It is generally observed that many of the most remarkable
peculiarities in the manners, customs, and character of a nation
are attributable to the physical peculiarities of the country. Such
causes, in an especial 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 trough 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
everywhere bordered, excepting 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 which prevail in Abyssinia and the neighbouring
countries begin to show 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,
with rich soil washed down from the mountainous countries
whence it flows, a copious deposit is annually spread, either by
the natural inundation 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, excepting in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean;
and as the seasons are perfectly regular, the peasant may
make his arrangements with the utmost precision 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-khamáseen1”), commencing in
April, and lasting throughout 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 khamáseen. Egypt is also subject, particularly
during the spring and summer, to the hot wind called the
“samoom,” which is still more oppressive than the khamáseen
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
depth 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 summer heat is so great it is
seldom very oppressive, being generally accompanied by a refreshing
northerly breeze, and the air being extremely dry. There

is, however, one great source of discomfort arising from this
dryness—namely, an excessive quantity of dust; and there are
other plagues which very much detract from the comfort which
the natives of Egypt, and visitors 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 musquitoes are troublesome at night (unless a
curtain be made use of to keep them away), and sometimes even
in the day; and every house that contains much wood-work (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 weather fleas are
excessively numerous.

The climate of Upper Egypt is more healthy, though hotter,
than 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, 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 have
occurred, excepting in the parts above mentioned, and in those
parts the pestilence has not been 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 enjoyments; 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-Káhireh”; whence Europeans have formed the name of
Cairo. It is situated at the entrance of the valley of Upper
Egypt, midway between the Nile and the eastern mountain range
of 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 Boolák is situated), 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 is 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, situated 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 thoroughfare-streets have generally a row of shops
along each side. 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 bye-streets and quarters. Most of the bye-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 bye-street
passing through them.

PRIVATE HOUSE IN CAIRO. The street in this view 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.

Of the private houses of the metropolis it is particularly necessary
that I should give a description. The accompanying 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 internally, 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. 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
proportion 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.

The most usual architectural style of the entrance of a private
house in Cairo is shown by he sketch here inserted. The door
is often ornamented in the manner here represented: the compartment
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 excellent 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 formed of turned
wooden lattice-work, which is so close that it shuts out much of
the light and sun, and screens the inmates of the house from the
view of persons without, 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 “róshan,” or, more commonly, a “meshrebeeyeh,”
which latter word has another application, that will be

DOOR OF A PRIVATE HOUSE.

mentioned below. Several windows of different descriptions are
represented in some of the illustrations of this work; and sketches

of the most common patterns of the lattice-work, on a larger

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.

scale, are here inserted.1 Sometimes a window of the kind above

described has a little meshrebeeyeh, which somewhat resembles a
róshan 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,” etc. Some projecting windows are wholly constructed of
boards, and a few 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°. 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,
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 storeys high; and
almost every house that is sufficiently large encloses an open,
unpaved court, called a “hósh,” 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.1 In this
passage, just within the door, there is a long stone seat, called
“mastab'ah,” built against the back or side wall, for the porter
and other servants. In the court is a well of 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.2
The principal apartments look into the court; and their exterior

COURT OF A PRIVATE HOUSE IN CAIRO.

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 “báb el-hareem” (the door of the hareem): it
is the entrance of the stairs which lead to the apartments
appropriated exclusively to the women and their master and his
children.1

In-general, there is, on the ground floor, an apartment called a
“mandar'ah,” in which male visitors 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 six or seven inches lower than
the rest: this part is called the “durká'ah.”2 In a handsome

FOUNTAIN.

house, the durká'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, etc., like the surrounding pavement. I
give a sketch of the fountain. The water which falls from the
fountain is drained off from the pool by a pipe. There is generally,
fronting the door, at the end of the durká'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 perfuming 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, etc., 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 represented in the sketch above,
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 durká'ah. The
raised part of the floor of the room is called “leewán”1 (a
corruption of “el-eewán,” which signifies “any raised place to sit
upon,” and also “a palace”). Every person slips off his shoes on
the durká'ah before he steps upon the leewán.2 The latter is

SUFFEH.

generally paved with common stone, and covered with a mat in
summer, and a carpet over the mat in winter; and has a mattress
and cushions placed against each of its three walls, composing
what is called a “deewán,” or divan. The mattress, which is
generally about three feet wide and three or four inches thick, is
placed either on the ground or on a raised frame; and the
cushions, which 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 mattresses and cushions are stuffed with cotton,
and are covered with printed calico, cloth, or some more expensive

stuff. The walls are plastered and whitewashed. There are
generally, in the walls, two or three shallow cupboards, the doors
of which are composed 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 the same manner. We
observe great variety and much ingenuity displayed in the different
modes in which these small panels are formed and disposed.
A few specimens are here introduced. The ceiling over the
leewán 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 durká'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 complicated, 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 have inserted, the colours
are as indicated in the sketch of a portion of the same on a
larger scale, excepting 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 here given. 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
opposite p. 9) there is another room, called a “mak'ad,” for the same
use as the mandar'ah, having an open front, with two or more
arches and a low railing; and also, on the ground floor, a square
recess, called a “takhtabósh,” with an open front, and generally
a pillar to support the wall above: its floor is a paved leewán;
and there is a long wooden sofa 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.

SPECIMENS OF PANEL-WORK. These are represented on a scale of one inch to twenty-four or thirty.

Among the upper apartments, or those of the Hareem, there
is generally one called a “ká'ah,” which is particularly lofty. It

has two leewáns—one on each hand of a person entering: one of
these is generally larger than the other, and is the more honourable

CEILING OF A DURKá' AH.—About eight feet wide.

CEILING OF A PROJECTING WINDOW. The dimensions of this are about eight feet by three.

part. A portion of the roof of this saloon, the part which is

over the durká'ah that divides the two leewáns, is a little elevated
above 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 durká'ah
is commonly without a fountain; but is often paved in a
similar manner to that of the mandar'ah, which the ká'ah also
resembles in having a handsome suffeh, and 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 leewán, 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 ká'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. Sometimes,
also, the walls are ornamented with Arabic inscriptions, of maxims,
etc., which are more usually written on paper, in an embellished
style, and enclosed in glazed frames. No chambers are furnished
as bedrooms. The bed, in the daytime, is rolled up, and placed
on one side, or in an adjoining closet, called “khazneh,” which,
in the winter, is a sleeping-place: in summer, many people sleep
upon the house-top. A mat, or carpet, spread upon the raised
part of the stone floor, and a deewán, constitute the complete
furniture of a room. For meals, a round tray is brought in, and
placed upon a low stool, and the company sit round it on the
ground. There is no fire-place:1 the room is warmed, when
necessary, by burning charcoal in a chafing-dish. Many houses
have, at the top, a sloping shed of boards, called a “malkaf,”2

WOODEN LOCK.

directed towards the north or north-west, to convey to a “fes-hah,”
or “fesahah” (an open apartment), below the cool breezes which
generally blow from those quarters.

Every door is furnished with a wooden lock, called a “dabbeh,”

the mechanism of which is shown 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. A number of small iron pins (four, five,
or more) drop into corresponding holes in the sliding bolt as
soon as the latter is pushed into the 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, etc., are about seven, or eight, or nine inches. The
locks of the gates of quarters, public buildings, etc., 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
regularity. 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 architect 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 window 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 (“báb 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.

