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The cairo trilogy5/29/2023 This is Cairo’s, and whatever is seedy in Cairo is worn on its sleeve, above ground. When they talk about seeing the underbelly, they refer to the seedy parts of the city. It is huge and just one of many, bestowed to the city by an Ottoman benefactor, one of many himself. It doesn’t look like a basement because it isn’t this is a water tank we’re standing in, craning our necks. It is a cistern, or sabil. It looks like a cathedral, a subterranean castle, a multi-storey crypt. Stone pillars, high vaulted arches, an opening in one corner big enough for a bucket. We’ve come in from the bright hot street and find ourselves below ground in the cool murk, gazing up. In form perfect, and in fragrance, sublime. He hoped the two would give birth to a wholly new kind – That he had planted it himself – half with native roses, Inside I saw a sprawling, spectacular garden. I dreamt of my mentor, Shaykh Mustafa Abd al-RaziqĪs he entered the main office, I rushed to catch up with him,
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