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Cairo

capital city of Egypt

71 dated entries naming Cairo, drawn from 66 separate years between 641 CE and 2016 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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7th century

  • 641The city of Fustat (later Cairo) is founded in Egypt. It becomes the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule.source
  • 642Arabs begin construction of the Mosque of Amr at Cairo, the first mosque built in Egypt and in all of Africa.source

9th century

  • 861Al-Mutawakkil (r. 847–861) orders the construction of a Nilometer on Rhoda Island in central Cairo, supervised by the Persian astronomer Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Kathir al-Farghani.source
  • 872In Egypt, the first hospital (bimaristan) is built in Cairo by the Abbasid governor, Ahmad ibn Tulun. Physician licensure becomes mandatory in the Abbasid Caliphate.source

10th century

  • 961King Ashot III of Armenia (the Merciful) moves his capital from Kars eastward to Ani (modern Turkey). Located on a major east-west caravan route, Ani will become larger than any European city, with a population of about 100,000 that will rival Baghdad, Cairo, and Constantinople. Ani also becomes the site of the royal mausoleum of the Bagratuni kings.source
  • 970Construction is completed on Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Egypt (the world's oldest Islamic university).source
  • 973Caliph Al-Mu'izz transfers the royal residence of the Fatimid Caliphate from El-Mansuriya (modern Tunisia) to the newly founded city of Cairo in Egypt. Egypt becomes the autonomous centre of the Fatimid Caliphate. He leaves general Buluggin ibn Ziri to govern the Western North African territories, which will become the province of Al-Maghreb (meaning the West).source
  • 974The Qarmatians are defeated north of Cairo by Fatimid forces under General Jawhar al-Siqilli. He consolidates Fatimid rule and sends a legation to the Christian land of Nubia to secure the southern border of Egypt. Arab traders introduce Islam to the population, which gradually supplants Christianity.source
  • 990Construction of the Al-Hakim Mosque by orders of the Fatimid vizier Gawar Al-Siqilli begins in Cairo (modern Egypt).source
  • 996May 15 – The new Fatimid navy is destroyed by fire, resulting in anti-Christian pogroms in Cairo.source

11th century

  • 1021February 13 – On one of his habitual night rides in the outskirts of Cairo, the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah disappears, most likely assassinated by disaffected palace factions, apparently involving his sister, Sitt al-Mulk.source
  • 1023February 5 – At Cairo in the Fatimid Caliphate, the Caliph al-Zahir li-I'zaz Din Allah attains full power upon the death of his aunt, Sitt al-Mulk.source
  • 1024August 27 (17 Jumada II 415) – The Cairo Canal is opened in Fatimid Egypt in a ceremony that includes the Caliph al-Zahir.source
  • 1087Completion of Bab al-Futuh, Cairosource

12th century

  • 1167March 18 – Battle of Al-Babein: A second Zangid army (some 12,000 men) under General Shirkuh and his nephew Saladin marches towards Egypt, but is met by the combined Crusader-Fatimid forces led by King Amalric of Jerusalem. After skirmishing down the Nile, the Crusaders are defeated near Giza and forced to retreat to Cairo.source
  • 1169January 8 – Shirkuh enters Cairo, leaving the Zangid army encamped outside the city. He goes to the palace, where the 18-year-old Fatimid caliph Al-Adid welcomes him with ceremonial gifts and promised money.source
  • 1171September 25 – Saladin leads an Egyptian army to take part in a joint attack on the Crusader castles Kerak and Montréal, south of the Dead Sea. In November, Saladin withdraws his forces to Cairo to suppress a coup.source
  • 1174March 31 – A conspiracy against Saladin, aiming to restore the Fatimid Caliphate, is revealed in Cairo, involving senior figures of the former Fatimid regime and the poet Umara al-Yamani. Modern historians doubt the extent and danger of the conspiracy reported in official sources, but its ringleaders will be publicly executed over the following weeks.source
  • 1182May 11 – Saladin leads an Egyptian expeditionary force from Cairo to Syria. In June, he arrives in Damascus and learns that his nephew Farrukh Shah has raided Galilee, and sacked the villages near Mount Tabor. On his way back, Farrukh Shah attacks the fortress of Habis Jaldak, carved out of the rock above the River Yarmuk. The garrison, Christian Syrians with no great wish to die for the Crusaders, promptly surrenders.source
  • 1187Spring – The Crusaders under Raynald of Châtillon attack a large Muslim caravan, including members of Saladin's family, journeying from Cairo. Raynald takes the merchants, and their families with all their possessions to his castle of Kerak. Saladin demands the release of the prisoners and compensation for their losses. This is refused by Raynald, who pays no attention to his order.source