When shops occupy the lower part of the buildings in a street
(as is generally the case in the great thoroughfares of the metropolis,

A KÄAH.

and in some of the bye-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 generally a kitchen and latrina. It seldom
has a separate entrance from 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 or 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 “wekáleh,” which is a building chiefly designed
for the reception of merchants and their goods. Franks,
however, are now exempted from this restriction.

Very few large or handsome houses are to be seen in Egypt,
excepting 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 together with mud. Some of them are mere hovels.
The greater number, however, comprise two or more apartments;
though few are two storeys high. In one of these apartments, in
the houses of the peasants in Lower Egypt, there is generally an
oven (“furn”), at the end farthest 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 constructed 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, etc.,
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.1 Most of the villages of Egypt are situated
upon eminences of rubbish, which rise a few feet above the
reach of the inundation, and are surrounded by palm-trees, or have
a few of these trees in their vicinity. The rubbish which they
occupy chiefly consists of the materials of former huts, 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 ago a calculation was made, founded on
the number of houses in Egypt, and the supposition that the inhabitants
of each house in the metropolis amount to eight persons,
and in the provinces to four. This computation approximates, I
believe, very nearly to the truth; but personal observation and
inquiry incline me to think that the houses of such towns as
Alexandria, Boolák, 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 Dimyát2 (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-mentioned 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 is now much reduced. Of
2,500,000 souls, say 1,200,000 are males; and one-third of this
number (400,000) men fit for military service: from this latter
number the present Básha of Egypt has 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 surely far exceed 300,000; consequently,
the present population may be calculated as less than
two millions. The numbers of the several classes of which the
population is mainly composed are nearly as follows:—

Muslim Egyptians (felláheen, or peasants, and townspeople)	1,750,000
Christian Egyptians (Copts)	150,000
'Osmánlees, or Turks	10,000
Syrians	5,000
Greeks	5,000
Armenians	2,000
Jews	5,000

Of the remainder (namely, Arabians, Western Arabs, Nubians,
Negro slaves, Memlooks [or white male slaves], female white
slaves, Franks, etc.), amounting 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, contains about 240,000 inhabitants.2 We
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 bye-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 inundation,
are lakes (as the Birket el-Ezbekeeyeh, Birket el-Feel, etc.).
The gardens, several burial-grounds, the courts of houses, and the
mosques, also occupy a considerable space. Of the inhabitants
of the metropolis, about 190,000 are Egyptian Muslims; about
10,000, Copts; 3,000 or 4,000, Jews; and the rest, strangers
from various countries.3

The population of Egypt in the times of the Pharaohs was

probably about six or seven millions.1 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 therefore 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.2 This calculation agrees with what Diodorus
Siculus says (in lib. i. cap. 31); namely, that Egypt contained,
in the times of the ancient kings, 7,000,000 inhabitants,
and in his own time not less than 3,000,000.

How different now is the state of Egypt 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 be effected in it by a truly enlightened
government, by a prince who (instead of impoverishing the
peasantry by depriving them of their lands, and by his monopolies
of the most valuable productions of the soil; 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 manufactures) would give his
people a greater interest in the cultivation of the fields, and make
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.3

The desired change may now be easily effected, for since the
above was written the Básha has been placed in a new position,
which will enable him to acquire a greater and more honourable
fame, by the cultivation of the arts of peace, than his conquests,
brilliant as they have been, have hitherto procured for him. No
one who is acquainted with the modern history of Egypt, and
more particularly with the state of the country during the period
that intervened between the French expedition and the accession
of Mohammad 'Alee to the office of viceroy, can doubt that he
possesses extraordinary talents for government; and let us hope
that those talents will be rightly employed: but, as he himself
affirms, some time will be required for effecting the necessary
changes.

Muslims of Arabian origin have for many centuries 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 (which is
computed to amount to about 240,000), and just seven-eighths
of that of all Egypt.

The Muslim Egyptians are descended from various Arab tribes
and families which have settled in Egypt at different periods;

mostly soon after the conquest of this country by 'Amr, its first
Arab governor; but by intermarriages with the Copts and others
who have become proselytes to the faith of El-Islám, as well as by
the change from a life of wandering to that of citizens or of agriculturists,
their personal characteristics have, by degrees, become so
much altered, that there is a strongly marked difference between
them and the natives of Arabia. Yet they are to be regarded as
not less genuine Arabs than the townspeople of Arabia itself,
among whom has long and very generally prevailed a custom of
keeping Abyssinian female slaves, either instead of marrying their
own countrywomen, or (as is commonly the case with the opulent)
in addition to their Arab wives; so that they bear almost as
strong a resemblance to the Abyssinians as to the Bedawees, or
Arabs of the Desert. The term “Arab,”1 it should here be remarked,
is now used wherever the Arabic language is spoken,
only to designate the Bedawees collectively. In speaking of a
tribe, or of a small number of those people, the word “'Orbán”
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. The native Muslim inhabitants of Cairo commonly call
themselves “El-Masreeyeen,” “Owlád-Masr” (or “Ahl-Masr”),
and “Owlád-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-Felláheen” (or the Agriculturists),
in the singular “Felláh.”4 The Turks often 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,”5 or “the people of
Pharaoh.”

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, excepting a few in the metropolis
and other towns, rendered so by a life of inactivity. In Cairo,
and throughout the northern provinces, 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 Nubia, where
the climate is hottest. In general, the countenance of the Muslim
Egyptian (I here speak of the men) is of a fine oval form; the
forehead, of moderate size, seldom high, but generally prominent;
the eyes are deep-sunk, black, and brilliant; the nose is straight,
but rather thick; the mouth well formed; the lips are rather full
than otherwise; the teeth particularly beautiful;1 the beard is
commonly black and curly, but scanty. I have seen very few
individuals of this race with grey eyes, or rather, few persons
supposed to be of this race; for I am inclined to think them the
offspring of Arab women by Turks or other foreigners. The
Felláheen, from constant exposure to the sun, have a habit of half
shutting their eyes; this is also characteristic of the Bedawees.
Great numbers of the Egyptians are blind in one or both eyes.
They generally shave that part of the cheek which is above the
lower jaw, and likewise a small space under the lower lip, leaving,
however, the hairs which grow in the middle under the mouth;
or, instead of shaving these parts, they pluck out the hair. They
also shave a part of the beard under the chin. Very few shave
the rest of their beards,2 and none their moustaches. 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 their moustaches they do not allow to

become so long as to incommode them in eating and drinking.
The practice of dyeing the beard is not common, for a grey beard
is much respected. The Egyptians shave all the rest of the hair,
or leave only a small tuft (called “shoosheh”) upon the crown of
the head.1 This last custom (which is almost universal among
them), I have been told, 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 carry
it; for the beard might not be sufficiently long.2 With the like
view of avoiding impurity, the Egyptians observe other customs
which need not here be described.3 Many men of the lower
orders, and some others, make blue marks upon their arms, and
sometimes upon the hands and chest, as 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.4 First, a pair of full drawers5 of linen
or cotton, tied round the body by a running string or band,6 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, 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.7 Over this, in winter, or in cool weather, most persons wear a
“sudeyree,” which is a short vest of cloth, or of striped coloured
silk and cotton, without sleeves. Over the shirt and sudeyree, or
the former alone, is worn a long vest of striped silk and cotton8
(called “kaftán,” or more commonly “kuftán”), descending to

MEN OF THE MIDDLE AND HIGHER CLASSES.

