DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0271
Egyptian Saints
189
bottle used to be common, but of late years it has almost disappeared, as has also “the
nuptial bed ”, the sale of which is no longer permitted.
Trays of these smaller toys, which are nearly always made of red sugar, are hawked
Fig. 2.
about the streets from time to time and sold to children. The “brides” of
white sugar, however, only appear at the celebration of the moled en-Nebi
or on the occasion of some prominent saint’s “birthday”. The 'arusah
thus appears to be the original or essential type of these sugar dolls, the
others being subsidiary.
As the making of any human likeness is forbidden by the Kuran7 we
are here confronted with an anti-Islamic practise of considerable interest.
It seems impossible to obtain any light on it from popular sources — the
manufacturer of the dolls declared that the figures were made “to look
upon ”, and his children were unanimous in saying that they were made
“to eat”. It is, however, hardly to be doubted that we are here in the
presence of a survival from ancient times. Parturition ex-votos of terra
cotta were in use in Egypt at least as early as the XII Dynasty (fig. 2),
and the association of female figurines with the circle of ideas connected
with birth not unnaturally stimulated a coexistent belief in the efficacy of
female figurines as fertility charms. As such they were employed in Coptic
Egypt, very rude bone female figures being found in the
poorer graves8 (fig. 3, dressed; fig. 4, nude); and it is as such,
presumably, that the 'arusah was originally regarded. This
view receives support from the fact that “the bride ” is known
in Cairo not only in the form above described, but also as a
silver amulet — a rudely cruciform figure with a female face engraved on
the obverse, and the pudendum muliebre on the back. The lower parts of
these figures bear Kuranic texts on each face. It hardly seems too bold an
assumption to suppose that in the popular mind there is a vague belief that
on the anniversaries of a saint’s birth the baraka of fertility is abroad, and
that it may be absorbed by eating the emblematic 'arusah.
If now one turns from the question of the worship of particular saints
Fig. 4.
Fig. 3.
to a consideration of the broader aspects of modern Egyptian hagiolatry, a number of new
fields of investigation at once present themselves. The student is, for example, tempted
7 Kuran, Surah V, 92.
8 Cf. C. L. Wooley, 'Coptic bone figures’ (Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., vol. 29, p. 220). For other examples of these
bone figures, see W. M. F. Petrie, Ehnasya, London, 1905, pl. 42, fig. 44; Idem, Memphis I, London, 1909, pl. 41,
figs. 21, 22, and 23; L. Loat, Gurob, ad calc. M. A. Murray, Saqqarah Mastabas, pt.‘ 1, London, 1905, pl. 6, figs. 14,
15, 16.
189
bottle used to be common, but of late years it has almost disappeared, as has also “the
nuptial bed ”, the sale of which is no longer permitted.
Trays of these smaller toys, which are nearly always made of red sugar, are hawked
Fig. 2.
about the streets from time to time and sold to children. The “brides” of
white sugar, however, only appear at the celebration of the moled en-Nebi
or on the occasion of some prominent saint’s “birthday”. The 'arusah
thus appears to be the original or essential type of these sugar dolls, the
others being subsidiary.
As the making of any human likeness is forbidden by the Kuran7 we
are here confronted with an anti-Islamic practise of considerable interest.
It seems impossible to obtain any light on it from popular sources — the
manufacturer of the dolls declared that the figures were made “to look
upon ”, and his children were unanimous in saying that they were made
“to eat”. It is, however, hardly to be doubted that we are here in the
presence of a survival from ancient times. Parturition ex-votos of terra
cotta were in use in Egypt at least as early as the XII Dynasty (fig. 2),
and the association of female figurines with the circle of ideas connected
with birth not unnaturally stimulated a coexistent belief in the efficacy of
female figurines as fertility charms. As such they were employed in Coptic
Egypt, very rude bone female figures being found in the
poorer graves8 (fig. 3, dressed; fig. 4, nude); and it is as such,
presumably, that the 'arusah was originally regarded. This
view receives support from the fact that “the bride ” is known
in Cairo not only in the form above described, but also as a
silver amulet — a rudely cruciform figure with a female face engraved on
the obverse, and the pudendum muliebre on the back. The lower parts of
these figures bear Kuranic texts on each face. It hardly seems too bold an
assumption to suppose that in the popular mind there is a vague belief that
on the anniversaries of a saint’s birth the baraka of fertility is abroad, and
that it may be absorbed by eating the emblematic 'arusah.
If now one turns from the question of the worship of particular saints
Fig. 4.
Fig. 3.
to a consideration of the broader aspects of modern Egyptian hagiolatry, a number of new
fields of investigation at once present themselves. The student is, for example, tempted
7 Kuran, Surah V, 92.
8 Cf. C. L. Wooley, 'Coptic bone figures’ (Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., vol. 29, p. 220). For other examples of these
bone figures, see W. M. F. Petrie, Ehnasya, London, 1905, pl. 42, fig. 44; Idem, Memphis I, London, 1909, pl. 41,
figs. 21, 22, and 23; L. Loat, Gurob, ad calc. M. A. Murray, Saqqarah Mastabas, pt.‘ 1, London, 1905, pl. 6, figs. 14,
15, 16.