13th century

  • 1218May 24 – A Crusader expeditionary force, (some 30,000 men) under King John I of Jerusalem, embarks at Acre (supported by Frisian ships), and sails for Egypt. They arrive at the harbour of Damietta, on the right bank of the Nile, on May 27. Sultan Al-Adil, surprised by the invasion, recruits an army in Syria, while his son Al-Kamil marches an Egyptian force northwards from Cairo, and encamps at Al-Adiliya, a few miles south of Damietta.source
  • 1239November 13 – Battle of Gaza: The Crusader army led by Henry of Bar is defeated by the Egyptians near Gaza. More than a thousand men are slaughtered, including Henry himself. Six hundred more are captured and carried off to Egypt. Among them are Amaury VI de Montfort and Philippe de Nanteuil – who, in the dungeons of Cairo, writes a Crusade song about the failure of the expedition.source
  • 1249June 5 – Siege of Damietta: Louis IX lands with a Crusader force and captures Damietta, after a fierce battle at the edge of the sea. The onslaught of the knights of France and those of Outremer under John of Ibelin, force the Ayyubids back with heavy losses. At nightfall, Fakhr ad-Din withdraws his army over a bridge of boats to Damietta. Finding the population there in panic and the garrison wavering, Fakhr ad-Din decides to evacuate the city. On June 6, Louis marches triumphantly over the bridge into Damietta and builds a camp to attack Cairo.source
  • 1261June 13 – Al-Mustansir II becomes the first Abbasid ruler in Cairo (after his escape during the Siege of Baghdad). He is sent with an army by Sultan Baibars to recover Baghdad, but is killed in a Mongol ambush near Anbar (modern Iraq), on November 28. The Abbasid caliphs continue as religious figureheads for the Mamluks in Egypt until the 16th century.source
  • 1261November 28 – Al-Mustansir II, Abbasid ruler (caliph) of Cairo, killedsource
  • 1262Al-Hakim I, a member of the Abbasid dynasty, travels to Egypt and is proclaimed as caliph of Cairo in succession to his former rival Al-Mustansir II. After his arrival, he is imprisoned at the Citadel of Cairo by orders of Sultan Baibars but released in 1296 by Sultan Lajin.source
  • 1279Spring – Mamluk forces led by the 19-year-old Sultan Al-Said Barakah and Qalawun ("the Thousander") invade Cilician Armenia; a revolt in Egypt while they are away force Barakah to abdicate. In August, Qalawun takes over the government in Cairo and proclaims himself sultan. He sends Solamish, youngest son of former Sultan Baibars, into exile. Meanwhile, Sunqur al-Ashqar, Mamluk viceroy of Damascus, refuses to accept Qalawun's authority and begins a rebellion in Syria.source
  • 1284The Al-Mansuri bimaristan (hospital) is completed in Cairo.source
  • 1287Winter – Two unidentified 'merchants' travel from Alexandria to Cairo to warn Qalawun of the economic dangers posed by Genoese domination in the eastern Mediterranean, which leaves the Mamluk trade at their mercy. Qalawun accepts the invitation to intervene, and breaks the truce with Tripoli.source
  • 1289February 9 – Sultan Qalawun (the Victorious) marches the Mamluk army out of Cairo, leaving his son Al-Ashraf Khalil commanding Cairo's Citadel, supported by Viceroy Baydara al-Mansuri. The army moves via Salihiya, across Sinai and through Jordan to Damascus. He orders the regional governors of Syria to mobilize in Damascus, where many infantry volunteers have assembled.source
  • 1290August 30 – Survivors and relatives of the massacre at Acre take bloodstained clothing to Sultan Qalawun ("the Victorious") in Cairo, who demands that the leaders of the riot be handed over for trial, but the nobles refuse to send them and Qalawun now obtains legal clearance from the religious authorities in Cairo to break the truce with Crusader states.source
  • 1290October – Qalawun orders a general mobilization of the Mamluk forces. In a council, it is decided that a peace delegation be sent to Cairo under Guillaume de Beaujeu, Grand Master of the Knights Templar. However, Qalawun demands huge compensation for those killed in Acre, and sends a Syrian army to the coast of Palestine, near Caesarea.source
  • 1291August 14 – Mamluk forces conquer the last Crusader outpost in Syria, the Templar fortress of Atlit south of Acre. All that now is left to the Knights Templar is the island fortress of Ruad. Al-Ashraf Khalil returns to Cairo in triumph as the "victor in the long struggle against the Crusader states".source