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.1 Some persons also wear
a “beneesh,” or “benish,” which is a robe of cloth, with long
sleeves, like those of the kauftán, but more ample; 2 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 “'abáyeh,” is commonly worn. 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. The head-dress consists, first, of a small,
close-fitting, cotton cap,3 which is often changed; next, a “tarboosh,”
which is a red cloth cap, also fitting closely to the head,
with a tassel of dark blue 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. The
Kashmeer shawl is seldom worn excepting 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.
Stockings are not in use; but some few persons, in cold weather,
wear woollen or cotton socks. The shoes are of thick red morocco,
pointed and turning up at the toes. Some persons also
wear inner shoes 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,4 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, etc.1 The prophet disapproved of gold;
therefore few Muslims wear gold rings; but the women have
various ornaments (rings, bracelets, etc.) 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.2
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 “dawáyeh,” which is a case with receptacles for
ink and pens, stuck in the girdle.3 Some have, in the place of
this, or in addition to it, a case-knife or a dagger.

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.4
Over this some wear a white or red woollen girdle. Their turban
is generally composed 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; 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; and some, particularly servants in the houses of
great men, wear a white shirt, a sudeyree, and a kuftán or gibbeh,
or both, and the blue shirt over all. The full sleeves of this
shirt are sometimes drawn up by means of cords, which pass
round each shoulder and cross behind, where they are tied in a

FELLAHEEN.

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 'abáyeh,
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 'abáyeh, of black or deep-blue woollen stuff, is also very
commonly worn; it is called “diffeeyeh.”1 The shoes are of
red or yellow morocco, or of sheep-skin.

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 Sultán who
are not Muslims) wear black, blue, grey, or light-brown turbans,
and generally dull-coloured dresses. The distinction of sects,
families, dynasties, etc., among the Muslim Arabs, by the colour
of the turban and other articles of dress, is of very early origin.
When the Imáam Ibráheem Ibn-Mohammad, asserting his pretensions
to the dignity of Khaleefeh,1 was put to death by the Umawee
Khaleefeh Marwán, many persons of the family of El-'Abbás
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 Osmánlee, or Turkish, Sultán) became the distinguishing
costume of the Abbásee 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-Mukanna',
to distinguish his party from the 'Abbásees; and the
Fawátim of Egypt (or Khaleefehs of the race of Fátimeh), as
rivals of the 'Abbásees, wore a white costume. El-Melik El-Ashraf
Shaabán, a Sultán 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 darweeshes of the sect of the Rifá'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, etc., is generally of black
or blue muslin, or linen. There are not many different forms
of turbans now worn in Egypt: that worn by most of the
servants is very formal. 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 mode. 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.” The turban is much respected. In the
houses of the more wealthy classes, there is usually a chair on
which it is placed at night. This is often sent with the furniture

of a bride, as it is common for a lady to have one upon which to
place her head-dress. This kind of chair is never used for any
other purpose. As an instance of the respect paid to the turban,
one of my friends mentioned to me that an 'álim1 being thrown
off his donkey in a street of this city, his mukleh fell off, and
rolled along several yards, whereupon the passengers ran after it,
crying, “Lift up the crown of El-Islám!” while the poor 'álim,
whom no one came to assist, called out in anger, “Lift up the
sheykh 2 of El-Islám!”

The general form and features of the women must now be
described. From the age of about fourteen to that of eighteen
or twenty, they are generally models of beauty in body and limbs;
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 relaxing 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
difference, 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 may be), 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 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 purpose. Kohl is also prepared of the
smoke-black produced by burning the shells of almonds. These
two kinds, though believed to be beneficial to the eyes, are used
merely for ornament; but there are several kinds used for their

AN EYE ORNAMENTED WITH KOHL.

real or supposed medical properties; particularly the powder of
several kinds of lead ore, to which are often added sarcocolla,
long pepper, 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 powder, and drawn along the edges of the

MUK-HUL'AHS AND MIRWEDS. These are represented on scales of one-third, and a quarter, of the real size.

eyelids: it is called “mirwed;” and the glass vessel in which the
kohl is kept “muk-hul'ah.” The custom of thus ornamenting the
eyes prevailed among both sexes in Egypt in very ancient times:
this is shown 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 powder, have often been found in the
ancient tombs. I have two in my possession. But in many cases

the ancient mode of ornamenting with the kohl was a little
different from the modern, as shown by the subjoined sketch: I
have, 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

ANCIENT VESSEL AND PROBE FOR KOHL.

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 with the idea (perhaps not false) that their

AN EYE AND EYEBROW ORNAMENTED WITH KOHL, AS REPRESENTED IN ANCIENT PAINTINGS.

equals could not be found in any other country. With such eyes
as many of them have, the face must be handsome, if its other
features be but moderately well formed.2 The nose is generally
straight; the lips are mostly rather fuller than those of the men,
but not in the least degree partaking of the negro character. 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

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

HANDS AND FEET STAINED WITH HENNA.

toes as high as the first joint, and the whole of the inside of the
hand and the sole of the foot;2 adding, 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

A LADY IN THE DRESS WORN IN PRIVATE.

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 quick-lime, 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 here
represented. The operation is performed with several needles
(generally seven) tied together: with 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 same
effect in a more simple manner, some indigo is rubbed into the

punctures, instead of the smoke-black, etc. It is generally performed

A TATTOOED GIRL.

SPECIMENS OF TATTOOING ON THE CHIN.

TATTOOED HANDS AND FOOT.

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,
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

The dress of the women of the middle and higher orders is
handsome and elegant. Their shirt is very full, like that of the
men—but rather shorter—reaching not quite 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 “shintiyán”), 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, 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 shintiyán is worn a long vest (called “yelek”), of the
same material as the latter: it nearly resembles the kuftán 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 of
three inches, or more. A short vest (called “'anter'ee”), reaching
only a little below the waist, and exactly resembling a yelek
of which the lower part has been cut off, is sometimes 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.
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;

A LADY ADORNED WITH THE KURS AND SAFA, ETC. (The Hand is partially stained with Henna.)

particularly in the fore part; and is of the same length as the
yelek. Instead of this, a jacket (called “saltah”), generally of
cloth or velvet, and embroidered in the same manner as the
gibbeh, is often worn. The head-dress consists of a tákeeyeh 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, etc., 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, excepting 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, etc.,
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 locks hang down on each side
of the face: these are often curled in ringlets, and sometimes
plaited.1 Few of the ladies of Egypt wear stockings or socks,
but many of them wear “mezz” (or inner shoes), of yellow or
red morocco, sometimes embroidered with gold: over these,
whenever they step off the matted or carpeted part of the floor,
they put on “báboog” (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, etc. 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 “tób,” or
“sebleh”), 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 “burko',” 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, and three

LADY ATTIRED FOR RIDING OR WALKING.

yards long: these are sewed together, at or near the selvages
(according to the height of the person); the seam running 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
always worn in the manner shown by the accompanying sketch.
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 “eezár”; 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
“báboog.”

This dress, though chiefly designed for females of the higher
classes, 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. Viewing 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;
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;1 but, from the sculptures and
paintings of the ancient Egyptians, it seems not to have been
worn by the females of that nation.

