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Cairo in the
fifteenth century, at the time of the first views of it shown here, was the center of the
Mamluk Empire. In 1517 it fell to the Ottoman Turks, who were to rule it until the
nineteenth century. In the fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries it was probably the largest
and most populous city in the Mediterranean, astounding visitors, both Christian and
Moslem by its appearance and culture. Felix Fabri, the German Dominican friar who spent
some time there in 1483, wrote that no city of his time was of such size and extent,
neither in population, power nor wealth, neither in buildings nor temples did
it have an equal. In the seventeenth century, the attitudes of Western visitors began to
change; in their eyes it could not withstand comparison with cities like Paris. At the
very end of the Eighteenth century, the traveler W.G. Browne could see it in culturally
relativistic terms: "To an eye accustomed to the cities of Europe, their wide streets and
general uniformity, the view of the Capital of Egypt might appear mean and disgusting, But
convenience is comparative and ideas of it must vary with manners and
customs."1
The earliest
representation of Cairo in print is perhaps the one on the woodcut map illustrating the Peregrinatlo
in Terram Sanctum, published for Bernhard von Breydenbach in 1486 as an account
of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Egypt. The first detailed map of the city appears
to have been the bird-eye view, published by Matteo Pagano in Venice in 1549, but
probably based on a much earlier design. This unique surviving impression is preserved in
the Staatliche Museum in Berlin. Printed from 21 separate wood blocks, this magnificent
product of Italian printing techniques was to become an important resource for all those
wishing to illustrate the city, right into the Eighteenth century. Other early
representations that claimed to show Cairo, like those of the Nuremberg Chronicle or the
early editions of Sebastian Munster's Cosmographia, were in actual fact standard views
which could serve for any city. The success of the Pagano map was assured by the fact that
it was utilized by Braun and Hogenberg for the view of Cairo in their great atlas of the
cities, of the World. (the Civitates Orbis Terrarum, 1572).
Braun
and Hogenberg intended their atlas for the traveler. From the Seventeenth
century, despite the difficulties of travel(2), various expeditions went to Egypt and
published accounts of what they saw. Norden and Niebuhr in the Eighteenth century went for
scientific purposes on the orders of the Danish crown. At almost the same time as Norden
(1737-38), the intrepid Richard Pococke, pioneer of Alpine tourism and also one of the
first to make extensive travels in the Highlands of Scotland, visited Egypt. These men
were primarily attracted to Egypt because of its important role in the origins of European
civilization and culture through references in the Bible and the Greek mythology. By the
middle of the Nineteenth century, Egypt was much more accessible and had become a
considerable tourist attraction. David Roberts' book of 1849, with its magnificent
lithographs, was particularly aimed at those who wished to possess a pictorial record of
their visit .3
References
J. MASSON, Voyage en
Egypte de Felix Fabri, 2 vols, Paris, 1975
J.L. ABU-LUGHOD, Cairo;
1001 Years of the City Victorious, Princeton, 1971
V. SETON-WlLlAMS &
P. STOCKS, Blue Guide; Egypt, 2nd edition, London, igas.
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