THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/accountofmannersOOIane A N ACCOUNT OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE MODERN EGYPTIANS, WRITTEN IN EGYPT DURING THE YEARS 1833, -34. AND -35, PARTLY FROM NOTES MADE DURING A FORMER VISIT TO THAT COUNTRY IX THE YEARS (885, -26, -27, USB -28. By EDWARD WILLIAM LANE, HON.M.K.S.L., ETC., TKASM.ATOK OF "THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS." THE FIFTH EDITION. WITH NUMEROUS ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS, FROM A COPY ANNOTATED BY THE AUTHOR. EDITED BY HIS KEMUW, EDWARD STANLEY POOLK, M.R.A.S., KTC ^ LONDON: JOHN (Jk&R fi A Y. A L B E M A R L E I860. STREET. LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET. CONTENTS. PAGE Editor's Preface ........ xi Author's Preface . . . . . . . xiii Advertisement to the Third Edition . . . . . xxi INTRODUCTION. The Country and Climate — Metropolis — Houses — Population ... 1 CHAPTER I. Personal Characteristics, and Dress, of the Muslim Egyptians . , 25 CHAPTER II. Infancy and Early Education ....... 53 CHAPTER III. Religion and Laws ........ 64 CHAPTER IV. Government . . . . . . . . .lit' CHAPTER V. Domestic Life (Men of the Higher and Middle Orders) . . . 132 CHAPTER VI. Domestic Life— continued (Women of the Higher and Middle Orders) . 1 55 CHAPTER Vn. Domestic Life — continued (The Lower Orders) . . . . . 192 CHAPTER VIII. Common Usages of Society . . . . . . .198 CHAPTER IX. Language, Literature, and Science ...... 207 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER X PACK Superstitions (Genii, Saints, and Darweoshes) .... 222 CHAPTEB XI. Superstitions — continued (Charms, and Auguration) .... 247 CHAPTER XH. Magic, Astrology, and Alchymy ...... 263 CHAPTEB XIII. Character . . . . . . . . - 276 CHAPTER XI V. Industry . . ... . . . .307 CHAPTER XV. Use of Tobacco, Coffee, Hemp, Opium, &c. . . . . .331 CHAPTER XVI. The Bath . . . . . . . . .336 CHAPTER XVII. Games ..... A ... . . 344 CHAPTER XVIII. Music . . . ' f -rfM ..... 353 CHAPTER XIX. Public Dancers ......... 377 CHAPTER XX. Serpent-Charmers, and Performers of Legerdemain Tricks, &c. . . 383 CHAPTER XXI. Public Recitations of Romances ...... 391 CHAPTER XXII. Public Recitations of Romances — continued ..... 400 CHAPTER XXIII. Public Recitations of Romances — continued . . . . .414 CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER XXIV. PAGE Periodical Public Festivals, fte. (Those of the first three months of the Muslim year.) . . . . . . . . • +20 CHAPTER XXV. Periodical Public Festivals, .See. — continued. (Those of the fourth and follow- ing1 months of the Muslim year.) . . . . 4">7 CHAPTER XXVI. Periodical Public Festivals. lV.c. — continued. (Those of the Solar year.) . 488 CHAPTER XXVII. Private Festivities, &c. ........ 500 CHAPTER XXVIII. Death, and Funeral Rites . . . . . . . Ml SUPPLEMENT. I. — The Copts ......... 529 II. — The Jews of Egypt ....... 553 III. — Of late Innovations in Egypt ...... APPENDIX A. Female Ornaments .... APPENDIX B. Egyptian Measures, Weights, and Moneys 71 APPENDIX C. Household Expenditure in Cairo .... 574 APPENDIX D. lVayer of Muslim School-Boys . . . ,7 -, APPENDIX E. Directions for the Treatment of Dysentery and Ophthalmia . . . APPENDIX F. Editor's Notes ... Index 599 ILLUSTKATIONS. 1. Sketch in a Guest-Chamber. Fkontispiece. pauk 2. Private Houses in Cairo 5 3. Door of a Private House 7 4. Specimens of Lattice-work ......... 8 5. Court of a Private House in Cairo . 10 6. Pavement of a Durka'ah 12 7. Fountain. t .. 13 8. Stiffen ib, 9. Specimens of Panel-work 14 10. Ceiling of a Durka'ah 15 11. Ceiling of a projecting Window ib. 12. A Ka'ah 17 13. Wooden Lock ............ 19 14. Men of the Middle and Higher Classes 29 1 5. Men of the Lower Classes , 33 16. The Mukleh . 35 17. An Eye ornamented with Kohl 36 18. Muk-hulahs and Mirweds ......... 37 19. Ancient Vessel and Probe for Kohl ib. 20. An Eye and Eyebrow ornamented with Kohl, as represented in ancient Paintings ib. 2 1 . Hands and Feet stained with "Henna 38 22. A tattooed Girl 40 23. Specimens of Tattooing on the Chin ....... ib. 24. Tattooed Hands and Foot . ib. 25. A Lady in the Dress worn in private ....... 42 26. A Lady adorned with the Kurs and Safa, &c 44 27. Ladies attired for Riding or Walking 46 28. Women and Children of the Lower Classes 48 29. A Woman clad in the Milayeh, &c 49 30. Ornamented black Veils 50 31. The Asbeh ib. 32. A Woman of the Southern Province of Upper Egypt .... 51 33. Parade previous to Circumcision 58 34. A School-Boy learning the Alphabet 60 35. Vessels for Ablution 69 36. Postures of Prayer . 76 37. Postures of Prayer — continued 77 38. Interior of a Mosque 80 ILLUSTRATIONS. ix PAGE 39. Pipes 135 40. Coffee-service 137 41. 'Az'kee and Mankals 139 42. An Ass equipped in the usual manner for riding 140 43. Tisht and Ibreek 142 44. Washing before or after a Meal 143 45. Kursee and Seeneeyeh ib. 46. A Party at Dinner or Supper 144 47. Water-bottles (Ddraks), with covers of different kinds . . . . 147 48. Water-bottles (Kullehs) 148 49. Earthen Mibkharah, and China Ddrak ib. 50. Brass Drinking-cups 149 51. Sherbet -cups 150 52. Lantern and Lamp 151 53. Lantern, &c, suspended on the occasion of a Wedding . . . . 1G2 54. Bridal Procession (Part I.) 164 55. Bridal Procession (Part II.) 165 56. Mesh'als 169 57. The Menseg • 188 58. Ladies Riding 190 59. Kuinkum and Mibkharah 203 60. Books, and Apparatus for Writing 210 61. Magic Invocation and Charm 269 62. Magic Square and Mirror of Ink 270 63. Shops in a Street of Cairo 314 64. Shop of a Turkish Merchant in the Sook called Khan El-Khaleelee . .316 65. Sakkas 320 66. Sakka Sharbeh 321 67. Hemalees 322 68. 'Erk-soosee . 323 69. Musellikatee 324 70. The Shadoof 327 ft. Section of the Hararah | 338 72. Plan of a Bath 339 73. Foot-rasps 341 74. Mankalah 347 75. Seega 349 76. Kemengeh 357 77. A Performer on the Kemengeh 358 78. Kanoon 359 79. A Performer on the Kanoon 360 80. 'Ood . . . . • . . 361 81. A Performer on the "Ood .... .... 362 82. Nay ib. 83. A Performer on the Nay 363 84. Rabab esh-Sha'er 364 85. Sagat 366 86. Tar ib. 87. Darabukkeh ib. 88 and 89. Earthen Darabukkeh 367 90 and 9 1 . Zummarah ib. I ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 92. Mouth-piece of the Zummarah 367 93. Arghool ... Ood es-Saleeb ib. 112 and 113. Mishts ib. 114. 'Akeek ib. 115. Belloor ib. 116. Ear-rings 564 117. Necklaces 565 118. Bracelets 566 119. 120, 121, and 122. Bark 567 123. Masoorah «&. 124. Habbeh ib. 125. Shiftisheh ib. 126. Anklets ib. 127. Hegabs . . ... . . . . . . . . . 568 128. Nose-rings 569 129. Tok, or Neck-ring . . . , ib. 130. Part of the Interior of a Tumulus at Kertch 587 131. Ornament from the Interior of a Tomb at Cairo 588 EDITOR'S PREFACE. The present edition of the " Modern Egyptians " is printed in the sanie manner as the companion-volumes of the " Thousand and One Nights," from the text of Mr. Lane's last edition, with the additions and alterations which he has, from time to time, made in a copy of the work.1 The duty of correcting the press I undertook because important studies rendered it impossible for the Author to do so : and my en- deavour has been to produce, by careful collation, a faithful text of a book which I feel it is not in my power to improve. In superintend- ing a new edition of the " Thousand and One Nights " I was conscious how little might be added of use or relevance. What was then diffi- cult I found in the " Modern Egyptians " to be impossible, and deter- mined to insert nothing in the text, even as a foot-note. The notes I wished to make are therefore confined to an Appendix, and even in that form I have doubted the propriety of printing them. But though not necessary to the completeness of an account of manners and customs, they touch on subjects relative to the Muslim inha- bitants of Egypt, and may therefore be found of interest. What 1 have said in them, I have endeavoured to say as briefly as may be, relying on facts rather than opinions, in the hope of supplying materials for more elaborate treatises. Of the " Modern Egyptians,*' as the work of an Uncle and Master, it would be difficult for me to speak, were its merits less known and recognized than they are. At once the most remarkable description of a people ever written, and one that cannot now be rewritten, it will always live in the literature of England. With a thorough i These have been, in some portions, considerable, and such as render this the Standard Edition of the work. xii EDITOR'S PREFACE. knowledge of the people and of their language, singular power of description, and minute accuracy, Mr. Lane wrote his account of the " Modern Egyptians." when they could, for the last time, be described. Twenty-five years of steam-communication with Egypt have more altered its inhabitants than had the preceding five cen- turies. They then retained the habits and manners of their remote ancestors : they now are yearly straying from old paths into the new ways of European civilization. Scholars will ever regard it as most fortunate that Mr. Lane seized his opportunity, and described so remarkable a people while yet they were unchanged. A residence of seven years in Egypt, principally in Cairo, while it enabled me to become familiar with the people, did not afford me any new fact that might be added to this work : and a distinguished English as well as Biblical scholar, the Author of " Sinai and Pales- tine," not long ago remarked to me, " ' The Modern Egyptians' is the most provoking book I ever read : whenever I thought I had dis- covered, in Cairo, something that must surely have been omitted, I invariably found my new fact already recorded." I may add that a well-known German Orientalist has lately visited Cairo with the express intention of correcting Mr. Lane's descriptions, and confessed that his search after mistakes was altogether vain. I have not thought it expedient to add to the chapter on Late Innovations in Egypt. That chapter brought down the history of its inhabitants to the best time of the rule of Mohammad 'Alee, and closed the record of an exclusively Eastern nation. To continue it would be only to chronicle the gradual disuse of their national and characteristic customs, and the adoption of Western habits that must mark a new era in their history as a nation. The woodcuts in this edition are the same as those of the former editions, printed from the same blocks, with the exception of the Frontispiece, which, though it is from a sketch of Mr. Lane's, was not, like the rest, drawn by him on the wood. London, November, 18G0. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. Cairo, 1835. During a former visit to this country, undertaken chiefly for the purpose of studying the Arabic language in its most famous school, I devoted much of my attention to the manners and customs of the Arab inhabitants ; and in an intercourse of two years and a half with this people, soon found that all the information which I had pre- viously been able to obtain respecting them was insufficient to be of much use to the student of Arabic literature, or to satisfy the cu- riosity of the general reader. Hence I was induced to cover some quires of paper with notes on the most remarkable of their usages, partly for my own benefit, and partly in the hope that I might have it in my power to make some of my countrymen better acquainted with the domiciliated classes of one of the most interesting nations of the world, by drawing a detailed picture of the inhabitants of the largest Arab city. The period of my first visit to this country did not, how- ever, suffice for the accomplishment of this object, and for the prosecution of nvy other studies; and I relinquished the idea of pub- lishing the notes which I had made on the modern inhabitants : but, five years after my return to England, those notes were shown to some members of the Committee of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, at whose suggestion, the Committee, interested with the subjects of them, and with the novelty of some of their contents, en- gaged me to complete and print them. Encouraged by their appro- bation, and relying upon their judgment, I immediately determined to follow their advice, and, by the earliest opportunity, again departed to Egypt. After another residence of more than a year in the metro- xiv AUTHOR'S PREFACE. polis of this country, and half a year in Upper Egypt, I have now accomplished, as well as I am able, the task proposed to me.1 It may be said, that the English reader already possesses an ex- cellent and ample description of Arab manners and customs in Dr. Russell's account of the people of Aleppo. I will not forfeit my own claim to the reputation of an honest writer by attempting to detract from the just merits of that valuable and interesting work ; but must assert that it is, upon the whole, rather an account of Turkish than of Arab manners ; and that neither the original Author, nor his brother, to whom wre are indebted for the enlarged and much improved edition, wras sufficiently acquainted with the Arabic language to scrutinize some of the most interesting subjects of inquiry winch the plan of the work required them to treat : nor w ould their well-known station in Aleppo, or perhaps their national feelings, allow them to assume those disguises wdiich were necessary to enable them to become familiar with many of the most remarkable religious ceremonies, opinions, and superstitions of the people whom they have described. Defi- ciencies in their remarks on these subjects are the only faults of any importance that I can discover in their excellent and learned work.'2 1 It gives me great pleasure to find, that, while I have been attempting to preserve memorials of the manners and customs of the most polished modern Arab people, one of my learned friends (M. Ful- gence Fresnel) has been occupied, with eminent success, in rescuing from oblivion man)- interesting notices of the history of the early Arabs, and that another (Mr. [now, Sir Gardner] Wilkinson) has been preparing to impart to us an account of the private life, manners, &c, of the Ancient Egyptians. [The very high and just commendation which the works of these two authors (published since the above was written) have obtained from eminent critics renders it needless for me to add my humble testimony to their merits.] 2 Among the memoirs in "the great French work " on Egypt, is one entitled " Essai sur les mceurs des habitans modernes de I'Egypte;" but its author appears to me to have fallen into an error of considerable magnitude, in applying to the Egyptians, in general, observations which were, in truth, for the most part descriptive of the manners and customs of their naturalized rulers, the Memlooks. It is probable that the Egyptians in some degree imitated, when they were able to do so, the habits and customs of this class : I may, however, venture to affirm, that the essay here alluded to does not convey a true notion of their present moral and social state. Its author, moreover, shews himself to have been often ex- tremely careless both in his observations and in- quiries: this is particularly evident in his singular misstatement of the correspondence of French and Mohammedan hours, and in the first two pages (in the 8vo. edition) of the section on public fetes. He has given many just philosophical observa- tions ; but these occupy too large a proportion of a memoir scarcely exceeding one-third of the ex- tent of the present work. To shew that these remarks are not made in an invidious spirit, I most willingly express my high admiration of other parts of "the great work " (especially the contributions of M. Jomard), relating to subjects which have alike employed my mind and pen, and upon which I shall probably publish my ob- servations.—Burckhardt's " Arabic Proverbs," and their illustrations, convey many notions of re- markable customs and traits of character of the modern Egyptians ; but are very far from com- posing a complete exposition, or, in every case, a true one j for national proverbs are bad tests of the morality of a people. — There is one work, however, which presents most admirable pictures of the manners and customs of the Arabs, and particularly of those of the Egyptians ; it is " The Thousand and One Nights; or, Arabian Nights' Entertainments :'' if the English reader had pos- sessed a close translation of it with sufficient illus- trative notes, I might almost have spared myself the labour of the present undertaking.— [This AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xv I have been differently circumstanced. Previously to my first visit to this country, I acquired some knowledge of the language and literature of the Arabs; and in a year after my first arrival here, I was able to converse with the people among whom I was residing, with tolerable ease. I have associated, almost exclusively, with Mus- lims, of various ranks in society : I have lived as they live, conform- ing with their general habits ; and, in order to make them familiar and unreserved towards me on every subject, have always avowed my agreement with them in opinion whenever my conscience would allow me, and in most other cases refrained from the expression of my dissent, as well as from every action which might give them disgust ; abstaining from eating food forbidden by their religion, and drinking wine, &c. ; and even from habits merely disagreeable to them; such as the use of knives and forks at meals. Having made myself ac- quainted with all their common religious ceremonies, I have been able to escape exciting, in strangers, any suspicion of my being a person who had no right to intrude among them, whenever it was necessary for me to witness any Muslim rite or festival. AVhile, from the dress which I have found most convenient to wear, I am generally mistaken, in public, for a Turk, my acquaintances, of course, know me to be an Englishman ; but I constrain them to treat me as a Muslim, by my freely acknowledging the hand of Providence in the introduction and diffusion of the religion of El-Islam, and, when interrogated, avowing my belief in the Messiah, in accordance with the words of the Kur-an, as the Word of God infused into the womb of the Virgin Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him. Thus, I believe, I have acquired their good opinion, and much of their confidence ; though not to such an extent as to prevent my having to contend with many difficulties. The Muslims are very averse from giving information on subjects con- , nected with their religion or superstitions to persons whom they sus- pect of differing from them in sentiments ; but very ready to talk on such subjects with those whom they think acquainted with them. Hence I have generally obtained some slight knowledge of matters difficult for me thoroughly to learn from one of the most lax, and of the least instructed, of my friends ; so as to be able to draw into con- remark, respecting " The Thousand and One tion of the present work, to translate those admi- Xights," was, I believe, the cause of my being rable tales, and to illustrate them by explanatory employed, since the pubbcation of the first edi- notes.] xvi AUTHOR'S PREFACE. versation, upon the desired topics, persons of better information ; and by this mode I have invariably succeeded in overcoming their scruples. I have had two professors of Arabic and of Muslim religion and law as my regular, salaried tutors ; and, by submitting to them questions on any matters respecting which I was in doubt, have authenticated or corrected, and added to, the information derived from conversation with my other friends. Occasionally, also, I have applied to higher authorities; having the happiness to number among my friends in this city some persons of the highest attainments in Eastern learning. Perhaps the reader may not be displeased if I here attempt to ac- quaint him more particularly with one of my Muslim friends, the first of those above alluded to ; and to shew, at the same time, the light in which he, like others of his country, regards me in my pre- sent situation. The sheykh Ahmad (or seyyid Ahmad, for he is one of the numerous class of " shereefs," or descendants of the Prophet,) is somewhat more than forty years of age, by his own confession ; but appears more near to fifty. He is as remarkable in physiognomy as in character. His stature is under the middle size : his beard reddish, and now becoming grey. For many years he has been nearly blind : one of his eyes is almost entirely closed ; and both are ornamented on particular occasions (at least on the two grand annual festivals) with a border of the black pigment called "kohl," which is seldom used but by women. He boasts his descent not only from the Prophet, but also from a very celebrated saint, Esh-Shaarawee ;T and his com- plexion, which is very fair, supports his assertion that his ancestors, for several generations, lived in the north-western parts of Africa. He obtains his subsistence from a slender patrimony, and by exercising the trade of a bookseller. Partly to profit in this occupation, and partly for the sake of society, or at least to enjoy some tobacco and coffee, he is a visiter in my house almost every evening. For several years before he adopted the trade of a bookseller, which was that of his father, he pursued no other occupation than that of performing in the religious ceremonies called "zikrs;" which consist in the repetition of the name and attributes &c. of God, by a number of persons, in chorus ; and in such performances he is still often em- Thus commonly pronounced, for Esh-Shaar:'inec AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xvii ployed. He was then a member of the order of the Saadeeyeh dar- weeshes, who are particularly famous for devouring live serpents ; and he is said to have been one of the serpent-eaters : but he did not confine himself to food so easily digested. One night, during a meeting of a party of danveeshes of his order, at which their Sheykh was present, my friend became affected with religious frenzy, seized a tall glass shade which surrounded a candle placed on the floor, and ate a large portion of it. The Sheykh and the other darweeshes, looking at him with astonishment, upbraided him with having broken the institutes of his order; since the eating of glass was not among the miracles which they were allowed to perform ; and they immediately expelled him. He then entered the order of the Ahmedeeyeh; and as they, likewise, never ate glass, he determined not to do so again. However, soon after, at a meeting of some brethren of this order, when several Saadeeyeh also were present, he again was seized with frenzy, and, jumping up to a chandelier, caught hold of one of the small glass lamps attached to it, and devoured about half of it, swallowing also the oil and water which it contained. He was conducted before his Sheykh, to be tried for this offence ; but on his taking an oath never to eat glass again, he was neither punished nor expelled the order. Not- withstanding this oath, he soon again gratified his propensity to eat a glass lamp; and a brother- darweesh, who was present, attempted to do the same ; but a large fragment stuck between the tongue and palate of this rash person; and my friend had great trouble to extract it. He was again tried by his Sheykh ; and, being reproached for having broken his oath and vow of repentance, he coolly answered, " I repent again : repentance is good : for He whose name be exalted hath said, in the Excellent Book, ' Verily God loveth the repent- ant.' " The Sheykh, in anger, exclaimed, " Dost thou dare to act in this manner, and then come and cite the Kur-an before me V — and with this reproof, he ordered that he should be imprisoned ten days j after which, he made him again swear to abstain from eating glass ; and on this condition he was allowed to remain a member of the Ahmedeeyeh. This second oath he professes not to have broken. — The person wThose office it was to prosecute him related to me these facts ; and my friend reluctantly confessed them to be true. When I was first acquainted with the sheykh Ahmad, he had long been content with one wife ; but now he has indulged himself with a xviii AUTHOR'S PREFACE. second/ who continues to live in her parents' house : yet he has taken care to assure me that he is not rich enough to refuse my yearly present of a dress. On my visiting him for the second time during my present residence in this place, his mother came to the door of the room in which I wras sitting with him, to complain to me of his conduct in taking this new wife. Putting her hand within the door, to give greater effect to her words by proper action (or perhaps to shew how beautifully the palm, and the tips of the fingers, glowed with the fresh red dye of the " henna "), but concealing the rest of her person, she commenced a most energetic appeal to my sympathy. — " 0 Efendee \" she exclaimed, " I throw myself upon thy mercy ! I kiss thy feet ! I have no hope but in God and thee !" "What words are these, my mistress?" said I: "what misfortune hath befallen thee? and what can I do for thee? Tell me." — "This son of mine," she continued, "this my son Ahmad, is a worthless fellow; he lias a wife here, a good creature, with whom he has lived happily, with God's blessing, for sixteen years ; and now he has neglected her and me, and given himself up to a second wife, a young, impudent wench : he lavishes his money upon this monkey, and others like her, and upon her father and mother and uncles and brother and brother's children, and I know not whom besides, and abridges us, that is, myself and his first wife, of the comforts to which we were before accustomed. By the Prophet ! and by thy dear head ! I speak truth. I kiss thy feet, and beg thee to insist upon his divorcing his new wife." The poor man looked a little foolish while his mother was thus address- ing me from behind the door ; and as soon as she was gone, promised to do what she desired. "But," said he, "it is a difficult case. I was in the habit of sleeping occasionally in the house of the brother of the girl whom I have lately taken as my wife : he is a clerk in the employ of 'Abbas Basha, ; and, rather more than a year ago, 'Abbas Basha, sent for me, and said, ' I hear that you are often sleeping in the house of my clerk Mohammad. Why do you act so ? Do you not know that it is very improper, when there are women in the house ?' I said, 1 1 am going to marry his sister.' f Then why have you not married her already ?' asked the Basha. 1 She is only nine years of age.' ' Is the marriage contract made ?' — ' No.' ' Why not ?' — ' I 1 He professes to have had more than thirty wives in the course of his life; but, in savin? so, I believe he greatly exaggerates. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xix cannot afford, at present, to give the dowry/ 1 What is the dowry to be V — ' Ninety piasters.' 1 Here, then,' said the Basha, ' take the money, and let the contract be concluded immediately.' So you see I was obliged to marry the girl; and I am afraid that the Basha will be angry if I divorce her: but I will act in such a manner that her brother shall insist upon the divorce ; and then, please God, I shall live in peace again." — This is a good example of the comfort of having two wives. A short time since, upon his offering me a copy of the Kur-an, for sale, he thought it necessary to make some excuse for doing so. He remarked that by my conforming with many of the ceremonies of the Muslims, I tacitly professed myself to be one of them ; and that it was incumbent upon him to regard me in the most favourable light, which he was the more willing to do because he knew that I should incur the displeasure of my King by making an open profession of the faith of El-Islam, and therefore could not do it.1 "You give me," said he, "the salutation of ' Peace be on you!' and it would be impious in me, being directly forbidden by my religion, to pronounce you an unbeliever; for God, whose name be exalted, hath said, ' Say not unto him who greeteth thee with peace, Thou art not a believer :' 2 there- fore," he added, " it is no sin in me to put into your hands the noble Kur-an : but there are some of your countrymen who will take it in unclean hands, and even sit upon it ! I beg God's forgiveness for talk- ing of such a thing : far be it from you to do so : you, praise be to God, know and observe the command, ' None shall touch it but they who are purified/ " " He once sold a copy of the Kur-an, on my application, to a countryman of mine, who, being disturbed, just as the bargain was concluded, by some person entering the room, hastily put the sacred book upon the seat, and under a part of his dress, to conceal it. The bookseller was much scandalized by this action ; think- iug that my friend was sitting upon the book, and that he was doing so to shew his contempt of it : he declares his belief that he has been heavily punished by God for this unlawful sale. — There was only one thing that I had much difficulty in persuading him to do during my 1 It is a common belief anion? the Egyptians, that every European traveller who visits their country is an emissary from his King : and it is difficult to convince them that this is not the case : so strange to them is the idea of a man's incurring great trouble and expense for the pur- pose of acquiring the knowledge of foreign coun- tries and nations. 2 Kur-an, ch. iv. v. 96. s Kur-an, ch. lvi. v. 7$. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. former visit to this country ; which was, to go with me, at a particular period, into the mosque of the Hasancyn, the reputed burial-place of the head of El-Hoseyn, and the most sacred of the mosques in the Egyptian metropolis. On my passing with him before one of the en- trances of this building, one afternoon during the fast of Ramadan, when it was crowded with Turks, and many of the principal people of the city were among the congregation, I thought it a good oppor- tunity to see it to the greatest advantage, and asked my companion to go in with me. He positively refused, in the fear of my being dis- covered to be an Englishman, which might so rouse the fanatic anger of some of the Turks there, as to expose me to some act of violence. I therefore entered alone. He remained at the door, following me with his eye only (or his only eye), and wondering at my audacity ; but as soon as he saw me acquit myself in the usual manner, by walk- ing round the bronze screen which surrounds the monument over the spot wheretthe head of the martyr is said to be buried, and then put- ting myself into the regular postures of prayer, he came in, and said his prayers by my side. After relating these anecdotes, I should mention that the characters of my other acquaintances nere are not marked by similar eccentri- cities. My attentions to my visiters have been generally confined to the common usages of Eastern hospitality; supplying them with pipes and coffee, and welcoming them to a share of my dinner or supper. Many of their communications I have written in Arabic, at their dic- tation, and since translated, and inserted in the following pages. What I have principally aimed at, in this work, is correctness ; and I do not scruple to assert that I am not conscious of having endeavoured to render interesting any matter that I have related by the slightest sacrifice of truth. P. S. With regard to the engravings which accompany this work, I should mention that they are from drawings which I have made, not to embellish the pages, but merely to explain the text. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION. Since the publication of the first edition of the present work, the studies in which I have been engaged have enabled me to improve it by various corrections and additions ; and the success which it has obtained (a success very far beyond my expectations) has excited me to use my utmost endeavours to rectify its errors and supply its defects. In reading the Kur-an, with an Arabic commentary, I have found that Sale's version, though deserving of high commendation for its general accuracy, is incorrect in many important passages ; and hence I have been induced to revise with espeeial care my abstract of the principal Muslim laws : for as Sale had excellent commentaries to consult, and I, when I composed that abstract, had none, I placed great reliance on his translation. My plan, in the execution of that portion of my work, was to make use of Sale's translation as the basis, and to add what appeared necessary from the Sunneh and other sources, chiefly at the dictation of a professor of law, who was my tutor : but I have found that my foundation was in several points faulty. I am indebted to a gentleman who possesses a thorough knowledge of the spirit of Muslim institutions 1 for the suggestion of some im- provements in the same and other portions of this wTork ; and obser- vations made by several intelligent critics have lessened the labour of revision and emendation. I have also profited, on this occasion, by a paper containing a number of corrections and additions wrritten in Egypt, which I had mislaid and forgotten : but none of these are of much importance. i David Urquhart, Esq* author of - The Spirit of the East," &e. xxii ADVERTISEMENT. The mode in which Arabic words were transcribed in the previous editions I thought better calculated than any other to enable an English reader, unacquainted with the Arabic language, to pronounce those words with tolerable accuracy; but it was liable to serious ob- jections, and was disagreeable, in some respects, to most Oriental scholars, and to myself. I have therefore now employed, in its stead, as I did in my translation of "The Thousand and One Nights/' a system congenial with our language, and of the most simple kind ; and to this system I adhere in every case, for the sake of uniformity, as well as truth} It requires little explanation : the general reader may be directed to pronounce " a " as in our word " beggar :" 2 " i " as in " bid :" " a " as in " father :"3 " o " as in " obey " (short) : " e " as in " bed :" " 6 " as in "bone :" " e " as in " there :" " oo " as in " boot :" " ee " as in " bee :" " ow " as in " down :" " ei " as in our word " eye :" " u " as in " bull :" " ey " as in " they :" " y " as in " you." An apostrophe, when immediately preceding or following a vowel, I employ to denote the place of a letter which has no equivalent in our alphabet : it has a guttural sound, like that which is heard in the bleating of sheep. The vowel " a " with a dot beneath (a) represents the same sound when it is more forcibly pronounced. Each of the consonants distinguished by a dot beneath has a peculiarly hard sound. The distinction of these letters is of great importance to Arabic scholars, and to travellers in Egypt.4 The usual sign of a diaeresis I sometimes employ to shew that a final " e V is not mute, but pronounced as that letter, when unaccented, in the beginning or middle of a word. 1 Here I must mention, that I have written " Basha " instead of " Pasha " in conformity with the pronounciation of the Egyptians. 2 Strictly speaking, it has a sound between that of "a" in "bad" and that of "u" in "bud;" sometimes approximating more to the former, and sometimes to the latter. 3 Its sound, however, often approximates to that of " a " in " ball." 4 "l)h" is pronounced as "th" in "that:"'— " g," generally as iu " give ;" but in some parts <>f Egypt as in "gem,'' or nearly so:— "gh" re- presents a guttural sound, like that produced in gargling :— " h " is a very strong aspirate :— " k " has properly a guttural sound (most of the people of Cairo, and those of some provinces, cannot pro- nounce it, and substitute for it an hiatus; while in Upper Egypt the sound of "g" in "give " is used in its stead)— "kh" represents a guttural sound like that which is produced in expelling saliva from the throat, and approaching nearer to the sound of "h" than to that of "k:"— "sh" is pronounced as in "shall:" and " th " as in " thin." ADVERTISEMENT. xxiii Having avoided as much as possible marking the accentuation in Arabic words, I must request the reader to bear in mind, not only that a single vowel, when not marked with an accent, is always short; but that a double vowel or diphthong, at the end of a word, when not so marked, is not accented (" \Yelee," for instance, being pronounced " We'lee," or "Wel'ee") : also, that the accents do not always denote the principal or only emphasis [" Shaweesh " being pronounced " Sha- wee'sh"); and that " dh," "gh," "kh," " sh,y and "th," when not divided by a hyphen, represent, each, a single Arabic letter. As some readers may observe that many Arabic words are written differently in this work and in my translation of " The Thousand and One Nights," it is necessary to add, that in the present case I write such words agreeably with the general pronunciation of the educated classes in Cairo. For the same reason I often use the same European character to express two Arabic letters which in Egypt are pronounced alike. E. W. L. May, 1842. 4 THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. INTRODUCTION. COUNTRY AND CLIMATE — METROPOLIS — HOUSES — POPULATION. It is generally observed that many of the most remarkable peculiari- ties in the manners, customs, and character of a nation are attributable to the physical peculiarities of the country. Such causes, in an espe- cial manner, affect the moral and social state of the modern Egyptians, and therefore here require some preliminary notice ; but it will not as yet be necessary to explain their particular influences : these will be evinced in many subsequent parts of the present work. The Nile, in its course through the narrow and winding valley of Upper Egypt, which is confined on each side by mountainous and sandy deserts, as well as through the plain of Lower Egypt, is every- where bordered, except in a very few places, by cultivated fields of its own formation. These cultivated tracts are not perfectly level, being somewhat lower towards the deserts than in the neighbourhood of the river. They are interspersed with palm-groves and villages, and intersected by numerous canals. The copious summer rains that prevail in Abyssinia and the neighbouring countries begin to shew their effects in Egypt, by the rising of the Nile, about the period of the summer solstice. By the autumnal equinox the river attains its greatest height, which is always sufficient to fill the canals by which the fields are irrigated, and, generally, to inundate large portions of the cultivable land : it then gradually falls until the period when it again begins to rise. Being impregnated, particularly during its rise, B 2 INTRODUCTION. with rich soil washed down from the mountainous countries whence it flows, a copious deposit is annually spread, either by the natural inun- dation or by artificial irrigation, over the fields which border it ; while its bed, from the same cause, rises in an equal degree. The Egyptians depend entirely upon their river for the fertilization of the soil, rain being a very rare phenomenon in their country, except in the neigh- bourhood of the Mediterranean ; and as the seasons are perfectly regular, the peasant may make his arrangements with the utmost pre- cision respecting the labour he will have to perform. Sometimes his labour is light ; but when it consists in raising water for irrigation, it is excessively severe. The climate of Egypt, during the greater part of the year, is remarkably salubrious. The exhalations from the soil after the period of the inundation render the latter part of the autumn less healthy than the summer and winter ; and cause ophthalmia and dysentery, and some other diseases, to be more prevalent then than at other seasons ; and during a period of somewhat more or less than fifty days (called "el-khamaseen" commencing in April and lasting through- out May, hot southerly winds occasionally prevail for about three days together. These winds, though they seldom cause the thermometer of Fahrenheit to rise above 95° in Lower Egypt, or in Upper Egypt 105°,2 are dreadfully oppressive, even to the natives. When the plague visits Egypt, it is generally in the spring ; and this disease is most severe in the period of the khamaseen. Egypt is also subject, particularly during the spring and summer, to the. hot wind called the "samooin," which is still more oppressive than the khamaseen winds, but of much shorter duration, seldom lasting longer than a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. It generally proceeds from the south- east or south-south-east, and carries with it clouds of dust and sand. The general height of the thermometer in the middle of winter in Lower Egypt, in the afternoon, and in the shade, is from 50° to 60° : in the hottest season it is from 90° to 100° ; and about ten degrees higher in the southern parts of Upper Egypt. But though the sum- mer heat is so great, it is seldom very oppressive ; being generally accompanied by a refreshing northerly breeze, and the air being ex- tremely dry. There is, however, one great source of discomfort arising from this dryness, namely, an excessive quantity of dust : and there 1 Respecting this term, see a note to the first Thebes, I have observed the thermometer to rise paragraph of Chapter XX VI. above 110° during a khamaseen wind in the 2 This is the temperature in the shade. At shade. COUNTRY AND CLIMATE. 3 are other plagues which very much detract from the comfort which the natives of Egypt, and visiters to their country, otherwise derive from its genial climate. In spring, summer, and autumn, flies are so abundant as to be extremely annoying during the daytime, and mus- quitoes are troublesome at night (unless a curtain be made use of to keep them away), and often even in the day ; and almost every house that contains much woodwork (as most of the better houses do) swarms with bugs during the warm weather. Lice are not always to be avoided in any season, but they are easily got rid of; and in the cooler seasons fleas are excessively numerous. The climate of Upper Egypt is more healthy, though hotter, thau that of Lower Egypt. The plague seldom ascends far above Cairo, the metropolis ; and is most common in the marshy parts of the country near the Mediterranean. During the last ten years before my second visit to Egypt, the country having been better drained, and quarantine regulations adopted to prevent or guard against the introduction of this disease from other countries, very few plague- cases occurred, except in the parts above mentioned, and in those parts the pestilence was not severe.1 Ophthalmia is also more common in Lower Egypt than in the southern parts. It generally arises from checked perspiration ; but is aggravated by the dust and many other causes. "When remedies are promptly employed, this disease is seldom alarming in its progress; but vast numbers of the natives of Egypt, not knowing how to treat it, or obstinately resigning themselves to fate, are deprived of the sight of one or both of their eyes. When questioned respecting the salubrity of Egypt, I have often been asked whether many aged persons are seen among the inhabitants : few, certainly, attain a great age in this country ; but how few do, in our own land, without more than once suffering from an illness that would prove fatal without medical aid, which is obtained by a very small number in Egypt ! The heat of the summer months is sufficiently oppressive to occasion considerable lassitude, while, at the same time, it excites the Egyptian to intemperance in sensual enjoy- 1 This remark was written before the terrible plague of the year 1836, which was certainly in- troduced from Turkey, aud extended throughout the whole of Egypt, though its ravages were not srreat in the southern parts. It destroyed not less than eighty thousand persons in Cairo, that is, one-third of the population ; and far more, I believe, than two hundred thousand in all Egypt. According to a report made by the government, the victims of this plasruc in Cairo were about forty thousand; but I was informed, on high au- thority, that tlie government made it a rule to re- port only half the number of deaths in this case. 4 INTRODUCTION. ments ; and the exuberant fertility of the soil engenders indolence, little nourishment sufficing for the natives, and the sufficiency being procurable without much exertion. The modern Egyptian metropolis, to the inhabitants of which most of the contents of the following pages relate, is now called " Masr," 1 more properly, "Misr;" but was formerly named " El-Kabireh whence Europeans have formed the name of Cairo. It is situate at the entrance of the valley of Upper Egypt, midway between the Nile and the eastern mountain range of the Mukattam. Between it and the river there intervenes a tract of land, for the most part cultivated, which, in the northern parts (where the port of Boolak is situate), is more than a mile in width, and, at the southern part, less than half a mile wide. The metropolis occupies a space equal to about three square miles; and its population, during my second visit (since which it has much increased in consequence of the reduction of the army and from other causes) I calculated to amount to about two hundred and forty thousand. It is surrounded by a wall, the gates of which are shut at night, and is commanded by a large citadel, situate at an angle of the town, near a point of the mountain. The streets are unpaved ; and most of them are narrow and irregular : they might more properly be called lanes. By a stranger who merely passed through the streets, Cairo would be regarded as a very close and crowded city ; but that this is not the case is evident to a person who overlooks the town from the top of a lofty house, or from the menaret of a mosque. The great thorough- fare-streets have generally a row of shops along each side.2 Above the shops are apartments which do not communicate with them, and which are seldom occupied by the persons who rent the shops. To the right and left of the great thoroughfares are by-streets and quar- ters. Most of the by-streets are thoroughfares, and have a large wooden gate at each end, closed at night, and kept by a porter within, who opens to any persons requiring to be admitted. The quarters mostly consist of several narrow lanes, having but one general entrance, with a gate, which is also closed at night ; but several have a by-street passing through them.3 Of the private houses of the metropolis it is particularly necessary 1 This is the name by which the modern Egyp- 3 ,\ great thorougrhfare-strect is called " share' " ; tians call their country, as well as its metropolis. a by-street, " darb " ; a lane, "'atfeh": and a 2 Views of shops in Cairo will be found in a sub- quarter, "harah." sequent Chapter. Private Houses in Cairo. 6 INTRODUCTION. that I should give a description. The preceding engraving will serve to give a general notion of their exterior. The foundation-walls, to the height of the first floor, are cased externally, and often inter- nally, with the soft calcareous stone of the neighbouring mountain. The surface of the stone, when newly cut, is of a light-yellowish hue : but its colour soon darkens. The alternate courses of the front are sometimes coloured red and white,1 particularly in large houses; as is the case with most mosques.2 The superstructure, the front of which generally projects about two feet, and is supported by corbels or piers, is of brick, and often plastered. The bricks are burnt, and of a dull red colour. The mortar is generally composed of mud in the propor- tion of one-half, with a fourth part of lime, and the remaining part of the ashes of straw and rubbish. Hence the unplastered walls of brick are of a dirty colour, as if the bricks were unburnt. The roof is flat, and covered with a coat of plaster. It is generally without a parapet. The most usual architectural style of the entrance of a private house in Cairo is shewn by the sketch in the opposite page. The door is often ornamented in the manner there represented : the com- partment in which is the inscription, and the other similarly-shaped compartments, are painted red, bordered with white ; the rest of the surface of the door is painted green. The inscription, " He (i.e. God) is the Great Creator, the Everlasting" (the object of which will be explained when I treat of the superstitions of the Egyptians), is seen on many doors ; but is far from being general : it is usually painted in black or white characters. Few doors but those of large houses are painted. They generally have an iron knocker and a wooden lock ; and there is usually a mounting-stone by the side. The ground-floor apartments next the street have small wooden grated windows, placed sufficiently high to render it impossible for a person passing by in the street, even on horseback, to see through them. The windows of the upper apartments generally project a foot and a half, or more, and are mostly made of turned wooden lattice- work, which is so close that it shuts out much of the light and sun, 1 With red ochre and limewash. 2 This mode of decorating the houses became more general than it had been previously in con- sequence of an order of the government, whereby the inhabitants were required thus to honour the arrival of Ibrdheem Basha from Syria. Several years later, the people of Cairo were ordered to whitewash the superstructures of their houses; and thus the picturesque aspect of the city was much injured; the contrast between the white walls and the dark wood of the old windows pro- ducing a disagreeable effect. The street in the view which I have given is wider than usual. The projecting windows on opposite sides of a street often nearly meet each other; almost entirely excluding the sun, and thus producing an agreeable coolness in the summer months. On account of their facilitating tbe spreading of tires, their construction has of late years been prohibited. Door of a Private House in Cairo. 8 INTRODUCTION. and screens the inmates of the house from the view of persons with- out, while at the same time it admits the air. They are generally of unpainted wood ; but some few are partially painted red and green, and some are entirely painted. A window of this kind is called a Specimens of Lattice-work. — From the centre of one row of beads to that of the next (in these specimens) is between an inch and a quarter and an inch and three-quarters. " roshan/' or, more commonly, a " meshrebeeyeh," which latter word has another application that will be presently mentioned. Several win- dows of different descriptions are represented in some of the illustra- tions of this work ; and sketches of the most common patterns of the P1UVATE HOUSED. lattice-work, on a larger scale, are given in the opposite page.1 Some- times a window of the kind above described has a little meshrebeeyeh, which somewhat resembles a roshan in miniature, projecting from the front or from each side. In this, in order to be exposed to a current of air, are placed porous earthen bottles, which are used for cooling water by evaporation. Hence the name of " meshrebeeyeh," which signifies " a place for drink," or " — for drinking." The projecting window has a flat one of lattice-work, or of grating of wood, or of coloured glass, immediately above it. This upper window, if of lattice-work, is often of a more fanciful construction than the others ; exhibiting a representation of a basin with a ewer above it, or the figure of a lion, or the name of " Allah," or the words " God is my hope," &c. Some projecting windows are wholly constructed of boards, and a few of these lean forward, from the bottom upwards, at an angle of about 20°, being open at the top for the admission of light. Some of the more common form have frames of glass in the sides. In the better houses, also, the windows of lattice-work are now generally furnished with frames of glass in the inside, which in the winter are wholly closed; for a penetrating cold is felt in Egypt when the thermometer of Fahrenheit is below 60°.2 The windows of inferior houses are mostly of a different kind, being even with the exterior surface of the wall : the upper part is of wooden lattice-work,3 or grating; and the lower, closed by hanging shutters; but many of these have a little meshrebeeyeh for the water-bottles projecting from the lower part. The houses in general are two or three stories high ; and almost every house that is sufficiently large encloses an open, unpaved court, called a " hosh," which is entered by a passage that is constructed with one or two turnings, for the purpose of preventing passengers in the street from seeing into it. In this passage, just within the door, there is a long stone seat, called " mastabah,"4 built against the back or side wall, for the door-keeper and other servants. In the court is a well of 1 No. 1 is a view and section of a portion of the most simple kind. This and the other four kinds » are here represented on a scale of about one-seventh of the real size. No. 6 shews the general propor- tions of the side of a projecting window. The portion A is, in most instances, of lattice-work similar to No. 1, and comprises about twelve rows of beads in the width; the portion "B is commonly either of the same kind, or like No. 2 or No. 3 \ and the small lattice C, which is attached by hinges, i> jrcncrally similar to No. 4. 2 Windows with European sashes of glass, each with a sash of close trellis-work outside the lower half, have lately become common in new houses, in many parts of Cairo. They are mostly in houses built in the Turkish style, more or less approaching to European fashions; not well adapted to a hot climate, though comfortable in winter. 3 Commonly similar to No. 1 or No. 5. * Pronounced " mastab "ah." C PRIVATE HOUSES. 11 slightly-brackish water, which filters through the soil from the Nile ; and on its most shaded side are, commonly, two water-jars, which are daily replenished with water of the Nile, brought from the river in skins.1 The principal apartments look into the court : and their ex- terior walls (those which are of brick) are plastered and whitewashed. There are several doors which are entered from the court. One of these is called "bab el-hareem " (the door of the hareem) : it is the entrance of the stairs which lead to the apartments appropriated exclu- sively to the women, and their master and his children.2 In general, there is, on the ground-floor, an apartment called a " mandarah/' 3 in which male visiters are received. This has a wide, wooden, grated window, or two windows of this kind, next the court. A small part of the floor, extending from the door to the opposite side of the room, is about four or five inches lower than the rest ; this part is called the "durka'ah." 4 In a handsome house, the durka'ah of the mandar'ah is paved with white and black marble, and little pieces of fine red tile, inlaid in complicated and tasteful patterns, and has in the centre a fountain (called "faskeeyeh") which plays into a small, shallow pool, lined with coloured marbles, &c, like the surrounding pavement. I give, as a specimen, the pattern of the pavement of a durka'ah, such as I have above described, and a sketch of the fountain. The wrater that falls from the fountain is drained off from the pool by a pipe. There is generally, fronting the door, at the end of the durka'ah, a shelf of marble or of common stone, about four feet high, called a " suffeh," supported by two or more arches, or by a single arch, under which are placed utensils in ordinary use ; such as per- fuming vessels, and the basin and ewer which are used for washing before and after meals, and for the ablution preparatory to prayer : water-bottles, coffee-cups, &c, are placed upon the suffeh. In handsome houses, the arches of the suffeh are faced with marble and tile, like the pool of the fountain; see the two sketches in page 13 : and sometimes the wall over it, to the height of about four feet or more, is also cased with similar materials ; partly with large upright slabs, and partly with small pieces, like the durka'ah. The estrade, or 1 Some large houses have two courts : the inner for the hareem ; and in the latter, or both of these, there is usually a little enclosure of arched wood- work, in which trees and flowers are raised. The most common kind of tree in the court of a house is the grape-vine or the mulberry j but with one or both of these we often find the banana, the palm, and other trees. 2 In the view which I have given of the court of a house, the door of the hareem is that which faces the spectator. 3 Pronounced " mandar'ah." 4 Apparently a corruption of the Persian " dargah."— The frontispiece to this work will serve to illustrate the description of the mandarah. 12 INTRODUCTION. raised part of the floor of the room, is called "leewan."1 Every person slips off his shoes on the durka'ah before he steps upon the leewan.8 ♦ ♦ Pavement of a " Durka'ah." — The icidth of this is about eight feet. The latter is generally paved with common stone, and covered with a mat in summer, and a carpet over the mat in winter; and has a 1 The " leewan " is not to be confounded with the "deewan," which is afterwards mentioned. It is also, sometimes, called " eewan," which more properly signifies " an open-fronted porch or por- tico," and "a palace," &e. "Leewan" aud"eewan" are both of Persian origin : but the former is com- monly said to be a corruption of " el-eewan." 2 One of the chief reasons of the custom here mentioned is, to avoid defiling a mat or carpet upon which prayer is usually made. This, as many authors have observed, illustrates passages of the Scriptures, — Exodus hi. 5, and Joshua v. 15. PRIVATE HOUSES. 13 mattress and cushions placed against each of its three walls, compos- ing what is called a " deewan/J or divan. . The mattress, which is about three feet, or somewhat less, in width, and three or four inches thick, is generally placed on the ground; and the cushions, which i i Suffeh. are usually of a length equal to the width of the mattress, and of a height equal to half that measure, lean against the wall. Both mat- tresses and cushions are stuffed with cotton, and are covered with printed calico, cloth, or some more expensive stuff. Sometimes the mattress is supported by a frame made of palm-sticks, called " sereer and sometimes it lies upon a platform of stone, about half a foot high, called "sidilleh" or "sidille," a word of Persian origin, and also applied to a recess, of which the floor is similarly elevated, and nearly equal in width and depth, with a mattress and cushions laid against 14 INTRODUCTION one, or two, or each, of its three sides. Some rooms have one, and some have two or more, of such recesses, generally used as sitting- places in cool weather, and therefore without windows. The walls of the room are plastered and whitewashed. There are generally, in the walls, two or three shallow cupboards, the doors of which are composed f m. wsa 1 §p0 P j Specimens of Panel-work. — These are represented on a scale of one inch to twenty-four or thirty. of very small panels on account of the heat and dryness of the climate, which cause wood to warp and shrink as if it were placed in an oven ; for which reason the doors of the apartments, also, are constructed in PRIVATE HOUSES. 15 the same manner. We observe great variety and much ingenuity displayed in the different modes in which these small panels are formed and disposed. I insert a few select specimens. The ceiling a Red Ceiling of a Durkaah. — About eight feet wide. Ceiling of a projecting window. — The dimensions of this are about eight feet by three. over the leewan is of wood, with carved beams, generally about a foot apart, partially painted, and sometimes gilt. But that part of the ceiling which is over the durka'ah, in a handsome house, is usually more richly decorated : here, instead of beams, numerous thin strips of wood are nailed upon the planks, forming patterns curiously com- 16 INTRODUCTION. plicated, yet perfectly regular, and having a highly ornamental effect. I give a sketch of the half of a ceiling thus decorated, but not in the most complicated style. The strips are painted yellow, or gilt ; and the spaces within/ painted green, red, and blue.1 In the example which I insert, the colours are as indicated in the sketch of a portion of the same on a larger scale, except in the square in the centre of the ceiling, where the strips are black, upon a yellow ground. From the centre of this square, a chandelier is often suspended. There are many patterns of a similar kind; and the colours generally occupy similar places with regard to each other ; but in some houses these ceilings are not painted. The ceiling of a projecting window is often ornamented in the same manner. A sketch of one is inserted. Good taste is evinced by only decorating in this manner parts which are not always before the eyes; for to look long at so many lines intersecting each other in various directions would be painful. In some houses (as in that which is the subject of the engraving in page 10) there is another room, called a "mak'ad," generally ele- vated about eight or ten feet above the ground-floor, for the same use as the mandarah, having an open front, with two or more arches, and a low railing ; and also, on the ground-floor, a square recess, called a " takhtabosh," with an open front, and generally a pillar to support the wall above : its floor is a paved leewan ; and there is a long wooden sofa (called " dikkeh ") placed along one, or two, or each, of its three walls. The court, during the summer, is frequently sprinkled with water, which renders the surrounding apartments agreeably cool, or at least those on the ground-floor. All the rooms are furnished in the same manner as that first described. Among the upper apartments, or those of the hareem, there is generally one called a " ka ah," which is particularly lofty. It has two leewans, one on each hand of a person entering : one of these is generally larger than the other, and is the more honourable part. A portion of the roof of this saloon, the part which is over the durka'ah that divides the two leewans, is more elevated than the rest, and has, in the centre, a small lantern, called "memrak," the sides of which are composed of lattice- work, like the windows before described, and support a cupola. The durka'ah is commonly without a fountain ; but is often paved in a similar manner to that of the mandarah : which the ka'ah also resembles in having a handsome suffeh, and 1 Sec Jeremiah xxii. 14 18 INTRODUCTION. cupboards of curious panel-work. There is, besides, in this and some other apartments, a narrow shelf of wood, extending along two or each of the three walls which bound the leewan, about seven feet or more from the floor, just above the cupboards ; but interrupted in some parts, at least in those parts where the windows are placed : upon this are arranged several vessels of china, not so much for general use as for ornament.1 All the apartments are lofty, generally fourteen feet or more in height ; but the ka'ah is the largest and most lofty room, and in a large house it is a noble saloon. In several of the upper rooms, in the houses of the wealthy, there are, besides the windows of lattice-work, others, of coloured glass, representing bunches of flowers, peacocks, and other gay and gaudy objects, or merely fanciful patterns, which have a pleasing effect. These coloured glass windows, which are termed " kamareeyehs," 2 are mostly from a foot and a half to two feet and a half in height, and from one to two feet in width ; and are generally placed along the upper part of the projecting lattice- window, in a row ; or above that kind of window, disposed in a group, so as to form a large square ; or elsewhere in the upper parts of the walls, usually singly, or in pairs, side by side. They are composed of small pieces of glass, of various colours, set in rims of fine plaster, and enclosed in a frame of wood. On the plastered walls of some apartments are rude paintings of the temple of Mekkeh, or of the tomb of the Prophet, or of flowers and other objects, executed by native Muslim artists, who have not the least notion of the rules of perspective, and who consequently deface what they thus attempt to decorate. In most cases, these daubs have been executed to gratify the bad taste of Turks ; and they are seldom seen in houses of good Arabian architecture. Sometimes the walls are beautifully ornamented with Arabic inscriptions, of maxims, &c, which are more usually written on paper, in an embellished style, and enclosed in glazed frames. No chambers are furnished as bed- rooms. The bed, in the day-time, is rolled up, and placed on one side, or in an adjoining closet, called "khazneh," which, in the winter, 1 In the larger houses, and some others, there is also, adjoining the principal saloon of the hareem, an elevated closet, designed as an orchestra, for female singers, to conceal them from the view of the men of the family, as well as from that of the male guests if any of these (the women having retired) be present. A de- scription of this will he found in the chapter on music. 