969 — A New Capital
The Fatimids founded al-Qahira as a dynastic city after the conquest of Egypt. The new capital was organized around the palaces of the caliphs.
Two Palaces
The Great Eastern Palace and Western Palace faced the ceremonial space remembered as Bayn al-Qasrayn — Between the Two Palaces. The name survived after the buildings disappeared.
Palace as Urban Plan
The palatial centre was not inserted into an existing Cairo; it was one of the organizing institutions of the new dynastic city.
After 1171
Ayyubid rule dismantled and repurposed the Fatimid royal landscape. Later Cairo absorbed the palace sites, but their spatial memory endured.