Al-‘Askar (Arabic: العسكر) was the capital of Egypt from
750-868, when the Abbasid caliphate was in power in Egypt. After the Muslim
conquest of Egypt in 641, Rashidun commander Amr ibn al-As established Fustat
just north of Coptic Cairo. At Caliph Umar's request, the Egyptian capital was
moved from Alexandria to the new city on the eastern side of the Nile.
The reach of the Umayyads was extensive, stretching from
western Spain all the way to eastern China. However, they were overthrown by
the Abbasids, who moved the capital of the Umayyad empire itself to Baghdad. In
Egypt, this shift in power involved moving control from the Umayyad city of
al-Fustat slightly north to the Abbasid city of al-‘Askar. Its full name was مدينة العسكري Madinatu l-‘Askari "City of
Cantonments" or "City of Sections". Intended primarily as a city
large enough to house an army, it was laid out in a grid pattern that could be
easily subdivided into separate sections for various groups such as merchants
and officers.
The peak of the Abbasid dynasty occurred during the reign of
Harun al Rashid, along with increased taxes on the Egyptians, who rose up in a
peasant revolt in 832 during the time of Caliph al-Ma'mun. Local Egyptian
governors gained increasing autonomy, and in 870, governor Ahmad ibn Tulun
declared Egypt's independence (though still under the rule of the Abbasid
Caliph). As a symbol of this independence, in 868 ibn Tulun founded yet another
capital, al-Qatta'i, slightly further north of al-‘Askar. The capital remained
there until 905, until the city was destroyed, and the administrative capital
of Egypt then returned to al-Fusṭāṭ.
Al-Fusṭāṭ itself was destroyed by a vizier-ordered fire that burned
from 1168 to 1169, at which time the capital moved to nearly al-Qāhirah
(Cairo), where it has remained to this day. Cairo's bounds grew to eventually
encompass the three earlier capitals of al-Fusṭāṭ, al-Qatta'i and al-‘Askar, the
remnants of which can today be seen in "Old Cairo" in the southern
part of the city.
