that we were
on the gabaland in the inhabited area of Fustat.
Hence the trenchingmethod could be abandoned
and the uncovered walls and other structural
elements dictate the path and tempo of exca-
vation. (See Plate II, fig. 3 for appearance of
?
gabal - upper end of trench - and pavement.)
These findings occurred on March 19th and
by March 25th we had a Decauville railway in
operation through the courtesy of the Depart-
ment of Antiquities. Until the end of the season
(July 2nd), we concentrated our efforts in the
specific areas of Grids III, IV, VII and VIII as
shown in Plan II. Later in the season two
trenches were laid in Grid II (quadrants 18 and
24), and both areas were found to be below the
shelf where the seepage made excavation im-
possible. Allowing for an average height of the
mounds of between three and four meters, we
moved more than sixteen thousand cubic
meters of rubble and fill.6Though it would have
6 A very explicit picture of the height relationship
of mound to gabal shelf can be found in the lower
picture of Plate II in Bahgat and Gabriel,op. cit.
been unfeasible to sift all this material, the
workers rescued enormous amounts of study
materials from the mounds and wherever there
was fill between secondary and primary foun-
dations, this was sifted for chronological
evidence.
ARCHITECTURALANALYSIS
Two conditions deny the possibility of any
clear-cut conclusions about the buildings un-
covered in Fustat in 1964: a) the very high
water table of the Nile which placed a good
number of the foundations under watery mud
(even when they were on the gabal), a condition
which no doubt contributedto the disappearance
of walls and the erasure of foundation lines;
and b) the universal incidence of secondary,
and in one instance of at least two intermediate
periods of reconstruction.Not one of the cisterns,
cesspools, or fresh-water holds could be cleared
beyond a depth of one and a half to two meters.
That these were considerably deeper was in-
dicated by plumbing the one in Grid VIII : the
depth reached through the "clear" water was
7.20 m. (See Plate III, fig. 5).7
To an even greater degree our operationswere
complicated by a large amount of secondary
construction. Basing himself on the evidence
provided by Bahgat and Gabriel,and no doubt,
on an intensive perusal of the areas they un-
covered, Creswell states categorically that "no
case has been found of a house built on the
debris of another."8 From the day that the
7 That this well served an earlierperiod is probable,
but it is interesting to see how it was utilized in the
secondaryperiod,that of the pavementwhich partially
surroundsit. It was vaulted with brick to a height just
above that of the pavement, pierced with an opening
forty centimeters in diameter, and just below this
opening was a collar of thin iron plate. At some later
period, much of the rear vaulting had caved in, and
when excavated, this part was covered by sandstone
slabs laid slantingly. One was left in situ and can be
seen in the photograph.Would the iron collar and the
tight vaulting have saved this well from the seepageof
a Nile flood? If so, then the chart of the Nile recession
encounteredin Fig. 2 in Bahgat and Gabriel, op. cit.,
must be radicallyrevised.
8 Creswell,op. cit. (supran. 1) p. 121.
14
pavement in VIII-2 was uncovered until the
whole site was trimmed for the season's finale,
however, there was not a quadrant in which one
could speak of a singular building period. As
might have happened in the earlier excavated
areas, remains of earlier buildings were not
removed so that the gabal might be used again
for newer construction. As can be seen from
Section B-B, earth was dumped among the
broken foundations, smoothed hard, paved, and
the walls of the secondary period were either
built atop or hooked onto remains of primary
structure; or the primary walls were used as a
sheath within which later walls were reared.
Nor were earlier foundation lines used to align
newer walls ; generally these were obliterated by
the packed earth and crushed sandstone,
making it almost impossible to relate the
elements of one building period to another.9
9 For the incorporatingof earlier elements within a
later buildingsee Plate III, fig. 6, wherethe foundation
of a transversewall was maintained,the area fronting
it filled with earth from the Gabalto the top of the
foundation courses, and a pavement laid. Or consider
Plate III, fig. 7, whereearly foundationcoursescan be
seen in the lowerleft hand corner; here there is packed
earth, and a seam twenty-five centimeters high of
crushed sandstone. This could have been the flooring
of an intermediate period, or it might have been a
strengtheningbase for the pavement which so clearly
tops it above a thin seam of earth.
Plate IV, fig. 9 exhibits a situation of almost utter
confusion.To the left of the picture is the wall above
the broad stretch of "made" earth in Section B-B.
(The pits and gutters here, as throughoutthe plan, are
representedby closely dotted areas.) All the elements
of the confusionare vividly juxtaposed: the secondary
wall built on made earth; the pavemented area;
primarycurvingwall in backgroundwith earth packed
against it and a flooringof crushed stone just to the
left of the number chart. And beneath it all ? An
ingenious canalization system which was completely
covered over in the ensuing period of rebuilding. To
what was this system related ? And why was it covered
by dirt and pavements?Therewas no trace of vaulting
about these pits, thoughpart of the gutterwas vaulted.
It is highly probablethat these pits and gutters were
utilized in the secondary period, but exactly how
cannot be gleaned from present remains.
For another example of secondaryelements within
primary walls see Plate III, fig. 8 showing three
distinct pavement levels.
Though precision is impossible at this date,
certain elements do sort themselves out more or
less for contained discussion. If one looks at
Plan II, it is obvious that the aqueduct at the
far south marks a boundaryline, with a footpath
or thoroughfareadjacent to it. In the center of
the Plan is what appears to be an empty space
(VII-5, 10, 15; VIII-11, 16) roughly geometrical
at its northern end, and having as one of its
components a curving wall, noted in Plate IV,
fig. 9. Though much secondary building ob-
truded, and though the ground traces of a wall
are present where this area would debouch
onto the thoroughfarefronting the aqueduct, it
seems more than probable that this tunneling
open area formed a sort of "mews," and, in es-
sence, divided the buildings to east and west.
The complex to the east has lost most of its
foundation lines, and it remains unclear just
how the living spaces were demarcated. One
notable element within the area was a court-
yard, paved during the secondary period with
the base and part of the shaft of a large marble
column. This latter formedpart of the courtyard,
whichmeasuredin its secondaryperiod7 x 4.5 m.,
and in its primaryperiods measured9.5 x 4.5 m.
In its earlier period, too, it contained a cess-
pool with an efflux coming from the second
floor, both of which were estopped in secondary
period. The walls enclosing this courtyard were
primary. (See Plate IV, fig. 10 for northern end
of court showing how secondary wall delimited
secondary courtyard.)
To the SE of this courtyard lay a broad area,
now partially pavemented, but no doubt totally
so in the period of its building. Traces of
pavement were found throughout, and there
seems to have been a slight rise in the levels (ac-
commodated, no doubt, by a step or two)
between the two basins to be noted on Plan II
(VIII-2, 8) and Plates V, fig. 11 and VI, fig. 13
(only the octagonal base of one - that to the
north - remains, but it is more than probable
that it was exactly like the almost complete
one to the south shown in Plate V, 11.) This area
might be thought of as an esplanade or broad
piazza between complex dwellings.
