After a relatively painless 11 hr. overnight train ride from Luxor, we arrived back in Cairo for one day to see the sights and hit the Cairo Museum.
Our guide today is Ibraham. Tall guy, about 6'4", found out he used to be on the country's basketball team. In year's past he studied in Germany, and knows English, German, Spanish and Arabic. Very smart guy, really knows his history and is a devote Muslim. So much so that he carries his prayer beads with him in the taxi, similar to rosary beads and has a flat spot on his forehead from his daily prayers.
First was the Citadel, home to Egypt's rulers for over 700 years. Building was begun by Saladin in 1176. It includes mosques, museums and battlements (vital during the Crusades). However, it is dominated by the 19th century mosque of Mohammed Ali, (not the boxer). An interesting story is that he modeled it along lines of the great imperial Ottoman mosques of the day. France offered to donate a large clock for the mosque if Ali would give him one of the Egyptian obelisks from the Luxor temple. He agreed but to the country's despair since it was delivered in 1849 the clock has never worked and nobody, French or Egyptian, has bothered to fix it!
Much of it is constructed out of alabaster. I thought only small perfume bottles were made out of alabaster.
Gloria did get busted when we went into the mosque, her tee shirt and capris did not past muster with the ladies at the entrance, so they draped her in this special robe. Interesting, there were only two other women at that time, out of several hundred that were similarly draped.
After the mosque we moved on to the Coptic Christian (Hanging)church. Tradition tells us that this church was built where "The Holy Family", Joseph, Mary and Jesus, spent time when they traveled to Egypt.
Indeed, tradition states that this is the washbasin that they used. History here is a bit fuzzy. This church was built in the 4th century, then rebuilt in the 11th century. It is called "hanging" because it was built on top of the Water Gate of the old Roman fortress. (There is glass in the floor so you can see how far above the ground you are).
Beautiful stained glass throughout the church.
Finally, we spent a few minutes in the Jewish Synagogue by the citadel. Ibraham knew the rabbi there, they were quite good friends.
So, to finish this blog, I must report on my questioning of Ibraham concerning what the Koran says about non-Muslims. When I asked him if indeed the Koran states that it is the Muslims right and responsibility to kill all non-Muslims, he seemed quite upset. Not at me, but the notion. First, he blamed all of this on the media after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. He suggested I read the Koran itself, (one can get it on Amazon for less than $10) to see what Mohammed had to say.
First of all, he said that Allah told Mohammed that Muslims should never try to convert others to Islam if they weren't interested, ("not even your uncle"). And he also stated that Mohammed said in the Koran that people of all faiths, including Christians and Jews, (Koran was written around 500AD) should be respected and loved.
He went on to say that Muslims are to kill no one, especially women and children, and the only time they are to take someone else's life is in battle, when you look your enemy in the eye.
So, there you have it from a devoted Muslim. Frankly, all I have heard about Islam is from either the media, or from a Christian spokesperson, I have not read the Koran myself. One has to question conclusions that may have been based on Koranic scripture taken out of context. I am only the messenger here, but I do respect Ibraham's perspective. He concluded by saying that it is all people's responsibility to love others, since God first loved us.
