Eine Stadt wandert aus. Kollaps und Kontinuität im spätmittelalterlichen Alexandria

Abstract

While the political center of Egypt moved increasingly to Cairo, natural disasters (as earthquakes, droughts, and the plague), communal strife, pirate attacks, administrative reform, and economic change shattered Alexandria’s urban fabric in the late Middle Ages. The city intra muros resisted its decay tenaciously but eventually collapsed after its last important institution, the Venetian consulate, had moved to Cairo in the sixteenth century. However, Alexandria as a whole did not collapse. The neighborhood on the peninsula north of the walled city recovered from the ordeals: It grew thanks to a constant flow of immigrants, tax benefits, and the continued importance of the port. New port facilities, a new fortress, and Sufi-institutions (dating back to the thirteenth century) served as settlement cores supplying the necessary infrastructure. The peninsula became Alexandria’s new center, while the walled city decayed.