The ”Sultan’s Fair” on 18 December 2021 brought together the local craftspeople of the Sultan Qaitbey neighbourhood and outstanding artisans from other areas of Cairo who presented and sold their products to a numerous and varied audience.

On 11 December2021 the “Marble Crowd” group from Iceland gave a street performance titled “Trash and Treasure”. In the light-hearted spectacle, two Icelandic troll monsters wandered the streets to the tune of local Zaffa music, searching in vain for snow in Cairo.

As part of the 2021 edition of the Breaking Walls festival, on 11 November 2021 Hazem Header and Maciej Piotr Beczek gave a captivating live dance performance titled All Roads Lead To…. at the Maq‘ad of Sultan Qaitbey (MASQ) cultural hub. Live music on oud performed by ‘Ali Eissa accompanied the dancers.

“Beyond the Horizon” was the leading theme of two days of events at the MASQ cultural hub on 4-5 December 2020: an exhibition opening, a concert, a walking tour, and a crafts fair. The title inspired by Bob Dylan’s song reflected the theme of exploring things close by, but not obviously visible.

The sculptor Omar Toussoun created a monumental stone sculpture Keyhole that was mounted in the small square between the mosque/madrassa of Sultan Qaitbey and the oratory of al-Gulshani. It uses mediaeval Islamic forms borrowed directly from the architecture of the neighbourhood.

As all public gatherings have been suspended in Egypt following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the oud concert by the virtuoso Mahmud al-Sawi al-Sayyid was streamed live from an empty hall. It can be viewed on MASQ Facebook page.