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 shintiyán 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), a burko' of a
kind of coarse black crape,2 and a dark blue tarhah of muslin or
linen. Some wear over the shirt, or instead of the latter, a linen
tób, of the same form as that of the ladies. The sleeves of this
are often turned up over the head; either to prevent their being
incommodious, or to supply the place of a tarhah. 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 “miláyeh:”3 in general it is worn
in the same manner as the habarah; but sometimes like the

tarhah.1 The upper part of the black burko' is often ornamented
with false pearls, small gold coins, and other little flat ornaments
of the same metal (called “bark”); sometimes with a coral bead,
and a gold coin beneath; also with small coins of base silver;
and more commonly with a pair of chain tassels, of brass or
silver (called “'oyoon”), attached to the corners. A square

FELLAH WOMEN.

black silk kerchief (called “'asbeh”), with a border of red and
yellow, is bound round the head, doubled 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 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,

ORNAMENTED BLACK VEILS. Only one of these (that to the right) is represented in its whole length.

so as to conceal nearly all the countenance excepting 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 tób, and tarhah. In the southern parts of Upper
Egypt, chiefly above Akhmeem, 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;1 and a piece of the
same they use as a tarhah. This dull dress, though picturesque,
is almost as disguising 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, etc.,
and sometimes a nose-ring. Descriptions and engravings of some
of these ornaments will be given in the Appendix.

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 adán
(or call to prayer) in the infant's right ear; and this should be
done by a male. Some persons also pronounce the ikámeh (which
is nearly the same as the adán) in the left ear. 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 cousin2 'Alee!”

It was a custom very common in Egypt, as in other Muslim
countries, 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 Mustaf'a), or some of the
members of his family ('Alee, Hasan, Hoseyn, etc.), or his eminent
companions ('Omar, 'Osmán, 'Amr, etc.), or some of the prophets
and patriarchs of early times (as Ibráheem, Is-hák, Isma'eel,
Yaakoob, Moosa, Dáood, Suleymán, etc.), or receive a name
signifying “Servant of God,” “Servant of the Compassionate,”
“Servant of the Powerful,” etc. ('Abd-Allah, 'Abd-er-Rahmán,
'Abd-el-Kádir). Girls are mostly named after the wives or the
favourite daughter of the Arabian Prophet, or after others of his
family (as Khadeegeh, 'A'ïsheh, A'm'neh, Fát'meh, Zeyneb), or
are distinguished by a name implying that they are “beloved,”
“blessed,” “precious,” etc. (Mahboobeh, Mebrookeh, Nefeeseh,
etc.) 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;
as “Aboo-'Alee”2 (Father of 'Alee), “Ibn-Ahmad” (Son
of Ahmad), etc.:—a surname of honour, or a nickname; as
“Noor-ed-Deen” (The Light of the Religion), “Et-Taweel”
(The Tall), etc.:—an appellation relating to country, birth-place,
origin, family, sect, trade or occupation, etc.; as “Er-Rasheedee”
(of the town of Rasheed), “Es-Sabbágh” (The Dyer), “Et-Tágir”
(The Merchant). The second kind of surname, and that
relating to country, etc., 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 who 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 sometimes 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 white face veil, like their mothers. When a boy is two or
three years old, or often earlier, his head is shaven; a tuft of hair
only being left on the crown, and another over the forehead,1
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:2 and
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 woman's apartments), or, at least, in the house:
sometimes the boy continues thus an effeminate prisoner until a
master, hired to instruct him daily, has taught him to read and
write. But it is important to observe, that an affectionate respect
for parents and elders inculcated in the hareem fits the boy for an
abrupt introduction into the world, as will presently be shown.
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 estimation 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,
especially 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.1

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 undutiful child is very seldom heard of among the
Egyptians or the Arabs in general. Among 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 shown
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.2 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 Ramadán
(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 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 uncommon to see, in the city
in which I am writing, a lady shuffling along in her ample tób
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, and the tip of a finger or two showing 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 surprised me so much as sights of this
kind on my first 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 excessively
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 hareem. 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 common to see half a dozen or more flies in each eye,
unheeded and unmolested. 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 in indigent circumstances, generally cause him to be
paraded through several streets in the neighbourhood of their
dwelling. They mostly avail themselves of the occurrence of a
bridal procession, to lessen the expenses of the parade: and, in
this case, the boy and his attendants lead the procession. He
generally wears a red Kashmeer turban; but, in other respects, is
dressed as a girl, with a yelek and saltah, and with a kurs, safa,
and other female ornaments, to attract the eye, and so divert it
from his person.2 These articles of dress are of the richest
description that can be procured: they are usually borrowed from
some lady, and much too large to fit the boy. A horse, handsomely
caparisoned, is also borrowed to convey him; and in his
hand is placed a folded embroidered handkerchief, which he constantly
holds before his mouth in his right hand, to hide part of
his face, and thus protect himself from the evil eye. He is
preceded by a servant of the barber, who is the operator, and by
three or more musicians, whose instruments are commonly a hautboy
and drums. The foremost person in the procession is
generally the barber's servant, bearing his “heml,” which is a
case of wood, of a semi-cylindrical form, with four short legs; its
front (the flat surface) covered with pieces of looking-glass and

embossed brass; and its back, with a curtain. This is merely
the barber's sign: the servant carries it in the manner represented
in the engraving here inserted. The musicians follow next (or
some of them precede the “heml”), and then follows the boy;
his horse led by a groom. Behind him walk several of his female
relations and friends. Two boys are often paraded together, and
sometimes borne by one horse. Of the bridal processions, with
which that above described is so often united, an account will be
found in the proper place. A description, also, of some further
customs observed on the occasion of a circumcision, and particularly
of a more genteel but less general mode of celebrating that
event, will be given in another chapter, relating to various private
festivities.1

The parents seldom devote much of their time or attention to
the intellectual education of their children; generally contenting
themselves with instilling into their young minds a few principles
of religion, and then submitting them, if they can afford to do so,
to the instruction of a schoolmaster. As early as possible, the
child is taught to say, “I testify that there is no deity but God;
and I testify that Mohammad is God's Apostle.” He receives
also lessons of religious pride, and learns to hate the Christians,
and all other sects but his own, as thoroughly as does the Muslim
in advanced age. Most of the children of the higher and middle
classes, and some of those of the lower orders, are taught by the
schoolmaster to read, and to recite and chant2 the whole or
certain portions of the Kur-án by memory. They afterwards
learn the most common rules of arithmetic.

Schools are very numerous, not only in the metropolis, but in
every large town; and there is one, at least, in every considerable
village. Almost every mosque, “sebeel” (or public fountain),
and “hód” (or drinking-place for cattle) in the metropolis has a
“kuttáb” (or school) attached to it, in which children are instructed
for a very trifling expense; the “sheykh” or “fikee”3

PARADE PREVIOUS TO CIRCUMCISION.

(the master of the school) receiving from the parent of each pupil
half a piaster (about five farthings of our money), or something
more or less, every Thursday.1 The master of a school attached
to a mosque or other public building in Cairo also generally
receives yearly a tarboosh, a piece of white muslin for a turban, a
piece of linen, and a pair of shoes; and each boy receives, at the
same time, a linen skull cap, four or five cubits2 of cotton cloth,
and perhaps half a piece (ten or twelve cubits) of linen, and a
pair of shoes, and, in some cases, half a piaster or a piaster.
These presents are supplied by funds bequeathed to the school,
and are given in the month of Ramadán. The boys attend only
during the hours of instruction, and then return to their homes.
The lessons are generally written upon tablets of wood, painted
white; and when one lesson is learnt, the tablet is washed and
another is written. They also practise writing upon the same
tablet. The schoolmaster and his pupils sit upon the ground,
and each boy has his tablet in his hands, or a copy of the Kur-án,
or of one of its thirty sections, on a little kind of desk of palmsticks.
All who are learning to read, recite, or chant their lessons
aloud, at the same time rocking their heads or bodies incessantly
backwards and forwards; which practice is observed by almost
all persons in reciting the Kur-án; being thought to assist the
memory. The noise may be imagined.3

