DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0039
St wan Customs
19
six candles to burn on your grave at night/’ If I am cured this offering will be given
yearly on the day of the mouled. This must be done in order to avoid future illnesses.
A thikr is held and the Koran is also recited on the days of mouleds.
Sidi Soliman is the most potent of all the sheikhs.65 He was a member of an Arabian
tribe called Beni Selim, which formerly resided at El Higaz, but migrated to Siwah at some
unknown time. His father’s name was Misallem and it is told he was a descendant of the
Prophet through his mother, although this is very doubtful. He was, when young, very
religious and very moral, but he became a sheikh by reason of certain miracles that he
performed. Some of these are known to the Siwiah and those who told me this history
say that these miracles are only a few out of many.
1. At the birth of a child the people of Siwah make a salt fish porridge. It happened that when
the wife of Sidi Soliman gave birth to her first child, there was no salt fish in Siwah. They went round
and round but they could not find even one in the whole town. Sidi Soliman was then blamed by the
women for not taking the precaution to lay in salt fish for such an occasion. He asked their pardon but
they blamed him more and more until at last he stretched his hand out of the window and brought it back
with a living fish in it. This fish,he procured from the sea, doubtless, as there are no fish at all in Siwah,
and the minimum distance from the sea to Siwah is 170 miles.
2. Sidi Soliman had a hatiah in Om Siwah. Once he came to it after sunset to pray. He dis-
mounted from his donkey to get water to make his widoo.66 He then put his hands on the sand and two
springs gushed forth, one of fresh water under his right hand, and the other of salt water under his left
hand. With these he made his widoo and prayed. It happened that after his death a donkey urinated
in the springs. The donkey died immediately and the springs disappeared.
3. When Sidi Soliman was in his hatiah he used to pray under a palm tree. The palm tree bent down
and made a natural fence around the place where he used to pray. Twenty years ago a man cut down
this palm tree and he also died.
65 Sidi Sliman, as he is called at Siwah, may be justly described as the patron saint of the Oasis, In an Arabic
account of the Egyptian Oases of which Stanley and T secured copies, he is thus referred to: “At this time died
Sidi Suleyman el-Waly, who was the son of 'Omar Mesellim el-Waly, and who at Siwah is now called 'Ammi Mesellim
[ = Uncle Messelim]. Both he and his father were Kadis of Siwah. Sidi 'Ammi Mesellim dwelt outside the town
in a place still known, and where he lies buried. Of old, the people of Tebu in the Shdan used to invade Siwah
yearly, until on a time they raided the property of Sidi 'Ammi Mesellim. He thereupon prayed God for aid against
the invaders, and they were buried to their waists in the sand. The raiders then repented and were set free. When
they had returned into their country, Sidi 'Ammi Mesellim prayed God to hide the road from thence, and to this day
it remains unknown.” This substantially agrees with version given by C. V. B. Stanley, op. cit., p. 39-40.
It may be observed that an interesting feature in this report is the mention of the Tebu raids —- yet one more
reminder of the accessibility of the Egyptian Oases from the Sudan. Our earliest mention of such raids dates from
the VI Dynasty; J. H. Breasted, Ancient records of Egypt, Chicago, 1906, vol. 1, p. 153, § 335. Circa 445 A. D. the
Blemmyes, starting from at least as far south as Nubia, harried the Oasis Magna (Khargah); Evagrius, Historia Eccle-
siastica, vol. 1, p. 7, ed. W. Reading, Cambridge, 1720. Makrizi gives us another example when he relates how “in the
year 339 [A. H. = 950-951 A. D.] the King of Nubia with a great army penetrated to the Oases, and fell upon the
inhabitants, and slew a great number of them”; Taki ed-Din el-Makrizi, trans. V. Bouriant, Description topo-
graphique et historique de 1’Egypte, Paris, 1900, pt. 2, p. 698. The latest instance was during the Mahdist rebellion,
when Khargah was raided by the Dervishes.
