Islamic Cairo: 879 - 1857 A.D./C.E.

From Ibn Tulun mosque (constructed between 876-879 AD/CE: "Current Era") to the public fountain and library (Sabil-Kuttab) of Qaitbay (1479 AD) to the Citadel (constructed by Saladin/Salah ed-Din from 1176-82) and the mosque of Muhammad Ali (built between 1830-57), we wound our way through nearly 1,000 years of Islamic history, art, and architecture.  Our guide and teacher today was Ms. Iman Abdel-Fattah (American-Egyptian, native of Manhattan, resident of Cairo), who worked our students hard - both on their feet, through the 5-hour walking tour, and in their minds, through Tulunid, Mamluk, and Ottoman styles, designs, and artistry -- Islamic throughout, with comparable and contrasting layouts for both the sacred and the secular structures we visited.

With "NU-40" still a challenge to manage at times, we have begun to break into various groupings - first, by class: 11 in Fluid Mechanics, 9 in Arabic (intermediate), and 2 separate classes of introductory Arabic (7 in each of the classes); second, by service learning projects; and third, any other way we can ... just to keep things from getting too "fixed" in any particular grouping.   Today, we divided (or "mixed and matched") again in order to have today's walking tour manageable for Iman and we'll have "group 2" take the same tour next Saturday.