Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt
Oct 18-24 2007
Living like an Ottoman
Nevine El-Aref made a journey inside one of the newly restored houses
in the Delta town city of Rosetta
Photos: Clockwise from top: an Ottoman-style living room in Osman
Al-Amasyli house; the façade of Arab Killy house which is now the
Rosetta National Museum; an Ottoman bath and the façade of
Al-Maizouni house photos courtesy of SCA
Famous for the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the black basalt slab
that was the key to deciphering hieroglyphs and uncovering the lives
of ancient Egyptian kings, Rosetta, or Rashid, has much more to
provide to its visitors.
It is not only a site but the home of unique Ottoman, Mameluke and
colonial monumental edifices.
In ancient times, Rosetta was the principal port of Egypt, but
declined after the founding of Alexandria in 332 BC and remained
neglected for centuries. During the Coptic and Fatimid periods,
Rosetta regained its reputation as Egypt’s main port in the 16th
century but declined once again as Alexandria’s trade with Italian
cities flourished. The Mamelukes showed interest in Rosetta and its
port, leaving architectural treasures modern visitors cherish, but
the city’s architectural core belongs to the Ottoman period,
specially the time from 1520 to 1800.
Since the Ottomans conquered Egypt in 1517, Rosetta became the
Egyptian port closest to Istanbul. By the 17th century it was a
bustling cosmopolitan centre with a population including Greeks,
Turks, Nubians and Europeans.
Under the Ottoman Empire, Rosetta remained a prosperous trading
harbour attracting the attention of both Britain and France as the
two major colonial powers which controlled trade between Europe and
the East. They set their eyes on Rosetta as a foothold to possibly
capturing Egypt.
France appointed as a consul-general Benoit De Mallet, an
encyclopaedic, enlightened French scholar, known for his mastery of
Arabic. Mallet had lived in Rosetta for 16 years, where he wrote
Description de l’ Egypt.
At the same time, Britain was looking for a foothold on the
Mediterranean in order to protect its trade route for coffee shipped
from Yemen, then a British protectorate, to Europe across the Red Sea
and the Mediterranean via Suez and Cairo.
As a result, Rosetta turned into one of the most flourishing
Mediterranean harbours. Its warehouses were replete with grains,
coffee, silk and many other commodities, while its streets bustled
with Armenian, Turkish, Syrian and Jewish traders. Rich merchants and
consuls of European countries built many elegant houses in addition
to hotels, inns, mosques and churches.
During the French expedition, General Mineau was appointed ruler of
Rosetta, where he stayed for one year, embraced Islam and took a
wife.
As Mohamed Ali took over in 1805, Rosetta gained more importance as a
town and trading harbour but, regretfully, it declined once again
after Mohamed Ali built the Mahmoudeya Canal to carry the Nile’s
waters to Alexandria.
As long as Alexandria was flourishing, Rosetta fell into disrepair.
Another blow came when the High Dam was built in Aswan, diverting the
Nile away from Rosetta. The city’s freshwater fishing industry ebbed
and the once-vibrant shoreline was neglected.
During the early 20th century when the Conservation Committee of Arab
Monuments (CCAM) classified Rosetta monuments, the number of historic
houses was 38. Part of their ground floors was for business and
storerooms. The first floor was for men and the second for women.
Some of the façades were decorated with red, black and white bricks.
The first two floors, with corbels out into the street, have splendid
mashrabiya (lattice woodwork) windows and façades. Faïence tiles were
also used, known as Zellig, as in the Maghreb countries.
The CCAM also classified 12 mosques among which the Zaghlool mosque,
located at the town’s core, was the oldest and the biggest, while the
others are scattered throughout the town.
The ninth century Abu Shahin Mill, where the grindstone was
originally driven by donkeys; and the Azuz public bath complex were
also put on Egypt’s heritage list. The bath complex is over 100 years
old and comprises two wings; the first is the reception wing which
leads to a corridor with a marble fountain in the centre. At the end
of the corridor lies a wooden compartment where the master would sit
to receive clients. The second wing is flanked by bathing rooms and
has a marble floor ornamented by another fountain. Two magnificent
domed ceilings cover both wings, fitted with coloured glass windows
to allow adequate lighting. Annexed to the bath complex is a small
house used as a residence for the bath owner and its workers.
Several restoration attempts have been carried out but did not
achieve the required results. On the contrary, some houses have been
torn down due to the city’s unplanned urban development. Today the
number of houses remaining is only 22, concealed among a jungle of
modern houses and buildings. Rosetta’s poor drainage system led to
the rise of the subterranean water level which in its turn leaked
inside the monuments and affected their walls and foundations.
Studying the topographic map of Rosetta and the urban clusters on the
western bank of the Nile, it was found that most of the city is
located on relatively elevated land. The western part of the urban
area is of an elevation varying around 5m, and inclining with
moderate slope towards the eastern edge of the city adjacent to the
Nile. The urban expansion on inclined land has caused severe problems
with drainage, as the city lacks any sewerage systems. Drainage
currently operates through rainwater trenches. Sewage gathers beneath
the ground forming continuous streams which reach the basements of
many of the monuments present.
