Last Days in Cairo: 4

Thursday (May 28) of my last week in Cairo Jim and I made our last trip into Islamic Cairo. I had been looking through my trusty National Geographic Traveler guide to Egypt for facts for my posts on touring Islamic Cairo and came across some things that I had missed those first two times around which I felt merited a third and final trip. The first was the Museum of Islamic Art and the second the Gayer-Anderson Museum. The Gayer-Anderson Museum was connected to Ibn-Tulun, which made it even more disappointing to miss since I had just been to Ibn-Tulun the week before.

The Museum of Islamic Art

Jim and I took a cab to Opera Station on Zamalek and took the metro from there to Attba, then walked to the Museum of Islamic Art. This walk was exciting because it was through a part of the city that I really had not been in at all. Spencer and I had walk from Attba to the Khan a couple days before but that was in a completely different direction. It was one of my last days in Cairo and I was excited to again be finding my way around by map in a completely foreign place. We walked to Midan al-Attba and from there the museum was a straight shot down Sharia al-Qal'a. Not too much past an outdoor furniture market was Midan Bab al-Khalq and our museum. The building was a massive tan and brown striped stone structure. We walked up to the entrance on Qal'a Street and were turned away. The guys working the desk inside told us to walk around to the other entrance for the museum. Well the main entrance, facing the square (midan), was bordered up. We walked around the entire perimeter of the building as far was the fences would allow and could not find any alternative entrances. We went back to the first one, on Qal'a Street, and again asked how to get into the museum. It was only then that they told was that the museum was closed and wouldn't reopen for another three months. I'm not exactly sure why they couldn't have told us that the first time around.

I was disappointed about the museum being closed, but this did leave as more time for the rest of our day. Ibn-Tulun, where the Gayer-Anderson museum was located, had to be accessed from either Sharia Bur Said or Sharia Muhammed Ali, both of which met at Midan Bab al-Khalq. We chose Bur Said and walked a distance away from the traffic of the square before hailing a cab. He dropped us off at Ibn-Tulun and we made our way into the mosque. Just like last time, the guards at the entrance were at great pains to emphasize that Ibn-Tulun had no entrance fee and that no one was owed any baqshish. Once inside the outer wall of the mosque complex and in the area between the outer wall and the walls of the mosque proper we took a left. At the corner was the entrance to the Gayer-Anderson Museum, which did require an entrance fee and baqshish paid to the tour guide. The museum was a 16th century house owned by an eccentric British lawyer/doctor/officer in the late imperial period. The interior decorations were preserved, complete with secret passageways, intricate wood lattice work, separate men's and women's lounging areas, isolated courtyards and gardens, rooftop patios looking over the mosque walls, and indoor fountains. Each room had a different purpose and different theme. There was the miniature art gallery and a miniature museum of ancient Egyptian artifacts. Various rooms were Syrian, Turkish, and Chinese themed. There were also the standard sitting, reading, and drafting rooms of such aristocratic British homes, as well as a library. The authentic Islamic architecture and interior decorations made the museum well worth the trip and price.

The Gayer-Anderson Museum from the garden in the back

An interior room of the Gayer-Anderson

A fine example of Gayer-Anderson's eccentricity (that's him in picture if you didn't get the hint)

Jim needed to go to the Khan to pick up some more gifts for family members and I still had two taola boards to pick up from my guy at the woodworking shop. We decided to walk there from Ibn-Tulun and retraced much of the route the taxi had taken us on from the Islamic Art Museum. Again, I really appreciated the opportunity to walk through a part of Cairo so devoid of tourists and people looking to sell to tourists. It felt nice to be in a place where Cairenes went about their daily lives without the intense focus on the tourist economy. We walked northwest on Qadri street, with Ibn-Tulun's distinctive minaret at our backs, until we met up with Bur Said. Here we took a right and walked up to Midan Bab al-Khalq. On the corner of Bur Said and Sharia Ahmad Mahir we found a small, grimy koushary shop and grabbed a cheap lunch. From here we took a right on Ahmad Mahir until we reached Bab Zuwayla, the southern medieval gate of Islamic Cairo. It was refreshing to enter the Khan from such a strange direction. I had been to this part of the bazaar before and had even climbed the western tower of Bab Zuwayla, but I had always come from Midan Hussein and al-Azhar in the north. I had never entered the bazaar from its southern edges, actually entering through that massive stone gate through which so many medieval travelers and merchants must have entered the the old city as well.

