Chapter XIII: Character (2)

The libidinous character of the generality of the women of Egypt, and the licentious conduct of a great number of them, may be attributed to many causes; partly to the climate, and partly to their want of proper instruction, and of innocent pastimes and employments:[427] but it is more to be attributed to the conduct of the husbands themselves; and to conduct far more disgraceful to them than the utmost severity that any of them is known to exercise in the regulations of his hareem. The generality of husbands in Egypt endeavour to increase the libidinous feelings of their wives by every means in their power; though, at the same time, they assiduously study to prevent their indulging those feelings unlawfully. The women are permitted to listen, screened behind their windows of wooden lattice-work, to immoral songs and tales sung or related in the streets by men whom they pay for this entertainment; and to view the voluptuous dances of the ghawázee, and of the effeminate khäwals. The ghawázee, who are professed prostitutes, are not unfrequently introduced into the hareems of the wealthy, not merely to entertain the ladies with their dances, but to teach them their voluptuous arts; and even indecent puppets are sometimes brought into such hareems for the amusement of the inmates.—Innumerable stories of the artifices and intrigues of the women of Egypt have been related to me. The following narratives of late occurrences will serve as specimens.

A slave-dealer, who had been possessed of property which enabled him to live in comfort, but had lost the greater part of it, married a young and handsome woman in this city, who had sufficient wealth to make up for his losses. He soon, however, neglected her; and as he was past the prime of life, she became indifferent to him, and placed her affections upon another man, a dustman, who had been in the habit of coming to her house. She purchased for this person a shop close by her house; gave him a sum of money to enable him to pursue a less degraded occupation, as a seller of grain and fodder; and informed him that she had contrived a plan for his visiting her in perfect security. Her hareem had a window with hanging shutters; and almost close before this window rose a palm-tree, out-topping the house. This tree, she observed, would afford her lover a means of access to her, and of egress from her apartment in case of danger. She had only one servant, a female, who engaged to assist her in the accomplishment of her desires. Previously to her lover’s first visit to her, she desired the servant to inform her husband of what was about to take place in the ensuing night. He determined to keep watch; and having told his wife that he was going out, and should not return that night, concealed himself in a lower apartment. At night, the maid came to tell him that the visitor was in the hareem. He went up, but found the hareem-door shut. On his trying to open it, his wife screamed; her lover, at the same time, escaping from the window, by means of the palm-tree. She called to her neighbours,—“Come to my assistance! Pray come! There is a robber in my house!” Several of them soon came; and finding her locked in her room, and her husband outside the door, told her there was nobody in the house but her husband and maid. She said that the man they called her husband was a robber: that her husband was gone to sleep out. The latter then informed them of what had passed, and insisted that a man was with her: he broke open the door, and searched the room; but, finding no man, was reprimanded by his neighbours, and abused by his wife for uttering a slander. The next day, his wife, taking with her, as witnesses of his having accused her of a criminal intrigue, two of the neighbours who had come in on hearing her screams for assistance, arraigned her husband at the Mahkem′eh as the slanderer of a virtuous woman without the evidence of his own sight or of other witnesses. Being convicted of this offence, he was punished with eighty stripes, in accordance with the ordinance of the Kur-án.[428] His wife now asked him if he would divorce her; but he refused. For three days after this event, they lived peaceably together. On the third night, the wife, having invited her lover to visit her, bound her husband hand and foot, while he was asleep, and tied him down to the mattress. Shortly after, her lover came up, and, waking the husband, threatened him with instant death if he should call, and remained with the wife for several hours, in his presence. As soon as the intruder had gone, the husband was unbound by his wife, and called out to his neighbours, beating her at the same time with such violence that she, also, began to call for assistance. The neighbours coming in, and seeing him in a fury, easily believed her assertion that he had become raving mad, and, trying to soothe him with kind words, and prayers that God would restore him to sanity, liberated her from his grasp. She procured, as soon as possible, a rasool from the Kádee; and went, with him and her husband and several of her neighbours who had witnessed the beating that she had received, before the judge. The neighbours unanimously declared their opinion that her husband was mad; and the Kádee ordered that he should be conveyed to the Máristán[429] (or common mad-house): but the wife, affecting to pity him, begged that she might be allowed to chain him in an apartment in her house, that she might alleviate his sufferings by waiting upon him. The Kádee assented, praising the benevolence of the woman, and praying that God might reward her. She accordingly procured an iron collar and a chain from the Máristán, and chained him in a lower apartment of her house. Every night, in his presence, her lover visited her: after which she importuned him in vain to divorce her; and when the neighbours came in daily to ask how he was, the only answer he received to his complaints and accusations against his wife was—“God restore thee! God restore thee!” Thus he continued about a month; and his wife, finding that he still persisted in refusing to divorce her, sent for a keeper of the Máristán to take him. The neighbours came round as he left the house: one exclaimed, “There is no strength nor power but in God! God restore thee!”—another said, “How sad! He was really a worthy man:”—a third remarked, “Bádingáns[430] are very abundant just now.”—While he was confined in the Máristán, his wife came daily to him, and asked him if he would divorce her. On his answering “No,” she said, “Then chained you may lie until you die; and my lover shall come to me constantly.” At length, after seven months’ confinement, he consented to divorce her; upon which she procured his liberation, and he fulfilled his promise. Her lover was of too low a grade to become her husband, so she remained unmarried, and received him whenever she pleased; but the maid revealed the true history of this affair, and it soon became a subject of common talk.

