The sabil of Mohamed Ali remains closed four years after it was restored and a permanent exhibition installed in the conserved building. Jill Kamil asks why There it stands in a lively neighbourhood in the heart of historic Cairo, a spectacular sabil or public drinking fountain, one of Cairo's architectural gems saved from certain ruin by a team of 50 conservationists from six different countries in a project launched in 1998 by the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE) with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). The sabil remains closed four years after completion, so Al-Ahram Weekly has chosen to view, and review, a small but elegant and well- illustrated quality publication entitled Muhammad Ali Pasha and His Sabil which is on the market. It not only gives new insights into the extraordinary life and personality of the founder of the water fountain, but describes and illustrates the work of a team of dedicated and talented individuals who were involved in its conservation between 1998 and 2002. The project was carried out under the direction of conservation architect Agnieszka Dobrowolska who, in the last decade and more, has worked on many archaeological and conservation sites in Egypt. Muhammad Ali Pasha and His Sabil is adorned with fine quality colour photographs "before" and "after" restoration, as well as various stages of work in progress. The beauty of the publication owes much to its quality of the photographs, the architectural drawings of Agnieszka's husband, Jaroslaw Dobrowolski -- which both complement and explain the photographs -- the subtle layout of the pages, and on Khaled Fahmy's text on "The Pasha -- his times, his family and his achievements". Mohamed Ali Pasha, the Macedonian who was appointed Ottoman governor of Egypt with the title "Pasha" on 11 July 1805, ruled for nearly half a century until 1848 and is often described as the founder of modern Egypt. Until his time, drinking water in Cairo was carried from the Nile in animal skins, borne on the backs of water carriers, to residential areas where it was sold to the public. When Mohamed Ali erected this sabil in the heart of the city, he inaugurated a completely new architectural style in Cairo. He brought materials from Istanbul to construct a white marble-clad façade and a wooden dome, and the most talented craftsmen to adorn the building. Steps led to the beautifully carved entrance. A splendid " sabil room" beneath the dome was adorned with gilded window grilles, and the onetime "service room" was the place where water was drawn from a cistern. Beyond was a large courtyard for rest and relaxation. On the upper floor was a madrasa, a school, which continued to function (as a school for girls) through to the 1930s. Not surprisingly, the sabil suffered the ravages of time. Blackened by neglect, and with many of its architectural elements weakened, the building deteriorated. The earthquake of 1992 left it on the verge of collapse. The first stage of the conservation project, which started in 1998, was to study and thoroughly document the building. Fifty conservationists from six countries -- among them 35 Egyptians craftsmen working in traditional trades -- set to work to consider how to preserve and protect the original historic fabric of the building as well as all its architectural features. This was no easy task. The sabil is situated in a crowded area of Cairo that has been in continuous use for a thousand years. A thick layer of accumulated rubble from ruined buildings, refuse, and wind-blown sand obscured the original street level and the entrance to the building; when trapped as a result of the rising water table it seriously threatened to undermine the whole building. Structural problems were first addressed. To prevent the structure from collapsing the technique called micropiling was used. That is to say, steel pipes were drilled into the soil until they reached stable ground, and then injected with cement under pressure; the cement forced out of the bottom formed a solid footing. Once stabilised, work could begin -- on the dome of the sabil, on the woodwork, and on the bronze and the tempera adornments. Each stage of the cleaning and conservation revealed the exquisite beauty of both the interior and exterior adornments of the sabil. The lead-covered dome, for example, was found to be decorated with overhanging wooden eaves which were painstakingly restored, and the white marble façade carved in beautiful calligraphy emerged in sparkling white, offset by its gilded window grilles. Restoration of the sabil kept Dobrowolska and her enthusiastic team busy for six years, and when the work was completed in 2002, with the newly cleaned marble façade glittering in the sunshine, it was made ready for an official launching. Unfortunately, for reasons unexplained, the launching never took place, and the sabil remained closed for the next two years. The conservationists turned their attention to other projects, while Khaled Fahmy, associate professor of modern Middle Eastern history and Islamic studies at New York University, prepared a book, Muhammad Ali Pasha and His Sabil. It was published by The American University in Cairo Press in 2004, ready to be launched simultaneously with celebrations marking the bi-centenary of Mohamed Ali in July 2005. This was an appropriate occasion, but it passed and the sabil remained closed. All those who were involved in its restoration were bitterly disappointed. Hope dawned afresh when an official invitation was extended by the ARCE and SCA to attend a celebration at 11am on 11 April 2006 to mark the opening of a permanent exhibition which had been set up in the conserved building. Sad to say, the event was cancelled at the last moment -- the official explanation was that due to unforeseen circumstances the opening was only temporarily postponed. But no alternative date has been set, and the sabil remains closed four years after completion. Al-Ahram Weekly is drawing attention to this restored and conserved building because it is not alone in representing a historic building saved from certain oblivion and then disused -- or should one say not yet used for the purpose for which it was intended. The sabil is of special historical importance because it was built by a man of foreign origin and humble background whose long rule profoundly changed Egypt and its people; because its opulent carved- marble decoration marked a turning point in Cairo's architecture; and because the permanent exhibition, in the spacious hall of the upper floor -- which outlines Mohamed Ali's career and achievements as well as the brief life of his son Tusun -- was designed for the general public. Dobrowolska, Agnieszka and Fahmy, Khaled (2004) Muhammad Ali Pasha and His Sabil: A guide to the Permanent Exhibition. The American University in Cairo Press.
