Plain talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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From time to time I like reviewing times gone by. Call it curiosity about how our forefathers had pursued their daily life, or simply a desire to find out what of that life has survived until the present time. On special occasions, like Ramadan, feasts and moulids, I always refer to this one book that I regard as a companion to the life of Egyptians in the 19th century.

It is Edward William Lane's classic Manners and customs of the modern Egyptians. I read this book for the first time in 1954, when I was asked by the publisher J.M. Dent to write the introduction to an edition to be published in the Everyman Library. Of course I was flattered to be given such an important task.

Whenever I read this introduction I think of the way I learnt about my country from books written by non-Egyptians, mostly English. Lane's book was a kind of companion volume to Wilkinson's great work Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.

One point which I would like to quote from my introduction will serve to demonstrate the premise of this column: that traditions die hard. Thinking of the Turkish influence in the Egypt of the Pasha (Mohamed Ali), I wrote, "Except in a few minor instances, the superficial veneer of Turkish influence did not mislead Lane. He went deeper and was unveiled, as it were, the basic traits of Egyptian life. That is why much of what he wrote well over a hundred years ago is still so true today that it faces his present-day reader to realise that Egyptian traditions are much more deep-rooted than is generally assumed."

Which brings me to Sham El-Nessim, which we celebrated on Monday 9 April. Let's see how Lane described this festival: "A custom termed Sham el-nesseem (or the smelling of the zephyr) is observed the first day of khamiseen. Early in the morning of this day, many persons, especially women, break an onion and smell it, and in the course of the afternoon, many citizens of Cairo ride or walk a little way into the country, or go in boats, generally northwards, to take the air, as they term it, smell the air, which, on that day, they believe to have a wonderfully beautiful effect." I still remember how very early on the day of Shemm el-Neseem, my mother used to wake us by pressing an onion to our noses!

Another festival which we celebrated on 31 March was Moulid El-Nabbi (Birthday of the Prophet). It was declared an official holiday, and people celebrated it in an austere fashion. Restaurants were not allowed to serve alcoholic drinks, and radio and television presented what has come to be called "Al-Laila Al-Mohammadia" or Mohammedan Night's songs and music.

Now what does Lane tell us about the celebration of that religious occasion? "In the beginning of Rabeea-el-awwal, preparations are commenced for celebrating the festival of the birth of the prophet, which is called 'Moulid ennabi'. During the daytime, the people assembled at the principal scene of the festival, are amused by shares (or reciters of the romance of Abo- Zeyad), conjurers, buffoons etc. In some parts of the neighborhood streets, a few swings are erected, and numerous stalls for the sale of sweetmeats, etc. At night the streets are lighted with many lamps, which are mostly hung in lanterns of wood."

An interesting event Lane describes is the procession of the dervishes which takes place "every night an hour or more after midnight. During the day members of the procession carry flags, but at night they carry long staves, with a number of lamps attached to them at the upper part, and called 'menwars'.

This procession, either by day or by night is called the 'ishara' of the sect, that is the banner." And so goes on Lane to make us live every day, indeed every hour of the life of our forefathers.