15
 Plate VI, fig. 13 shows the line of the gabal
between the two segments of pavement. It is
interesting to note how the upper one in the
photograph proceeds out from the receding
gabal, and is of the usual herringbone pattern
met throughout Bahgat's excavations; while
the other is of sandstone slabs laid less dramati-
cally. These two types of paving occur through-
out the "esplanade/' and beneath them traces
of more primary buildings were lost in mud or
totally effaced. This expanse was uncovered;
there was no sign of vaulting or roofing, or of
walls within to carry the weight of roofs for an
area about 27 m. long and from between 7 and
9 m. wide. (The stones in the herringbone
pavements measure 48 x i8| cm.; while the
slabs in the other attain dimensions of
78 x 34i cm.)
The almost intact basin is most interesting.
It measured 2 x 2 m. square. The form of the
upper part was a square, parallel to the outer
dimensions, and with each of the four corners
giving off into semi-circles slightly set back.
This surface was lined with thin marble slabs,
some of which were in situ. 48 cm. below this
surface was an octagon, 42 cm. to a side, set
deeply within the upper form, thus affording a
sort of seat at the base of each of the semi-
circles. This octagon had a depth of 63 cm. (thus
giving the entire basin a depth of 1.11 m.). Its
base measured 1.05 m. along the quadrantial
axis, comparing almost exactly with the base
measurementsof the other more northerly basin
in the "esplanade",which, most certainly, when
intact, had indentical shape and dimensions.10
On the north side of this basin was a trench
which, according to Bahgat, was intended for
flower-beds or small trees. It can be seen from
Plate V, fig. 11 how very little pavement was
left in the area of this basin, and how the high
water-table made elucidation of any primary
foundations well-nigh impossible.
However, one room in this far eastern section
of the excavation did yield some interesting
10Cf. the basins in Fig. 16 and Plate XVIII (middle
photograph in middle row) in Bahgat and Gabriel,
op. cit.
16
data. (See Plate VII, fig. 15.) The foundations of
the primary building are clearly enunciated: to
a height of about half a meter, irregularly cut
stones are heaped and tightly packed. Then the
string courses of brick are laid, some courses
flat, some vertical, some at an angle until an
even surface is achieved. Then the bricks are
laid, row upon row, in the header-and-stretcher
mode, so familiar from the building excavated
by Bahgat, and the models to be found in
Tulunid and early Fatimid structures. The
mortar is applied and smoothed in uniform
layers whose thickness seldom exceeds three
centimeters. And, on one side, a recessing or
alcoving can be seen, which gives a feeling of
depth to an otherwisepurely utilitarianchamber.
This room and the one adjoining it to the NE
give promise of another interesting complex,
one whose foundations were more intelligently
related to the conditions of a high water table.
(See Plate III, fig. 6 for another example of the
laying of foundation courses.)
It now remains to consider in some detail
four major aspects of the excavated area,
aspects whose interdependence can be sensed
not-withstanding the lack of precise evidence.
(a) The Aqueduct
What was first uncovered in search of the
south end of the "esplanade" area, and was
thought to be a dividing wall, turned out upon
closer examination to be a roughly constructed,
low-lying aqueduct. When excavated to the
maximum length possible during the season, it
proved an unexpected gift, for up until its
appearance,the excavation lacked any clear-cut
boundaries. (It must be borne in mind that the
"mews" idea is extremely tentative. Its shape
was highly reminiscent of the "impasse" to be
noted in Fig. 5 in Bahgat and Gabriel, op. cit.)
About seventy meters have been cleared, and its
general SW-NE direction established. Traces
of it appear through the mounds in the south-
westerly direction, towards the Mosqueof (Amr.
It is planned to uncover this aqueduct to its
terminus to the SW next season. Quite possibly
it might have been some border-line between
Fustat at the height of it prosperity and that
part of the metropolis which was rebuilt after
the holocaust of 1168.
In the backgroundof Plates III, fig. 6 and VII,
fig. 15, the height of the aqueduct appears
relative to sections of the excavation. Its com-
position was extremely simple: upon an undulat-
ing path of tamped earth various string courses
of baked brick were laid. Encased in the upper
courses and joined to them by the same mortar
which held the bricks was a pipe of fired clay,
18 cm. in diameter, and in slightly ribbed
sections 37.5 cm. long. Then rough-hewn sand-
stone boulders, with their undersides slightly
carved to fit over the piping, were laid perpen-
dicular to the piping. This last element of the
construction was particularly ingenious: it
meant that piping could be easily reached and
repaired in sections, while the slabs gave the
aqueduct adequate protection from jarring, or
other accidents occasioned by the thoroughfare
which it bounded.11
(b) Sanitation and Canalization
One result of this season's excavation at
Fustat, a result which corroborates in every
detail comparable discoveries in the work of
Bahgat, but which he did little more than
mention as part of general ground plans of
domestic complexes, was the irrefutableproof of
the cleanliness of Fustat and the genius mani-
11A pit was excavated to the south of the aqueduct
and probably connects with the one to the north op-
posite it, giving rise to the thought that perhaps the
aqueduct is a secondarystructurewhich cuts through
primaryfoundations,ratherin the mannerof Saladin's
Wall. Secondly, to the far SW, in an area sounded
beyond the limits of the excavation, the continuation
of the aqueductis crossedby what looks to be another
aqueduct, which prompts continuing the clearanceof
the presentsite to the SW to what might be an obvious
boundary.
See Plate V, fig. 12 for direction and drop of
aqueduct: view towards the SE; and VI, fig. 14 for
manner of inclusion of clay piping. It is the pipe
dimension which possibly connects the aqueduct and
the basin in VII-4.
2 17
fested in its hydraulics and plumbing. It is our
contention that very few open drains or noisome
gutters existed here ; a fact which need only be
comparedwith the chronicledreality of eleventh
and twelfth century capitals in Europe to be
fully appreciated. And the incidence of the
canalization and sanitation elements through-
out the site forces one to reconsider what had
formerly been doubted in the mediaeval reports
about Fustat, viz., the number of storeys in the
structures and the number of inhabitants per
structure. (It will be recalled that Nasir-i
Khusraw spoke of houses seven to fourteen
storeys tall in which as many as 350 persons
lived.)
The site covered in Plan II measures roughly
70 x 50 m. It contains twenty-seven pits hewn
into the gabal, of various shapes and for various
purposes. Many of these were connected by deep
gutters (rangingfrom 50 to 100 cm. deep). Even
if the conjecture that most of the area to the
west of the "mews" (or "impasse") was in
reality a pottery complex whichhad a "domicile"
integral or added to it, the number of these
elements bespeaks quite a large population for
so contained an area. The number of flues and
effluxes leading directly into drainage pits or
cesspools, which were easily accessible for
cleaning, attests to the height of the buildings
and the population supported in each. These
flues were commodious, generally about half a
meter square, and were the efflux of more than
a single storey.12
Not one of these sanitation elements was
uncovered. In Plate V, fig. 12, the vaulting
12See Plate VII, fig. 16 for contiguous flues, each
draininginto a separatecesspool (the runnelof one can
be seen to right center of photograph),yet both are
