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164 Oriental Cairo<br />

The mosques of the Suk-cn-Nahassin are not typical<br />

mosques for studying the beauty of Mohammedan holiness :<br />

they have not the spaciousness and retirement ; they have not<br />

the beauty of solitude. Therefore I have not described the<br />

general aspect and conditions of a Cairo mosque interior.<br />

These are better to be seen in mosques like El-Moayyad or<br />

El-Merdani, El-Mase, or El-Ghury, as I shall show, while I<br />

am taking my readers through the principal streets for<br />

mosques.<br />

The Gamaliya is, contrary to what one would expect of<br />

such a noble architectural thoroughfare, not a good street<br />

for mosques ; it has only one great antique mosque which is<br />

not in ruins and that has lost its ancient features. But the<br />

whole long street extending from the Musky to the Bab-es-<br />

Zuweyla, and called in various parts the Sharia el-Ashrafiya,<br />

the Sharia el-Ghuriya, the Sharia el-Akkadin and the<br />

Sukkariya is full of stately mosques and so is the long<br />

winding street which leads from the Bab-es-Zuweyla to the<br />

Citadel. The former contains El-Ghury, El-Moayyad, El-<br />

Ashrafy, and others of the finest mosques in Cairo ;<br />

the latter<br />

contains the Kismas El-Ishaky mosque, El-Merdani, the<br />

Sha'ban Mosque, the Blue Mosque, and others of note and<br />

magnificence, and a whole row of perfectly delightful little<br />

zawias.<br />

El-Moayyad and El-Merdani are typical as two of the<br />

most popular and magnificent of the old mosques of Cairo<br />

restored to their ancient splendour ; and<br />

it was English<br />

influence which effected this. I shall not describe both in<br />

detail because they are rather similar, though El-Merdani is<br />

much the older and more beautiful, if less handsome. El-<br />

Ghury for size and beauty combined is the finest mosque<br />

in the city of the Kait Bey type, and I shall have to speak of<br />

others of special interest.<br />

I will not say more of El-Ashrafy, the mosque lifted<br />

high above the turmoil at the corner of the Ashrafiya and<br />

the Musk)-, a noble mosque in the grace and dignity of its<br />

architecture. It is so near El-Ghury, which I shall be taking<br />

as a type. I will pass on to the other end of the street to

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