English 'Cairo' comes via Italian from Arabic al-Qāhira, meaning 'the Victorious' — named in 969 CE because the planet Mars was ascendant when the Fatimid conquerors founded the city.
The capital and largest city of Egypt, situated on the Nile River in northeastern Africa.
English 'Cairo' derives via Italian 'Cairo' from Arabic 'al-Qāhira' (القاهرة), meaning 'the Victorious' or 'the Conqueror'. The city was founded in 969 CE by the Fatimid general Jawhar al-Siqilli after the Fatimid conquest of Egypt. According to tradition, the name was chosen because the planet Mars (al-Qāhir, 'the Subduer') was in the ascendant at the time of the city's founding. The Arabic root is q-h-r (قهر) meaning 'to conquer, overpower, subdue'. Earlier settlements on the same site included
Cairo was named after Mars. The Fatimid founders chose the name al-Qāhira because the planet Mars — called al-Qāhir ('the Subduer') in Arabic astronomy — was rising over the city at the moment of its founding in 969 CE. The city's name thus preserves a thousand-year-old astrological reading.