Alexandria

Alexandria is an ancient city, much faded with time, but recently resurgent. Since the end of Roman rule in Egypt, Alexandria has been dwindling, its prestige and wealth stolen by Fustat, then Cairo. In the ninth century the city's walls were rebuilt, and they surrounded about half of the ancient city. The city continued to shrink until 1181, when Saladin refortified Alexandria, and founded new suburbs to the east and south of the walls. The city is currently enjoying a period of comparative prosperity.

The loss of Damietta to the Fifth Crusade, just last year, has made this the prime port for the court in Cairo. Pilgrims wishing to avoid pillage by the Christians land at Alexandria, and then cross the land to the Nile, before continuing south. Alexandria is now also the main fleet base for the sultan, which has bought work and money to the city. The sultan's largesse, always tremendous in this city, flows in at an unprecedented rate. There's money to be made, and the city is full of the sharp, the ambitious, and the connected.

Although Alexandria's people pay no taxes save the awqaf (a small poll tax), the sultan pours out riches through the town. The sultan's benefactions to this city are too great to count. They are so numerous that, if a storyguide ever needs to come up with a justification for virtually any practice, she can just say "The sultan pays for it." As examples, Alexandria has more mosques than any other city in the world. There are estimated to be between 8,000 and 12,000 mosques in the city, each with an imam who is paid a stipend of 5 dinars by the sultan. The sultan gives away 2,000 loaves of bread each day in Alexandria. This custom was set up by Saladin, who said that people who crossed the desert should have this bread, even if they were carrying their own weight in gold and silver. The loaves of bread must be taken, even if travelers neither need nor want them, and many are passed on to the less fortunate of the city. So long as the Nile is high and he is rich, the sultan has so much money that highly unlikely things happen in his name.