When the wife of a man of wealth or rank engages in a criminal intrigue, both she and her paramour generally incur great danger.[431]—Last year, the wife of an officer of high rank in the army took advantage of the absence of her husband from the metropolis (where he always resided with her when not on military duty) to invite a Christian merchant, of whom she had been in the habit of buying silks, to pay her a visit. He went to her house at the time appointed, and found a eunuch at the door, who took him to another house, disguised him in the loose outer garments and veil of a lady, and then brought him back, and introduced him to his mistress. He passed nearly the whole of the night with her; and, rising before she awoke, put into his pocket a purse which he had given her, and went down to the eunuch, who conducted him again to the house where he had put on his disguise: having here resumed his own outer clothes, he repaired to his shop. Soon after, the lady, who had missed the purse, came and taxed him with having taken it: she told him that she did not want money, but only desired his company; and begged him to come to her again in the ensuing evening, which he promised to do: but in the afternoon, a female servant from the house of this lady came to his shop, and told him that her mistress had mixed some poison in a bottle of water which she had ordered to be given him to drink.—This mode of revenge is said to have been often adopted when the woman’s paramour has given her even a slight offence.

It is seldom that the wife of a Muslim is guilty of a criminal intrigue without being punished with death if there be four witnesses to the fact, and they or the husband prosecute her; and not always does she escape this punishment if she be detected by any of the officers of justice: in the latter case, four witnesses are not required, and often the woman, if of a respectable family, is put to death, generally in private, on the mere arbitrary authority of the government: but a bribe will sometimes save her; for it will always be accepted, if it can with safety. Drowning is the punishment now almost always inflicted, publicly, upon women convicted of adultery in Cairo and other large towns of Egypt, instead of that ordained by the law, which is stoning.—A few months ago, a poor woman of this city married a man whose trade was that of selling fowls, and, while living with him and her mother, took three other lodgings, and married three other husbands; all of whom were generally absent from the metropolis: so she calculated that when any of these three persons came to town for a few days, she might easily find an excuse to go to him. They happened, unfortunately for her, to come to town on the same day; and all of them went, the same evening, to inquire for her at her mother’s house. Being much embarrassed by their presence, and her first husband being also with her, she feigned to be ill, and soon to become insensible; and was taken, by her mother, to an inner room. One of the husbands proposed to give her something to restore her: another wished to try a different remedy: they began to contend which was the best medicine; and one of them said, “I shall give her what I please: is not she my wife?” “Your wife!” exclaimed each of the three other husbands at the same time: “she is _my_ wife.”—Each proved his marriage: the woman was taken to the Mahkem′eh; tried; condemned to death; and thrown into the Nile.—Some time ago, when I was before in this country, a similar case occurred: a woman married three soldiers, of the nizám, or regular troops. She was buried in a hole, breast-deep, and then shot.

