Animal


In addition to the many forms of sabīls intended for human audiences, residents of Cairo also create sabīls targeted at the cats, dogs, birds, ferrets and other non-human creatures that are common in the city's streets. Some of these are additions at the base of sabīls for humans, designed to capture runoff for animal use or as a secondary container to be filled separately. Containers of water for animals are also placed independently of human sabīls, taking the form of small clay bowls, leftover plastic containers, or－in the case of al-Khalifa－tiled basins projecting from walls or sinks cemented into the sides of buildings. As with the sabīls targeted at humans, these sabīls gather hasanāt for those who create or maintain them. Plastic containers of water set out for animals also form a kind of shifting network of ephemeral sabīls throughout the city, particularly during the summer, and are placed at various heights to account for different audiences (e.g. street level for cats or dogs, on balconies, in trees or above a kiosk for birds).

Animal Sabīl Photograph Gallery

A small clay bowl buried in the ground, half full of water and surrounded by trash and a bird feather. A window low-set on an old stone wall with a metal grate. A white bathroom sink is cemented into the wall below, full of water. A white pigeon sits on the left side of a bathroom sink that has been set outside and filled with water. There is a stack of red bricks covered by a blanket to the left, and a broom is set behind the sink. In the background, two tuktuks behind a chain-link fence sit in a small empty lot between brick buildings. In the foreground, two water bottles have been cut in half and set out to offer water to animals just outside the fence.  The Palestinian flag is painted on the back wall. A white bathroom sink has been cemented into the ground at the corner of two brick walls. A white bucket has been embedded in the ground outside a crumbling stone wall. The bucket is full of relatively clean water but is surrounded by trash. An orange tabby cat drinks out of a short clay dish on a sidewalk. Two hexagonal plastic takeaway containers are set on the wall outside of a mosque courtyard, full of water for birds or other animals. Two short, skinny brown dogs drink out of a bucket placed near a kuldīr, which is attached to a wall where there is a black and white mural. Two small clay dishes are cemented into the wall between a green metal roll up door and a decorative green metal apartment building door. A brown and white dog drinks out of a short clay dish on the sidewalk, with a tuktuk driving by and a man walking in the street in the background. Two clay dishes are set into planter rings on the side of a laundry drying station one story up of a residential street. One clay dish is full of water and the other is full of birdseed. The branch of a tree partially obstructs the view of several dishes set on a platform attached to the outside wall of a building at the corner to offer water to birds. The dishes are clay and plastic. Below the platform are two stickers in Arabic, one that is partially ripped off, and the other translates to 'We created all things from water.' A white bathroom sink is cemented into an old stone wall and filled with water. There are several small planters surrounding it with small plants.