Case study · Egypt
The Citadel of Cairo: two dates for its beginning
The Met's timeline links the citadel to the year 1187, and UNESCO to 1176. The two sources describe different actions, and this article presents both without deciding.
PERIOD GUIDE · Egypt
Ayyubid Egypt: a citadel, a madrasa and a double end
According to the Met's timeline, the Ayyubid dynasty ruled Egypt from 1171; its bar ends in 1252, while the Mamluk bar begins in 1250. Two articles on this site: the Citadel of Cairo, and the madrasa and mausoleum of Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub.
1171-1250/1252 CEMove through the periods
Its place in the Egypt scheme
The whole scheme with this period marked; the periods before and after are its neighbours in the row. Boundaries follow the sources and are not to scale.
- The Neolithic in Egypt7,000-4,500 BCE
- The Predynastic period in Egypt4,500-3,100 BCE
- The Early Dynastic period in Egypt3,100-2,649 BCE
- The Old Kingdom of Egypt2,649-2,150 BCE
- The First Intermediate Period in Egypt2,150-2,030 BCE
- The Middle Kingdom of Egypt2,030-1,640 BCE
- The Second Intermediate Period in Egypt1,640-1,550 BCE
- The New Kingdom of Egypt1,550-1,070 BCE
- The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt1,070-712 BCE
- The Late Period in Egypt712-332 BCE
- Macedonian and Ptolemaic Egypt332-30 BCE
- Roman rule in Egypt30 BCE - 330 CE
- Byzantine rule in Egypt330-641 CE
- Early Islamic Egypt641-969 CE
- Fatimid Egypt969-1,171 CE
- Ayyubid Egypt1,171-1,252 CE
- Mamluk Egypt1,250-1,517 CE
The frame
The Met's timeline page for Egypt, 1000-1400 CE, marks "Ayyubid sultanate, 1171-1252". According to the events of 1160-1171, Saladin, a Zangid general, declared the Fatimid caliphate at an end in 1171 and established the Ayyubid dynasty. Among the buildings of the period the page lists the citadel and walls of Cairo, and the madrasa and mausoleum of Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub. Source 1.
Boundaries and overlaps
The same page begins the "Mamluk sultanate" in 1250 and describes it as emerging from the weakening of the Ayyubid kingdoms in Egypt and Syria in 1250-1260. This page therefore gives the end of the period as 1250/1252 and keeps the two-year overlap visible: on this site the years 1250-1252 belong both to this page and to the Mamluk page. This is not a correction of the source, but a description of a transition that does not happen in a single year. Source 1.
A disputed date
Within the period the sources disagree on a date: the Met attaches the year 1187 to the commissioning of the design of the citadel and of Cairo's walls, while UNESCO's "Historic Cairo" page dates to 1176 the establishment of the citadel as the headquarters of government. Both years fall within the Ayyubid period, so the conflict does not change the placement, but anyone dating the citadel needs to say which source they follow. Sources 1, 2.
On this site
Two articles are placed in this period. "The Citadel of Cairo: two dates for its beginning" sets the two versions side by side and does not decide between them. "The madrasa and mausoleum of Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub: at the close of Ayyubid rule" deals with a building dated 1243-1250, that is, up to the year in which the Mamluk bar begins. Source 1.
Source
Sources and further reading
The research and references behind this page. Rights to external content remain with their owners.
- 1
Egypt, 1000-1400 A.D. (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, chronology)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Checked
- 2
Historic Cairo
UNESCO World Heritage Centre · Checked