Bazaar of The Coppersmiths, Cairo

The area known to Westerners as the Bazaar of the Coppersmiths was the Sharia al-Nahhasin (Arabic for coppersmiths), part of Sharia Mu'izz id-Din Allah, the Qasaba or the great ceremonial high street of Fatimid Cairo upon which subsequent rulers built.

The building most prominent on the left is part of the façade of the Madrasa of Baybars. Since this building was destroyed in 1874, Roberts’s depiction of it is valuable as documentary evidence. In the centre is the Sabil-Kuttab of Khusraw Pasha, which still stands today. Behind this is the Madrasa-Mausoleum of al-Salih Nagm al-Din Ayyub, last of the Ayyubi dynasty, with its distinctive minaret rising above (see Caroline Williams,Islamic Monuments in Cairo: the Practical Guide, Cairo and New York, 2008, pp. 182-185).