Tentmakers' Market (Souk al-Khayamiya)

The Tentmakers' Market is the last covered souk in Cairo — a narrow street of workshops near Bab Zuweila where artisans create elaborate appliqué textiles using a technique that has been practised in Egypt for centuries. The craftsmen cut intricate geometric and calligraphic designs from coloured fabric and stitch them onto canvas to create the decorative panels (khayamiya) that were traditionally used to line tents, decorate festival pavilions, and cover the mahmal (the ceremonial camel litter that carried the covering of the Kaaba from Cairo to Mecca).

The market's workshops are open to visitors, and watching the craftsmen cut freehand Arabic calligraphy and complex geometric patterns from folded fabric — without templates, using only scissors and generations of inherited skill — is one of Islamic Cairo's most impressive craft demonstrations. The designs range from traditional Quranic calligraphy and geometric patterns to contemporary designs adapted for Western tastes (cushion covers, wall hangings, table runners).

The market sits in the covered passage just inside Bab Zuweila, and the combination of the gate, the market, and the nearby Mosque of al-Mu'ayyad creates a pocket of medieval Cairo that feels more like a museum than a street. The tentmakers are the last practitioners of a craft that once employed hundreds of artisans — the tourism revenue from visitors who buy their work is essential to the trade's survival, making a purchase here an act of cultural preservation as well as shopping.