2 This word is derived from "kamar" (the "moon "). Baron Hammer-Purgstall thinks (see the Vienna " Jahrbucher der Literatur," lxxxi. bd., pp. 71 & 72) that it has its origin from " Chu- maruje" [or, as he is called by the Arabs in general, Khumaraweyh J, the second prince of the dynasty of the Benee-Tooloon, who governed in Egypt in the end of the ninth century of the Chris- tian era, and that it proves the art of staining glass to have been in a flourishing state in Cairo at that period. PRIVATE HOUSES 19 is a sleeping-place : in suniiner, many people sleep upon the house-top. A mat, or carpet, spread upon the raised part of the stone floor, and a deewan, constitute the complete furniture of a room. For meals, a round tray is brought in, and placed upon a low stool, and the com- pany sit round it on the ground. There is no fire-place : 1 the room is wanned, when necessary, by burning charcoal in a chafing-dish. Many bouses have, at the top, a sloping shed, mainly of boards, or of timbers and reeds, the latter plastered and whitewashed within and without, called a " malkaf,"2 directed towards the north, and open in that direc- tion, and generally on the west side also, to convey to a " fes-hah " or " fesahah " (an open apartment) below, the cool breezes which generally blow from those quarters. There is commonly a fes-hah before the entrance of one or more of the principal apartments; and in it the family often sit and sleep in the hot season. Every door is furnished with a wooden lock, called a " dabbeh," the mechanism of which is shewn by a sketch here inserted. No. 1 in this sketch is a front view of the lock, with the bolt drawn back ; Nos. 2, 3, and 4, are back views of the separate parts, and the key. .3 1 im— L Wooden Lock. A number of small iron pins (four, five, or more,) drop into correspond- ing holes in the sliding bolt, as soon as the latter is pushed into the 1 Except in the kitchen, in which are several small receptacles for fire, constructed on a kind of bench of brick. Hence, and for several other reasons (among which may be mentioned the sober and early habits of the people, the general absence of draperies in the apartments, and the construction of the floors, which are of wood over- laid with stone), the destruction of a house by fire seldom happens in Cairo ; but when such an acci- dent does occur, an extensive conflagration is the usual result ; for a great quantity of wood, mostly- deal, and of course excessively dry, is employed in the construction of the houses. 2 See again the engraving in p. 10. 20 INTRODUCTION. hole or staple of the door-post. The key, also, has small pins, made to correspond with the holes, into which they are introduced to open the lock : the former pins being thus pushed up, the bolt may be drawn back. The wooden lock of a street-door is commonly about fourteen inches long : 1 those of the doors of apartments, cupboards, &c, are about seven, or eight, or nine inches. The locks of the gates of quarters, public buildings, &c, are of the same kind, and mostly two feet, or even more, in length. It is not difficult to pick this kind of lock. In the plan of almost every house there is an utter want of regu- larity. The apartments are generally of different heights, so that a person has to ascend or descend one, two, or more steps, to pass from one chamber to another adjoining it. The principal aim of the archi- tect is to render the house as private as possible ; particularly that part of it which is inhabited by the women ; and not to make any win- dow in such a situation as to overlook the apartments of another house. Another object of the architect, in building a house for a person of wealth or rank, is to make a secret door (" bab sirr " 2), from which the tenant may make his escape in case of danger from an arrest, or an attempt at assassination, or by which to give access and egress to a paramour; and it is also common to make a hiding-place for treasure (called " makhba ") in some part of the house. In the hareem of a large house there is generally a bath, which is heated in the same manner as the public baths. Another style of building, after the fashion of Turkey, lately very generally adopted for houses of the more wealthy, has been men- tioned before (page 9, note 2). These houses do not differ much from those already described, except in the windows, and these are generally placed almost close together. When shops occupy the lower part of the buildings in a street (as is generally the case in the great thoroughfares of the metropolis, and in some of the by-streets), the superstructure is usually divided into distinct lodgings, and is termed "raba." These lodgings are separate from each other, as well as from the shops below, and let to families who cannot afford the rent of a whole house. Each lodging in a raba comprises one or two sitting and sleeping rooms, and gene- rally a kitchen and latrina. It seldom has a separate entrance from 1 This is the measure of the sliding bolt. 2 This term is also applied, sometimes, to the door of the hareem. PRIVATE HOUSES. 21 the street ; one entrance and one staircase usually admitting to a range of several lodgings. The apartments are similar to those of the private houses first described. They are never let ready-furnished ; and it is very seldom that a person who has not a wife nor a female slave is allowed to reside in them, or in any private house : such a person (unless he have parents or other near relations to dwell with) is usually obliged to take up his abode in a "wekaleh," which is a building chiefly designed for the reception of merchants and their goods.1 Very few large or handsome houses are to be seen in Egypt, except in the metropolis and some other towns. The dwellings of the lower orders, particularly those of the peasants, are of a very mean description : they are mostly built of unbaked bricks, cemented to- gether with mud. Some of them are mere hovels. The greater number, however, comprise two or more apartments ; though few are two stories high. In one of these apartments, in the houses of the peasants in Lower Egypt, there is generally an oven ("furn"), at the end furthest from the entrance, and occupying the whole width of the chamber. It resembles a wide bench or seat, and is about breast-high : it is con- structed of brick and mud ; the roof arched within, and flat on the top. The inhabitants of the house, who seldom have any night- covering during the winter, sleep upon the top of the oven, having previously lighted a fire within it ; or the husband and wife only enjoy this luxury, and the children sleep upon the floor. The chambers have small apertures high up in the walls, for the admission of light and air, sometimes furnished with a grating of wood. The roofs are formed of palm-branches and palm-leaves, or of millet-stalks, &c, laid upon rafters of the trunk of the palm, and covered with a plaster of mud and chopped straw. The furniture consists of a mat or two to sleep upon, a few earthen vessels, and a hand-mill to grind the corn. In many villages, large pigeon-houses, of a square form, but with the walls slightly inclining inwards (like many of the ancient Egyptian buildings), or of the form of a sugar-loaf, are constructed upon the roofs of the huts, with crude brick, pottery, and mud.2 Most of the villages of Egypt are situate upon eminences of rubbish, winch rise a few feet above the reach of the inundation, and are sur- rounded by palm-trees, or have a few of these trees in their vicinity. 1 Franks, however, are now exempted from this restriction. 2 The earthen pots used in the construction of these pijreon-houses arc of an oval form, with a wide mouth, which is placed outwards, and a small hole at the other end. Each pair of pigeons occupies a separate pot. 22 INTRODUCTION. The rubbish which they occupy chiefly consists of the materials of former huts, or of an ancient town, and seems to increase in about the same degree as the level of the alluvial plains and the bed of the river. In a country where neither births nor deaths are registered, it is next to impossible to ascertain, with precision, the amount of the population. A few years before this work was written, a calculation was made, founded on the number of houses in Egypt, and the suppo- sition that the inhabitants of each house in the metropolis amounted to eight persons, and in the provinces to four. This computation approximates, I believe, very nearly to the truth ; but personal obser- vation and inquiry incline me to think that the houses of such towns as Alexandria, Boolak, and Masr el-'Ateekah contain each, on the average, at least five persons : Rasheed (or Rosetta) is half deserted ; but as to the crowded town of DimyaV (or Damietta), we must reckon as many as six persons to each house, or our estimate will fall far short of what is generally believed to be the number of its inhabitants. The addition of one or two persons to each house in the above-men- tioned towns will, however, make little difference in the computation of the whole population of Egypt, which was found, by this mode of reckoning, to amount to rather more than 2,500,000 ; but it afterwards became reduced. Of 2,500,000 souls, I supposed about 1,200,000 to be males ; and one-third of this number (400,000) to be men fit for military service : from this latter number Mohammad 'Alee had taken, at the least, 200,000 (that is, one-half of the most serviceable portion of the male population,) to form and recruit his armies of regular troops, and for the service of his navy. The further loss caused by withdrawing so many men from their wives, or preventing their marrying, during ten years, must have far exceeded 300,000 : consequently, I reckoned the whole population as less than two millions. The numbers of the prin- cipal classes of the population I found to be nearly as follow : — 2 Muslim Egyptians (fellaheen, or peasants, and townspeople) . . . . . 1,750,000 Christian Egyptians (Copts) .... 150,000 'Osinanlees, or Turks 10,000 Syrians 5,000 Greeks 5,000 Armenians . . . . . 2,000 Jews 5,000 1 Vulgarly called " Duniy at." census will be found in an Appendix to this 1 The numbers given in a recent Government work. POPULATION. 23 Of the remainder (namely, Arabians, Western Arabs, Nubians, Negro slaves, Memlooks [or white male slaves] , female white slaves, Franks, &c), supposed to amount to about 70,000, the respective numbers are very uncertain and variable. The Arabs of the neighbouring deserts ought not to be included among the population of Egypt.1 Cairo, I have said, contained about 240,000 inhabitants when this work was written.2 \Ve should be greatly deceived if we judged of the population of this city from the crowds that we meet in the principal thoroughfare-streets and markets : in most of the by-streets and quarters very few passengers are seen. Nor should we judge from the extent of the city and suburbs ; for there are within the walls many vacant places, some of which, during the season of the inunda- tion, are lakes.3 The gardens, several burial-grounds, the courts of houses, and the mosques, also occupy a considerable space. Of the inhabitants of the metropolis, I computed about 190,000 to be Egyp- tian Muslims; about 10,000, Copts; 3,000 or 4,000, Jews; and the rest, strangers from various countries.4 The population of Egypt in the times of the Pharaohs was pro- bably about six or seven millions.0 The produce of the soil in the present age would suffice, if none were exported, for the maintenance of a population amounting to 4,000,000 ; and if all the soil which is capable of cultivation were sown, the produce would be sufficient for the maintenance of 8,000,000. But this would be the utmost number that Egypt could maintain in years of plentiful inundation : I there- fore compute the ancient population, at the time when agriculture was in a very flourishing state, to have amounted to what I first stated; and must suppose it to have been scarcely more than half as numerous in the times of the Ptolemies, and at later periods, when a great quantity of corn was annually exported.6 This calculation agrees 1 The Muslim Egyptians, Copts, Syrians, and Jews of Egypt, with few exceptions, speak no language but the Arabic, which is also the lan- guage generally used by the foreigners settled in this country. The Nubians, among themselves, speak their own dialects. 2 The population of Cairo had increased to this amount, from about 200,000, within three or four years. Since the computation here stated was made, the plague of 1835 destroyed not fewer than one-third of its inhabitants, as before mentioned ; but this deficiency was rapidly supplied from the villages. 3 The largest of these lakes, which was (as its place is still) called Birket El-Ezbekeeyeh, was filled up and planted with trees a few years after the present work was written. 4 About one-third of the population of the metro- polis consists of adult males. Of this number 1 reckoned about 30,000 to be merchants, petty shopkeepers, and artisans ; 20,000, domestic ser- vants ; 15,000, common labourers, porters, &c. : the remainder chiefly consisting of military and civil servants of the government. 5 I place but little reliance on the accounts of ancient authors on this subject. 6 It has been suggested to me, that, if com was exported, something of equal value was imported : and that the exportation of corn, or anything else, would give a stimulus to industry and to popula- tion : but I do not know what could be imported that would fill up the measure of the food neces- sary to sustain a population much greater than that which would consume the corn retained. 21 INTRODUCTION. with what Diodorus Siculus says (in lib. i. cap. 31); namely, that Egypt contained, in the times of the ancient kings, 7,000,000 inha- bitants, and in his own time not less than 3,000,000. In considering the policy of Mohammad 'Alee, I could not but lament the difference of the state of Egypt under his rule from what it might be ; possessing a population of scarcely more than one quarter of the number that it might be rendered capable of supporting ! How great a change might have been effected in it by a truly enlightened government ; by a prince who (instead of impoverishing the peasantry by depriving them of their lands, by his monopolies of the most valu- able productions of the soil, and by employing the best portion of the population to prosecute his ambitious schemes of foreign conquest, and another large portion in the vain attempt to rival European manu- factures,) would have given his people a greater interest in the culti- vation of the fields, and made Egypt what nature designed it to be, almost exclusively an agricultural country ! Its produce of cotton alone would more than suffice to procure all the articles of foreign manufacture, and all the natural productions of foreign countries, that the wants of its inhabitants demand.1 1 During the year 1835 more than 100,000 bales of eotton (eaeh bale weighing a hundred-weight and three-quarters) were shipped at Alexandria. The pi ice paid for this quantity by the merchants exceeded 700,000Z. The quantity exported in the year next preceding was 34,000 bales, which is considerably less than usual. CHAPTER I. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS, AND DRESS, OF THE MUSLIM EGYPTIANS. Muslims, in a great degree of Arabian origin, have, for many centu- ries, mainly composed the population of Egypt : they have changed its language, laws, and general manners ; and its metropolis they have made the principal seat of Arabian learning and arts. To the description of this people, and especially of the middle and higher classes in the Egyptian capital, will be devoted the chief portion of the present work. In every point of view, Masr (or Cairo) must be regarded as the first Arab city of our age ; and the manners and > customs of its inhabitants are particularly interesting, as they are a combination of those which prevail most generally in the towns of Arabia, Syria, and the whole of Northern Africa, and in a great degree in Turkey. There is no other place in which we can obtain so complete a knowledge of the most civilized classes of the Arabs. From statements made in the introduction to this work, it appears that Muslim Egyptians (or Arab-Egyptians) compose nearly four- fifths of the population of the metropolis, and just seven-eighths of that of all Egypt. The Muslim Egyptians are a mixed race, in a great measure descended from various Arab tribes and families which have settled in Egypt at different periods, mostly soon after the conquest of this country by 'Ainr, its first Arab governor. These Arab immigrants were chiefly tribes of the desert; but their abandonment of the life of wanderers for that of agriculturists or citizens, and the frequent inter- marriages of themselves and their descendants with Copts who be- came proselytes to the faith of El-Islam, have resulted in the pro- duction of a race bearing, in general, much resemblance to the ancient Egyptians ; whose type was predominantly Caucasian, but inclining in various degrees towards that of the Negro. In many 26 C HAPTER I. individuals among them we find this resemblance to be strikingly exact, though more frequently in Copts and in Nubians j and in the Muslim Egyptians (as well as in the Copts) it. is generally most ob- servable in Middle and Upper Egypt. Yet they are to be regarded as not less genuine Arabs than many of the townspeople of Arabia itself; among whom has long and very generally prevailed a custom of keeping Galla and Abyssinian female slaves, either instead of marry- ing their own countrywomen, or (as is commonly the case with the opulent) in addition to their Arab wives : so that they now bear almost as much resemblance to the Gallas and Abyssinians as to the Bedawees, or Arabs of the Desert. Such, at least, is the case in the towns of the south-western side of Arabia : in the southern parts of that country, the townspeople are much intermixed with Indian and Malayan races, as well as with Africans. In the Egyptians in general, and in the Arabians also though in a less degree, an ad- mixture of aboriginal African blood is plainly discernible. The term " 'Arab/' 1 it should here be remarked, is now used, wherever the Arabic language is spoken, only to designate the Bedawees, col- lectively : in speaking of a tribe, or of a small number of those people, the word " 'Orban " is also used ; and a single individual is called " Bedawee." 2 In the metropolis and other towns of Egypt, the distinction of tribes is almost wholly lost ; but it is preserved among the peasants, who have retained many Bedawee customs, of which I shall have to speak. In various parts of the country, there are families, or small tribes, descended from Arab settlers who have generally disdained marrying women of less pure race than them- selves ; and these are hardly, if at all, to be distinguished in their persons from the tribes in the Arabian deserts. The native Muslim inhabitants of Cairo commonly call themselves " El-Masreeyeen," " Owlad-Masr " (or " AM-Masr and " Owlad-el-Beled," which signify People of Masr, Children of Masr, and Children of the Town : the singular forms of these appellations are " Masree," " Ibn-Masr," and " Ibn-el-Beled." 3 Of these three terms, the last is most common in the town itself. The country people are called " El-Fellaheen " (or the agriculturists), in the singular " Fellah." 4 The Turks often 1 This term was formerly used to designate the Arabian townspeople and villagers, while the Arabs who dwelt in the Itesert were called " Aarab," or " Aarabecs." The Arabs dwelling in houses now term themselves " Owlad-el-'Arab," or Sons of the Arabs. 2 Feminine, " Bedaweeyeh." 3 In the feminine, "Masreeyeh," " Bint-AIasr," and " Bint-el-Beled." 4 Feminine, " Fellahah." PERSONAL (HA R ACTERISTICS. ■11 apply this term to the Egyptians in general in an abusive sense, as meaning the "boors," or "the clowns;" and improperly stigmatize them with the appellation of " Ahl-Far'oon," 1 or "the People of Pharaoh;" the latter, when they dare to do so, retorting by calling the former " Ahl-Nemrood," or " the People of Nimrod." In general, the Muslim Egyptians attain the height of about five feet eight, or five feet nine inches. Most of the children under nine or ten years of age have spare limbs and a distended abdomen; but, as they grow up, their forms rapidly improve : in mature age, most of them are remarkably well-proportioned ; the men, muscular and robust; the women, very beautifully formed, and plump; and neither sex is too fat. I have never seen corpulent persons among them, except a few in the metropolis and other towns, rendered so by a life of inactivity. In Cairo, and throughout the northern provinces, where immigrants from more temperate climates have been most numerous, those who have not been much exposed to the sun have a yellowish, but very clear complexion, and soft skin ; the rest are of a considerably darker and coarser complexion. The people of Middle Egypt are of a more tawny colour ; and those of the more southern provinces are of a deep bronze or brown complexion, darkest towards Xubia, where the climate is hottest, and where Egyptians gradually give place to Nubians. In general, the countenance of the Muslim Egyptian (I here speak of the men) is of a line oval form : the fore- head, of moderate size, seldom high, but generally prominent : the eyes are deep sunk, or appear to be so in consequence of a common habit of depressing the eyebrows for the sake of shade ; and are black and brilliant ; but not without some resemblance to those of Ethiopian races : the nose is straight, but rather thick : the mouth well formed : the lips are rather full than otherwise : the teeth particularly beauti- ful ; and so, if we may judge from the generality of the mummies, were those of the ancient Egyptians : 2 the beard is commonly black and curly, but scanty. I have seen very few individuals among them with gray eyes ; and these may be reasonably regarded as the offspring or descendants of Egyptian women by Europeans or by other foreigners. The Fellaheen, from constant exposure to the sun, have a habit of half-shutting their eyes : this is also characteristic of the Bedawees. 1 Thus commonly pronounced for " Fir'own." 2 Tooth-ache is, however, a very common dis- order in Egypt, as it was in ancient times : this, at least, was prohably the case, as Herodotus (lib. ii. cap. 84) mentions dentists among the classes of Egyptian physicians. It is, of course, most prevalent among the higher orders. 2S CHAPTER I. Great numbers of the Egyptians are blind in one or both of the eyes. They generally shave portions of the beard above and below the lower jaw, and likewise a small portion under the lower lip, leaving, how- ever, after the example of the Prophet, the hairs that grow in the middle under the mouth ; or, instead of shaving these parts, they pluck out the hair. Very few shave the rest of the beard,1 and none the mustache. The former they suffer to grow to the length of about a hand's breadth below the chin (such, at least, is the general rule, and such was the custom of the Prophet) ; and (in imitation of the Pro- phet) the mustache they do not allow to become so long as to hide completely the skin beneath, or to extend in the least over the upper lip and thus incommode them in eating and drinking. The practice of dyeing the beard is not common ; for a gray beard is much re- spected. The Egyptians shave all the rest of the hair, or leave only a small tuft (called " shoosheh ") upon the crown of the head.2 This last custom (which is almost universal among them) is said to have originated in the fear that if the Muslim should fall into the hands of an infidel, and be slain, the latter might cut off the head of his victim, and, finding no hair by which to hold it, put his impure hand into the mouth, in order to cany it ; for the beard might not be suf- ficiently long : but it was probably adopted from the Turks ; for it is generally neglected by the Bedawees ; and the custom of shaving the head is of late origin among the Arabs in general, and practised for the sake of cleanliness.3 With the like view of avoiding impurity, the Egyptians observe other customs, which need not here be de- scribed.4 Many men of the lower orders, and some others, make blue marks upon their arms, and sometimes upon the hands and chest, as do the women, in speaking of whom this operation will be described. The dress of the men of the middle and higher classes consists of the following articles.5 First, a pair of full drawers6 of linen or 1 A few of the servants, generally the grooms, and some others, shave their beards, but none shaves his mustache. The respect which Ori- entals in general pay to the beard has often been remarked. They swear by it, and say that a man disgraces it by an evil action. The punishment recorded in 2 Samuel, x. 4, has frequently been practised in modern times, but not so often as the shaving of the whole of the beard. 2 The Muslims hold it to be inconsistent with the honour that is due to everything that has appertained to the human body to leave upon the ground the shavings or clippings of hair, the parings of nails, &c. ; winch, therefore, they gene- rally bury in the earth, or otherwise conceal ; the women commonly stuffing them into crevices in the walls of rooms. 3 Persons of literary and religious professions generally disapprove of the shoosheh. 4 They are mentioned in the "Mishcat-ul-Masa- bih," vol. ii. p. 359, and are observed by both sexes. 5 The fashion of their dress remains almost the same during the lapse of centuries. 6 In Arabic, " libris." 30 CHAPTER 1. cotton, tied round the body by a running string or band/ the ends of which are embroidered with coloured silks, though concealed by the outer dress. The drawers descend a little below the knees, or to the ankles ; but many of the Arabs will not wear long drawers, because prohibited by the Prophet. Next is worn a shirt,2 with very full sleeves, reaching to the wrist : it is made of linen, of a loose, open texture, or of cotton stuff, or of muslin, or silk, or of a mixture of silk and cotton, in stripes, but all white.3 Over this, in winter, or in cool weather, most persons wear a " sudeyree," 4 which is a short vest of cloth, or of striped coloured silk and cotton, without sleeves.5 Over the shirt and the sudeyree, or the former alone, is worn a long vest of striped silk and cotton6 (called " kaftan," or more commonly "kuftan"), descending to the ankles, with long sleeves extending a few inches beyond the fingers' ends, but divided from a point a little above the wrist, or about the middle of the fore-arm; so that the hand is generally exposed, though it may be concealed by the sleeve when necessary ; for it is customary to cover the hands in the presence of a person of high rank. Round this vest is wound the girdle/ which is a coloured shawl, or a long piece of white figured muslin. The ordinary outer robe is a long cloth coat, of any colour, called by the Turks "jubbeh," but by the Egyptians "gibbeh/' the sleeves of which reach not quite to the wrist.8 Some persons also wear a " beneesh," or " benish /' which is a robe of cloth, with long sleeves, like those of the kuftan, but more ample : 9 it is, properly, a robe of ceremony, and should be worn over the other cloth coat; but many persons wear it instead of the gibbeh. Another robe, called " farageeyeh/' nearly resembles the beneesh : it has very long sleeves ; but these are not slit; and it is chiefly worn by men of the learned professions. In cold or cool weather, a kind of black woollen cloak, called " 'abayeh," is commonly worn.10 Sometimes this is drawn over the head. In winter also many persons wrap a muslin or other shawl (such as they use for a turban) about the head and shoulders. i Called " dikkeh," or " tikkeh." « ■ " Kamees." 3 The Prophet forbade men to wear silk clothing, but allowed women to do so. The prohibition is, however, attended to by very few modern Muslims, except the Wahhabees. 4 More properly, " sudeyreh." 5 In this, as in all the other under-clothing of the Egyptians, the back is of the same material as the front. 6 The stripes are seldom plain : they are gene- rally figured or flowered. 7 " Hezam." 8 See the foremost figure in the preceding engraving. 9 See the figure to the left in the same engrav- ing. 10 See engraving, p. 33, in which is represented a striped 'abayeh. This garment is also called '"abaah," and " aba." DRESS. 3] The head-dress consists, first, of a small, close-fitting, cotton cap,1 which is often changed; next, a "tarboosh," which is a red cloth cap, also fitting close to the head, with a tassel of dark -bine silk at the crown ; lastly, a long piece of white muslin, generally figured, or a Kashmeer shawl, which is wound round the tarboosh. Thus is formed the turban.'2 The Kashmeer shawl is seldom worn except in cool weather. Some persons wear two or three tarbooshes, one over another. A "shereef" (or descendant of the Prophet) wears a green turban, or is privileged to do so ; but no other person ; and it is not common for any but a shereef to wear a bright green dress. Stock- ings are not in use ; but some few persons, in cold weather, wear woollen or cotton socks. The shoes 3 are of thick red morocco, pointed and turning up at the toes. Some persons also wear inner shoes 4 of soft yellow morocco, and with soles of the same : the outer shoes are taken off on stepping upon a carpet or mat ; but not the inner : for this reason, the former are often worn turned down at the heel. On the little finger of the right hand is worn a seal-ring,5 which is generally of silver, with a carnelion, or other stone, upon which is engraved the wearer's name : the name is usually accompanied by the words " his servant " (signifying " the servant, or worshipper, of God and often by other words expressive of the person's trust in God, &c.6 The Prophet disapproved of gold ; therefore few Muslims wear gold rings : but the women have various ornaments (rings, bracelets, &c.,) of that precious metal. The seal-ring is used for signing letters and other writings ; and its impression is considered more valid than the sign-manual.7 A little ink is dabbed upon it with one of the fingers, and it is pressed upon the paper; the person who uses it having first touched his tongue with another finger, and moistened the place in the paper which is to be stamped. Almost every person who can afford it has a seal-ring, even though he be a servant. The regular scribes, literary men, and many others, wear a silver, brass, or copper " dawayeh," which is an inkhorn, or a case with receptacles for ink and pens, stuck in the girdle.8 Some have, in the place of this, or in addition to it, a case-knife, or a dagger. 1 Called "takeeyeh," or " 'arakeeyeh." 2 "'Ema'mch," vulg. '"Immeh." 3 " Markoob." * "Mezz," or, more properly, "mezd;" from the Turkish " mest." 5 " Khatim." — It is allowable to wear it on a finger of the left hand. 6 See St. John's Gospel, iii. 33; and Exodus, . xxxix. 30. 7 Therefore, giving the ring to another person is the utmost mark of confidence.— See Genesis, xli. 42. s This is a very ancient custom.— See Ezckiel, ix. 2, 3, 11.— The dawayeh is represented in a cut in Chapter IX. of this work. 32 CHAPTER I. The Egyptian generally takes his pipe with him wherever he goes (unless it be to the mosque), or has a servant to carry it, though it is not a common custom to smoke while riding or walking. The tobacco-purse he crams into his bosom, the kuftan being large, and lapping over in front. A handkerchief, embroidered with coloured silks and gold, and neatly folded, is also placed in the bosom. Many persons of the middle orders, who wish to avoid being thought rich, conceal such a dress as I have described by a long black gown of cotton, similar to the gown worn by most persons of the lower classes. The costume of the men of the lower orders is very simple. These, if not of the very poorest class, wear a pair of drawers, and a long and full shirt or gown of blue linen or cotton, or of brown woollen stuff (the former called " 'eree," and the latter " zaaboot open from the neck nearly to the waist, and having wide sleeves.1 Over this, some wear a white or red woollen girdle ; for which servants often substitute a broad red belt,2 of woollen stuff or of leather, generally containing a receptacle for money. Their turban is generally com- posed of a white, red, or yellow woollen shawl, or of a piece of coarse cotton or muslin, wound round a tarboosh, under which is a white or brown felt cap ;3 but many are so poor as to have no other cap than the latter — no turban, nor even drawers, nor shoes, but only the blue or brown shirt, or merely a few rags ; while many, on the other hand, wear a sudeyree under the blue shirt j and some, particularly servants in the houses of great men, wear a white shirt, a sudeyree, and a kuftan or gibbeh, or both, and the blue shirt over all. The full sleeves of this shirt are sometimes drawn up, by means of a cord,4 which passes round each shoulder and crosses behind, where it is tied in a knot. This custom is adopted by servants (particularly grooms), who have cords of crimson or dark-blue silk for this purpose. In cold weather, many persons of the lower classes wear an 'abayeh, like that before described, but coarser, and sometimes (instead of being black) having broad stripes, brown and white, or blue and white, but the latter rarely. Another kind of cloak, more full than the 'abayeh, of black or deep-blue woollen stuff, is also very commonly worn : it is called "diffeeyeh."5 The shoes are of red or yellow morocco, or of sheep- 1 The zaaboot is mostly worn in the winter. "milayeh") is also worn by some men, but more 2 Called "kamar." commonly by women, in the account of whose 3 Called "libdeb." dress it will be further described : the men throw * Called " shimar." it over the shoulders, or wrap it about the body. 5 A kind of blue and white plaid (called 34 CHAPTER I, skin. Those of the groom are of dark-red morocco : those of the door-keeper and the water-carrier of a private house, generally yellow. Several different forms of turbans are represented in some of the engravings which illustrate this work. The Muslims are distinguished by the colours of their turbans from the Copts and the Jews, who (as well as other subjects of the Turkish Sultan who are not Muslims) wear black, blue, gray, or light-brown turbans, and generally dull- coloured dresses. The distinction of sects, families, dynasties, &c, among the Muslim Arabs, by the colour of the turban and other articles of dress, is of very early origin. When the Imam Ibraheem Ibn-Mohammad, asserting his pretensions to the dignity of Khalcefeh,1 was put to death by the Umawee Khaleefeh Marwan, many persons of the family of El-' Abbas assumed black clothing, in testimony of their sorrow for his fate ; and hence the black dress and turban (which latter is now characteristic, almost solely, of Christian and Jewish tributaries to the 'Osmanlee, or Turkish, Sultan,) became the distin- guishing costume of the 'Abbasee Khaleefehs, and of their officers. When an officer under this dynasty was disgraced, he was made to wear a white dress. White was adopted by the false prophet El- MukannaJ, to distinguish his party from the 'Abbasees; and the Fawatim of Egypt (or Khaleefehs of the race of Fatimeh), as rivals of the 'Abbasees, wore a white costume. El-Melik el-Ashraf Shaaban, a Sultan of Egypt (who reigned from the year of the Flight 764 to 778, or a.d. 1362 to 1376), was the first who ordered the "shereefs" to distinguish themselves by the green turban and dress. Some dar- weeshes of the sect of the Rifa'ees, and a few, but very few, other Muslims, wear a turban of black woollen stuff, or of a very deep olive- coloured (almost black) muslin ; but that of the Copts, Jews, &c, is generally of black or blue muslin, or linen. There are not many dif- ferent forms of turbans now worn in Egypt : that worn by most of the servants is peculiarly formal, consisting of several spiral twists, one above another like the threads of a screw. The kind common among the middle and higher classes of the tradesmen and other citizens of the metropolis and large towns is also very formal, but less so than that just before alluded to. The Turkish turban worn in Egypt is of a more elegant fashion. The Syrian is distinguished by its width. The 'Ulama, and men of religion and letters in general, used to wear, as some do still, one particularly wide and formal, called a "mukleh." 1 Commonly written by English authors "Caliph/- or "Khalif." WOMEN. 35 The turban is much respected. In the houses of the more wealthy classes, there is usually a chair 1 on which it is placed at night. This is often sent with the furniture of a bride j as it is common for a lady to have one upon which to place her head-dress. It is never used for any other purpose. As an instance of the respect paid to the turban. The Mukleh. one of my friends mentioned to me that an Yilim" being thrown off his donkey in a street of this city, his mukleh fell off, and rolled along for several yards : whereupon the passengers ran after it, crying, " Lift up the crown of El-Islam !" while the poor Yilim, whom no one came to assist, called out in anger, " Lift up the sheykh* of El- Islam!" The general form and features of the women must now be de- scribed. From the age of about fourteen to that of eighteen or twenty, they are generally models of beauty in body and limbs ; 4 and in countenance most of them are pleasing, and many exceedingly lovely : but soon after they have attained their perfect growth, they rapidly decline ; the bosom early loses all its beauty, acquiring, from the relax- ing nature of the climate, an excessive length and flatness in its forms, even while the face retains its full charms ; and though, in most other respects, time does not commonly so soon nor so much deform them, at the age of forty it renders many, who in earlier years possessed considerable attractions, absolutely ugly. In the Egyptian females, the forms of womanhood begin to develop themselves about the ninth or tenth year : at the age of fifteen or sixteen they generally attain their highest degree of perfection. With regard to their complexions, the same remarks apply to them as to the men, with only this differ- 1 Called "kursee el-'emameh." * The dress of many of the females in the 2 This appellation (of which '"ulama" is the villages is such as displays much of the person; plural) signifies a man of science or learning1. and a man often comes unexpectedly in close view 3 "Shcykh" here signifies master, or doctor. of a group of maidens bathing in the Nile. 36 CHAPTER [. ence, that their faces, being generally veiled when they go abroad, are not quite so much tanned as those of the men. They are characterized, like the men, by a fine oval countenance ; though, in some instances, it is rather broad. The eyes, with very few exceptions, are black, large, and of a long almond-form, with long and beautiful lashes, and an exquisitely soft, bewitching expression : eyes more beautiful can hardly be conceived : their charming effect is much heightened by the concealment of the other features (however pleasing the latter maybe), and is rendered still more striking by a practice universal among the females of the higher and middle classes, and very common among those of the lower orders, which is that of blackening the edge of the eyelids, both above and below the eye, with a black powder called " kohl." This is a collyrium commonly composed of the smoke-black An Eye ornamented with Kohl. which is produced by burning a kind of " liban," an aromatic resin, a species of frankincense, used, I am told, in preference to the better kind of frankincense, as being cheaper, and equally good for this pur- pose. Kohl is also prepared of the smoke-black produced by burning the shells of almonds. These two kinds, though believed to be bene- ficial to the eyes, are used merely for ornament ; but there are several kinds used for their real or supposed medical properties ; particularly the powder of several kinds of lead ore ; 1 to which are often added sarcocolla,2 long pepper,3 sugar-candy, fine dust of a Venetian sequin, and sometimes powdered pearls. Antimony, it is said, was formerly used for painting the edges of the eyelids. The kohl is applied with a small probe, of wood, ivory, or silver, tapering towards the end, but blunt : this is moistened, sometimes with rose-water, then dipped in the pow der, and drawn along the edges of the eyelids : it is called "nrirwed;" and the glass vessel in which the kohl is kept, "muk- hulah."4 The custom of thus ornamenting the eyes prevailed among both sexes in Egypt in very ancient times : this is shewn by the sculptures and paintings in the temples and tombs of this country ; and kohl-vessels, with the probes, and even with remains of the black 1 " Kohl el-bagar.' 2 " 'Anzaroot." > '"Erk ed-dahab." ' * Pronounced "muk-hul'ah. ' USE OF KOHL. 37 powder, have often been found in the ancient tombs. But in many Muk-hulahs and Mirweds. Ancient yewe, aud Probe for Koh] These are represented on scales of one-third, and a quarter, of the real size. eases, the ancient mode of ornamenting with the kohl was a little dif- ferent from the modern, as shewn by the subjoined sketch i I have, An Eye and Eyebrow ornamented with Kohl, as represented hi ancient Paintings. however, seen this ancient mode practised in the present day in the neighbourhood of Cairo ; though I only remember to have noticed it in two instances. The same custom existed among the ancient Greek ladies, and among the Jewish women in early times.1 The eyes of the Egyptian women are generally the most beautiful of their features. Countenances altogether handsome are far less common among this race than handsome figures ; but I have seen among them faces distinguished by a style of beauty possessing such sweetness of expression that they have struck me as exhibiting the perfection of female loveliness, and impressed me at the time with the idea that their equals could not be found in any other country. Few, however, of the Egyptian women suffer themselves to be seen unveiled by men who are not their near relations ; and those who do so are generally such as are conscious of possessing some degree of beauty, which they like to exhibit, though usually pretending the display to be uninten- 1 See 2 Kings, ix. 30 (where, in our common version, we find the words, "painted her face" for "painted her eyes"), and Ezekicl, xxiii. 40. — Scissors are often used to reduce the width of the eyebrows, and to give them a more arched form. 38 CHAPTER 1. tional. The stranger, therefore, eannot form a correct general opinion from the specimens that he sees of these women : but with such eyes as many of them have, the face must be handsome if its other features are but moderately well formed. The nose is generally straight ; and the lips are mostly rather fuller than those of the men, without in the least degree partaking of the Negro character : though in many instances, an approach to the Ethiopian type is observable in the mouth as well as in the other features. The hair is of that deep, glossy black, which best suits all but fair complexions : in some instances it is rather coarse, and crisp, but never woolly. The females of the higher and middle classes, and many of the Hands and Feet stained with Henna. poorer women, stain certain parts of their hands and feet (which are, with very few exceptions, beautifully formed,) with the leaves of the henna- tree,1 which impart a yellowish red, or deep-orange colour. Many thus dye only the nails of the fingers and toes ; others extend the dye as high as the first joint of each finger and toe ; some also make a stripe along the next row of joints; and there are several other fanciful modes of applying the henna ; but the most common practice is to dye the tips of the fingers and toes as high as the first joint, and the whole of the inside of the hand and the sole of the foot f adding, 1 Lawsonia incrmis; also called " Egyptian hands and the soles of the feet is said to have privet." an agreeable effect upon the skin; particularly 2 The application of this dye to the palms of the to prevent its being too tender and sensitive. USE OF HENNA. 39 though not always, the stripe above mentioned along the middle joints of the fingers, and a similar stripe a little above the toes. The henna is prepared for this use merely by being powdered, and mixed with a little water, so as to form a paste. Some of this paste being spread in the palm of the hand, and on other parts of it which are to be dyed, and the fingers being doubled, and their extremities inserted into the paste in the palm, the whole hand is tightly bound with linen, and remains thus during a whole night. In a similar manner it is applied to the feet. The colour does not disappear until after many days : it is generally renewed after about a fortnight or three weeks. This custom prevails not only in Egypt, but in several other countries of the East, which are supplied with henna from the banks of the Nile. To the nails, the henna imparts a more bright, clear, and permanent colour than to the skin. When this dye alone is applied to the nails, or to a larger portion of the fingers and toes, it may, with some reason, be regarded as an embellishment; for it makes the general complexion of the hand and foot appear more delicate ; but many ladies stain their hands in a manner much less agreeable to our taste : by applying, immediately after the removal of the paste of henna, another paste composed of quicklime, common smoke-black, and linseed-oil, they convert the tint of the henna to a black, or to a blackish-olive hue. Ladies in Egypt are often seen with their nails stained with this colour, or with their fingers of the same dark hue from the extremity to the first joint, red from the first to the second joint, and of the former colour from the second to the third joint ; with the palm also stained in a similar manner, having a broad, dark stripe across the middle, and the rest left red ; the thumb dark from the extremity to the first joint, and red from the first to the second joint. Some, after a more simple fashion, blacken the ends of the fingers and the whole of the inside of the hand. Among the females of the lower orders, in the country-towns and villages of Egypt, and among the same classes in the metropolis, but in a less degree, prevails a custom somewhat similar to that above described : it consists in making indelible marks of a blue or greenish hue upon the face and other parts, or, at least, upon the front of the chin, and upon the back of the right hand, and often also upon the left hand, the right arm, or both arms, the feet, the middle of the bosom, and the forehead : the most common of these marks made upon the chin and hands are represented in the next page. The operation is performed with several needles (generally seven) tied together : with 40 CHAPTER I. these the skin is pricked in the desired pattern : some smoke-black (of wood or oil), mixed with milk from the breast of a woman, is then rubbed in; and about a week after, before the skin has healed, a paste of the pounded fresh leaves of white beet or clover is applied, and gives a blue or greenish colour to the marks : or, to produce the Tattooed Hands and Foot. TATTOOING. II same effect, in a more simple manner, some indigo is rubbed into the punctures, instead of the smoke-black, &c. It is generally performed at the age of about five or six years, and by gipsy-women. The term applied to it is " dakk." Most of the females of the higher parts of Upper Egypt (who are of a very dark complexion), for the purpose of making their teeth to glisten, tattoo their lips instead of the parts above mentioned; thus converting their natural colour to a dull, bluish hue, which, to the eye of a stranger, is extremely displeasing.1 Another characteristic of the Egyptian women that should be here mentioned, is their upright carriage and gait. This is most remark- able in the female peasantry, owing, doubtless, in a great measure, to their habit of bearing a heavy earthen water-vessel, and other burdens, upon the head. The dress of the women of the middle and higher orders is hand- some and elegant. Their shirt is very full, like that of the men, but shorter, not reaching to the knees : it is also, generally, of the same kind of material as the men's shirt, or of coloured crape, sometimes black. A pair of very wide trousers (called "shintiyan of a coloured, striped stuff of silk and cotton, or of printed, or worked, or plain white, muslin, is tied round the hips, under the shirt,2 with a dikkeh : its lower extremities are drawn up and tied just below the knee with running strings ; but it is sufficiently long to hang down to the feet, or almost to the ground, when attached in this manner. Over the shirt and shintiyan is worn a long vest (called a yelek of the same material as the latter : it nearly resembles the kuftiin of the men ; but is more tight to the body and arms : the sleeves also are longer ; and it is made to button down the front, from the bosom to a little below the girdle, instead of lapping over : it is open, likewise, on each side, from the height of the hip, downwards. In general, the yelek is cut in such a manner as to leave half of the bosom uncovered, except by the shirt ; but many ladies have it made more ample at that part : and, according to the most approved fashion, it should be of a sufficient length to reach to the ground, or should exceed that length by two or three inches, or more. A short vest 1 The depilatory most commonly used by the Egyptian women is a kind of resin, called liban shamee, applied in a melted state : but this, they pretend, is not always necessary : by applying the blood of a bat to the skin of a newly-born female infant, on the parts where they wish no hair to grow, they assert that they accomplish this desire. A female upon whom this application has been made is termed "muwatwatah ;" from " watw.-it," a bat. Some women pluck out the hair after merely rubbing the part with the ashes of charcoal. 2 Turkish ladies (I am told) generally tie it over the shirt. A Lartv in the Dress worn in private. DRESS. 13 (called "'anteree"1), reaching only a little below the waist, and exactly resembling a yelek of which the lower part has been cut off, is some- times worn instead of the latter. A square shawl, or an embroidered kerchief, doubled diagonally, is put loosely round the waist as a girdle ; the two corners that are folded together hanging down behind : or, sometimes, the lady's girdle is folded after the ordinary Turkish fashion, like that of the men, but more loosely. Over the yelek is worn a gibbeh of cloth, or velvet, or. silk, usually embroidered with gold or with coloured silk : it differs in form from the gibbeh of the men chiefly in being not so wide; particularly in the fore part; and is of the same length as the yelek. Instead of this, a jacket (called "saltan"), generally of cloth or velvet, and embroidered in the same manner as the gibbeh, is often worn. The head-dress consists of a takceyeh and tarboosh, with a square kerchief (called "faroodeeyeh ") of printed or painted muslin, or one of crape, wound tightly round, composing what is called a "rabtah." Two or more such kerchiefs were commonly used, a short time since, and are still sometimes, to form the ladies' turban, but always wound in a high, flat shape, very different from that of the turban of the men. A kind of crown, called " kurs," and other ornaments, are attached to the ladies' head-dress : descriptions and engravings of these and other ornaments of the women of Egypt will be found in the Appendix to this work. A long piece of white muslin embroidered at each end with coloured silks and gold, or of coloured crape ornamented with gold thread, &c, and spangles, rests upon the head, and hangs down behind, nearly or quite to the ground: this is called "tarhah" — it is the head-veil : the face-veil I shall presently describe. The hair, except over the forehead and temples, is divided into numerous braids or plaits, generally from eleven to twenty-five in number, but always of an uneven number : these hang down the back. To each braid of hair are usually added three black silk cords, with little ornaments of gold, &c., attached to them. For a description of these, which are called "safa," I refer to the Appendix. Over the forehead, the hair is cut rather short; but two full locks2 hang down on each side of the face : these are often curled in ringlets, and sometimes plaited.3 Few of the ladies of Egypt wear stockings or socks, but many of them wear "mezz" (or inner shoes), of yelknv or red morocco, sometimes em- 1 Pronounced "'anter'ee." men do by the beard), gcuerally holding it when 2 Called "makasecs;" singular "maksoos." they utter the oath, " Wa-hayat niaksoosee "' 3 Egyptian women swear by the side-lock (as DRESS. 45 broidered with gold : over these, whenever they step off the matted or carpeted part of the floor, they put on " baboog " (or slippers) of yellow morocco, with high, pointed toes; or use high wooden clogs or pattens/ generally from four to nine inches in height, and usually ornamented with mother-of-pearl, or silver, Szc. These are always used in the bath by men and women, but not by many ladies at home : some ladies wear them merely to keep their skirts from trailing on the ground: others, to make themselves appear tall. — Such is the dress which is worn by the Egyptian ladies in the house. The riding or walking attire is called " tezyeereh." Whenever a lady leaves the house, she wears, in addition to what has been above described, first a large, loose gown (called * tob," or " sebleh ")3 the sleeves of which are nearly equal in width to the whole length of the gown :2 it is of silk ; generally of a pink, or rose, or violet colour. Next is put on the " burkoV' or face-veil, which is a long strip of white muslin, concealing the whole of the face except the eyes, and reaching nearly to the feet. It is suspended at the top by a narrow band, which passes up the forehead, and which is sewed, as are also the two upper corners of the veil, to a band that is tied round the head. The lady then covers herself with a " habarah," which, for a married lady, is composed of two breadths of glossy, black silk, each ell-wide, aud three yards long : these are sewed together, at or near the selvages (according to the height of the person) ; the seam run- ning horizontally, with respect to the manner in which it is worn : a piece of narrow black riband is sewed inside the upper part, about six inches from the edge, to tie round the head. This covering is gene- rally worn by the Egyptian ladies in the manner shewn by the sketch in the next page ; but some of them imitate the Turkish ladies of Egypt in holding the front part so as to conceal all but that portion of the veil that is above the hands. The unmarried ladies wear a habarah of white silk, or a shawl. Some females of the middle classes, who cannot afford to purchase a habarah, wear instead of it an " eezar," or f' izar;" which is a piece of white calico, of the same form and size as the former, and is worn in the same manner. On the feet are worn short boots or socks (called "khuff"), of yellow morocco, and over these the " baboog." This dress, though chiefly designed for females of the higher classes, 1 Called "kabkab," or, more commonly, of the lower orders, represented in the engraving '• kubkab." in page 48. 2 This is similar in form to the tob of women Ladies attired for Riding or "Walking. DRESS. 17 who are seldom seen in public on foot, is worn by many women who cannot often afford so far to imitate their superiors as to hire an ass to carry them. It is extremely inconvenient as a walking attire. View, ing it as a disguise for whatever is attractive or graceful in the person and adornments of the wearer, we should not find fault with it for being itself deficient in grace : we must remark, however, that, in one respect, it fails in accomplishing its main purpose; displaying the eyes, which are almost always beautiful j making them to appear still more so by concealing the other features, which are seldom of equal beauty; and often causing the stranger to imagine a defective face perfectly charming. The veil is of very remote antiquity ;x but, from the sculptures and paintings of the ancient Egyptians, it seems not to have been worn by the females of that nation. In the present day, even the female servants generally draw a portion of the head-veil before the face in the presence of the meti of the family whom they serve, so as to leave only one eye visible. The dress of a large proportion of those women of the lower orders who are not of the poorest class consists of a pair of trousers or drawers (similar in form to the shintiyau of the ladies, but generally of plain white cotton or linen), a blue linen or cotton shirt (not quite so full as that of the men), reaching to the feet, a burko' of a kind of coarse black crape,2 and a dark blue tarhah of muslin or linen. Some wear, over the long shirt, or instead of the latter, a linen tob, of the same form as that of the ladies :3 and within the long shirt, some wear a short white shirt ; and some, a sudeyree also, or an 'anteree. The sleeves of the tob are often turned up over the head ; either to prevent their being incommodious, or to supply the place of a tarhah.4 In addition to these articles of dress, many women who are not of the very poor classes wear, as a covering, a kind of plaid, similar in form to the habarah, composed of two pieces of cotton, woven in small chequers of blue and white, or cross stripes, with a mixture of red at each end. It is called " milayeh :"5 in general it is worn in the same manner as the habarah; but sometimes like the tarhah.6 The upper part of the black burko' is often ornamented with false pearls, 1 See Genesis, xxiv. 65 ; and Isaiah, iii. 23. See also 1 Corinthians, xi. 10, and a marginal note on that verse. 2 Some of those who are descended from the Prophet wear a green burko'. 3 See the figure to the left in page 43. * See the figure to the right in page 43. 5 For "mulaah." 6 There is a superior kind of milayeh, of silk, and of various colours ; but this is now seldom worn. The two pieces which compose the mi- layeh are sewed together, like those which compose the habarah." A Woman clad in the Mil&yeh, &c. 50 CHAPTER I. small gold coins, and other little flat ornaments of the same metal (called "bark"); sometimes with a coral bead, and a gold coin Ornamented black Veils. — Cnlj one of these (that to the right) is represented in its whole lengih. beneath; also with some coins of base silver; and more commonly with a pair of chain tassels, of brass or silver (called " 'oyoon "), attached The 'Asbeli. to the corners. A square black silk kerchief (called " 'asbch "), with a border of red and yellow, is bound round the head, doubled A Woman of the Southern Provinee of Upper Egypt. — | {Sketched at Thebes.) CHAPTER L diagonally, and tied with a single knot behind; or, instead of this, the tarboosh and faroodeeyeh are worn, though by very few women of the lower classes. The best kind of shoes worn by the females of the lower orders are of red morocco, turned up, but generally round, at the toes. The burko' and shoes are most common in Cairo, and are also worn by many of the women throughout Lower Egypt ; but in Upper Egypt, the burko is very seldom seen, and shoes are scarcely less uncommon. To supply the place of the former, when necessary, a portion of the tarhah is drawn before the face, so as to conceal nearly all the countenance except one eye. Many of the women of the lower orders, even in the metropolis, never conceal their faces. Throughout the greater part of Egypt the most common dress of the women merely consists of the blue shirt, or tob, and tarhah. In the southern parts of Upper Egypt, chiefly above Akhmeem,1 most of the women envelop themselves in a large piece of dark-brown woollen stuff (called a " hulaleeyeh "), wrapping it round the body, and attaching the upper parts together over each shoulder;2 and a piece of the same they use as a tarhah. This dull dress, though picturesque, is almost as dis- guising as the blue tinge which, as I have before mentioned, the women in these parts of Egypt impart to their lips. Most of the women of the lower orders wear a variety of trumpery ornaments, such as ear-rings, necklaces, bracelets, &c, and sometimes a nose- ring. Descriptions and engravings of some of these ornaments will be found in the Appendix. The women of Egypt deem it more incumbent upon them to cover the upper and back part of the head than the face ; and more requisite to conceal the face than most other parts of the person. I have often seen, in this country, women but half covered with miserable rags ; and several times, females in the prime of wromanhood, and others in more advanced age, with nothing on the body but a narrow strip of rag bound round the hips. 1 Said to be more properly called Ikhmeem. garment, an article of ancient Greek and Roman 1 The reader will recognise, in this picturesque female attire. ( 53 ) CHAPTER II. INFANCY AND EARLY EDUCATION. In the rearing and general treatment of their children, the Muslims are chiefly guided by the directions of their Prophet, and other religious institutors. One of the first duties required to be performed on the birth of a child is to pronounce the adan (or call to prayer) in the infant's right ear; and this should be done by a male. Some persons also pronounce the ikameh (which is nearly the same as the adan) in the left ear.1 The object of each of these ceremonies is to preserve the infant from the influence of the "ginn," or genii. Another custom, observed with the same view, is to say, "In the name of the Prophet and of his cousin 2 'Alee !" It was a custom very common in Egypt, as in other Muslim coun- tries, to consult an astrologer previously to giving a name to a child, and to be guided by his choice ; but very few persons now conform with this old usage : the father makes choice of a name for his son, and confers it without any ceremony : a daughter is generally named by her mother. Boys are often named after the Prophet (Mohammad, Ahmad, or Mustafa3), or some of the members of his family ('Alee, Hasan, Hoseyn, &c), or his eminent companions ('Omar, 'Osman, 'Amr, &c), or some of the prophets and patriarchs of early times (as Ibraheem, Is-hak, Isma'eel, Yaakoob, Moosa, Daood/ Suleyman, &c), or receive a name signifying "Servant of God," " Servant of the Com- passionate/' " Servant of the Powerful," &c. ('Abd- Allah, 'Abd-Er- Rahman, 'Abd-El-Kadir). Girls are mostly named after the wives or the favourite daughter of the Arabian Prophet, or after others of his family (as Khadeegeh, 'A'isheh, Am'neh, Fat'meh, Zeyneb), or are distinguished by a name implying that they are " beloved/' " blessed/' 1 For the words of the adan and the ikiimch, 3 This name is pronounced "Mustafa," or, see the pages referred to after these two words in more commonly, " Mustafe." the Index. * Thus commonly pronounced, for " Dawood." 2 Literally, " the son of his paternal uncle." 51 CHAPTER II. "precious," &c. (Mahboobeh, Mcbrookeh, Nefeeseh), or the name of a flower, or of some other pleasing object.1 As the proper name does not necessarily or generally descend from parent to child, persons are usually distinguished by one or more surnames of the following kinds : — a surname of relationship f as " Aboo-'Alee "3 (Father of 'Alee), "Ibn-Ahmad" (Son of Ahmad), &c. : — a surname of honour, or a nickname ;4 as " Noor-ed-Deen 93 (The Light of the Religion), "Et-Taweel" (The Tall), &c. :— an appellation relating to country, birth-place, origin, family, sect, trade or occupation, &c. f as Er-Rasheedee " (of the town of Rasheed), "Es-Sabbagh" (The Dyer), "Et-Tagir" (The Merchant). The second kind of surname, and that relating to country &c, are often inherited; thus becoming family-names. Each kind of surname is now generally placed after the proper name. The dress of the children of the middle and higher orders is similar to that of the parents, but generally slovenly. The children of the poor are either clad in a shirt and a cotton skull-cap or a tarboosh, or (as is mostly the case in the villages) are left quite naked until the age of six or seven years or more, unless a bit of rag can be easily obtained to serve them as a partial covering. Those little girls wrho have only a piece of ragged stuff not large enough to cover both the head and body, generally prefer wearing it upon the head, and some- times have the coquetry to draw a part of it before the face, as a veil, while the whole body is exposed. Little ladies, four or five years of age, mostly wear the wThite face-veil, like their mothers. When a boy is two or three years old, or often earlier, his head is shaven j a tuft of hair only being left on the crown, and another over the forehead :e 1 In Cairo, it is the fashion to change the first five female names here mentioned, and the last, into Khaddoogeh, 'Eiyoosheh, Ammooneh, Fattoo- meh, Zennoobeh, and Neffooseh ; and some other names are changed to the same "measure" as these; which measure implies, in these cases, a superior degree of dignity. (The name of the celebrated traveller Ibn-Battootah is erroneously written by European authors Ibn-Batootah, or Ibn-Batutah). 