Islamic monuments in this picturesque coastal town between the
Mediterranean and the western arm of the Nile fell into neglect and
decay. It also suffered badly from structural neglect and
environmental problems, including a high rate of humidity and rain.
Although several of these structures have undergone restoration in
the past, many of them have large wall fissures with collapsed
floors. In 2003 the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) launched a
massive restoration project for these superb monuments with a view to
develop the whole city into an open air museum of Islamic art.
"When restoration started, most of the monuments were partly
submerged in groundwater with serious cracks veining the walls,
damaged masonry and with most of the mashrabiya broken. The
decorative items on the walls were stained with dust, while most of
the flooring was badly damaged," said Zahi Hawass, secretary-general
of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). He added that returning
these monuments to their original glory was not an easy task. "It
took us almost three years of hard work of restoration and
development of the area around them," Hawass asserted.
Now there is a vast improvement. All the restoration has been carried
out according to the latest and most scientific methods, and every
effort has been made to ensure that all the original architectural
features have been retained. The walls were reinforced, masonry
cleaned and desalinated, the Kufic calligraphy embellishing the walls
cleaned and missing pieces of the floor replaced.
Farag Fada head of Islamic Antiquities Department in the SCA said
that one of the most important of the project’s tasks was to undo the
faults of the 1984 restoration executed by the Egyptian Antiquities
Authority and to uncover some of the original features, especially
inside the houses, hidden beneath paint and polish.
The interiors of the houses have been refurbished using paint made
from original material in order to convey the same impression of age.
Rust has been also removed from the ironwork in houses which are then
coated with Vaseline to protect them.
The first phase of the restoration project has already been
completed. It included the Ottoman houses and furniture which now
give visitors an idea of how the Ottoman rich merchants lived in
Rosetta during the 17th and 18th centuries.
These houses reflect a high level of architecture, construction and
carpentry standards. Designed in Islamic architectural style, the
houses comprise mashrabiya, vast reception rooms, decorative
inscriptions, inlaid seashell woodwork, domes and densely ornamented
doors. Houses were provided with fresh water tanks, properly
insulated to protect buildings against water leakage. Normally, each
house had an outer drinking fountain ( sabil ), made available for
free to passers-by.
The interior of each house was rich with exquisite decorations,
including inscriptions in Kufic calligraphy. Mashrabiya were made of
geometrically shaped, fine woodwork. On top of each house there was a
decorative skylight to allow natural light and air into the building.
Each house consists of 3 or 4 floors, with multi-level, wooden corbel
ceilings for added strength. They were built of moulded, grouted
bricks, and in the façade, for decoration purposes, these bricks were
alternatively painted red and black. The mashrabiya and windows, were
of a different type of turned wood, Sahrili or Maymouni, and also
decorate the façade. The ground floor usually contained the
caravansary or storehouse and stable, a sabil, and cistern. The
second floor was reserved for men. It often has a separate door and a
courtyard surrounded by a number of rooms. The third floor was
reserved for women called Al-Hadir (place of sleeping); it consists
of a main hall ( iwan ) surrounded by several rooms, and a private
bathroom.
These houses often include a room on the third floor called the
Al-Aghany (room of songs), in which the women of the house sat,
listening and watching the entertainment, out of sight of the men.
This room contains cupboards in one of its walls, with partitions of
turned wood. These wooden cupboards are often inlayed with ivory and
mother of pearl. In some houses, the walls of the Al-Aghany room were
covered with tiles with floral decorations in yellow, red, and green
giving an Andalusi effect, as in the houses of Moharam an Olwan and
Arab Killy House (the National Museum of Rosetta).
This is one of the most famous houses in Rosetta, and with its four
storeys, the biggest. It dates back to the 18th century and was the
residence of Arab Killy who was an Ottoman governor of the city. The
houses which were subjected to restorations are the three-storey
houses of Osman Al-Amasyli, a soldier in the Turkish army, and Al
Maizouni, the father of Zbeida, the wife of general Mino, the third
commander of the French expedition in Egypt. The Arab Killy house
originally documented Egypt’s struggle to free itself from
colonialism. It reflects the imposing style of architecture,
construction and carpentry typical of the time. Designed to echo the
Islamic style, the house contains, as well as its exquisite
mashrabiya, decorative inscriptions, grouted burnt bricks
alternatively coloured red and black, inlaid seashell woodwork; it
boasts a ceiling dome and a densely-ornamented door. The museum is
shortly to be opened to the public. Hawass said that the highlight of
the exhibition is a life- size replica of the Rosetta Stone donated
by the British Museum in response to an official request submitted by
Hawass to the museum’s ancient Egyptian department. The replica
stone, which arrived late November, will be on show in the museum
foyer.
The Qaitbey Citadel at Rosetta is also due to be renovated, since
segments of it have collapsed in recent years. Before embarking upon
the project, a barrier is to be erected around the citadel to prevent
water leakage within. The interior of the citadel resembles that of
its more famous brother at Alexandria. It was in the citadel of
Rosetta that an officer of the French expedition found the Rosetta
Stone in 1799.
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