Bahaaeddin Qaraqosh the builder of the Cairo Citadel
Bahaaeddin Qaraqosh, the builder of the Cairo Citadel, Story Bahaaeddin Qaraqosh, the builder of the Cairo Citadel, may have been the victim of a whispering campaign in his lifetime, writes Samir Sobhi In the late 12th century, Egyptians complained a lot about their ruler, the indomitable Bahaaeddin Qaraqosh, whose last name in Turkish means “black eagle”. Qaraqosh was a stern man whose iron-fisted style of governance was often ridiculed, albeit in hushed voices, by his subjects. Qaraqosh was first minister of Egypt under Salaheddin Al-Ayoubi, the great 12th-century commander known in western lore as Saladin. The image of Qaraqosh in popular history is that of an unjust, feeble-minded and heartless tyrant, says historian Mohamed Anan, and to this day Egyptians sometimes refer to hukm Qaraqosh, or “Qaraqosh’s justice”, to denote situations of extreme unfairness. In his book Wafiyat Al-Ayan (Deceased Luminaries), the 13th-century Arab chronicler Ibn Khalkan challenges thi...
