Fustat: Old Cairo

Fustat or الفُسطاط in Arabic was the first Muslim city of Egypt that was built by General 'Amr bin Al-'As in what is now known as Old Cairo. From 641-750 (905-1168) it served as the major capital of new Muslim Egypt. The capture of Egypt by the new expanding Muslims forces from as far as Yemen injected Arabization into the existing Coptic Egyptians. The Coptic language, though almost extinct, remains the liturgical languages of the Coptic churches of Egypt especially the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Coptic Catholic Church. In Arabic it is قِبْط. Nicknamed "City of the Tents", Fustat became the major capital for the Rashidun Caliphate from 641 to 661, the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750, Abbasid Caliphate from 750 to 969, and finally the Fatimid Caliphate from 969 to 1168. Egyptian elites moved in multitudes without compulsion to integrate into the newly emerging Muslim communities who were drawn from different regions in the Middle East. It was in الفُسطاط where Egyptian parents and their children started learning the Qur'an and the Arabic language. In 1945, King Farouk of Egypt formed the Arab League that brought together a few Arab countries. King Farouk was an Albanian with Circassian, Greek, French, and Turkish ancestry. Somalia became the first black African country in Africa to join the Arab League. In 1939, Shah Reza Pahlavi of Iran married the sister of King Farouk whose name was Fawzi, even though they ended up in divorce in 1948.