part of the same building. It is obvious from their size
that they are elements of a comparativelyhigh build-
ing.
Plate VII, fig. 17 shows a direct effluxinto a cesspool
hewn into the gabal.The floorof the adjoiningroom is
the gabal, from the purported"atrium" complex and
most probably gave onto a thoroughfare.Plate VIII,
fig. 18 shows a latrine area emptying into the same
gutter as the adjacent efflux seen through a fissurein
the masonry.
(partly demolished) above a cistern along the
thoroughfarecan be seen, and we have already
spoken about the covering of the well in the
"esplanade" area (see Plate III, fig. 5). A more
elaborate vaulting is that seen in Plate VIII,
fig. 19 showing the entrance from the thorough-
fare for cleaning. Egress to this pit was along a
deeply cut declining gutter, which was covered
by brick walls and a stone roofing, upon which
other walls were reared. Since it is within the
traces of a wall, it is safe to conclude that the
pit serviced a latrine.
A more elaborate covering is that over the
long gutter in Plate IX, fig. 21. Though much
of the masonry is demolished, enough remains
(including an arched section visible towards the
rear of the photograph) to conclude that the
entire length was vaulted and emptied into a
pit contiguous to the thoroughfare. Since all the
pits along this route were vaulted, this one was
was too, though all the foundations have disap-
peared and it is barely visible amid the muck
of the high water table.13
Finally there are the two fresh water holds
whose spatial structural relatedness can be seen
in Plate IX, fig. 22. Both were hewn into the
gabal, and both were faced with smooth brick
and plastered. In each fresh water came through
the mud at 2 m. and they could not be excavated
to any greater depth. The one to the front of the
photograph measured 1.20 x 1 m. and was
completely covered in the secondary period of
construction. The one to the rear was much
larger and its covering was slightly vaulted; it
measured 2 X 2.60 m. Plate VIII, fig. 20 shows
the steps from which the water was drawn; but
it simultaneously shows the intriguing situ-
ation of four pipes apparently terminating above
the vaulting. That this hold was part of the
"pottery" complex is most probable, but how it
fitted into the operational scheme is as yet
dubious.
The basins, the aqueduct, the drainage pits,
the cesspools, the flues, the fresh water holds,
the vaulted coverings of gutters and pits, the
13For a comparable covered gutter see Bahgat and
Gabriel, Plate XVII (middle photograph, top row).
18
ease of access for cleaning and replenishment -
these attest a high pitch of ingenuity in the
service of domestic architecture and urban
sensitivity. When one surmises why this pitch
is encountered in the mediaeval Islamic world,
one can but conjecture that this world was the
indirect heir (with Byzantium serving as the
link) of the highly developed sanitary engineer-
ing of the Roman Empire. Indeed, in the use of
flues and of gutters beneath pavements leading
to pits at some remove from the inhabited
areas, one senses refinements of inherited
principles. Certainly no one has since improved
on the manner in which the Fustat builders and
citizens utilized the gabal on which they reared
their teeming city.
(c) The Pottery
More complex than any part to the east of
the "impasse"is that vaster section lying to the
west and slightly to the north. If it be a single
complex (in the secondary period of construc-
tion) then it is an enormous factory-and-
residence congeries whose central significance
(and that significance is not provably archi-
tectural) is a pottery. The evidence for this was
achieved cumulatively in the last month of
excavation :
a) the presence of enormous residua of buff-ware clay
(for example see Plate IX, fig. 23 where a huge paral-
lelepiped of clay was uncovered, so hard that it was
originally thought to be an upcropping of the gabal).
The section of Plan II (VII-13) jutting out to the
SW, and marked internally by irregularly spaced
tiny circles, represents the extent of these mounds;
b) two enormous mottled-pink Aswan granite mortars
and eleven large millstones of varying weight used
to crush glass and metallic oxides for the glazes
(see Plate X, fig. 24) : these elements were assembled
for the photograph; a large mortar with the
millstone left inside can be seen in situ in Plate XI,
fig. 28. These millstones had openings for two sets
of thongs and the operators would drag the stone
back and forth across the mortar and then circular-
ly. When finer grades of glazes were desired,
heavier stones would be used in succession;
c) a storage bin (VII-15) where many glass ingots
were found and where tlie flooring and sides
 were impregnated with glass (see Plate X, fig.
25) ;14
d) a circular hewing in the rock right next to a very
large pit. This was a place for softening the hardened
clay from the mounds with water from the pit and
kneading it to the consistency demanded by the
potters (see Plate X, fig. 26). At some later time this
pit was completely covered with clay deposits, and
within these a small kiln was operated ; and
e) the remains of a largish kiln (SW corner VII-8),
whose walls were covered by fibrous fired clay, the
lower parts of which were striated with carbon
deposits from the firing (see Plate X, fig. 27, where
the meter stick leans against a section of the kiln15).
Most of this evidence came from that part
above the rise of the gabal noticeable in
Plate XI, fig. 28. It may be, too, that the high
pavemented area (VII-14, 19) toward the upper
right-hand corner may have been the pottery
proper. But what then of the lower-lying areas
to the north? Certainly the paving noted in
Plate IV, fig. 9 was meant to connect the
"domicile" area with its focus at the basin in
VII-4 with this higher-placedatelier; and in the
latter, exactly the same type of piping was
14Though glass ingots and unevenly melted and
cooled glass shards were found throughout this area
and the site in general, no glass kiln was uncovered.
Mr. Ray Smith compared the ingots found in this bin
with samples found at Wadi Natrun and surmises that
the glass was manufactured there and transported to
Fustat where it was melted and blown or else used in
the composition of glazes.
16This kiln's shape was possibly ovoid and therefore
like the one discovered by Bahgat in the area to the
SE of the Mosque of Abu Su'ud in 1914. But his kiln
was in two parts, the pottery to be fired being put
upon the base of the upper one. Each piece was put
upon a hardened clay tripod ("pernette") to avoid
contact with the kiln floor. Many of these pernettes
were found throughout our site, in some cases still
clinging to shards of large pieces which had been
imperfectly fired. However, Bahgat' s pottery was much
later than the one under consideration, and its position
vis-d-vis the Mosque of Abu Su'ud might be a clue as to
the part of Fustat which endured beyond the fire. Cf.
Aly Bey Bahgat, "Les Fouilles de Foustat: Decouverte
d'un four de potier arabe datant du XI Ve siecle",
Bulletin de Vlnstitut Egyptien, 5eme ser., vol. VIII
(1914), pp. 233-242. The design of the kiln is that of
Fig. 1, and the remains excavated can be seen in
Plate X.
2*
found as that which surroundedthe huge basin
of the "domicile".Yet how does one connect the
area around the large courtyard (VII-2, 3, 7, 8)
with either the "domicile",which as a secondary
construction was on a higher level, and the
"pottery" proper?
Plate XI, fig. 29 shows this area looking SE.
In essence it is a paved courtyard 6.75 x 9.25 m.
The paving spills over the limits, engulfing
earlier foundations, so that the secondary
courtyard measures 9 x 10.50 m. The paving
stone in situ were laid in a fashion similar to the
lower paving in Plate VI, fig. 13. On the north
and south sides were rooms arranged as-
symetrically to the courtyard. On these same
sides were the remains of sandstone piers,
