Azbakeya

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Azbakeya (Arabic: أزبكية; also spelled Al Uzbakeya or Auzbekiya^[1][2][3]) is one of the districts of the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt.^[4] Along with Wust Albalad (Downtown) and Abdeen, Azbakiya forms Cairo's 19th century expansion outside the medieval city walls known officially as Khedival Cairo and declared as an Area of Value.^[5][6] It holds many historically important buildings and spaces. One of these is the Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, which was inaugurated by Pope Mark VIII in 1800^[7] and served as the seat of the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria from 1800 to 1971. Azbakeya was the place where the first Cairo Opera House was established, in 1869.

In 2017, Azbakiya diatrict/qism had 19,763 residents in its eight shiakhas:^[8][9]

The district of Azbakeya was built upon a place of an old Coptic village, Tiandonias (Coptic: ϯⲁⲛⲧⲱⲛⲓⲁⲥ) or Umm Dunayn (Arabic: ام دنين) which was also called al-Maks (Arabic: المكس "customs") in latter sources and Ottoman documents.^[10][11]

By the time of Barquq, the first Burji Mamluk sultan (1382-1399), a lot of reconstruction needed to be done within the walls of the city to repair the damages incurred as a result of the Black Death. In 1384, when Barquq started his madrasa in Bayn al-Qasrayn, markets were rebuilt, and Khan al-Khalili, the most famous touristic market in Cairo, was established.

Al-Maqrizi showed that the northern cemetery, founded by al-Nasir Muhammad, contained no building at all before his third reign. When al-Nasir Muhammad in 1320 abandoned the area between Bab al-Nasr cemetery and the Muqattam, a small number of buildings started to be built in the northern cemetery.

Under the Burji Mamluks, northern cemetery became the new area targeted for the any new city expansion, since no ideological oppositions were found preventing the construction of dwelling within cemeteries. The lack of opposition allowed for the construction of striking religious buildings of monumental scale in the northern cemetery. Examples include the Khanqah of Faraj ibn Barquq, Madrasa of Al-Nasir Muhammad, the Emir Qurqumas Complex, the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbay and the Complex of Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay.

During the latter half of the 15th century, two final major transformations took place in Cairo: the port of Boulaq, and a district called Azbakeya in the northwest section of the city. The parameters of the city had been unchanged for the past 300 years according to the map done by the French expedition in 1798. With Baibars's conquest of Cyprus in 1428, Bulaq became the major port of Cairo. By the end of the 15th century, Bulaq was even able to take over the role as the major commercial port from Old Cairo.

The Azbakeya district was developed when Amir Azbak al-Yusufi, one of Qaytbay's princes, established stables and a residence of his own and excavated Birkat al-Azbakeya, which was fed from the Cairo Citadel Aqueduct. With the Arab's Gulf always serving as the western boundary of the city and feeding nearby ponds, flooding would occur during the summer. After each flooding, surrounding lands would be transformed into lush green areas with vegetation. These beauty of the land in these areas were exquisite and the upper class fought over the each other for the first pick of the land to buy for the construction of their new palaces overlooking such bodies of water as Birkat al Fīl "Elephant Pond" and Azbakeya Pond.

The Egyptian Museum was established by the Egyptian government in 1835 near the Azbakeya Gardens.^[12] The museum soon moved to Boulaq in 1858 because the original building was too small to hold all of the artifacts.

In the 1850s, the area was renovated during the rule of Isma'il Pasha in his plan to build a modern Cairo. Currently the well known Soor Elazbakeya (meaning the fence of Azbakeya) is a used books market^[13] that originated by a gathering of used books traders by the fence of the Azbakeya garden in 1926. (The market relocated to El Darasa in 1991 while a Metro station was being built, but returned to its original location in 1998).^[14]

By the late 19th century, the area became a center of entertainment, with the openings of cafes, bars, gambling halls, hashish dens and at least thirteen large entertainment venues.^[15] The Azbakeya gardens theater was the stage to most of the monthly concerts held by the famous Arab singer, Umm Kulthum. The Azbakeya gardens is only partially present now as two multi-story car parks have been built on large areas of the gardens.

30°03′10″N 31°14′54″E / 30.05278°N 31.24833°E / 30.05278; 31.24833