X. THE TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS

THOUGH Some of the best specimens of Saracenic architecture are to be found among this congeries of dilapidated tomb-mosques, which form such a striking landmark in all views of Cairo, they are not likely to prove very attractive to the ordinary tourist. For one thing, most are in ruins, and hitherto the Wakfs Administration, perhaps feeling that the intra-mural mosques, being still used for public worship, had stronger claims, have done little in the work of restoration.

The ordinary visitor will probably be satisfied with an inspection of the best preserved mosques— Kait Bey, Barkuk, and El-Ashraf. But those fond of architecture are recommended to inspect carefully the exterior of many of the less known tomb-mosques. The interiors are rarely worth visiting, and in many cases strangers will feel that they are intruders, as some of the ruined mosques afford a refuge for homeless Arabs and their families, who "squat❞ here

unmolested, like gipsies. The Tombs of the Caliphs are easily reached, as they are only a short distance beyond the walls at the end of the Rue Neuve. Hurried tourists can conveniently combine this excursion with a visit to the Cairo Mosques of Nasr Mohammed, Barkukiya, Muristan Kalaun, El-Ghuri, El-Ashraf, and El-Azhar.

Tourists, indeed, with little time to spare will find that an economy of space means economy of time even more in Cairo than other oriental cities.

These tombs have no connection with the Caliphs, but the misnomer has been so long in use that it is idle to expect the guides and donkey-boys to employ a more accurate designation, though the Tombs are occasionally known as the Cemetery of Kait Bey from the principal mosque. The Cairene Caliphs have, indeed, no separate burial place, and the Sultans who are buried here belonged to the Circassian Mameluke dynasty, and most of the mosques date from the fifteenth century.

The term Caliph is, indeed, rather loosely used in connection with the history of Saracen rule in Egypt. The Mameluke Sultans were not strictly Caliphs, in the sense of spiritual head of Islam, and orthodox Mohammedans regarded the representatives of the Abbaside dynasty, overthrown by Ibn Tulun, as Caliphs de jure. The Baharide and Circassian

Mameluke Sultans were merely Caliphs de facto. Indeed, most of these Sultans, with the view of conciliating the orthodox Moslems, formally recognised the claims of the descendants of the Abbasides as spiritual successors of Mohammed. In fact, the present Sultan of Turkey claims to have inherited the title of Caliph through the last scion of the Abbaside Caliphs, who died at Constantinople in 1538, some twenty years after the Conquest of Egypt by the Porte. After his death each successive Sultan assumed the title of Caliph.

Mosque of Kait Bey.-The elegant dome of the Kait Bey Mosque is its most distinctive feature. Few among the innumerable mosques of Cairo can rival this beautiful exterior, for unlike most mosques, the architectural embellishments are lavished on the exterior, and the interior is comparatively unadorned. "Looked at externally or internally," says Fergusson, "nothing can exceed the grace of every part of this building. Its small dimensions exclude it from any claim of grandeur, nor does it pretend to the purity of the Greek and some other styles; but as a perfect model of the elegance we generally associate with the architecture of this people, it is, perhaps, unrivalled by anything in Egypt, and far surpasses the Alhambra, or the western buildings of its age."

Two sacred relics are shown by the guides, viz,