ABSTRACT
Cairo (from the Arabic ~ahira, 'the Victoriou~,' because the planet ~ahir or Mars was visible on the night of the foundation of the city) is situated on the right or eastern bank of the Nile, about ten miles south of the division of the Nile into the Rosetta and Damietta branches. It is called in Arabic Ma~r *: it is the largest city in Africa, and its population must be now over 570,000 souls. Josephus says that the fortress of the Babylon of Egypt, which stood on the spot occupied by old Cairo or Fostat, was founded by the Babylonian mercenary soldiers of Cambyses, B.C. 525; Diodorus says that it was founded by Assyrian captives in the time of Rameses 11., and Ctesias is inclined to think that it was built in the time of Semiramis. The opinions of the two last mentioned writers are valuable in one respect, for they show that it was believed in their time that Babylon of Egypt was of very ancient foundation. During the reign of Augustus it was the headquarters of one of the legions that garri~oned Egypt, and remains of the town and fortress which these legionaries occupied are still to be seen a little to the north of Fostat. The word Fostat t means a 'tent,' and the place is so called from the tent of 'Amr ibn el-'A~i, which was pitched there when he invaded Egypt, A.D. 638, and to which he returned after his capture of Alexandria. Around his tent lived a large number of his followers, and
