DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0269
Egyptian Saints
187
the celebration of moled en-Nebi have been incorporated many features of a non-Moslem,
or even of an anti-Islamic, character. These features are as strongly marked at Cairo,
where they flourish under the very eyes of the 'ulema, as in the provinces.
The moled en-Nebi takes place in the third month of the Moslem year, and is cele-
brated at Cairo with great circumstance.
In the desert waste, between the city itself and the suburb of 'Abbassiah, around the
edge of a rectangular space several acres in extent, are put up some fifty cubical tents of
white canvas, about thirty feet high. The tents along the north, east, and west are those
belonging to the dervishes of various sects, and display through their open fronts —
they all face inwards — the usual bright colored geometrical designs and Kuranic mottoes,
which completely cover the interior of the tent material. From the top of the tents
hang large crystal chandeliers with hundreds of prism pendants and tulip-shaped cups
for candles. The tent ropes are festooned with red cotton flags bearing white stars and
crescents, while upon the ground, around the interior of the tents and across the open
fronts, are long wooden benches upon which friends of the sheykhs seat themselves from
time to time to drink coffee. The latter is prepared in small kitchen tents placed between
the larger ones. The southern end of the enclosed space is occupied by the more magni-
ficent tent of His Highness the Sultan. The tent is lined with red satin and filled with
red and gilt furniture. Hard by it stand the reception tents of the various ministries,
some of which extend over into the western side.
During the day the whole place is almost deserted, but when darkness falls it is
wonderfully illuminated, and hundreds of visitors attend. Upon the eleventh and last
night some eight thousand persons gather at the celebration, which concludes with a
grand exhibition of fireworks.
Around and around the great enclosure sweeps the enormous but good natured
throng, walking at a slow pace, laughing, joking, jostling, and crowding, taking about
thirty minutes to make the complete circuit and to look in at such zikrs as are taking
place in the dervish tents at the time. Each tent has its zf/cr, at its own hour. The
devotees face each other in a double line. They sway their bodies and roll their heads,
constantly repeating some religious invocation, or simply the name of “Allah” over and
over again for an hour or more. Some of the performers are constantly falling to the
ground through ecstasy or dizziness.
The street approaching the scene of the moled is lined with booths about fifteen feet
high. A sort of stairway of shelves at the back of each booth is filled with sugar dolls,
the booth being brilliantly illuminated at night with lamps, lanterns, torches, and acety-
lene flares.
The sugar dolls are called “brides” or, less particularly, “sugar-toys ”. Both men
187
the celebration of moled en-Nebi have been incorporated many features of a non-Moslem,
or even of an anti-Islamic, character. These features are as strongly marked at Cairo,
where they flourish under the very eyes of the 'ulema, as in the provinces.
The moled en-Nebi takes place in the third month of the Moslem year, and is cele-
brated at Cairo with great circumstance.
In the desert waste, between the city itself and the suburb of 'Abbassiah, around the
edge of a rectangular space several acres in extent, are put up some fifty cubical tents of
white canvas, about thirty feet high. The tents along the north, east, and west are those
belonging to the dervishes of various sects, and display through their open fronts —
they all face inwards — the usual bright colored geometrical designs and Kuranic mottoes,
which completely cover the interior of the tent material. From the top of the tents
hang large crystal chandeliers with hundreds of prism pendants and tulip-shaped cups
for candles. The tent ropes are festooned with red cotton flags bearing white stars and
crescents, while upon the ground, around the interior of the tents and across the open
fronts, are long wooden benches upon which friends of the sheykhs seat themselves from
time to time to drink coffee. The latter is prepared in small kitchen tents placed between
the larger ones. The southern end of the enclosed space is occupied by the more magni-
ficent tent of His Highness the Sultan. The tent is lined with red satin and filled with
red and gilt furniture. Hard by it stand the reception tents of the various ministries,
some of which extend over into the western side.
During the day the whole place is almost deserted, but when darkness falls it is
wonderfully illuminated, and hundreds of visitors attend. Upon the eleventh and last
night some eight thousand persons gather at the celebration, which concludes with a
grand exhibition of fireworks.
Around and around the great enclosure sweeps the enormous but good natured
throng, walking at a slow pace, laughing, joking, jostling, and crowding, taking about
thirty minutes to make the complete circuit and to look in at such zikrs as are taking
place in the dervish tents at the time. Each tent has its zf/cr, at its own hour. The
devotees face each other in a double line. They sway their bodies and roll their heads,
constantly repeating some religious invocation, or simply the name of “Allah” over and
over again for an hour or more. Some of the performers are constantly falling to the
ground through ecstasy or dizziness.
The street approaching the scene of the moled is lined with booths about fifteen feet
high. A sort of stairway of shelves at the back of each booth is filled with sugar dolls,
the booth being brilliantly illuminated at night with lamps, lanterns, torches, and acety-
lene flares.
The sugar dolls are called “brides” or, less particularly, “sugar-toys ”. Both men