45 cm. square in section, and approximately
two meters high. On the south side two were in
position and one had fallen very near its original
position. Two fallen piers were on the other
side: one was removed for further excavation;
and the other was broken in three pieces and is
shown in Plate XI, fig. 29. If there were three
columns on the north side, and placed exactly
opposite those on the south side, one might
have had an "atrium" situation in the primary
period, but one totally unlike any of those
discovered by Bahgat, for the rooms behind
would not have been symetrically placed vis-a-
vis either the primary or secondary courtyard.
(The typical court arrangements can be seen in
Bahgat and Gabriel, op. cit.t Fig. 31.) Thus it is
doubtful if this "atrium"in the secondary phase
(which is all we can be certain about in Plan II)
served purely domestic purposes.
A second notable feature of this complex is the
canalization. Gutters cut deeply in the gabal
tunneled beneaththe gabal, where the latter was
used as flooring. Along the eastern side the
gutter was covered by brick vaulting, a bit of
which can be seen outside the room in Plate XII,
fig. 30, and this vaulting reared as high as the
flooring of this room. The central pit of the
secondary courtyard may have been for fresh
water, for it had a conduit going to a drainage
pit towards the south, a pit which served rooms
most of whose foundations have disappeared.
*9
 Three of the rooms to the north of the
courtyard seem to lack rear walls. (One of these
is shown in Plate VII, fig. 17.) It has two shallow
grooves worn into the gdbal floor. It might be
that these three rooms fronted on a thorough-
fare as yet unexcavated and were shops for
handling the produce of the pottery. West of
them are two rooms with thick walls, in which
was the flue, and beneath which was the cesspool
noted in Plate VII, fig. 17. The alcove in one of
them was above the deep and flowing gutter,
which doubtlessly emptied also into the same
cesspool; it was perhaps a latrine. Since these
walls were thick enough to sustain a second
storey (and the flue proves the presence of at
least one other storey), this might be construed
as part of the living quarters.
But the most unique element of the complex,
indeed of the entire excavation, perhaps, of
Fustat, is illustrated in Plate XII, fig. 30.
Various large storage jars had been found about
the edges of the courtyard, generally beneath
the paving level. These were duly recorded and
removed. Others were found in the alcoves east
of the long gutter. Then the room to the north
of these alcoves was cleared. A cache of these
jars came through the debris; but, more
importantly, they were, unlike the earlier jars,
upside down, and when the remnants of the
pavement appeared, it was clear that they were
deliberately placed upside down under the
pavement. When fully excavated, there were
more than sixty jars under the paved level.
Eleven more, laid in exactly the same fashion,
had shown up in the room at the far NE of the
plan; thirty-seven in the middlemost of the
three rooms without back walls on the north
side ; and twelve in the room to the east of the
latter, a room also lacking a back wall (see
Plate XII, fig. 31). The jars were all approxi-
mately 41 cm. high, with a maximum diameter
of about 32 cm.; round bottomed, ribbed and
striated, twohandled, and made of light red
ware, and generally, but not always, had a
buffish slipfinish.
When one considers the laying of these jars,
empty and upside down, one is slightly puzzled
20
as to the purpose. The bottom point of a wheel-
turned jar is its strongest point, as are the top
and bottom of the otherwise fragile egg. So
when earth was packed among them and the
whole paved, there would be little danger of
breakage, for it would be this strong bottom
point of the jar receiving the pressure of
pedestriansand objects. And since it was empty,
it could absorb moisture most profitably, or
conversely be a pocket of still, cool air. Thus a
cool, dry atmosphere was sought, and sought
against what must have been a menace at the
period of paving, viz., the high water table.
These rooms, then, we can assume, were store-
rooms for finished pottery, or for pottery which
would have to be kept clear of a moisture-laden
atmosphere. If this be the truth of the matter,
then this clever device, dovetailed with the
intricate canalization, the attendant kiln and
huge mortar to the SW along the rise of the
gdbal, encourages one to connect the "atrium"
complex with the pottery.16
(d) The "Domicile"
The most difficult and baffling section of the
excavation involves the areas around the basin
in VII-4. These were excavated from the south,
behind the great niche in the "mews" area, a
niche whose masonry was obviously of the early
or primary period, i.e., alternated brick courses
of headers and stretchers. (See Plate XII, fig. 32
for niche; and upper left corner of Plate IV,
fig. 9 for arched entrance to semi-circularfresh-
water pit at terminus of "mews", which from
its masonry was also primary construction. But
the pavement behind it was built up to its sum-
mit, as was the paved room to west of niche.
16Village masons use a somewhat analogous
technique today in Egypt, but they spread pottery
shardsto a height of ten or fifteen centimeters before
they lay their dirt floor ("dakkah")or one of stones or
brick. Mr. Nicholas Millet informed the author that
Petrie describesa dry floormade of invertedjarsdating
to the pharaonicOld Kingdom(Koptos,p. 4). Certainly
Bahgat reportedno such phenomenon,but one cannot
be surethat he ever removeda flooror paving to check
on the compositionof the foundation.
Hence one can say that these herringbone
pavements represent the secondary period.) Yet
when one penetrated behind this substantial
niche, one found a wall which was buckling,
giving onto the buckling pavement noted in
Plate IV, fig. 9. Section B-B shows most vividly
how jerry-built this entire structure was. A
good deal of propping of members was necessary
so as to preserve enough of the secondary
structure to hazard a guess as to its relatedness
and function. The fear that the walls supported
by the "made" earth might fall before the full
story of the construction could be ascertained
made for a ticklish tempo in their dismantling.17
The main roombehind the niche wasexcavated
next, and its secondary form can be seen in
Plate XIII, fig. 34: a herringbone pavement
on a recessing ground plan. Right above the
paving, and appearingalmost as a wainscoating,
were the remains of the marble lining of the
room. When this pavement was taken up, the
remains of another appeared 55 cm. below the
first, a pavement much less fastidiously laid.
At another half meter the gabal appeared. The
absence of any marble lining leads to the con-
clusion that the room was differently employed
in the earlier period.
However, before this top pavement was
dismantled, the ground to the NW of it was
cleared and excavated. A section of pavement,
with the stones very hastily and unstylishly laid,
came through. It was aligned on a central axis
with the room noted above, and twro pipes
girdled it on three sides, pipes with 900elbows at
the NW and NE corners of the section. (See
Plate XIV, fig. 36 for alignment with room in
Plate XIII, fig. 34.) Then farther on in this same
direction, another paved room appeared, again
on an axis with the other two elements. But
17See Plate XIII, fig. 33. When finally dismantled
of demolished masonry and fill, the section behind
the great niche appears in Plate XIII, fig. 35. The
stairwaydirectlybehindthe niche and the corridorand
storagebins had to be dismantledin orderto excavate
the cistern beneath.
This photographshowsvery clearlythe alignmentof
the room behind the corridor,the great basin, and the
room behind it to the north.
here unlike the middle section, the pavement
was laid in the herring-bonefashion of the room