I wished to come in this way because I wanted to purchase something from a man whose stall was located just inside the gate, opposite the white and pink striped mosque, and we otherwise had no other reason for being this far south of the main bazaar. It would have been a long side trip had we come in through the more centrally located Midan Hussein. What I wanted to purchase was a yard or so of that diversely multi-purposed and colorfully patterned cloth that was so ubiquitous throughout Cairo. Cloth of this type could be seen draped across the scaffolding of building under repair protecting the workers, decorating the tables of vendors in the bazaar, and even on the gates of Versailles Palace, the cafe right next to our dorm. After buying some fabric for myself and Spencer we walked north past Qasr al-Ghuri, through the tunnels of the pedestrian underpass, and into Khan al-Khalili proper. Merchant stalls run from Bab Zuwayla all the way north to Bab al-Futuh, but as far as I know only anything north of al-Azhar is considered an official part of Khan al-Khalili.

Approaching Bab Zuwayla on Sharia Ahmed Mahir

Thankfully my guy at the woodshop had my taola boards in. I had requested three wood-grain boards. Unlike the one I had purchased earlier, which was decorated with colored in-lays, the ones I had commissioned were decorated with different shades of wood stain. This is the type that had caught my eye before but had so upsettingly been sold to a high-bidding tourist the day before I promised I would come in to buy it. Finally I purchased the three boards: two for myself and one I for Spencer who had to take an exam that day. I also impulsively bought a framed ancient Egyptian scene painted on Papyrus, my one kitschy purchase of the trip. These were the last of many items our group purchased from the man in this shop. I know that Mark bought at least one taola board, a mother-of-pearl inlaid Quaran, a book stand, and possibly a mirror. Jim bought some mother-of-pearl inlaid jewelry boxes. We said our goodbyes to the man who had been a continuous part of our Egypt experience. Mark and I discovered his shop on my first trip to the Khan one day in February, less than a week after the bombing, and I had stopped in to say hello of trip to the Khan since then. On the way out he gave each of us a gift: a small box decorated in the same style as the taola boards I had just purchased. I was touched by the gift. This man, just like all the others in the Khan, was in the business of selling items, mostly to overpaying tourists. Very rarely did they just give anything away that wasn't included as an incentive in some sort of haggling deal, no matter how small the item. This gift was completely unexpected.

Down the main street of the Khan, the one that ran north to south between the two medieval gates, Jim found a lady selling ladle-shaped metal cups for making Turkish coffee. They were beautiful and graciously priced, but I was running out of room in my luggage and out of money. Jim crossed one more item off his list and we were then off to find him a galabiya. Here we walked west down a very long and very crowded street mostly selling clothing items, the same street where I had bought a Zamalek football jersey for my brother on my first trip to the Khan, and the same street where I first noticed the hissing/kissing sound Egyptians use instead of saying "watch out, get out of the way, wide load, beep-beep," etc. as some guy was trying to plow through the crowd with a cart laden with sacks of who knows what. Looking at my map now this must have been Sharia al-Muski, although the name is really irrelevant since we never needed it to navigate our way around and most Egyptians don't really use nor need street names to navigate either. There are just streets and landmarks. Names are useful only in conjunction with a map, and this is if you are lucky enough to find the street name posted anywhere; most Egyptians wouldn't know the name of the street they took every day to work unless it was one of the few major thorough-fares in the city. For some smaller streets I feel as if the name exists only on the map, as there are in realy life no signs indicating the street's name or people aware of such a name. Anyway, this portion of the Khan I always remembered for its crowds and proliferation of clothing products, and we soon found a vendor willing to Jim a decent galabiyya in the 40-60LE range.

We taxied back to Zamalek, careful as usual to walk a short distance away from the Khan before grabbing a cab. This decreased the likelihood of getting a cabbie with unreasonable price expectations. I usually paid 15LE for the ride from the Khan back to the dorm on Zamalek. I know this is a little high, but it is by no means exorbitant and it's almost always accepted without protest. You can pay 10LE if you are willing to haggle, but never did I leave the Khan in the mood to haggle. The Khan is compact, crowded, and at that time of year hot and sweaty. When it came time to leave I had always had my fill of haggling and felt physically drained. Any extra haggling effort to me just wasn't worth it, especially when that extra 5LE amounts to only $0.90US split between a couple of riders. Some of us fought for the cheaper rates on principle: "I'm not an ignorant foreigner. I'm not a tourist just passing through for the week. I can speak Arabic and I've been living here for months. I know the fair Egyptian price just as well as you do and I will not bet taken advantage of." I totally agree with the viewpoint in other circumstances, but again, fighting for $0.90 just wasn't a battle I was willing to fight. Besides, I was making almost 4 times more per month in my monthly stipend from ND than a government-employed Egyptian doctor. That extra $0.90 is worth a lot more to him than it is to me.

