Souq al-Silah Street and the Sabil-Kuttab of Ruqayya Dudu

The road to the Cairo Citadel once hummed with workshops where swords, spears, and armor were made; that is how the old street name gave way to Souq al-Silah Street, the Arms Market. A sabil was established here with water from the Nile: it was kept in an underground reservoir, raised to the lower room, and given to passersby through three arched windows. Above the grilles, a curved marble shelf for bowls has survived, and the open arcade leads to the room where children read and learned the Quran. Later, the local craftsmen repaired guns and pistols, but by the middle of the twentieth century that craft too had disappeared.

At the beginning of seventeen fifty-eight, Badawiya bint Shahin buried her daughter. Young Ruqayya Dudu became one of the victims of a plague epidemic that had begun in Cairo a year earlier. A tomb was built for her in the Southern Cemetery. Her grave is not here.

Badawiya was a wealthy widow from a military commander's family and managed a large fortune independently. Three years after Ruqayya's death, she commissioned a sabil-kuttab on this street—a public water source and a school above it. In Ottoman Cairo, such a commission from a woman was still rare: this was the third known urban sabil built by a woman.

Workers brought water here from the Nile and filled an underground reservoir. The water was then raised to the lower room and distributed to passersby through three windows. Bowls stood on a curved marble shelf in front of the grilles. One floor above, children learned to read and memorized the Quran. Badawiya paid for a service that people could use day after day; in return, she hoped for prayers for her deceased daughter.

The site was chosen on the road to the Cairo Citadel, where soldiers, merchants, and residents of the surrounding neighborhoods constantly passed. The street was formerly called Suwayqat al-Izza, after a Mamluk emir who lived here. When workshops for swords, spears, and armor opened along it, Cairenes began to call it Souq al-Silah Street—the Arms Market. Later, craftsmen repaired guns and pistols here; by the middle of the twentieth century, that craft too had disappeared.

The facade preserves an exact layout of the undertaking Badawiya envisioned. The three arched openings below were for distributing water, while the open arcade above them belonged to the schoolroom. Above the middle window, the mother ordered a plea carved to God to have mercy on Ruqayya Dudu, daughter of Badawiya bint Shahin. The young woman's name is repeated on the metal grille together with the year of construction—seventeen sixty-one.

Ruqayya's body lies in another part of Cairo. Here, the water windows, the schoolroom, and her name have survived on a street still called the Arms Market.