2 This is termed " kunyeh." 3 On an improper use of this kind of surname, see a note towards the close of Chapter iv. in this work. , 4 Termed "lakab." 5 Termed " nisbeh," or "ism mensoob;" or an appellation resembling an " ism mensoob." 6 It is customary among the peasants through- out a great part of Egypt, on the first occasion of shaving a child's head, to slay a victim, generally a goat, at the tomb of some saint in or near their village, and to make a feast with the meat, of which their friends, and any other persons who please, partake. This is most common in Upper Egypt, and among the tribes not very long established on the banks of the Xile. Their Pagan ancestors in Arabia observed this custom, and usually gave, as alms to the poor, the weight of the hair in silver or gold. (This custom may perl laps throw some light on the statement in 2 Sam. xiv. 26, respecting Absalom's weighing the hair of his head "when he polled it.") The victim is called '"akcekah," and is offered as a ransom for the child from hell. The custom of shaving one part of a child's head and leaving another was forbidden by the Prophet. INFANCY. 55 the heads of female infants are seldom shaven. The young children, of both sexes, are usually carried, by their mothers and nurses, not in the arms, but on the shoulder, seated astride,1 aud sometimes, for a short distance, on the hip. In the treatment of their children, the women of the wealthier classes are remarkable for their excessive indulgence; and the poor, for the little attention they bestow, beyond supplying the absolute wants of nature. The mother is prohibited, by the Muslim law, from weaning her child before the expiration of two years from the period of its birth, unless with the consent of her husband, which, I am told, is generally given after the first year or eighteen months. In the houses of the wealthy, the child, whether boy or girl, remains almost constantly confined in the hareem (or the women's apartments), or, at least, in the house : sometimes the boy continues thus an effemi- nate prisoner until a master, hired to instruct him daily, has taught him to read and write. But it is important to observe, that an affec- tionate respect for parents and elders inculcated in the hareem fits the boy for an abrupt introduction into the world, as will presently be shewn. When the ladies go out to pay a visit, or to take an airing, mounted on asses, the children generally go with them, each carried by a female slave or servant, or seated between her knees upon the fore part of the saddle ; the female attendants, as well as the ladies, being usually borne by asses, and it being the custom of all the women to sit astride. But it is seldom that the children of the rich enjoy this slight diversion ; their health suffers from confinement and pampering, and they are often rendered capricious, proud, and selfish. The women of the middle classes are scarcely less indulgent mothers. The estima- tion in which the wife is held by her husband, and even by her acquaintance, depends, in a great degree, upon her fruitfulness, and upon the preservation of her children ; for by men and women, rich and poor, barrenness is still considered, in the East, a curse and a reproach ; and it is regarded as disgraceful in a man to divorce, without some cogent reason, a wife who has borne him a child, espe- cially while her child is living. If, therefore, a woman desire her husband's love, or the respect of others, her giving birth to a child is a source of great joy to herself and him, and her own interest alone is a sufficient motive for maternal tenderness. Very little expense is required, in Egypt, for the maintenance of a numerous offspring.2 1 See Isaiah, xlix. 22. cap. 20), that the ancient Egyptians clothed and i ~ It is mentioned by Diodorus Sieulus (lib. i. reared their children at a very trilling expense. 56 CHAPTER IT. However much the children are caressed and fondled, in general they feel and manifest a most profound and praiseworthy respect for their parents. Disobedience to parents is considered by the Muslims ' as one of the greatest of sins, and classed, in point of heinousness, with six other sins, which are idolatry, murder, falsely accusing modest women of adultery, wasting the property of orphans, taking usury, and desertion in an expedition against infidels. An undu- tiful child is very seldom heard of among the Egyptians or the Arabs in general, ximong the middle and higher classes, the child usually greets the father in the morning by kissing his hand, and then stands before him in an humble attitude, with the left hand covered by the right, to receive any order, or to await his permission to depart ; but after the respectful kiss, is often taken on the lap ; and nearly the same respect is shewn towards the mother. Other members of the family, according to age, relationship, and station, are also similarly regarded by the young; and hence arise that ease and propriety with which a child, emerging from the hareem, conducts himself in every society, and that loyalty which is often improperly regarded as the result of Eastern despotism.1 Sons scarcely ever sit, or eat, or smoke, in the presence of the father, unless bidden to do so ; and they often even wait upon him, and upon his guests, at meals and on other occasions : they do not cease to act thus when they have become men. — I once partook of breakfast with an Egyptian merchant, before the door of his house, in the month of Ramadan (and therefore a little after sunset) ; and though every person who passed by, however poor, was invited to partake of the meal, we were waited upon by two of my host's sons ; the elder about forty years of age. As they had been fasting during the whole of the day, and had as yet only taken a draught of water, I begged the father to allow them to sit down and eat with us : he immediately told them that they might do so ; but they declined. — The mothers generally enjoy, in a greater degree than the fathers, the affection of their children ; though they do not receive from them equal outward marks of respect. I have often known servants to hoard their wages for their mothers, though seldom for their fathers. With the exception of those of the wealthier classes, the young children in Egypt, though objects of so much solicitude, are generally 1 ' The structure of Eastern government is but the enlargement of the paternal roof." (Urquhart's Spirit of the East, vol. ii. p. 249.) CIRCUMCISION. 57 very dirty, and shabbily clad. The stranger here is disgusted by the sight of them, and at once condemns the modern Egyptians as a very filthy people, without requiring any other reason for forming such an opinion of them ; but it is often the case that those children who are most petted and beloved are the dirtiest, and worst clad. It is not un- common to see, in the city in which I am writing, a lady shuffling along in her ample tob and habarah of new and rich and glistening silks, and one who scents the whole street with the odour of musk or civet as she passes along, with all that appears of her person scrupulously clean and delicate, her eyes neatly bordered with kohl applied in the most careful manner, aud the tip of a finger or two shewing the fresh dye of the henna, and by her side a little boy or girl, her own child, with a face besmeared with dirt, and with clothes appearing as though they had been worn for months without being washed. Few things sur- prised me so much as sights of this kind on my arrival in this country. I naturally inquired the cause of what struck me as so strange and inconsistent, and was informed that the affectionate mothers thus neglected the appearance of their children, and purposely left them unwashed, and clothed them so shabbily, particularly when they had to take them out in public, from fear of the evil eye, which is exces- sively dreaded, and especially in the case of children, since they are generally esteemed the greatest of blessings, and therefore most likely to be coveted. It is partly for the same reason that many of them confine their boys so long in the harccm. Some mothers even dress their young sons as girls, because the latter are less obnoxious to envy. The children of the poor have a yet more neglected appearance : besides being very scantily clad, or quite naked, they are, in general, excessively dirty : their eyes are frequently extremely filthy : it is com- mon to see half-a-dozen or more flies in each eye, unheeded and unmo- lested. The parents consider it extremely injurious to wash, or even touch, the eyes, when they discharge that acrid humour which attracts the flies : they even affirm that the loss of sight would result from frequently touching or washing them when thus affected; though washing is really one of the best means of alleviating the complaint. At the age of about five or six years, or sometimes later, the boy is circumcised.1 Previously to the performance of this rite in the metropolis and other towns of Egypt, the parents of the youth, if not 1 Among the peasants, nut unfrcqucntly at the ae bridge " Es-Sirat " (which extends over the midst of Hell, finer than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword), over which all must pass, and from which the wicked shall fall into Hell. He believes, also, that they who have acknowledged the faith of El-Islam and yet acted wickedly will not remain in Hell for ever; but that all of other religions must: that there are, however, degrees of punishments, as well as of rewards ; the former consisting in severe torture by excessive heat and cold; and the latter, partly in the indulgence of the appetites by most 1 The Muslim seldom mentions the name of the Prophet without adding, " Salla-llahu 'aleyhi wa- scllem ." i. e.} " God bless and save him !" * In the first edition of this work, I here men- tioned the Devil as distinct from the genii ; hut 1 have since found that the majority of the most esteemed Arab authors are of the contrary opinion. Theirs is also the general opinion of the modern Arabs.— The angelic nature is considered as inferior to the human (because the angels Were commanded to prostrate themselves before Adam), and still more so is the nature of genii. 3 " El-Genneh," or " the garden." * "Gahcnnem." DOGMAS OF RELIGION. 67 delicious meats and drinks, and in the pleasures afforded by the company of the girls of Paradise, whose eyes will be very large and entirely black/ and whose stature will be proportioned to that of the men, which will be the height of a tall palm-tree, or about sixty feet. Such, the Muslims generally believe, was the height of Adam and Eve. It is said that the souls of martyrs reside, until the judgment, in the crops of green birds, which eat of the fruits of Paradise and drink of its rivers.2 Women are not to be excluded from Paradise, according to the faith of El-Islam ; though it has been asserted, by many Christians, that the Muslims believe women to have no souls. In several places in the Kur-an, Paradise is promised to all true believers, whether males or females. It is the doctrine of the Kur-an that no person will be admitted into Paradise by his own merits; but that admission will be granted to the believers merely by the mercy of God, on account of their faith ; yet that the felicity of each person will be proportioned to his good works. The very meanest in Paradise is promised "eighty thousand servants" (beautiful youths, called " weleeds "* ), " seventy-two wives of the girls of Paradise" (" hooreeyehs " 4), " besides the wives he had in this world," if he desire to have the latter (and the good will doubtless desire the good), " and a tent erected for him of pearls, jacinths, and emeralds, of a very large extent ;" " and will be waited on by three hundred attendants while he eats, and served in dishes of gold, whereof three hundred shall be set before him at once, each containing a different kind of food, the last morsel of which will be as grateful as the first." Wine also, " though forbidden in this life, will yet be freely allowed to be drunk in the next, and without danger, since the wine of Paradise will not inebriate." 5 We are further told, that all super- fluities from the bodies of the inhabitants of Paradise will be carried off by perspiration, which will diffuse an odour like that of musk ; and that they will be clothed in the richest silks, chiefly of green. They are also promised perpetual youth, and children as many as they may desire. These pleasures, together with the songs of the angel Israfeel, and many other gratifications of the senses, wdl charm 1 Like those of the gazelle: this meaning of their common appellation (which is mentioned afterwards) is, however, disputed. 2 The title of martyr is iriven to the unpaid soldier killed in a war for the defence of the faith, to a person who has innocently met with lus death from the hand of another, to a victim of the plairue lif he has not lied from the disease) or of dysentery, to a person who has been drowned, and to one who has been killed by the fall of any building. 3 Or " wildan." * Or " el-hoor el-'eeu," or "el-hoorel-'oyoon." 5 See Sale's Preliminary Discourse to his Trans- ution of the Kur-an, sect. iv. CHAPTER III. even the meanest inhabitant of Paradise. But all these enjoyments will be lightly esteemed by those more blessed persons who are to be admitted to the highest of all honours, that spiritual pleasure of beholding, morning and evening, the face of God.1 — The Muslim must also believe in the examination of the dead in the sepulchre, by two angels, called Munkar and Nekeer,2 of terrible aspect, who will cause the body (to which the soul shall, for the time, be reunited,) to sit upright in the grave,3 and will question the deceased respecting his faith. The wicked they will severely torture ; but the good they will not hurt. Lastly, he should believe in God's absolute decree of every event, both good and evil. This doctrine has given rise to as much controversy among the Muslims as among Christians ; but the former, generally, believe in predestination as, in some respects, conditional. The most important duties enjoined in the ritual and moral laivs are prayer, alms-giving, fasting, and pilgrimage. The religious purifications, which are of two kinds, — first, the ordinary ablution preparatory to prayer, and secondly, the washing of the whole body, together with the performance of the former ablution, — are of primary importance : for prayer, which is a duty so im- portant that it is called " the Key of Paradise," will not be accepted from a person in a state of uncleanness. It is therefore also necessary to avoid impurity by clipping the nails, and other similar practices.4 There are partial washings, or purifications, which all Muslims perform on certain occasions, even if they neglect their prayers, and which are considered as religious acts.5 The ablution called "el- wudoo," which is preparatory to prayer, I shall now describe. The purifications just before alluded to are a part of the wudoo : the other washings are not, of necessity, to be performed immediately after, but only when the person is about to say his prayers ; and these are per- formed in the mosque or in the house, in public or in private. There is in every mosque a tank (called "meydaah") or a " hanafeeyeh," which is a raised reservoir, with spouts round it, from which the 1 A Muslim of some learning professed to me that he considered the description of Paradise given in the Kur-an to he, in a great measure, figurative : " like those," said he, " in the book of the Revelation of St. John ;" and he assured me that many learned Muslims were of the same opinion . 1 Vulgarly called PNj&kir" and " Nekeer." 3 The corpse is always deposited in a vault, and not placed in a coffin, hut merely wrapped in winding-sheets or clothes. 4 Alluded to in the first chapter. 5 For an account of these private ablutions, and the occasions which require their perform- ance, the reader may consult licland, Dfl Eel. Moh. pp. 80—83, ed. \l\7. RITUAL AND MORAL LAWS. 69 water falls. In some mosques there are both these. The Muslims of the Hanafee sect (of which are the Turks) perform the ablution at the latter (which has received its name from that cause) ; for they must do it with running water, or from a tank or pool at least ten cubits in breadth, and the same in depth ; and I believe that there is only one meyda'ah in Cairo of that depth, which is in the great mosque El-Azhar. A small hanafeeyeh of tinned copper, placed on a low shelf, and a large basin, or a small ewer and basin of the same metal, are generally used in the house for the performance of the wudoo. V'essi-Is for Ablution. — The upper vessel (or hanafeeyeh) is generally aimit a foot and a half in htiyht. The person, having tucked up his sleeves a little higher than his elbows, says, in a low voice, or inaudibly, " I purpose performing the wudoo, for prayer." 1 He then washes his hands three times ; saying, in the same manner as before, " In the name of God, the Com- passionate, the Merciful. Praise be to God, who hath sent down water for purification, and made El-Islam to be a light and a con- ductor, and a guide to thy gardens, the gardens of delight, and to thy mansion, the mansion of peace." Then he rinses his mouth three 1 All persons do not use exactly the same words the wudoo; and most persons use no words during on tins occasion, nor during the performance of the performance. To CHAPTER III. times, throwing the water into it with his right hand;1 and in doing this he says, " O God, assist me in the reading of thy book, and in eommemorating Thee, and in thanking Thee, and in worshipping Thee well." Next, with his right hand, he throws water up his nostrils (snuffing it up at the same time), and then blows it out, compressing his nostrils with the thumb and finger of the left hand; and this also is done three times. While doing it, he says, " 0 God, make me to smell the odours of Paradise, and bless me with its de- lights; and make me not to smell the smell of the fires [of Hell]." He then washes his face three times, throwing up the water with both hands, and saying, " 0 God, whiten my face with thy light, on the day when Thou shalt whiten the faces of thy favourites ; and do not blacken my face, on the day when Thou shalt blacken the faces of thine enemies." 2 His right hand and arm, as high as the elbow, he next washes three times, and as many times causes some water to run along his arm, from the palm of the hand to the elbow, saying, as he does this, " 0 God, give me my book in my right hand; 3 and reckon with me with an easy reckoning." In the same manner he washes the left hand and arm, saying, " 0 God, do not give me my book in my left hand, nor behind my back ; and do not reckon with me with a difficult reckoning; nor make me to be one of the people of the fire." He next draws his wetted right hand over the upper part of his head, raising his turban or cap with his left : this he does but once ; and he accompanies the action with this supplication, " 0 God, cover me with thy mercy, and pour down thy blessing upon me ; and shade me under the shadow of thy canopy, on the day when there shall be no shade but its shade." If he has a beard, he then combs it with the wetted fingers of his right hand ; holding his hand with the palm forwards, and passing the fingers through his beard from the throat upwards. He then puts the tips of his forefingers into his ears, and twists them round, passing his thumbs at the same time round the back of the ears, from the bottom upwards; and saying, " O God, make me to be of those who hear what is said, and obey what is best or, " 0 God, make me to hear good." Next he wipes 1 He should also use a tooth-stick (miswak) to clean his teeth; but few do so. 2 It is believed that the good man will rise to judgment with his face white; and the bad, with his face black. Hence a man's face is said to be white oi* black according as he is in good or bad rermtc; and "may God blacken thy face!" is a common imprecation. 3 To every man is appropriated a book, in which all the actions of his life are written. The just man, it is said, will receive his book in his right hand; but the wicked, in his left, which will be tied behind his back; his right hand being tied up to his neck. RITUAL AND MORAL LAWS. 71 his neck with the back of the fingers of both hands, making the ends of his fingers meet behind his neck, and then drawing them forward ; and in doing so, he says, i( 0 God, free my neck from the fire; and keep me from the chains, and the collars, and the fetters." Lastly, he washes his feet, as high as the ankles, and passes his fingers between the toes : he washes the right foot first, saying, at the same time, " 0 God, make firm my feet upon the Sirat, on the day when feet shall slip upon it :" on washing the left foot, he says, " 0 God, make my labour to be approved, and my sin forgiven, and my works accepted, merchandise that shall not perish, by thy pardon, 0 Mighty, 0 very Forgiving; by thy mercy, 0 most Merciful of those who shew mercy." After having thus completed the ablution, he says, looking towards heaven, " Thy perfection, 0 God, [I extol] with thy praise : I testify that there is no deity but Thou alone : Thou hast no companion : I implore thy forgiveness, and turn to Thee with repentance." Then, looking towards the earth, he adds, " I testify that there is no deity but God : and I testify that Mohammad is his servant and his apostle." Having uttered these words, he should recite, once, twice, or three times, the " Soorat el-Kadr," or 97th chapter of the Kur-an. The wudoo is generally performed in less than two minutes ; most persons hurrying through the act, as well as omitting almost all the prayers, &c., which should accompany and follow the actions. It is not required before each of the five daily prayers, when the person is conscious of having avoided every kind of impurity since the last per- formance of this ablution. "When water cannot be easily procured, or would be injurious to the health of the individual, he may perforin the ablution with dust or sand. This ceremony is called M tayemmum." The person, in this case, strikes the palms of his hands upon any dry dust or sand (it will suffice to do so upon his cloth robe, as it must contain some dust), and, with both hands, wipes his face : then, having struck his hands again upon the dust, he wipes his right hand and arm as high as the elbow; and then, the left hand and arm, in the same manner. This completes the ceremony. The washing of the whole body is often performed merely for the sake of cleanliness ; but not as a religious act, except on particular occasions, as on the morn- ing of Friday, and on the two grand festivals, &c./ when it is called " ghusl." 1 Here, again, I must beg to refer the reader quire its performance.— De BflL Moh. pp. 66—77, (if he desire such information) to Reland's ac- ed. 1717. count of the trims!, and the occasions which re- 72 CHAPTER III. Cleanliness is required not only in the worshipper, but also in the ground, mat, carpet, robe, or whatever else it be, upon which he prays. Persons of the lower orders often pray upon the bare ground, which is considered clean if it be dry ; and they seldom wipe off immediately the dust which adheres to the nose and forehead in prostration ; for it is regarded as ornamental to the believer's face : but when a person has a cloak or any other garment that he can take off without exposing his person in an unbecoming manner, he spreads it upon the ground to serve as a prayer-carpet. The rich use a prayer-carpet (called " seggadeh ") about the size of a wide hearth-rug, having a niche represented upon it, the point of which is turned towards Mekkeh.1 It is reckoned sinful to pass near before a person engaged in prayer. When so engaged, the Muslim should station himself a few feet before a wall or the like, or should place before him a " sutrah," which may be a staff stuck upright or (if the ground is hard) laid horizontally, or a whip, or his saddle, or his shoes ; in order that no living being, nor any image, may be the object next before him.2 If he has nothing to place as a "sutrah," he should draw a line on the ground before him. Prayer is called " salah thus commonly pronounced for " salah." Five times in the course of every day is its performance required of the Muslim : but there are comparatively few persons in Egypt who do not sometimes, or often, neglect this duty; and there are many who scarcely ever pray. Certain portions of the ordinary prayers are called "fard," which are appointed by the Kur-an; and others, " sunneh," which are appointed by the Prophet, without allegation of a divine order. The first time of prayer commences at the " maghrib," or sunset,3 or rather, about four minutes later; the second, at the a'eshe," or nightfall, when the evening has closed, and it is quite dark ;4 the 1 Seggadehs, of the kind here described, are now sold in London, under the name of " Persian carpets" or " Persian rugs." 2 This was probably a custom of the Jews in Arabia, and borrowed from them by Mohammad ; and it may explain a difficulty which has much • perplexed the commentators of the Bible, in Gen. xlvii. 31. I think that the pointing of the Hebrew text is there manifestly wrong, as many critics have supposed; and that the true meaning will now be seen to be, "Israel worshipped," or "bowed himself," "before," or "toward," "the head of the staff;" agreeably with the rendering of the Septuagint, and with Hebr. xi. 21. The Hebrew and Greek prepositions which are ren- dered " upon " in both these instances in the authorized English version signify also " before," and " to," or " towards :" and the Hebrew prepo- sition in question, preceded by the same verb that precedes it hi the instance in Gen. xlvii. 31, is rendered " unto " in Lev. xxvi. 1, a strikingly apposite passage. 3 I have called this the first, because the Mo- hammadan day commences from sunset ; but the morning-prayer is often termed the first; the prayer of noon, the second; and so on. 4 The 'eshe of the Shafe'ees, Malikees, and Ham- belees, is when the red gleam (" esh-shafak el- ahmar") after sunset has disappeared; and that of the Hanafees, when both the red and the white gleam have disappeared. RITUAL AXD MORAL LAWS. 73 third, at the "subh" or "fegr;" i. e., daybreak ;l the fourth, at the " duhr," or noon, or, rather, a little later, when the sun has begun to decline ; the fifth, at the " 'asr," or afternoon ; i. e., about mid-time between noon and nightfall.2 Each period of prayer ends when the next commences, except that of daybreak, which ends at sunrise. The Prophet would not have his followers commence their prayers at sunrise, nor exactly at noon or sunset, because, he said, infidels wor- shipped the sun at such times. Should the time of prayer arrive when they are eating, or about to eat, they are not to rise to prayer till they have finished their meal. The prayers should be said as nearly as possible at the commence- ment of the periods above mentioned : they may be said after, but not before. The several times of prayer are announced by the " mueddin " of each mosque. Having ascended to the gallery of the " mad'neh," or menaret, he chants the "adan," or call to prayer, which is as follows : u God is most Great " (this is said four times). " I testify that there is no deity but God" (twice). "I testify that Mohammad is God's Apostle" (twice). "Come to prayer" (twice). "Come to security" (twice).3 "God is most Great" (twice). "There is no deity but God." — Most of the mueddins of Cairo have harmonious and sonorous voices, which they strain to the utmost pitch : yet there is a simple and solemn melody in their chants which is very striking, particularly in the stillness of night.4 Blind men are generally pre- ferred for the office of mueddins, that the hareems and terraces of surrounding houses may not be overlooked from the mad'nehs. Two other calls to prayers are made during the night, to rouse those persons who desire to perform supererogatory acts of devotion.5 A little after midnight, the mueddins of the great royal mosques in Cairo (i. e., of each of the great mosques founded by a Sultan, which is called "Game' Sultanee"), and of some other large mosques, ascend the mad'nehs, and chant the following call, which, being one of the two night-calls not at the regular periods of obligatory prayers, is called the " Oola," a term signifying merely the " First." Having 1 Generally on the first faint appearance of light in the east. The Hanafees mostly perform the morning-prayer a little later, when the yellow gleam (" el-isfirar ") appears: this they deem the most proper time ; hut they may pray earlier. 2 The 'asr, according to the Shafe'ees, Malikees, and Hambelees, is when the shade of an object, cast by the sun, is equal to the length of that object, added to the length of the shade which the same object casts at noon j and, according to the Hanafees, when the shadow is equal to twice the length of the object, added to the length of its mid-day shadow. 3 Here is added, in the morning-call, " Prayer is better than sleep " (twice). * A common air, to which the adan is chanted in Cairo, will be given in the chapter on Egyptian music. 5 They are few who do so. L 74 CHAPTER III. commenced by chanting the common adan, with those words which are introduced in the call to morning-prayer (" Prayer is better than sleep "), he adds, " There is no deity but God " (three times) " alone : He hath no companion : to Him belongeth the dominion ; and to Him belongeth praise. He giveth life, and causeth death ; and He is living, and shall never die. In his hand is blessing [or good] ; and He is Almighty. — There is no deity but God" (three times), " and we will not worship any beside Him, ' serving Him with sincerity of religion/1 ' though the infidels be averse'2 [thereto]. This is no deity but God. Mohammad is the most noble of the creation in the sight of God. Mohammad is the best prophet that hath been sent, and a lord by whom his companions became lords ; comely ; liberal of gifts ; perfect ; pleasant to the taste ; sweet ; soft to the throat [or to be drunk]. Pardon, 0 Lord, thy servant and thy poor dependant, the en dower of this place, and him who watcheth it with goodness and beneficence, and its neighbours, and those who frequent it at the times of prayers and good acts, O thou Bountiful : — 0 Lord "3 (three times). " Thou art He who ceaseth not to be dis- tinguished by mercy : Thou art liberal of thy clemency towards the rebellious ; and protectest him ; and concealest what is foul ; and makest manifest every virtuous action; and Thou besto west thy be- neficence upon the servant, and comfortest him, 0 thou Bountiful : — O Lord " (three times). " My sins, when I think upon them, [I see to be] many ; but the mercy of my Lord is more abundant than are my sins: I am not solicitous on account of good that I have done; but for the mercy of God I am most solicitous. Extolled be the Everlasting. He hath no companion in his great dominion. His per- fection [I extol] : exalted be his name : [I extol] the perfection of God." About an hour before daybreak, the mueddins of most mosques chant the second call, named the "Ebed," and so called from the occurrence of that word near the commencement.4 This call is as follows : " [I extol] the perfection of God, the Existing for ever and ever " (three times) : " the perfection of God, the Desired, the Exist- ing, the Single, the Supreme : the perfection of God, the One, the Sole : the perfection of Him who taketh to Himself, in his great dominion, neither female companion, nor male partner, nor any like unto Him, nor any that is disobedient, nor any deputy, nor any equal, 1 Kur-an, ch. xcviii. v. 4. 3 This thrice-uttered exclamation (" Y6 Kabh !") 2 Idem, ch. ix. v. 32, and ch. lxi. v. 8. is made in a very loud tone. 4 The word "ebed" is here used adverbially, signifying "for ever." RITUAL AND MORAL LAWS. 75 nor any offspring. His perfection [be extolled] : and exalted be his name. He is a Deity who knew what hath been before it was, and called into existence what hath been; and He is now existing as He was [at the first] . His perfection [be extolled] : and exalted be his name. He is a Deity unto whom there is none like existing. There is none like unto God, the Bountiful, existing. There is none like unto God, the Clement, existing. There is none like unto God, the Great, existing. And there is no deity but Thou, 0 our Lord, to be worshipped and to be praised and to be desired and to be glorified. [I extol] the perfection of Him who created all creatures, and num- bered them, and distributed their sustenance, and decreed the terms of the lives of his servants : and our Lord, the Bountiful, the Clement, the Great, forgetteth not one of them. [I extol] the perfection of Him who, of his power and greatness, caused the pure water to flow from the solid stone, the mass of rock : the perfection of Him who spake with our lord Moosa [or Moses] upon the mountain where- upon the mountain was reduced to dust,2 through dread of God, whose name be exalted, the One, the Sole. There is no deity but God. He is a just Judge. [I extol] the perfection of the First. Blessing and peace be on thee, 0 comely of countenance : 0 Apostle of God. Blessing and peace be on thee, 0 first of the creatures of God, and seal of the apostles of God. Blessing and peace be on thee, O thou Prophet : on thee and on thy Family, and all thy Companions. God is most Great. God is most Great : " &c, to the end of the call to morning-prayer. " O God, bless and save and still beatify the beatified Prophet, our lord Mohammad. And may God, whose name be blessed and exalted, be well pleased with thee, O our lord El-Hasan, and with thee, 0 our lord El-Hoseyn, and with thee, 0 Aboo-Farrag,3 O Sheykh of the Arabs, and with all the favourites [the " welees "] of God. Amen." The prayers which are performed daily at the five periods before mentioned are said to be of so many " rek'ahs," or inclinations of the head.4 ' These words, "The perfection of Him who spake," &c. ("subhana men kellema," &c.)> are pronounced in a very high and loud tone. 2 See Kur-an, ch. vii. v. 139. 3 "Aboo-Farrag" is a surname of a famous saint, the seyyid Ahmad El-Bedawee, buried at Tanta in the Delta : it implies that he obtains re- lief to those who visit his tomb, and implore his intercession. 4 The morning-prayers, two rek'ahs sunneh and two fard ; the noon, four sunneh and four fard ; the afternoon, the same; the evening, three fard and two sunneh; and the night-prayers (or 'eshe), four sunneh and four fard, and two sunneh again. After these are yet to be performed three rek'ahs *'witr;" i. e., single or separate prayers: these may be performed immediately after the 'eshe prayers, or at any time in the night; but arc more meritorious if late in the night. 7ft CHAPTER III. The worshipper, standing with his face towards the Kibleh (that is, towards Mekkeh), and his feet not quite close together, says, inaudibly, that he has purposed to recite the prayers of so manyrek'ahs (sunneh or fard) the morning-prayers (or the noon, &c.,) of the present day (or night) ; and then, raising his open hands on each side of his face, and touching the lobes of his ears with the ends of his thumbs, he says, "God is most Great" (" Allah u Akbar"). This ejaculation is 1 2 3 I* S Postures of Prayer. called the " tekbeer." He then proceeds to recite the prayers of the prescribed number of rek'ahs,1 thus : — Still standing, and placing his hands before him, a little below his girdle, the left within the right, he recites (with his eyes directed towards the spot where his head will touch the ground in prostration) the Fat'hah, or opening chapter of the Kur-an,2 and after it three or more other verses, or one of the short chapters, of the Kur-an ; very 1 There are some little differences in the atti- tudes of the four great sects during prayer. I describe those of the Hanafees. — The two cuts here inserted comprise the postures of two rek'ahs ; the first rek'ah ending with No. 8. 2 Some persons previously utter certain super- erogatory ejaculations, expressive of the praise and glory of God ; and add, " I seek refuge with God from Satan the accursed;" which petition is often offered up before reciting any part of the RITUAL AND MORAL LAWS. 77 commonly the 112th chapter j but without repeating the " besmeleh 93 (in the name of God, &e.,) before the second recitation. He then says, " God is most Great and makes, at the same time, an inclina- tion of his head and body, placing his hands upon his knees, and separating his fingers a little. In this posture he says, " [I extol] the perfection of my Lord the Great " (three times), adding, " May is 16 >7 6 7 8 u Postures of Prayer — continued. God hear him who praiseth Him. Our Lord, praise be unto Thee." Then, raising his head and body, he repeats, " God is most Great." He next drops gently upon bis knees, and, saying again, " God is most Great," places his hands upon the ground, a little before his knees, and puts his nose and forehead also to the ground (the former first), between his two hands. During this prostration he says, " [I extol] the perfection of my Lord the Most High " (three times). He raises his head and body (but his knees remain upon the ground), Kur-an on other occasions, as commanded by the when it is recited inaudibly. By Imams, when Kur-an itself (oh. xvi. v. 100). The Kur-an is praying at the head of others, and sometimes by usually recited, in the fard prayers, in a voice persons praying alone, it is chanted. In the sun- slightly audible, except at noon and the 'asr, neh prayers it is recited inaudibly. 78 CHAPTER III. sinks backwards upon his heels, and places his hands upon his thighs, saying, at the same time, " God is most Great :" and this he repeats as he bends his head a second time to the ground. During this second prostration he repeats the same words as in the first ; and in raising his head again, he utters the tekbeer as before. Thus are completed the prayers of one rek'ah. In all the changes of posture, the toes of the right foot must not be moved from the spot where they were first placed, and the left foot should be moved as little as possible. Having finished the prayers of one rek'ah, the worshipper rises upon his feet (but without moving his toes from the spot where they were, particularly those of the right foot), and repeats the same; only he should recite some other chapter, or portion, after the Fat'hah, than that which he repeated before, as, for instance, the 108th chapter.1 After every second rek'ah (and after the last, though there be an odd number, as in the evening fard), he does not immediately raise his knees from the ground, but bends his left foot under him, and sits upon it, and places his hands upon his thighs, with the fingers a little apart. In this posture, he says, "Praises are to God, and prayers, and good works. Peace be on thee, 0 Prophet, and the mercy of God, and his blessings. Peace be on us, and on [all] the righteous worshippers of God." Then raising the first finger of the right hand2 (but not the hand itself), he adds, " I testify that there is no deity but God ; and I testify that Mohammad is his servant and his apostle." After the last rek'ah of each of the prayers (that is, after the sunneh prayers and the fard alike), after saying, " Praises are to God/' &c, the worshipper, looking upon his right shoulder, says, " Peace be on you, and the mercy of God." Then looking upon the left, he repeats the same. These salutations are considered by some as addressed only to the guardian angels who watch over the believer, and note all his actions ; 3 but others say that they are addressed both to angels and men (i. e., believers only), who may be present; no person, however, returns them. Before the salutations in the last 1 In the third and fourth fard rek'ahs, the re- citation of a second portion of the Kur-an after the Fat'hah should be omitted; and before fard prayers of four rek'ahs, the "ikameh" (which consists of the words of the adan, with the addi- tion of " the time of prayer is come," pronounced twice after "come to security,") should be re- peated ; but most persons neglect doing this, and many do not observe the former rule. 2 The doctors of El-Islam differ respecting the proper position of the fingers of the right hand on this occasion : some hold that all the fingers but the first are to be doubled, as represented in the second sketch of the postures of prayer. 3 Some say that every believer is attended by two angels ; others say, five ; others, sixty, or a hundred and sixty. RITUAL AND MORAL LAWS. 7:) prayer, the worshipper may offer up any short petition (in Scriptural language rather than his own) ; while he does so looking at the palms of his two hands, which he holds like an open book before him, and then draws over his face, from the forehead downwards. Having finished both the sunneh and fard prayers, the worshipper, if he would acquit himself completely, or rather, perform superero- gatory acts, remains sitting (but may then sit more at his ease), and recites the " Ayet el-Kursee," or Throne-Verse, which is the 256th of the 2nd chapter of the Kur-an ;l and adds, " 0 High : 0 Great : thy perfection [I extol]." He then repeats, "The perfection of God " (thirty-three times). " The perfection of God the Great, with his praise for ever" (once). "Praise be to God" (thirty-three times). " Extolled be his dignity : there is no deity but He " (once). " God is most Great " (thirty-three times). " God is most Great in greatness, and praise be to God in abundance" (once). He counts these repetitions with a string of beads called " sebhah " (more properly "subhah"). The beads are ninety-nine, and have a mark between each thirty-three. They are of aloes, or other odo- riferous or precious wood, or of coral, or of certain fruit-stones, or seeds, &c. Any wandering of the eyes, or of the mind, a coughing, or the like, answering a question, or any action not prescribed to be per- formed, must be strictly avoided (unless it be between the sunneh prayers and the fard, or be difficult to avoid ; for it is held allowable to make three slight irregular motions, or deviations from correct deportment) ; otherwise the worshipper must begin again, and repeat his prayers with due reverence. It is considered extremely sinful to interrupt a man when engaged in his devotions. The time usually occupied in repeating the prayers of four rek'ahs, without the super- erogatory additions, is less than four, or even three, minutes. The Muslim says the five daily prayers in his house or shop or in the mosque, according as may be most convenient to him : it is seldom that a person goes from his house to the mosque to pray, except to join the congregation on Friday. Men of the lower orders oftener pray in the mosques than those who have a comfortable home, and a mat or carpet upon which to pray. The same prayers are said by the congregation in the mosque on 1 Beginning with the words " God : there is no deity hut He ;" and ending with, " He is the High, the Great." 80 CHAPTER III. the noon of Friday; but there are additional rites performed by the Imam and other ministers on this occasion. The chief reasons for fixing upon Friday as the Sabbath of the Muslims were, it is said, because Adam was created on that day, and died on the same day of the week, and because the general resurrection was prophesied to happen on that day ; whence, particularly, Friday was named the day of " El-Gum'ah " (or the assembly). The Muslim does not abstain from worldly business on Friday, except during the time of prayer, according to the precept of the Kur-an, ch. lxii. vv. 9 and 10. Interior of a Mosque. RITUAL AND MOEAL LAWS. 81 To form a proper conception of the ceremonials of the Friday- prayers, it is necessary to have some idea of the interior of a mosque. A mosque in which a congregation assembles to perform the Friday- prayers is called " gameV The mosques of Cairo are so numerous, that none of them is inconveniently crowded on the Friday; and some of them are so large as to occupy spaces three or four hundred feet square. They are mostly built of stone, the alternate courses of which are generally coloured externally red and white. Most commonly a large mosque consists of porticoes surrounding a square open court, in the centre of which is a tank or a fountain for ablution. One side of the building faces the direction of Mekkeh, and the portico on this side, being the principal place of prayer, is more spacious than those on the three other sides of the court : it generally has two or more rows of columns, forming so many aisles, parallel with the exterior wall. In some cases, this portico, like the other three, is open to the court ; in other cases, it is separated from the court by partitions of wood, connecting the front row of columns. In the centre of its exterior wall is the "mehrab" (or niche) which marks the direction of Mekkeh ; and to the right of this is the " mimbar" (or pulpit). Opposite the mehrab, in the fore part of the portico, or in its central part, there is generally a platform (called " dikkeh surrounded by a parapet, and supported by small columns ; and by it, or before it, are one or two seats, having a kind of desk to bear a volume of the Kur-an, from which a chapter is read to the congregation. The walls are generally quite plain, being simply white-washed ; but in some mosques the lower part of the wall of the place of prayer is lined with coloured marbles, and the other part ornamented with various devices executed in stucco, but mostly with texts of the Kur-an (which form long friezes, having a pleasing effect),1 and never with the representation of anything that has life. The pavement is covered with matting, and the rich and poor pray side by side; the man of rank or wealth enjoying no peculiar distinction or comfort, unless (which is sometimes the case) he have a prayer-carpet brought by his servant, and spread for him.2 The Prophet did not forbid women to attend public prayers in a mosque, but pronounced it better for them to pray in private : in 1 The " Throne-Verse " (see p. 79) is one of the in each of which is a receptacle with water, for most common. ablution. 2 Adjoining each mosque are several "latrinae," M 82 CHAPTER TIT. Cairo, however, neither females nor young boys are allowed to pray with the congregation in the mosque, or even to be present in the mosque at any time of prayer : formerly women were permitted (and perhaps are still in some countries), but were obliged to place them- selves apart from the men, and behind the latter; because, as Sale has remarked, the Muslims are of opinion that the presence of females inspires a different kind of devotion from that which is requisite in a place dedicated to the worship of God. Very few women in Egypt even pray at home. Over each of the mosques of Cairo presides a " Nazir M (or warden), who is the trustee of the funds which arise from lands, houses, &c, bequeathed to the mosque by the founder and others, and who appoints the religious ministers and the inferior servants. Two " Imams " are employed to officiate in each of the larger mosques : one of them, called the " Khateeb," preaches and prays before the congregation on the Friday : the other is an " Imam Ratib," or ordinary Imam, who recites the five prayers of every day in the mosque, at the head of those persons who may be there at the exact times of those prayers : but in most of the smaller mosques both these offices are performed by one Imam. There are also to each mosque one or more " mueddins " (to chant the call to prayer), and " bowwabs " (or door-keepers), according as there are one or more mad^nehs (or menarets) and entrances ; and several other servants are employed to sweep the mosque, spread the mats, light the lamps, and attend to the sakiyeh (or water-wheel), by which the tank or fountain, and other receptacles for water, necessary to the performance of ablations, are supplied. The Imams, and those persons who perform the lower offices, are all paid from the funds of the mosque, and not by any contributions exacted from the people. The condition of the Imams is very different, in most respects, from that of Christian priests. They have no authority above other persons, and do not enjoy any respect but what their reputed piety or learning may obtain for them : nor are they a distinct order of men set apart for religious offices, like our clergy, and composing an indissoluble fraternity ; for a man who has acted as the Imam of a mosque may be displaced by the warden of that mosque, and, with his employment and salary, loses the title of Imam, and has no better chance of being again chosen for a religious minister than any other person com- petent to perform the office. The Imams obtain their livelihood RITUAL AND MORAL LAWS. S3 chiefly by other means than the service of the mosque, as their salaries are very small : that of a Khateeb being generally about a piaster (2§d. of our money) per month; and that of an ordinary Imam, about five piasters. Some of them engage in trade ; several of them are " 'attars " (or druggists and perfumers), and many of them are schoolmasters : those who have no regular occupations of these kinds often recite the Kur-an for hire in private houses. They are mostly chosen from among the poor students of the great mosque El-Azhar. The large mosques are open from day-break till a little after the 'eshe, or till nearly two hours after sunset. The others are closed between the hours of morning and noon prayers ; and most mosques are also closed in rainy weather (except at the times of prayer), lest persons who have no shoes should enter, and dirt the pavement and matting. Such persons always enter by the door nearest the tank or fountain (if there be more than one door), that they may wash before they pass into the place of prayer ; and generally this door alone is left open in dirty weather. The great mosque El-Azhar remains open all night, with the exception of the principal place of prayer, which is called the " maksoorah," being partitioned off from the rest of the building. In many of the larger mosques, particularly in the afternoon, persons are seen lounging, chatting together, eating, sleeping, and sometimes spinning or sewing, or engaged in some other simple craft ; but, notwithstanding such practices, which are contrary to precepts of their prophet, the Muslims very highly respect their mosques. There are several mosques in Cairo (as the Azhar, Hasaneyn, &c), before which no Frank, nor any other Christian, nor a Jew, were allowed to pass, till of late years, since the French invasion. On the Friday, half an hour before the " duhr " (or noon), the mueddins of the mosques ascend to the galleries of the mad'nehs, and chant the " Selam," which is a salutation to the Prophet, not always expressed in the same words, but generally in words to the following effect : — " Blessing and peace be on thee, 0 thou of great dignity : 0 Apostle of God. Blessing and peace be on thee, to whom the Truth said, I am God. Blessing and peace be on thee, thou. first of the creatures of God, and seal of the Apostles of God. From me be [invoked] peace on thee, on thee and on thy Family and all thy Companions." — Persons then begin to assemble in the mosques. The utmost solemnity and decorum are observed in the public 84 CHAPTER III. worship of the Muslims. Their looks and behaviour in the mosque are not those of enthusiastic devotion, but of calm and modest piety. Never are they guilty of a designedly irregular word or action during their prayers. The pride and fanaticism which they exhibit in common life, in intercourse with persons of their own, or of a different faith, seem to be dropped on their entering the mosque, and they appear wholly absorbed in the adoration of their Creator; humble and downcast, yet without affected humility, or a forced expression of countenance. The Muslim takes off his shoes at the door of the mosque, carries them in his left hand, sole to sole, and puts his right foot first over the threshold. If he have not previously performed the preparatory ablution, he repairs at once to the tank or fountain to acquit himself of that duty. Before he commences his prayers, he places his shoes (and his sword and pistols, if he have such arms,) upon the matting, a little before the spot where his head will touch the ground in pro- stration : his shoes are put one upon the other, sole to sole. The people who assemble to perform the noon-prayers of Friday arrange themselves in rows parallel to that side of the mosque in which is the niche, and facing that side. Many do not go until the adan of noon, or just before. When a person goes at, or a little after, the Selam, as soon as he has taken his place in one of the ranks, he performs two rek'ahs, and then remains sitting, on his knees or cross- legged, while a reader, having seated himself on the reading-chair immediately after the Selam, is occupied in reciting (usually without book) the Soorat el-Kahf (the 18th chapter of the Kur-an), or a part of it ; for, generally, he has not finished it before the adan of noon, when he stops. All the congregation, as soon as they hear the adan (which is the same as on other days), sit on their knees and feet. When the adan is finished, they stand up, and perform, each separately, two 1 rek'ahs, " sunnet el-gum'ah 93 (or the sunneh ordinance for Friday), which they conclude, like the ordinary prayers, with the two salutations. A servant of the mosque, called a " Murakkee," then opens the folding-doors at the foot of the pulpit-stairs, takes from behind them a straight, wooden sword, and, standing a little to the right of the door-way, with his right side towards the kibleh, holds this sword in his right hand, resting the point on the ground. In 1 If of the sect of the Shafe'ecs, to which most of the people of Cairo belong; but if of that of the Hanafees, four rek'ahs. RITUAL AND MORAL LAWS. 85 this position he says, " Verily God and his angels bless the Prophet. O ye who believe, bless him, and greet him with a salutation." 1 Then, one or more persons, called " Muballighs," stationed on the dikkeh, chant the following, or similar words.2 " 0 God, bless and save and beatify the most noble of the Arabs and 'Agam [or foreigners] , the Imam of Mekkeh and El-Medeeneh and the Temple, to whom the spider shewed favour, and wove its web in the cave ; and whom the dabb 3 saluted ; and before whom the moon was cloven in twain ; our lord Mohammad, and his Family and Companions." The Murakkee then recites the adan (which the Mueddins have already chanted) : after every few words he pauses, and the Muballighs, on the dikkeh, repeat the same words in a sonorous chant.4 Before the ad;m is finished, the Khateeb, or Imam, comes to the foot of the pulpit, takes the wooden sword from the Murakkee's hand, ascends the pulpit, and sits on the top step or platform. The pulpit of a large mosque, on this day, is decorated with two flags, with the pro- fession of the faith, or the names of God and Mohammad, worked upon them : these are fixed at the top of the stairs, slanting forward. The Murakkee and Muballighs having finished the adan, the former repeats a tradition of the Prophet, saying, " The Prophet (upon whom be blessing and peace) hath said, 1 If thou say unto thy companion while the Imam is preaching on Friday, Be thou silent, thou speakest rashly.' Be ye silent : ye shall be rewarded : God shall recompense you." He then sits down. The Khateeb now rises, and, holding the wooden sword5 in the same manner as the Murakkee did, delivers an exhortation, called " khutbet el-waaz." As the reader may be curious to see a translation of a Muslim sermon, I insert one. The following is a sermon preached on the first Friday of the Arab year.6 The original, as usual, is in rhyming prose. " Praise be to God, the Renewer of years, and the Multiplier of favours, and the Creator of months and days, according to the most perfect wisdom and most admirable regulation; who hath dignified 1 Kur-au, eh. xxxiii. v. 56. 2 There are some trifling differences in the forms of salutations on the Prophet in the Friday- prayers in different mosques : I describe what is most common. 3 A kind of lizard, the lacerta Libyca. * In the great mosque El-Azhar, there are seve- ral Muballighs in different places, to make the adan heard to the whole congregation. 5 To commemorate the acquisition of Egypt by the sword. It is never used by the Khateeb but in a country or town that has been so acquired by the Muslims from unbelievers. 6 During my first visit to Egypt, I went to the great mosque El-Azhar, to witness the perform- ance of the Friday-prayers by the largest con- gregation in Cairo. I was pleased with the preaching of the Khateeb of the mosque, Gad-El- Mowla, and afterwards procured his sermon-book ("deewan khutab '), containing sermons for every Friday in the year, and for the two " 'eeds," or grand festivals. 1 translate the first sermon. 86 CHAPTER III. the months of the Arabs above all other months, and pronounced that among the more excellent of them is El-Moharram the Sacred, and commenced with it the year, as He hath closed it with Zu-l-Heggeh. How propitious is the beginning, and how good is the end ! 1 [I extol] his perfection, exempting Him from the association of any other deity with Him. He hath well considered what He hath formed, and esta- blished what He hath contrived, and He alone hath the power to create and to annihilate. I praise Him, extolling his perfection, and exalting his name, for the knowledge and inspiration which He hath graciously vouchsafed ; and I testify that there is no deity but God alone; He hath no companion; He is the most holy King; the [God of] peace : and I testify that our lord and our Prophet and our friend Mohammad is his servant and his apostle and his elect and his friend, the guide of the way, and the lamp of the dark. 0 God, bless and save and beatify this noble Prophet, and chief and excellent apostle, the merciful-hearted, our lord Mohammad, and his family, and his companions, and his wives, and his posterity, and the people of his house, the noble persons, and grant them ample salvation. — O servants of God, your lives have been gradually curtailed, and year after year hath passed away, and ye are sleeping on the bed of indolence and on the pillow of iniquity. Ye pass by the tombs of your prede- cessors, and fear not the assault of destiny and destruction, as if others departed from the world and ye must of necessity remain in it. Ye rejoice at the arrival of new years, as if they brought an increase to the term of life, and swim in the seas of desires, and enlarge your hopes, and in every way exceed other people [in presumption], and ye are sluggish in doing good. 0 how great a calamity is this ! God teacheth by an allegory. Know ye not that in the curtailment of time by indolence and sleep there is very great trouble ? Know ye not that in the cutting short of lives by the termination of years is a very great warning ? Know ye not that the night and day divide the lives of numerous souls ? Know ye not that health and capacity are two blessings coveted by many men ? But the truth hath become manifest to him who hath eyes. Ye are now between two years : one year hath passed away, and come to an end, with its evils; and ye have entered upon another year, in which, if it please God, mankind 1 The year begins and ends with a sacred month. The sacred months are four; the first, seventh, eleventh, and twelfth. During these, war was forbidden to be waged against such as acknowledged them to be sacred; but was after- wards allowed. The first month is also held to be excellent on account of the day of 'Ashoora (respecting which see chapter xxiv. of this work) ; and the last, on account of the pilgrimage. RITUAL AND MORAL LAWS. 87 shall be relieved. Is any of you determining upon diligence [in doing good] in the year to come ? or repenting of his failings in the times that are passed? The happy is he who maketh amends for the time passed in the time to come; and the miserable is he whose days pass away and he is careless of his time. This new year hath arrived, and the sacred month of God hath come with blessings to you, the first of the months of the year, and of the four sacred months, as hath been said, and the most worthy of preference and honour and reverence. Its fast is the most excellent of fasts after that which is obligatory,1 and the doing of good in it is among the most excellent of the objects of desire. Whosoever desireth to reap advantage from it, let him fast the ninth and tenth days, looking for aid.2 Abstain not from this fast through indolence, and esteeming it a hardship ; but comply with it in the best manner, and honour it with the best of honours, and improve your time by the worship of God morning and evening. Turn unto God with repentance, before the assault of death : He is the God who accepteth repentance of his servants, and pardoneth sins. — The Tradition? — The Apostle of God (God bless and save him) hath said, 'The most excellent prayer, after the prescribed,4 is the prayer that is said in the last third of the night ; and the most ex- cellent fast, after Ramadan, is that of the month of God, El- Moharram.' " The Khateeb, having concluded his exhortation, says to the con- gregation, " Supplicate God." He then sits down, and prays privately ; and each member of the congregation at the same time offers up some private petition, as after the ordinary prayers, holding his hands before him (looking at the palms), and then drawing them down his face. This done, the Muballighs say, " Ameen. Ameen ! (Amen. Amen.) O Lord of the beings of the whole world." — The Khateeb now rises again, and recites another Khutbeh, called " khutbet en- naat," of which the following is a translation : — 5 "Praise be to God, abundant praise, as He hath commanded. I testify that there is no deity but God alone : He hath no companion : affirming his supremacy, and condemning him who denieth and dis- believeth : and I testify that our lord and our prophet Mohammad is his servant and his apostle, the lord of mankind, the intercessor, the 1 That of the month of Ramadan. 3 The Khateeb always closes his exhortation 2 See an account of the customs observed in with one or two traditions of the Prophet, honour of the day of 'Ashoora, chap. xxiv. * The five daily prayers ordained by the Kur-iin. 5 This is always the same, or nearly so. 88 CHAPTER III. accepted intercessor, on the day of assembling : God bless him and his family as long as the eye seeth and the ear heareth. 0 people, reverence God by doing -what He hath commanded, and abstain from that which He hath forbidden and prohibited. The happy is he who obeyeth, and the miserable is he who opposeth and sinneth. Know that the present world is a transitory abode, and that the world to come is a lasting abode. Make provision, therefore, in your transitory state for your lasting state, and prepare for your reckoning and standing before your Lord : for know that ye shall to-morrow be placed before God, and reckoned with according to your deeds ; and before the Lord of Might ye shall be present, ' and those who have acted unjustly shall know with what an overthrowal they shall be overthrown.' 1 Know that God, whose perfection I extol, and whose name be exalted, hath said (and ceaseth not to say wisely, and to command judiciously, warning you, and teaching, and honouring the dignity of your Prophet, extolling and magnifying him), ' Verily, God and his angels bless the Prophet : 0 ye who believe, bless him, and greet him with a salutation/ 2 0 God, bless Mohammad and the family of Mohammad, as Thou blessedst Ibraheem 3 and the family of Ibraheem ; and beatify Mohammad and the family of Mohammad, as Thou hast beatified Ibraheem and the family of Ibraheem among all creatures — for Thou art praiseworthy and glorious. O God, do Thou also be well pleased with the four Khaleefehs, the orthodox lords, of high dignity and illustrious honour, Aboo-Bekr Es-Siddeek, and 'Omar, and 'Osman, and 'Alee; and be Thou well pleased, 0 God, with the six who remained of the ten noble and just persons who swore allegiance to thy Prophet Mohammad (God bless him and save him) under the tree (for Thou art the Lord of piety, and the Lord of pardon) ; those persons of excellence and clemency, and rectitude and prosperity, Talhah, and Ez-Zubeyr, and Saad, and Sa'eed, and 'Abd-Er-Rahman Ibn-'Owf, and Aboo-'Obeydeh 'Amir Ibn-El- Garrah ; and with all the Companions of the Apostle of God (God bless and save him) ; and be Thou well pleased, 0 God, with the two martyred descendants, the two bright moons, 'the two lords of the youths of the people of Paradise in Paradise/ the two sweet-smelling flowers of the Prophet of this nation, Aboo-Mohammad El-Hasan, and Aboo-'Abd- Allah El-Hoseyn : and be Thou well pleased, 0 God, with their mother, the daughter of the Apostle of God (God 1 Kur-an, ch. xxvi. last verse. 