We found a cab parked along the curb and said Zamalek. He asked how much up front and we said 15LE. He shook his head and pulled forward a bit. Then another cab swooped in and took his place. We made the same offer and he gladly accepted without protest. This seemed to be a common practice around tourist areas. Some of the cabs sit and wait for the unwitting tourists willing to pay the high prices. This is obviously more profitable, but sometimes I wonder how many takers they actually get. Jim and I would run into this one more time before we left, outside the Egyptian National Museum on Friday, our last day in Cairo.

Catching Up

I finished my last exam yesterday. These last few weeks have gone by extremely fast. I finally have time to catch up on all of these posts I meant to be doing but passed up on to instead pretend to study and do homework.

This past week has been pretty tough. Between doing a paper and an exam this week, I had two exams and four papers due last week. This past week I had to finish my last two assignments while dealing with the departure of many of my good friends. Some people were finished with all of their papers and exams on the last day classes and people began leaving Saturday night. Sara and Ed left Friday night, followed by Ben and Jarvis early Saturday morning. Saturday night Jim Napier and Mark left. Julia left Monday morning while I was on campus turning in an exam, and David left that night. Basically, that aren't many of us left. Most of the people who I have grown close to over the course of this semester are now gone. Its strange how close you can get to people over the course of a semester, but I suppose a study abroad experience, especially one here, forces people to let their guards down and just be themselves. Travelling, getting lost in strange citites, trying to make sense of a different culture, these things all allowed us to really get to know each other. Without getting too nostalgic, its just a little weird being in Egypt with a good portion of the people that I spent my time with here gone. Many of us became just as close to each other as to friends at home. It feels like we've known each other for years.

The study abroad experience is much like high school or college, but fast-forwarded. We all got to know each other pretty quickly, developed inside jokes, and now at the end of it all we leave and go on to other things. Mikey and Jessie go to Navy and BC, repspectively, and they are planning on coming up to ND for those football games this upcoming season. Many of our other friends live in the North East as well, so they plan on tagging along or making sure we get together when our schools play each other in Big East basketball.

Today Spencer and I went to Khan al-Kahlili again to pick up some of the last remaining items on our souveneir lists. When I went to Islamic Cairo last weekend, I wanted to pick up another taola set. I had been there the previous Wednesday and saw one that really caught my eye, but was not planning on buying anything so did not have the money. I told the guy to hold the set for me, which he said he'd do, but when I came back last weekend he had sold it. I then commissioned a set, and hopefully it will be finished by Friday. Spencer and I paid him a visit today, just to say hi. I'm not sure if I have told this story yet, but the first time I went the Khan I was very interested in finding a taola set. After looking at a number of souvenir stalls, mark and I stumbled upon a shop stuck just below ground level built into the side of a building. It appeared though this shop made the sets, among many other wooden products, themselves and then sold them through third parties throughout the rest of the bazaar.

Mark and I probably spent a good hour in there that first day, just talking to the guy and perusing his collection of hand-made woodcrafts. Which each left with a nice taola set and from that time on, this guy has been our guy for wood products. We always make sure to stop by and say hi anytime we go to the Khan.

I've been to the Khan three times in the past three weeks. I always get really excited to go because its in the heart of the old Islamic part of the city and I like looking at all the shiny trinkets. I always leave with a headache, wondering why I was so excited to go in the first place. A trip to the bazaar takes a lot out of you. Its impossible to just walk and look, and windowshopping is always a hassle. The stall owners all interprety looking at a product or handling a product as a sign of general interest in purchasing the product. When they give you a price, unsolicited, there is always a disconnect when answering "I don't want it." They always think you don't want it because their price is too high, so they lower it. They don't understand that often the price is not the problem; the problem is that you simply don't want to buy that item.

Besides this, all the item-hawkers are pretty pushy, and haggling takes a lot of energy, especially if you want to get a good price. Anything can be obtained cheaply, but there is a standard theatere one must "perform" to make haggling work. First you have to absurdly low-ball the guy, then work your way back up to a normal range of prices. This low-balling counteracts his ridiculous mark-up, placing summer in the middle of that range the actual price you want. He'll usually come down to within a couple increments of the price you want, whether you're working in 5's or 10's or whatever. At some point he will give his so-called "best price," usually an increment or two or three above what you really want. You then restate what you want it for, he says no, and you walk away. He may call you back right away or he may let you walk a bit before catching you and bringing the price down again. You can usually walk away twice, sometimes three times, and get the price lowered further. Now you have a good price! Then you realize that you just spend the last ten minutes arguing over a 5LE difference, which amounts to $1.75. Then you feel like an idiot. Anyway, I went to the Khan the last two weekends because I was touring Islamic Cairo, where the Khan is locate. This is the oldest Islamic part of the city.