14th century

  • 1302January 19 – Al-Hakim I, Abbasid ruler (caliph) of Cairo (b. 1247)source
  • 1303April 22 – Battle of Marj al-Saffar: Egyptian Mamluk forces (some 20,000 men) under Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad defeat a Mongol army and their Armenian allies led by Qutlugh-Shah, on the plain of Marj al-Saffar. After the battle, Egyptian forces enters Damascus and chases the Mongols as far as Al-Qaryatayn in Syria. Al-Nasir returns to Cairo in triumph through the Bab al-Nasr ("Victory Gate") with chained prisoners of war.source
  • 1315Cairo, capital of the Mamluk Sultanate becomes the largest city in the world, taking the lead from Hangzhou in Mongolian China (approximate date).source
  • 1315September 3 (3 Jumada II 715 AH) – Rumaythah ibn Abi Numayy, the former emir of Mecca, arrives at the court of the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, al-Nasir Muhammad in Cairo. He receives pardon from the Sultan and seeks support against the new Emir, Humaydah ibn Abi Numayy, who had killed his brother and predecessor, Abu al-Ghayth. Al-Nasir sends Rumaythah back to Mecca with an Egyptian army. However, six days before the relief army's arrival, Humaydah pillages and burns the castle at Wadi Marr, and destroys 2,000 date palm trees.source
  • 1324July 19 – (26 Rajab 724 AH) Mansa Musa, the extraordinarily-wealthy Emperor of Africa's Mali Empire, arrives in Cairo after three days of camping by the pyramids of Giza, and brings with him a large entourage of fellow Muslim pilgrims and a vast supply of gold. Musa, who is making the pilgrimage to Mecca, meets with Egypt's Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad and stays in Cairo for three months before departing with the pilgrims on October 18.source
  • 1324October 18 – (28 Shawwal 724 AH) After he and his entourage of Muslim pilgrims have stayed in Cairo for three months, the Emperor Mansa Musa of Africa's Mali Empire resumes the group's pilgrimage to Meccasource
  • 1348Estimation: Hangzhou in Mongolian China becomes the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Cairo, capital of Mamluk Egypt.source
  • 1348The Black Death pandemic spreads to central and western Europe and to Cairo.source
  • 1356The majority of the Great Pyramid of Giza's limestone casing stones are removed by Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Hasan, to build fortresses and mosques in the nearby city of Cairo, leaving the first of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in the step-stone condition in which it remains into modern times.source
  • 1363The Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan is completed in Cairo, Egypt.source
  • 1375April 14 – The Mamluks from Egypt complete their conquest of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. King Levon V is imprisoned for several years in Cairo, until a ransom is paid by King John I of Castile.source
  • 1377March 15 – Al-Ashraf Sha'ban, the Sultan of Egypt since 1363, is assassinated in Cairo and his 9-year-old son, Al-Mansur Ali II is installed as the new Sultan by the rebel leader Emir Aynabak al-Yalbughawi, who serves as the sultanate's actual leader.source