A woman may sometimes, but very rarely, trust in palliating circumstances, or the support of powerful friends, to save her from the penalty of death, in case of her detection in a criminal intercourse; as in the following instance.—The Básha, last year, gave one of the slaves in his hareem in marriage to a rich slave-merchant, from whom he had purchased many of his memlooks and female slaves. This man was not only unfaithful to her, but utterly neglected her; and she, in consequence, formed an improper intimacy with a merchant of whom she was a frequent customer. One day, when her husband was out, a black slave belonging to him happened to see a man’s head at a small aperture in a window of the hareem. He immediately went up to search the room of the wife; who, hearing him coming, locked her paramour in an adjoining closet. The slave broke open the door of the closet; and the man within rushed at him with a dagger which he wore in his girdle; but the former seized the blade in his hand; and the woman held him until her lover had escaped: she then kissed the slave’s hand, and implored him not to cause her death by informing her husband of what had passed: she, however, found him inexorable: he immediately went to his master, showing his bleeding hand, and telling him the cause of the wound. The woman, meanwhile, fled to the Básha’s hareem, for protection. Her husband demanded of the Básha that she should be given up, and put to death; and, the request being deemed a proper one, she was brought before her former master to answer for her crime. She threw herself at his feet; kissed the skirt of his clothing; and acquainted him with her husband’s vicious conduct, and his utter neglect of her; and the Básha, feeling _himself_ insulted by the husband’s conduct, spat in his face; and sent back the wife to his own hareem. Her paramour did not live long after this: he was smothered in the house of some courtesans; but none of these women was punished, as it could not be proved which of them committed the act.

For their sentiments with regard to women, and their general conduct towards the fair sex, the Egyptians, in common with other Muslims, have been reprehended with too great severity. It is true that they do not consider it necessary, or even delicate, to consult the choice of a girl under age previously to giving her away in matrimony; but it is not less true that a man of the middle or higher classes, almost always, makes his choice of a wife from hearsay, or as a person blindfold; having no means of seeing her until the contract is made and she is brought to his house. It is impossible, therefore, that there should be any mutual attachment before marriage. Both sexes, in truth, are oppressed by tyrannical laws and customs; but, happily, they regard their chains as becoming and honourable: they would feel themselves disgraced by shaking them off. As to the restraint which is exercised towards the women, I have before remarked that it is in a great degree voluntary on their part, and that I believe it to be less strict in Egypt than in any other country of the Turkish empire: it is certainly far less so than it has been represented to be by many persons. They generally look upon this restraint with a degree of pride, as evincing the husband’s care for them; and value themselves upon their being hidden as treasures.[432] In good society, it is considered highly indecorous to inquire, in direct terms, respecting the health of a friend’s wife, or of any female in his house, unless she be a relation of the person who makes the inquiry.—One of my Egyptian acquaintances asking another native of this country, who had been in Paris, what was the most remarkable thing that he had seen in the land of the infidels, the latter, thinking lightly of all that he had observed really worthy of exciting the admiration of an unprejudiced and a sensible man, gave the following answer:—“I witnessed nothing so remarkable as this fact. It is a custom of every person among the rich and great, in Paris and other cities of France, frequently to invite his friends and acquaintances, both men and women, to an entertainment in his house. The rooms in which the company are received are lighted with a great number of candles and lamps. There, the men and women assemble promiscuously; the women, as you well know, unveiled; and a man may sit next to another’s wife, whom he has never seen before, and may walk, talk, and even dance with her, in the very presence of her own husband, who is neither angry nor jealous at such disgraceful conduct.”