The boys first learn the letters of the alphabet; next, the vowel-points
and other orthographical marks; and then, the numerical
value of each letter of the alphabet.4 Previously to this third
stage of the pupil's progress, it is customary for the master to
ornament the tablet with black and red ink, and green paint, and
to write upon it the letters of the alphabet in the order of their
respective numerical values, and convey it to the father, who
returns it with a piaster or two placed upon it. The like is also
done at several subsequent stages of the boy's progress, as when
he begins to learn the Kur-án, and six or seven times as he
proceeds in learning the sacred book; each time the next lesson
being written on the tablet. When he has become acquainted with
the numerical values of the letters, the master writes for him some

simple words, as the names of men; then, the ninety-nine names
or epithets of God: next, the Fat'hah, or opening chapter of the
Kur-án, is written upon his tablet, and he reads it repeatedly
until he has perfectly committed it to memory. He then proceeds
to learn the other chapters of the Kur-án: after the first chapter
he learns the last; then the last but one; next the last but two,
and so on, in inverted order, ending with the second; as the
chapters in general successively decrease in length from the second
to the last inclusively. It is seldom that the master of a school
teaches writing; and few boys learn to write unless destined for
some employment which absolutely requires that they should do
so; in which latter case they are generally taught the art of
writing, and likewise arithmetic, by a “kabbánee,” who is a
person employed to weigh goods in a market or bázár, with the
steelyard. Those who are to devote themselves to religion, or to
any of the learned professions, mostly pursue a regular course of
study in the great mosque El-Azhar.

The schoolmasters in Egypt are mostly persons of very little
learning: few of them are acquainted with any writings except
the Kur-án, and certain prayers, which, as well as the contents of
the sacred volume, they are hired to recite on particular occasions.
I was lately told of a man who could neither read nor write
succeeding to the office of a schoolmaster in my neighbourhood.
Being able to recite the whole of the Kur-án, he could hear the
boys repeat their lessons: to write them, he employed the
“'areef” (or head boy and monitor in the school), pretending
that his eyes were weak. A few days after he had taken upon
himself this office, a poor woman brought a letter for him to read
to her from her son, who had gone on pilgrimage. The fikee
pretended to read it, but said nothing; and the woman, inferring
from his silence that the letter contained bad news, said to him,
‘Shall I shriek?” He answered “Yes.” “Shall I tear my
clothes?” she asked: he replied “Yes.” So the poor woman
returned to her house, and with her assembled friends performed
the lamentation and other ceremonies usual on the occasion of a
death. Not many days after this, her son arrived, and she asked
him what he could mean by causing a letter to be written stating
that he was dead? He explained the contents of the letter, and
she went to the schoolmaster and begged him to inform her why
he had told her to shriek and to tear her clothes, since the letter
was to inform her that her son was well, and he was now arrived
at home. Not at all abashed, he said, “God knows futurity!

How could I know that your son would arrive in safety? It was
better that you should think him dead than be led to expect to
see him and perhaps be disappointed.” Some persons who were
sitting with him praised his wisdom, exclaiming, “Truly, our new
fikee is a man of unusual judgment!” and, for a little while, he
found that he had raised his reputation by this blunder.1

Some parents employ a sheykh or fikee to teach their boys
at home. The father usually teaches his son to perform the
“wudoó,” and other ablutions, and to say his prayers, and instructs
him in other religious and moral duties to the best of his
ability. The Prophet directed his followers to order their children
to say their prayers when seven years of age, and to beat
them if they did not do so when ten years old; and at the latter
age to make them sleep in separate beds. In Egypt, however,
very few persons pray before they have attained to manhood.

The female children are very seldom taught to read or write;
and not many of them, even among the higher orders, learn to
say their prayers. Some of the rich engage a “sheykhah” (or
learned woman) to visit the hareem daily; to teach their daughters
and female slaves to say their prayers, and to recite a few
chapters of the Kur-án; and sometimes to instruct them in reading
and writing; but these are very rare accomplishments for
females, even of the highest class in Egypt.2 There are many
schools in which girls are taught plain needlework, embroidery,
etc. In families in easy circumstances a “m'allimeh,” or female
teacher of such kinds of work, is often engaged to attend the girls
at their own home.

As the most important branch of their education, and the main
foundation of their manners and customs, the religion and laws
of the people who are the subject of these pages must be well
understood—not only in their general principles, but in many
minor points—before we can proceed to consider their social
condition and habits in the state of manhood.

A difference of opinion among Muslims, respecting some
points of religion and law, has given rise to four sects, which
consider each other orthodox as to fundamental matters, and call
themselves “Sunnees,” or followers of the traditions; while they
designate all other Muslims by the term “Shiya'ees,” signifying,
according to their acceptation, “heretics.” The Sunnees alone
are the class which we have to consider. The four sects into
which they are divided are the “Hanafees,” “Sháfe'ees,” “Málikees,”
and “Hambel'ees,”—so called from the names of the
respective doctors whose tenets they have adopted. The Turks
are of the first sect, which is the most reasonable. The inhabitants
of Cairo, a small proportion excepted (who are Hanafees),
are either Sháfe'ees or Málikees; and it is generally said that
they are mostly of the former of these sects, as are also the people
of Arabia; those of the Sharkeeyeh, on the east of the Delta,
Sháfe'ees; those of the Gharbeeyeh, or Delta, Sháfe'ees, with a
few Málikees; those of the Boheyreh, on the west of the Delta,
Málikees. The inhabitants of the Sa'eed, or the valley of Upper
Egypt, are likewise, with few exceptions, Málikees; so also are
the Nubians, and the Western Arabs. To the fourth sect very
few persons in the present day belong. All these sects agree in
deriving their code of religion and law from four sources; namely,
the Kur-án, the traditions of the Prophet, the concordance of his
early disciples, and analogy.

The religion which Mohammad taught is generally called by
the Arabs “El-Islám. “Eemán” and “Deen” are the particular
terms applied, respectively, to faith and practical religion.

The grand principles of the faith are expressed in two articles,
the first of which is this—
“There is no deity but God.”

God, who created all things in heaven and in earth, who

preserveth all things, and decreeth all things, who is without
beginning, and without end, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-present,
is one. His unity is thus declared in a short chapter of
the Kur-án1: “Say, He is God; one [God]. God is the Eternal.
He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; and there is none equal
unto Him.” He hath no partner, nor any offspring, in the creed
of the Muslim. Though Jesus Christ (whose name should not
be mentioned without adding, “on whom be peace”) is believed
to have been born of a pure virgin, by the miraculous operation
of God,2 without any natural father, to be the Messiah, and “the
Word of God, which He transmitted unto Mary, and a Spirit
[proceeding] from Him,”3 yet he is not called the Son of God;
and no higher titles are given to him than those of a Prophet and
Apostle; he is even considered as of inferior dignity to Mohammad,
inasmuch as the Gospel is held to be superseded by the
Kurán. The Muslim believes that Seyyidna 'Eesa 4 (or “our
Lord Jesus”), after He had fulfilled the object of His mission, was
taken up unto God from the Jews, who sought to slay Him; and
that another person, on whom God had stamped the likeness of
Christ, was crucified in His stead.5 He also believes that Christ
is to come again upon the earth, to establish the Muslim religion,
and perfect peace and security, after having killed Antichrist, and
to be a sign of the approach of the last day.

