al-Yusufi, one of Qaytbay’s princes, established stables and a residence of his own and excavated Birkat al-Azbakeya, which was fed from the Cairo Citadel Aqueduct. With the Arab's Gulf always serving as the western boundary of the city and feeding nearby ponds, flooding would occur during the summer. After each flooding, surrounding lands would be transformed into lush green areas with vegetation. These beauty of the land in these areas were exquisite and the upper class fought over the each other for the first pick of the land to buy for the construction of their new palaces overlooking such bodies of water as Birkat al Fīl "Elephant Pond" and Azbakeya Pond. Cairo in fifteenth century Cairo was often referred to as "Misr", or Egypt, which implies that Cairo was often considered to be synonymous to Egypt whereas other cities in Egypt were of far less significance. Meshullam Menahem wrote in 1481 "if it were possible to place all the cities of Rome, Milan, Padua, and Florence (all are Italian cities) with four other cities, they would not contain the wealth and population of half of Cairo. When the Arabs ruled Egypt, all the lands were assumed to be owned by the Caliph who distributed some among his military chiefs and farmed out the rest to its former proprietors in return for the poll tax (jizya) required for non-Muslims. By the Ayyubid period, the Iqta`a or feudal system was well established and was continued by the Mamluks as an important source of revenue. Although the Mamluk Amirs owned large pieces of agriculture lands in various parts of Egypt, they did not reside on them. In comparison with the European of that time, the majordomo residing on the land and managed it controlled the village rarely had the chance to go to the capital. The Mamluks used to visit their lands infrequently either for supervision or the collection of the profits. The Mamluk class was not a community, as Max Weber explains that class is a number of people have in common a specific causal component of their life chances. This component is represented exclusively by economic interests in possession of goods and opportunities for income and is represented under the conditions of the commodity or labour markets. Cairo was the centre of trade for the caravans, joining the east with the west and most of the profitable commercial deals were done