The Market Near the Citadel

Yesterday's post was of The Blue Mosque, seen on the right of this postcard.  On the left, The Citadel of Saladin, or if you prefer the correct version, Salah al-Din.  Anyway, he built the citadel to defend Cairo from the crusaders.  Started in 1176, finished in 1183.  He also started a wall meant to surround Cairo, but it took to 1238 to finish that bit of fortification.  For anyone interested, I just posted a painting by Louis Comfort Tiffany, (Yes, the stained glass guy.) of The Citadel on my Fair Use blog.

Credited to "The Cairo Postcard Trust," this card was never used.

The Blue Mosque

Actually, there is more than one Blue Mosque.  The one in Cairo is also known as The Aqsungur Mosque, named for it's builder, Emir ad-Din Aqsunqur.  It was built in 1347, around the mausoleum of Sultan al-Ashraf Kujuk.  It was restored in 1652, when blue and green tiles were added to it's exterior.  In 1908, the Comite de Conservation des Monuments de art Arabe, obviously a French arts organization, did another restoration on the building.  And finally, in 1992, after an earthquake, there was yet another restoration.  And at 670 years old, I think we can expect a few more rebuilds.

For the record, the design is an open courtyard, surrounded by four arcades.  It has five doemes and a minaret.  And that tower in the background is The Citadel of Saladin.

This card was sent to "Mrs. R.M. Dennis, P.O. Box 183, Coscob, Conn USA."  And the message, "Cairo, Have Gotten this far around the world.  Regards."

Shadoofs

It didn't take long to figure out that chadoufs is French for shadoofs, which is a phonetic spelling from the Arabic.  A shadoof is the mechanism pictured, not the people.  Basically it's a wooden stand, a rope, and a bucket that's used to move water from one place to another for irrigation.  This card was never sent and was published by "The Cairo Postcard Trust-Cairo."

Egypt via France

I've been picking up Egyptian postcards for a few years now, and I think it's about time to start posting them.  I'm breaking my usual practice of not publishing the backs of cards because I like the Arabic script, and because I'm too tired to try and decipher the hand writing.  And yes, it is Egypt.  Le Caire means Cairo.