were: Vartan the Standard Bearer, or Wardan al-Rumi al-Armani, who saved the life of Amr Ibn al-‘As, the commander of the Arab army at the Siege of Alexandria in 641. From this Vartan Al-Rumi comes the name of a market in Fustat known as the Vartan Market. Ali Ibn Yahya Abu’l Hassan al-Armani – the governor of Egypt in 841 and 849, appointed by the Abbasid Caliph, the spiritual and political guide and leader of Muslims at Baghdad. The courage of Ali, "[who was] versed in the science of war," is praised by the mediaeval Islamic historian Ibn Taghribirdi. Ahmed Ibn Tulun - the new prefect who in 876 was commissioned by Ibn Khatib Al-Ferghani to construct his mosque in his garrison town Al-Qata’i. Ibn Khatib Al-Ferghani - the master builder of Armenian ancestry who rebuilt the Nilometer on the southern tip of Rawda Island to measure the rise of the water level at the annual inundation of the Nile, a critical factor for the prosperity of Egypt. Badr al-Jamali - a manumitted slave of Armenian descent was called by Caliph al-Muntasir in 1073 to assist him during the Fatimid period when Egypt was weakened by inner strife and ravaged by drought, famine and epidemics. Badr's army, composed of mainly Armenian soldiers, is believed to have been formed after the fall of the Bagratuni capital, Ani (1066) when waves of Armenian refugees sought shelter in other countries. Badr al-Jamali was the first military man to become the Vezir (minister) of the Sword and the Pen, thus setting the trend for a century of mostly Armenian Vezirs with the same monopoly of civilian and military powers. At the height of their power, the Armenian Vezir could count on the personal loyalty of more than 20,000 men. Al-Afdal, the son of Badr al-Jamali constructed the Palace of Vezirate, or Dar al Wizarra, besides creating two public parks with exotic gardens, and a recreation area with a man-made lake called Birket al Arman, or Armenian Lake. Three brothers – all architects and masons skilled in cutting and dressing stones, who constructed the three monumental gates of Cairo: Bab al-Nasr and Bab al-Futuh in 1087 and Bab Zuwayla in 1092. The gates with their flanking towers still stand today. The ramparts and gates, which have a certain similarity to the fortifications of the Bagratuni Capital Ani, are regarded as masterpieces of military architecture by