Institutional configurations of spatial justice in Cairo: Islamic urban governance and gated urbanism in comparative perspective

Abstract

This article examines how spatial justice is institutionally configured across urban regimes in Cairo through a controlled comparison of premodern Islamic Khiṭaṭ – subdivisions structured by socio-religious and juridical principles – and contemporary gated communities. The study adopts a comparative analytical stance rather than seeking normative reconciliation. Drawing on GIS-based spatial analysis, archival reconstruction of waqf endowments and 42 semi-structured interviews, the article explicitly foregrounds its mixed-methods design to ensure empirical grounding. The findings show measurable disparities in service density and access (3.2 vs 0.8 facilities per hectare; 1.8 vs 0.6 health facilities per 1000 inhabitants) and identifies patterned redistributive infrastructures linked to waqf endowments. The transition from moral oversight under the Muḥtasib – responsible for hisba – to contractual governance in contemporary enclaves is examined through concrete institutional mechanisms of exclusion rather than abstract normative contrast. Rawlsian principles are used heuristically as analytical reference points without presuming hierarchy or equivalence between Islamic and liberal frameworks. The City of the Dead is analysed as a fully integrated empirical case supported by administrative records and spatial mapping, illustrating a hybrid configuration in which distinct regulatory rationalities intersect to produce measurable redistributive outcomes including 22% improvement in potable water access and 18% increase in primary school enrolment. Rather than proposing synthesis, the article situates Islamic and Rawlsian traditions as historically grounded rationalities whose institutional effects can be analytically compared. Conceptualizing spatial justice as an institutional configuration grounded in documented spatial effects, the study contributes to comparative urban theory and governance debates in fragmented metropolitan contexts.