Cairo — Muhammed Ali Pasha, the Ottoman viceroy often named as the founder of modern Egypt, did a good job of keeping the intrusive hand of the Ottoman Empire out of the political and military affairs of Egypt. He was more welcoming, however, toward the Ottoman architecture and decorations. One notable example is the elegant sebil, a public fountain or kiosk that offers water to travelers that he built in 1820. It was the first of its kind in Cairo with gilded window grills, calligraphic panels in Ottoman Turkish and delicately carved marble brought from Anatolia.

Located on Moez Street in Cairo’s Al-Aqqadin district, the Muhammed Ali Pasha sebil is a popular and well-restored monument of the Ottoman era — unlike many of the 300 others in the Egyptian capital.

Jalila Othman, deputy head of the parliamentary Culture, Media and Antiquities Committee, has been pushing for a plan to restore sebils, takyehs (poor houses) and other monuments of the Ottoman and Mamluk eras in Cairo and the rest of Egypt. She said in an August 2019 press statement that she will bring the issue to the current session of Parliament, Oct. 2019-July 2020, but so far her proposal has remained off the agenda.

The sebils are examples of the Islamic tradition of providing water as charity so thirsty travelers can drink or water their animals. The building of sebils came to Egypt with the Muslim conquest in 646. In the Mamluk era (1250-1517), sebils grew grander. The Muslim belief that providing water was a great act of charity — with the highest rewards by God — prompted many wealthy men to build sebils. This act of charity turned to architectural splendor under the Ottoman Empire — which conquered Egypt in 1517 — as the fountains and the kiosks became larger and more ostentatious.