in Plate XIII, fig. 34 and had remains of a
marble lining. (See Plate XIV, fig. 37. Again, as
with the room in Plate XIII, fig. 34, when this
pavement was taken up, a much earlier align-
ment came through on the gabal.)
It was obvious that the two rooms were
ranged on either side of a courtyard (proved to
rn.easure7.50 x 7.25 m.) in the secondaryperiod.
The roughly laid pavement in the center was
removed, and a deep basin appeared (See
Plate XV, fig. 38). Its general shape was similar
to that in Plate V, fig. 11, but much larger. One
could sit quite comfortablywithin the four semi-
circles, each with a diameter of half a meter.
The upper level was 53 cm. deep, and the octago-
nal lower level was 51 cm. deep; giving a total
depth of 1.04 m. The whole basin was reared
70 cm. above the gabal. The octagon was not
exactly symmetrical: the fully intact sides (going
clockwise in Plate XV, fig. 39) were 92, 74, 69,
70 and 89 cm. respectively. The base axes of the
octagon measured 2 x 1.75 m.; the top surface,
including the double piping, was approximately
3.25 m. wide. This piping had a diameter of
8 cm. and was laid in sections 21 cm. long. Each
section had a sleeve 5 cm. in diameter and 6 cm.
long which fitted snugly into the next section. It
was made of fired red ware and was laid amid
the brick courses by the same mortar which
bound the bricks. How it fed the basin could not
be ascertained from the remains.
The basin drained through an opening at the
base of the side of the octagon to the right of the
meter stick in Plate XV, fig. 38. This gave on to
a proper drain pipe, 1 cm. thick, with an
interior diameter of 16 cm., laid in sections
31 cm. long. (See Plate XV, fig. 39. This pipe
had the same dimensions as that laid in the
aqueduct.) Though the connecting runnel had
been erased, there is no doubt that this basin
drainedinto the pit shown a little to the SE of it
in VII-5.
These rooms on either side of the basin
seemed too small for daily habitation, and the
ones cleared to east and west of the courtyard
21
were little more than alcoves in the secondary
period. The marble lining, the double piping, the
semi-circular insets within the basin large
enough for sitting, the drainage: this evidence
could suggest a bath, a small one to be sure,
with the room to the south as the calidarhtm
(the piping, possibly for hot water, continued
around this room) and that to the north as
tepidarium. The basin would have been for
dipping. This is but a conjecture, and carried
out logically would have made the rooms to east
and west alcoves for rest and massage. (The
room in VII-9 to the extreme SW of the basin
was above a cesspool and was probablya latrine.)
Two factors seem to negate the possibility:
the absence anywhere in the site of hypocausts,
and that the basin area may not have been
roofed. Yet, if this be another "atrium"
situation about an open court, it bears little
visible resemblanceto any known example from
Tulunid or Fatimid times, except for the Samar-
ra "bayt "-plan in the section to the north of the
basin.
Is it possible that this "domicile" connects
with the pottery ? It must be rememberedthat
the buckled pavement shown in Plate IV, fig. 9
was on a level with that of the recessed room
and of the basin and the room to its north ; and,
in fact, with every part of Plan II with a
herringbone pavement, west of the "impasse."
It put the area of the "domicile" on a level
with pottery higher up on the gabal. This pot-
tery we have already tentatively connected
with the "atrium" area. Hence at great risk,
one might hazard that all three elements were
inter-connected at one period, built within and
sometimes upon earlier remains, and incorporat-
ed commercial and domestic elements within a
basically industrial complex. (Contrariwise,on
the available evidence, one cannot hazard any
connection between this industrial complex to
the west of the "impasse" and the elements to
the east of it, except that a high and ingenious
quality of canalization and sanitation obtained
throughout both sections.)
It remains then to posit the dating of this
secondary period and the primary one upon
22
which it was raised. (Except to note them,
nothing can be said about the intermediate
periods. The covering of the basin of the "domi-
cile" cannot be too much later than the con-
struction of the "domicile" itself.)
CHRONOLOGICALCONCLUSIONS
(a) Masonry
That there were at least two building periods
in that part was obvious within the first fort-
night of working the habitation area. The
pavements pointed to an earlier period for they
were invariably built upon or within the remains
of earlier structures, some of whose elements
appeared when the pavements were removed.
The pavements themselves showed two distinct
manners of laying the sandstone slabs: a her-
ringbonepattern and one employing rectangular
slabs of various sizes. However, the incidence of
pavements, particularly of the herringbone
style, which upon excavation invariably proved
to be built upon earlier ga&aZ-based structures,
permits one to assign all such areas (both the
paved areas and the attendant sections uniform
in level and masonry) to the secondary period.
But the later masonry was comparatively
slap-dash; neither the bricks nor the mortar
were consistent in size and application. General-
ly the bricks were uniformin width (9 to 10 cm.)
and height (4.5 to 5 cm.) ; but varied enormously
in length (anywhere from 20 to 23.5 cm.). And
the mortar was applied thickly and without any
feel for the resulting composition (not all of
these walls were to be stuccoed; some of them
gave onto the "impasse" and thoroughfare).
Sometimes it was as thin as 2 cm., but within
the same wall it could range all the way to
5.5 cm.
This excess of carelessness and hurry con-
trasts strongly with the smooth application of
uniformly sized bricks amid evenly laid mortar
in the walls of primary buildings. The bricks
came in two sizes (the smaller size used for the
string courses of foundations): 22 X 9.5 X 5 cm.
and 17.5 x 8.5 x 3.5 cm. The thickness of the
mortar ranged throughout the site between
2.5 and 3 cm. The mode of the foundation
courses has been discussed, and it was a rubric
in this early period to alternate lines of stretchers
(bricks laid lengthwise and flat) with lines of
headers (bricks laid widthwise and flat). The
same process held true for arching and reces-
sing.18This type of masonry, laid in this fashion,
and with a fine quality of artisanship instantly
identifies the primary period.
Though Creswell felt that most of the com-
plexes excavated by Bahgat could be assigned
to the Tulunid period on the basis of the ground-
plans of porticoed rooms around a courtyard,19
it is possible to imagine that the style and
workmanship remained relatively the same in
Fustat during the Fatimid epoch; notwith-
standing the evolution of another style of
domestic arrangement in the Royal Quarter of
al-Qahirah.20Further, the number of artifacts
found amid the foundations of these primary
buildings and in the gutters and pits which
connected their parts, (and these will be discus-
18Both of the niches at the termination of the
"mews"were archedin this manner,which can best be
studied fromFigs. 44-48 in Bahgat and Gabriel,op. cit.
19Op. cit., pp. i25ff. Also he proved from the stucco
panels found in the house excavated by Hassan al-
Hawary, op. cit. (supra n. 2), that it was of the
Samarra "Style C:" Early Muslim Architecture,II
(Oxford1940),pp. 355-6; Plate 117, b-e.
20But this evolution itself took quite a while to
reach a new mode. The earliest example is c. 1150
(545 A.H.) in the "Qa'a" of al-Dardir. Cf. Creswell,
Muslim Architecturein Egypt, II, pp. 261-3.
Figure 1
sed below), permits one to assign the primary
construction found at Fustat to the Fatimid era,
and more precisely to the high point of that era,
1000-1170 te^-s^s A-H-)-
(b) Objects
In the jumble of the mounds it is impossible
to assign any dating other than what the chance
