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A Drive Round Cairo 25
XXVI. From the Bab-es'Zuweyla to the Citadel ; the
Kismas'el-Ishaky Mosque and the Fountain^ of Mohammed
Katkhoda
But go back to your carriage and drive down another of
Cairo's most inimitable streets called here the Sharia Darb-el-
Ahmar, and later on the Sharia El-Tabbana, the Sharia
Bab-el-Wazir, and the Sharia El-Magar. I hardly ever saw
such a street, though it begins plainly enough with the Bazar
of the Donkey-harness Sellers, men who deal in brocaded
saddles, and necklaces of silver and turquoise blue glass,
and gaudy reins and head-stalls ; for they show but little on
their shop fronts. You pass nothing of note but one of
Cairo's most ancient shops till you come to a place where
the whole street seems to be stopped by a mosque standing
across it, the Kismas-el-Ishaky Mosque, one of Kait Bey's
best, restored to its pristine splendour with too lavish a hand,
though no lack of taste. Its severity is softened by the
exquisite wooden gallery which connects it, I suppose, with
some educational building—here in Cairo a mosque had its
school as regularly as a church had its convent in Rome.
A little below on the right, at the beginning of the Sharia
El-Tabbana, is one of the most exquisite fountains and
schools in the city. In Cairo a fountain always has its Koran
school for the little ones above. This Sebil of Mohammed
Katkhoda is almost as exquisite in its colouring as the
interior of St. Mark's, and, inside, its fountain chamber -is
lined with old blue Oriental tiles like the great and little
Blue Mosques.
XXVII. The Magnificent old Mosque of EI-Merdani
Not very much lower down, of notable grandeur, elegance,
and charm, is the great fourteenth-century Mosque of
El-Merdani, which outside has lofty walls, pierced with
gracious moresco windows and topped with battlements,
retreating in echelon. They have long since mellowed from