Mohammad is believed by his followers to have been the last
and greatest of Prophets and Apostles.6 Six of these—namely,
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad—are
believed each to have received a revealed law, or system of religion

and morality. That, however, which was revealed to Adam
was abrogated by the next; and each succeeding law, or code of
laws, abrogated the preceding, though all are believed to have
been the same in every essential point; therefore, those who professed
the Jewish religion from the time of Moses to that of Jesus
were true believers, and those who professed the Christian religion
(uncorrupted, as the Muslims say, by the tenet that Christ was
the son of God) until the time of Mohammad are held, in like
manner, to have been true believers. But the copies of the
Pentateuch, the Psalms of David (which the Muslims also hold
to be of divine origin), and the Gospels now existing, are believed
to have been so much altered as to contain very little of
the true word of God. The Kur-án is believed to have suffered
no alteration whatever.

It is further necessary that the Muslim should believe in the
existence of angels, and of good and evil genii; the evil genii
being devils, whose chief is Iblees:1 also, in the immortality of
the soul, the general resurrection and judgment, in future rewards
and punishments in Paradise and Hell, in the balance in which
good and evil works shall be weighed, and in the bridge “Es-Sirát
(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-Islám 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 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,2 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 our first parents. 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.1
Women are not to be excluded from Paradise, according to the
faith of El-Islám; though it has been asserted, by many Christians,
that the Muslims believe women to have no souls. In
several places in the Kur-án, Paradise is promised to all true
believers, whether males or females. It is the doctrine of the
Kur-án 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”), “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.”2 We are further told, that all superfluities
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 Isráfeel, and many other gratifications of the senses, will
charm 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.3—

The Muslim must also believe in the examination of the dead
in the sepulchre, by two angels, called Munkar and Nekeer, of
terrible aspect, who will cause the body (to which the soul shall,
for the time, be re-united) to sit upright in the grave,1 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 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 important 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.2

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.3 The ablution called
“el-wudoó,” which is preparatory to prayer, I shall now describe.
The purifications just before alluded to are a part of the wudoó:
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 performed in the mosque or in the house, in
public or in private. There is in every mosque a tank (called
“meydaäah”) or a “hanafeeyeh,” which is a raised reservoir, with
spouts round it, from which the 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
meydaäh 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
wudoó.

The person, having tucked up his sleeves a little higher than
his elbows, says, in a low voice, or inaudibly, “I purpose performing
the wudoó, for prayer.”1 He then washes his hands
three times; saying, in the same manner as before, “In the
name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful! Praise be to
God, who hath sent down water for purification, and made
El-Islám to be a light and a conductor, and a guide to Thy
gardens, the gardens of delight, and to Thy mansion, the mansion
of peace.” Then he rinses his mouth three times, throwing the
water into it with his right hand;2 and in doing this he says,
“O God, assist me in the reading of Thy book, and in commemorating
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, “O God, make me to smell the odours of Paradise, and
bless me with its delights; 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, “O 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.”3
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, “O God, give me my book in my right hand;4 and

reckon with me with an easy reckoning.” In the same manner
he washes the left hand and arm, saying, “O 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, “O 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 have 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 fore-fingers 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, “O God, make me to hear good.”
Next he wipes 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, “O 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, “O God, make firm
my feet upon the Sirát, on the day when feet shall slip upon it:”
on washing the left foot, he says, “O God, make my labour to
be approved, and my sin forgiven, and my works accepted,
merchandise that shall not perish, by Thy pardon, O Mighty!
O very Forgiving! by Thy mercy, O most Merciful of those who
show mercy!” After having thus completed the ablution, he
says, looking towards heaven, “Thy perfection, O 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-án.

The wudoó is generally performed in less than two minutes;
most persons hurrying through the act, as well as omitting almost
all the prayers, etc., 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 performance of this ablution. When water
cannot be easily procured, or would be injurious to the health of
the individual, he may perform the ablution with dust or sand.
This ceremony is called “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, excepting on particular occasions—
as on the morning of Friday, and on the two grand festivals, etc.,1
when it is called “ghusl.”

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 “seggádeh”)
about the size of a wide hearth-rug, having a niche represented
upon it, the point of which is turned towards Mekkeh.2 It is
reckoned sinful to pass near before a person engaged in prayer.

Prayer is called “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 many who scarcely ever pray.
Certain portions of the ordinary prayers are called “fard,” which

are appointed by the Kur-án; 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,1 or rather, about four minutes later; the second, at the
“'eshë,” or nightfall, when the evening has closed, and it is quite
dark;2 the third, at the “subh” or “fegr;” i.e., daybreak;3
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.4 Each
period of prayer ends when the next commences, excepting 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 worshipped 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
commencement of the periods above mentioned: they may be
said after, but not before. The several times of prayer are announced
by the “muëddin” of each mosque. Having ascended
to the gallery of the “mád'neh,” or menaret, he chants the
“adán,” or call to prayer, which is as follows: “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.)5 “God is most Great!” (twice.) “There
is no deity but God!”—Most of the muëddins 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.1
Blind men are generally preferred for the office of muëddins,
that the hareems and terraces of surrounding houses may not be
overlooked from the mád'nehs.

Two other calls to prayer are made during the night, to rouse
those persons who desire to perform supererogatory acts of devotion.2
A little after midnight, the muëddins of the great royal
mosques in Cairo (i.e., of each of the great mosques founded by
a Sultán, which is called “Gámë, Sultánee”), and of some other
large mosques, ascend the mád'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 commenced by chanting the common
adán, 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,'3 ‘though the infidels be averse'4 [thereto]. There 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, O Lord, Thy servant
and Thy poor dependent, the endower 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!—O Lord!”5 (three times.)
“Thou art He who ceaseth not to be distinguished 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 bestowest Thy beneficence upon
the servant, and comfortest him, O 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 perfection [I extol]: exalted be His name: [I extol]
the perfection of God.”

About an hour before daybreak, the muëddins of most mosques
chant the second call, named the “Ebed,” and so called from the
occurrence of that word near the commencement.1 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 Existing, 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, nor any offspring. His perfection
[I extol]: 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 [I extol]: 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, O 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 numbered 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;2 whereupon the mountain was reduced
to dust,3 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, O comely of countenance! O Apostle of God!

Blessing and peace be on thee, O 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!”
etc., to the end of the call to morning-prayer. “O God, favour
and preserve and bless the blessed 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, O our
lord El-Hoseyn, and with thee, O Aboo-Farrág,1 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.2

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
many rek'ahs (sunneh or fard) the morning-prayers (or the noon,
etc.) 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!”
(“Alláhu Akbar.”) This ejaculation is called the “tekbeer.”
He then proceeds to recite the prayers of the prescribed number
of rek'ahs,3 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 Fát'hah, or opening chapter of the Kur-án,4 and

after it three or more other verses, or one of the short chapters,
of the Kur-án—very commonly the 112th chapter—but without
repeating the bismillah (in the name of God, etc.) before the
second recitation. He then says, “God is most Great!” and
makes, at the same time, an inclination 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 God hear him
who praiseth Him. Our Lord, praise be unto Thee!” Then,

POSTURES OF PRAYERS, (PART 1.)

raising his head and body, he repeats, “God is most Great!”
He next drops gently upon his 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), sinks backwards upon his heels, and
places his hands upon his thighs, saving, 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.

POSTURES OF PRAYER. (PART II.)

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 Fát'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, O
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 hand1 (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,” etc., 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;2 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 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
supererogatory acts, remains sitting (but may then sit more at his
ease), and recites the “A'yet el-Kursee,” or Throne-Verse, which
is the 256th of the 2nd chapter of the Kur-án;3 and adds, “O
High! O 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 odoriferous or
precious wood, or of coral, or of certain fruit-stones, or seeds,
etc.