inscriptionor stylistic devices point to. It is even
riskier, perhaps, when one finds objects in situ
below the excavation level, amid fallen members,
or in the fill between construction periods. The
whole area of Fustat has been worked over by
countless numbers of Sunday excavators and
agents of dealers. Some, having gotten to gabal
level, merely refilled the gap with the surround-
ing debris. Among this a rare and telling piece
turns up in a controlled dig. The peril of dating
on such a basis is obvious. And it is more than
possible that the "made" earth piled between
primary foundations and secondary paving and
flooring was brought from other parts of the
demolished city. These are contingencies which
tend to vitiate the following dating; but, in the
absence of contrary data as to the true source of
the objects, their positions when found must be
considered as something more than indicative.
Onthe base of a plate, otherwiseundistinguish-
ed, was an inscription, part of which was
indicipherable,but which gave the date 556 for
its creation, a date which falls towards the end
of the Fatimid period - its Christainequivalent
is 1161, and it the first year of the reign of the
23
Figure 2
Figure 3
last Fatimid Caliph, al-<Adid. (See Plate XV,
fig. 40.) This was found at the gaballevel in the
pottery compound. Very fine samples of glass, of
paper-thinfineness,were found in the deep gutter
illustrated in Plate IX, fig. 21 (see Plate XV,
fig. 41). The quality of the blowing bespeaks the
fine art of the Fatimid period, for later examples
prove how "heavy" such objects could become.
The fragment of encased glass (Fig. 1) was
found belowthe thoroughfare level fronting the
aqueduct.21 At the same level the beautiful
piece of lustre-wareshown in the Frontispiece (i)
came forth.22
These objects would serve to bolster the claim
that the primary construction uncovered at
Fustat this season was Fatimid. This is borne
out by eight of the filters shown in Figs. 2 and
3. These were all found either on the gabalitself
within primary foundations, in the fill between
building levels, or in the pits and gutters.
They either duplicate examples in Olmer's
catalogue or are similar to his examples in
21This was the most important glass find of the
season. It confirmsthe high quality of glass workman-
ship one has come to associate with the Fatimid
artisan. It is opaqueturquoiseon one side, and opales-
cent white on the other. Both sides are lustred,and the
design duplicatesthe patterns encounteredin Fatimid
lustre pottery. The inherent difficulty to be overcome
is the different coefficients of expansion of the two
glasses. The first piece was dipped or encased by the
second while still warm, and the cooling of both so
regulatedthat perfect adhesion would ensue.
22This piece is either the work of the illustrious
Sald or comesfromhis atelier. He used the dot beneath
the chin, the lines of the hairdressacrossthe brow and
so curly an earlock. Cf. the examples in Bahgat, Aly
Bey and Massoul, Felix, La CdramiqueMusulmanede
VEgypte,Publicationsdu MuseeArabedu Caire(Cairo
1930), PI. VIII-XIII; and <Abd al-Ra'uf Yusuf,
Khazdfunmin aVasral-fdtimiwa asallbhumal-fanniyah
(Cairo,1962),fig. 16. These same devices appear most
conspicuously in a plate from the Islamic Museum
in Cairo, in Lane, Arthur, Early Islamic Pottery
(London, 1958), PL 26-b.
Quite a few lustre shards of the Fatimid era ap-
peared amid the foundations, one definitely from the
atelier of the other great eleventh century master,
Muslim.It is their incidenceat the foundationswhich
gives these pieces an importancethey would lack were
they found stuck amongthe debrisof the mounds.
26
feeling and execution. And two of the eight
(Fig. 3-c and f), could by comparison with
Olmer's examples be ascribed to an earlier
period.23
The problem remains of dating the secondary
period of construction. Some of the filters (Figs.
2-d, e and f) were found in the debris around
the secondary walls and floors, and these may be
classified as Ayyubid by appeal to Olmer. More
to the point was the vast amount of imitation
Chinesewares found right under the pavements,
or, in the case of Fig. 4 between the two pave-
ments in the area between the recessed room
and the great basin in VII-4. This particular
type of ware presents dating problems of its
own. It is well-known that Chinese wares came
into Egypt from the eighth century A.D.
onwards, and that they left their mark on local
potters, e.g., Tcang wares came to be imitated
and the imitation reached its pitch in the so-
called "Fayyumi" ware which lasted into the
eleventh century. But it was in the S*ungperiod
that the beautifully incised celadons came into
23Olmer,Pierre, CatalogueGiniral du MusdeArabe
du Caire: Les F litres de gargoulettes(Cairo1932). The
comparison is with plate numbers in Olmer (in
parenthesis) vis-d-vis the filters in Figs. 2 & 3 :
Fig. 2-a (LX-A) d (XXXII-A)
b (VI-A) e (LXXVII-B)
c (centermotif f (XXII-C)
VII-E)
Fig. 3-a (XVI-C) d (IX-C)
b (style like e (similarto XII)
IV-VII) f (style like
c (LXXVIII-A) LXXVII-LXXIX)
The filterswhich relate to the Fatimid dating of the
primary structures are: Fig. 2-b and c; and Fig. 3-a
through f, though 3-c and 3-f may be Tuliinid.
Professor'Abdal-'AzizMarzukis of the opinionthat
Olmer'sCatalogueis misleading, since very few of the
examplesare dated, and practicallynone was reported
in situ within the areas where they were picked up.
(This was especially true of those which came from
Bahgat's excavation.) The whole argument stands or
falls on stylistic analysis.
The rabbit in Fig. 2-a makes an interesting ad-
dition to the iconographyof this animal discussed by
Ernst Grube in his article, "Studies in the Survival
and Continuityof Pre-MuslimTraditionsin Egyptian
Islamic Art," JARCE I (1962), pp. 75-97; esp.
%s. 3-5.
Egypt in great numbers. (See Fig. 5 for three
examples found in Fustat in 1964.)24Neither
in Persia nor in Egypt could the local potters
attain the fineness of finish of these great
celadons, simply because their clays could not
be fired to so high a temperature. Nevertheless,
Figure 4
some imitation did ensue, and the number of
shards of this imitation ware in Fustat makes
one feel that they were manufactured in the
city. But when ?
24Dr. Fujio Koyama of the Tokyo Museumand Dr-
Tsugio Mikami of the University of Tokyo have com-
menced their study of Chinesewares in the hoards of
Fustat, and the ARCEexpedition is compilirg a list of
its celadon finds for these experts.
The great inundation of Chinese wares would
have been the eleventh century. The imitation
ceased certainly by Mamluktimes, so its period
must be between 1050 and 1300 (442-699 A.H.).
The masonry of the secondary period is clearly
not Fatimid, and it is doubtful if this area was
occupied much after 1250. Most of the imitation
shards were found amid the debris of the
secondary construction or between elements of
the intermediate period. And it seems that
the imitation wares are more of the late than
of the early or high Fatimid period. Thus
one is led to put the secondary construction
in the Ayyubid era, when it must have
formed part of the government's programme
27
of restoring Fustat: the period 1170-1250,
(565-648 A.H.).
In sum the season's work unearthed buildings
whose chronology may be put roughly as be-
tween 1000 and 1250 (391-648 A.H.). Two
distinct periods can be noted: one of the high
Fatimid renaissance when Fustat enjoyed its
primacy; the other of the succeeding Ayyubid
dynasty, when Fustat, though reduced to ashes
and secondary status in an evolving Egypt,
revived into a life of some industrial and com-
mercial enterprise. It is perhaps the archaeolo-
gical symbiosis of the two within the area of
Fustat "A" which gave particularinterest to the
work and from which it will derive renewed
importance as more information is purloined
from the mounds.
American Research Center in Egypt, Cairo

