The neighbourhood of Darb Al-Ahmar in Cairo, literally the “red road”, is only a couple of miles in area, but it always feels much bigger. This is an area where the intensity of life, the narrowness of the streets, the explosion of scents, the pedestrians jostling you at every corner, the merchants calling out to you as you pass their shops, and the delivery boys rushing past you as they make their way to these same shops all conspire to make any visitor's experience one that is by turns intimate and jarring and revealing and enchanting. However, Darb Al-Ahmar is not just a souq, or neighbourhood market. It is also a residential area that is packed with places of worship, schools and sports facilities. Walking through the area, it is important to bear in mind that this district, with its Mamluk mosques, Ottoman wekalas and Turkish hammams, was once the heart of Cairo. It was here that people lived when the more modern suburbs of Zamalek and Mohandessin were just farmland and when Heliopolis and Nasr City were barren deserts. Today, there are 140 schools in Darb Al-Ahmar, 17 sports centres, 223 mosques, and eight churches. The neighbourhood is made up of 15 precincts, including Al-Batniya, Al-Dawoudiya, Al-Sorougiya, Al-Ghuriya, Al-Qerabiya, Al-Megharbilin, Bab Al-Wazir, Taht Al-Rab', Darb Saadah, Darb Shaalan and Souq Al-Selah. Nearly 50,000 families call it home. The area can be approached from major arteries from the north, west and south. From the north and the direction of the Khan Al-Khalili bazaar, the best entry point is through Al-Ghuriya, an area named after Egypt's penultimate Mamluk sultan, who went to fight the Ottomans near Aleppo in Syria in 1516 and died in battle. The colourfulness of this area can take the breath away, but it is important for visitors to watch their step as they wander through what can be a maddening mix of ancient cupolas, 16th-century architecture and modern stalls selling scarves, clothes and cosmetics. The ground can be uneven because of the seemingly endless roadwork taking place in the vicinity. Following this road south, visitors eventually reach Bab Zuweila, site of the execution of Egypt's last Mamluk sultan, Toman Bey, in 1517. Just before they reach this gate, they should note the immense mosque on the right, called the Complex of Sultan Al-Moayed Sheikh Al-Mahmoudi. This faces the Wekalet Al-Sokkariya, or Sugar Market, which was once where all the city's sugar and nuts were sold. Nearby, there is the Nefisa Al-Beida fountain and the Hammam Al-Sokkariya Turkish bath. South of the Wekalet Al-Sokkariya, there is an ornate sabil-kuttab (a drinking fountain and elementary school) in the delightful Ottoman style, which was built by Mohamed Ali. This early 19th-century ruler, while nominally working for the Ottomans, turned out to have a mind of his own, and his offspring shaped modern Egypt for more than a century. Nearby, at the corner of Hosh Qadam Alley, is the Fakahani Mosque. Built above a row of shops, it was the rent of the shops that was originally used to pay for the maintenance of the mosque. Venturing through Bab Zuweila, the road north takes visitors to the area of the tent makers. Going east, the road weaves its way among some of Cairo's finest Mamluk and Ottoman mosques. Near here there is the area called Taht Al-Rab', where handmade chairs, umbrellas, butcher's blocks, kitchen utensils, baking trays and other similar items can be bought. Straying out of the neighbourhood to the north takes visitors to Gammaliya. Abidine lies to the east, and the various shopping and dining possibilities of Sayeda Zeinab are not far off to the south. Some of Egypt's leading artists and public figures have come from Darb Al-Ahmar, including writer Youssef Al-Sebaei, poet Mahmoud Sami Al-Baroudi, former interior minister Al-Nabawi Ismail, co-leader of the 1952 Revolution Kamaleddin Hussein, writer Mahmoud Amin Al-Alem, Quranic reader Mohamed Rifaat, Quranic reader Ibrahim Al-Shaashaai, Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Banna, actor Mahmoud Al-Meligui, historian Abdel-Azim Anis, actor and playwright Badie Khairi, comedian Mahmoud Shekoukou, singer Shafik Galal, and, of course, the novelist Naguib Mahfouz. It was also in this part of Cairo that the manufacture of the fawanis (singular fanous), or Ramadan lanterns, developed into a fine art. Workshops in Darb Al-Ahmar still turn out elaborate versions of these lanterns, some of them now elevated to the status of year-round fixtures. Today, the area's traditional lantern industry is under threat from cheaper Chinese imports, thousands of these being sold every year in the nearby Haret Al-Yahoud, or former Jewish quarter. The modern Chinese versions can also do things that the traditional lanterns cannot, including playing music. These electric-powered plastic lanterns are also safer to use around children. However, despite the popularity of the imported Chinese lanterns, the traditional Egyptian versions are still available, and many