Why was the city placed there?

This lesson asks you to analyse how the physical environment has influenced where people settle and how settlements are arranged, and to describe some of these influences in different countries and regions. The museum offers only one example, from Egypt, so your class will add examples from other regions. ¹

The expectations ask how the physical environment influenced where people settled and how their homes were arranged. When you study a site, ask what made living there easier, what put people at risk there, and who made the decision.

Amr wanted to settle in Alexandria. In Ibn Abd al-Hakam's account, Umar asked whether water would come between him and the Muslims; told yes, when the Nile was in flood, he wrote that he did not wish the Muslims to settle where water would lie between him and them, and Amr moved to al-Fustat ^{2 3}. Al-Layth reports from Yazid ibn Abi Habib that Umar wrote the same to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and to his governor at Basra, so that Sa'd moved to Kufa and Amr to al-Fustat ³. Al-Maqrizi adds that when the Muslims laid out Fustat, the seat of the kingdom moved from Alexandria, which had been the residence of the king and the seat of government for more than nine hundred years ⁴.

The record gives more than one account of how Fustat got its name. Al-Baladhuri reports that it used to be called Yunah, and that the Muslims named it Fustat because they said, "This is the tent (fustat) of the people and their gathering place." Others say it was because Amr pitched a tent there ⁵. In Ibn Abd al-Hakam's account, when Amr was about to march on Alexandria he ordered his tent struck, but doves had hatched their young in it; he left it standing, and when the Muslims returned and asked where to camp, they said: "The Fustat", Amr's tent ³.

In Ibn Abd al-Hakam's account, the reason given for the choice of site is that the Nile's flood could put water between the commander and the Muslims, while the name comes from a tent. Which kind of reason would a geographer rely on more to explain why a city stands where it does, and why? What would you check before accepting it?

• Al-Fustat: the layout, the tribal plots and the accounts of its name.
• Amr ibn al-As: the commander who wanted Alexandria and settled at al-Fustat.
• The Khitat of al-Fustat: how Ibn Abd al-Hakam lists the tribal plots around the mosque.

Read the museum's record of Al-Fustat. On a sketch map you draw yourself, mark the river and the city, and write two sentences on what the river gave the people and what it put at risk.