Bab Zuweila

Bab Zuwayla or Bab Zuweila (Arabic: باب زويلة) is one of three remaining gates in the city walls of historic Cairo in Egypt. It was also known as Bawabat al-Mitwali or Bab al-Mitwali. The gate was built in 1092 by the Fatimid vizier Badr al-Jamali. The two minaret towers on top of it were added between 1415 and 1422 as part of the construction of the adjacent Mosque of Sultan al-Muayyad. Today it remains one of the major landmarks of Cairo.

Name

Its name comes from Bab, meaning "gate", and Zuwayla, a Berber tribe originally from the town of Zawila in the Fezzan. This name was given because Fatimid soldiers from this tribe were lodged in this area when the gate was first created during the Fatimid founding of Cairo in 969. In Coptic tradition, the name was associated with Biblical Zebulun (Coptic: ⲍⲉⲃⲩⲗⲱⲛ).

The gate later acquired the popular name Bab al-Mitwalior Bawabbat al-Mitwali. According to art historian Caroline Williams, this name dates from the Ottoman period. According to historian Nairy Hampikian, the name dates from the 15th century around the time of the construction of the nearby al-Muayyad Mosque, by which time the original association with the Zuwayla tribe in the Fatimid period had faded. The name Mitwali comes from Mitwali al-Qutub, a Muslim saint (wali), possibly fictional, who became associated with the area of the gate.

Construction and restorations

Cairo was founded in 969 to serve as the new capital of the Fatimids right after their successful conquest of Egypt. The original walls of the city and their gates were built in mudbrick. The southern gate was called Bab Zuwayla, also known as Bab al-Qus, and it was originally located at a site about 100 metres (330 ft) north of the current gate, close to the present-day mosque of Sam Ibn Nuh. In 1092, the Fatimid vizier Badr al-Jamali refortified the city with slightly expanded city walls. The southern gate was rebuilt in stone at its current location and today's structure dates from this time. The upper gate was accessed via an L-shaped staircase on its northeast side.

After al-Jamali's construction, various other constructions followed around it. A food storage facility called al-Ahra al-Sultaniyya occupied the space on the northwest side of the gate. The al-Salih Tala'i Mosque was built on its south side in 1160. After this, various commercial structures were erected on the north side of the gate, including the Qaysariyyat Sunqur al-Ashqar, the Darb al-Saffira, the Qaysariyyat Raslan, the Qaysariyyat al-Fadil, and two hammams (bathhouses). A drinking trough for animals was also added on the south side of the gate.

In 1218, al-Ahra al-Sultaniyya was replaced by a prison known as Shama'il's prison. This prison at one point held the future Sultan al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh, who was imprisoned during the reign of Faraj ibn Barquq and vowed to turn the prison into a religious and educational complex if he ever came to power.