Editing Cairo (section)

===Ottoman rule===
{{Further|History of Ottoman Egypt}}
{{See also|Muhammad Ali's seizure of power}}
[[File:Environs du Kaire (Cairo). Plan général de Boulâq, du Kaire, de l'île de Roudah (el-Rôda), du Vieux Kaire et de Gyzeh (Jîzah) (NYPL b14212718-1268726).jpg|thumb|left|Map of Cairo in 1809, from the ''[[Description de l'Égypte]]'']]

Cairo's political influence diminished significantly after the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] defeated [[Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri|Sultan al-Ghuri]] in the [[Battle of Marj Dabiq]] in 1516 and [[Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517)|conquered Egypt]] in 1517. Ruling from [[Constantinople]], [[List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire|Sultan]] [[Selim I]] relegated Egypt to a [[Eyalet|province]], with Cairo as its capital.{{sfn|Shillington|2005|p=447}} For this reason, the history of Cairo during Ottoman times is often described as inconsequential, especially in comparison to other time periods.{{sfn|Shillington|2005|p=199}}{{sfn|Winter|1992|p=225}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rose |first1=Christopher |last2=Boxberger |first2=Linda |year=1995 |title=Ottoman Cairo |work=Cairo: Living Past, Living Future |publisher=The University of Texas Centre for Middle Eastern Studies |url=http://menic.utexas.edu/cairo/history/ottoman/ottoman.html |access-date=30 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070606231911/http://menic.utexas.edu/cairo/history/ottoman/ottoman.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 June 2007}}</ref>

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Cairo still remained an important economic and cultural centre. Although no longer on the spice route, the city facilitated the transportation of [[Yemen]]i [[coffee]] and [[India]]n [[textile]]s, primarily to [[Anatolia]], [[North Africa]], and the [[Balkans]]. Cairene merchants were instrumental in bringing goods to the barren [[Hejaz]], especially during the annual [[hajj]] to [[Mecca]].{{sfn|Winter|1992|p=225}}{{sfn|İnalcık|Faroqhi|Quataert|McGowan|1997|pp=507–509}} It was during this same period that [[al-Azhar University]] reached the predominance among Islamic schools that it continues to hold today;{{sfn|Winter|2004|p=115}}{{sfn|Daly|Petry|1998|pp=94–95}} pilgrims on their way to hajj often attested to the superiority of the institution, which had become associated with Egypt's body of [[Ulema|Islamic scholars]].{{sfn|Winter|2004|pp=115–117}} The first printing press of the Middle East, printing in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], was established in Cairo {{circa|1557}} by a scion of the [[Soncino family (printers)|Soncino]] family of printers, [[Italian Jews]] of [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi]] origin who operated a press in Constantinople. The existence of the press is known solely from two fragments discovered in the [[Cairo Geniza]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=ROWLAND-SMITH |first=DIANA |title=The Beginnings of Hebrew Printing in Egypt |date=1989 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42554269 |journal=The British Library Journal |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=16–22 |jstor=42554269 |issn=0305-5167 |access-date=22 May 2022 |archive-date=31 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531175722/https://www.jstor.org/stable/42554269 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Louis Comfort Tiffany - On the Way between Old and New Cairo, Citadel Mosque of Mohammed Ali, and Tombs of the Mamelukes - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|[[Louis Comfort Tiffany]] (1848–1933). ''On the Way Between Old and New Cairo, Citadel Mosque of Mohammed Ali, and Tombs of the Mamelukes'', 1872. Oil on canvas. [[Brooklyn Museum]].]]

Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel.{{sfn|Winter|1992|p=226}} The city was the second-largest in the empire, behind Constantinople, and, although migration was not the primary source of Cairo's growth, twenty percent of its population at the end of the 18th century consisted of religious minorities and foreigners from around the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]].{{sfn|Winter|1992|pp=226–227}} Still, when [[Napoleon I|Napoleon]] arrived in Cairo in 1798, the city's population was less than 300,000, forty percent lower than it was at the height of Mamluk—and Cairene—influence in the mid-14th century.{{sfn|Shillington|2005|p=199}}{{sfn|Winter|1992|pp=226–227}}

The [[Campaign of Egypt|French occupation]] was short-lived as [[British Empire|British]] and Ottoman forces, including a sizeable [[Albanians|Albanian]] contingent, recaptured the country in 1801. Cairo itself [[Siege of Cairo|was besieged]] by a British and Ottoman force culminating with the French surrender on 22 June 1801.{{sfn|Sicker|2001|p=103}} The British vacated Egypt two years later, leaving the Ottomans, the Albanians, and the long-weakened [[Mamluk]]s jostling for control of the country.{{sfn|Sicker|2001|p=104}}{{sfn|Afaf Lutfi Sayyid-Marsot|1984|p=39}} Continued civil war allowed an Albanian named [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali Pasha]] to ascend to the role of [[commander]] and eventually, with the approval of the [[ulema|religious establishment]], viceroy of Egypt in 1805.{{sfn|Sicker|2001|pp=104–105}}