150 
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
general of Moaz, sovereign of Barbary, a prince of 
the Fatimite race. As the foundation of the town 
happened during the ascension of Mars, from the 
Arabic name of that planet, it was denominated 
Kahira, the Victorious. About two hundred years 
after its foundation, its population was increased by 
the addition of the inhabitants of Fostat, which 
city, on the approach of the crusaders, was set on 
fire by its weak prince Shuwar. The renowned 
Saladin, who retrieved the disasters of the Arabs, 
founded the castle of Cairo, and the walls which 
surround the city, about eight years after the de- 
struction of Fostat.* Though Cairo has lost its 
former splendour, and the opulence it enjoyed 
before the discovery of the passage to India by 
the Cape of Good Hope, its population is still 
considerable, and, in 1785, was estimated by Vol- 
ney at two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. 
It is still the emporium of the trade of Eastern 
Africa, and maintains a considerable intercourse 
with Arabia, Morocco, and various districts of the 
Levant. 
The traveller, ascending the Nile, soon after his 
departure from Cairo, approaches the narrowest 
part of the valley of Egypt, where the Arabian 
and Libyan mountains seem closing to prevent his 
* Abulfedae Excerpt. Hist. Univ. p. 23, ad fin. Bohadipi 
Hist. Saladini a Schultens. 