15th century

  • 1405September 20 – An-Nasir Faraj, the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria, flees Cairo and names his brother Izz al-Din Abd al-Aziz as the regent during his absence. Faraj returns two months later and reclaims the throne.source
  • 1406January 22 – Abū al-Faḍl Al-Musta'in becomes the new Abbasid caliph of Cairo, spiritual leader of the Muslim faith in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, succeeding his father, Al-Mutawakkil I.source
  • 1412May 7 – In Cairo, Abu’l-Faḍl Abbas Al-Musta'in, the Caliph of Cairo, is installed by rebels as the new Sultan of Egypt as a temporary replacement for his father, the Sultan An-Nasir Faraj. Al-Musta'in serves as the puppet ruler for six months before he returns to full time duty as the Caliph.source
  • 1426April 25 (17 Jumada II 829 AH) – Hasan ibn Ajlan, who has been allowed to leave Cairo after being appointed by the Egyptian Mamluk Sultan as the Emir of Mecca and paying the first installment of a fee of 30,000 dinars, dies on the way back to Mecca. The Sultan, Al-Ashraf Sayf ad-Dīn Barsbāy, summons Hasan's sons Barakat ibn Hasan and Ibrahim ibn Hasan to Cairo to complete payment of the remaining 25,000 dinars owed.source
  • 1438September 9 – In Cairo, Sayf al-Din Jaqmaq becomes the new Sultan of Egypt and Syria, deposing the young Sultan Al-Aziz Jamal al-Din Yusuf, whom he has arrested and then deported to Alexandria.source
  • 1482May 27 – Cem Sultan, who briefly reigned as the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for several weeks in 1481 before being deposed by his half-brother, Bayezid II, invades the Turkish mainland and besieges the city of Konya, but is defeated and forced to withdraw to Ankara. Upon trying to retreat to Cairo in Egypt, he finds that all the roads are under Bayezid's control.source

16th century

  • 1517January 30 – Cairo is captured by the Ottoman Empire after a three day battle, and the Mamluk Sultanate falls. The Abbasid Caliphate, reestablished in 1261, falls to the Ottomans and the last Caliph, Al-Mutawakkil III, is deported along with his family to Constantinople.source

18th century

  • 1798October 21–22 – Revolt of Cairo: Napoleon Bonaparte suppresses a revolt in Cairo. French occupation survives but becomes more dependent on force and administration.source
  • 1800June 14 – French general Jean-Baptiste Kléber is assassinated in Cairo by Syrian Kurdish Muslim student Suleiman al-Halabi.source

19th century

  • 1801June 27 – Siege of Cairo ends: Cairo falls to British troops.source
  • 1803May 19 – Master Malati, a Coptic Christian leader, is beheaded by a Muslim mob in Cairo, Egypt.source
  • 1811March 1 – Citadel Massacre in Cairo: Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali kills the last Mamluk leaders.source
  • 1882September 13 – Anglo-Egyptian War: British troops occupy Cairo, and Egypt becomes a British protectorate.source

20th century

  • 1907April 24 – Al Ahly SC is founded in Cairo by Omar Lotfi, as a gathering place for Egyptian students' unions in the struggle against colonization; it is the first association football club officially founded in Egypt or Africa.source
  • 1919June 26 – British Foreign Office official St John Philby and T. E. Lawrence arrive in Cairo for discussions about Arab unrest in Egypt, having been flown by Canadian pilot Harry Yates in a Handley Page bomber which set off from England on June 21.source
  • 1938January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Safinaz Zulficar, who becomes Queen Farida, in Cairo.source
  • 1943November 22–26 – WWII: Cairo Conference ("Sextant") – President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Chairman of the National Government of China Chiang Kai-shek meet at Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan in the Pacific War.source
  • 1952January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.source
  • 1965November 1 – A trolleybus plunges into the Nile at Cairo, Egypt, killing 74 passengers.source
  • 1969February 4 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is elected Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.source
  • 1974February 17 – Zamalek disaster: A soccer stampede occurs in Cairo, killing 49.source
  • 1984December 1 – A peace agreement between Kenya and Somalia is signed in the Egyptian capital Cairo. With this agreement, in which Somalia officially renounces its historical territorial claims, relations between the two countries begin to improve.source
  • 1986February 25 – A three-day riot begins in Cairo, Egypt when around 25,000 conscripts of the Central Security Forces (CSF), staged protests in and around the city. Three luxury hotels, several nightclubs, restaurants and cars were looted and burned in the tourist districts near the Pyramids over several days. The riot became known as the Egyptian Conscripts Riot. At least 25 people died during the first day in Cairo, and an estimated 8,000 people, mostly conscripts in regions outside the city, were killed in total.source
  • 1990March 1 – A fire at the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, kills 16 people.source
  • 1999October 31 – EgyptAir Flight 990, travelling from New York City to Cairo, crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts killing all 217 on board.source

21st century

  • 2016May 19 – EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea en route from Paris to Cairo, killing all 66 people on board.source

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