2 Idem, ch. xxxiii. v. 56. The patriarch Abraham. RITUAL AXD MORAL LAWS. 89 bless and save him), Fatimeh Ez-Zahra. and with their grandmother Khadeegeh El-Kubra, and with 'Aisheh, the mother of the faithful, and with the rest of the pure wives, and with the generation which succeeded the Companions, and the generation which succeeded that, with beneficence to the day of judgment. 0 God, pardon the believing men and the believing women, and the Muslim men and the Muslim women, those who are living, and the dead ; for Thou art a hearer near, an answerer of prayers, 0 Lord of the beings of the whole world. 0 God, aid El- Islam, and strengthen its pillars, and make infidelity to tremble, and destroy its might, by the preservation of thy servant, and the son of thy servant, the submissive to the might of thy majesty and glory, whom God hath aided, by the care of the Adored King, our master the Sultan, son of the Sultan, the Sultan Mahmood1 Khan : may God assist him, and prolong [his reign] . 0 God, assist him, and assist his armies, 0 thou Lord of the religion, and of the world present, and the world to come. 0 Lord of the beings of the whole world. 0 God, assist the forces of the Muslims, and the armies of the Unitarians. 0 God, frustrate the infidels and poly- theists, thine enemies, the enemies of the religion. 0 God, invert their banners, and ruin their habitations, and give them and their wealth as booty to the Muslims.2 0 God, unloose the captivity of the captives, and annul the debts of the debtors ; and make this town to be safe and secure, and blessed with wealth and plenty, and all the towns of the Muslims, 0 Lord of the beings of the whole world. And decree safety and health to us and to all travellers, and pilgrims, and warriors, and wanderers, upon thy earth, and upon thy sea, such as are Muslims, 0 Lord of the beings of the whole world. c 0 Lord, we have acted unjustly towards our own souls, and if Thou do not forgive us and be merciful unto us, we shall surely be of those who perish.' 3 I beg of God, the Great, that He may forgive me and you, and all the people of Mohammad, the servants of God. 1 Verily God commandeth justice, and the doing of good, and giving [what is due] to kindred ; and forbiddeth wickedness, and iniquity, and oppression : He admonisheth you that ye may reflect/ 4 Remember God; He 1 The reigning Sultan at the time when the above was written. The Turkish Sultan is prayed for as the Khaleefeh, or Vicar of Mohammad. Formerly, the 'Abbasee or Fa'timee Khalcefehs were thus mentioned in the congregational prayers of Friday. 2 This sentence, beginning " O God, frustrate," was not inserted in one copy of this prayer, which I obtained from an Imam. Another Imrfm, at whose dictation I wrote the copy here translated, told me that this sentence and some others were often omitted. 3 Kur-ao, ch. vii. v. 22. 4 Idem, ch. xvi. v. 92. X 90 CHAPTER III. will remember you : and thank Him ; He will increase to you [your blessings]. Praise be to God, the Lord of the beings of the whole world !" During the rise of the Nile, a good inundation is also prayed for in this Khutbeh. The Khateeb, or Imam, having ended it, descends from the pulpit, and the Muballighs chant the " ikameh " (described in a foot-note to page 78) : the Imam, stationed before the niche, then recites the " fare} " prayers of Friday, which consist of two rek'ahs, and are similar to the ordinary prayers. The people do the same, but silently, and keeping time exactly with the Imam in the various pos- tures. Those who are of the Malikee sect then leave the mosque ; and so also do many persons of the other sects : but some of the Shafe'ees and Hanafees (there are scarcely any Hambelees in Cairo) remain, and recite the ordinary fare} prayers of noon; forming a number of separate groups, in each of which one acts as Imam. The rich, on going out of the mosque, often give alms to the poor outside the door. There are other prayers to be performed on particular occasions — on the two grand annual festivals, on the nights of Ramadan (the month of abstinence), on the occasion of an eclipse of the sun or moon, for rain, previously to the commencement of battle, in pilgrim- age, and at funerals. I have spoken thus fully of Muslim worship because my country- men in general have very imperfect and erroneous notions on this subject; many of them even imagining that the Muslims ordinarily pray to their Prophet as well as to God. Invocations to the Prophet, for his intercession, are, indeed, frequently made, particularly at his tomb, where pious visiters generally say, " We ask thy intercession, 0 Apostle of God." The Muslims also even implore the intercession of their numerous saints. The duty next in importance to prayer is that of giving alms. Certain alms are prescribed by law, and are called " zekah " (thus commonly pronounced for " zekah ") : others, called " sadakah," are voluntary. (These two terms, however, are properly synonymous.) The former, or obligatory alms, were, in the earlier ages of El-Islam, collected, by officers appointed by the sovereign, for pious uses, such as building mosques, &c. ; but now it is left to the Muslim's con- science to give them, and to apply them in what manner he thinks fit; that is, to bestow them upon whatever needy persons he may choose. They are to be given once in every year; of cattle and sheep, RITUAL AND MORAL LAWS. 91 generally in the proportion of one in forty, two in a hundred and twenty j of camels, for every five, a ewe ; or for twenty-five, a pregnant camel; and likewise of money, and, among the Hanafees, of mer- chandize, &c. He who has money to the amount of two hundred dirhems (or drams) of silver, or twenty mitkals (i. e. thirty drams) of gold, or, among the Hanafees, the value of the above in gold or silver ornaments, utensils, &c, must annually give the fortieth part (" ruba el-'oshr"), or the value of that part. Fasting is the next duty. The Muslim is commanded to fast during the whole month of Ramadan 1 every day, from the first appearance of daybreak, or rather from the hour when a person can distinguish plainly the white thread from the black thread,2 meaning the white streak and the black streak seen in the eastern horizon at the first appearance of daybreak (in Egypt about two hours before sunrise), until sunset. He must abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, smelling perfumes, and every unnecessary indulgence or pleasure of a worldly nature; even from intentionally swallowing his spittle. When Ramadan falls in summer,3 the fast is very severe ; the abstinence from drinking being most painfully felt. Persons who are sick, or on a journey, and soldiers in time of war, are not obliged to observe the fast during Ramadan ; but if they do not keep it in this month they should fast an equal number of days at a future time. Fasting is also to be dispensed with in the cases of a nurse and a pregnant woman. The Prophet even disapproved of any person's keeping the fast of Ramadan if not perfectly able ; and desired no man to fast so much as to injure his health, or disqualify himself for necessary labour. The modern Muslims seem to regard the fast of Ramadan as of more importance than any other religious act, for many of them keep this fast who neglect their daily prayers; and even those who break the fast, with very few exceptions, pretend to keep it. Many Muslims of the wealthy classes eat and drink in secret during Ramadan; but the greater number strictly keep the fast, which is fatal to numerous persons in a weak state of health. There are some other days on which it is considered meritorious to fast, but not absolutely necessary. On the two grand festivals, namely, that following Ramadan, and that which succeeds the pilgrim- age, it is unlawful to do so, being expressly forbidden by the Prophet. i Because the Prophet received the first revela- 3 The year being lunar, each month retrogrades tion in that month. through all the seasons in the course of about a Kur-an, eh. ii. v. 183. thirty-three years and a half. 92 CHAPTER III. The last of the four most important duties, that of pilgrimage, remains to be noticed. It is incumbent on every Muslim to perform, once in his life, the pilgrimage to Mekkeh and Mount 'Arafat, unless poverty or ill health prevent him ; or, if a Hanafee, he may send a deputy, whose expenses he must pay.1 Many, however, neglect the duty of pilgrimage who cannot plead a lawful excuse; and they are not reproached for so doing. It is not merely by the visit to Mekkeh, and the performance of the ceremonies of compassing the Kaabeh seven times and kissing the " black stone" in each round, and other rites in the Holy City, that the Muslim acquires the title of " el- hagg " 2 (or the pilgrim) : the final object of the pilgrimage is Mount 'Arafat, six hours' journey distant from Mekkeh. During his per- formance of the required ceremonies in Mekkeh, and also during bis journey to 'Arafat, and until his completion of the pilgrimage, the Muslim wears a peculiar dress, called "ehram" (vulgarly heraro), generally consisting of two simple pieces of cotton, or linen, or woollen cloth, without seam or ornament, one of which is wrapped round the loins, and the other thrown over the shoulders : the instep and heel of each foot, and the head, must be bare; but umbrellas are now used by many of the pilgrims. It is necessary that the pilgrim be present on the occasion of a Khutbeh which is recited on Mount 'Arafat in the afternoon of the 9th of the month of Zu-l-Heggeh. In the ensuing evening, after sunset, the pilgrims commence their return to Mekkeh. Halting the following day in the valley of Mine (or, as it is more commonly called, Muna), they complete the cere- monies of the pilgrimage by a sacrifice (of one or more rams, he-goats, cows, or she-camels, part of the flesh of which they eat, and part give to the poor), and by shaving the head and clipping the nails. Every one, after this, resumes his usual dress, or puts on a newT one, if provided with such. The sacrifice is called " el-fida" (or the ransom), as it is performed in commemoration of the ransom of Isma'eel (or Ishmael) by the sacrifice of the ram, when he was himself about to be offered up by his father; for it is the general opinion of the Muslims that it was this son, not Isaac, who was to be sacrificed by his father. There are other ordinances, more or less connected with those which have been already explained. 1 A Malikee is held bound to perform the pil- 2 On the pronunciation of this word, see a note primage if strong enough to bear the journey to the second paragraph of Chapter V. on foot, and able to earn his food on the way. , RITUAL AND MORAL LAWS. 93 The two festivals called " el-'Eed es-Sugheiyir," 1 or the Minor Festival, and " el-'Eed el-Kebeer," or the Great Festival, the occasions of which have been mentioned above, are observed with public prayer and general rejoicing. The first of these lasts three days ; and the second, three or four days. The festivities with which they are cele- brated will be described in a subsequent chapter. On the first day of the latter festival (it being the day on which the pilgrims perform their sacrifice) every Muslim should slay a victim, if he can afford to purchase one. The wealthy person slays several sheep, or a sheep or two, and a buffalo, and distributes the greater portion of the meat to the poor. The slaughter may be performed by a deputy. War against enemies of El-Islam, who have been the first aar- gressors; is enjoined as a sacred duty ; and he who loses his life in fulfilling this duty, if unpaid, is promised the rewards of a martyr. It has been said, even by some of their leading doctors, that the Muslims are commanded to put to death all idolaters who refuse to embrace El-Islam, except women and children, whom they are to make slaves :* but the precepts on which this assertion is founded relate to the pagan Arabs, who had violated their oaths and long per- severed in their hostility to Mohammad and his followers. According to the decisions of the most reasonable doctors, the laws respecting other idolaters, as well as Christians and Jews, who have drawn upon themselves the hostility of the Muslims, are different : of such enemies, if reduced by force of arms, refusing to capitulate or to surrender themselves, the men may be put to death or be made slaves ; and the women and children also, under the same circumstances, may be made slaves : but life and liberty are to be granted to those enemies who surrender themselves by capitulation or otherwise, on the condition of their embracing El-Islam or paying a poll-tax, unless they have acted perfidiously towards the Muslims, as did the Jewish tribe of Kureydhah, who, being in league with Mohammad, went over to his enemies and aided them against him : for which conduct, when they surrendered, the men were slain, and the women and children were made slaves. — The Muslims, it may here be added, are forbidden to contract intimate friendship with unbelievers. 1 More properly " Sagheer." This is what many travellers have incorrectly called " the Great Fes- tival." 2 Misled by the decision of those doctors, and an opinion prevalent in Europe, I represented the laws of " holy war " as more severe than I find them to be aecorcling to the letter and spirit of the Kur-an, when carefully examined, and accord- ing to the Hanafee code. I am indebted to Mr. Urquhart for suggesting to me the necessity of revising my former statement on this subject: and must express my conviction that no precept is to be found in the Kur-an which, taken with the context, em justify unprovoked war. 94 CHAPTER III. There arc certain prohibitory laws in the Kur-an which must be mentioned here, as remarkably affecting the moral and social condition of its disciples. Wine, and all inebriating liquors, are forbidden, as being the cause of " more evil than profit." 1 Many of the Muslims, however, in the present day, drink wine, brandy, &c, in secret; and some, thinking it no sin to indulge thus in moderation, scruple not to do so openly ; but among the Egyptians there are few who transgress in this flagrant manner. " Boozeh," or " boozah," which is an intoxi- cating liquor made with barley-bread, crumbled, mixed with water, strained, and left to ferment, is commonly drunk by the boatmen of the Nile, and by other persons of the lower orders.2 Opium, and other drugs which produce a similar effect, are considered unlawful, though not mentioned in the Kur-an ; and persons who are addicted to the use of these drugs are regarded as immoral characters; but in Egypt, such persons are not very numerous. Some Muslims have pronounced tobacco, and even coffee, unlawful. The eating of swine's flesh is strictly forbidden. The unwhole- some effects of that meat in a hot climate would be a sufficient reason for the prohibition ; but the pig is held in abhorrence by the Muslim chiefly on account of its extremely filthy habits.3 Most animals pro- hibited for food by the Mosaic law are alike forbidden to the Muslim. The camel is an exception. The Muslim is "forbidden [to eat] that which dieth of itself, and blood, and swine's flesh, and that on which the name of any beside God hath been invoked ; and that which hath been strangled, or killed by a blow, or by a fall, or by the horns [of another beast]; and that which hath been [partly] eaten by a wild beast, except what he shall [himself] kill ; and that which hath been sacrificed unto idols." 4 An animal that is killed for the food of man must be slaughtered in a particular manner : the person who is about to perform the operation must say, " In the name of God : God is most great :" and then cut its throat, at the part next the head, taking care to divide the windpipe, gullet, and carotid arteries ; unless 1 Kur-an, ch. ii. v. 216. A kind of wine, for- merly called "nebeedh" (a name now given to prohibited kinds), may be lawfully drunk. This is generally an infusion of dry grapes, or dry dates. The Muslims used to keep it until it had slightly fermented; and the Prophet himself was accustomed to drink it, but not when it was more than two days old. The nebeedh of raisins is now called "zebecb." 2 A similar beverage, thus prepared from barley, was used by the ancient Egyptians. (Herodotus, lib. ii. cap. 77.) The modern inhabitants of Egypt also prepare boozeh from wheat and from millet in the same manner, but less commonly. 3 Swine were universally deemed impure by the ancient Egyptians. (Herodotus, lib. ii. cap. 47.) 1 Kur-an, ch. v v. A. RITUAL AND MORAL LAWS. 95 it be a camel, in which case he should stab the throat at the part next the breast. It is forbidden to utter, in slaughtering an animal, the phrase which is so often made use of on other occasions, " In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful/5 because the mention of the most benevolent epithets of the Deity on such an occasion would seem like a mockery of the sufferings which it is about to endure. Some persons in Egypt, but mostly women, when about to kill an animal for food, say, " In the name of God : God is most great : God give thee patience to endure the affliction which He hath allotted thee." 1 If the sentiment which first dictated this prayer were always felt, it would present a beautiful trait in the character of the people who use it. In cases of necessity, when in danger of starving, the Muslim is allowed to eat any food which is unlawful under other circumstances. The mode of slaughter above described is, of course, only required to be practised in the cases of domestic animals. Most kinds of fish are lawful food :2 so too are many birds ; the tame kinds of which must be killed in the same manner as cattle; but the wild may be shot. The hare, rabbit, gazelle, &c, are lawful food ; and may either be shot (as birds may be), or killed by a dog, provided the name of God was uttered at the time of dis- charging the arrow, &c, or slipping the dog, and he (the dog) has not eaten any part of the prey. This animal, however, is considered very unclean : the Shafe'ees hold themselves to be polluted by the touch of its nose, if it be wet ; and if any part of their clothes be so touched, they must wash that part with seven waters, and once with clean earth : some others are only careful not to let the animal lick, or defile in a worse manner, their persons or their dress, &c. When game has been struck down by any weapon, but not killed, its throat must be immediately cut : otherwise it is unlawful food. Gambling and usury are prohibited,3 and all games of chance ; and likewise the making of images or pictures of anything that has life.4 1 The Arabic words of this prayer, " God give thee patience," &c, are, "Allah yesabbirak (for yusabbirak) ala ma. bclak." 2 In some respects the Muslim code does not appear to be so strictly founded upon exigencies of a sanitary nature as the Mosaic. See Leviticus, xi. 9 — 12. In Egypt, fish which have not scales are generally found to be unwholesome food. One of the few reasonable laws of El-Hakim was that which forbade the selling or catching such kinds offish. See De Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabe, 2nd ed., vol. i. p. 98. 3 It is unlawful to give or receive interest, how- ever small, for a loan, or on account of credit ; and to exchange any article for another article of the same species, but differing in quantity. These and several other commercial transactions of a similar kind are severely condemned ; but they are not very uncommon among modern Muslims, some of whom take exorbitant interest. * Many of the Muslims hold that only sculp- tures which cast a shadow, representing living creatures, are unlawful; but the Prophet cer- tainly condemned pictures also. 96 CHAPTER Til. The Prophet declared that every representation of this kind would be placed before its author on the day of judgment; and that he would be commanded to put life into it; which not being able to do, he would be cast, for a time, into hell. The principal civil and criminal laics remain to be stated. Their origin we discover partly in customs of the Pagan Arabs ; but mostly in the Bible and the Jewish traditions. The civil and criminal laws are chiefly and immediately derived from the Kur-an ; 1 but, in many important cases, this highest autho- rity affords no precept. In most of these cases the Traditions of the Prophet direct the decisions of the judge.2 There are, however, some important cases, and many of an inferior kind, respecting which both the Kur-an and the Traditions are silent or indecisive. These are determined by the explanations and amplifications derived either from the concordance of the principal early disciples, or from analogy, by the four great Imams, or founders of the four orthodox persuasions of El-Islam ; generally on the authority of the Imam of that persuasion to which the ruling power belongs, which persuasion, in Egypt, and throughout the Turkish Empire, is that of the Hanafees : or, if none of the decisions of the Imam relate to a case in dispute (which not unfrequently happens), judgment is given in accordance with a sentence of some other eminent doctor, founded upon analogy. — In general, only the principal laws, as laid down in the Kur-an and the Traditions, will be here stated. The laws relating to marriage and the licence of polygamy, the facility of divorce allowed by the Kur-an, and the permission of concu- binage, are essentially the natural and necessary consequences of the main principle of the constitution of Muslim society — the restriction of the intercourse between the sexes before marriage. Few men would marry if he who was disappointed in a wife whom he had never seen before were not allowed to take another ; and in the case of a man's doing this, his own happiness, or that of the former wife, or the happiness of both these parties, may require his either retaining this wife or divorcing her. But I hope that my reader will admit a much stronger reason for these laws, regarding them as designed for the Muslims. As Moses allowed God's chosen people, for the hardness of their hearts, to put away their wives, and forbade neither polygamy 1 A law given in the Kur-an is called " fard." CIVIL LAWS. 97 nor concubinage, he who believes that Moses was divinely inspired, to enact the best laws for his people, must hold the permission of these practices to be less injurious to morality than their prohibition, among a people similar to the ancient Jews. Their permission, though certainly productive of injurious effects upon morality and domestic happiness, prevents a profligacy that would be worse than that which prevails to so great a degree in European countries, where parties are united in marriage after an intimate mutual acquaintance. As to the licence of polygamy, which seems to be unfavourable to the accomplishment of the main object for which marriage was instituted, as well as to the exercise and improvement of the nobler powers of the mind, we should remark, that it was not introduced, but limited, by the legislator of the Muslims. It is true that he assumed to himself the privilege of having a greater number of wives than he allowed to others ; but, in doing so, he may have been actuated by the want of male offspring, rather than impelled by voluptuousness. The law respecting marriage and concubinage is perfectly explicit as to the number of wives whom a Muslim may have at the same time ; but it is not so with regard to the number of concubine-slaves whom he may have. It is written, u Take in marriage, of the women who please you, two, three, or four ; but if ye fear that ye cannot a ct equitably [to so many, take] one ; or, [take] those whom your right hands have acquired," 1 that is, your slaves. Therefore many of the wealthy Muslims marry two, three, or four wives, and keep besides several concubine-slaves ; and many of the most revered characters, even Companions of the Prophet, are recorded to have done the same. The conduct of the latter clearly shews that the number of concubine- slaves whom a man may have is not limited by the law in the opinion of the orthodox.2 It is held lawful for a Muslim to marry a Christian or a Jewish woman, if induced to do so by excessive love of her, or if he cannot obtain a wife of his own faith ; but in this case the offspring must follow the father's faith,3 and the wife does not inherit when the father dies. A Muslimeh, however, is not allowed in any circumstances, 1 Kur-an, ch. iv. v. 3. 2 Some Muslim moralists argue, that, as four wives are a sufficient number for one man, so also are four eoncubine-slaves, or four women consist- ing of these two classes together ; but, notwith- standing what Sale and some other learned men have asserted on this subject, the Muslim law certainly does not limit the number of eoncubine- slaves whom a man may have, whether in addition to, or without, a wife or wives. 3 In like manner, when a Christian man marries a Jewess, the Muslim law requires the offspring to profess " the better faith," namely, the Christian, if unwilling to embrace El-Islam. O 98 CHAPTER III. but when force is employed, to marry a man who is not of her own faith . A man is forbidden, by the Kur-an 1 and the Sunneh, to marry his mother, or other ascendant; his daughter, or other descendant; his sister, or half-sister; the sister of his father or mother, or other ascendant ; his niece, or any of her descendants ; his foster-mother,2 or a woman related to him by milk in any of the degrees which would preclude his marriage with her if she were similarly related to him by consanguinity; the mother of his wife, even if he have not consummated his marriage with this wife; the daughter of his wife if he have consummated his marriage with the latter, and she be still his wife ; his father's wife, and his son's wife ; and to have at the same time two wives who are sisters, or aunt and niece : he is forbidden also to marry his unemancipated slave, or another man's slave, if he have already a free wife. It is lawful for the Muslim to see the faces of these women whom he is forbidden to marry, but of no others, except his own wives and female slaves. The marriage of a man and woman, or of a man and a girl who has arrived at puberty, is lawfully effected by their declaring (which the latter generally does by a "wekeel," or deputy,) their consent to marry each other, in the presence of two witnesses (if witnesses can be procured), and by the payment, or part-payment, of a dowry. But the consent of a girl under the age of puberty is not required ; her father, or, if he be dead, her nearest adult male relation, or any person appointed as her guardian by will or by the Kadee, acting for her as he pleases.3 The giving of a dowry is indispensable, and the least sum that is allowed by law is ten " dirhems " (or drachms of silver), which is equal to about five shillings of our money. A man may legally marry a woman without mentioning a dowry ; but after the consummation of the marriage she can, in this case, compel him to pay the sum of ten dirhems.4 A man may divorce his wife twice, and each time take her back without any ceremony, except in a case to be mentioned below ; but if he divorce her the third time, or put her away by a triple divorce conveyed in one sentence, he cannot receive her again until she has 1 Ch. iv. vv. 26 and 27. 2 By the Hanafee code, a man may not marry a woman from whose breast he has received a single drop of milk; but Esh-Shafe'ee does not prohibit the marriage unless he has been suckled by her five times in the course of the first two years. 3 A boy may be thus married; but he may divorce his wife. 4 Whatever property the wife receives from her husband, parents, or any other person, is entirely at her own disposal, and not subject to any claim of her husband or his creditors. CIVIL LAWS. 99 been married and divorced by another husband, who must have con- summated his marriage with her.1 When a man divorces his wife (which he does by merely saying, "Thou art divorced," or " I divorce thee"), he pays her a portion of her dowry (generally one-third), which he had kept back from the first, to be paid on this occasion or at his death j and she takes away with her the furniture, &c, which she brought at her marriage. He may thus put her away from mere dislike,2 and without assigning any reason; but a woman cannot separate herself from her husband against his will, unless it be for some considerable fault on his part, as cruel treatment, or neglect; and even then, application to the Kadee's court is generally necessary to compel the man to divorce her; and she forfeits the above-men- tioned remnant of the dowry. The first and second divorce, if made without any mutual agree- ment for a compensation from the woman, or a pecuniary sacrifice on her part, is termed " talak reg'ee " (a divorce which admits of return) ; because the husband may take back his wife, without her consent, during the period of her " 'eddeh " (which will be presently explained), but not after, unless with her consent, and by a new contract. If he divorce her the first or second time for a compensation, she perhaps requesting, " Divorce me for what thou owest me," or " — hast of mine" (that is, of the dowry, furniture, &c), or for an additional sum, he cannot take her again but by her own consent, and by a new contract. This is a " talak bain " (or separating divorce), and is termed "the lesser separation," to distinguish it from the third divorce, which is called " the greater separation." The " 'eddeh " is the period during which a divorced woman, or a widow, must wait before marrying again ; in either case, if pregnant, until delivery : otherwise, the former must wait three lunar periods, or three months; and the latter, four months and ten days. A woman who is divorced when in a state of pregnancy, though she may make a new contract of marriage immediately after her delivery, must wait forty days longer before she can complete her marriage by receiving her hus- band. The man who divorces his wife must maintain her in his own house, or in that of her parents, or elsewhere, during the period of her 'eddeh ; but must cease to live with her as her husband from the commencement of that period. A divorced woman who has a son under two years of age may retain him until he has attained that age, > Km-.in, ch. ii. TV. 229, 2-i<\ 2 As the law of Moses also allows. See Deul. xxiv. 1. 100 CHAPTER III. and may be compelled to do so by the law of the Shafe'ees ; and, by the law of the Malikees, until he has arrived at puberty; but the Hanafee law limits the period during which the boy should remain under her care to seven years : her daughter she should retain until nine years of age, or the period of puberty. If a man divorce his wife before the consummation of marriage, he must pay her half the sum which he has promised to give her as a dowry; or, if he have promised no dowry, he must pay her the half of the smallest dowry allowed by law, which has been above mentioned; and she may marry again immediately. When a wife refuses to obey the lawful commands of her husband, he may, and generally does, take her, or two witnesses 1 against her, to the Kadee's court, to prefer a complaint against her ; and, if the case be proved, a certificate is written declaring the woman " nashizeh," or rebellious against her husband. This process is termed " writing a woman nashizeh." It exempts her husband from obligation to lodge, clothe, and maintain her. He is not obliged to divorce her ; and, by refusing to do this, he may prevent her marrying another man as long as he lives; but, if she promise to be obedient after- wards, he must take her back, and maintain her, or divorce her. It is more common, however, for a wife whose husband refuses to divorce her, if she have parents or other relations able and willing to support her comfortably, to make a complaint at the Kadee's court, stating her husband's conduct to be of such a nature towards her that she will not live with him, and thus cause herself to be registered "nashizeh," and separated from him. In this case, the husband generally persists, from mere spite, in refusing to divorce her. As concubines are slaves, some account of slaves in general may here be appropriately inserted, with a statement of the principal laws respecting concubines and their offspring, &c. — The slave is either a person taken captive in war, or carried off by force from a foreign hostile country, and being at the time of capture an infidel ; or the offspring of a female slave by another slave, or by any man who is not her owner, or by her owner if he do not acknowledge himself to be the father ; but a person cannot be the slave of a relation who is within the prohibited degrees of marriage. The power of the owner is such that he may even kill his slave with impunity for any offence; and he incurs but a slight punishment (as imprisonment for a period 1 The witnesses must always be Muslims iu aeeusations a^aiust a person uf the same faith. CIVIL LAWS. 101 at the discretion of the judge) if he do so wantonly. He may give or sell his slaves, except in some cases which will be mentioned ; and may marry them to whom he will, but not separate them when married. A slave, however, according to most of the doctors, cannot have more than two wives at the same time. As a slave enjoys less advantages than a free person, the law, in some cases, ordains that his punishment for an offence shall be half of that to which the free is liable for the same offence, or even less than half: if it be a fine, or pecuniary compensation, it must be paid by the owner, to the amount, if necessary, of the value of the slave, or the slave must be given in compensation. An unemancipated slave, at the death of the owner, becomes the property of the heirs of the latter ; and when an emancipated slave dies, leaving no male descendant or collateral rela- tion, the former owner is the heir; or, if he be dead, his heirs inherit the slave's property. But an unemancipated slave can acquire no property without the permission of the owner. Complete and im- mediate emancipation is sometimes granted to a slave gratuitously, or for a future pecuniary compensation. It is conferred by means of a written document, or by a verbal declaration in the presence of two witnesses, or by presenting the slave with the certificate of sale ob- tained from the former owner. Future emancipation is sometimes covenanted to be granted on the fulfilment of certain conditions ; and more frequently, to be conferred on the occasion of the owner's death. In the latter case, tbe owner cannot sell the slave to whom he has made this promise ; and as he cannot alienate by will more than one- third of the whole property that he leaves, the law ordains that, if the value of the said slave exceed that portion, the slave must obtain, and pay to the owner's heirs, the additional sum. — A Muslim may take as his concubine any of his female slaves who is a ATusliineh, or a Christian, or a Jewess, if he have not married her to another man; but he may not have as his concubines, at the same time, two or more who are sisters, or who are related to each other in any of the degrees which would prevent their both being his wives at the same time if they were free. A Christian is not by the law allowed, nor is a Jew, to have a Muslimeh slave as his concubine.1 The master must wait a certain period (generally from a month to three months) after his acquisition of a female slave, before he can take her as his concubine. When a female slave becomes a mother by her master, the child 1 Vet many Christians and Jews in Egypt infringe the law in this respect with iuipunit \ . 102 CHAPTER 111. which she bears to him is free, if he acknowledge it to be his own ; but if not (which I believe is seldom the case), it is his slave. In the former case the mother cannot afterwards be sold nor given away by her master (though she must continue to serve him and be his concubine as long as he desires) ; and she is entitled to emancipation at his death. Her bearing a child to him is called the cause of her emancipation or liberty; but it does not oblige him to emancipate her as long as he lives, though it is commendable if he do so, and make her his wife, provided he have not already four wives, or if he marry her to another man, should it be her wish. A free person cannot become the husband or wife of his, or her, own slave, without first emancipating that slave ; and the marriage of a free person with the slave of another is dissolved if the former become the owner of the latter, and cannot be renewed but by emancipation and a regular legal contract. The most remarkable general principles of the laws of inheritance are the denial of any privileges to primogeniture,1 and in most cases awarding to a female a share equal to half that of a male of the same degree of relationship to the deceased.2 A person may bequeath one-third of his or her property ; but not a larger portion, unless he or she has no legal heir ; nor any portion to a legal heir, except wife or husband, without the consent of all the other heirs. The children of a person deceased inherit the whole of that person's property, or what remains after the deduction of certain shares to be mentioned below, and after payment of the legacies and debts, &c. ; and the share of a male is double the share of a female. If the children of the deceased be only females, two or more in number, they inherit together, by the law of the Kur-an, two-thirds; and if there be but one child, and that a female, she inherits by the same law half. [But the remaining third, or half, is also assigned to the said daughters or daughter, by a law of the Sunneh (which applies also to other cases), if there be no other legal heir.] If the deceased have 1 In this the Muslim law differs from the Mo- saic, which assigns a double portion to the first- born sou. See Dent. xxi. 17. 2 In my summary of the principal laws relating to inheritance, in the first two editions of this work, there were some errors, occasioned by my relying too much upon Sale's version of the Kur-an ; for I doubted not his accuracy, as he had several commentaries to consult, and 1 had none ; wherefore, in my inquiries respecting these laws, I sought only to add to, not to correct, the informa- tion conveyed by his version. I have here given a corrected statement, derived from the Kur-an and the Commentary of the Gelaleyn, supplying some words of necessary explanation (which are enclosed in brackets) partly on the authority of a sheykh who was my tutor, and partly from the valuable work of IVOhsson, "Tableau General dc l'Empire Othoman," Code Civil, livre iv. CIVIL LAWS. 103 left no immediate descendant, the sons and daughters of his son Ol- sons inherit as immediate descendants [and so on]. If the deceased have left a child or a son's child [and so on], each of the parents of the deceased inherits one-sixth. If the father be dead, his share falls to his father. [If the mother be dead, her share falls to her mother.] If the deceased have left no child or son's child [and so on], the mother has one-third of the property, or of what remains after deducting the share of the wife or wives or husband, and the residue is for the father ; unless the deceased has left two or more brothers or sisters, in which case the mother inherits one-sixth, and the father the residue; the said brothers or sisters receiving nothing;1 [if the deceased have left a father or any ascendant in the male line.] A man inherits half of what remains of his wife's property after the payment of her legacies, &c, if she have left no child or son's child, [and so on ;] and one-fourth if she have left a child or son's child, [and so on.] One-fourth is the share of the wife, or of the wives con- jointly, if the deceased husband have left no child or son's child, [and so on;] and one-eighth if he have left any such descendant.2 If the deceased have not left a father, [nor any ascendant in the male line,] nor a child, [nor a son's child, and so on,] the law ordains as follows: — 1. A sole brother, or sister, only by the mother's side, inherits one-sixth ; and if there be two or more brothers or sisters only by the mother's side, or one or more of such relations of each sex, they inherit collectively one-third, which is equally divided, without distinction of male and female. — 2. If the deceased have left a sole sister by his father and mother, [and no such brother,] she inherits half ; and a man inherits the whole property of such a sister, [or what remains after the payment of her legacies, &c.,] if she have left no child; but if she have left a male child, [or son's child, and so on,] he (the brother) inherits nothing; and if she have left a female child, the said brother inherits what remains after deducting 1 According to Sale's translation of the 12th Terse of chap, iv., and a note thereon, if the de- ceased have no child, and his parents be his heirs, then his mother shall have the third part, and his father the other two-thirds : but if he have breth- ren, his mother shall have a sixth part : — and by his translation of the last verse of the same chap- ter, stating that the brothers of a man who has died without issue have a claim to inheritance, it is implied that the brothers, if the father be living, must have a share ; consequently, that they would have, in the case above mentioned, a sixth part : for he has not stated that this portion whirh is deducted from the mother's share goes to the father, nor that the father's share is diminished. — Why the mother's share is diminished and the father's increased, in the case to which this note relates, I do not see : the reason might be easily inferred, were it not that the surviving brothers or sisters of the deceased may be his brothers or sisters by the mother's side only. 2 This is exclusive of what may remain due to her of her dowry, of which one-third is usually held in reserve by the husband, to be paid to her if he divorce her or when he dies. 104 CHAPTER III. that child's share [and after the payment of the legacies, &c.]. If the deceased have left two or more sisters by his father and mother, [and no such brother,] they inherit together two-thirds. If the deceased have left one or more brothers, and one or more sisters, by his father and mother, they inherit the whole, [or what remains after the payment of the legacies, &c.,] and the share of a male is double the share of a female. — 3. Brothers and sisters by the father's side only, [when there is no brother or sister by the father and mother,] inherit as brothers and sisters by the father and mother.1 No dis- tinction is made between the child of a wife and that borne by a slave to her master (if the master acknowledge the child to be his own) : both inherit equally. So also do the child of a wife and the adopted child. A bastard inherits only from his mother, and vice versa. When there is no legal heir, or legatee, the property falls to the government-treasury, which is called " beyt el-mal." The laws respecting certain remote degrees of kindred, &c, I have not thought it necessary to state.2 The property of the deceased is nominally divided into " keerats " (or twenty-fourth parts) ; and the share of each son, or other heir, is said to be so many keerats. The law is remarkably lenient towards debtors. " If there be any [debtor]/' says the Kur-an,3 "under a difficulty [of paying his debt], let [his creditor] wait till it be easy [for him to do it] ; but if ye remit it as alms, it will be better for you." The Muslim is com- manded (in the chapter from which the above extract is taken), when he contracts a debt, to cause a statement of it to be written, and attested by two men, or a man and two women, of his own faith. The debtor is imprisoned for non-payment of his debt ; but if he establish his insolvency, he is liberated. He may be compelled to work for the discharge of his debt, if able. The Kur-an ordains that murder shall be punished with death ; or rather, that the free shall die for the free, the slave for the slave, and a woman for a woman ; or that the perpetrator of the crime shall pay to the heirs of the person whom he has killed, if they allow it, a fine, which is to be divided according to the laws of inheritance.4 It also ordains that unintentional homicide shall be expiated by freeing a believer from slavery, and paying, to the family of the person killed, a fine, unless they remit it.5 But these laws are amplified and ex- 1 The portions of the Kur-an upon which the 2 The reader may see them in D'Ohsson's work ahovc laws are founded arc verses 12 — 15, and the before mentioned. last verse, of ch. iv. a Ch. ii. v. 280. 4 Ch. ii. v. 173. 5 Ch. iv. v. 9i. CRIMINAL LAWS. 105 plained by the same book and by the Imams. — A fine is not to be accepted for murder unless the crime has been attended by some palliating circumstance. This fine, which is the price of blood, is a hundred camels ; or a thousand deenars (about 500?.) from him who possesses gold; or from him who possesses silver, twelve thousand dirhems 1 (about 300?.) This is for killing a free man : for a woman, half the sum : for a slave, his or her value ; but that must fall short of the price of blood for the free. A person unable to free a believer must fast two months, as in Ramadan. The accomplices of a murderer are liable to the punishment of death. By the Sunneh also, a man is obnoxious to capital punishment for the murder of a woman j and by the Hanafee law, for the murder of another man's slave. But he is exempted from this punishment who kills his own child or other descendant, or his own slave, or his son's slave, or a slave of whom he is part-owner: so also are his accomplices; and according to Esh-Shafe'ee, a Muslim, though a slave, is not to be put to death for killing an infidel, though the latter be free. In the present day, however, murder is generally punished with death ; the government seldom allowing a composition in money to be made. A man who kills another in self-defence, or to defend his property from a robber, is exempt from all punishment. The price of blood is a debt incumbent on the family, tribe, or association, of which the homicide is a member. It is also incumbent on the inhabitants of an enclosed quarter, or the proprietor or proprietors of a field, in which the body of a person killed by an unknown hand is found; unless the person has been found killed in his own house. A woman, con- victed of a capital crime, is generally put to death by drowning in the Nile. The Bedawees have made the law of the avenging of blood terribly severe and unjust, transgressing the limits assigned by the Kur-an : for, with them, any single person descended from the homicide, or from the homicide's father, grandfather, great-grandfather, or great- grandfather's father, may be killed by any of such relations of the person murdered, or killed in fight ; but, among most tribes, the fine is generally accepted instead of the blood. Cases of blood-revenge are very common among the peasantry of Egypt, who, as I have before remarked, retain many customs of their Bedawee ancestors. The relations of a person who has been killed, in an Egyptian village, Or, according to some, ten thousand dirhems. P 106 CHAPTER 111. generally retaliate with their own hands rather than apply to the government, and often do so with disgusting cruelty, and even mangle and insult the corpse of their victim. The relations of a homicide usually flee from their own to another village, for protection. Even when retaliation has been made, animosity frequently continues between the two parties for many years ; and often a case of blood- revenge involves the inhabitants of two or more villages in hostilities, which are renewed, at intervals, during the period of several generations. Retaliation for unintentional wounds and mutilations is allowed, like as for murder; "eye for eye," &c. ;l but a fine may be accepted instead, which the law allows also for unintentional injuries. The fine for a member that is single (as the nose) is the whole price of blood, as for homicide ; for a member of which there are two, and not more (as a hand), half the price of blood; for one of which there are ten (a finger or toe), a tenth of the price of blood : but the fine of a man for maiming or wounding a woman is half of that for the same injury to a man ; and that of a free person for injuring a slave varies according to the value of the slave. The fine for depriving a man of any of his five senses, or dangerously wounding him, or grievously disfiguring him for life, is the whole price of blood. Theft, whether committed by a man or by a woman, according to the Kur-an,2 is to be punished by cutting off the offender's right hand for the first offence ; but a Sunneh law ordains that this punishment shall not be inflicted if the value of the stolen property is less than a quarter of a deenar;3 and it is also held necessary, to render the thief obnoxious to this punishment, that the property stolen should have been deposited in a place to which he had not ordinary or easy access : whence it follows, that a man who steals in the house of a near relation is not subject to this punishment; nor is a slave who robs the house of his master. For the second offence, the left foot is to be cut off ; for the third, according to the Shafe'ee law, the left hand; for the fourth, the right foot; and for further offences of the same kind, the culprit is to be flogged or beaten ; or, by the Hanafee code, for the third and subsequent offences, the criminal is to be punished by a long imprisonment. A man may steal a free-born infant without offending against the law, because it 1 Kur-an, eh. v. v. 49. 2 Ch. v. v. 42. 3 The deenar is a mitkal (or nearly 72 English grains) of gold. Sale, copying a false translation by Marracci, and neglecting to examine the Arabic text quoted by the latter, has stated the sum in question to be four deenars. CRIMINAL LAWS. 107 is not property; but not a slave: and the hand is not to be cut off for stealing any article of food that is quickly perishable ; because it may have been taken to supply the immediate demands of hunger. There are also some other cases in which the thief is exempt from the punishments above mentioned. In Egypt, of late years, these punishments have not been inflicted. Beating and hard labour have been substituted for the first, second, or third offence, and frequently death for the fourth. Most petty offences are usually punished by beating with the " kurbag w (a thong or whip of hippopotamus' hide, hammered into a round form,) or with a stick, generally on the soles of the feet.1 Adultery is most severely visited; but to establish a charge of this crime against a wife, four eye-witnesses are necessary.8 If convicted thus, she is to be put to death by stoning.3 I need scarcely say, that cases of this kind have very seldom occurred, from the difficulty of obtaining such testimony.4 Further laws on this subject, and still more favourable to the women, are given in the Kur-an,5 in the following words : — " But [as to] those who accuse women of reputation, [of fornication or adultery,] and produce not four witnesses [of the fact], scourge them with eighty stripes, and receive not their testimony for ever; for such are infamous pre- varicators : except those who shall afterwards repent ; for God is gracious and merciful. They who shall accuse their wives, [of adultery,] and shall have no witnesses [thereof] besides themselves, the testimony [which shall be required] of one of them [shall be] that he swear four times by God that he speaketh the truth, and the fifth [time that he imprecate] the curse of God on him if he be a liar; and it shall avert the punishment [of the wife] if she swear four times by God that he is a liar, and if the fifth [time she imprecate] the wrath of God on her if he speak the truth/' The commentators and lawyers have agreed that, in these circumstances, the marriage must be dissolved. In the chapter from which the above quotation is made, it is ordained (in verse 2) that unmarried persons convicted of 1 The feet are confined by a chain or rope at- tached at each end to a staff", which is turned round to tighten it. This is called a "falakah." Two persons (one on each side) strike alter- nately. 2 Kur-an, ch. iv. v. 19. 3 This is a " Sunneh " law. The law is the same in the case of the adulterer, if married ; but it is never enforced. Sec Leviticus, xx. 10, and St. John, viii. 4, 5. 4 It is worthy of remark, that the circumstance which occasioned the promulgation of this extra- ordinary law was an accusation of adultery pre- ferred against the Prophet's favourite wife, 'Aisheh : she was thus absolved from punishment, and her reputation was cleared by additional " revelations." 5 Ch. xxiv. w. 4 — 9. 108 CHAPTER III. fornication shall be punished by scourging, with a hundred stripes ; and a Sunneh law renders them obnoxious to the further punishment of banishment for a whole year.1 Of the punishment of women convicted of incontinence in Cairo, I shall speak in the next chapter ; as it is an arbitrary act of the government, not founded on the laws of the Kur-an, or the Traditions.2 Drunkenness was punished, by the Prophet, by flogging; and is still in Cairo, though not often : the " hadd," or number of stripes, for this offence, is eighty in the case of a free man, and forty in that of a slave. Apostacy from the faith of El-Islam is considered a most heinous sin, and must be punished with death, unless the apostate will recant on being thrice warned. I once saw a woman paraded through the streets of Cairo, and afterwards taken down to the Nile to be drowned, for having apostatized from the faith of Mohammad, and having married a Christian. Unfortunately, she had tattooed a blue cross on her arm, which led to her detection by one of her former friends in a bath. She was mounted upon a high -saddled ass, such as ladies in Egypt usually ride, and very respectably dressed, attended by soldiers, and surrounded by a rabble, who, instead of com- miserating, uttered loud imprecations against her. The Kadee, who passed sentence upon her, exhorted her, in vain, to return to her former faith. Her own father was her accuser ! She was taken in a boat into the midst of the river, stripped nearly naked, strangled, and then thrown into the stream.3 The Europeans residing in Cairo regretted that the Basha, (Mohammad 'Alee) was then at Alexandria, as they might have prevailed upon him to pardon her. Once before they interceded with him for a woman who had been condemned for apostacy. The Basha ordered that she should be brought before him: he exhorted her to recant; but finding her resolute, reproved her for her folly, and sent her home, commanding that no injury should be done to her. Still more severe is the law with respect to blasphemy. The person who utters blasphemy against God, or Mohammad, or Christ, 1 An unmarried person convicted of adultery is likewise obnoxious only to this punishment . The two laws mentioned in Leviticus, xx. 13 and 15, have been introduced into the Muslim code; but, in the present day, they are never executed. - In the villages of Egypt, a woman found, or suspected, to have been guilty of this crime, if she be not a common prostitute, often experiences a different fate, which will be described in the ac- count of the domestic life and customs of the lower orders. 3 The conduct of the lower orders in Cairo on this occasion speaks sadly against their character. A sor.g was composed on the victim of this ter- rible law, and became very popular in the metro- polis. THE WAHHABEES. or Moses, or any Prophet, is to be put to death without delay, even though he profess himself repentant ; repentance for such a sin being deemed impossible. Apostacy or infidelity is occasioned by mis- judgment; but blasphemy is the result of utter depravity. A few words may here be added respecting the sect of the " Wannabees," also called " \Yahabees,'' which was founded, less than a century ago, by Mohammad Ibn-'Abd-El-AVahhab, a pious and learned sheykh of the province of Nejd, in central Arabia. About the middle of the last century, he had the good fortune to convert to his creed a powerful chief of Ed-Dir'eeyeh, the capital of Nejd. This chief, Mohammad Ibn-So'ood, became the sovereign of the new sect, their religious and political head, and under him and his successors the Wahhabee doctrines were spread throughout the greater part of Arabia. He was next succeeded by his son, 'Abd-El- 'Azeez ; next, by So'ood, the son of the latter, and the greatest of the "Wahhabee leaders; and, lastly, by 'Abd- Allah, the son of this So'ood, who, after an arduous warfare with the armies of Mohammad 'Alee, surrendered himself (it is said, on receiving promise of safe- conduct and life,) to his victorious enemies, was sent to Egypt, thence to Constantinople, and there beheaded. The wars which Mohammad 'Alee carried on against the "YVahhabees had for their chief object the destruction of the political power of the new sect : their religious tenets are still professed by many of the Arabs, and allowed to be orthodox by the most learned of the 'Ulama of Egypt. The Wahhabees are merely reformers, who believe all the fundamental points of El-Islam, and all the accessory doctrines of the Kur-an and the Traditions of the Prophet : in short, their tenets are those of the primitive Muslims. They disapprove of gorgeous sepulchres, and domes erected over tombs : such they invariably destroy when in their power. They also condemn, as idolaters, those who pay peculiar veneration to deceased saints ; and even declare all other Muslims to be heretics, for the extravagant respect which they pay to the Prophet. They forbid the wearing of silk, and gold ornaments, and all costly apparel ; and also the practice of smoking tobacco. For the want of this last luxury, they console themselves in some degree by an im- moderate use of coffee.1 There are many learned men among them, and they have collected many valuable books (chiefly historical) from various parts of Arabia, and from Egypt. 1 Among: many other erroneous statements respecting the Wahhabees, it has been asserted that they prohibit the drinking of coffee. ( no ) CHAPTER IV. GOVERNMEXT.i Egypt has, of late years, experienced great political changes, and nearly ceased to be a province of the Turkish Empire. Its present Basha (Mohammad 'Alee), having exterminated the Ghuzz, or Mem- looks, who shared the government with his predecessors, has rendered himself almost an independent prince. He, however, professes allegiance to the Sultan, and remits the tribute, according to former custom, to Constantinople : he is, moreover, under an obligation to respect the fundamental laws of the Kur-an and the Traditions ; but he exercises a dominion otherwise unlimited.2 He may cause any one of his subjects to be put to death without the formality of a trial, or without assigning any cause : a simple horizontal motion of his hand is sufficient to imply the sentence of decapitation. But I must not be understood to insinuate that he is prone to shed blood without any reason : severity is a characteristic of this prince, rather than wanton cruelty ; and boundless ambition has prompted him to almost every action by which he has attracted either praise or censure.3 In the Citadel of the Metropolis is a court of judicature, called 1 As the political reforms effected by Moham- mad 'Alee will always be extremely interesting, and as tbe changes made in his institutions by his successors have been inconsiderable, and gene- rally the contrary of improvements, I retain here, without any essential alteration, an account of the government of Egypt written in the years 1834 and 1835, during the best period of his rule. 2 Though his territory was greatly lessened since the above was written, his power in Egypt remained nearly the same. 3 The government of Egypt, from the period of the conquest of this country by the Arabs, has been nearly the same as it is at present in its in- fluence on the manners and customs and charac- ter of the inhabitants; and I therefore do not deem a historical retrospect necessary to the illus- tration of this work. It should, however, be mentioned, that the people of Egypt are not now allowed to indulge in that excessive fanatical' rudeness with which they formerly treated Chris- tians and Jews; and hence European travellers have one great cause for gratitude to Mohammad 'Alee. Eestraint may, at first, increase, but will probably, in the course of time, materially di- minish, the feeling of fanatical intolerance. — This prediction has not yjet been fulfilled : on the con- trary, European innovations in the dress and domestic manners and customs of the grandees, and of persons in the employ of the government, have enormously increased the fanaticism of those who belong to the religious and learned profes- sions, and, generally speaking, of the bulk of the popidation. GOVERNMENT 111 "ed-Deewan el-Khideewee,"1 where, in the Basha's absence, presides his " Kikhya,"2 or deputy, Habeeb Efendee. In cases which do not fall within the province of the Kadee, or which are sufficiently clear to be decided without referring them to the court of that officer, or to another council, the president of the Deewan el-Khideewee passes judgment. Numerous guard-houses have been established throughout the metropolis, at each of which is stationed a body of Nizam, or regular troops. The guard is called " Kulluk,"3 or, more commonly, at present, " Kara-kol."4 Persons accused of thefts, assaults, &c, in Cairo, are given in charge to a soldier of the guard, who takes them to the chief guard-house, in the Mooskee, a street in that part of the town in which most of the Franks reside. The charges being here stated, and committed to writing, he conducts them to the a Zabit," or chief magistrate of the police of the metropolis. The Zabit, having heard the case, sends the accused for trial to the Deewan el-Khideewee.5 When a person denies the offence with which he is charged, and there is not sufficient evidence to convict him, but some ground of suspicion, he is generally bastinaded, in order to induce him to confess ; and then, if not before, when the crime is not of a nature that renders him obnoxious to a very heavy punishment, he, if guilty, admits it. A thief, after this discipline, generally confesses, " The devil seduced me, and I took it." The punishment of the convicts is regulated by a system of arbitrary, but lenient and wise, policy : it usually consists in their being compelled to labour, for a scanty sustenance, in some of the public works ; such as the removal of rubbish, digging canals, &c. ; and sometimes the army is recruited with able-bodied young men convicted of petty offences. In employ- ing malefactors in labours for the improvement of the country, Mohammad 5 Alee merits the praises bestowed upon Sabacon, the Ethiopian conqueror and king of Egypt, who is said to have in- troduced this policy. The Basha is, however, very severe in punishing thefts, &c, committed against himself : — death is the usual penalty in such cases. There are several inferior councils for conducting the affairs of 1 " Khideewee " is a relative adjective formed from the Turkish " Khideev," which signifies " a prince." 2 Thus pronounced in Egypt, but more pro- perly " Kyahya," or " Ketkhud a." 3 From" the* Turkish " Kool-luk." * Vulgarly, " Karakon." 5 A very arbitrary power is often exercised in this and similar courts, and the proceedings are conducted with little decorum. Many Turkish officers, even of the highest rank, make use of language far too disgusting for me to mention, towards persons brought before them for judg- ment, and towards those who appeal to them for justice. 112 CHAPTER IV. different departments of the administration. The principal of these are the following: — 1. The "Meglis el-Meshwarah m (the Council of Deliberation) ; also called " Meglis el-Meshwarah el-Melekeeyeh " (the Council of Deliberation on the Affairs of the State), to dis- tinguish it from other councils. The members of this and of the other similar councils are chosen by the Basha, for their talents or other qualifications; and consequently his will and interest sway them in all their decisions. They are his instruments, and compose a committee for presiding over the general government of the country, and the commercial and agricultural affairs of the Basha. Petitions, &c, addressed to the Basha, or to his Deewan, relating to private interests or the affairs of the government, are generally submitted to their consideration and judgment, unless they more properly come under the cognizance of other councils hereafter to be mentioned. 