List of Plates
Frontispiece, Pottery Shards from Fustat:
a. Majorsection of deep bowl: Mamluk 14th century.
b. Portion of mounted archer: Mamluk I4~i5th century.
c. Heraldic lion or panther: Mamluk c. 1300.
d. Lion attacking bull: Mamluk I4-I5th century.
e. Portion of eagle in profile: Mamluk 14th century.
f. Human face: wide sgraffito Rhodian or Anatolian import 15th century.
g. Human head on animal body: imitation Persian design; probably MamlukI4~i5th
century.
h. Human face: single line of eyebrows mated by single line of nose; probably
Persian import I3~i4th century.
i. Fatimid lustre ware: work of Sacd(?) nth century.
PI. I, fig. 1. Generalview of Fustat "A" (p. 10).
fig. 2. General viewrof Fustat "A" (p. 10).
PI. II, fig. 3. Gabalat upper end of trench and pavement (p. 13).
'
fig. 4. Doorway and pavement m Fustat B (see n. 3).
PL III, fig. 5. Well in Grid 7 (p. 13).
fig. 6-8. Later buildings incorporatingearlier elements (see n. 9).
PL IV, fig. 9. Later building incorporatingearlier elements (see n. 9).
fig. 10. Courtyardwith secondary construction (p. 15).
PL V, fig. 11. Area with two octagonal basins (pp. 15, 16).
fig. 12. Aqueduct (n. n and p. 17).
PL VI, fig. 13. Area VIII-2 with pavement and basin (p. 16).
fig. 14. Piping in aqueduct (see n. n).
fig. 16. Flues (see n. 12).
PL VII, fig. 15. Foundations of room (p. 16),
fig. 17. Efflux into a cesspool (see n. 12).
PL VIII, fig. 18. Latrine area (see n. 12).
fig, 19. Partly demolished vaulting (p. 18).
fig. 20. Fresh water hold (p. 18).

