On Tuesday, the 17th Shaban, by Jawhar’s order, a deputation of leading officials, sharifs, the learned, and prominent citizens went out to Giza. By orders announced by a herald everyone except the wazir Ibn al-Furat and the Sharif Abu Jaʿfar, dismounted and saluted Jawhar in turn, the Fatimite general standing with the Sharif on his right hand, the Wazir on his left. After this ceremony was concluded the envoys returned to the city, and the troops commenced their entry with arms and baggage. After the ʿAsr or hour of mid-afternoon prayer Jawhar himself made his entry preceded by drums and flags; he wore a silk dress heavily embroidered with gold, and rode a cream coloured horse. He rode straight through the city with his men, and passing out on the north-east side pitched camp there. Late in the evening in the camping ground he marked out a great square of 1,200 yards base, and men were stationed, spade in hand, ready to start the foundations of this new city, or rather royal suburb, when the signal was given. The projected lines, all sketched out by al-Moʿizz himself beforehand, were marked with pegs, and bells were hung from connected ropes so that a signal might be given for the simultaneous turning of the first sod. Meanwhile the astrologers were busy calculating the propitious moment for the birth of the city. Unexpectedly, however, a raven settling down on one of the ropes set all the bells jingling, and the men at once thrust their spades into the soil. It was too late to check them, though the astrologers found that it was a most inauspicious moment as the planet _al-Kahir_ (Mars) was in the ascendant. There was nothing for it but to accept the omen, and the city thus commenced was named _al-Kahira_ (Cairo), or more fully _al-Kahira al-Mahrusa_ (the guarded city of Mars). It was designed as a royal suburb to be entirely devoted to palaces and official buildings, inaccessible to the general public, similar to the city of al-Muhammadiya outside Kairawan. In course of time, however, the main part of the population of Fustat migrated to Kahira, and it is now the most populous city in the whole of Africa. Fustat, or Misr al-Atika, or simply Misr, was the old Arab city founded in A.H. 21 soon after the conquest. In 133 the suburb of al-ʿAskar to the north-east was added, but this was simply cantonments for the government officials, and was not accessible to the ordinary citizens. Al-Qataiʿ “the wards,” a kind of additional cantonments intended for the foreign mercenary troops, was added in 256, but was partially destroyed by the later ʿAbbasid governors and finally abandoned. Al-Kahira stood further to the north-east, and it was after the burning of Fustat in 564 that the population generally began to colonize this suburb.