00 The widii is the ceremonial ablution every Moslem performs with water or with sand before prayer.
19
six candles to burn on your grave at night/’ If I am cured this offering will be given
yearly on the day of the mouled. This must be done in order to avoid future illnesses.
A thikr is held and the Koran is also recited on the days of mouleds.
Sidi Soliman is the most potent of all the sheikhs.65 He was a member of an Arabian
tribe called Beni Selim, which formerly resided at El Higaz, but migrated to Siwah at some
unknown time. His father’s name was Misallem and it is told he was a descendant of the
Prophet through his mother, although this is very doubtful. He was, when young, very
religious and very moral, but he became a sheikh by reason of certain miracles that he
performed. Some of these are known to the Siwiah and those who told me this history
say that these miracles are only a few out of many.
1. At the birth of a child the people of Siwah make a salt fish porridge. It happened that when
the wife of Sidi Soliman gave birth to her first child, there was no salt fish in Siwah. They went round
and round but they could not find even one in the whole town. Sidi Soliman was then blamed by the
women for not taking the precaution to lay in salt fish for such an occasion. He asked their pardon but
they blamed him more and more until at last he stretched his hand out of the window and brought it back
with a living fish in it. This fish,he procured from the sea, doubtless, as there are no fish at all in Siwah,
and the minimum distance from the sea to Siwah is 170 miles.
2. Sidi Soliman had a hatiah in Om Siwah. Once he came to it after sunset to pray. He dis-
mounted from his donkey to get water to make his widoo.66 He then put his hands on the sand and two
springs gushed forth, one of fresh water under his right hand, and the other of salt water under his left
hand. With these he made his widoo and prayed. It happened that after his death a donkey urinated
in the springs. The donkey died immediately and the springs disappeared.
3. When Sidi Soliman was in his hatiah he used to pray under a palm tree. The palm tree bent down
and made a natural fence around the place where he used to pray. Twenty years ago a man cut down
this palm tree and he also died.
65 Sidi Sliman, as he is called at Siwah, may be justly described as the patron saint of the Oasis, In an Arabic
account of the Egyptian Oases of which Stanley and T secured copies, he is thus referred to: “At this time died
Sidi Suleyman el-Waly, who was the son of 'Omar Mesellim el-Waly, and who at Siwah is now called 'Ammi Mesellim
[ = Uncle Messelim]. Both he and his father were Kadis of Siwah. Sidi 'Ammi Mesellim dwelt outside the town
in a place still known, and where he lies buried. Of old, the people of Tebu in the Shdan used to invade Siwah
yearly, until on a time they raided the property of Sidi 'Ammi Mesellim. He thereupon prayed God for aid against
the invaders, and they were buried to their waists in the sand. The raiders then repented and were set free. When
they had returned into their country, Sidi 'Ammi Mesellim prayed God to hide the road from thence, and to this day
it remains unknown.” This substantially agrees with version given by C. V. B. Stanley, op. cit., p. 39-40.
It may be observed that an interesting feature in this report is the mention of the Tebu raids —- yet one more
reminder of the accessibility of the Egyptian Oases from the Sudan. Our earliest mention of such raids dates from
the VI Dynasty; J. H. Breasted, Ancient records of Egypt, Chicago, 1906, vol. 1, p. 153, § 335. Circa 445 A. D. the
Blemmyes, starting from at least as far south as Nubia, harried the Oasis Magna (Khargah); Evagrius, Historia Eccle-
siastica, vol. 1, p. 7, ed. W. Reading, Cambridge, 1720. Makrizi gives us another example when he relates how “in the
year 339 [A. H. = 950-951 A. D.] the King of Nubia with a great army penetrated to the Oases, and fell upon the
inhabitants, and slew a great number of them”; Taki ed-Din el-Makrizi, trans. V. Bouriant, Description topo-
graphique et historique de 1’Egypte, Paris, 1900, pt. 2, p. 698. The latest instance was during the Mahdist rebellion,
when Khargah was raided by the Dervishes.
00 The widii is the ceremonial ablution every Moslem performs with water or with sand before prayer.