Any wandering of the eyes, or of the mind, a coughing, or the
like, answering a question, or any action not prescribed to be
performed, 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 supererogatory 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, excepting 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 the noon of Friday; but there are additional rites performed
by the Imám 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 the 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,
excepting during the time of prayer, according to the precept of
the Kur-án, ch. lxii., vv. 9 and 10.

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 “gámë'.” The mosques of

Cairo are so numerous, that none of them is inconveniently

INTERIOR OF A MOSQUE.

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 mehráb (or niche) which
marks the direction of Mekkeh; and to the right of this is the
“mimbar” (or pulpit). Opposite the mehráb, 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-án, 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-án (which
form long friezes, having a pleasing effect), 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.1

The Prophet did not forbid women to attend public prayers in
a mosque, but pronounced it better for them to pray in private:
in 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 themselves 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 “Názir” (or
warden), who is the trustee of the funds, which arise from lands,
houses, etc., bequeathed to the mosque by the founder and
others, and who appoints the religious ministers and the inferior
servants. Two “Imáms” 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 “Imám Rátib,” or ordinary Imám, 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 Imám. There are also to each mosque one or
more “muëddins” (to chant the call to prayer), and “bowwábs”
(or door-keepers), according as there are one or more mád'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 sákiyeh (or water-wheel), by which the tank or
fountain, and other receptacles for water, necessary to the performance
of ablutions, are supplied. The Imáms, 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 Imáms is very different, in most respects,
from that of Christian priests. They have no authority above
other persons, and do not enjoy any respect buy what their
reputed piety or learning may obtain 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 Imám of a mosque may be displaced by the
warden of that mosque, and, with his employment and salary,
loses the title of Imám, and has no better chance of being again
chosen for religious minister than any other person competent
to perform the office. The Imáms obtain their livelihood 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 2/5d. of our money) per month; and that of an ordinary Imám,
about five piasters. Some of them engage in trade; several of
them are “'attárs” (or druggists and perfumers), and many of
them are schoolmasters: those who have no regular occupations
of these kinds often recite the Kur-án 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 'eshë, 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 (excepting 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,
etc.) before which no Frank, or 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
muëddins of the mosques ascend to the galleries of the mád'nehs,
and chant the “Selám,” 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, O thou
of great dignity! O 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 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
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 prostration: 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 adán of noon, or just before. When a person goes at, or
a little after, the Selám, 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 Selám, is occupied in
reciting (usually without book) the Soorat el-Kahf (the 18th
chapter of the Kur-án), or a part of it; for, generally, he has not
finished it before the adán of noon, when he stops. All the congregation,
as soon as they hear the adán (which is the same as on
other days), sit on their knees and feet. When the adán is finished,
they stand up, and perform, each separately, two1 rek'ahs, “sunnet
el-gum'ah” (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 doorway, with his right side towards the kibleh, holds this
sword in his right hand, resting the point on the ground. In this
position he says, “Verily God favoureth, and His angels bless, the
Prophet. O ye who believe, bless him, and greet him with a
salutation!”2 Then one or more persons, called “Muballighs,”
stationed on the dikkeh, chant the following, or similar words.3
“O God! favour and preserve and bless the most noble of the
Arabs and 'Agam [or foreigners], the Imám of Mekkeh and El-Medeeneh
and the Temple, to whom the spider showed favour,
and wove its web in the cave; and whom the dabb4 saluted, and

before whom the moon was cloven in twain, our lord Mohammad,
and his Family and Companions!” The Murakkee then recites
the adán (which the Muëddins have already chanted): after every
few words he pauses, and the Muballighs on the dikkeh repeat
the same words in a sonorous chant.1 Before the adán is finished,
the Khateeb, or Imám, 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 profession 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 adán, the former
repeats a tradition of the Prophet, saying, “The Prophet (upon
whom be blessing and peace!) hath said, ‘If thou say unto thy
companion while the Imám 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 sword2 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.3 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
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!4 [I extol] His perfection, exempting Him from

the association of any other deity with Him. He hath well considered
what He hath formed, and established 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 hat 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.
O God! favour and preserve and bless 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
preserve them amply! 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 predecessors, 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. O 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 shall be relieved. Is any of you
determining upon diligence [in doing good] in the year of 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
incumbent,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. 3—The Apostle of God (God favour and preserve 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
excellent fast, after Ramadán, is that of the month of God, El-Moharram.”'

The Khateeb, having concluded his exhortation, says to the
congregation, “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, “A'meen!
A'meen! (Amen! Amen!) O Lord of all creatures!” —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 disbelieveth: and I testify that our lord and our
prophet Mohammad is His servant and His apostle, the lord of
mankind, the intercessor, the accepted intercessor, on the day of
assembling: God favour him and his family as long as the eye
seeth and the ear heareth! O 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 favoureth, and His angels bless, the
Prophet: O ye who believe, bless him, and greet him with a
salutation!”2 O God! favour Mohammad and the family of
Mohammad, as Thou favouredst Ibráheem3 and the family of
Ibráheem; and bless Mohammad and the family of Mohammad,
as Thou blessedst Ibráheem and the family of Ibráheem 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 ‘Osmán, and 'Alee;
and be Thou well pleased, O God! with the six who remained
of the ten noble and just persons who swore allegiance
to thy Prophet Mohammad (God favour and preserve
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-Rahmán Ibn-'Owf, and Aboo-'Obeydeh 'A'mir
Ibn-El-Garráh; and with all the Companions of the Apostle of
God! (God favour and preserve him!); and be Thou well pleased,
O 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, O God! with their mother,
the daughter of the Apostle of God (God favour and preserve
him!), Fátimeh Ez-Zahra, and with their grandmother Khadeegeh

El-Kubra, and with 'A'isheh, 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! O 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, O Lord of all
creatures! O God! aid El-Islám, 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 Sultán, son of the
Sultán, the Sultán Mahmood1 Khán: may God assist him, and
prolong [his reign]! O God! assist him, and assist his armies!
O Thou Lord of the religion, and of the world present, and the
world to come! O Lord of all creatures! O God! assist the
forces of the Muslims, and the armies of the Unitarians! O God!
frustrate the infidels and polytheists, thine enemies, the enemies
of the religion! O God! invert their banners, and ruin their
habitations, and give them and their wealth as booty to the
Muslims!2 O 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, O Lord of all creatures! 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,
O Lord of all creatures! ‘O 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. ‘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 will remember you: and thank Him; He will increase
to you [your blessings]. Praise be to God, the Lord of all
creatures!”

During the rise of the Nile, a good inundation is also prayed for
in this Khutbeh. The Khateeb, or Imám, having ended it, descends
from the pulpit, and the Muballighs chant the “ikámeh” (described
in page 66): the Imám, stationed before the niche, then
recites the “fard” 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 Imám in
the various postures. Those who are of the Málikee sect then
leave the mosque; and so also do many persons of the other
sects: but some of the Sháfe'ees and Hanafees (there are scarcely
any Hambel'ees in Cairo) remain, and recite the ordinary fard
prayers of noon; forming a number of separate groups, in each
of which one acts as Imám. 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 Ramadán
(the month of abstinence), on the occasion of an eclipse of the
sun or moon, for rain, previously to the commencement of battle,
in pilgrimage, and at funerals.