28
Figure 5
PI. IX, fig. 21. Gutter with vaulted covering (p. 18).
fig. 22. Two fresh water holds (p. 18).
fig. 23. Parallelepiped of clay (p. 18).
PL X, fig. 24. Granite mortar and millstones (p. 18).
fig. 25. Storage bin for glass ingots (p. 18).
fig. 26. Basins connected with the Pottery (p. 19).
fig. 27. Remains of a kiln (p. 19).
PI. XI, fig. 28. Area of the Pottery (p. 19).
fig. 29. The same area looking SE (p. 19).
PI. XII, fig. 30. Storage jars placed upside down (p. 20).
fig. 31. Another room with upside down storage jars (p. 20).
fig. 32. Niche in "Domicile" (p. 20).
PI. XIII, fig. 33. "Domicile" area (see n. 17).
fig. 34. Main room behind niche (p. 21).
fig- 35- Section behind niche (see n. 17).
PI. XIV, fig. 36. Main room behind niche and poorly laid pavement (p. 21).
fig. 37. "Domicile" area (p. 21).
PL XV, fig. 38. Octagonal basin (p. 21).
fig. 39. Drain pipe (p. 21).
fig. 40. Base of plate with inscription of A. H. 556 (pp. 23, 26).
fig. 41. Glass vessel (p. 26).

Text Figures
Fig. 1. Encased glass: see p. 26.
Fig. 2. I
_. i Filters: see n. 23.
Fig. 3- J
Fig. 4. Imitation Chinese wares: see p. 26.
Fig. 5. Chinese celadon wares: see p. 27.

30
 I

PLATE I
 CO

tj-

PLATE II
 C^ OC

m
vO

PLATE III
 9

10

PLATE IV
PLATE V
 13

16

14

PLATE VI
 15

I?

PLATE VII
 H

zc

PLATE VIII
 CO
0*

PLATE IX
cm

ITS

PLATE X
 28

29
PLATE XT
 c^

PLATE XII
 Tf-

ir,

~Q

PLATE XIII
 36

37
PLATE XIV
^

PLATE XV
VII.2
Ill U
IV 21
IV 22
VII 12
VIIU
vino
VIII7
W, HOtATAl
VII 23
VII25
P U S T A T A

PLAN H