2. The " Meglis el-Gihadeeyeh " (the Council of the Army) ; also called " Meglis el-Meshwarah el-'Askereeyeh " (the Council of De- liberation on Military Affairs). The province of this court is suffi- ciently shewn by its name. 3. The Council of the " Tarskhaneh," or Navy. 4. The "Deewan et-Tuggar" (or Court of the Merchants). This court, the members of which are merchants of various countries and religions, presided over by the " Shah-Bandar " (or chief of the merchants of Cairo), was instituted in consequence of the laws of the Kur-an and the Sunneh being found not sufficiently explicit in some cases arising out of modern commercial transactions. The " Kadee " (or chief judge) of Cairo presides in Egypt only a year, at the expiration of which term, a new Kadee having arrived from Constantinople, the former returns. It was customary for this officer to proceed from Cairo, with the great caravan of pilgrims, to Mekkeh, perform the ceremonies of the pilgrimage, and remain one year as Kadee of the holy city, and one year at El-Medeeneh.2 He purchases his place privately of the government, which pays no particular regard to his qualifications ; though he must be a man of some knowledge, an 'Osmanlee (that is, a Turk), and of the sect of the Hanafees. His tribunal is called the " Mahkemek" 3 (or Place of Judgment). Few Kadees are very well acquainted with the Arabic language ; nor is it necessary for them to have such knowledge. In Cairo, the Kadee has little or nothing to do but to confirm the 1 Pronounced " Meshwar'ah." 2 He used to arrive in Cairo in the beginning of Ramadan ; but the beginning of the first month, Moharram, has of late been fixed upon, instead of the former period. 3 Pronounced "Mahkem'eh." GOVERNMENT. 113 sentence of his " X'aib 99 (or deputy), who hears and decides the more ordinary cases, and whom he chooses from among the 'Ulama of Istambool, or the decision of the " Muftee 99 (or chief doctor of the law) of his own sect, who constantly resides in Cairo, and gives judgment in all cases of difficulty. But in general, the X'aib is, at the best, but little conversant with the popular dialect of Egypt ; therefore, in Cairo, where the chief proportion of the litigants at the Mahkemeh are Arabs, the judge must place the utmost confidence in the " Bash-Turguman 99 (or Chief Interpreter), whose place is perma- nent, and who is consequently well acquainted with all the customs of the court, particularly with the system of bribery ; and this know- ledge he is generally very ready to communicate to every new Kadee and Xaib. A man may be grossly ignorant of the law in many im- portant particulars, and yet hold the office of Kadee of Cairo : several instances of this kind have occurred; but the Xaib must be a lawyer of learning and experience. When a person has a suit to prefer at the Mahkemeh against another individual or party, he goes thither, and applies to the " Bash-Rusul 39 (or chief of the bailiffs or sergeants who execute arrests) for a " Rasool 99 to arrest the accused. The Rasool receives a piaster or two,1 and generally gives half of this fee privately to his chief. The plaintiff and defendant then present themselves in the great hall of the Mahkemeh j which is a large saloon, facing a spacious court, and having an open front, formed by a row of columns and arches. Here are seated several officers called " Shahids," whose business is to hear and write the statements of the cases to be sub- mitted to judgment, and who are under the authority of the " Bash- Katib " (or Chief Secretary). The plaintiff, addressing any one of the Shahids whom he finds unoccupied, states his case, and the Shahid commits it to writing, and receives a fee of a piaster or more ; after which, if the case be of a trifling nature, and the defendant acknow- ledge the justice of the suit, he (the Shahid) passes sentence; but otherwise he conducts the two parties before the X'aib, who holds his court in an inner apartment. The Xaib, having heard the case, desires the plaintiff to procure a "fetwa" (or judicial decision) from the Muftee of the sect of the Hanafees, who receives a fee, seldom less than ten piasters, and often more than a hundred or two hundred. This is the course pursued in all cases but those of a very trifling 1 The Egyptian piaster, when this was written, was equivalent to the fifth part of a shilling, or 2%d. Q 114 CHAPTER IV. nature, which are settled with less trouble, by the Naib alone, and those of great importance or intricacy. A case of the latter kind is tried in the private apartment of the Kadee, before the Kadee himself, the Naib, and the Muftee of the Hanafees, who is summoned to hear it, and to give his decision ; and sometimes, in cases of very great difficulty or moment, several of the 'Ulama of Cairo are, in like manner, summoned. The Muftee hears the case, and writes his sentence; and the Kadee confirms his judgment, and stamps the paper with his seal, which is all that he has to do in any case. The accused may clear himself by his oath, when the plaintiff has not witnesses to produce : placing his right hand on a copy of the Kur-an, which is held out to him, he says, " By God, the Great," three times; adding, " By what is contained in this of the word of God." The witnesses must be men of good repute, or asserted to be such, and not interested in the cause : in every case, at least two witnesses are requisite1 (or one man and two women) ; and each of these must be attested to be a person of probity by two others. An infidel cannot lawfully bear witness against a Muslim in a case involving capital or other heavy punishment ; and evidence in favour of a son or grandson, or of a father or grandfather, is not received ; nor is the testimony of slaves ; neither can a master testify in favour of his slave. The fees, until lately, used to be paid by the successful party ; but now they are paid by the other party. The Kadee' s fees for decisions in cases respecting the sale of property are two per cent, on the amount of the property : in cases of legacies, four per cent., except when the heir is an orphan not of age, who pays only two per cent. For decisions respecting property in houses or land, when the cost of the property in question is known, his fees are two per cent. ; but when the cost is not known, one year's rent. These are the legitimate fees ; but more than the due amount is often exacted. In cases which do not concern property, the Kadee' s Naib fixes the amount of the fees. There are also other fees than those of the Kadee to be paid after the decision of the case : for instance, if the Kadee' s fees be two or three hundred piasters, a fee of about two piasters must be paid to the Bash-Turguman ; about the same to the Bash-Rusul ; and one piaster to the Rasool, or to each Rasool employed. The rank of a plaintiff or defendant, or a bribe from either, often « — — . _ 1 This law is borrowed from the Pentateuch. See Dent. six. 15. — A man may refuse to give his testimony. GOVERNMENT. 115 influences the decision of the judge. In general the Naib and Muftec take bribes, and the Kadee receives from his Naib. On some occa- sions, particularly in long litigations, bribes are given by each party, and the decision is awarded in favour of him who pays highest. This frequently happens in difficult law-suits ; and even in cases respecting which the law is perfectly clear, strict justice is not always adminis- tered ; bribes and false testimony being employed by one of the parties. The shocking extent to which the practices of bribery and suborning false witnesses are carried in Muslim courts of law, and among them in the tribunal of the Kadee of Cairo, may be scarcely credited on the bare assertion of the fact : some strong proof, resting on indubitable authority, may be demanded ; and here I shall give such proof, in a summary of a case which was tried not long since, and which was related to me by the Secretary and Imam of the Sheykh El-Mahdee, who was then supreme Muftee of Cairo (being the chief Muftee of the Hanafees), and to whom this case was referred after judgment in the Kadee's court. A Turkish merchant, residing at Cairo, died, leaving property to the amount of six thousand purses,1 and no relation to inherit but one daughter. The seyyid Mohammad El-Mahrookee, the Shah- Bandar (chief of the merchants of Cairo), hearing of this event, suborned a common fellah, who was the bowwab (or door-keeper) of a respected sheykh, and whose parents (both of them Arabs) were known to many persons, to assert himself a son of a brother of the deceased. The case was brought before the Kadee, and, as it was one of considerable importance, several of the principal 'Ulama of the city were summoned to decide it. They were all bribed or influenced by El-Mahrookee, as will presently be shewn ; false witnesses were brought forward to swear to the truth of the bowwab's pretensions, and others to give testimony to the good character of these witnesses. Three thousand purses were adjudged to the daughter of the deceased, and the other half of the property to the bowwab. El-Mahrookee received the share of the latter, deducting only three hundred piasters, which he presented to the bowwab. The chief Muftee, El-Mahdee, was absent from Cairo when the case was tried. On his return to the metropolis, a few days after, the daughter of the deceased merchant repaired to his house, stated her case to him, and earnestly solicited redress. The Muftee, though convinced of the 1 A purse is the sura of five hundred piasters, and was then equivalent to nearly seven pounds sterling, but is now equal to only live pounds. 116 CHAPTEK IV. injustice which she had suffered, and not doubting the truth of what she related respecting the part which El-Mahrookee had taken in this affair, told her that he feared it was impossible for him to annul the judgment, unless there were some informality in the proceedings of the court, but that he would look at the record of the case in the register of the Mahkemeh. Having done this, he betook himself to the Basha, with whom he was in great favour for his knowledge and inflexible integrity, and complained to him that the tribunal of the Kadee was disgraced by the administration of the most flagrant injustice ; that false witness was admitted by the 'Ulama, however evident and glaring it might be ; and that a judgment which they had given in a late case, during his absence, was the general talk and wonder of the town. The Basha summoned the Kadee and all the 'Ulama who had tried this case, to meet the Muftee in the Citadel; and when they had assembled there, addressed them, as from himself, with the Muftee' s complaint. The Kadee, appearing, like the 'Ulama, highly indignant at this charge, demanded to know upon what it was grounded. The Basha replied that it was a general charge, but par- ticularly grounded on the case in which the court had admitted the claim of a bowwab to a relationship and inheritance which they could not believe to be his right. The Kadee here urged that he had passed sentence in accordance with the unanimous decision of the 'Ulama then present. " Let the record of the case be read," said the Basha. The journal being sent for, this was done ; and when the secretary had finished reading the minutes, the Kadee, in a loud tone of proud authority, said, "And I judged so." The Muftee, in a louder and more authoritative tone, exclaimed, "And thy judgment is false \" All eyes were fixed in astonishment, now at the Muftee, now at the Basha, now at the other 'Ulama. The Kadee and the 'Ulama rolled their heads and stroked their beards. The former exclaimed, tapping his breast, "I, the Kadee of Misr, pass a false sentence'/' "And we," said the 'Ulama, "we, Sheykh Mahdee ! we, 'Ulama el-Islam, give a false decision !" " 0 Sheykh Mahdee/' said El-Mahrookee (who, from his commercial transactions with the Basha, could generally obtain a place in his councils), "respect the 'Ulama as they respect thee." " 0 Mahrookee," exclaimed the Muftee, " art thou concerned in this affair ? Declare what part thou hast in it, or else hold thy peace : go, speak in the assemblies of the merchants, but presume not again to open thy mouth in the council of the 'Ulama !" El-Mahrookee immediately left the palace, GOVERNMENT. 117 for he saw how the affair would terminate, and had to make his ar- rangements accordingly. The Muftee was now desired, by the other 'Ulaina, to adduce a proof of the invalidity of their decision. Draw- ing from his bosom a small book on the laws of inheritance, he read from it, " To establish a claim to relationship and inheritance, the names of the father and mother of the claimant, and those of his father's father and mother, and of his mother's father and mother, must he ascertained/' The names of the father and mother of the pretended father of the bowwab the false witnesses had not been prepared to give ; and this deficiency in the testimony (which the 'Ulama, in trying the case, purposely overlooked,) now caused the sentence to be annulled. The bowwab was brought before the council, and, denying the imposition of which he had been made the principal instrument, was, by order of the Basha, very severely bastinaded ; but the only confession that could be drawn from him by the torture which he endured was, that he had received nothing more of the three thousand purses than three hundred piasters. Mean- while, El-Mahrookee had repaired to the bowwab' s master : he told the latter what had happened at the Citadel, and what he had foreseen would be the result, put into his hand three thousand purses, and begged him immediately to go to the council, give this sum of money, and say that it had been placed in his hands in trust by his servant. This was done, and the money was paid to the daughter of the deceased. In another case, when the Kadee and the council of the 'Ulama were influenced in their decision by a Basha (not Mohammad 'Alee), and passed a sentence contrary to law, they were thwarted in the same manner by El-Mahdee. This Aluftee was a rare example of integrity. It is said that he never took a fee for a fetwa. He died shortly after my first visit to this country. — I could mention several other glaring cases of bribery in the court of the Kadee of Cairo ; but the above is sufficient. There are five minor Mahkemehs in Cairo ; and likewise one at its principal port, Boolak; and one at its southern port, Masr el- 'Ateekah. A Shahid from the great Mahkemeh presides at each of them, as deputy of the chief Kadee, who confirms their acts. The matters submitted to these minor tribunals are chiefly respecting the sales of property, and legacies, marriages, and divorces; for the Kadee marries female orphans under age who have no relations of age to act as their guardians ; and wives often have recourse to law to 118 CHAPTER IV. compel their husbands to divorce them. In every country-town there is also a Kadee, generally a native of the place, and never a Turk, who decides all cases, sometimes from his own knowledge of the law, but commonly on the authority of a Muftee. One Kadee generally serves for two or three or more villages. Each of the four orthodox sects of the Muslims (the Hanafees, SharVees, Malikees, and Hambelees,) has its " Sheykh," or religious chief, wrho is chosen from among the most learned of the body, and resides in the metropolis. The Sheykh of the great mosque El- Azhar (who is always of the sect of the Shafe'ees, and sometimes Sheykh of that sect), together with the other Sheykhs above men- tioned, and the Kadee, the Nakeeb el-Ashraf (the chief of the Shereefs, or descendants of the Prophet), and several other persons, constitute the council of the 'Ulama1 (or learned men), by whom the Turkish Bashas and Memlook chiefs have often been kept in awe, and by whom their tyranny has frequently been restricted : but now this learned body has lost almost all its influence over the government. Petty disputes are often, by mutual consent of the parties at variance, submitted to the judgment of one of the four Sheykhs first men- tioned, as they are the chief Muftees of their respective sects; and the utmost deference is always paid to them. Difficult and delicate causes, which concern the laws of the Kur-an or the Traditions, are also frequently referred by the Basha to these Sheykhs ; but their opinion is not always followed by him : for instance, after con- sulting them respecting the legality of dissecting human bodies, for the sake of acquiring anatomical knowledge, and receiving their de- claration that it wTas repugnant to the laws of the religion, he, never- theless, has caused it to be practised by Muslim students of anatomy. The police of the metropolis is more under the direction of the military than of the civil power. A few years ago it was under the authority of the " Walee " and the " Zabit but since my first visit to this country the office of the former has been abolished. He was charged with the apprehension of thieves and other criminals ; and under his jurisdiction were the public women, of whom he kept a list, and from each of whom he exacted a tax. He also took cognizance of the conduct of the women in general ; and when he found a female to have been guilty of a single act of incontinence, he added her name to the list of the public women, and demanded from her the tax, unless 1 In the singular " 'Alim." This title is more particularly given to a professor of jurisprudence. European writers generally use the plural form of tli is appellation for the siugular. GOVERNMENT. 119 she preferred, or could afford, to escape that ignominy, by giving to him, or to his officers, a considerable bribe. This course was always pursued, and is still, by a person who farms the tax of the public women,1 in the case of unmarried females, and generally in the case of the married also ; but the latter are sometimes privately put to death, if they cannot, by bribery or some other artifice, save themselves. Such proceedings are, however, in two points, contrary to the law, which ordains that a person who accuses a woman of adultery or fornication, without producing four witnesses of the crime, shall be scourged with eighty stripes, and decrees other punishments than those of degradation and tribute against women convicted of such offences. The office of the Zabit has before been mentioned. He is now the chief of the police. His officers, who have no distinguishing mark to render them known as such, are interspersed through the metropolis : they often visit the coffee-shops, and observe the conduct, and listen to the conversation, of the citizens. Many of them are pardoned thieves. They accompany the military guards in their nightly rounds through the streets of the metropolis. Here, none but the blind are allowed to go out at night later than about an hour and a half after sunset, without a lantern or a light of some kind. Few persons are seen in the streets later than two or three hours after sunset. At the fifth or sixth hour, one might pass through the whole length of the metropolis and scarcely meet more than a dozen or twenty persons, except the watchmen and guards, and the porters at the gates of the by-streets and quarters. The sentinel, or guard, calls out to the approaching passenger, in Turkish, " Who is that ?"2 and is answered, in Arabic, " A citizen."3 The private watchman, in the same case, exclaims, " Attest the unity of God,"4 or merely, " Attest the unity."5 The reply given to this is, " There is no deity but God,"6 which Christians, as well as Muslims, object not to say ; the former understanding these words in a different sense from the latter. It is supposed that a thief, or a person bound on any unlawful un- dertaking, would not dare to utter these words. Some persons loudly exclaim, in reply to the summons of the watchman, " There is no deity but God : Mohammad is God's Apostle." The private watch- 1 Since this was written, the public women throughout Egypt have been compelled to relin- quish their licentious profession. 2 " Keemen dur 6," for " keem dur 6." 3 " Ibn-beled." If blind, he answers " Aama." * " Wahhed Allah." 5 "Wahhed;" or, to more than one person, " Wahhedoo." 6 " La ilaha illa-llah." 120 CHAPTER IV. men are employed to guard, by night, the sooks (or market-streets) and other districts of the town. They carry a nebboot (or long staff), but no lantern. The Zabit, or Agha, of the police, used frequently to go about the metropolis by night, often accompanied only by the executioner and the "shealegee,"1 or bearer of a kind of torch called "shealeh," which is still in use.2 This torch burns, soon after it is lighted, without a flame, except when it is waved through the air, when it suddenly blazes forth : it therefore answers the same purpose as our dark lantern. The burning end is sometimes concealed in a small pot or jar, or covered with something else, when not required to give light ; but it is said that thieves often smell it in time to escape meeting the bearer. When a person without a light is met by the police at night, he seldom attempts resistance or flight ; the punish- ment to which he is liable is beating. The chief of the police had an arbitrary power to put any criminal or offender to death without trial, and when not obnoxious, by law, to capital punishment ; and so also had many inferior officers, as will be seen in subsequent pages of this work : but within the last two or three years, instances of the exercise of such power have been very rare, and I believe they would not now be permitted. The officers of the Zabit perform their nightly rounds with the military guards merely as being better acquainted than the latter with the haunts and practices of thieves and other bad cha- racters; and the Zabit himself scarcely ever exercises any penal authority beyond that of beating or flogging. Very curious measures, such as we read of in some of the tales of 'the Thousand and One Nights,' were often adopted by the police magistrates of Cairo, to discover an offender, before the late inno- vations. I may mention an instance. The authenticity of the following case, and of several others of a similar nature, is well known. I shall relate it in the manner in which I have heard it told. — A poor man applied one day to the Agha, of the police, and said, " Sir, there came to me, to-day, a woman, and she said to me, 'Take this "kurs,"8 and let it remain in your possession for a time, and lend me five hundred piasters :' and I took it from 1 Pronounced " shealeg'ee." 2 Baron Hammer-Purgstall is mistaken in sub- stituting " meschaaledschi " for " shealegee." The officer who bears the latter appellation does not carry a mesh'al, but a twisted torch. The mesh'al is described and figured in Chapter VI. of this work. 3 An ornament worn on the crown of the head- dress by women, described in the Appendix to tin's work. GOVERNMENT. 121 her, Sir, and gave her the five hundred piasters, and she went away : and when she was gone away, I said to myself, ' Let me look at this kurs and I looked at it, and, behold, it was yellow brass : and I slapped my face, and said, ( I will go to the Agha, and relate my story to him : perhaps he will investigate the affair, and clear it up for there is none that can help me in this matter but thou." The Agha said to him, " Hear what I tell thee, man. Take whatever is in thy shop ; leave nothing ; and lock it up ; and to-morrow morning go early, and, when thou hast opened the shop, cry out, c Alas for my property then take in thy hands two clods, and beat thyself with them, and cry, ( Alas for the property of others !' and whoever says to thee, ( What is the matter with thee V do thou answer, ' The property of others is lost : a pledge that I had, belong- ing to a woman, is lost ; if it were my own, I should not thus lament it :' and this will clear up the affair." The man promised to do as he was desired. He removed everything from his shop, and early the next morning he went and opened it, and began to cry out, " Alas for the property of others !" and he took two clods, and beat himself with them, and went about every district of the city, crying, " Alas for the property of others ! a pledge that I had, belonging to a woman, is lost ; if it were my own, I should not thus lament it." The woman who had given him the kurs in pledge heard of this, and discovered that it was the man whom she had cheated ; so she said to herself, "Go and bring an action against him." She went to his shop, riding on an ass, to give herself consequence, and said to him, " Man, give me my property that is in thy possession." He answered, " It is lost." " Thy tongue be cut out !" she cried : " dost thou lose my property ? By Allah ! I will go to the Agha, and inform him of it." " Go," said he ; and she went, and told her case. The Agha sent for the man ; and, when he had come, said to his accuser, " What is thy property in his possession V* She answered, " A kurs of red Venetian gold." " Woman," said the Agha, u I have a gold kurs here : I should like to shew it thee." She said, " Shew it me, Sir, for I shall know my kurs." The Agha then untied a handkerchief, and, taking out of it the kurs which she had given in pledge, said, " Look." She looked at it and knew it, and hung down her head. The Agha said, "Raise thy head, and say where are the five hundred piasters of this man." She answered, " Sir, they are in my house." The executioner was sent with her to her house, but without his sword ; and the woman, having gone into R 122 CHAPTER IV. the house, brought out a purse containing the money, and went back with him. The money was given to the man from whom it had been obtained, and the executioner was then ordered to take the woman to the Rumeyleh (a large open place below the Citadel), and there to behead her; which he did. The markets of Cairo, and the weights and measures, are under the inspection of an officer called the " Mohtesib."1 He occasionally rides about the town, preceded by an officer who carries a large pair of scales, and followed by the executioners and numerous other servants. Passing by shops, or through the markets, he orders each shopkeeper, one after another, or sometimes only one here and there, to produce his scales, weights, and measures, and tries whether they be correct. He also inquires the prices of provisions at the shops where such articles are sold. Often, too, he stops a servant, or other passenger, in the street, whom he may chance to meet carrying any article of food that he has just bought, and asks him for what sum, or at what weight, he purchased it. When he finds that a shopkeeper has incorrect scales, weights, or measures, or that he has sold a thing deficient in weight, or above the regular market price, he punishes him on the spot. . The general punishment is beating or flogging. Once I saw a man tormented in a different way, for selling bread deficient in weight. A hole was bored through his nose, and a cake of bread, about a span wide, and a finger's breadth in thickness, was suspended to it by a piece of string. He was stripped naked, with the exception of having a piece of linen about his loins, and tied, with his arms bound behind him, to the bars of a window of a mosque called the Ashrafeeyeh, in the main street of the metropolis, his feet resting upon the sill. He remained thus about three hours, exposed to the gaze of the multitude which thronged the street, and to the scorching rays of the sun. A person who was appointed Mohtesib shortly after my first visit to this country (Mustafa Kashif, a Kurd,) exercised his power in a most brutal manner, clipping men's ears (that is, cutting off the lobe, or ear-lap), not only for the most trifling transgression, but often for no offence whatever. He once met an old man, driving along several asses laden with water-melons, and, pointing to one of the largest of these fruits, asked its price. The old man put his finger and thumb to his ear-lap, and said, " Cut it, Sir." He was asked again and 1 Pronounced " Mohtes'ib." GOVERNMENT. 123 again, and gave the same answer. The Mohtesib, angry, but unable to refrain from laughing, said, " Fellow, are you mad or deaf V3 " No," replied the old man, u I am neither mad nor deaf ; but I know that, if I were to say the price of the melon is ten faddahs, you would say, ' Clip his ear and if I said five faddahs, or one faddah, you would say, ' Clip his ear f therefore clip it at once, and let me pass on." His humour saved him. — Clipping ears was the usual punishment inflicted by this Mohtesib ; but sometimes he tortured in a different manner. A butcher, who had sold some meat wanting two ounces of its due wTeight, he punished by cutting off two ounces of flesh from his back. A seller of "kunafeh" (a kind of paste resembling vermicelli) having made his customers pay a trifle more than was just, he caused him to be stripped, and seated upon the round copper tray on which the kunafeh was baked, and kept so until he was dreadfully burnt. He generally punished dishonest butchers by putting a hook through the nose, and hanging a piece of meat to it. Meeting, one day, a man carrying a large crate full of earthern water-bottles from Semennood, which he offered for sale as made at Kine, he caused his attendants to break each bottle separately against the vender's head. Mustafa Kashif also exercised his tyranny in other cases than those which properly fell under his jurisdiction. He once topk a fancy to send one of his horses to a bath, and desired the keeper of a bath in his neighbourhood to prepare for receiving it, and to wash it well, and make its coat very smooth. The bath-keeper, annoyed at so extraordinary a command, ventured to suggest that, as the pavements of the bath were of marble, the horse might slip, and fall; and also, that it might take cold on going out; and that it would, therefore, be better for him to convey to the stable the con- tents of the cistern of the bath in buckets, and there to perform the operation. Mustafa Kashif said, " I see how it is ; you do not like that my horse should go into your bath." He desired some of his servants to throw him down, and beat him with staves till he should tell them to stop. They did so ; and beat the poor man till he died. A few years ago there used to be carried before the Mohtesib, when going his rounds to examine the weights and measures, &c, a pair of scales larger than that used at present. Its beam, it is said, was a hollow tube, containing some quicksilver; by means of which the bearer, knowing those persons who had bribed his master, and those who had not, easily made either scale preponderate. 124 CHAPTER IV. As the Mohtesib is the overseer of the public markets, so there are officers who have a similar charge in superintending each branch of the Basha's trade and manufactures ; and some of these persons have been known to perpetrate most abominable acts of tyranny and cruelty. One of this class, who was named 'Alee Bey, /'Nazir el-Kumash" (or Overseer of the Linen), when he found a person in possession of a private loom, or selling the produce of such a loom, generally bound him up in a piece of his linen, soaked in oil and tar ; then suspended him, thus enveloped, to a branch of a tree, and set light to the wrapper. After having destroyed a number of men in this horrible manner, he was himself, among many others, burnt to death, by the explosion of a powder-magazine on the northern slope of the Citadel of Cairo, in 1824, the year before my first arrival in Egypt. A friend of mine, who spoke to me of the atrocities of this monster, added, " When his corpse was taken to be buried, the Sheykh El-'Aroosee (who was Sheykh of the great mosque El-Azhar) recited the funeral prayers over it, in the mosque of the Hasaneyn ; and I acted as 'muballigh' (to repeat the words of the Imam): when the Sheykh uttered the words, f Give your testimony respecting him,' and when I had repeated them, no one of all the persons present, and they were many, presumed to give the answer, ( He was of the virtuous :' all were silent. To make the circumstance more glaring, I said again, ( Give your testimony respecting him :' but not an answer was heard ; and the Sheykh, in confusion, said, but in a very low voice, ' May God have mercy upon him.' Now we may certainly say of this cursed man/' continued my friend, " that he is gone to hell : yet his wife is constantly having ( khatmehs' (recitations of the Kur-an) performed in her house for him ; and lights two wax candles for his sake, every evening, at the niche of the mosque of the Hasaneyn." Every quarter in the metropolis has its sheykh, called " Sheykh el-Harah," whose influence is exerted to maintain order, to settle any trifling disputes among the inhabitants, and to expel those who disturb the peace of their neighbours. The whole of the metropolis is also divided into eight districts, over each of which is a sheykh, called " Sheykh et-Tumn." The members of various trades and manufactures in the metropolis and other large towns have also their respective sheykhs, to whom all disputes respecting matters connected with those trades or crafts are submitted for arbitration ; and whose sanction is required for the admission of new members. GOVERNMENT. 125 The servants in the metropolis are likewise under the authority of particular sheykhs. Any person in want of a servant may procure one by applying to one of these officers, who, for a small fee (two or three piasters), becomes responsible for the conduct of the man whom he recommends. Should a servant so engaged rob his master, the latter gives information to the sheykh, who, whether he can recover the stolen property or not, must indemnify the master. Even the common thieves used, not many years since, to respect a superior, who was called their sheykh. He was often required to search for stolen goods, and to bring offenders to justice; which he generally accomplished. It is very remarkable that the same strange system prevailed among the ancient Egyptians.1 The Coptic Patriarch, who is the head of his church, judges petty causes among his people in the metropolis; and the inferior clergy do the same in other places ; but an appeal may be made to the Kadee. A Muslim aggrieved by a Copt may demand justice from the Patriarch or the Kadee : a Copt who seeks redress from a Muslim must apply to the Kadee. The Jews are similarly circum- stanced. The Franks, or Europeans in general, are not answerable to any other authority than that of their respective consuls, except when they are aggressors against a Muslim : they are then surrendered to the Turkish authorities, who, on the other hand, must be appealed to by the Frank who is aggrieved by a Muslim* The inhabitants of the country towns and villages are under the government of Turkish officers and of their own countrymen. The whole of Egypt is divided into several large provinces, each of which is governed by an 'Osmanlee (i. e. a Turk) ; and these provinces are subdivided into districts, which are governed by native officers, with the titles of " Ma-moor " and " Nazir." Every village, as well as town, has also its sheykh, called " Sheykh el-Beled ;" who is one of the native Muslim inhabitants. All the officers above mentioned, except the last, were formerly Turks ; and there were other Turkish governors of small districts, who were called " Kashifs," and " Kaim- makams :" the change was made very shortly before my second visit to this country ; and the Fellaheen complain that their con- dition is worse than it was before : but it is generally from the tyranny of their great Turkish governors that they suffer most severely. 1 Sec Diodoras Siculus, lib. i. cap. 80. 126 CHAPTER IV. The following case will convey some idea of the condition of Egyptian peasants in some provinces. A Turk/ infamous for many barbarous acts, presiding at the town of Tanta,2 in the Delta, went one night to the government granary of that town, and, finding two peasants sleeping there, asked them who they were, and what was their business in that place. One of them said that he had brought 130 ardebbs of corn from a village of the district ; and the other, that he had brought 60 ardebbs from the land belonging to the town. " You rascal !" said the governor to the latter ; " this man brings 130 ardebbs from the lands of a small village ; and you bring but 60 from the lands of the town." " This man," answered the peasant of Tanta, " brings corn but once a week ; and I am now bringing it every day." "Be silent!" said the governor; and, pointing to a neigh- bouring tree, he ordered one of the servants of the granary to hang the peasant to one of its branches. The order was obeyed, and the governor returned to his house. The next morning he went again to the granary, and saw a man bringing in a large quantity of corn. He asked who he was, and what quantity he had brought; and was answered, by the hangman of the preceding night, " This is the man, Sir, whom I hanged by your orders, last night ; and he has brought 160 ardebbs." "What!" exclaimed the governor: "has he risen from the dead ?" He was answered, " No, Sir ; I hanged him so that his toes touched the ground ; and when you were gone, I untied the rope : you did not order me to kill him." The Turk muttered, " Aha ! hanging and killing are different things : Arabic is copious : next time I will say kill. Take care of Aboo-Da-ood."3 This is his nickname. Another occurrence may here be aptly related, as a further illustra- tion of the nature of the government to which the people of Egypt are subjected. A fellah, who was appointed Nazir (or governor) of the district of El-Manoofeeyeh (the southernmost district of the Delta), a short time before my second visit to Egypt, in collecting the taxes at a village, demanded of a poor peasant the sum of sixty rivals (ninety faddahs each, making a sum total of a hundred and thirty- five piasters, which was then equivalent to about thirty shillings). 1 Suleyman Agha, the Silahdar : he has died since this was written. 2 Thus commonly pronounced in the present day ; formerly, " Tandete." 3 Aboo-Da-ood, Aboo-'Alcc, &c., are patronymics, used by the Egyptian peasants in general, not as signifying " Father of Da-ood," " Father of 'Alee," ,/,. the visiter or master, who wafts the smoke towards his face, beard, &c, with his right hand. Sometimes it is opened, to emit the smoke more freely. The substance most commonly used in the mibkharah is aloes- wood,3 or benzoin,4 or cascarilla-bark.5 The wood is moistened before it is placed upon the burning coals. Ambergris 6 is also used for the 1 Mentioned in Chapter V., p. HP. 4 "Gawee." 2 Pronounced "mibkharah." s "Kishr 'ambai." 3 " 'Ood.** e » 'Ambar." 204 CHAPTER VIII. same purpose ; but very rarely, and only in the houses of persons of great wealth, as it is extremely costly. As soon as the visiter has been perfumed, he takes his leave ; but he should not depart without previously asking permission to do so, and then giving the selam, which is returned to him, and paying other set compliments, to which there are appropriate replies. If he is a person of much higher rank than the master of the house, the latter not only rises, but also accom- panies him to the top of the stairs, or to the door of the room, and then commends him to the care of God. It is usual for a person, after paying a visit of ceremony, and on some other occasions, previously to his leaving the house, to give a small present (two or three piasters, or more, according to circum- stances,) to one, or to several, of the servants : and if his horse or mule or ass is waiting for him at the door, or in the court, one of the servants goes with him to adjust his dress when he mounts : this officious person particularly expects a present. When money is thus given to a man's servants, it is considered incumbent upon their master to do exactly the same when he returns the visit. Friends very often send presents to each other, merely for the sake of complying with common custom. When a person celebrates any private festivity, he generally receives presents from most of his friends ; and it is a universal rule that he should repay the donor by a similar gift, or one of the same value, on a similar occasion. It is common for the receiver of a present, on such an event, even to express to the giver his hope that he may have to repay it on the occasion of a like festivity. An acknowledgment accompanied by such an allusion to the acquitment of the obligation imposed by the gift, which would be offensive to a generous European, is, in this country, esteemed polite. The present is generally wrapped in an embroidered handkerchief, which is returned, with a trifling pecu- niary gratification, to the bearer. Fruit, laid upon leaves, and sweet- meats and other dainties, placed in a dish or on a tray, and covered with a rich handkerchief or napkin, are common presents. Very frequently, a present is given by a person to a superior with a view of obtaining something more valuable in return. This is often done by a servant to his master, and the gift is seldom refused, but often paid ► for immediately in money, more than equivalent. It is generally with the expectation above mentioned that an Arab gives a present to a European. The custom of giving money to the servants of a friend, after paying him a visit, is not so common now as it was a few years COMMON USAGES OF SOCIETY. 205 since; but it is still observed by most persons on the occasion of a visit of ceremony ; and particularly on the two " 'eeds," or religious festivals, and by the guests at private festivities. Other customs of a similar nature, which are observed at these festivities, will be de- scribed in a subsequent chapter.1 To decline the acceptance of a present generally gives offence ; and is considered as reflecting dis- grace upon the person who has offered it. There are4 many formal usages which are observed in Egypt, not merely on the occasions of ceremonious visits, or in the company of strangers, or at the casual meetings of friends, but also in the ordinary intercourse of familiar acquaintance. When a man happens to sneeze, he says, " Praise be to God."2 Each person present (servants gene- rally excepted) then says to him, " God have mercy upon you :"3 to which the former generally replies, " God guide us and guide you :"4 or he returns the compliment in words of a similar purport. Should he yawn, he puts the back of his left hand to his mouth, and then says, " I seek refuge with God from Satan the accursed :,,b but he is not complimented on this act, as it is one which should rather be avoided ; for it is believed that the devil is in the habit of leaping into a gaping mouth. For a breach of good manners, it is more common to ask the pardon of God than that of the present company, by saying, " I beg pardon of God, the Great."6 When a man has just been shaved, or been to the bath, when he has just performed the ablution preparatory to prayer, when he has been saying his prayers, or doing any other meritorious act, when he has just risen from sleep, when he has purchased or put on any new article of dress, and on many other occasions, there are particular compliments to be paid to hi in, and particular replies for him to make. It is a rule with the Muslims to honour the right hand and foot above the left : to use the right hand for all honourable purposes ; and the left for actions which, though necessary, are unclean : to put on and take off the right shoe before the left ; and to put the right foot first over the threshold of a door. The Egyptians are extremely courteous to each other, and have a peculiar grace and dignity in their manner of salutation and their general demeanour, combined with easiness of address, which seem natural to them, being observable even in the peasants. The 1 In Chapter XXVI I. - "El-hamduli-llah." :{ * Rahemkum Allah.' 4 "Yahdeene wa-yahdeekum Allah." 5 " A'ooz bi-llah min csh-shey{au er-resreem.' c " Astaghfir Allah cl-'Azeem." 206 CHAPTER VIII. middle and higher classes of townspeople pride themselves upon their politeness and elegance of manners, and their wit, and fluency of speech ; and with some justice : but they are not less licentious in their conversation than their less accomplished fellow-countrymen. Affa- bility is a general characteristic of the Egyptians of all classes. It is common for strangers, even in a shop, after mutual salutation, to enter into conversation with each other with as much freedom as if they were old acquaintances, and for one who has a pipe to offer it to another who has none; and it is not unusual, nor is it generally considered unpolite, for persons in a first, casual meeting, to ask each other's names, professions or trades, and places of abode. Lasting acquaintances are often formed on such occasions.1 In the middle and higher ranks of Egyptian society, it is very seldom that a man is heard to say anything offensive to the feelings of another in his com- pany ; and the most profligate never venture to utter an expression meant to cast ridicule upon sincere religion : most persons, however, in every class, are otherwise more or less licentious in their conversa- tion, and extremely fond of joking. They are generally very lively and dramatic in their talk ; but scarcely ever noisy in their mirth. They seldom indulge in loud laughter; expressing their enjoyment of anything ludicrous by a smile or an exclamation. 1 Acquaintances, and even strangers, often ad- paternal uncle," "Brother," "Mother," "Daugh- dress each other as relations, by the terms ter," "Maternal aunt," "Daughter of my ma- "Father," "Son," " Paternal uncle," "Son of my ternal aunt," "Sister," &c. ( 207 ) CHAPTER IX. LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE. The metropolis of Egypt maintains the comparative reputation by which it has been distinguished for many centuries, of being the best school of Arabic literature, and of Muslim theology and jurispru- dence. Learning, indeed, has much declined among the Arabs universally; but least in Cairo: consequently, the fame of the professors of this city still remains unrivalled ; and its great col- legiate mosque, the Azhar, continues to attract innumerable students from every quarter of the Muslim world. The Arabic spoken by the middle and higher classes in Cairo is generally inferior, in point of grammatical correctness and pro- nunciation, to the dialects of the Bedawees of Arabia, and of the inhabitants of the towns in their immediate vicinity ; but much to be preferred to those of Syria; and still more, to those of the Western Arabs. The most remarkable peculiarities in the pronunciation of the people of Egypt are the following : — The fifth letter of the alpha- bet is pronounced by the natives of Cairo, and throughout the greater part of Egypt, as g in give ; while, in most parts of Arabia, and in Syria and other countries, it receives the sound of j in joy : but it is worthy of remark that, in a part of southern Arabia, where, it is said, Arabic was first spoken, the former sound is given to this letter.1 In those parts of Egypt where this pronunciation of the fifth letter prevails, the sound of "heinzeh" (which is produced by a sudden emission of the voice after a total suppression) is given to the twenty- first letter, except by the better instructed, who give to this letter its true sound, which I represent by "k." In other parts of Egypt, the pronunciation of the fifth letter is the same as that of j in joy, or nearly so; and the twenty-first letter is pronounced as g in give. 1 It seems probable that tbe Arabs of Egypt ancestors in Asia. — See l)c Baey's Grammaire have retained, in this ease, a pronunciation which Arabc, 2nd ed. vol. i. pp. 17 and 18. vras common, if not almost universal, with their 208 CHAPTER IX. By all the Egyptians, in common with most other modern peoples who speak the Arabic language, the third and fourth letters of the alphabet are generally pronounced alike, as our t ; and the eighth and ninth, as our d : the fifteenth and seventeenth are also generally pronounced alike, as a very hard d ; but sometimes as a hard z. Of the peculiarities in the structure of the Egyptian dialect of Arabic, the most remarkable are, the annexation of the letter "sheen" in negative phrases, in the same manner as the word " pas " is used in French ; as " ma yerdash " for " ma yerela," " he will not consent "ma hoosh teiyib " (vulgarly, " mosh teiyib, ') for n ma huwa teiyib," " it is not good :" the placing the demonstrative pronoun after the word to which it relates; as "el-beyt de," "this house:" and a frequent unnecessary use of the diminutive form in adjectives; as "sugheiyir" for " sagheer," "small;" "kureiyib" for " kareeb," cc " " near. There is not so much difference between the literary and vulgar dialects of Arabic as some European Orientalists have supposed : the latter may be described as the ancient dialect simplified, principally by the omission of final vowels, and by otherwise neglecting to dis- tinguish the different cases of nouns and some of the persons of verbs.1 Nor is there so great a difference between the dialects of Arabic spoken in different countries as some persons, who have not held intercourse with the inhabitants of such countries, have imagined : they resemble each other more than the dialects of some of the dif- ferent counties in England. The Arabic language abounds with synonyms ; and, of a number of words which are synonymous, one is in common use in one country, and another elsewhere. Thus, the Egyptian calls milk " leben the Syrian calls it " haleeb :" the word " leben " is used in Syria to denote a particular preparation of sour milk. Again, bread is called in Egypt " 'eysh ;" and in other Arab countries, " khubz ;" and many examples of a similar kind might be adduced. — The pronunciation of Egypt has more softness than that of Syria and most other countries in which Arabic is spoken. The literature of the Arabs is very comprehensive; but the number of their books is more remarkable than the variety. The i The Arabs began to simplify their spoken language in the first century of the Flight, in consequence of their spreading among foreigners, who could not generally acquire the difficult lan- guage which their conquerors had hitherto used. For a proof of this, see " Abulfcda- Annates Mus- lemici, Arab, et Lat." vol. i. pp. 432 and 431. Many other proofs might be mentioned ; the fact being notorious. The modem Arabic, by its re- semblance to the Biblical Hebrew, confirms the evidences of decay that the latter in itself ex- hibits. HOOKS, ETC. 209 relative number of the books which treat of religion and jurispru- dence may be stated to be about one-fourth : next in number are works on grammar, rhetoric, and various branches of philology : the third in the scale of proportion are those on history (chiefly that of the Arab nation), and on geography : the fourth, poetical compositions. Works on medicine, chymistry, the mathematics, algebra, and various other sciences, &c, are comparatively very few. There are, in Cairo, many large libraries; most of which are attached to mosques, and consist, for the greater part, of works on theology and jurisprudence, and philology : but these libraries are deplorably neglected, and their contents are rapidly perishing, in a great measure from the dishonesty and carelessness of their keepers and of those who make use of them. Several rich merchants, and others, have also good libraries. The booksellers of Cairo are, I am informed, only eight in number ; 1 and their shops are but ill stocked. Whenever a valuable book comes into the possession of one of these persons, he goes round with it to his regular customers ; and is almost sure of rinding a purchaser. The leaves of the books are seldom sewed together; but they are usually enclosed in a cover bound with leather ; and mostly have, also, an outer case 2 of pasteboard and leather. Five sheets, or double leaves, are commonly placed together, one within another; composing what is called a "karras." The leaves are thus arranged, in small parcels, without being sewed, in order that one book may be of use to a number of persons at the same time ; each taking a karras. The books are laid flat, one upon another ; and the name is written upon the front of the outer case, or upon the edge of the leaves. The paper is thick and glazed : it is mostly imported from Venice, and glazed in Egypt. The ink is very thick and gummy. Reeds are used for pens ; and they suit the Arabic character much better. The Arab, in writing, places the paper upon his knee, or upon the palm of his left hand, or upon what is called a " misnedeh,"3 composed of a dozen or more pieces of paper attached together at the four corners, and resembling a thin book, which he rests on his knee. His ink and pens are contained in an inkhorn, called "dawayeh," mentioned in the first chapter of this work, together with the penknife, and an ivory instrument (" mikattah ") upon which the pen is laid to be nibbed. He rules his paper by laying under it a piece of paste- 1 These are natives. There are also a few Turkish booksellers. a Called zarf. :t Pronounced " misncd'eh." 2 K 210 CHAPTEK IX. board with strings strained and glued across it (called a " mistarah ")/ and slightly pressing it over each string. Scissors are included among the apparatus of a writer : they are used for cutting the paper ; a torn edge being considered as unbecoming. In Cairo there are many persons Books and Apparatus for Writing.2 who obtain their livelihood by copying manuscripts. The expense of writing a karras of twenty pages, quarto-size, with about twenty-five lines to a page, in an ordinary hand, is about three piasters (or a little more than sevenpence of our money) ; but more if in an elegant hand ; and about double the sum if with the vowel points, &c. In Egypt, and particularly in its metropolis, those youths or men who purpose to devote themselves to religious employments, or to any of the learned professions, mostly pursue a course of study in the great mosque El- Azhar ; having previously learned nothing more than to read, and perhaps to write and to recite the Kur-an. The Azhar, which is regarded as the principal university 3 of the East, is an ex- tensive building, surrounding a large, square court. On one side of 1 Pronounced " mistar'ah." 2 The latter consist of the reed ("kalam"), the * 'mikattah," the penknife (" mikshat"), the " dawayeh," the " mistarah," the " misnedeh " (upon which the five articles before mentioned lie), and the scissors ("mikass,") which, with their sheath, are placed upon the upper book. 3 The Azhar is not called a " university " with strict propriety ; but is regarded as such by the Muslims, as whatever they deem worthy of the name of science, or necessary to be known, is taught within its walls. Its name has been trans- lated, by European travellers, " the Mosque of Flowers;" as though it had been called "Game' el -Azhar," instead of "El-Game' el -Azhar," which is its proper appellation, and signifies " the Splendid Mosque." It is the first with respect to the period of its foundation, as well as in size, of all the mosques within the original limits of the city. — The preceding portion of this note (which was inserted in the first edition of the present work) apparently escaped the notice of Baron Ham- mer-Purgstall ; for he remarked (in the Vienna " Jahrbiicher der Literatur," lxxxi. Bd., p. 71) that, instead of "Azhar," I should have written, in this case, "Esher," [or "Ezher"]; the former, he says, signifying " flowers." The name of the mosque in question (synonymous with "neiyir," or " splendid," &c.,) is pronounced by almost all the natives of Egypt, and the Arabs in general, as I have written it, "Azhar," with the accent on the first syllable; and the plural of " zahroh " (a flower), "azhar:" but by the Turks the former word is pronounced " ezher." THE GREAT MOSQUE EL-AZHAB 211 this court, the side towards Mekkeh, is the chief place of prayer; a spacious portico : on each of the other three sides are smaller porticoes, divided into a number of apartments, called 9 riwaks," each of which is destined for the use of natives of a particular country, or of a particular province of Egypt. This building is situate within the metropolis. It is not remarkable in point of architecture, and is so surrounded by houses that very little of it is seen externally. The students are called " mugawireen." 1 Each riwak has a library for the use of its members j and from the books which it Contains, and the lectures of the professors, the students acquire their learning. The regular subjects of study are grammatical inflexion and syntax,2 rhetoric/ versification/ logic,5 theology/ the exposition of the Kur-an,7 the Traditions of the Prophet/ the complete science of jurisprudence, or rather of religious, moral, civil, and criminal law/ which is chiefly founded on the Kur-an and the Traditions; together with arithmetic/0 as far as it is useful in matters of law. Lectures are also given on algebra/1 and on the calculations of the Mohammadan calendar, the times of prayer, &c.'"2 The lecturer seats himself on the ground, at the foot of a column ; and his hearers, with him, seated also on the ground, form a ring. Different books are read by students of different sects. Most of the students, being natives of Cairo, are of the Shafe'ee sect ; and always the Sheykh, or head of the mosque, is of this sect. None of the students pay for the instruction they receive ; being mostly of the poorer classes. Most of those who are strangers, having riwaks appropriated to them, receive a daily allowance of food, provided from funds chiefly arising from the rents of houses bequeathed for their maintenance. Those of Cairo and its neighbourhood used to receive a similar allowance ; but this they no longer enjoy, except during the month of Ramadan : for Mohammad 'Alee took possession of all the cultivable land which belonged to the mosques, and thus the Azhar lost the greater portion of the property which it possessed : nothing but the expenses of necessary repairs, and the salaries of its principal officers, are provided for by the government. The professors, also, receive no salaries. Unless they inherit property, or have rela- tions to maintain them, they have no regular means of subsistence but 1 In the singular, " muosed by most of our authors who have men- tioned this subject), but from the first day of the moon or month of Moharram preceding that event. It is said that Mohammad, after he had remained three days concealed in a cave near Mekkeh, with Aboo-Bekr, began his journey, or "flight," to El-Medeeneh, on the ninth day of the third month (Kabeea el-Owwal), sixty-eight days after the commencement of the era. 1 The Coptic names, of which these are corrup- tions, are given in " Hora? .Egyptiacae," by K. S. Poole, pp. 7 — 9; and their derivation from the names of the ancient Egyptian divinities of the months is shewn in pp. 11, 15, and IS, of that work. 220 CHAPTER IX, The modern (like the ancient) Egyptians divide the year into three seasons ; namely, the winter (" esh-shita the summer (" es-seyf and the inundation ("en-neel," properly the Nile). Their astronomers also make use of the calendar of the Mansions of the Moon, by which the people of Arabia used to regulate all affairs relating to the seasons. In Egypt, and other Muslim countries, from sunset to sunset is reckoned as the civil day ; the night being classed with the day which follows it : thus the night before Friday is called the night of Friday. Sunset is twelve o'clock : an hour after sunset, one o'clock ; two hours, two o'clock ; and so on to twelve : after twelve o'clock in the morning, the hours are again named one, two, three, and so on.1 The Egyptians wind up and (if necessary) set their watches at sunset ; or rather, a few minutes after ; generally when they hear the call to evening-prayer. Their watches, according to this system of reckoning from sunset, to be always quite correct, should be set every evening, as the days vary in length. The following Table shews the times of Muslim prayer,'2 with the apparent European time of sunset, in and near the latitude of Cairo, at the commencement of each zodiacal month : — Sunset. 'Eshe. Day- break. Noon. 'Asr. June 21 Mo. h. 12 T. m. 0 Eur. T. h. m. 7 4 Mo. T. h. m. 1 34 Mo. T. h. m. 8 6 Mo. T. h. m. 4 56 Mo. T. h. m. 8 31 July 22 May 21 12 0 6 53 1 30 8 30 5 7 8 43 Aug. 23 Apr. 20 12 0 6 31 1 22 9 24 5 29 9 4 Sep. 23 Mar. 20 12 0 6 4 1 18 10 24 5 56 9 24 Oct. 23 Feb. 18 12 0 5 37 1 18 11 18 6 23 9 35 Nov. 22 Jan. 20 12 0 5 15 1 22 11 59 6 45 9 41 Dec. 21 12 0 5 4 1 24 12 15 6 56 9 43 A. pocket almanac is annually printed at the government-press at Boolak.3 It comprises the period of a solar year, commencing and terminating with the vernal equinox; and gives, for every day, the 1 Consequently the time of noon according to Moharamadan reckoning', on any particular day, subtracted from twelve, gives the apparent time of sunset, on that day, according to European reckoning. 2 The periods of the 'eshe, daybreak, and 'asr, are here given according to the reckoning most commonly followed in Egypt. (See the chapter on religion and laws.) "Mo. T." denotes Moham- madan Time : " Eur. T.," European Time. 3 More than a hundred books had been printed at this press at the time of my second visit to Egypt : most of them for the use of the military, naval, and civil servants of the government. Since that time, the Thousand and One Nights, and the " Khitat " of El-Makrcezee. and several other important works, have been printed in the same press, at the expense of private individuals. SCIENCE. 221 day of the week, and of the Mohammadan, Coptic, Syrian, and European months ; together with the sun's place in the zodiac, and the time of sunrise, noon, and the 'asr. It is prefaced with a summary of the principal eras and feast-days of the Muslims, Copts, and others ; and remarks and notices relating to the seasons. Subjoined to it is a calendar containing physical, agricultural, and other notices for every day in the year ; mentioning eclipses, &c. ; and comprising much matter suited to the superstitions of the people, together with some remains of the ancient calendar of Egypt. It is the work of Yahya Efendee, originally a Christian priest of Syria; but now a Muslim.1 Of geography, the Egyptians in general, and, with very few ex- ceptions, the best instructed among them, have scarcely any knowledge : having no good maps, they are almost wholly ignorant of the relative situations of the several great countries of Europe. Some few of the Learned venture to assert that the earth is a globe; but they are opposed by a great majority of the 'L lama. The common opinion of all classes of Muslims is, that our earth is an almost plane expanse, surrounded by the ocean," which, they say, is encompassed by a chain of mountains called ft Kaf." They believe it to be the uppermost of seven earths; and in like manner they believe that there are seven heavens, one above another. Such being the state of science among the modern Egyptians, the reader will not be surprised at finding the present chapter followed by a long account of their superstitions ; a knowledge of which is neces- sary to enable hiui to understand their character, and to make due allowances for many of its faults. AVe may hope for, and, indeed, reasonably expect, a very great improveuient in the intellectual and moral state of this people, in consequence of the introduction of European sciences, by which Mohammad 'Alee, in some degree, made amends for his oppressive sway ; but it is not probable that this hope will be soon realized to any considerable extent.3 1 During my last residence in Egypt, the almanac of Yahya Efendee was superseded by one better adapted to astronomical purposes, and very creditable to its author, Mahmood Efendee. 1 As the Greeks believed in the age of Homer and Hesiod. 