Its full name was Arabic: مدينة العسكري, romanized: Madinatu l-‘Askari, lit.

[3][dubious – discuss] Intended primarily as a city large enough to house an army, it was laid out in a grid pattern that could be easily subdivided into separate sections for various groups, such as merchants and officers.

The peak of the Abbasid dynasty occurred during the reign of Harun al Rashid (r. 786-809), along with increased taxes on the Egyptians, who rose up in a peasant revolt in 832 during the time of Caliph al-Ma'mun (r.

As a symbol of this independence, in 868 ibn Tulun founded yet another capital, al-Qatta'i, slightly further north of al-‘Askar.

[4] Al-‘Askar, Fusṭāṭ,[4] and, after the 1168 fire that destroyed old Fustat, nearby al-Qāhirah (Cairo) became capitals of Egypt, the latter keeping this position to this day.