Fustat פוסטאט
Old Cairo, where the Rambam was physician to the sultan's court, head of the community, and where he wrote the Mishneh Torah.
The Rambam came to Fustat after Córdoba, Fez and the Land of Israel, and stayed for the rest of his life. By day he saw patients at the palace and at home, by night he wrote; in a letter to his translator Shmuel ibn Tibbon he described that routine himself and asked him not to come, since there would be no time to talk.
Here he wrote the Mishneh Torah — the whole of halacha without the arguments — and the Guide for the Perplexed. Seven centuries later the geniza of the Ben Ezra synagogue in Fustat yielded hundreds of thousands of leaves: letters, accounts, drafts, some in the Rambam's own hand.
On the timeline
Sources
Rishonim
- Letter to R. Shmuel ibn Tibbon — the Rambam describes his own day as physician and head of the community
- Mishneh Torah, introduction — the plan of the code written here
Documents of the period
- The Cairo Geniza — hundreds of thousands of leaves of the community's daily life, including the Rambam's autographs
Basis: documents and evidence.