3 It has been justly remarked, by Baron Ham- mer-Purgstall, that the present Chapter of this work is very deficient. I should gladly have made its contents more ample, had I not felt myself obliged to consult the taste of the general reader, upon whose patience I fear I have already trespassed to too great an extent by the insertion of much matter calculated to interest only Orien- talists. With respect to recent innovations, I have made but few and brief remarks in this work, in consequence of my having found the lights of European science almost exclusively confined to those servants of the government who have been compelled to study under Frank instructors, and European customs adopted by scarcely any persons except a few Turks. Some Egyptians who had studied for a few years in France declared to me that they could not instil any of the notions which they had there acquired even into the minds of their most intimate friends. ( 222 ) CHAPTER X. SUPERSTITIONS. ^ The Arabs are a very superstitious people; aud none of them are more so than those of Egypt. Many of their superstitions form a part of their religion, being sanctioned by the Kur-an ; and the most prominent of these is the belief in " Ginn," or Genii, in the singular, " Ginnee." The Ginn are said to be of pre-adamite origin, and, in their general properties, an intermediate class of beings between angels and men, but inferior in dignity to both, created of fire, and capable of assuming the forms and material fabric of men, brutes, and monsters, and of becoming invisible at pleasure. They eat and drink, propagate their species (like, or in conjunction with, human beings), and are subject to death ; though they generally live many centuries. Their principal abode is in the chain of mountains called " Kaf/' which are believed to encompass the whole earth : as mentioned near the close of the preceding chapter. Some are believers in El-Islam : others are infidels : the latter are what are also called " Sheytans," or devils j of whom Iblees (that is, Satan, or the devil,) is the chief : for it is the general and best-supported opinion, that he (like the other devils) is a giunee, as he was created of fire ; whereas the angels are created of light, and are impeccable. Of both the classes of ginn, good and evil, the Arabs stand in great awe; and for the former they entertain a high degree of respect. It is a common custom of this people, on pouring water, &c, on the ground, to exclaim, or mutter, " Destoor that is, to ask the permission, or crave the pardon, of any gin nee that may chance to be there : for the ginn are supposed to pervade the solid matter of the earth, as well as the firmament, where, ap- proaching the confines of the lowest heaven, they often listen to the conversation of the angels respecting future things, thus enabling themselves to assist diviners and magicians. They arc also believed GENII. 223 to inhabit rivers, ruined houses, wells, baths/ ovens, and even the latrina : hence, persons, when they enter the latter place, and when they let down a bucket into a well, or light a fire, and on other occasions, say, " Permission," or "Permission, ye blessed:"2 — which words, in the case of entering the latrina, they sometimes preface with a prayer for God's protection against all evil spirits; but in doing this, some persous are careful not to mention the name of God after they have entered (deeming it improper in such a place), and only say, " I seek refuge with Thee from the male and female devils." These customs present a commentary on the story in the " Thousand and One Nights/' in which a merchant is described as having killed a ginnee by throwing aside the stone of a date which he had just eaten. In the same story, and in others of the same collection, a ginnee is represented as approaching in a whirlwind of sand or dust; and it is the general belief of the Arabs of Egypt, that the "zoba'ah/' or whirlwind which raises the sand or dust in the form of a pillar of prodigious height, and which is so often seen sweeping across the fields and deserts of this country, is caused by the flight of one of these beings; or, in other words, that the ginnee "rides in the zoba'ah."3 A charm is usually uttered by the Egyptians to avert the zoba'ah, when it seems to be approaching them : some of them exclaim, " Iron, thou unlucky !"4 — as ginn are supposed to have a great dread of that metal : others endeavour to drive away the monster by exclaiming, " God is most great !" 0 What we call a " falling star " (and which the Arabs term " shihab ") is commonly believed to be a dart thrown by God at an evil ginnee ; and the Egyptians, when they see it, exclaim, "May God transfix the enemy of the religion!"6 The evil ginnees are commonly termed " 'Efreets ;" and one of this class is mentioned in the Kur-an in these words, "An 'efreet of the ginn answered " (eh. xxvii. v. 39) : which words Sale translates, " A terrible genius answered." They are generally believed to differ from the other ginn in being very powerful, and always malicious ; but to 1 In the belief that it will prevent the ginn from entering the bath, it is a common custom hi Egypt, of Muslims as well as Christians, to draw, or paint, a cross over its entrance. 2 " Destoor," or " Destoor ya niubarakeen." 3 I measured the height of a zoba'ah, with a sextant, at Thebes, in circumstances which in- sured a very near approximation to perfect accu- racy (observing its altitude, from an elevated spot, at the precise moment when it passed through, and violently agitated, a distant group of palm-trees), and found it to be seven hundred and fifty feet. I think that several zoba'ahs which I have seen were of greater height. Others, which 1 measured at the same place, were between five hundred and seven hundred feet in height. * " fladeed ya mashoom." 5 " Allahu akbar." 6 " Saham Allah fee 'adoo ed-deen." 224 CHAPTER X. be, in other respects, of a similar nature. An evil ginnee of the most powerful class is called a " M&rid." Connected with the history of the ginn are many fables not ac- knowledged by the Kur-an, and therefore not credited by the more sober Muslims, but only by the less instructed. All agree that the ginn were created before mankind ; but some distinguish another class of pre-adamite beings of a similar nature. It is commonly believed that the earth was inhabited, before the time of Adam, by a race of beings differing from ourselves in form, and much more powerful; and that forty (or, according to some, seventy-two,) pre-adamite kings, each of whom bore the name of Suleyman (or Solomon), successively governed this people. The last of these Sulcymans was named Gann Ibn-Gann ; and from him, some think, the ginn (who are also called " gann ") 1 derive their name. Hence, some believe the ginn to be the same with the pre-adamite race here mentioned : but others assert that they (the ginn) were a distinct class of beings, and brought into subjection by the other race. Ginnees are believed often to assume, or perpetually to wear, the shapes of cats, dogs, and other brute animals. The sheykh Khalcel El-Medabighee, one of the most celebrated of the 'Ulama of Egypt, and author of several works on various sciences, who died, at a very advanced age, during the period of my first visit to this country, used to relate the following anecdote : — He had, he said, a favourite black cat, which always slept at the foot of his musquito-curtain. Once, at midnight, he heard a knocking at the door of his house; and his cat went, and opened the hanging shutter of his window, and called, " Who is there ?" A voice replied, " I am such a one " (mentioning a strange name) " the ginnee : open the door." "The lock," said the sheykh's cat, " has had the name [of God] pronounced upon it." 2 " Then throw me down," said the other, " two cakes of bread." " The bread-basket," answered the cat at the window, " has had the name pronounced upon it." u Well," said the stranger, " at least give me a draught of water." But he was answered that the water-jar had been secured in the same manner; and asked what he was to do, seeing that he was likely to die of hunger and thirst : the sheykh's cat told 1 According to some writers, the Gann are the least powerful class of Ginn. 2 It is a custom of many "fukaha" (or learned and devout persons), and some others, to say, " In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Mer- ciful," on locking a door, covering bread, laying down their clothes at night, and on other occa- sions ; and this, they believe, protects their pro- perty from genii. The thing over which these words have been pronounced is termed "mu- semmee (for " musemma ") 'aleyh." GENII. 225 him to go to the door of the next house ; and went there also himself, and opened the door, and soon after returned. Next morning, the sheykh deviated from a habit which he had constantly observed : he gave, to the cat, half of the fateereh upon which he breakfasted, in- stead of a little morsel, which he was wont to give; and afterwards said, f* 0 my cat, thou knowest that I am a poor man : bring me, then, a little gold upon which words, the cat immediately dis- appeared, and he saw it no more. — Ridiculous as stories of this kind really are, it is impossible, without relating one or more, to convey a just notion of the opinions of the people whom I am attempting to describe. It is commonly affirmed, that malicious or disturbed ginn very often station themselves on the roofs, or at the windows, of houses in Cairo, and other towns of Egypt, and throw bricks and stones down into the streets and courts. A few days ago, I was told of a case of this kind, which had alarmed the people in the main street of the metropolis for a whole week ; many bricks having been thrown down from some of the houses every day during this period, but nobody killed or wounded. I went to the scene of these pretended pranks of the ginn, to witness them, and to make inquiries on the subject ; but on my arrival there, I was told that the " regm " (that is, the throw- ing,) had ceased. I found no one who denied the throwing down of the bricks, or doubted that it was the work of ginn ; and the general remark, on mentioning the subject, was, u God preserve us from their evil doings !" One of my friends observed to me, on this occasion, that he had met with some Englishmen who disbelieved in the existence of ginn ; but he concluded that they had never witnessed a public performance, though common in their country, of which he had since heard, called "kumedyeh" (or comedy) ; by which term he meant to include all theatrical performances. Addressing one of his countrymen, and appealing to me for the confirmation of his words, he then said, " An Algerine, a short time ago, gave me an account of a spectacle of this kind, which he had seen in London." — Here his countryman inter- rupted him, by asking, " Is not England in London ? or is London a town in England V — My friend, with diffidence, and looking to me, answered that London was the metropolis of England ; and then re- sumed the subject of the theatre. — " The house/' said he, " in which the spectacle was exhibited cannot be described : it was of a round form, with many benches on the floor, and closets all round, in rows, 2 G 226 CHAPTER X. one above another, in which people of the higher classes sat; and there was a large square aperture, closed with a curtain. When the house was full of people, who paid large sums of money to be admitted, it suddenly became very dark : it was at night ; and the house had been lighted up with a great many lamps ; but these became almost entirely extinguished, all at the same time, without being touched by anybody. Then, the great curtain was drawn up : they heard the roaring of the sea and wind ; and indistinctly perceived, through the gloom, the waves rising and foaming, and lashing the shore. Pre- sently a tremendous peal of thunder was heard ; after a flash of light- ning had clearly shewn to the spectators the agitated sea : and then there fell a heavy shower of real rain. Soon after, the day broke ; the sea became more plainly visible ; and two ships were seen in the distance : they approached, and fought each other, firing their cannons ; and a variety of other extraordinary scenes were afterwards exhibited. Now it is evident," added my friend, " that such wonders must have been the works of ginn, or at least performed by their assistance." — He could not be convinced of his error by my explanations of these phenomena. During the month of Ramadan, the ginn, it is said, are confined in prison ; and hence, on the eve of the festival which follows that month, some of the women of Egypt, with the view of preventing these objects of dread from entering their houses, sprinkle salt upon the floors of the apartments ; saying, as they do it, " In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful." A curious relic of ancient Egyptian superstition must here be mentioned. It is believed that each quarter in Cairo has its peculiar guardian-genius, or Agathodsemon, which has the form of a serpent. The ancient tombs of Egypt, and the dark recesses of the temples, are commonly believed, by the people of this country, to be inhabited by 'efreets. I found it impossible to persuade one of my servants to enter the Great Pyramid with me, from his having this idea. Many of the Arabs ascribe the erection of the Pyramids, and all the most stupendous remains of antiquity in Egypt, to Gann Ibn-Gann, and his servants, the ginn ; conceiving it impossible that they could have been raised by human hands. The term 'efreet is commonly applied rather to an evil ginnee than any other being; but the ghosts of dead persons are also called by this name ; and many absurd stories are related of them ; and great are the fears which they inspire. There are some persons, however, SAINTS. 227 who hold them in no degree of dread. — I had once a humorous cook, who was somewhat addicted to the intoxicating hasheesh : soon after he had entered my service, I heard him, one evening, muttering and exclaiming, on the stairs, as if in surprise at some event; and then politely saying, "But why are you sitting here in the draught ? — Do me the favour to come up into the kitchen, and amuse me with your conversation a little." The civil address, not being answered, was re- peated and varied several times; till I called out to the man, and asked him to whom he was speaking. "The 'efreet of a Turkish soldier," he replied, " is sitting on the stairs, smoking his pipe, and refuses to move : he came up from the well below : pray step and see him." On my going to the stairs, and telling the servant that I could see nothing, he only remarked that it was because I had a clear conscience. He was told, afterwards, that the house had long been haunted ; but asserted that he had not been previously informed of the supposed cause ; which was the fact of a Turkish soldier having been murdered there. My cook professed to see this 'efreet frequently after. The existence of " Ghools " likewise obtains almost universal credence among the modern Egyptians, in common with several other Eastern nations. These beings are generally believed to be a class of evil ginnees, and are said to appear in the forms of various animals, and in many monstrous shapes ; to haunt burial-grounds, and other sequestered spots; to feed upon dead bodies; and to kill and devour every human creature who has the misfortune to fall in their way. Hence, the term " ghool " is applied, in general, to any cannibal. That fancies such as these should exist in the minds of a people so ignorant as those who are the subject of these pages cannot reason- ably excite our surprise. But the Egyptians pay a superstitious re- verence not to imaginary beings alone : they extend it to certain individuals of their own species ; and often to those w ho are justly the least entitled to such respect.1 An idiot or a fool is vulgarly regarded by them as a being whose mind is in heaven, while his grosser part mingles among ordinary mortals ; consequently, he is considered an especial favourite of heaven. Whatever enormities a reputed saint may commit (and there are many wTho are constantly infringing precepts of their religion), such acts do not affect his fame for sanctity : for they are considered as the results of the abstraction 1 As is the case also in Switzerland. 228 CHAPTER X. of his mind from worldly things ; his soul, or reasoning faculties, being wholly absorbed in devotion, so that his passions are left with- out control. Lunatics who are dangerous to society are kept in con- finement ; but those who are harmless are generally regarded as saints. Most of the reputed saints of Egypt are either lunatics, or idiots, or impostors. Some of them go about perfectly naked, and are so highly venerated, that the women, instead of avoiding them, sometimes suffer these wretches to take any liberty with them in a public street ; and, by the lower orders, are not considered as disgraced by such actions, which, however, are of very rare occurrence. Others are seen clad in a cloak or long coat composed of patches of various coloured cloths, which is called a " dilk,"1 adorned with numerous strings of beads, wearing a ragged turban, and bearing a staff with shreds of cloth of various colours attached to the top. Some of them eat straw, or a mixture of chopped straw and broken glass ; and attract observation by a variety of absurd actions. During my first visit to this country, I often met, in the streets of Cairo, a deformed man, almost naked, with long matted hair, and riding upon an ass, led by another man. On these occasions, he always stopped his beast directly before me, so as to intercept my way, recited the Fat'hah (or opening chapter of the Kur-an), and then held out his hand for an alms. The first time that he thus crossed me, I endeavoured to avoid him ; but a person passing by remonstrated with me, observing that the man before me was a saint, and that I onght to respect him, and comply with his demand, lest some misfortune should befall me. Men of this class are supported by alms, which they often receive without asking for them.. A reputed saint is commonly called " sheykh," "murabit," or " welee." If affected with lunacy or idiotcy, or of weak intellect, he is also, and more properly, termed "megzoob," or "mesloob." " Welee " is an appellation correctly given only to an eminent and a very devout saint ; and means " a favourite of heaven but it is so commonly applied to real or pretended idiots, that some wit has given it a new interpretation, as equivalent to " beleed," which means " a fool" or "simpleton;" remarking that these two terms are equi- valent both in sense and in the numerical value of the letters com- posing them: for "welee" is written with the letters "w&w" "lam," and "ye," of which the numerical values are 6, 30, and 10, or, together, 46 ; and "beleed" is written with "be," "lam," "ye," Also (and more properly) pronounced "dalik," but commonly pronounced as above. SAINTS. 229 and " dal," which are 2, 30, 10, and 4, or, added together, 46. A simpleton is often jestingly called a welee. The Muslims of Egypt, in common with those of other countries, entertain very curious superstitions respecting the persons whom they call welecs. I have often endeavoured to obtain information on the most mysterious of these superstitions ; and have generally been answered, "You are meddling with the matters of the ' tareekah,' " or the religious course of the darweeshes; but I have been freelv acquainted with general opinions on these subjects, and such are perhaps all that may be required to be stated in a work like the present : I shall, however, also relate what I have been told by learned persons, and by darweeshes, in elucidation of the popular belief. In the first place, if a person were to express a doubt as to the existence of true welees, he would be branded with infidelity; and the following passage of the Kur-an would be adduced to condemn him: "Verily, on the favourites1 of God no fear shall come, nor shall they grieve."2 This is considered as sufficient to prove that there is a class of persons distinguished above ordinary human beings. The question then suggests itself, "Who, or of what description, are these persons?" and we are answered, "They are persons wholly devoted to God, and possessed of extraordinary faith ; and, according to their degree of faith, endowed with the power of performing miracles."3 The most holy of the welees is termed the Kutb ; or, according to some persons, there are two who have this title; and again, according to others, four. The term " kutb " signifies an axis ; and hence is applied to a welee who rules over others ; they depending upon him, and being subservient to him. For the same reason it is applied to temporal rulers, or any person of high authority. The opinion that there are four kutbs, I am told, is a vulgar error, originating from the frequent mention of " the four kutbs," by which expression are meant the founders of the four most celebrated orders of darweeshes (the Rifaeeyeh, Kadireeyeh, Ahmedeeyeh, and Barahimeh) ; each of whom is believed to have been the kutb of his time. I have also generally been told, that the opinion of there being two kutbs is a vulgar error, founded upon two names, " Kutb el-Hakeekah " (said 1 In the original, "owliya," plural of "welee." 2 Ch. x. v. 63. 3 A miracle performed by a welee is termed "karameh:" one performed by a prophet, "moa- gizeh." 230 CHAPTER X. to mean the Kutb of Truth), and "Kutb el-Ghos" (or the Kutb of Invocation for help), which properly belong to but one person. The term "el- Kutb el-Mutawellee" is applied, by those who believe in but one kutb, to the one ruling at the present time; and by those who believe in two, to the acting kutb. The kutb who exercises a superintendence over all other welees (whether or not there be another kutb, for if there be, he is inferior to the former,) has, under his authority, welees of different ranks, to perform different offices; " Nakeebs,'' " Negeebs," "Bedeels,"1 &c. ; who are known only to each other, and perhaps to the rest of the welees, as holding such offices. The Kutb, it is said, is often seen, but not known as such ; and the same is said of all who hold authority under him. He always has a humble demeanour, and mean dress; and mildly reproves those whom he finds acting impiously; particularly such as have a false reputation for sanctity. Though he is unknown to the world, his favourite stations are well known ; yet at these places he is seldom visible. It is asserted that he is almost constantly seated at Mekkeh, on the roof of the Kaabeh ; and, though never seen there, is always heard at midnight to call twice, " 0 Thou most merciful of those who shew mercy \"2 which cry is then repeated from the mad'nehs of the temple, by the mueddins : but a respectable pilgrim, whom I questioned upon this matter, confessed to me that he himself had witnessed that this cry was made by a regular minister of the mosque ; yet that few pilgrims knew this : he believed, however, that the roof of the Kaabeh is the chief " markaz " (or station) of the Kutb. Another favourite station of this revered and unknown person is the gate of Cairo called Bab Zuweyleh, which is at the southern extremity of that part of the metropolis which constituted the old city; though now in the heart of the town ; for the capital has greatly increased towards the south, as it has also towards the west. From its being a supposed station of this mysterious being, the Bab Zuweyleh is commonly called " El-Mutawellee.;'3 One leaf of its great wooden door (which is never shut), turned back against the eastern side of the interior of the gateway, conceals a small vacant space, which is said to be the place of the Kutb. Many persons, on passing by it, recite the Fat'hah ; and some give alms to a beggar who is generally seated there, and who is regarded by the vulgar as one of the servants 1 In the plural forms, "Xukaba," "Angab"or 2 " Ya arhama-r-rahemcen." "Nugaba," and "Abdal." 3 For "Bab El-Mutawellec." SAINTS. 231 of the Kutb. Numbers of persons afflicted with head-ache drive a nail into the door, to charm away the pain; and many sufferers from the tooth-ache extract a tooth, and insert it in a crevice of the door, or fix it in some other way, to insure their not being attacked again by the same malady. Some curious individuals often try to peep behind the door, in the vain hope of catching a glimpse of the Kutb, should he happen to be there, and not at the moment invisible. He has also many other stations, but of inferior celebrity, in Cairo ; as well as one at the tomb of the seyyid Ahmad El-Bedawec, at Tanta; another at El-Mahalleh (which, as well as Tanta, is in the Delta) ; and others in other places. He is believed to transport himself from Mekkeh to Cairo in an instant ; and so too from anv one place to another. Though he has a number of favourite stations, he does not abide solely at these ; but wanders throughout the whole world, among persons of every religion, whose appearance, dress, and language he assumes; and distributes to mankind, chiefly through the agency of the subordinate welees, evils and blessings, the awards of destiny. When a Kutb dies, he is immediately succeeded in his office by another. Many of the Muslims say that Elijah, or Elias, whom the vulgar confound with El-Khidr,' was the Kutb of his time; and that he invests the successive kutbs : for they acknowledge that he has never died ; asserting him to have drunk of the Fountain of Life. This particular in their superstitious notions respecting the kutbs, and some other particulars which I have before mentioned, appear to have been suggested by what we are told, in the Bible, of Elijah, of his translation, of his being transported from place to place by the Spirit of God, of his investing Elisha with his miraculous powers and his offices, and of the subjection of the other prophets to him and to his immediate successor.2 Some welees renounce the pleasures of the world, and the society of mankind ; and, in a desert place, give them- selves up to meditation upon heaven, and prayer ; depending upon divine providence for their support : but their retreat becomes known ; and the Arabs daily bring them food. This, again, reminds us of the history of Elijah, if, as is the opinion of some critics, we should read, 1 This mysterious person, according to the more approved opinion of the learned, was not a prophet, but a just man, or saint, the Wezeer and counsellor of the first Zu-l-Karneyn, who was a universal conqueror, but an equally doubtful per- sonage, contemporary with the patriarch lbra- heem, or Abraham. El-Khidr is said to have drunk of the Fountain of Life, in consequence of which he lives till the day of judgment, and to appear frequently to Muslims in perplexity. He is generally clad in green garments 5 whence, ac- cording to some, his name. 2 See 1 Kings, xviii. 12, and 2 Kings, ii. 9 — 16. 232 CHAPTER X. instead of " ravens/' in the fourth and sixth verses of the seventeenth chapter of the second book of Kings, " Arabs :" — " I have com- manded the Arabs to feed thee " — " And the Arabs brought him bread," &c. Certain welees are said to be commissioned by the Kutb to perform offices which, according to the accounts of my informants here, are far from being easy. These are termed "As-hab ed- Darak," interpreted to me (but I know not on what ground) as meaning "watchmen," or " overseers."1 In illustration of their employments, the following anecdote was related to me. — A devout tradesman in this city, who was ardently desirous of becoming a welee, applied to a person who was generally believed to belong to this holy class, and implored the latter to assist him to obtain the honour of an interview with the Kutb. The applicant, after having undergone a strict examination as to his motives, was desired to perform the ordinary ablution (el-wudoo) very early the next morn- ing ; then to repair to the mosque of El-Mu-eiyad (at an angle of which is the Bab Zuweyleh, or El-Mutawellee, before mentioned), and to lay hold of the first person whom he should see coming out of the great door of this mosque. He did so. The first person who came out was an old, venerable-looking man ; but meanly clad ; wearing a brown woollen gown (or zaaboot ); and this proved to be the Kutb. The candidate kissed his hand, and entreated to be admitted among the As-bab ed-Darak. After much hesitation, the prayer was granted : the Kutb said, " Take charge of the district which consists of the Darb el-Ahmar 2 and its immediate neighbour- hood;" and immediately the person thus addressed found himself to be a welee; and perceived that he was acquainted with things concealed from ordinary mortals : for a welee is said to be acquainted by God with all secrets necessary for him to know. — It is commonly said of a welee, that he knows what is secret,3 or not discoverable by the senses ; which seems plainly contradictory to what we read in several places in the Kur-an, that none knoweth what is secret (or hidden from the senses) but God : the Muslims, however, who are seldom at a loss in a discussion, argue that the passages above alluded to, in the Kur-an, imply the knowledge of secrets in an 1 This rendering is agreeable with an explana- tion of " darak " by M. Quatremere (in his " His- toire des Sultans Mamlouks," vol. i. p. 169), elicited from a comparison of a number of pas- sages in which it occurs. 2 A street leading from the Bab Zuweyleh towards the south-east, and forming a part of a great thoroughfare-street that extends to the citadel. " Yaalam cl-gheyb." SAINTS. 233 unrestricted sense j and that God imparts to welees such secrets only as He thinks fit. The welee above mentioned, as soon as he had entered upon his office, walked through his district ; and seeing a man at a shop with a jar full of boiled beans before him, from which he was about to serve his customers as usual, took up a large piece of stone, and, with it, broke the jar. The bean-seller immediately jumped up ; seized hold of a palm-stick that lay by his side; and gave the welee a severe beating : but the holy man complained not ; nor did he utter a cry : as soon as he was allowed, he walked away. When he was gone, the bean-seller began to try if he could gather up some of the scattered contents of the jar. A portion of the jar remained in its place ; and on looking into this, he saw a venomous serpent in it, coiled round, and dead. In horror at what he had done, he exclaimed, "There is no strength nor power but in God ! I implore forgiveness of God, the Great. What have I done ! This man is a welee j and has prevented my selling what would have poisoned my customers." He looked at every passenger all that day, in the hope of seeing again the saint whom he had thus injured, that he might implore his forgiveness ; but he saw him not ; for he was too much bruised to be able to walk. On the following day, however, with his limbs still swollen from the blows he had received, the welee limped through his district, and broke a great jar of milk at a shop not far from that of the bean- seller ; and its owner treated him as the bean-seller had done the day before; but while he was beating him, some persons ran up, and stopped his hand, informing him that the person whom he was thus punishing was a welee, and relating to him the affair of the serpent that was found in the jar of beans. " Go, and look," said they, " in your jar of milk, and you will find, at the bottom of it, something either poisonous or unclean." He looked; and found, in the remains of the jar, a dead dog. — On the third day, the welee, with the help of a staff, hobbled painfully up the Darb el-Ahmar, and saw a servant carrying, upon his head, a supper-tray covered with dishes of meat, vegetables, and fruit, for a party who were going to take a repast in the country ; whereupon he put his staff between the man's legs, and overthrew him ; and the contents of the dishes were scattered in the street. With a mouth full of curses, the servant immediately began to give the saint as severe a thrashing as he himself expected to receive from his disappointed master for this accident : but several persons soon collected around him ; and one of these bystanders 2 h * 234 CHAPTER X. observed a dog eat part of the contents of one of the dishes, and, a moment after, fall down dead : he therefore instantly seized the hand of the servant, and informed him of this circumstance, which proved that the man whom he had been beating was a welee. Every apology was made to the injured saint, with many prayers for his forgiveness : but he was so disgusted with his new office, that he implored God and the Kutb to release him from it ; and, in answer to his solicita- tions, his supernatural powers were withdrawn, and he returned to his shop, more contented than before. — This story is received as true by the people of Cairo j and therefore I have inserted it : for, in treating of superstitions, we have more to do with opinions than with facts. I am not sure, indeed, that it is altogether false : the supposed saint might have employed persons to introduce the dead serpent and dog into the vessels which he broke. I am told that many a person has obtained the reputation of being a welee by artifices of the kind just mentioned. There have been many instances, in Egypt, of welees afflicting themselves by austerities similar to those which are often practised by devotees in India. At the present time there is living, in Cairo, a welee who has placed an iron collar round his neck, and chained him- self to a wall of his chamber; and it is said that he has been in this state more than thirty years : bat some persons assert that he has often been seen to cover himself over with a blanket, as if to sleep, and that the blanket has been removed immediately after, and nobody found beneath it ! Stories of this kind are related and believed by persons who, in many respects, are endowed with good sense; and to laugh, or express discredit, on hearing them, would give great offence. I was lately told that, a certain welee being beheaded, for a crime of which he was not guilty, his head spoke after it was cut off;1 and, of another decapitated under similar circumstances, that his blood traced upon the ground, in Arabic characters, the following declaration of his innocence — "I am a welee of God; and have died a martyr." It is a very remarkable trait in the character of the people of Egypt and other countries of the East, that Muslims, Christians, and Jews, adopt each other's superstitions, while they abhor the leading doctrines of each other's faiths. In sickness, the Muslim sometimes employs Christian and Jewish priests to pray for him : the Christians and Jews, in the same predicament, often call in Muslim 1 Like that of the Sage Dooban, whose story is told in " The Thousand and One Nights." SAINTS. 235 saints for the like purpose. Many Christians are in the frequent habit of visiting certain Muslim saints here; kissing their hands ; begging their prayers, counsels, or prophecies; and giving them money and other presents. Though their prophet disclaimed the power of performing miracles, the Muslims attribute to him many ; and several miracles are still, they say, constantly or occasionally performed for his sake, as marks of the divine favour and honour. The pilgrims who have visited El- Medeeneh relate that there is seen, every night, a ray or column of faint light rising from the cupola over the grave of the Prophet to a considerable height, apparently to the clouds, or, as some say, to Paradise ; but that the observer loses sight of it when he approaches very near the tomb.1 This is one of the most remarkable of the miracles which are related as being still witnessed. On my asking one of the most grave and sensible of all my Muslim friends here, who had been on a pilgrimage, and visited El-Medeeneh, whether this assertion were true, he averred that it was ; that he had seen it every night of his stay in that city ; and he remarked that it was a most striking and impressive proof of God's favour and honour for " our lord Mohammad." I did not presume to question the truth of what he asserted himself to have seen ; nor to suggest that the great number of lights kept burning every night in the mosque might produce this effect : but to judge whether this might be the case, I asked my friend to describe to me the construction of the apartment of the tomb, its cupola, &c. He replied, that he did not enter it, nor the Kaabeh at Mekkeh, partly from his being in a state of excessive nervous excitement (from his veneration for those holy buildings, but particularly for the former, which almost affected him with a kind of hysteric fit), and partly because, being of the sect of the Hanafees, he held it improper, after he should have stepped upon such sacred ground, ever again to run the risk of defiling his feet, by walking barefooted : consequently, he would have been obliged always to wear leather socks, or mezz, within his outer shoes ; which, he said, he could not afford to do. — The pilgrims also assert, that, in approaching El-Medeeneh, from the distance of three days' journey, or more, they always see a flickering lightning, in the direction of the sacred city, which they believe to proceed from the Prophet's tomb. They say, 1 II is also said that similar phenomena, but. not so brilliant, distinguish sonic other tombs at El-Medeeneh and elsewhere. 236 CHAPTER X. that, however they turn, they always see this lightning in the direc- tion of El-Medeeneh. There is something strikingly poetical in this and in the former statement. A superstitious veneration, and honours unauthorized by the Kur-an or any of the Traditions, are paid, by all sects of Muslims, except the Wahhabees, to deceased saints, even more than to those who are living; and more particularly by the Muslims of Egypt.1 Over the graves of most of the more celebrated saints are erected large and handsome mosques : over that of a saint of less note (one who, by a life of sanctity or hypocrisy, has acquired the reputation of being a welee, or devout sheykh,) is constructed a small, square, whitewashed building, crowned with a cupola. There is generally, directly over the vault in which the corpse is deposited, an oblong monument of stone or brick (called " tarkeebeh ") or wood (in which case it is called " taboot ") ; and this is usually covered with silk or linen, with some words from the Kur-an worked upon it, and sur- rounded by a railing or screen, of wood or bronze, called "mak- soorah." Most of the sanctuaries of saints in Egypt are tombs; but there are several which only contain some inconsiderable relic of the person to whom they are dedicated ; and there are a few which are mere cenotaphs. The most sacred of all these sanctuaries is the mosque of the Hasaneyn, in which the head of the martyr El-Hoseyn, the son of the Imam 'Alee, and grandson of the Prophet, is said to be buried. Among others but little inferior in sanctity, are the mosques of the seyyideh Zeyneb (daughter of the Imam 'Alee, and grand- daughter of the Prophet), the seyyideh Sekeeneh (daughter of the Imam El-Hoseyn), the seyyideh Nefeeseh (great-grand-daughter of the Imam El-Hasan), and the Imam Esh-Shafe'ee, already mentioned as the author of one of the four great Muslim persuasions, that to which most of the people of Cairo belong. The buildings above mentioned, with the exception of the last two, are within the metro- polis : the last but one is in a southern suburb of Cairo; and the last, in the great southern cemetery. 1 Several superstitious customs, observed in the performance of many ordinary actions, result from their extravagant respect for their prophet, and their saints in general. For instance, on lighting the lamp in the evening, more particu- larly at a shop, it is customary to say, "Com- memorate Mohammad, and forget not the excal- kmcies of 'Alee: the Fat'hah for the Prophet, and for every welee :" and then, to repeat the Fat'hah. It is usual to say, on first seeing the new moon, "O God, bless our lord Mohammad. God make thee a blessed moon (or month) -." and on looking at one's face in a glass, " 0 God, bless our lord Mohammad." This ejaculation being used to counteract the influence of the evil eye, it seems as if an Arab feared t he effect even of his own admiring look. SAINTS. 237 The Egyptians occasionally visit these and other sanctuaries of their saints, either merely with the view of paying honour to the deceased, and performing meritorious acts for the sake of these venerated persons, which they believe will call down a blessing on themselves, or for the purpose of urging some special petition, as for the restoration of health, or for the gift of offspring, &c. ; in the persuasion that the merits of the deceased will insure a favourable reception of the prayers which they offer up in such consecrated places. The generality of the Muslims regard their deceased saints as intercessors with the Deity; and make votive offerings to them. The visiter, on arriving at the tomb, should greet the deceased with the salutation of peace, and should utter the same salutation on entering the burial-ground ; but I believe that few persons observe this latter custom. In the former case, the visiter should front the face of the dead, and consequently turn his back to the kibleh. He walks round the maksoorah or the monument from left to right ; and recites the FaYhah, inaudibly, or in a very low voice, before its door, or before each of its four sides. Sometimes a longer chapter of the Kur-an than the first (or Fat'hah) is recited afterwards : and some- times a "kkatmeh" (or recitation of the whole of the Kur-an) is performed on such an occasion. These acts of devotion are generally performed for the sake of the saint ; though merit is likewise believed to reflect upon the visiter who makes a recitation. He usually says at the close of this,' " [Extol] the perfection of thy Lord, the Lord of Might, exempting Him from that which they [that is, the unbe- lievers,] ascribe to Him " (namely, the having a son, or a partaker of his godhead) ; and adds, " And peace be on the Apostles; and praise be to God, the Lord of the beings of the whole world. 0 God, I have transferred the merit of what I have recited from the excellent Kur-an to the person to whom this place is dedicated," or — " to the soul of this welee," Without such a declaration, or an intention to the same effect, the merit of the recital belongs solely to the person who performs it. After this recital, the visiter, if it be his desire, offers up any prayer, for temporal or spiritual blessings; generally using some such form as this : — " 0 God, I conjure Thee by the Prophet, and by him to whom this place is dedicated, to grant me such and such blessings or " My burdens be on God and on thee, O thou to whom this place is dedicated." In doing this, some persons face any side of the maksoorah : it is said to be more proper to face the maksoorah and the kibleh j but I believe that the same 238 CHAPTER X. rule should be observed in this case as in the salutation." During the prayer, the hands are held as in the private supplications after the ordinary prayers of every day ; and afterwards they are drawn down the face. Many of the visiters kiss the threshold of the building;, and the walls, windows, maksoorah, &c. This, however, the more strict disapprove ; asserting it to be an imitation of a custom of the Christians. The rich, and persons in easy circumstances, when they visit the tomb of a saint, distribute money or bread to the poor ; and often give money to one or more water-carriers to distribute water to the poor and thirsty, for the sake of the saint.1 There are particular days of the week on which certain tombs are more generally visited : thus, the mosque of the Hasan eyn is mostly visited, by men, on Tuesday, and by women, on Saturday : that of the seyyideh Zeyneb, on Wednesday : that of the Imam Esh-Shafe'ee, on Friday. On these occasions, it is a common custom for the male visiters to take with them sprigs of myrtle : they place some of these on the monu- ment, or on the floor within the maksoorah ; and take back the remainder, which they distribute to their friends. The poor some- times place "khoos " (or palm-leaves) ; as most persons do upon the tombs of their friends and relations. The women of Cairo, instead of the myrtle or palm-leaves, often place roses, flowers of the henna-tree, jasmine, &c. At almost every village in Egypt is the tomb of some favourite or patron saint, which is generally visited, on a particular day of the week, by many of the inhabitants ; chiefly women ; some of whom bring thither bread, which they leave there for poor travellers or any other persons. Some also place small pieces of money in these tombs. These gifts are offerings to the sheykh j or given for his sake. An- other custom common among the peasants is, to make votive sacrifices at the tombs of their sheykhs. For instance, a man makes a vow (" nedr ") that, if he recover from a sickness, or obtain a son, or any other specific object of desire, he will give, to a certain sheykh (deceased), a goat, or a lamb, or a sheep, &c. : if he attain his object, he sacrifices the animal which he has vowed at the tomb of the sheykh; and makes a feast with its meat for any persons who may choose to attend. Having given the animal to the saint, he thus gives to the latter the merit of feeding the poor. Little kids are often vowed as future sacrifices ; and have the right ear slit ; or are marked 1 Sec the account of the water-carriers in Chapter XIV. SAINTS. 23y in some other way. It is not uncommon, too, without any definite view but that of obtaining general blessings, to make these vows : and sometimes, a peasant vows that he will sacrifice, for the sake of a saint, a calf which he possesses, as soon as it is full-grown and fatted : it is let loose, by consent of all his neighbours, to pasture where it will, even in fields of young wheat ; and at last, after it has been sacrificed, a public feast is made with its flesh. Many a large bull is thus given away. Almost every celebrated saint, deceased, is honoured by an anniversary birthday festival, which is called " moolid," or, more properly, " inolid." On the occasions of such festivals, many persons visit the tomb, both as a duty and as a supposed means of obtaining a special blessing ; fikees are hired to recite the Kur-an, for the sake of the saint ; fakeers often perform zikrs ; and the people living in the neighbourhood of the tomb hang lamps before their doors, and devote half the night to such pleasures as those of smoking, sipping coffee, and listening to story-tellers at the coffee-shops, or to the recitals of the Kur-an, and the zikrs. I have now a cluster of lamps hanging before my door, in honour of the moolid of a sheykh who is buried near the house in which I am living. Even the native Christians often hang up lamps on these occasions. The festivities often continue several days. The most famous moolids celebrated in Cairo, next to that of the Prophet, are those of the Hasaneyn and the seyyideh Zeyneb ; accounts of which will be found in a subsequent chapter, on the periodical public festivals, &c, of the people of Egypt. Most of the Egyptians not only expect a blessing to follow their visiting the tomb of a celebrated saint, but they also dread that some misfortune will befall them if they neglect this act. Thus, while I am writing these lines, an acquaintance of mine is suffering from an illness which he attributes to his having neglected, for the last two years, to attend the festivals of the seyyid Ahmad El-Bedawee, at Tanta ; this being the period of one of these festivals. The tomb of this saint attracts almost as many visiters, at the periods of the great annual festivals, from the metropolis, and from various parts of Lower Egypt, as Mekkeh does pilgrims from the whole of the Muslim world. Three moolids are celebrated in honour of him every year; one, about the tenth of the Coptic month of Toobeh (17th or 18th of January) j the second, at, or about, the Vernal Equinox j1 1 Called the " Shems el-Kebeereh.' 240 CHAPTER X. and the third, or great moolid, about a month after the Summer Solstice (or about the middle of the Coptic month of Ebeeb), when the Nile has risen considerably, but the dams of the canals are not yet cut. Each lasts one week and a day; beginning on a Friday, and ending on the afternoon of the next Friday ; and, on each night, there is a display of fireworks. One wreek after each of these, is celebrated the moolid of the seyyid Ibraheem Ed-Dasookee, at the town of Dasook, on the east bank of the western branch of the Nile. The seyyid Ibraheem wTas a very famous saint; next in rank to the seyyid El-Bedawee. These moolids, both of the seyyid El-Bedawee and of the seyyid Ibraheem, are great fairs, as well as religious festivals. At the latter, most of the visiters remain in their boats ; and some of the Saadeeyeh darweeshes of Rasheed exhibit their feats with serpents : some carrying serpents with silver rings in their mouths, to prevent their biting : others partly devouring these reptiles alive. The religious ceremonies at both are merely zikrs,1 and recitals of the Kur-an. — It is customary among the Muslims, as it was among the Jews, to rebuild, whitewash, and decorate, the tombs of their saints, and occasionally to put a new covering over the tarkeebeh or taboot ; and many of them do this from the same pharisaic motives which actuated the Jews.2 "Darweeshes" are very numerous in Egypt; and some of them who confine themselves to religious exercises, and subsist by alms, are much respected in this country ; particularly by the lower orders. Various artifices are employed by persons of this class to obtain the reputation of superior sanctity, and of being endowed with the power of performing miracles. Many of them are regarded as welees. A direct descendant of Aboo-Bekr, the first Khaleefeh, having the title of " Esh-Sheykh el-Bekree," and regarded as the representa- tive of that prince, holds authority over all orders of darwreeshes in Egypt. The present Sheykh el-Bekree, who is also descended from the Prophet, is Nakeeb el-Ashraf, or chief of the Shereefs. The second Khaleefeh, 'Omar, has likewise his representative, who is the sheykh of the 'Enaneeyeh, or Owlad JEnan, an order of darweeshes so named from one of their celebrated sheykhs, Ibn-'Enan. 'Osman has no representative, having left no issue. The representative of 'Alee is called Sheykh es-Sadat,3 or Sheykh of the Seyyids, or Shereefs ; a 1 The " zikr " will be fully described in another 3 Often improperly called " esh-Sheykh es- chapter, on the periodical public festivals, &c. Sadat." 2 See St. Matthew, xxiii. 29. DARWEESHES. 241 title of less importance than that of Xakeeb of the Shereefs. Each of these three sheykhs is termed the occupant of the " seggadeh " (or prayer-carpet) of his great ancestor. So too the sheykh of an order of darweeshes is called the occupant of the seggadeh of the founder of the order.1 The seggadeh is considered as the spiritual throne. There are four great seggadehs of darweeshes in Egypt ; which are those of four great orders about to be mentioned. The most celebrated orders of darweeshes in Egypt are the follow- ing.—1. The " Rifaeeyeh " (in the singular « Rifa'ee "). This order was founded by the seyyid Ahmad Rifa'ah El-Kebeer. Its banners, and the turbans of its members, are black ; or the latter are of a very deep-blue woollen stuff, or muslin of a very dark greenish hue. The Rifa'ee darweeshes are celebrated for the performance of many wonderful feats.2 The " 'Ilwaneeyeh," or " Owlad 'Ilwan," who are a sect of the Rifa'ees, pretend to thrust iron spikes into their eyes and bodies without sustaining any injury ; and in appearance they do this, in such a manner as to deceive any person who can believe it possible for a man to do such things in reality. They also break large masses of stone on their chests; eat live coals, glass, &c. ; and are said to pass swords completely through their bodies, and packing- needles through both their cheeks, without suffering any pain, or leaving any wound : but such performances are now seldom witnessed. I am told that it was a common practice for a darweesh of this order to hollow out a piece of the trunk of a palm-tree, fill it with rags soaked with oil and tar, then set fire to these contents, and carry the burning mass under his arm, in a religious procession (wearing only drawers) j the flames curling over his bare chest, back, and head, and apparently doing him no injury. The " Saadeeyeh," an order founded by the sheykh Saad-ed-Deen El-Gibawee, are another and more celebrated sect of the Rifa'ees. Their banners are green ; and their turbans, of the same colour or of the dark hue of the Rifa'ees in general. There are many darweeshes of this order who handle, with impunity, live, venomous serpents, and scorpions; and partly devour them. The serpents, however, they render incapable of doing any injury, by extracting their venomous fangs ; and doubtless they also deprive the scorpions of their poison. On certain occasions (as, for instance, on that of the festival of the birth of the Prophet), the Sheykh of the Saadeeyeh rides, on horseback, over the bodies of a 1 The title is "saheb seggadeh." darweeshes of Egypt are inferior to the most 2 In most of their jnsrdine performances, the expert of the Indians. 242 CHAPTER X. number of his darweeshes, and other persons, who throw themselves on the ground for the purpose; and all assert that they are not injured by the tread of the horse.1 This ceremony is called the u doseh." Many Rifa'ee and Saadee darweeshes obtain their liveli- hood by going about to charm away serpents from houses. Of the feats of these modern Psylli, an account will be given in another chapter. — 2. The " Kadireeyeh an order founded by the famous seyyid 'Abd-El-Kadir El-Geelanee. Their banners and turbans are white. Most of the Kadireeyeh of Egypt are fishermen : these, in religious processions, carry, upon poles, nets of various colours (green, yellow, red, white, &c), as the banners of their order. — 3. The " Ahmedeeyeh," or order of the seyyid Ahmad El-Bedawee, whom I have lately mentioned. This is a very numerous and highly respected order. Their banners and turbans are red. The " Beiyoo- meeyeh " (founded by the seyyid 'Alee El-Beiyoomee), the " Shaara- weeyeh " (founded by the sheykh Esh-Shaarawee 2), the u Shinna- weeyeh " (founded by the seyyid 'Alee Esh-Shinnawee), and many other orders, are sects of the Ahmedeeyeh. The Shinnaweeyeh train an ass to perform a strange part in the ceremonies of the last day of the moolid of their great patron saint, the seyyid Ahmad El-Bedawee, at Tanta : the ass, of its own accord, enters the mosque of the seyyid, proceeds to the tomb, and there stands while multitudes crowd around it, and each person who can approach near enough to it plucks off some of its hair, to use as a charm, until the skin of the poor beast is as bare as the palm of a man's hand. There is another sect of the Ahmedeeyeh, called " Owlad Nooh/' all young men ; who wear u tartoors " (or high caps), with a tuft of pieces of various-coloured cloth on the top, wooden swords, and numerous strings of beads ; and carry a kind of whip (called " firkilleh "), a thick twist of cords. —4. The t( Barahimeh," or Burhameeyeh f the order of the seyyid Ibraheem Ed-Dasookee, whose moolid has been mentioned above. Their banners and turbans are green. — There are many other classes of darweeshes ; some of whom are sects of one or other of the above orders. Among the more celebrated of them are the t( Hefnaweeyeh," the u 'Afeefeeyeh/' the " Demirdasheeyeh," the " Nakshibendeeyeh/' the " Bekreeyeh," and the " Leyseeyeh." It is impossible to become acquainted with all the tenets, rules, 1 In the chapters on the periodical public festi- vals, &c, this and other performances of the dar- weeshes of Cairo will he described more fully, 2 Thus commonly pronounced, for Esh-Shaa- ranee. DARWEESHES. 243 and ceremonies of the darweeshes, as many of them, like those of the freemasons, are not to be divulged to the uninitiated. A darweesh with whom I am acquainted thus described to me his taking the u 'ahd," or initiatory covenant, which is nearly the same in all the orders. He was admitted by the sheykh of the Demirdasheeyeh. Having first performed the ablution preparatory to prayer (the wudoo), he seated himself upon the ground before the sheykh, who was seated in like manner. The sheykh and he (the " mureed," or candidate,) then clasped their right hands together in the manner which I have described as practised in making the marriage-contract : in this attitude, and with their hands covered by the sleeve of the sheykh, the candidate took the covenant; repeating, after the sheykh, the following words, commencing with the form of a common oath of repentance. " I beg forgiveness of God, the Great " (three times) ; than whom there is no other deity; the Living, the Everlasting : I turn to Him with repentance, and beg his grace, and forgiveness, and exemption from the lire." The sheykh then said to him, " Dost thou turn to God with repentance V* He replied, " I do turn to God with repentance ; and I return unto God ; and I am grieved for what I have done [amiss] ; and I determine not to relapse and then repeated, after the sheykh, " I beg for the favour of God, the Great, and the noble Prophet; and I take as my sheykh, and my guide unto God (whose name be exalted), my master 'Abd-Er-Raheem Ed-Demirdashee El-Khalwetee Er-Rifa'ee En-Nebawee ; not to change, nor to separate ; and God is our witness : by God, the Great \" (this oath was repeated three times) : " there is no deity but God " (this also was repeated three times). The sheykh and the ttrareed then recited the Fat'hah together; and the latter concluded the ceremony by kissing the sheykh's hand. The religious exercises of the darweeshes chiefly consist in the performance of " zikrs." Sometimes standing in the form of a circular or an oblong ring, or in two rows, facing each other, and sometimes sitting, they exclaim, or chant, " La ilaha illa-llah " (There is no deity but God), or "Allah! Allah! Allah!" (God! God ! God !), or repeat other invocations, &c, over and over as'ain, until their strength is almost exhausted ; accompanying their ejacula- tions or chants with a motion of the head, or of the whole bodv, or of the arms. From long habit they are able to continue these exercises for a surprising length of time without intermission. They are often accompanied, at intervals, by one or more players upon a kind of 244 CHAPTER X. flute called "nay/' or a double reed-pipe, called "arghool/' and by persons singing religious odes ; and some darweeshes use a little drum, called " baz,"1 or a tambourine, during their zikrs : some, also, perform a peculiar dance; the description of which, as well as of several different zikrs, I reserve for future chapters. Some of the rites of darweeshes (as forms of prayer, modes of zikr, &c.,) are observed only by particular orders : others, by members of various orders. Among the latter may be mentioned the rites of the " Khalwetees " and " Shazilees two great classes, each of which has its sheykh. The chief difference between these is that each has its particular form of prayer to repeat every morning ; and that the former distinguish themselves by occasional seclusion ; whence their appellation of " Khalwetees :"2 the prayer of this class is repeated before day -break, and is called "wird es-sahar :" that of the Shazilees, which is called "hezb esh-Shazilee," after day-break. Sometimes, a Khalwetee enters a solitary cell, and remains in it for forty days and nights, fasting from day-break till sunset the whole of this period. Sometimes also a number of the same class confine themselves, each in a separate cell, in the sepulchral mosque of the sheykh Ed-Demirdashee, on the north of Cairo, and remain there three days and nights, on the occasion of the moolid of that saint, and only eat a little rice, and drink a cup of sherbet, in the evening : they employ themselves in repeating certain forms of prayer, &c. not imparted to the uninitiated; only coming out of their cells to unite in the five daily prayers in the mosque ; and never answering any one who speaks to them but by saying, " There is no deity but God." Those who observe the forty days' fast, and seclude themselves during that long period, practise nearly the same rules ; and employ their time in repeating the testimony of the faith, imploring forgiveness, praising God, &c. Almost all the darweeshes of Egypt are tradesmen or artisans or agriculturists ; and only occasionally assist in the rites and ceremonies of their respective orders : but there are some who have no other occupations than those of performing zikrs at the festivals of saints and at private entertainments, and of chanting in funeral-processions. These are termed " fukava," or " fakeers ;" which is an appellation given also to the poor in general, but especially to poor devotees. 1 For descriptions ui" the instruments here men- music, &c. tioncd, see a subsequent chapter, on the Egyptian 2 From "khalweh," a cell, or closet. DARWEBSHES. 2 to Some obtain their livelihood as water-carriers, by supplying the pas- sengers in the streets of Cairo, and the visiters at religious festivals, with water, which they carry in an earthen vessel, or a goat's skin, on the back. A few lead a wandering life, and subsist on alms ; which they often demand with great importunacy and effrontery. Some of these distinguish themselves in the same manner as certain reputed saints before mentioned, by the u dilk," or coat of patches, and the staff with shreds of cloth of different colours attached to the top : others wear fantastic dresses of various descriptions. Some Rifa'ee darweeshes (besides those who follow the occupation of charming away serpents from houses) pursue a wandering life; travelling about Egypt, and profiting by a ridiculous superstition which I must here mention. A venerated saint, called See1 Da-ood El-'Azab (or Master David the Bachelor), who lived at Tefahineh, a village in Lower Egypt, had a calf, which always attended him, and brought him water, &c. Since his death, some Bifa'ee darweeshes have been in the habit of rearing a number of calves at his native place, or burial-place, above named ; teaching them to walk up stairs, to lie down at command, &c.j and then going about the country, each with his calf, to obtain alms. The calf is called " 'Egl El-'Azab " (the Calf of El-'Azab, or — of the Bachelor). I once called into my house one of these darweeshes, with his calf, the only one I have seen : it was a buffalo-calf ; and had two bells suspended to it ; one attached to a collar round its neck, and the other to a girth round its body. It walked up the stairs very well ; but shewed that it had not been very wrell trained in every respect. The 'Egl El-'Azab is vul- garly believed to bring into the house a blessing from the saint after whom it is called. There are numerous wandering Turkish and Persian darweeshes in Egypt ; and to these, more than to the few Egyptian darweeshes who lead a similar life, must the character for impudence and importunacy be ascribed. Very often, particularly in Ramadan, a foreign darweesh goes to the mosque of the Hasaneyn, wdiich is that most frequented by the Turks and Persians, at the time of the Eriday-prayers ; and, when the Khateeb is reciting the first khutbeh, passes between the ranks of persons who are sitting upon the floor, and places before each a little slip of paper upon which are written a few words, generally exhorta- ' " See " is a vulgar eontraction of " Sccclee," whieh is itself a eontraction of " Seyyidcc," signifying " Mj Master," or " Mister." CHAPTER X. tive to charity (as " He who giveth alms will be provided for " — " The poor darweesh asketh an alms/' &c.) ; by which proceeding he usually obtains from each, or almost every person, a piece of five or ten faddahs, or more. Many of the Persian darweeshes in Egypt carry an oblong bowl of cocoa-nut or wood or metal, in which they receive their alms, and put their food; and a wooden spoon; and most of the foreign darweeshes wear dresses peculiar to their respective orders : they are chiefly distinguished by the cap : the most common description of cap is of a sugar-loaf, or conical, shape, and made of felt : the other articles of dress are generally a vest and full drawers, or trousers, or a shirt and belt, and a coarse cloak, or long coat. The Persians here all affect to be Sunnees. The Turks are the more intrusive of the two classes. Here I may mention another superstition of the Egyptians, and of the Arabs in general : namely, their belief that birds and beasts have a language by which they communicate their thoughts to each other, and celebrate the praises of God. ( 247 ) CHAPTER XI. SUPERSTITIONS- continued. One of the most remarkable traits in modern Egyptian superstition is the belief in written charms. The composition of most of these amulets is founded upon magic ; and occasionally employs the pen of almost every village-schoolmaster in Egypt. A person of this pro- fession, however, seldom pursues the study of magic further than to acquire the formulae of a few charms, most commonly consisting, for the greater part, of certain passages of the Kur-an, and names of God, together with those of angels, geuii, prophets, or eminent saints, intermixed with combinations of numerals, and with diagrams, all of which are supposed to have great secret virtues. The most esteemed of all " hegabs" (or charms) is a "mus-haf" (or copy of the Kur-an). It used to be the general custom of the Turks of the middle and higher orders, and of many other Muslims, to wear a small mus-haf in an embroidered leather or velvet case hung upon the right side by a silk string which passed over the left shoulder : but this custom is not now very common. During my first visit to this country, a respectable Turk, in the military dress, was seldom seen without a case of this description upon his side, though it often contained no hegab. The mus-haf and other hegabs are still worn by many women ; generally enclosed in cases of gold, or of gilt or plain silver. To the former, and to many other charms, most extensive efficacy is attributed; they are esteemed preservatives against disease, enchantment, the evil eye, and a variety of other evils. The charm next in point of estimation to the mus-haf is a book or scroll containing certain chapters of the Kur-an ; as the 6th, 18th, 36th, 44th, 55th, 67th, and 78th ; or some others ; generally seven. — Another charm, which is believed to protect the wearer (who usually places it within his cap) from the devil and all evil genii, and many other objects of fear, is a piece of paper inscribed with the 248 CHAPTER XL following passages from the Kur-an/ "And the preservation of both [heaven and earth] is no burden unto Him : and He is the High, the Great" (ch. ii. v. 256). "But God is the best protector; and He is the most merciful of those who shew mercy " (ch. xii. v. 64). "They watch him by the command of God" (ch. xiii. v. 12). "And we guard them from every devil driven away with stones " (ch. xv. v. 17). " And a guard against every rebellious devil " (ch. xxxvii. v. 7). "And a guard. This is the decree of the Mighty, the Wise" (ch. lxi. v. 11). "And God encompasseth them behind. Verily it is a glorious Kur-an, [written] on a preserved tablet" (ch. lxxxv. vv. 20, 21, 22). — The ninety-nine names, or epithets, of God, comprising all the divine attributes, if frequently repeated, and written on a paper, and worn on the person, are supposed to make the wearer a particular object for the exercise of all the beneficent attributes. — In like manner it is believed that the ninety-nine names, or titles, &c, of the Prophet, written upon anything, compose a charm which (accord- ing to his own assertion, as recorded by his cousin and son-in-law the Imam 'Alee,) will, if placed in a house, and frequently read from beginning to end, keep away every misfortune, pestilence and all diseases, infirmity, the envious eye, enchantment, burning, ruin, anxiety, grief, and trouble. After repeating each of these names, the Muslim adds, " God bless and save him \9ri — Similar virtues are ascribed to a charm composed of the names of the " As-hab el-Kahf " (or Companions of the Cave, also called the Seven Sleepers), together with the name of their dog.3 These names are sometimes engraved in the bottom of a drinking-cup, and more commonly on the round tray of tinned copper which, placed on a stool, forms the table for dinner, supper, &c. — Another charm, supposed to have similar efficacy, is composed of the names of those paltry articles of property which the Prophet left at his decease. These relics4 were two "sebhahs" (or rosaries), his "mus-haf" (in unarranged fragments), his " muk-hulah " (or the vessel in which he kept the black powder 1 Called " ayat el-hefz " (the verses of protec- tion, or preservation). 