Talk:City of the Dead (Cairo)

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Revision of the article[edit]

The article is in need of some steady revision, I think. There are long stretches of unsourced (though not necessarily inaccurate) material, as well as material that could be abridged to be more relevant to this topic. (It's also possible that when this article was being written earlier, other Cairo articles were of poor quality and so more information was being included here than necessary, whereas now this information should be relegated to their respective main articles.) I will make some revisions where I can, based on the scholarly sources I have. There are some in-depth studies of the cemetery neighborhoods that are fairly authoritative (particularly by Galila El Kadi & Alain Bonnamy in 2007 (english edition)).

I'm starting this talk section so that any discussion/disagreements pertaining to the general revisions can be added here, if helpful. (Casual Builder (talk) 06:42, 23 May 2019 (UTC))[reply]

@Casual Builder: I plan on deleting two of the current sections, specifically: "Historic tours" and "Festivals". The first is a list of prominent shrines across Cairo, but some of these are not located in, or otherwise related to, the City of the Dead or the Qarafa, while the others are now mentioned and described in the "Geography and description" section above. The second section ("Festivals") again describes a festival related to a shrine well outside the Qarafa or City of the Dead; the information may be valid but it should be moved to the Sayyida Zaynab Mosque page or another directly related page. Additionally, both sections are unsourced. (Addendum: not quite unsourced; the second section is sourced to Rodenbeck's Cairo: the City Victorious. While the author's description of the Mawlid of Zaynab might be in the "Cities of the Dead" chapter, the book isn't referring to the Cairo necropolis in particular at this point but is talking about the cults of saints in general. He even specifies that the shrine is in the city center, and makes no mention to the inhabitants of the necropolis celebrating this festival in particular as opposed to Cairenes generally.) Casual Builder (talk) 21:16, 31 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Major revisions done, suggestions for further improvement[edit]

I've completed a major overhaul of the article, but there's still room for improvement. If interested editors are looking for things to contribute, here are a few suggestions of things which I think are needed:

Good maps outlining the Qarafa's geography I think are really needed to help readers, given the size and relative complexity of the area; perhaps especially by outlining and naming the different cemeteries (e.g. Southern vs Northern cemetery). Ideally not just another map of Islamic Cairo, as I couldn't find any that clearly show the cemeteries. I'm not familiar with how policies surrounding fair use apply to taking existing maps (from Google Earth or otherwise) and editing them, if that's an option. (The cemeteries are fairly easy to distinguish on satellite imagery.)
Some more information about the current infrastructure and socioeconomic situation of the cemetery neighbourhoods would still be appreciated, though reliable sources are scarce (you may need some academic/research skills). Please keep in mind that there are different neighbourhoods with different histories and conditions, even if they share similarities: please distinguish between information that applies to one area but not necessarily others. (Often the Northern Cemetery seems to be discussed as a proxy for all the other cemeteries.)
More cultural/religious information about the place of the cemeteries in Cairo's or Egypt's culture might be good, and to what extent the cemeteries are still used today for old or new funerary practices, etc. There was a section about moulids (religious festivals) before, but it was unsourced and concerned shrines outside the cemeteries. If there are important events concerning the Sayyida Nafisa or Sayyida Aisha shrines, for example, they might be relevant. (Note that the shrines of Sayyida Zeynab and Hussein are not in the Qarafa, and should be discussed in their own articles.)
Beyond this article, other related pages could use more attention (look at the "see also" section). There are also some major monuments which don't yet have pages: the Funerary Complex of Sultan Farag ibn Barquq and the Khanqah-Mausoleum of Sultan Barsbay, in particular, stand out in their absence. (As always, if you're looking for good sources, check out the ones already on this page: Behrens-Abouseif, Williams, and El Kadi & Bonnamy are the most reliable to my knowledge, as is Bernard O'Kane's recent book "Mosques of Egypt". Hani Hamza's "The Northern Cemetery of Cairo" is probably also good.)

Those are just my opinion of what's needed; please discuss further as you see fit, as always. Cheers, Casual Builder (talk) 05:20, 17 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]