The Egyptians are equally remarkable for generosity and cupidity. That two such opposite qualities should be united in the same mind is not a little surprising; but such is generally the case with this people. An overreaching and deceitful disposition in commercial transactions, which is too common among all nations, is one of the most notorious faults of the Egyptian: in such cases, he seldom scruples to frame a falsehood which may better his bargain. Among people who groan beneath the yoke of a tyrannical and rapacious government (and such has long been the government of Egypt), a disposition to avarice invariably predominates: for a man is naturally most tenacious of that which is most liable to be taken from him; and hence the oppressed Egyptian, when he has a sum of money which he does not require for necessary expenses, and cannot profitably employ, generally lays it out in the purchase of ornaments for his wife or wives; which ornaments he can easily convert again into money. Hence, also, it is a common practice in this country (as it is, or has been, in almost every country under similar political circumstances) for a man to hide treasure in his house, under the paved floor, or in some other part; and as many a person who does so dies suddenly, without being able to inform his family where is his “makhba,” or hiding-place, money is not unfrequently discovered on pulling down houses.—A vice near akin to cupidity, namely envy, I believe to be equally prevalent among the modern Egyptians, in common with the whole Arab race; for many of them are candid enough to confess their own opinion that this hateful disposition is almost wholly concentrated in the minds of their nation.

The Egyptians are generally honest in the payment of debts. Their Prophet asserted that even martyrdom would not atone for a debt undischarged. Few of them ever accept interest for a loan of money, as it is strictly forbidden by their law.

Constant veracity is a virtue extremely rare in modern Egypt. Falsehood was _commended_ by the Prophet when it tended to reconcile persons at variance with each other: also, when practised in order to please one’s wife; and to obtain any advantage in a war with the enemies of the faith: though highly reprobated in other cases. This offers some little palliation of the general practice of lying which prevails among the modern Arabs; for, if people are allowed to lie in certain cases, they insensibly contract a habit of doing so in others. Though most of the Egyptians often lie designedly, they are seldom heard to retract an unintentional misstatement without expressing themselves thus—“No: I beg forgiveness of God: it was so and so;” as, in stating anything of which they are not quite certain, they say, “God is all-knowing.” I may here mention (and I do it with some feeling of national pride) that, some years ago, there was an Armenian jeweller in this city (Cairo) so noted for his veracity, that his acquaintances determined to give him some appellation significant of his possessing a virtue so rare among them; and the name they gave him was “El-Ingileezee,” or _The Englishman_, which has become his family name. It is common to hear tradesmen in this place, when demanding a price which they do not mean to abate, say, “One word; the word of the English:” they also often say, “The word of the Franks,” in this sense: but I have never heard any particular nation thus honourably distinguished excepting the English and the Maghrab′ees, or Western Arabs, which latter people have acquired this reputation by being rather more veracious than most other Arabs.

I have before mentioned the practice of swearing by God which prevails among the Egyptians: I must here add, that many of them scruple not to make use of an oath with the view of obtaining credit to a falsehood. In this case, they sometimes say, “Wa-lláhi!” (“By God!”)—but more commonly, “Wallah!”—for, though the latter expression has the same meaning as the former, they pretend that it may also be used as an ejaculation in praise of God; whereas “Wa-lláhi” is a decided oath, and, if uttered to a falsehood, is a heinous sin. Such an oath, if violated, must be expiated by once feeding or clothing ten poor men, liberating a Muslim slave or captive, or fasting three days.[433] This, however, is the expiation allowed by the Kur-án only for an inconsiderate oath: yet the modern Muslims sometimes observe it in order to free themselves from the guilt of a deliberate false oath; and they generally prefer the fast to either of the other modes of expiation. There are some oaths which, I believe, few Muslims would falsely take; such as saying three times, “By God, the Great!”—and the oath upon the mus-haf (or copy of the Kur-án)—saying, “By what this contains of the word of God!”—but a form of oath that is still more to be depended upon is that of saying, “I impose upon myself divorcement” (that is, the divorce of my wife, if what I say be false); or, “I impose upon myself interdiction!” which has a similar meaning (“My wife be unlawful to me!”)—or, “I impose upon myself a triple divorcement!”—which binds by the irrevocable divorce of the wife. If a man use any one of these three forms of oath falsely, his wife, if he have but one, is divorced by the oath itself, if proved to be false, without further ceremony; and if he have two or more wives, he must, under such circumstances, choose one of them to put away. There are, however, abandoned liars who will swear falsely by the oath that is generally held most binding. A poet, speaking of a character of this description, says,—

“But Abu-l-Mo’alla is most false
When he swears by the oath of divorce.”