Two weekends ago Sara, Ed, and Sophie came along with me to Islamic Cairo. We only made a half day of it so we covered the northern end. The cab dropped us off near al-Azhar mosque and university and we began our tour here. As is usual in mosques, we had to take off our shoes and Sara and Sophie had to cover their heads with their scarves. Al-Azhar University is the world center of Sunni Islamic learning and is also a very important mosque. From here we continued to the al-Ghouriya mosque, a Mamluk era mosque at the head of the southern market. One time when we were in this area a guy pointed us back north, saying "There Khank al-Khalili, this not the tourist market." Egypt is frustrating at times. Very often we know what we are doing and where we are and have to put up with people trying to point is in the direction we are already going or trying to lead us to some touristy site we are totally uninterested in. Anyway, we continuted south down this street, Al-Muizz li Din Allah, until reaching Bab Zuwayla. This is an old medieval-era gate, complete with towers and parapets and giant wooden doors. We climbed the tower, which required some athleticism at the top, and got a wonderful view of Islamic Cairo. We could see north to Al-Azhar and south to the Citadel.

Sophie and Sara stopped in the market to buy some of the colorfully patterned cloth used for decoration in Egypt. After this we walked back north past Al-Azhar and followed the street through Khan al-Khalili. We stopped at the mausoleum and madrassa of Al Nasir Muhammad and of Sultan Qalawun, then continued north to the mosque of Al-Hakim, the Caliph of the Fatimid Empire who proclaimed divinity for himself and whose heterodox religious teachings helped foudn the Druze faith. We then finished our day at the medieval gate of Bab al-Futuh, counterpart of Bab Zuawayla. This all occurred three weekends ago, so I'm hazy on the details still unfortunately...

Last weekend I tagged along on Jessie and Julia's Islamic Art and Architecture field trip to the citadel. I had not toured any of Islamic Cairo at that point and needed to fit it in before leaving. The fieldtrip was a great opportunity because I got into the complex for free and their professor's lectures at each site essentially amounted to a free tour for me. She also got us access to some places tourists couldn't normally go. It was also a good opportunity because all of my other friends here had already gone earlier in the semester. The field trip kind of ensured that there would be people to come tour with me. Spencer and Jim came too, because they never made it this far when they came to Islamic Cairo. They were accused of being Jews by an old hagg and watched her chew out the guy who had let them into a mosque. They called it at day after that. So Spencer, Jim, and I walked the half-mile to the mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun, the oldest mosque in Cairo. Its doors opened in 876. Disappointingly, I left my Egypt guidebook behind this day. I knew where I wanted to go and how to get there, so I saw no sense in taking along anything other than a street map. Had a brought the book, I would have known that we missed the best part of going to ibn-Tulun mosque: the adjacent 16th century house-turned-museum. The book calls it an Orientalist's fantasy almost more worth seeing than the mosque itself, complete with intricate artwork, secret viewing galleries, porticos looking over open courtyards with fountains, and winding passageways. We also passed up the worth-while Museum of Islamic Art due to time constraints. I didn't sense much interest in going there anyway (as I said, being in this area for too long, including the Khan which we were headed to next, makes for a very long day). Perhaps I will go back to these places in these last three full days I have here. The mosque was impressive considering the time period in which it was built and the fact that Christians were still a vast majority in Egypt at the time of its construction.

We cabbed from ibn-Tulun to Midan al-Hussein, the starting point for all of our ventures into Khan al-Kahlili. Spencer and Jim had not been to Al-Azhar yet, so we stopped here one more time. Then I showed them how to get to a book-binding store Mark, Mikey, and I had found the preceding Wednesday. They sell leather- and cloth-bound books and custom engrave them with gold leafing. Thus began another tiring day in Khan al-Khalili. It was these day that I found out our friend in the woodshop had sold the taola that I promised him I would return for. He apologized, saying the guy gave him a very generous offer. Oh well.

I have three more days here and lots of packing to do. I hope to see some of these last few things on my list before leaving, never knowing when or if I will ever return. Well I guess that last statement was a little dramatic but I probably won't be back for a while and I don't want to leave with any regrets.