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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Egyegy~enwiki (talk | contribs) at 06:24, 17 March 2007 (moved Fostat to Fustat over redirect: this is much more common). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Fostat (also spelled Fustat; Template:Lang-ar) was the first capital city of Egypt under Arab rule. It was built by Amr ibn al-As right after the Arab conquest of Egypt. It was later overtaken by Cairo, which was built to the north of Fostat during the Fatimid reign. Fostat is now part of the 'Old Egypt' District in Cairo. The City is Egypts First On-Nile Capital since the Pharoes, with Thebes and Memphis, after Alexander's invasion and conquest of Egypt Alexandria was Egypt's capital for hundreds of years. Fostat was named after the Arabic word Fustat (فسطاط) which means tent, the story of the establishment of the city comes that Amr Ibn Al-As has decided to build a capital city for Egypt where his tent was, and thus the name was found.

It is featured in Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land. You can also get information about Misr al-Fustat in Janet Abu-Lughod's 1998 book, Cairo, The City Victorious.

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30°00′N 31°14′E / 30.000°N 31.233°E / 30.000; 31.233

• Egypt geography stubs
• Cities in Egypt