The generality of the Egyptians are easily excited to quarrel; particularly those of the lower orders, who, when enraged, curse each other’s fathers, mothers, beards, etc.; and lavish upon each other a variety of opprobrious epithets; such as “son of the dog, pimp, pig,” and an appellation which they think still worse than any of these, namely, “Jew.” When one curses the father of the other, the latter generally retorts by cursing the father and mother, and sometimes the whole household, of his adversary. They menace each other; but seldom proceed to blows. In a few instances, however, I have seen low persons in this country so enraged as to bite, and grasp each other by the throat. I have also witnessed many instances of forbearance on the part of individuals of the middle and lower classes, when grossly insulted: I have often heard an Egyptian say, on receiving a blow from an equal, “God bless thee!” “God requite thee good!” “Beat me again.” In general, a quarrel terminates by one or both parties saying, “Justice is against me:” often, after this, they recite the Fát’hah together; and then, sometimes, embrace and kiss one another.

The Egyptians are particularly prone to satire; and often display considerable wit in their jeers and jests. Their language affords them great facilities for punning, and for ambiguous conversation, in which they very frequently indulge. The lower order sometimes lampoon their rulers in songs, and ridicule those enactments of the government by which they themselves most suffer. I was once much amused with a song which I found to be very popular in the town and district of Aswán, on the southern frontier of Egypt: its burden was a plain invocation to the plague to take their tyrannical governor and his Copt clerk. Another song, which was popular throughout Egypt during my first visit to this country, and which was composed on the occasion of an increase of the income-tax called “firdeh,” began thus: “You who have [nothing on your head but] a libdeh! sell it, and pay the firdeh.” The libdeh, I have before mentioned, is a felt cap, which is worn under, or instead of, the turban; and the man must be very poor who has no other covering than this for his head.

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Footnote 404:

I am credibly informed that children in Egypt are often taught, at
school, a regular set of curses to denounce upon the persons and
property of Christians, Jews, and all other unbelievers in the
religion of Mohammad. See Appendix D.

Footnote 405:

Chap. v., ver. 56. Verses 62 and 63 of the same chapter explain the
reason of this precept:—“O ye who have believed, take not those who
have made your religion a laughing-stock and a jest, of those who have
received the Scripture before you, and the unbelievers [or
polytheists], as friends; (but fear God, if ye be believers;) and
[those who], when ye call to prayer, make it [namely, the prayer] a
laughing-stock and a jest. This [they do] because they are a people
who do not understand.” (The words enclosed in brackets are from the
Commentary of the Geláleyn.)

Footnote 406:

The Prophet.

Footnote 407:

Kur-án, chap. xxxix. ver. 54.

Footnote 408:

Chap. xxix., ver. 45.

Footnote 409:

In the first edition of the present work, copying Sale, who gives no
authority for the remark, I here added, “This precept is, however,
generally considered as abrogated by that of the sword.” These words
might lead the reader into error, as is shown by what I have said on
the subject of war in page 81.

Footnote 410:

Kur-án, chap. lvi. ver. 78.

Footnote 411:

They are not, however, so apathetic as some travellers have supposed;
for it is not uncommon to see them weep; and such a demonstration of
feeling is not considered by them as unmanly: even heroes are
frequently represented, in their romances and histories, as weeping
under heavy affliction.

Footnote 412:

Chap. ii., ver. 191.

Footnote 413:

Literally, “your hands;” but in the Commentary of the Geláleyn, the
meaning is said to be “yourselves.”