2 Just before I quitted my house in Cairo to return to England, a friend, who had been my sheykh (or tutor), wrote on a slip of paper, " There is no deity but God : [Mohammad is God's apostle then tore it in halves, gave me the latter half (on which was written "Mohammad is God's apostle"), and concealed the other in a crack in the roof of a little cupboard in my usual sitting-room. This was to insure my cominsr hack to Cairo : for it is believed that the profession of the faith cannot remain incomplete : so that by my keeping the latter half always upon my person, it would bring me back to the former half. 3 These, it is said, were Christian youths of Ephesus, who took refuge from the persecution of the emperor Deeius in a cave, and slept there, guarded by their dog, for the space of 300 [solar] or 309 [lunar] years. (See the Kur-an, chap, xviii.) 4 Called "mukhallalat en-nehee." CHARMS. 249 with which he painted the edges of his eyelids), two " seggadehs " (or prayer carpets), a hand-mill, a staff, a tooth-stick, a suit of clothes,1 the ewer which he used in ablution, a pair of sandals, a "burden " (or a kind of woollen covering),2 three mats, a coat of mail, a long woollen coat, his white mule " ed-duldul," and his she-camel " el-'adba." — Certain verses of the Kur-an are also written upon slips of paper, and worn upon the person as safeguards against various evils, and to procure restoration to health, love and friendship, food, &c. These and other charms, enclosed in cases of gold, silver, tin, leather, or silk, &c, are worn by many of the modern Egyptians, men, women, and children. It is very common to see children in this country with a charm against the evil eye* enclosed in a case, generally of a triangular form, attached to the top of the cap ; and horses often have similar appendages. The Egyptians take many precautions against the evil eye ; and anxiously endeavour to avert its imagined consequences. When a person expresses what is considered improper or envious admiration of anything, he is generally reproved by the individual whom he has thus alarmed, who says to him, " Bless the Prophet !"4 and if the envier obeys, saying, " 0 God, bless him !"5 no ill effects are apprehended. It is considered very improper for a person to express his admiration of another, or of any object which is not his own property, by saying, " God preserve us !"6 "How pretty \" or, " Very pretty !" The most approved expression in such cases is "Ma shaa-llahr (or "What God willeth [cometh to pass!"]); which implies both admiration, and submission to, or approval of, the will of God. A person who has exclaimed " How pretty \" or used similar words, is often desired to say, rather, " Ma shaa-llah V as well as to bless the Prophet. In the second chapter of this work a remarkable illustration has been given of the fear which mothers in 1 A shirt which is said to have been worn by the Prophet is preserved in the mosqne of El- Ohooree, in Cairo. It is wrapped in a Kashmeer shawl ; and not shewn to any but persons of very high rank. - The "burdeh,'' which is worn by some of the peasants in Egypt, is an oblong piece of thick woollen stuff, resembling the " heram," except in colour, being generally brown or greyish. It ap- pears to have been, in earlier times, always striped ; but some modern burdens are plain, and others have stripes so narrow and near together, that at a little distance the stuff appears to be of one colour. The Prophet's is described as about seven feet and a half in length, and four and a half in width. It was used by him, as burdens are at present, both to envelop the body by day, and as a night- covering— I may be excused for remarking here (as it seems to be unknown to some Arabic scholars) that the terms "akhdar " and "ahmar," which are applied by different historians to the Prophet's burdeh, are used to signify respectively grey and brown, as well as green and red. 3 This superstition explains many customs which would otherwise seem unaccountable. 4 " Sallee 'a-n-nebee," for " — 'ala-n-nebee." 5 " Allahum (for Allahumma) sallee 'aleyh." 6 The ejaculation which I thus translate is " Ya sekim," or "Ya selamu sellim." " Es-Selam " is one of the names of the Deitv. 2 K 250 CHAPTER XI. Egypt entertain of the effect of the evil eye upon their children. It is the custom in this country, when a person takes the child of another into his arms, to say, " In the name of God, the Com- passionate, the Merciful :" and, " 0 God, bless our lord Moham- mad and then to add, " Ma shaa-lkih !" It is also a common custom of the people of Egypt, when admiring a child, to say, " I seek refuge with the Lord of the Day-break for thee alluding to the Chapter of the Day-break (the 113th chapter of the Kur-an) ; in the end of which, protection is implored against the mischief of the envious. The parents, when they see a person stare at, or seem to envy, then young offspring, sometimes cut off a piece of the skirts of his clothes, burn it with a little salt (to which some add coriander-seed, alum, &c), and fumigate with the smoke, and sprinkle with the ashes, the child or children. This, it is said, should be done a little before sunset, when the sun becomes red. Alum is very generally used, in the following manner, by the people of Egypt, to counteract the effects of the evil eye. A piece of about the size of a walnut is placed upon burning coals, and left until it has ceased to bubble. This should be done a short time before sunset ; and the person who performs the operation should repeat three times, while the alum is burning, the first chapter of the Kur-an, and the last three chapters of the same ; all of which are very short. On taking the alum off the fire, it will be found (we are told) to have assumed the form of the person whose envy or malice has given occasion for this process : it is then to be pounded, put into some food, and given to a black dog, to be eaten. I have once seen this done, by a man who suspected his wife of having looked upon him with an evil eye ; and in this case, the alum did assume a form much resembling that of a woman, in what the man declared was a peculiar posture in which his wife was accustomed to sit. But the shape which the alum takes depends almost entirely upon the disposition of the coals; and can hardly be such that the imagination may not see in it some resemblance to a human being. — Another supposed mode of obviating the effects of the envious eye is, to prick a paper with a needle, saying, at the same time, " This is the eye of such a one, the envier;" and then to burn the paper. — Alum is esteemed a very efficacious charm against the evil eye : sometimes, a small, flat piece of it, ornamented with tassels, is hung to the top of a child's cap. A tassel of little shells and beads is also used in the same manner, and for the same purpose. The small CHARMS. 251 shells called cowries arc especially considered preservatives against the evil eye ; and hence, as well as for the sake of ornament, they are often attached to the trappings of camels, horses, and other animals, and sometimes to the caps of children. Such appendages are evi- dently meant to attract the eye to themselves, and so to prevent observation and envy of the object which they are designed to protect. To counteract the effects of the evil eye, many persons in Egypt, but mostly women, make use of what is called " mey'ah mubarakah " (or blessed storax), which is a mixture of various ingredients that will be mentioned below, prepared and sold only during the first ten days of the month of Moharram. During this period we often see, in the streets of Cairo, men carrying about this mixture of mey'ah, &c, for sale; and generally crying some such words as the following — "Mey'ah mubarakah! A new year and blessed 'Ashooi a !l The most blessed of years [may this be] to the believers ! Ya mey'ah mubarakah !" — The man who sells it bears upon his head a round tray, covered with different-coloured sheets of paper, red, yellow, &c. ; upon which is placed the valued mixture. In the middle is a large- heap of "tin" (or refuse) of a dark reddish material for dyeing, mixed with a little "mey'ah" (or storax), coriander-seed,2 and seed of the fennel-flower :3 round this large heap are smaller heaps : one consisting of salt dyed blue with indigo ; another, of salt dyed red ; a third, of salt dyed yellow; a fourth, of " sheeh " (a kind of worm- wood) ; a fifth, of dust of "liban " (or frankincense). These are all the ingredients of the " mey'ah mubarakah." The seller is generally called into the house of the purchaser. Having placed his tray before him, and received a plate, or a piece of paper, in which to put the quantity to be purchased, he takes a little from one heap, then from another, then from a third, and so on, until he has taken some from each heap ; after which, again and again, he takes an additional quantity from each kind. While he does this, he chants a long spell, generally commencing thus : — " In the name of God ! and by God ! There is no conqueror that conquereth God, the Lord of the East and the West : we are all his servants : we must acknowledge his unity : his unity is an illustrious attribute." After some words on the virtues of salt, he proceeds to say, "I charm thee from the eye of girl, sharper than a spike ; and from the eye of woman, sharper than 1 This is the name of the tenth day of Mo- 2 "Kuzbarah." harram. 1 " Habbeh soda,'' or " hahbet el-barakeh.' 252 CHAPTER XI. a priming-knife ; and from the eye of boy, more painful than a whip ; and from the eye of man, sharper than a chopping-knife ;" and so on. Then he relates how Solomon deprived the evil eye of its influence ; and afterwards enumerates every article of property that the house is likely to contain, and that the person who purchases his wonderful mixture may be conjectured to possess ; all of which he charms against the influence of the eye. Many of the expressions which he employs in this spell are very ridiculous : words being introduced merely for the sake of rhyme. — The mey'ah mubarakah, a handful of which may be purchased for five faddahs,1 is treasured up by the purchaser during the ensuing year; and whenever it is feared that a child or other person is affected by the evil eye, a little of it is thrown upon some burning coals in a chafing-dish; and the smoke which results is generally made to ascend upon the supposed sufferer. It is a custom among the higher and middle classes in Cairo, on the occasion of a marriage, to hang chandeliers in the street before the bridegroom's house; and it often happens that a crowd is collected to see a very large and handsome chandelier suspended : in this case, it is a common practice to divert the attention of the spectators by throwing down and breaking a large jar, or by some other artifice, lest an envious eye should cause the chandelier to fall. Accidents which confirm the Egyptians in their superstitions respect- ing the evil eye often occur : for instance, a friend of mine has just related to me, that, a short time ago, he saw a camel carrying two very large jars of oil : a woman stopped before it, and exclaimed, ts God preserve us ! What large jars V3 — The conductor of the camel did not tell her to bless the Prophet ; and the camel, a few minutes after, fell, and broke both the jars, and one of its own legs. While writing these notes on modern Egyptian superstitions, I have been amused by a complaint of one of my Masree2 friends, which will serve to illustrate what I have just stated. — " The Basha," he said, "having, a few days ago, given up his monopoly of the meat, the butchers now slaughter for their own shops ; and it is quite shocking to see fine sheep hung up in the streets, quite whole, tail 3 and all, before the public eye ; so that every beggar who passes by envies them ; and one might, therefore, as well eat poison as such meat." — My cook has made the same complaint to me ; and, rather than purchase from one of the shops near at hand, takes the trouble 1 Equivalent to about a farthing and one-fifth. 3 The fat of the tail is esteemed a dainty. That is, Caireen. CHARMS. 253 of going to one in a distant quarter, kept by a man who conceals his meat from the view of the passengers in the street. Many of the tradesmen of the metropolis, and of other towns of Egypt, place over their shops (generally upon the hanging shutter which is turned up in front) a paper inscribed with the name of God, or that of the Prophet, or both, or the profession of the faith ("There is no deity but God : Mohammad is God's Apostle "), the words " In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful/' or some maxim of the Prophet, or a verse of the Kur-an (as, " Verily we have granted thee a manifest victory" [ch. xlviii. v. 1], and "Assistance from God, and a speedy victory : and do thou bear good tidings to the believers 9i [ch. lxi. v. 13]), or an invocation to the Deity, such as, " 0 Thou Opener [of the doors of prosperity, or subsistence] ! O Thou Wise ! 0 Thou Supplier of our wants ! 0 Thou Bountiful I"1 — This invocation is often pronounced by the tradesman when he first opens his shop in the morning, and by the pedestrian vender of small commodities, bread, vegetables, &c., when he sets out on his daily rounds. It is a custom also among the lower orders to put the first piece of money that they receive in the day to the lips and forehead before putting it in the pocket. Besides the inscriptions over shops, we often see, in Cairo, the invocation "0 God !"2 sculptured over the door of a private house; and the words " The Great Creator is the Everlasting," or " He is the Great Creator, the Everlasting," painted in large characters upon the door, both as a charm, and to remind the master of the house, whenever he enters it, of his own mortality.3 These words are often inscribed upon the door of a house when its former master, and many or all of its former inhabitants, have been removed by death. The most approved mode of charming away sickness or disease is to write certain passages of the Kur-an4 on the inner surface of an earthenware cup or bowl ; then to pour in some water, and stir it until the writing is quite washed off ; when the water, with the sacred words thus infused in it, is to be drunk by the patient. These words are as follow : " And He will heal the breasts of the people who believe" (ch. ix. v. 14). "0 men, now hath an admonition come unto you from your Lord ; and a remedy for what is in your 1 " Ya fettah ! Ya 'aleem! Ya rezzak ! Ya 3 Sec the engraving of a door with this inscrip- kereem !" tion inserted in the Introduction. ~ " la Allah !" * Called " ayat esh-shife " (the verses of re- storation). 254 CHAPTER XI. breasts" (ch. x. v. 58). "Wherein is a remedy for men" (ch. xvi. v. 71). "We send down, of the Kur-an, that which is a remedy and mercy to the believers" (ch. xvii. v. 84). "And when I am sick He healeth me" (ch. xxii. v. 80). "Say, It is, to those who believe, a guide and a remedy" (ch. xli. v. 44). — Four of these verses, notwithstanding they are thus used, refer not to diseases of the body, but of the mind ; and another (the third) alludes to the virtues of honey ! — On my applying to my sheykh (or tutor) to point out to me in what chapters these verses were to be found, he begged me not to translate them into my own language ; because the translation of the Kur-an, unaccompanied by the original text, is prohibited : not that he seemed ashamed of the practice of employing these words as a charm, and did not wish my countrymen to be informed of the custom : for he expressed his full belief in their efficacy, even in the case of an infidel patient, provided he had proper confidence in their virtue ; " Seeing," he observed, " that the Prophet (God bless and save him) has said, 'If thou confide in God, with true confidence, He will sustain thee as He sustaineth the birds/ " I silenced his scruples on the subject of translating these verses by telling him that we had an English translation of the whole of the Kur-an. — Some- times, for the cure of diseases, and to counteract poisons, &c, a draught of water from a metal cup, having certain passages of the Kur-an, and talismanic characters and figures, engraved in the interior, is administered to the patient. I have a cup of this description, lately given to me 1 here (in Cairo), much admired by my Muslim acquaint- ances. On the exterior is an inscription enumerating its virtues : it is said to possess charms that will counteract all poisons, &c, and the evil eye, and cure " sicknesses and diseases, except the sickness of death." I have seen, here, another cup which appeared to have been exactly similar to that above mentioned; but its inscriptions were partly effaced. — The secret virtues of the Kur-an2 are believed to be very numerous. One day, on my refusing to eat of a dish that I feared would do me harm, I was desired to repeat the Soorat Kureysh (106th chapter of the Kur-an) to the end of the words " supplieth them with food against hunger " and to repeat these last words three times. This, I was assured, would be a certain preventive of any harm that I might have feared. There are various things which are regarded in the same light as 1 L5y Robert Hay, Esq., who purchased it from a peasant at Thebes. " Asrar el-Kur-an." CHAinrs. 255 written charms ; such as dust from the tomb of the Prophet, water from the sacred well of Zemzem, in the Temple of Mekkeh, and pieces of the black brocade covering of the Kaabeh.1 The water of Zemzem is much valued for the purpose of sprinkling upon grave-clothes. — An Arab, to whom I had given some medicine which had been beneficial to him, in the Sa'eed, during my first visit to this country, heard me inquire for some Zemzem-water (as several boats full of pilgrims on their return from Mekkeh were coming down the Nile), and perhaps thought, from my making this inquiry, that I was a pious Muslim : accordingly, to shew his gratitude to me, he gave me what I was seeking to obtain. Having gone to the house of a friend, he returned to my boat, bringing a small bundle, which he opened before me. " Here/' said he, " are some things which, I know, you will value highly. Here are two tin flasks of the water of Zemzem : one of them you shall have : you may keep it to sprinkle your grave- clothing with it. This is a ' miswak ' (a tooth-stick) dipped in the water of Zemzem : accept it from me : clean your teeth with it, and they will never ache, nor decay. And here," he added (shewing me three small, oblong and flat cakes, of a kind of greyish earth, each about an inch in length, and stamped with Arabic characters, 'Iri the name of God : Dust of our land [mixed] with the saliva of some of us5), " these are composed of earth from over the grave of the Prophet (God bless and save him) : I purchased them myself in the noble tomb, on my return from the pilgrimage : one of them I give to you : you will find it a cure for every disease : the second I shall keep for myself; and the third we will eat together/" — Upon this, he broke in halves one of the three cakes ; and we each ate our share. I agreed with him that it was delicious; and I gladly accepted his presents. — I was afterwards enabled to make several additions to my Mekkeh curiosities; comprising a piece of the covering of the Kaabeh, brought from Mekkeh by the sheykh Ibraheem (Burckhardt), and given to me by his legatee 'Osman. A cake composed of dust from the Prophet's tomb is sometimes sewed up in a leathern case, and worn as an amulet. It is also formed into lumps of the shape and size of a small pear, and hung to the railing or screen which sur- rounds the monument over the grave of a saint, or to the monument itself, or to the windows or door of the apartment which contains it. 1 Every year, on the first clay of the Great Festival, which immediately follows the pilgrim- age, a new covering is hung upon the Kaahch. The old one is cut up; and the greater part of it is sold to the pilgrims. 256 CHAPTER XI. So numerous are the charms which the Egyptians employ to insure good fortune, or to prevent or remove evils of every kind, and so various are the superstitious practices to which they have recourse with these views, that a large volume would scarcely suffice to describe them in detail. These modes of endeavouring to obtain good, and to avoid or dispel evil, when they are not founded upon religion or magic or astrology, are termed matters of " 'ilm er-rukkeh," or the science of the distaff (that is, of the women); which designation is given to imply their absurdity, and because women are the persons who most confide in them. This term is considered, by some, as a vulgar corruption of "'ilm er-rukyeh," or "the science of enchantment:" by others, it is supposed to be substituted for the latter term by way of a pun. Some practices of the nature just described have already been incidentally mentioned : I shall only give a few other specimens. It is a very common custom in Cairo to hang an aloe-plant over the door of a house ; particularly over that of a new house, or over a door newly built : and this is regarded as a charm to insure long and flourishing lives to the inmates, and long continuance to the house itself.1 The women also believe that the Prophet visits the house where this plant is suspended. The aloe, thus hung, without earth or water, will live for several years ; and even blossom. Hence it is called " sabr," which signifies " patience but more properly "sabbarah;" "sabr," a contraction of " sabir," being generally applied to the expressed juice. When any evil is apprehended from a person, it is customary to break a piece of pottery behind his back. This is also done with the view of preventing further intercourse with such a person. As ophthalmia is very prevalent in Egypt, the ignorant people of this country resort to many ridiculous practices of a superstitious nature for its cure. Some, for this purpose, take a piece of dried mud, from the bank of the Nile at or near Boolak, the principal port of Cairo, and, crossing the river, deposit it on the opposite bank, at Imbabeh. This is considered sufficient to insure a cure. — Others, with the same view, hang to the head-dress, over the forehead, or over the diseased eye, a Venetian sequin f but it must be one of a particular description, in which the figures on each side correspond, 1 It has been said, by a traveller, that this is only clone at pilgrims' houses : but such is not the case, at least in Egypt- 2 « Bendukee."' CHARMS. 257 head to head, and feet to feet.1 Yet, if a person having a Venetian sequin, or a dollar, in his pocket, enters the room of one who is suffering from ophthalmia or fever, his presence is thought to aggravate the complaint. It is also a general belief, here, that, if an individual in a state of religious uucleanness enters a room in which is a person afflicted with ophthalmia, the patient's disease will conse- quentlv be aggravated, and that a speck will appear in one or each of his eyes. A man with whom I am acquainted has, at the time I write this, just come out of a room in which he had confined himself, while suffering from ophthalmia, for about three months, from this fear ; never allowing any person to enter ; his servant always placing his food outside his door. He has, however, come out with a speck in one of his eyes. Another practice, which is often adopted in similar cases, but mostly by women, and frequently with the view of preventing barren- ness, is very singular and disgusting. The large open place called the Rumeyleh, on the west of the Citadel of Cairo, is a common scene of the execution of criminals ; and the decapitation of persons convicted of capital offences in the metropolis was formerly almost always performed there, rather than in any other part of the town. On the south of this place is a building called " Maghsil es-Sultan," or the Sultan's washing-place for the dead ; where is a table of stone, upon which the body of every person who is decapitated is washed, previously to its burial, and there is a trough to receive the water, which is never poured out, but remains tainted with the blood, and fetid. Many a woman goes thither, and, for the cure of ophthalmia, or to obtain offspring, or to expedite delivery in the case of a pro- tracted pregnancy, without speaking (for silence is deemed absolutely necessary), passes under the stone table above mentioned, with the left foot foremost, and then over it j and does this seven times ; after which, she washes her face with the polluted water that is in the trough, and gives five or ten faddahs to an old man and his wife, who keep the place ; then goes away, still without speaking. Men, in the case of ophthalmia, often do the same. The Maghsil is said to have been built by the famous Beybars, before he became Sultfm • in consequence of his observing that the remains of persons decapi- tated in Cairo were often kicked about, and buried without being previously washed. A sequin of this description is termed "beudukee mnshaharah." 2 L 258 CHAPTER XL Some women step over the body of a decapitated man seven times, without speaking, to become pregnant ; and some, with the same desire, dip in the blood a piece of cotton wool, of which they after- wards make use in a manner I must decline mentioning. A ridiculous ceremony is practised for the cure of a pimple on the edge of the eye-lid, or what we commonly call a " sty," and which is termed in Egypt "shahhateh;" a word which literally signifies "a female beggar."1 The person affected with it goes to any seven women of the name of Fat'meh, in seven different houses, and begs from each of them a morsel of bread : these seven morsels constitute the remedy. — Sometimes, in a similar case, and for the same purpose, a person goes out before sunrise, and, without speaking, walks round several tombs, from right to left, which is the reverse of the regular course made in visiting tombs. — Another supposed mode of cure in a case of the same kind is, to bind a bit of cotton on the end of a stick ; then to dip it in one of the troughs out of which the dogs drink in the streets of Cairo, and to wipe the eye with it. The patient is thus careful to preserve his hand from the polluted water, when he is about to apply this to another part of his person. As an imaginary cure for ague, some of the women of Egypt (I mean those of the Muslim faith) hang to their necks the finger of a Christian or Jew, cut off a corpse, and dried. This and other practices mentioned before are striking proofs of the degrading effects of super- stition, and of its powerful influence over the mind : for, in general, the Muslims are scrupulously careful to conform with that precept of their religion which requires them to abstain from everything polluting or unclean. When a child is unable to walk, after having attained the age when it is usual to begin to do so, it is a common custom for the mother to bind its feet together with a palm-leaf tied in three knots, and to place it at the door of a mosque during the period when the congregation are engaged in performing the Friday-prayers : when the prayers are ended, she asks the first, second, and third persons who come out of the mosque to untie each a knot of the palm-leaf ; and then carries the child home, confident that this ceremony will soon have the desired effect. There are several pretended antidotes for poison, and remedies for certain diseases, to which the Egyptians often have recourse, and which 1 Being1 a corruption of " shahhadhch." AUGURATION. 259 may perhaps have some efficacy : but superstition attributes to them incredible virtues. Of the beneficial and the injurious properties of various vegetable and animal substances, either in themselves or in particular circumstances, the most absurd notions are entertained, even by the generality of the more learned and enlightened ; being sanctioned in some instances by traditions related as being precepts of Mohammad, and in general by the authority of their most eminent physicians. The bezoar-stone 1 is used as an antidote for poison, by rubbing it in a cup with a little, water : the cup is then filled with water, which the patient drinks. In the same manner, and for the same purpose, a cup made of the horn of the rhinoceros2 is used: a piece of the same material (the horn) is rubbed in it. — As a cure for the jaundice, many persons in Cairo drink the water of a well in this city, called "beer el-yarakan," or "the well of the jaundice." It is the property of an old woman, who reaps considerable advantage from it : for it has two mouths, under one of which is a dry receptacle for anything that may be thrown down : and the old woman desires the persons who come to use the medicinal water to drop through this mouth whatever she happens to be in need of; as sugar, coffee, &c. The Muslims have recourse to many superstitious practices to determine them when they are in doubt as to any action which they contemplate, whether they shall do it or not. Some apply, for an answer, to a table called a " zairgeh." There is a table of this kind ascribed to Idrees, or Enoch. It is divided into a hundred little squares, in each of which is written some Arabic letter. The person who consults it repeats, three times, the opening chapter of the Kur-an, and the 59th verse of the Soorat el-An'am (or 6th chapter) — " With Him are the keys of the secret things : none knoweth them but He : and He knoweth whatever is on the land and [what is] in the sea : and there falleth not a leaf, but He knoweth it, nor a grain in the dark parts of the earth, nor a moist thing nor a dry thing, but [it is noted] in a distinct writing." — Having done this, without look- ing directly at the table, he places his finger upon it : he then looks to see upon what letter his finger is placed; writes that letter; the fifth following it ; the fifth following this; and so on, until he conies again to the first which he wrote ; and these letters together compose the answer. The construction of the table may be shewn by trans- lating it, thus : — 1 " 1 1 agar el-benzahecr." " Karn kharteet. 250 CHAPTER XI. d vv w a w vv o h a b h o o t d t t w o a a a a j i i t y d li t a a o t t n t w t d h t a Q g f 1 i u e 1 n j c a d t o c r 0 h y e ° w y P e f r w e d i 0 i a e 1 n s c t 1 g h e h For an example, suppose the finger to be placed on the letter e in the sixth line : we take, from the table, the letters en jot/peace abstainand, which compose this sentence : " Abstain, and enjoy peace :" the sentence always commencing with the first of the letters taken from the uppermost line. It will be seen that the table gives only five answers ; and that, if we proceed as above directed, we must obtain one of these answers, with whatever letter of the table we commence. It will also be observed, that the framer of the table, knowing that men very frequently wish to do what is wrong, and seldom to do what is right, and that it is generally safer for them to abstain when in doubt, has given but one affirmative answer, and four negative.1 Some persons have recourse to the Kur-an for an answer to their doubts. This they call making an " istikharah," or application for the favour of heaven, or for direction in the right course. Repeating, three times, the opening chapter, the 112th chapter, and the verse above quoted, they let the book fall open, or open it at random, and, from the seventh line of the right-hand page, draw their answer. The words often will not convey a direct answer; but are taken as affirmative or negative according as their general tenour is good or bad ; promising a blessing, or denouncing a threat, &c. Instead of reading the seventh line of this page, some count the number of the letters 1 The more approved zairgelis are extremely complicated; and the process of consulting then involves intricate astrological calculations. AUGURATION. 2G1 "kha" and "sheen" which occur in the whole page; and if the " khas 9> predominate, the inference is favourable : " kha " represents "kheyr," or "good:" "sheen," " sharr," or "evil." There is another mode of istikharah ; which is, to take hold of any two points of a " sebhah " (or rosary), after reciting the FaYhah three times, and then to count the beads between these two points, saying, in passing the first bead through the fingers, " [I extol] the perfection of God;"1 in passing the second, "Praise be to God;"'2 in passing the third, " There is no deity but God ;"3 and repeating these expressions in the same order, to the last bead : if the first expression fall to the last bead, the answer is affirmative and favourable : if the second, indifferent : if the last, negative. This is practised by many persons. Some, again, in similar cases, on lying down to sleep, at night, beg of God to direct them by a dream ; by causing them to see something white or green, or water, if the action which they contem- plate be approved, or if they are to expect approaching good fortune ; and if not, by causing them to see something black or red, or fire : they then recite the Fat'hah ten times ; and continue to repeat these words — " 0 God, bless our lord Mohammad !" — until they fall asleep. The Egyptians place great faith in dreams, which often direct them in some of the most important actions of life. They have two large and celebrated works on the interpretation of dreams, by Ibn- Shahcen and Ibn-Seereen ; the latter of whom was the pupil of the former. These books are consulted, even by many of the learned, with implicit confidence. When one person says to another, " I have seen a dream," the latter usually replies, "Good"4 (?. e. may it be of good omen), or, " Good, please God." 5 When a person has had an evil dream, it is customary for him to say, "0 God, bless our lord Mohammad :" and to spit over his left shoulder three times, to prevent an evil result. In Egypt, as in most other countries, superstitions are entertained respecting days of the week ; some being considered fortunate ; and others, unfortunate. — The Egyptians regard Sunday as an unfortunate dav, on account of the night which follows it. — This night, which (according to the system already mentioned) is called the night of Monday, the learned Muslims, and many of the inferior classes, '- ■ Suhhana-liah." ^ " El-hamdu li-lkih." 3 " La ilaha illa-llah." 4 " Kheyr." 5 " Kheyr in shaa-llah." 262 CHAPTER XI. consider unfortunate, because it was that of the death of their Prophet ; but some regard it fortunate, particularly for the consummation of marriage ; though not so auspicious for this affair as the eve of Friday. The day following it is also considered, by some, as fortunate ; and by others, as unfortunate. — Tuesday is generally thought unfortunate, and called " the day of blood as it is said that several eminent martyrs were put to death on this day : and hence, also, it is com- monly esteemed a proper day for being bled. — Wednesday is regarded as indifferent. — TJtursday is called " el-mubarak M (or, the blessed) ; and is considered fortunate ; particularly deriving a blessing from the following night and day. — The eve, or night, of Friday is very fortunate; especially for the consummation of marriage. Friday is blessed above all other days as being the sabbath of the Muslims : it is called " el-fadeeleh " (or, the excellent). — Saturday is the most unfortunate of days. It is considered very wrong to commence a journey, and, by most people in Egypt, to shave, or cut the nails, on this day. — A friend of mine here was doubting whether he should bring an action against two persons on so unfortunate a day as Saturday : he decided, at last, that it was the best day of the week for him to do this, as the ill fortune must fall upon one of the two parties only, and doubtless upon his adversaries, because they were two to one. — There are some days of the year which are esteemed very fortunate ; as those of the two grand festivals, &c. : and some which are regarded as unfortunate ; as, for instance, the last Wednesday in the month of Safar : when many persons make a point of not going out of their houses, from the belief that numerous afflictions fall upon mankind on that day.1 — Some persons draw lucky or un- lucky omens from the first object they see on going out of the house in the morning : according as that object is pleasant or the reverse, they say, " our morning is good " or " — bad." A one-eyed person is regarded as of evil omen ; and especially one who is blind of the left eye. 1 This superstition, however, was condemned by the Prophet. ( 2fi3 ) CHAPTER XII. MAGIC, ASTROLOGY, AND ALCHYMY. If we might believe some stories which are commonly related in Egypt, it would appear that, in modern days, there have been, in this country, magicians not less skilful than Pharoah's "wise men and sorcerers " of whom we read in the Bible. The more intelligent of the Muslims distinguish two kinds of magic, which they term " Er-Roohanee " (yulgb, " Rowhanee ") and " Es-Seemiya the former is spiritual magic, which is believed to effect its wonders by the agency of angels and genii, and by the mysterious virtues of certain names of God, and other supernatural means : the latter is natural and deceptive magic ; and its chief agents, the less credulous Muslims believe to be certain perfumes and drugs, which affect the vision and imagination nearly in the same manner as opium : this drug, indeed, is supposed, by some persons, to be employed in the operations of the latter branch of magic. " Er-Roohanee," which is universally considered, among the Egyptians, as true magic, is of two kinds, " 'ilwee " (or high ) and "sunee " (or low) ; which are also called "rahmanee" (or divine, or, literally, relating to "the Compassionate," which is an epithet of God,) and " sheytanee " (or satanic). — The 'ilwee, or rahmanee, is said to be a science founded on the agency of God, and of his angels, and good genii, and on other lawful mysteries ; to be always employed for good purposes, and only attained and practised by men of probity, who, by tradition, or from books, learn the names of those super- human agents, and invocations which insure compliance with their desires. The writing of charms for good purposes belongs to this branch of magic, and to astrology, and to the science of the mysteries of numbers. The highest attainment in divine magic consists in the 264 CHAPTER XII. knowledge of the " Ism el-Aazam." This is " the most great name " of God, which is generally believed, by the learned, to be known to none but prophets and apostles of God. A person acquainted with it can, it is said, by merely uttering it, raise the dead to life, kill the living, transport himself instantly wherever he pleases, and per- form any other miracle. Some suppose it to be known to eminent welees. — The suflee is believed to depend on the agency of the devil, and other evil genii ; and to be used for bad purposes, and by bad men. To this branch belongs the science called, by the Arabs, " es- sehr;" which is a term they give only to wicked enchantment. — Those who perform what is called " darb el-mendel " (of which I pur- pose to relate some examples) profess to do it by the agency of genii ; that is, by the science called er-roohanee : but there is another opinion on this subject which will be presently mentioned. — One of the means by which genii are believed to assist magicians has been explained in the second paragraph of Chapter X. "Es-Seemiya" is generally pronounced, by the learned, to be a false science, and deceptive art, which produces surprising effects by those natural means which have been above mentioned ; and the " darb el-mendel," as perfumes are employed in the performance of it, is considered, by such persons, as pertaining to es-seemiya. " 'Ilm en-Nugoom," or Astrology, is studied by many persons in Egypt. It is chiefly employed in casting nativities, and in deter- mining fortunate periods, &c. ; and very commonly, to divine by what sign of the zodiac a person is influenced ; which is usually done by a calculation founded upon the numerical values of the letters composing his or her name, and that of the mother : this is often done in the case of two persons who contemplate becoming man and wife, with the view of ascertaining whether they will agree. — The science called " darb er-raml," or geomancy, by which, from certain marks made at random on paper, or on sand (whence it is said to derive its name), the professors pretend to discover past, passing, and future events, is, I am informed, mainly founded on astrology. " El-Keemiya," or Alchymy, is also studied by many persons in Egypt, and by some possessed of talents by which they might obtain a better reputation than this pursuit procures them, and who, in spite of the derision which they experience from a few men of sounder minds, and the reproaches of those whom they unintentionally make their dupes, continue, to old age, their fruitless labours. Considerable MAGIC. 265 knowledge of chemistry is, however, sometimes acquired in the study of this false science; and in the present degraded state of physical knowledge in this country, it rather evinces a superior mind when a person gives his attention to alchymy. There is, or was,1 a native of Egypt very highly celebrated for his performances in the higher kind of that branch of magic called er- roohanee; the sheykh Isma'eel Aboo-Ru-oos, of the town of Dasook. Even the more learned and sober of the people of this country relate most incredible stories of his magical skill ; for which some of them account by asserting his having been married to a " ginneeyeh " (or female genie) ; and others, merely by his having u ginn " at his service, whom he could mentally consult and command, without making use of any such charm as the lamp of 'Ala-ed-Deen.2 He is said to have always employed this supernatural power either for good or innocent purposes; and to have been much favoured by Mo- hammad 'Alee, who, some say, often consulted him. One of the most sensible of my Muslim friends, in this place (Cairo), informs me that he once visited Aboo-Ru-oos, at Dasook, in company with the sheykh El-Emeer, son of the sheykh El-Emeer el-Kebeer, sheykh of the sect of the Malikees. My friend's companion asked their host to shew them some proof of his skill in magic ; and the latter complied with the request. "Let coffee be served to us," said the sheykh El-Emeer, "in my father's set of fingans and zarfs, which are in Masr." They waited a few minutes ; and then the coffee was brought ; and the sheykh El-Emeer looked at the fingans and zarfs, and said that they were certainly his father's. He was next treated with sherbet, in what he declared himself satisfied were his father's kullehs. He then wrote a letter to his father, and, giving it to Aboo-Ru-oos, asked him to procure an answer to it. The magician took the letter, placed it behind a cushion of his deewan, and, a few minutes after, removing the cushion, shewed him that this letter was gone, and that another was in its place. The sheykh El-Emeer took the latter; opened and read it; and found in it, in a handwriting which, he said, he could have sworn to be that of his father, a com- plete answer to what he had written, and an account of the state of 1 I was informed that he had died during my and erroneous mode of writing the name of the second visit to Egypt master of "the wonderful lamp." It is vulgarly 2 I must he excused for deviating from our old pronounced 'Alav-ed-Deen. 2 M 266 CHAPTER XII. his family which he proved, on his return to Cairo, a few days after, to be perfectly true.1 A curious case of magic fell under the cognizance of the government during my former visit to this country ; and became a subject of general talk and wonder throughout the metropolis. I shall give the story of this occurrence precisely as it was related to me by several persons in Cairo ; without curtailing it of any of the exaggerations with which they embellished it ; not only because I am ignorant how far it is true, but because I would shew how great a degree of faith the Egyptians in general place in magic, or en- chantment. Mustafa Ed-Digwee, chief secretary in the Kadee's court, in this city, was dismissed from his office, and succeeded by another person of the name of Mustafa, who had been a seyrefee, or money-changer. The former sent a petition to the Basha, begging to be reinstated ; but before he received an answer, he was attacked by a severe illness, which he believed to be the effect of enchantment : he persuaded himself that Mustafa the seyrefee had employed a magician to write a spell which should cause him to die ; and therefore sent a second time to the Basha, charging the new secretary with this crime. The accused was brought before the Basha ; confessed that he bad done so ; and named the magician whom he had employed. The latter was arrested; and, not being able to deny the charge brought against him, was thrown into prison, there to remain until it should be seen whether or not Ed-Digwee would die. He was locked up in a small cell ; and two soldiers were placed at the door, that one of them might keep watch while the other slept. — Now for the marvellous part of the story. — At night, after one of the guards had fallen asleep, the other heard a strange, murmuring noise, and, looking through a crack of the door of the cell, saw the magician sitting in the middle of the floor, muttering some words which he (the guard) could not understand. Presently, the candle which was before him became extinguished; and, at the same instant, four other candles appeared ; one in each corner of the cell. The magician then rose, and, standing on one side of the cell, knocked his forehead three times against the wall ; and each time that he did so, the wall opened, i ( )f a more famous magician, the sheykh given in my translation of the Thousand and One Ahmad Sadoomeh, who flourished in Egypt in Nights, chap, i., note 15. the latter half of the last century, an account is &1AGTC. 2G7 and a man appeared to come forth from it. After the magician had conversed for some minutes with the three personages whom he thus produced, they disappeared ; as did, also, the four candles ; and the candle that was in the midst of the cell became lighted again, as at first : the magician then resumed his position on the floor j and all was quiet. Thus the spell that was to have killed Ed-Digwee was dissolved. Early the next morning, the invalid felt himself so much better, that he called for a basin and ewer, performed the ablution, and said his prayers ; and from that time he rapidly recovered. He was restored to his former office; and the magician was banished from Egypt. — Another enchanter (or " sahhar ") was banished a few days after, for writing a charm which caused a Muslimeh girl to be affected with an irresistible love for a Copt Christian. A few days after my first arrival in this country, my curiosity was excited on the subject of magic by a circumstance related to me by Mr. Salt, our Consul-general. Having had reason to believe that one of his servants was a thief, from the fact of several articles of property having been stolen from his house, he sent for a celebrated Maghrabee magician, with the view of intimidating them, and causing the guilty one (if any of them were guilty) to confess his crime. The magician came ; and said that he would cause the exact image of the person who had committed the thefts to appear to any youth not arrived at the age of puberty ; and desired the master of the house to call in any boy whom he might choose. As several boys were then employed in a garden adjacent to the house, one of them was called for this purpose. In the palm of this boy's right hand, the magician drew, with a pen, a certain diagram, in the centre of which he poured a little ink. Into this ink, he desired the boy stedfastly to look. He then burned some incense, and several bits of paper inscribed with charms ; and at the same time called for various objects to appear in the ink. The boy declared that he saw all these objects, and, last of all, the image of the guilty person ; he described his stature, countenance, and dress ; said that he knew him ; and directly ran down into the garden, and apprehended one of the labourers, who, when brought before the master, immediately confessed that he was the thief. The above relation made me desirous of witnessing a similar performance during my first visit to this country; but not being acquainted with the name of the magician here alluded to, or his place of abode, I was unable to obtain any tidings of him. I learned, •26S CHAPTER XII. however, soon after my return to England, that he had become known to later travellers in Egypt ; was residing in Cairo ; and that he was called the sheykh 'Abd-El-Kadir El-Maghrabee. A few weeks after my second arrival in Egypt, my neighbour 'Osman, interpreter of the British consulate, brought him to me ; and I fixed a day for his visiting me, to give me a proof of the skill for which he is so much famed. He came at the time appointed, about two hours before noon ; but seemed uneasy ; frequently looked up at the sky, through the window ; and remarked that the weather was unpropitious : it was dull and cloudy ; and the wind was boisterous. The experiment was performed with three boys ; one after another. With the first, it was partly successful ; but with the others, it completely failed. The magician said that he could do nothing more that day ; and that he would come in the evening of a subsequent day. He kept his appointment ; and admitted that the time was favourable. While waiting for my neighbour, before mentioned, to come and witness the performances, we took pipes and coffee; and the magician chatted with me on indifferent subjects. He is a fine, tall, and stout man, of a rather fair complexion, with a dark-brown beard; is shabbily dressed ; and generally wears a large green turban, being a descendant of the Prophet. In his conversation, he is affable and unaffected. He professed to me that his wonders were effected by the agency of good spirits ; but to others, he has said the contrary : that his magic is satanic. In preparing for the experiment of the magic mirror of ink, which, like some other performances of a similar nature, is here termed " darb el-mendel," the magician first asked me for a reed-pen and ink, a piece of paper, and a pair of scissors ; and, having cut off a narrow strip of paper, wrote upon it certain forms of invocation, together with another charm, by which he professes to accomplish the object of the experiment. He did not attempt to conceal these ; and on my asking him to give me copies of them, he readily consented, and immediately wrote them for me ; explaining to me, at the same time, that the object he had in view was accomplished through the influence of the first two words, " Tarshun " and " Taryooshun," 1 which, he said, were the names of two genii, his " familiar spirits." I compared the copies with the originals ; and found that they exactly agreed. Fac-similes of them are here inserted, with a translation. 1 Or, "Tarsh" and "Taryoosh;" the final "nn" being: the inflexion which denotes the nominative case. MAGIC. 2G'J Magic Invocation and Charm. " Tarslnm ! Taryooshun ! Come down ! Come down ! Be present ! Whither are gone the prince and his troops ? Where are El-Ahmar the prince and his troops ? Be present ye servants of these names !" "And this is the removal. 'And we have removed from thee thy veil ; and thy sight to-day is piercing.' Correct : correct." Having written these, the magician cut off the paper containing the forms of invocation from that upon which the other charm was written ; and cut the former into six strips. He then explained to me that the object of the latter charm (which contains part of the 21st verse of the Soorat Kaf, or 50th chapter of the Kur-an) was to open the boy's eyes in a supernatural manner ; to make his sight pierce into what is to us the invisible world. I had prepared, by the magician's direction, some frankincense and coriander-seed,1 and a chafing-dish with some live charcoal in it. These were now brought into the room, together with the boy who was to be employed : he had been called in, by my desire, from among some boys in the street, returning from a manufactory ; and He generally requires some benzoin to be added to these. 270 CHAPTER XII. was about eight or nine years of age. In reply to my inquiry re- specting the description of persons who could see in the magic mirror of ink, the magician said that they were a boy not arrived at puberty, a virgin, a black female slave, and a pregnant woman. The chafing- dish was placed before him and the boy; aud the latter was placed on a seat. The magician now desired my servant to put some frank- incense and coriander-seed into the chafing-dish ; then taking hold of the boy's right hand, he drew, in the palm of it, a magic square, of which a copy is here given. The figures which it contains are Arabic numerals.1 In the centre, he poured a little ink, and desired 1 7 r V A f i Magic Square and Mirror of Ink. the boy to look into it, and tell him if he could see his face reflected in it : the boy replied that he saw his face clearly. The magician, holding the boy's hand all the while,2 told him to continue looking intently into the ink ; and not to raise his head. 1 The numbers in this magic square, in our own ordinary characters, are as follow : — 4 9 j 2 i__ 3 5 7 8 16 It will he seen that the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal rows give, each, the same sum, namely, 16, 2 This reminds us of animal magnetism. MAGIC. 271 He then took one of the little strips of paper inscribed with the forms of invocation, and dropped it into the chafing-dish, upon the burning coals and perfumes, which had already filled the room with their smoke ; and as he did this, he commenced an indistinct mutter- ing of words, which he continued during the whole process, except when he had to ask the boy a question, or to tell him what he was to sav. The piece of paper containing the words from the Kur-an he placed inside the fore part of the boy's takeeyeh, or skull-cap. He then asked him if he saw anything in the ink j and was answered, " No :" but about a minute after, the boy, trembling, and seeming much frightened, said, "I see a man sweeping the ground." " When he has done sweeping," said the magician, " tell me." Presently, the boy said, " He has done." The magician then again interrupted his muttering to ask the boy if he knew what a " beyrak " (or flag) was ; and, being answered, " Yes," desired him to say, " Bring a flag." The boy did so ; and soon said, " He has brought a flag." " What colour is it?" asked the magician : the boy replied, "Red." He was told to call for another flag; which he did; and soon after he said that he saw another brought; and that it was black. In like manner, he was told to call for a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh ; which he described as being successively brought before him ; specify- ing their colours, as white, green, black, red, and blue. The magician then asked him (as he did, also, each time that a new flag was described as being brought), " HowT many flags have you now before you ?" " Seven," answered the boy. While this was going on, the magician put the second and third of the small strips of paper upon which the forms of invocation were written into the chafing-dish ; and fresh frankincense and coriander-seed having been repeatedly added, the fumes became painful to the eyes. When the boy had described the seven flags as appearing to him, he was desired to say, " Bring the Sultan's tent ; and pitch it." This he did ; and in about a minute after, he said, " Some men have brought the tent ; a large green tent : they are pitching it ;" and presently he added, " They have set it up." " Now," said the magician, " order the soldiers to come, and to pitch their camp around the tent of the Sultan." The boy did as he was desired ; and immediately said, " I see a great many soldiers, with their tents : they have pitched their tents." He was then told to order that the soldiers should be drawn up in ranks ; and, having done so, he presently said that he saw them thus arranged. The magician had put the fourth of the little strips of 272 CHAPTER XII. paper into the chafing-dish ; and soon after, he did the same with the fifth. He now said, "Tell some of the people to bring a bull." The boy gave the order required, and said, " I see a bull : it is red : four men are dragging it along 5 and three are beating it." He was told to desire them to kill it, and cut it up, and to put the meat in sauce- pans, and cook it. He did as he was directed ; and described these operations as apparently performed before his eyes. " Tell the soldiers," said the magician, " to eat it." The boy did so ; and said, " They are eating it. They have done ; and are washing their hands." The magician then told him to call for the Sultan j and the boy, having done this, said, u I see the Sultan riding to his tent, on a bay horse ; and he has, on his head, a high red cap : he has alighted at his tent, and sat down within it." " Desire them to bring coffee to the Sultan," said the magician, "and to form the court." These orders were given by the boy ; and he said that he saw them per- formed. The magician had put the last of the six little strips of paper into the chafing-dish. In his mutterings I distinguished nothing but the words of the written invocation, frequently repeated, except on two or three occasions, when I heard him say, " If they demand information, inform them ; and be ye veracious." But much that he repeated was inaudible, and as I did not ask him to teach me his art, I do not pretend to assert that I am fully acquainted with his invocations. He now addressed himself to me ; and asked me if I wished the boy to see any person who was absent or dead. I named Lord Nelson ; of whom the boy had evidently never heard ; for it was with much difficulty that he pronounced the name, after several trials. The magician desired the boy to say to the Sultan — "My master salutes thee, and desires thee to bring Lord Nelson : bring him before my eyes, that I may see him, speedily." The boy then said so ; and almost immediately added, " A messenger is gone, and has returned, and brought a man, dressed in a black 1 suit of European clothes : the man has lost his left arm." He then paused for a moment or two ; and, looking more intently, and more closely, into the ink, said, " No, he has not lost his left arm ; but it is placed to his breast." This correction made his description more striking than it had been without it : since Lord Nelson generally had his empty sleeve attached i Dark blue is called by the modern Egyptians "eswed," which properly signifies black, and is therefore so translated here. MAGIC. 273 to the breast of his coat : but it was the right arm that he had lost. Without saying that I suspected the boy had made a mistake, I asked the magician whether the objects appeared in the ink as if actually before the eyes, or as if in a glass, which makes the right appear left. He answered, that they appeared as in a mirror. This rendered the boy's description faultless.1 The next person I called for was a native of Egypt, who had been for many years resident in England, where he had adopted our dress ; and who had been long confined to his bed by illness before I em- barked for this country : I thought that his name, one not very un- common in Egypt, might make the boy describe him incorrectly; though another boy, on the former visit of the magician, had described this same person as wearing a European dress, like that in which I last saw him. In the present case the boy said, " Here is a man brought on a kind of bier, and wrapped up in a sheet." This descrip- tion would suit, supposing the person in question to be still confined to his bed, or if he were dead.2 The boy described his face as covered ; and was told to order that it should be uncovered. This he did ; and then said, " His face is pale ; and he has mustaches, but no beard which is correct. Several other persons were successively called for ; but the boy's descriptions of them were imperfect, though not altogether incorrect. He represented each object as appearing less distinct than the pre- ceding one ; as if his sight were gradually becoming dim : he was a minute, or more, before he could give any account of the persons he professed to' see towards the close of the performance ; and the magician said it was useless to proceed with him. Another boy was then brought in ; and the magic square, &c, made in his hand ; but he could see nothing. The magician said he was too old. Though completely puzzled, I was somewhat disappointed with his performances, for they fell short of what he had accomplished, in many instances, in presence of certain of my friends and countrymen. 1 Whenever I desired the boy to call for any person to appear, I paid particular attention both to the magician and to 'Osman. The latter save no direction either by word or sign ; and indeed he was generally unacquainted with the personal appearance of the individual called for. I took care that he had no previous communication with the boys ; and have seen the experiment fail when he could have given directions to them, or to the magician. In short, it would be difficult to con- ceive any precaution which I did not take. It is important to add, that the dialect of the magician was more intelligible to me than to the boy. When / understood him perfectly at once, he was sometimes obliged to vary his words to make the hoy comprehend what he said. 2 A few months after this was written, I had the pleasure of hearing that the person here alluded to was in better health. Whether he was confined to his bed at the time when this expe- riment was performed, I have not been able to ascertain. 