people are determined to buy nothing but the original models. The Egyptian lanterns can also be made as big as any customer wants, making them wonderful decorative items in Ramadan. Mohamed Al-Desouki, who has written extensively about Ramadan lanterns, said that edicts, or firmans, used to be issued just before the month of Ramadan, instructing citizens not to walk in the streets after dark without carrying a lantern. This could have been the origin of the association between Ramadan and the lanterns, but some believe the tradition goes back to the Fatimid period in the Middle Ages. According to the ancient chroniclers, when the Caliph Al-Muiz first came to Cairo during this period, it was night time and the city's residents went out to receive him, each carrying a lantern. The procession went all the way from Giza to Gammaliya just north of Darb Al-Ahmar, and the experience was apparently so memorable that Egypt's new ruler began sponsoring the lantern industry and encouraging their use in Ramadan. From then on, the manufacturing of lanterns flourished in Cairo, especially in the areas around Birket Al-Fil, literally the “Elephant Pond”, which is today's Helmiya (to the north of Sayeda Zeinab on the way towards Darb Al-Ahmar). Lantern makers also had shops in Sayeda Zeinab and Taht Al-Rab', as well as near the gates of Bab Zuweila, Bab Al-Shaariya and Bab Al-Nasr. Traditional artisans can still be seen working on lanterns by sitting on the ground cross-legged and placing the lantern in their lap as they weld the plates of tin together and install the coloured glass sides. The ancient writers agree that the procession of ulema (religious scholars) at the beginning of Ramadan was a spectacular event and that it involved the heavy use of lanterns. The mediaeval Arab traveller Ibn Battuta describes the celebration marking the last day of Shaaban, the lunar month preceding Ramadan, saying that on this night the ulema would gather at the house of the chief judge, and the chief scholar would introduce the town dignitaries. When all the ulema had gathered, they would go out in a procession, with the judge and city dignitaries at the front, followed by ordinary men and women. The procession that Ibn Battuta described took place in Ibyar near modern Kafr Al-Zayat. But similar processions were held all over the country, always ending with the dignitaries climbing the highest hill outside the city to have a better view of the night sky. If they spotted the crescent moon, then the following day was the first day of Ramadan. Modern visitors passing through Bab Zuweila may notice stalls selling candles in front of the mosque of Al-Moayed Sheikh, a vestige of the time when the whole area was given over to selling candles of all shapes and sizes. Some of these candles were apparently so large that boys with wheelbarrows had to be hired to transport them. Most of these candles were not just used for lighting, but instead played a major part in ceremonial occasions, such as marriage and birth and the nights of song and dance known as zar. Through Bab Zuweila, the alley of the tentmakers, also known as kheyamia (from kheima, or tent), was given over to tent-making, tents being a major purchase in the pre-industrial world. Armies needed tents when they were on the move, and of course nomads made their own tents and bequeathed them to their children. The richer a man became, the more likely it was that he would require at least one large tent in his life or possibly receive one as a wedding gift. One particularly famous mediaeval tent was the one ordered by Qatr Al-Nada, daughter of Egypt's ruler Khamarawi, who wanted it as part of her dowry when she married the Abbasid caliph. The Ayoubids, Mamluks and Ottomans were also connoisseurs of tent-making, and it was in this part of Cairo that artisans developed the form of decorative sewing that took tent-making to a new level. Huge embroidered tents, some of them covering an area the size of a house, were commissioned, and the tents available in the area today, though on a far smaller scale, still give an idea of the splendour that Qatr Al-Nada and her peers enjoyed in the Middle Ages. Pavilions made of quilted tent fabric are still used in Cairo today for funerals, weddings and other social gatherings. Traditional designs decorated with interwoven Islamic motifs are available, along with designs using Pharaonic or natural themes. The quilted fabric can be very expensive to buy, but printed fabric bearing the same designs is available for much less. In the 1960s, former president Gamal Abdel-Nasser was examining a model of the Aswan High Dam with the Russian engineers who were helping to build it. A photograph was taken of the leader and his guests focussing on the details of the model. However, behind them there is a backdrop of Islamic design: Abdel-Nasser and his guests were standing in a tent of the traditional type, one that was no doubt designed and sewn by the descendants of Cairo's mediaeval artisans.