Footnote 414:

I think it proper to remark here, that I have good reason for
believing Burckhardt to have been misinformed when stating (see his
“Arabic Proverbs,” No. 393) that children in the East (in Egypt, etc.)
torture serpents by putting them into a leather bag, then throwing
unslaked lime upon them, and pouring water on it. I find no one who
has heard of such cruelty; and it is not likely that boys in this
country would dare to put a serpent in a bag (for they are excessively
afraid of this reptile), or would give several piasters for a bag to
destroy in this manner. The proverb upon which this statement is
founded perhaps alludes to a mode of destroying serpents; but not for
sport.

Footnote 415:

“The oppression of the Turks, rather than the justice of the Arabs,”
is a proverb often heard from the mouth of the Arab peasant; who, in
this case, applies the term “Arabs” to his own class, instead of the
Bedawees, to whom it now usually belongs. See Burckhardt’s “Arabic
Proverbs,” No. 176.

Footnote 416:

D’Herbelot mentions a somewhat similar case, in which a Turk, having
buried a favourite dog with some marks of respect, in his garden, was
accused, before the Kádee, of having interred the animal with the
ceremonies practised at the burial of a Muslim, and escaped punishment
(perhaps a severe one) by informing the judge that his dog had made a
will, leaving to him (the Kádee) a sum of money.—(Bibliothèque
Orientale, art. Cadhi.)

Footnote 417:

See Burckhardt’s Notes on the Bedouins, etc., 8vo edition, vol. i. pp.
179 and 180.

Footnote 418:

It has been remarked that this is inconsistent with the undeniable
gratitude which the Arabs feel towards God. To such an objection they
would reply, “We are entitled to the good offices of our
fellow-creatures by the law of God; but can claim no benefit from our
Maker.” I once afforded a refuge to a Bedawee who was in fear for his
life; but on parting, he gave me not a word of thanks: had he done so,
it would have implied his thinking me a person of mean disposition,
who regarded a positive duty as an act imposing obligation. Hence the
Arab usually acknowledges a benefit merely by a prayer for the long
life, etc., of his benefactor.

Footnote 419:

The name which they give to it is “’eysh,” which literally signifies
“life.”

Footnote 420:

Page 46.

Footnote 421:

Dogs, too, are eaten by many Maghrab′ees settled at Alexandria, and by
descendants of the same people; of whom there are also a few in Cairo,
in the quarter of Teyloon.

Footnote 422:

Kur-án, chap. vi., ver. 118.

Footnote 423:

To express that a person has done this, they say, “sháhad el-hawáïg,”
for “ghasal el-hawáïg wa-teshahhad ’aleyha.”

Footnote 424:

See Leviticus xix. 32.

Footnote 425:

This is not meant to reflect upon the Turks, nor upon the Arabs of the
desert.

Footnote 426:

Chap. vii., ver. 142.

Footnote 427:

In the first edition of the present work, I included, among these
supposed causes, the degree of restraint imposed upon the women, and
their seclusion from open intercourse with the other sex. This I did,
not because confinement is said to have this effect in the West,
where, being contrary to general custom, it is felt as an oppression,
but because the assertion of the Egyptians, that the Eastern women in
general are more licentiously disposed than the men, seemed to be an
argument against the main principle of the constitution of Eastern
society. I did not consider that this argument is at least
counter-balanced by what I have before mentioned, that the women who
are commonly considered the _most licentious_ (namely, those of Egypt)
are those who are said to have _most licence_.

Footnote 428:

Chap. xxiv., ver. 4.

Footnote 429:

Vulgarly called “Muristán.”

Footnote 430:

Madness is said to be more common and more violent in Egypt when the
black bádingán (or black egg-plant) is in season; that is, in the hot
weather.

Footnote 431:

“How many men, in Masr,” said one of my friends to me, “have lost
their lives on account of women! A very handsome young libertine, who
lived in this house which you now occupy, was beheaded here in the
street, before his own door, for an intrigue with the wife of a Bey,
and all the women of Masr wept for him.”

Footnote 432:

A respectable female is generally addressed, in a letter, as “the
guarded lady, and concealed jewel” (“es-sitt el-masooneh wa-l-góharah
el-meknooneh”).

Footnote 433:

Kur-án, chap. v., ver. 91.

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