I have spoken thus fully of Muslim worship because my countrymen
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 visitors generally say, “We
ask thy intercession, O 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”:
others, called “sadakah,” are voluntary. The former, or obligatory
alms, were, in the earlier ages of El-Islám, collected by
officers appointed by the sovereign, for pious uses, such as building
mosques, etc.; but now it is left to the Muslim's conscience 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,
generally in the proportion of one in forty, two in a hundred and
twenty; of camels, for every five, a ewe; or for twenty-five, a
pregnant camel; and likewise of money, and, among the Hanafees,
of merchandize, etc. He who has money to the amount of
two hundred dirhems (or drams) of silver, or twenty mitkáls (i.e.,
thirty drams) of gold (or, among the Hanafees, the value of the

above in gold or silver ornaments, utensils, etc.), 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 Ramadán1 every day, from the first
appearance of daybreak, or rather from the hour when there is
sufficient light for a person to distinguish plainly a white thread
from a black thread2 (about two hours before sunrise in Egypt),
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 Ramadán 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 Ramadán; 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 Ramadán 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 Ramadán 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 Ramadán; 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 Ramadán, and that which succeeds the
pilgrimage, it is unlawful to do so, being expressly forbidden by
the Prophet.

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
'Arafát, unless poverty or ill health prevent him; or, if a Hanafee,
he may send a deputy, whose expenses he must pay.4 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-hágg”1 (or the
pilgrim): the final object of the pilgrimage is Mount 'Arafát,
six hours' journey distant from Mekkeh. During his performance
of the required ceremonies in Mekkeh, and also during his
journey to 'Arafát, and until his completion of the pilgrimage, the
Muslim wears a peculiar dress, called “ehrám” (vulgarly herám),
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 'Arafát 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 Mina (or, as it is more commonly called,
Muna), they complete the ceremonies of the pilgrimage by a
sacrifice (of one or more male sheep, 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 new 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 have been offered up by his father; for it is the
general opinion of the Muslims that it was this son, not Isaac,
who was to have been sacrificed by his father.

The two festivals called “el-'Eed es-Sugheiyir,”2 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 celebrated 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-Islám, who have been the first
aggressors, 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-Islám excepting women and children,
whom they are to make slaves:1 but the precepts on which this
assertion is founded relate to the Pagan Arabs, who had violated
their oaths and long persevered 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-Islám 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.

There are certain prohibitory laws in the Kur-án 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, etc., 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 intoxicating 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-án; 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 unwholesome
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 an account of its extremely filthy habits.3
Most animals prohibited 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 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!” 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 made
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 also 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, etc., are lawful food,
and may either be shot, or killed by a dog, provided the name of
God was uttered at the time of discharging the arrow, etc., or
slipping the dog, and he (the dog) has not eaten any part of the
prey. This animal, however, is considered very unclean: the
Sháfe'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, etc. 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,1 and all games of chance;
and likewise the making of images or pictures of anything that
has life.2 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 civil and criminal laws are chiefly and immediately derived
from the Kur-án3; but, in many important cases, this highest
authority affords no precept. In most of these cases the Traditions
of the Prophet direct the decisions of the judge.4 There
are, however, some important cases, and many of an inferior kind,
respecting which both the Kur-án and the Traditions are silent or
undecisive. 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 Imáms, or
founders of the four orthodox sects of El-Islám; generally on the
authority of the Imám of that sect to which the ruling power
belongs, which sect, in Egypt, and throughout the Turkish
Empire, is that of the Hanafees: or, if none of the decisions of
the Imám 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-án 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-án, and the permission of
concubinage, 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 of 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 the Mosaic
code allowed God's chosen people, for the hardness of their hearts,
to put away their wives, and forbade neither polygamy 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 waves 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, “Take in
marriage, of the women who please you, two, three, or four; but
if ye fear that ye cannot act 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 later clearly shows 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 of offspring
must follow the father's faith,1 and the wife does not
inherit when the father dies. A Muslim'eh, however, is not
allowed under any circumstances, but when force is employed, to
marry a man who is not of her own faith. A man is forbidden,
by the Kur-án2 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,3 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, excepting 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 Kádee, acting for her as he pleases.4
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.1

A man may divorce his wife twice, and each time take her
back without any ceremony, excepting 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 been married and divorced by another
husband, who must have consummated his marriage with her.2
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; and she
takes away with her the furniture, etc., which she brought at her
marriage. He may thus put her away from mere dislike,3 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 Kádee's court is generally necessary
to compel the man to divorce her; and she forfeits the above-mentioned
remnant of the dowry.

The first and second divorce, if made without any mutual
agreement for a compensation from the woman, or a pecuniary
sacrifice on her part, is termed “talák 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, etc.), or for an additional sum, he cannot take
her again but by her own consent, and by a new contract. This
is a “talák báïn” (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 husband. 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, and may be compelled to
do so by the law of the Sháfe'ees, and by the law of the Málikees,
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 to lawful commands of her husband,
he may, and generally does, take her, or two witnesses1
against her, to the Kádee's court, to prefer a complaint against
her; and, if the case be proved, a certificate is written declaring
the woman “náshizeh,” or rebellious against her husband. This
process is termed “writing a woman náshizeh.” 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 afterwards, 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 Kádee'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 “náshizeh,” 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 her be appropriately inserted, with a statement of the
principal laws respecting concubines and their offspring, etc.—
The slaves 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 at the discretion
of the judge) if he do so wantonly. He may give or sell his
slaves, excepting 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 relation, 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 immediate
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 obtained 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, the 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 Muslim'eh, 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 Muslim'eh 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 which she bears to him is free, if he acknowledge
it to be his own; but if not, it is his slave. In the former case
the mother cannot afterwards be sold or 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,2 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.3 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, excepting 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
payment of the legacies and debts, etc., 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-án, 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 left
no immediate descendant, the sons and daughters of his son or 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 nothing1 [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, etc.,
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 conjointly, 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.1 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 on-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, etc.], 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
that child's share [and after the payment of the legacies, etc.].
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, etc.], 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.2 No distinction 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 versâ. When
there is no legal heir, or legatee, the property falls to the government-treasury,
which is called “beyt el-mál.” The laws respecting
certain remote degrees of kindred, etc., I have not thought it
necessary to state.3 The property of the deceased is nominally
divided into keeráts (or twenty-fourth parts); and the share of
each son, or other heir, is said to be so many keeráts.

The law is remarkably lenient towards debtors. “If there be
any [debtor],” says the Kur-án,4 “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 commanded (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-án 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.1 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.2 But
these laws are amplified and explained by the same book and by
the Imáms.—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 deenárs (about £500) from him who possesses gold;
or from him who possesses silver, twelve thousand dirhems3
(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 Ramadán. 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; 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-Sháfe'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, convicted 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-án: for, with them, any single person descended from the
homicide, or from the homicide'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, 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 fly
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 intentional wounds and mutilations is allowed,
like as for murder; “eye for eye,” etc.;1 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-án,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 deenár;1 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 Sháfe'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 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 “kurbág” (a thong or whip of hippopotamus' hide,
hammered into a round form), or with a stick, generally on the
soles of the feet.2

Adultery is most severely visited: but to establish a charge of
this crime against a wife, four eye-witnesses are necessary.3 If
convicted thus, she is to be put to death by stoning.4 I need scarcely
say that cases of this kind have very seldom occurred, form the
difficulty of obtaining such testimony.5 Further laws on this subject,

and still more favourable to the women, are given in the
Kur-án1 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 prevaricators,
excepting 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] beside 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 sware 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, under
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 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.2 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-án, or the Traditions.3

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.