2 x 274 CHAPTER XII. On one of these occasion s, an Englishman present ridiculed the per- formance, and said that nothing would satisfy him but a correct de- scription of the appearance of his own father, of whom, he was sure, no one of the company had any knowledge. The boy, accordingly, having called by name for the person alluded to, described a man in a Frank dress, with his hand placed to his head, wearing spectacles, and with one foot on the ground, and the other raised behind him, as if he were stepping down from a seat. The description was exactly true in every respect : the peculiar position of the hand was occasioned by an almost constant headache; and that of the foot or leg, by a stiff knee, caused by a fall from a horse, in hunting. I am assured that, on this occasion, the boy accurately described each person and thing that was called for. On another occasion, Shakspeare was de- scribed with the most minute correctness, both as to person and dress ; and I might add several other cases in which the same magician has excited astonishment in the sober minds of Englishmen of my ac- quaintance. A short time since, after performing in the usual manner, by means of a boy, he prepared the magic mirror in the hand of a young English lady, who, on looking into it for a little while, said that she saw a broom sweeping the ground without anybody holding it, and was so much frightened that she would look no longer. I have stated these facts partly from my own experience, and partly as they came to my knowledge on the authority of respectable persons. The reader may be tempted to think, that, in each instance, the boy saw images produced by some reflection in the ink ; but this was evidently not the case ; or that he was a confederate, or guided by leading questions. That there was no collusion, I satisfactorily ascertained, by selecting the boy who performed the part above described in my presence from a number of others passing by in the street, and by his rejecting a present which I afterwards offered him with the view of inducing him to confess that he did not really see what he had professed to have seen. I tried the veracity of another boy on a subsequent occasion in the same manner ; and the result was the same. The experiment often entirely fails ; but when the boy employed is right in one case, he generally is so in all : when he gives, at first, an account altogether wrong, the magician usually dis- misses him at once, saying that he is too old. The perfumes, or excited imagination, or fear, may be supposed to affect the vision of the boy who describes objects as appearing to him in the ink ; but, if so, why does he see exactly what is required, and objects of which he MAGIC. 275 can have had no previous particular notion ? Neither I nor others have been able to discover any clue by which to penetrate the mystery ; and if the reader be alike unable to give the solution, I hope that he will not allow the above account to induce in his mind any degree of scepticism with respect to other portions of this work.1 1 I have been gratified by finding that this hope has been realized. I wish I could add that the phenomena were now explained. In No. 117 of the " Quarterly Review," pp. 202 and 203, it has boon suggested that the performances were effected by means of pictures and a concave mir- ror; and that the images of the former were reflected from the surface of the mirror, and re- ceived on a cloud of smoke under the eyes of the boy. This, however, I cannot admit; because such means could not have been employed with- out my perceiving them ; nor would the images he reverted (unless the pictures were so) by being reflected from the surface of a mirror and re- ceived upon a second surface; for the boy was looking down upon the palm of his hand, so that an image could not be formed upon the smoke (which was copious, but not dense,) between his eye and the supposed mirror. The grand diffi- culty of the case is the exhibition of " the correct appearance of private individuals unknown to fame," as remarked in the " Quarterly Review," in which a curious note, presenting " some new features of difficulty," is appended. With the most remarkable of the facts there related I was acquainted ; but I was not bold enough to insert them. I may now, however, here mention them. Two travellers (one of them, M. Leon De Laborde; the other, an Englishman), both instructed by the magician 'Abd-El-Kadir, are stated to have succeeded in performing similar feats. Who this Englishman was, I have not been able to learn. He positively denied all collusion, and asserted that he did nothing but repeat the forms taught him by the magician. Since the foregoing note was written, I have twice witnessed performances of this now-noto- rious magician, which were absolute failures ; and so, I have been informed by others, have been almost all of bis later attempts. Hence, and from an observation made to me by him in the presence of the late Lord Nugent (that he was generally successful in the life-time of 'Osman, who was his usual interpreter, and who died shortly after my second visit to Egypt), I can hardly help inferring that, in most cases, leading questions put unconsciously by 'Osman, as well as by others, who were persons of educa- tion and intelligence, and in other cases shrewd guesses, were the main causes of his success. I cannot, by the supposition of leading questions, account for his succeeding in the cases that fell under my own observation ; but these, as I have stated above, "fell short of what he had accom- plished, in many instances, in presence of cer- tain of my friends and countrymen." ( 276 ) CHAPTER XIII. CHARACTER. The natural or innate character of the modern Egyptians is altered, in a remarkable degree, by their religion, laws, and government, as well as by the climate and other causes ; and to form a just opinion of it is, therefore, very difficult. We may, however, confidently state, that they are endowed, in a higher degree than most other people, with some of the more important mental qualities ; particularly, quick- ness of apprehension, a ready wit, and a retentive memory. In youth, they generally possess these and other intellectual powers ; but the causes above alluded to gradually lessen their mental energy. Of the leading features of their character, none is more remark- able than their religious pride. They regard persons of every other faith as the children of perdition ; and such, the Muslim is early taught to despise. 1 It is written in the Kur-an, " 0 ye who have believed, take not the Jews and Christians as friends : they are friends, one to another; and whosoever of you taketh them as his friends, verily he is [one] of them.""2 From motives of politeness, or selfish interest, these people will sometimes talk with apparent liberality of sentiment, and even make professions of friendship, to a Christian (particularly to a European), whom, in their hearts, they contemn : but as the Muslims of Egypt judge of the Franks in general from the majority of those in their towns, some of whom are outcasts from their native countries, and others (though not all the rest, of course), 1 I am credibly informed that children in Egypt are often taught, at school, a regular set of curses to denounce upon the persons and property of Christians, Jews, and all other unbelievers in the religion of Mohammad. See Appendix D. 2 Chap. v. ver. 56. Verses 62 and 63 of the same chapter explain the reason of this precept :— "O ye who have believed, take not those who have made your religion a laughing-stock and a jest, of those who have received the Scripture before you, and the unbelievers [or polytheists], as friends; (but fear God, if ye be believers;) and [those who], when ye call to prayer, make it [namely, the prayer,] a laughing-stock and a jest. This [they do] because they are a people who do not understand." (The words enclosed in brackets are from the commentary of the Gelalcyn.) CHARACTER. 277 men under no moral restraint, they are hardly to be blamed for despising them. The Christians are, however, generally treated with civility by the people of Egypt : the Muslims being as remarkable for their toleration as for their contempt of unbelievers. It is considered the highest honour, among the Muslims, to be religious ; but the desire to appear so leads many into hypocrisy and Pharisaical ostentation. When a Muslim is unoccupied by business or amusement or conversation, he is often heard to utter some pious ejaculation. If a wicked thought, or the remembrance of a wicked action that he has committed, trouble him, lie sighs forth, " I beg forgiveness of God, the Great I"1 The shop-keeper, when not engaged with customers, nor enjoying his pipe, often employs himself, in the sight and hearing of the passengers in the street, in reciting a chapter of the Kur-an, or in repeating to himself those expressions in praise of God which often follow the ordinary prayers and are counted with the beads ; and in the same public manner he prays. — The Muslims frequently swear by God (but not irreverently) ; and also, by the Prophet, and by the head, or beard, of the person they address. When one is told anything that excites his surprise and disbelief, he generally exclaims, "Wa-llah?" or, "Wa-llahi?" (by God ?) ; and the other replies, "Wa-llahi!" — As on ordinary occasions before eating and drinking, so, too, on taking medicine, commencing a writing or any important undertaking, and before many a trifling act, it is their habit to say, " In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful ;" and after the act, "Praise be to God." — When two persons make any considerable bargain, they recite together the first chapter of the Kur-an (the Fat'hah) . In case of a debate on any matter of business or of opinion, it is common for one of the parties, or a third person who may wish to settle the dispute, or to cool the disputants, to exclaim, " Blessing on the Prophet!"2 — "0 God, bless him!"3 is said, in a low voice, by the other or others ; and they then continue the argument; but generally with moderation. Religious ejaculations often interrupt conversation upon trivial and even licentious subjects, in Egyptian society ; sometimes, in such a manner that a person not well acquainted with the character of this people would perhaps imagine that they intended to make religion a jest. In many of their most indecent songs, the name of God is ' " Astajrhfir Allah el-'Azeem." or " Bless ye (or bless thou) the Prophet !' — 2 " Es-salah 'a-u-nebce " (for "— 'ala-n-nebce ") ; "Salloo (or sallee) 'a-n-nebee." 3 "Allahum (for Allahumma) sallee 'aleyh." 278 CHAPTER XIII. frequently introduced ; and this is certainly done without any profane motive, but from the habit of often mentioning the name of the Deity in vain, and of praising Him on every trifling occasion of surprise, or in testimony of admiration of anything uncommon. Thus, a libertine, describing his impressions on the first sight of a charming girl (in one of the grossest songs I have ever seen or heard even in the Arabic language), exclaims, "Extolled be He who formed thee, 0 full moon !" — and this and many similar expressions are common in many other songs and odes : but what is most remarkable in the song particularly alluded to above is a profane comparison with which it terminates. I shall adduce, as an example of the strange manner in which licentiousness and religion are often blended together in vulgar Egyptian poetry and rhyming prose, a translation of the last three stanzas of an ode on love and wine : — " She granted me a reception, the graceful of form, after her distance and coyness. 1 kissed her teeth and her cheek ; and the cup rang in her hand. The odours of musk and ambergris were diffused by a person whose form surpassed the elegance of a straight and slender branch, She spread a bed of brocade ; and I passed the time in uninterrupted happiness. A Turkish fawn enslaved me. " Now I beg forgiveness of God, my Lord, for all my faults and sins ; and for all that my heart hatb said, My members testify against me. Whenever grief oppresseth me, O Lord, Thou art my hope from whatever afflicteth me. Thou knowest what I say, and what I think. Thou art the Bountiful, the Forgiving ! I implore thy pro- tection : then pardon me. "And I praise that benignant being1 whom a cloud was wont to shade; the comely : how great was his comeliness ! He will intercede for us on the day of judg- ment, when his haters, the vile, the polytheists, shall be repentant. Would that I might always, as long as I live, accompany the pilgrims, to perform the circuits and worship and courses, and live in uninterrupted happiness !" In translating the first of the above stanzas, I have substituted the feminine for the masculine pronoun : for, in the original, the former is meant, though the latter is used ; as is commonly the case in similar compositions of the Egyptians. — One of my Muslim friends having just called on me, after my WTiting the above remarks, I read to him the last four stanzas of this ode ; and asked him if he considered it proper thus to mix up religion with debauchery. He answered, " Perfectly proper : a man relates his having committed sins ; and then prays to God for forgiveness, and blesses the Prophet." — "But," said I, " this is an ode written to be chanted for the amusement of persons who take pleasure in unlawful indulgences : and see here, 1 The Prophet. CHARACTER. 279 when I close the leaves, the page which celebrates a debauch comes in contact, face to face, with that upon which are written the names of the Deity : the commemoration of the pleasures of sin is placed upon the prayer for forgiveness." " That is nonsense," replied my friend : " turn the book over : place that side upwards which is now downwards ; and then the case will be the reverse ; sin covered by forgiveness : and God, whose name be exalted, hath said in the Excellent Book, ( Say, 0 my servants who have transgressed against your own souls, despair not of the mercy of God ; seeing that God forgiveth all sins [unto those who repent] : for He is the Very Forgiv- ing; the Merciful.'"1 — His answer reminds me of what I have often observed, that the generality of Arabs, a most inconsistent people, are every day breaking their law in some point or other, trusting that two words (" Astaghfir Allah," or " I beg forgiveness of God,") will cancel every transgression. — He had a copy of the Kur-an in his hand ; and on my turning it over to look for the verse he had quoted, I found in it a scrap of paper containing some words from the venerated volume : he was about to burn this piece of paper, lest it should fall out, and be trodden upon ; and on my asking him whether it was allowable to do so, he answered that it might either be burnt, or thrown into running water ; but that it was better to burn it, as the words would ascend in the flames, and be conveyed by angels to heaven. — Sometimes the Kur-an is quoted in jest, even by persons of strict religious principles. For instance, the following equivocal and evasive auswer was once suggested to me on a person's asking of me a present of a watch, which, I must previously mention, is called " sa'ah," a word which signifies an " hour," and the " period of the general judgment :" — " Verily, the sa'ah shall come : I will surely make it to appear " (ch. xx. v. 15). There are often met with, in Egyptian society, persons who will introduce an apposite quotation from the Kur-an or the Traditions of the Prophet in common conversation, whatever be the topic ; and an interruption of this kind is not considered, as it would be in general society in our own country, either hypocritical or annoying ; but rather occasions expressions, if not feelings, of admiration, and often diverts the hearers from a trivial subject to matters of a more serious nature. The Muslims of Egypt, and, I believe, those of other countries, are generally fond of conversing on religion; and the most prevalent Kur-an, eh. mix, v. 54. 280 CHAPTER XIII. mode of entertaining a party of guests among the higher and middle ranks in this place (Cairo) is the recital of a "khatmeh" (or the whole of the Kur-an), which is chanted by fikees, hired for the pur- pose ; or the performance of a et zikr," which has been before men- tioned. Few persons among them would venture to say that they prefer hearing a concert of music to the performance of a khatmeh or zikr; and they certainly do take great pleasure in the latter per- formances. The manner in which the Kur-an is sometimes chanted is, indeed, very pleasing ; though I must say that a complete khatmeh is, to me, extremely tiresome. With the religious zeal of the Muslims, I am daily struck : yet I have often wondered that they so seldom attempt to make converts to their faith. On my expressing my sur- prise, as I have frequently done, at their indifference with respect to the propagation of their religion, contrasting it with the conduct of their ancestors of the early ages of El- Islam, I have generally been answered, " Of what use would it be if I could convert a thousand infidels ? Would it increase the number of the faithful ? By no means : the number of the faithful is decreed by God ; and no act of man can increase or diminish it." The contending against such an answer would have led to an interminable dispute : so I never ven- tured a reply. I have heard quoted, by way of apology for their neglecting to make proselytes, the following words of the Kur-an : " Dispute not against those who have received the Scriptures " 1 (namely, the Christians and Jews), without the words immediately following, " unless in the best manner ; except against such of them as behave injuriously [towards you] : and say [unto them], We believe in [the revelation] that hath been sent down unto us, and [also in that] which hath been sent down unto you : and our God and your God is one."2 If this precept were acted upon by the Muslims, it might perhaps lead to disputes which would make them more liberal-minded, and much better informed. The respect which most modern Muslims pay to their Prophet is almost idolatrous. They very frequently swear by him ; and many of the most learned, as well as the ignorant, often implore his inter- cession. Pilgrims are generally much more affected on visiting his tomb than in performing any other religious rite. There are some 1 Ch. xxix. v. 45. 2 In the first edition of the present work, copy- ing Sale, who gives no authority for the remark, I here added, " This precept is, however, generally considered as abrogated by that of the sword." These words might lead the reader into error, as is shewn by what I have said on the subject of war in page 93. CHARACTER. 281 Muslims who will not do anything that the Prophet is not recorded to have done ; and who particularly abstain from eating anything that he did not eat, though its lawfulness be undoubted. The Imam Ahmad Ibn-IIambal would not even eat water-melons, because, although he knew that the Prophet ate them, he could not learn whether he ate them with or without the rind, or whether he broke, bit, or cut them : and he forbade a woman, who questioned him as to the propriety of the act, to spin by the light of torches passing in the street by night, which were not her own property, because the Prophet had not mentioned whether it was lawful to do so, and was not known to have ever availed, himself of a light belonging to another person without that person's leave. — I once, admiring some very pretty pipe-bowls, asked the maker why he did not stamp them with his name. He answered, " God forbid! My name is Ahmad " (one of the names of the Prophet) : " would you have me put it in the fire V9 — I have heard adduced as one of the subjects of complaint against the Basha, his causing the camels and horses of the government to be branded with his names, " Mohammad 'Alee." " In the first place," said a friend of mine, who mentioned this fact to me, " the iron upon which are en- graved these names, names which ought to be so much venerated, the names of the Prophet (God bless and save him), and his Cousin (may God be well pleased with him), is put into the fire, which is shocking : then it is applied to the neck of a camel ; and causes blood, which is impure, to flow, and to pollute the sacred names both upon the iron and upon the animal's skin : and when the wround is healed, how pro- bable is it, and almost certain and unavoidable, that the camel will, when he lies down, lay his neck upon something unclean !" A similar feeling is the chief reason why the Muslims object to printing their books. They have scarcely a book (I do not remember to have seen one) that does not contain the name of God : it is a rule among them to commence every book with the words, " In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful," and to begin the preface or introduction by praising God, and blessing the Prophet; and they fear some impurity might be contracted by the ink that is applied to the name of the Deity, in the process of printing, or by the paper to be impressed with that sacred name, and perhaps with words taken from the Kur-an. They fear, also, that their books, becoming very cheap by being printed, would fall into the hands of infidels ; and are much shocked at the idea of using a brush composed of hogs' hair (which was at first done here) to apply the ink to the name, and often 2 o 282 CHAPTER XIII. to the words, of God. Hence, books have hitherto been printed in Egypt only by order of the government : but two or three persons have lately applied for, and received, permission to make use of the government-press. I am acquainted with a bookseller here who has long been desirous of printing some books which he feels sure would bring him considerable profit ; but cannot overcome his scruples as to the lawfulness of doing so. The honour which the Muslims shew to the Kur-an is very striking. They generally take care never to hold it, or suspend it, in such a manner as that it shall be below the girdle ; and they deposit it upon a high and clean place ; and never put another book, or anything else, on the top of it. On quoting from it, they usually say, " He whose name be exalted " (or " God, whose name be ex- alted") "hath said, in the Excellent Book." They consider it ex- tremely improper that the sacred volume should be touched by a Christian or a Jew, or any other person not a believer in its doctrines ; though some of them are induced, by covetousness, but very rarely, to sell copies of it to such persons. It is even forbidden to the Muslim to touch it unless he be in a state of legal purity ; and hence, these words of the book itself — <( None shall touch it but they who are purified" 1 — are often stamped upon the cover. The same remarks apply, also, to anything upon which is inscribed a passage of the Kur-an. It is remarkable, however, that most of the old Arab coins bear inscriptions of words from the Kur-an, or else the testimony of the faith (" There is no deity but God : Mohammad is God's Apostle ") ; notwithstanding they were intended for the use of Jews and Christians, as well as Muslims : but I have heard this practice severely condemned. — On my once asking one of my Muslim friends whether figs were esteemed wholesome in Egypt, he answered, " Is not the fig celebrated in the Kur-an ? God swears by it : f By the fig and the olive !' " (ch. xcv. v. 1). There is certainly much enthusiastic piety in the character of the modern Muslims, notwithstanding their inconsistencies and super- stitions : such, at least, is generally the case. There are, I believe, very few professed Muslims who are really unbelievers; and these dare not openly declare their unbelief, through fear of losing their heads for their apostacy. I have heard of two or three such, wrho have been rendered so by long and intimate intercourse with Euro- 1 Kur-an, ch. lvi. v. 78. CHARACTER. 283 peans ; and have met with one materialist, who has often had long discussions with me. In preceding chapters of this work, several practices indicative of the religious feeling which prevails among the Muslims of Egypt have been incidentally mentioned. Religious appeals are generally used by the beggars in this country : some examples of these will be given hereafter. Of a similar nature, also, are the cries of many of the persons who sell vegetables, &c. The cry of the nightly watchman in the quarter in which I lived in Cairo during my first visit struck me as remarkable for its beauty and sublimity — " I extol the perfection of the living King, who sleepeth not nor dieth." 1 The present watchman, in the same quarter, exclaims, " 0 Lord ! 0 Everlasting \" 2 Many other illustrations of the religious character of the people whom I am endeavouring to portray might be added. I must, however, here acknowledge, that religion has much declined among them and most others of the same faith. Whoever has been in the habit of conversing familiarly with the modern Muslims must often have heard them remark, with a sigh, "It is the end of time!" — "The world has fallen into infi- delity."— They are convinced that the present state of their religion is a proof that the end of the world is near. The mention which I have made, in a former chapter, of some of the tenets of the Wahhabees, as being those of the primitive Muslims, shews how much the generality of the modern professors of the faith of the Kur-an have deviated from the precepts originally delivered to its disciples. Influenced by their belief in predestination, the men display, in times of distressing uncertainty, an exemplary patience, and, after any afflicting event, a remarkable degree of resignation and fortitude, approaching nearly to apathy ;3 generally exhibiting their sorrow only by a sigh, and the exclamation of " Allah kereem !" (God is bounti- ful !) — but the women, on the contrary, give vent to their grief by the most extravagant cries and shrieks. While the Christian justly blames himself for every untoward event which he thinks he has brought upon himself, or might have avoided, the Muslim enjoys a remarkable serenity of mind in all the vicissitudes of life. When he sees his end approaching, his resignation is still conspicuous : he 1 "Subhan el-melik el-hei el-lezee la yenam wala yemoot !" 2 " Ya rabb ! Ya daim !" 3 Tbey are not, however, so apathetic as some travellers bave supposed ; for it is not uncommon to see them weep; and such a demonstration of feeling is not considered by them as unmanly: even heroes are frequently represented, in their romances and histories, as weeping1 under beavy affliction. 284 CHAPTER XIII. exclaims, " Verily to God we belong; and verily to Him we return !" and to those who inquire respecting his state, in general his reply is, " Praise be to God ! Our Lord is bountiful." — His belief in pre- destination does not, however, prevent his taking any step to attain an object that he may have in view ; not being perfectly absolute, or unconditional : nor does it in general make him careless of avoiding danger ; for he thinks himself forbidden to do so by these words of the Kur-an,1 " Throw not yourselves2 into perdition;" except in some cases; as in those of pestilence and other sicknesses; being commanded, by the Prophet, not to go into a city where there is a pestilence, nor to come out from it. The lawfulness of quarantine is contested among Muslims ; but the generality of them condemn it. The same belief in predestination renders the Muslim utterly devoid of presumption with regard to his future actions, or to any future events. He never speaks of anything that he intends to do, or of any circumstance which he expects and hopes may come to pass, without adding, " If it be the will of God ;" 3 and, in like manner, in speaking of a past event of which he is not certain, he generally pre- faces or concludes what he says with the expression, " God is all- knowing" (or, " — most knowing").4 Benevolence and charity to the poor are virtues which the Egyptians possess in an eminent degree, and which are instilled into their hearts by religion ; but from their own profession it appears that they are as much excited to the giving of alms by the expectation of enjoying corresponding rewards in heaven, as by pity for the distresses of their fellow-creatures, or a disinterested wish to do the will of God. It may be attributed, in some measure, to the charitable disposition of the inhabitants, that beggars are so numerous in Cairo. The many handsome " Sebeels," or public fountains (buildings erected and endowed for the gratuitous supply of water to passengers), which are seen in this city, and the more humble structures of the same kind in the villages and fields, are monuments of the same virtue.5 In my earlier intercourse with the people of Egypt, I was much pleased at observing their humanity to dumb animals ; to see a per- son, who gathered together the folds of his loose clothes to prevent their coming in contact with a dog, throw, to the impure animal, a 1 Ch. ii. v. 191. 2 Literally, "your hands;" but in the Com- mentary of the Gelaleyn, the meaning is said to be "yourselves." 3 " In-shaa-llah." 4 "Alla.hu aalam." 5 The larger sebeels of Cairo are generally of the period of the Turkish Bashas and Memlook Beys. CHARACTER. 285 portion of the bread which he was eating. Murders, burglaries, and other atrocious and violent crimes, were then very rare among them. Now, however, I find the generality of the Egyptians very much changed for the worse, with respect to their humanity to brutes and to their fellow-creatures. The increased severity of the government seems, as might be expected, to have engendered tyranny, and an increase of every crime, in the people : but I am inclined to think that the conduct of Europeans has greatly conduced to produce this effect ; for I do not remember to have seen acts of cruelty to dumb animals except in places where Franks either reside or are frequent visiters, as Alexandria, Cairo, and Thebes. It is shocking to see the miserable asses which are used for carrying dust, &c, in Cairo ; many of them with large crimson wounds, like carbuncles, constantly chafed by rough ropes of the fibres of the palm-tree which are attached to the back part of the pack-saddle. The dogs in the streets are fre- quently beaten, both by boys and men, from mere wantonness ; and I often see children amusing themselves with molesting the cats, which were formerly much favoured.1 Robberies and murders, during two or three months after my second arrival here, were occurrences of almost every week. Most of the Turkish governors of districts used to exercise great oppression over the fellaheen : but since persons of the latter class have been put in the places of the former, they have exceeded their predecessors in tyranny ; and it is a common remark, that they are " more execrable than the Turks." 2 Though I now frequently see the houseless dogs beaten in the streets of Cairo, and that when quite inoffensive and quiet, I still often observe men feeding them with bread, &c. ; and the persons who do so are mostly poor men. In every district of this city are many small troughs, which are daily replenished with water for the dogs. In each street where there are shops, a sakka receives a small monthly sum from each shopman for sprinkling the street, and filling the trough or troughs for the dogs in that street. There 1 I think it proper to remark here, that I have good reason for believing Burckhardt to have been misinformed when stating (see his " Arabic Proverbs," No. 393) that children in the East (in Egypt, .See.,) torture serpents by putting them into a leathern bag, then throwing unslaked lime upon them, and pouring water on it. I find no one who has heard of such cruelty; and it is not likely that boys in this country would dare to put a serpent in a bag (for they are excessively afraid of this reptile), or would give several piasters for a bag to destroy in this manner. The proverb upon which this statement is founded perhaps alludes to a mode of destroying serpents ; but not for sport. 2 " The oppression of the Turks, rather than the justice of the Arabs," is a proverb often heard from the mouth of the Arab peasant; who, in this case, applies the term "Arabs" to his own class, instead of the Bedawees, to whom it now usually belongs. Sec Burckhardt's "Arabic Proverbs," No. 17U. 286 CHAPTER XIII. is also a dogs' trough under almost every shop of a " sharbetlee," or seller of sherbets. — It may here be mentioned, that the dogs of Cairo, few of which have masters, compose regular and distinct tribes; and the dogs of each tribe confine themselves to a certain district or quarter, from which they invariably chase away any strange dog that may venture to intrude. These animals are very numerous in Cairo. They are generally careful to avoid coming in contact with the men ; as if they knew that the majority of the people of the city regard them as unclean : but they often bark at persons in the Frank dress ; and at night they annoy every passenger. They are of use in eating the offal thrown out from the butchers' shops, and from houses. Many dogs also prowl about the mounds of rubbish around the metropolis ; and these, with the vultures, feed upon the carcasses of the*camels, asses, &c, that die in the town. They are mostly of a sandy colour ; and seem to partake of the form and disposition of the jackal. The general opinion of the Muslims, which holds the dog to be unclean, does not prevent their keeping this animal as a house-guard, and sometimes even as a pet. A curious case of this kind occurred a short time ago. A woman in this city, who had neither husband nor child nor friend to solace her, made a dog her companion. Death took this only associate from her; and, in her grief and her affection for it, she determined to bury it ; and not merely to commit it to the earth without ceremony, but to inter it as a Muslim, in a respectable tomb, in the cemetery of the Imam Esh-Shafe'ee, which is regarded as especially sacred. She washed the dog according to the rules prescribed to be observed in the case of a deceased Muslim, wrapped it in handsome grave-clothes, sent for a bier, and put it in ; then hired several wailing-women ; and, with them, performed a regular lamentation. This done (but not without exciting the wonder of her neighbours, who could not conjecture what person in her house was dead, yet would not intrude, because she never associated with them), she hired a number of chanters, to head the funeral- procession, and school-boys, to sing, and carry the Kur-an before the bier ; and the train went forth in respectable order ; herself and the hired wailing-women following the bier, and rending the air with their shrieks : but the procession had not advanced many steps, when one of the female neighbours ventured to ask the afflicted lady who the person was that was dead ; and was answered, " It is my poor child." The inquirer charged her with uttering a falsehood ; CHARACTER. 287 and the bereaved lady confessed that it was her dog; begging, at the same time, that her inquisitive neighbour would not divulge the secret; but, for an Egyptian woman to keep a secret, and such a secret, was impossible : it was immediately made known to the by-stan dcrs ; and a mob, in no good humour, soon collected, and put a stop to the funeral. The chanters and the singing-boys and wailing-women vented their rage against their employer (as soon as they had secured their money) for having made fools of them ; and if the police had not interfered, she would probably have fallen a victim to popular fury.1 It is a curious fact, that, in Cairo, houseless cats are fed at the expense of the Kadee ; or, rather, almost wholly at his expense. Every afternoon, a quantity of offal is brought into the great court before the Mahkemeh ; and the cats are called together to eat. The Sultan Ez- Zahir Beybars (as I learn from the Bash-Katib of the Kadee) bequeathed a garden, which is called " gheyt el-kuttah ,J (or the garden of the cat), near his mosque, on the north of Cairo, for the benefit of the cats: but this garden has been sold, over and over again, by the trustees and purchasers : the former sold it on pretence of its being too much out of order to be rendered productive, except at a considerable expense ; and it now produces only a H hekr " (or quit-rent) of fifteen piasters a year, to be applied to the maintenance of the destitute cats. Almost the whole expense of their support has, in consequence, fallen upon the Kadee, who, by reason of his office, is the guardian of this and all other charitable and pious legacies, and must suffer for the neglect of his predecessors. Latterly, however, the duty of feeding the cats has been very inadequately performed. Many persons in Cairo, when they wish to get rid of a cat, send or take it to the Kadee's house, and let it loose in the great court. The affability of the Egyptians towards each other has been mentioned in a preceding chapter. Towards foreigners who do not conform with their manners and customs, and profess the same way of thinking, they are polite in their address, but cold and reserved, or parasitical, in conversation. With such persons, and even among themselves, they often betray much impertinent curiosity. They are generally extremely afraid of making to themselves enemies ; and 1 D'Herbelot mentions a somewhat similar case, in which a Turk, having buried a favourite dog with some marks of respect, in his garden, was accused, before the Kadee, of having interred the animal with the ceremonies practised at the burial of a Muslim, and escaped punishment (perhaps a severe one) by informing the judge that his dog had made a will, leaving to him (the Kadee) a sum of money.— (Bibliotheque Orientate^ art. Cadhi.) 288 CHAPTER XIII. this fear frequently induces them to uphold each other, even when it is criminal to do so. Cheerfulness is another remarkable characteristic of this people. Some of them profess a great contempt for frivolous amusements ; but most take pleasure in such pastimes ; and it is surprising to see how easily they are amused : wherever there are crowds, noise, and bustle, they are delighted. In their public festivals, there is little to amuse a person of good education ; but the Egyptians enjoy them as much as we do the best of our entertainments. Those of the lower orders seem to be extremely happy with their pipes and coffee, after the occupations of the day, in the society of the coffee-shop. Hospitality is a virtue for which the natives of the East in general are highly and deservedly admired; and the people of Egypt are well entitled to commendation on this account. A word which signifies literally "a person on a journey" ("musafir") is the term most commonly employed in this country in the sense of a visiter or guest. There are very few persons here who would think of sitting down to a meal, if there were a stranger in the house, without inviting him to partake of it, unless the latter were a menial ; in which case, he would be invited to eat with the servants. It would be considered a shameful violation of good manners if a Muslim abstained from ordering the table to be prepared at the usual time because a visiter happened to be present. Persons of the middle classes in this country, if living in a retired situation, sometimes take their supper before the door of their house, and invite every passenger of respectable appearance to eat with them. This is very commonly done among the lower orders. In cities and large towns, claims on hospitality are unfrequent ; as there are many wekalehs, or khans, where strangers may obtain lodging ; and food is very easily procured : but in the villages, travellers are often lodged and enter- tained by the Sheykh or some other inhabitant ; and if the guest be a person of the middle or higher classes, or even not very poor, he gives a present to his host's servants, or to the host himself. In the desert, however, a present is seldom received from a guest. By a Sunneh law, a traveller may claim entertainment, of any person able to afford it to him, for three days. — The account of Abraham's enter- taining the three angels, related in the Bible, presents a perfect picture of the manner in which a modern Bedawee sheykh receives travellers arriving at his encampment. He immediately orders his wife or women to make bread \ slaughters a sheep or some other CHARACTER. 219 animal, and dresses it in haste ; and bringing milk and any other provisions that he may have ready at hand, with the bread, and the meat which he has dressed, sets them before his guests. If these be persons of high rank, he stands by them while they eat ; as Abraham did in the case above alluded to. Most Bedawees will suffer almost any injury to themselves or their families rather than allow their guests to be ill-treated while under their protection. There are Arabs who even regard the chastity of their wives as not too precious to be sacrificed for the gratification of their guests ;l and at an encampment of the Bishareen, I ascertained that there are many persons in this great tribe (which inhabits a large portion of the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea) who offer their un- married daughters to their guests, merely from motives of hospitality, and not for hire. There used to be, in Cairo, a numerous class of persons called w Tufeyleeyeh " or " Tufeylees " (that is, Spungers), who, taking advantage of the hospitality of their countrymen, subsisted entirely by spunging: but this class has, of late, very much decreased in number. Wherever there was an entertainment, some of these worthies were almost sure to be found ; and it was only by a present of money that they could be induced to retire from the company. They even travelled about the country, without the smallest coin in their pockets, intruding themselves into private houses whenever they wanted a meal, or practising various tricks for this purpose. Two of them, I was told, a little while since, determined to go to the festival of the seyyid El-Bedawee, at Tanta; an easy journey of two days and a half from Cairo. Walking at their leisure, they arrived at the small town of Kalyoob at the end of their first day's journey ; and there found themselves at a loss for a supper. One of them went to the Kadee ; and, after saluting him, said, " 0 Kadee, I am a traveller from the Sharkeeyeh, going to Masr ; and I have a companion who owes me fifty purses, which he has with him at present, and refuses to give me ; and I am actually in want of them." " Where is he V said the Kadee. " Here, in this town," answered the complainant. The Kadee sent a rasoolto bring the accused; and in the mean time, expecting considerable fees for a judgment in such a case, ordered a good supper to be prepared ; which Kadees of country towns or villages generally do in similar circumstances. The two men See Burckhardt's Notes on the Bedouins, \c\, Svo. edition, vol. i. pp. 179 and ISO. 2 p 290 CHAPTER XIII. were invited to sup and sleep before the case was tried. Next morning, the parties were examined : the accused admitted that he had in his possession the fifty purses of his companion ; and said that he was ready to give them up ; for they were an encumbrance to him; being only the paper purses in which coffee was sold. ee We are Tufeylees," he added ; and the Kadee, in anger, dismissed them. The natives of Egypt in general, in common with the Arabs of other countries, are (according to our system of morals) justly charge- able with a fault which is regarded by us as one of great magnitude : it is want of gratitude. 1 But this I am inclined to consider a relic of the Bedawee character; and as arising from the very common practice of hospitality and generosity, and from the prevailing opinion that these virtues are absolute duties which it would be disgraceful and sinful to neglect. The temperance and moderation of the Egyptians, with regard to diet, are very exemplary. Since my first arrival in Egypt, I have scarcely ever seen a native of this country in a state of intoxication ; unless it were a musician at an entertainment, or a dancing girl, or low prostitute. It hardly need be added that they are extremely frugal. They shew a great respect for bread, as the staff of life/ and on no account suffer the smallest portion of it to be wasted, if they can avoid it. I have often observed an Egyptian take up a small piece of bread, which had by accident fallen in the street or road, and, after putting it before his lips and forehead three times, place it on one side, in order that a dog might eat it, rather than let it remain to be trodden under foot. The following instance of the excessive and unreasonable respect of the Egyptians for bread has been related to me by several persons \ but I must say that I think it hardly credible. — Two servants were sitting at the door of their master's house, eating their dinner, when they observed a Memlook Bey, with several of his officers, riding along the street towards them. One of these servants rose, from respect to the grandee, who, regarding him with indignation, exclaimed, " Which is the more worthy of respect, the 1 It has been remarked that this is inconsistent with the undeniable gratitude which the Arabs feel towards God. To sucb an objection they would reply, " We are entitled to the good offices of our fellow-creatures by the law of God; but can claim no benefit from our Maker." I once afforded a refuge to a Bedawee who was in fear for his life; but on parting, he gave me not a word of thanks : had he done so, it would have implied his thinking me a person of mean disposition, who regarded a positive duty as an act imposing obligation. Hence the Arab usually acknowledges a benefit merely by a prayer for the long life, &c, of his benefactor. 2 The name which they give to it is '"eysh," winch literally signifies "life." CHARACTER. 291 bread that is before you, or myself?" — Without waiting for a reply, he made, it is said, a well -understood signal with his hand ; and the unintending offender was beheaded on the spot. The higher and middle orders of Muslims in Egypt are scrupu- lously cleanly ; and the lower orders are more so than in most other countries : but were not cleanliness a point of their religion, perhaps it would not be so much regarded by them. From what has been said in a former chapter of this work,1 it appears that we must not judge of them, with respect to this quality, from the dirty state in which they generally leave their children. Their religious ablutions were, certainly, very wisely ordained; personal cleanliness being so conducive to health in a hot climate. The Egyptians in general are particularly careful to avoid whatever their religion has pronounced unclean and polluting. One of their objections against wine is, that it is unclean ; and I believe that very few of them, if any, could be induced by any means, unless by a considerable bribe, to eat the smallest piece of pig's flesh j except the peasants of the Boheyreh (the province on the west of the western branch of the Nile), many of whom eat the flesh of the wild boar, and rats.2 I was once amused with the remark of a Muslim, on the subject of pork : he observed that the Franks were certainly a much-calumniated people : that it was well known they were in the habit of eating swine's flesh ; but that some slanderous persons here asserted that it was not only the flesh of the unclean beast that was eaten by the Franks, but also its skin, and its entrails, and its very blood. On being answered that the accusation was too true, he burst forth with a most hearty curse upon the infidels, devoting them to the lowest place in hell. Many of the butchers who supply the Muslim inhabitants of the metropolis with meat are Jews. A few years ago, one of the principal 'Ulama here complained of this fact to the Basha; and begged him to put a stop to it. Another of the 'Ulama, hearing that this person had gone to make the complaint above mentioned, followed him, and urged, before the Basha, that the practice was not unlawful. " Ad- duce your proof," said the former. " Here," answered the other, "is my proof, from the word of God, ' Eat of that whereon the name of God hath been commemorated.'"3 The chief of the Jewish butchers was then summoned, and asked whether he said anything 1 Page 57. same people ; of whom there arc also a few in 2 Dogs, too, are eaten by many Maghrabees Cairo, in the quarter of Teyloon settled at Alexandria, and by descendants of the 3 £ur-an, eh. vi. v. 118. 292 CHAPTER XIII. previously to slaughtering an animal : he answered, " Yes : we always say, as the Muslims, ( In the name of God. God is most great :' and we never kill an animal in any other way than by cutting its throat." — The complaint was consequently dismissed. A few days ago, a man, purchasing a fateereh of a baker in this city, saw him take out of his oven a dish of pork which he had been baking for a Frank ; and, supposing that the other things in the oven might have been in contact with the unclean meat, and thus con- taminated, immediately brought a soldier from the nearest guard- house, and caused the baker (who was in no slight alarm, and pro- tested that he was ignorant of there being any pig's flesh in his oven,) to be conducted before the Zabit. This magistrate considered the case of sufficient importance to be referred to the Basha' s deewan ; and the president of this council regarded it as of too serious and difficult a nature for him to decide, and accordingly sent the accused to be judged at the Mahkemeh. The Kadee desired the opinion of the Muftee, who gave the following sentence : — That all kinds of food, not essentially or radically impure, were purified, of any pollu- tion which they might have contracted, by fire; and consequently, that whatever thing of this description was in the oven, even if it had been in contact with the pork, was clean as soon as it had been baked. A short time since, the Basha received, from Europe, a set of mattresses and cushions stuffed with horse-hair, to form a deewan for his hareem. The ladies opened one of the cushions, to ascertain what was the substance which rendered them so agreeably elastic; and, disgusted in the highest degree at seeing what they supposed to be hogs' hair, insisted upon throwing away the whole deewan. A Frenchman who was employed here, a few years ago, to refine sugar, by the present Basha, made use of blood for this purpose ; and since that, very few of the people of this country have ventured to eat any sugar made by the Franks : the Basha was also obliged to prohibit the use of blood in his own sugar-bakeries ; and the white of eggs has been employed in its stead. Some of the Egyptians, seeing the Euro- pean sugar to be very superior to that made here, use it ; holding the doctrine that what is originally clean may become clean again after pollution : but I am obliged to keep the coarse Egyptian sugar for the purpose of making sherbet for my visiters ; some of whom hold long discussions with me on this subject. It is a general custom among the Egyptians, after washing clothes, to pour clean water upon them, and to say, in doing so, " I testify CHARACTER. 293 that there is no deity but God ; and I testify that Mohammad is God's Apostle."1 In speaking of their religion, I have mentioned several other practices instituted for the sake of cleanliness j most of which are universally observed. But, notwithstanding these cleanly practices and principles, and their custom of frequently going to the bath, the Egyptians do not change their linen so often as some people of more northern climates, who need not so much to do this frequently : they often go to the bath in a dirty shirt; and, after a thorough washing, put on the same again. Filial piety is one of the more remarkable virtues of this people. The outward respect which they pay to their parents I have already had occasion to mention. Great respect is also shewn by the young to those far advanced in age ;2 and more especially to such as are re- puted men of great piety or learning. Love of their country, and more especially of home, is another predominant characteristic of the modern Egyptians. In general, they have a great dread of quitting their native land. I have heard of several determining to visit a foreign country, for the sake of con- siderable advantages in prospect ; but when the time of their intended departure drew near, their resolution failed them. Severe oppression has lately lessened this feeling ; which is doubtless owing, in a great degree, to ignorance of foreign lands and their inhabitants. It was probably from the same feeling prevailing among the Arabs of his time, that Mohammad was induced to promise such high rewards in a future world to those who fled their country for the sake of his religion. I have heard it remarked as a proof of the extraordinary love which the Egyptians have for their native, place, that a woman or girl in this country will seldom consent, or her parents allow her, to marry a man who will not promise to reside with her in her native town or village ; but I rather think that the reluctance to change the place of abode in this case arises from the risk which the female incurs of wanting the protection of her relations. The Bedawees are so attached to their deserts, and have so great a contempt for people who reside in towns, and for agriculturists, that it is a matter of surprise that so many of them were induced to settle even upon the fertile banks of the Nile. The modern Egyptians, though in a great degiree descended from Bedawees, while they resemble the Bedawees in 1 To express that a person has done thi6, they say, "shahad el-ha\vai' CHAPTER XIII. her husband dies while she is young, or divorces her while she is young, passes her life, however long it may be, in widowhood, and never marries a second time." — But with respect to the majority of the Egyptian women, it must, I fear, be allowed that they are very licentious. What liberty they have, many of them, it is said, abuse ; and most of them are not considered safe, unless under lock and key ; to which restraint few are subjected. It is believed that they possess a degree of cunning in the management of their intrigues which the most prudent and careful husband cannot guard against, and con- sequently that their plots are seldom frustrated, however great may be the apparent risk of the undertakings in which they engage. Sometimes, the husband himself is made the unconscious means of gratifying his wife's criminal propensities. Some of the stories of the intrigues of women in "The Thousand and One Nights" present faithful pictures of occurrences not unfrequent in the modern metro- polis of Egypt. Many of the men of this city are of opinion that almost all the women would intrigue if they could do so without danger ; and that the greater proportion of them do. I should be sorry to think that the former opinion was just ; and I am almost persuaded that it is over-severe, because it appears, from the customs with regard to women generally prevailing here, that the latter must be false. The difficulty of carrying on an intrigue with a female in this place can hardly be conceived by a person who is not moderately well acquainted with Eastern customs and habits. It is not only difficult for a woman of the middle or higher classes to admit her paramour into the house in which she resides, but it is almost impos- sible for her to have a private interview with a man who has a hareem, in his own house ; or to enter the house of a man who is neither married nor has a concubine slave, without attracting the notice of the neighbours, and causing their immediate interference. But as it cannot be denied that many of the women of Egypt engage in in- trigues notwithstanding such risks, it may perhaps be true that the difficulties which lie in the way are the chief bar to most others. Among the females of the lower orders, intrigues are more easily ac- complished, and frequent. The libidinous character of the generality of the women of Egypt, and the licentious conduct of a great number of them, may be attributed to many causes ; partly, to the climate, and partly, to their want of proper instruction, and of innocent pastimes arid employ- CHARACTER. 297 mcnts but it is more to be attributed to the conduct of the husbands themselves ; and to conduct far more disgraceful to them than the utmost severity that any of them is known to exercise in the regulations of his harccm. The generality of husbands in Egypt endeavour to increase the libidinous feelings of their wives by every means in their power; though, at the same time, they assiduously study to prevent their indulging those feelings unlawfully. The women are permitted to listen, screened behind their windows of wooden lattice-work, to immoral songs and tales sung or related in the streets by men whom they pay for this entertainment ; and to view the voluptuous dances of the ghawazee, and of the effeminate khawals. The ghawazee, who are professed prostitutes, are not unfrcquently introduced into the hareems of the wealthy, not merely to entertain the ladies with their dances, but to teach them their voluptuous arts; and even indecent puppets are sometimes brought into such hareems for the amusement of the inmates. — Innumerable stories of the artifices and intrigues of the women of Egypt have been related to me. The following narratives of late occurrences will serve as specimens. A slave-dealer, who had been possessed of property which enabled him to live in comfort, but had lost the greater part of it, married a young and handsome woman in this city, who had sufficient wealth to make up for his losses. He soon, however, neglected her ; and as he was past the prime of life, she became indifferent to him, and placed her affections upon another man, a dustman, who had been in the habit of coming to her house. She purchased, for this person, a shop close by her house ; gave him a sum of money to enable him to pursue a less degraded occupation, as a seller of grain and fodder ; and informed him that she had contrived a plan for his visiting her in perfect security. Her hareem had a window with hanging shutters ; and almost close before this window rose a palm-tree, out- topping the house : this tree, she observed, would afford her lover a means of access to her, and of egress from her apartment in case of 1 In the first edition of the present work, I in- cluded, among these supposed causes, the degree of restraint imposed upon the women, and their seclusion from open intercourse with the other sex. This I did, not because confinement is said to have tins effect in the West, where, being con- trary to general custom, it is felt as an oppression, but because the assertion of the Egyptians, that the Eastern women in general arc more licen- tiously disposed than the men, seemed to be an argument against the main principle of the con- stitution of Eastern society. I did not consider that this argument is at least counterbalanced by what I have before mentioned, that the women who are commonly considered the most licentious of all Eastern women (namely, those of Egypt,) are those who are said to have most licence. 298 CHAPTER XIII. danger. She had only one servant, a female, who engaged to assist her in the accomplishment of her desires. Previously to her lover's first visit to her, she desired the servant to inform her husband of what was about to take place in the ensuing night. He determined to keep watch ; and, having told his wife that he was going out, and should not return that night, concealed himself in a lower apartment. At night, the maid came to tell him that the visiter was in the hareem. He went up ; but found the hareem-door shut. On his trying to open it, his wife screamed; her lover, at the same time, escaping from the window, by means of the palm-tree. She called to her neigh- bours, " Come to my assistance ! Pray come ! There is a robber in my house !" Several of them soon came ; and, finding her locked in her room, and her husband outside the door, told her there was nobody in the house but her husband and maid. She said that the man they called her husband was a robber : that her husband was gone to sleep out. The latter then informed them of what had passed ; and insisted that a man was with her : he broke open the door, and searched the room ; but, finding no man, was reprimanded by his neighbours, and abused by his wife, for uttering a slander. The next day, his wife, taking with her, as witnesses of his having accused her of a criminal intrigue, two of the neighbours who had come in on hearing her screams for assistance, arraigned her husband at the Mahkemeh as the slanderer of a virtuous woman without the evidence of his own sight or of other witnesses. Being convicted of this offence, he was punished with eighty stripes, in accordance with the ordinance of the Kur-an.1 His wife now asked him if he would divorce her ; but he refused. For three days after this event, they lived peaceably together. On the third night, the wife, having invited her lover to visit her, bound her husband, hand and foot, while he was asleep, and tied him down to the mattress. Shortly after, her lover came up, and, waking the husband, threatened him with instant death if he should call, and remained with the wife for several hours, in his presence. As soon as the intruder had gone, the husband was unbound by his wife, and called out to his neigh- bours, beating her at the same time with such violence that she, also, began to call for assistance. The neighbours, coming in, and seeing him in a fury, easily believed her assertion that he had become raving mad, and, trying to soothe him with kind words, and prayers 1 Ch. xxiv. v. 4. CHARACTER. 299 that God would restore him to sanity, liberated her from his grasp. She procured, as soon as possible, a rasool from the Kadee ; and went, with him and her husband and several of her neighbours who had witnessed the beating that she had received, before the judge. The neighbours unanimously declared their opinion that her husband was mad ; and the Kadee ordered that he should be conveyed to the Maristan 1 (or common mad-house) : but the wife, affecting to pity him, begged that she might be allowed to chain him in an apartment in her house, that she might alleviate his sufferings by waiting upon him. The Kadee assented; praising the benevolence of the woman, and praying that God might reward her. She accordingly procured an iron collar and a chain from the Maristan, and chained him in a lower apartment of her house. Every night, in his presence, her lover visited her : after which she importuned him in vain to divorce her ; and when the neighbours came in daily to ask how he was, the only answer he received to his complaints and accusations against his wife was, " God restore thee. God restore thee." Thus he continued about a month ; and his wife, finding that he still persisted in refusing to divorce her, sent for a keeper of the Maristan to take him. The neighbours came round as he left the house: one ex- claimed, " There is no strength nor power but in God ! God restore thee." Another said, " How sad ! He was really a worthy man." — A third remarked, " Badingans 2 are very abundant just now." While he was confined in the Maristan, his wTife came daily to him, and asked him if he would divorce her: on his answering, " No," she said, "Then chained you may lie until you die; and my lover shall come to me constantly." At length, after seven months' confinement, he consented to divorce her ; upon which she procured his liberation ; and he fulfilled his promise. Her lover was of too low a grade to become her husband ; so she remained unmarried ; and received him whenever she pleased : but the maid revealed the true history of this affair ; and it soon became a subject of common talk. When the wife of a man of wealth or rank engages in a criminal intrigue, both she and her paramour generally incur great danger.3 A short time ago, the wife of an officer of high rank in the army 1 Vulgarly called " Muristan." 2 Madness is said to be more common and more violent in Egypt when the black badingan (the fruit of the black egg-plant) is in season : that is, in the bot weather. 3 " How many men, in Masr,'' said one of my friends to me, "have lost their lives on account of women ! A very handsome young libertine, who lived in this house which ycunow occupy, was be- headed here in the street, before his own door, for an intrigue with the wife of a Bey ; and all the women of JIasr wept for him." 300 CHAPTER XIII. took advantage of the absence of her husband from the metropolis (where he always resided with her when not on military duty) to invite a Christian merchant, of whom she had been in the habit of buying silks, to pay her a visit. He went to her house at the time appointed, and found a eunuch at the door, who took him to another house, disguised him in the loose outer garments and veil of a lady, and then brought him back, and introduced him to his mistress. He passed nearly the whole of the night with her ; and, rising before she awoke, put into his pocket a purse which he had given her, and went down to the eunuch, who conducted him again to the house where