VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
VEILED MYSTERIES
OF EGYPT
AND THE RELIGION OF ISLAM
BY
S. H. LEEDER
AUTHOR OF "THE DESERT GATEWAY
WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR
G. LEKEGIAN, AND P. DITTRICH, CAIRO
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1913
TO
EDWARD BOUSFIELD DAWSON
AS A SIGN OF
AFFECTION AND GRATITUDE
259894
TO
EDWARD BOUSFIELD DAWSON
AS A SIGN OF
AFFECTION AND GRATITUDE
259894
PREFACE
THERE has always been a veil of mystery over the
religion of Islam, from its very first days. The mockery
of the Jews stung the early Moslems, who sprang from
a people keenly sensitive to ridicule, as they are even now.
The bitterest sayings of the Prophet were excited by
those who scoffed at the religious exercises of himself
and his followers.
It was mockery that led Mohammed to enjoin
secrecy for much of the liturgical worship of his people,
and possibly had something to do with the order to seal
Arabia, and the Holy Cities of Medina and Mecca
especially, against all men of a different faith. It is
the fear of mockery which closes the most sacred places
of Islam to this day, a fear which in some places engenders
a fanatical resentment against the prying of strangers.
Secrecy has told against a proper understanding of
the practices of this religion. An almost invulnerable
reticence on the part of its adherents has led the casual
or unsympathetic observer into mistaken judgments,
or has left those in deep ignorance of the truth, who,
dealing with a franker people, would, by residence amongst
them, have become familiar with the views and practices
of their neighbours. It is a rare thing in Egypt, for
instance, to find anything more than a superficial know-
ledge of Islam on the part of European residents. As
for the ordinary tourist, between the chicanery of the
viii PREFACE
plausible scamp calling himself a dragoman, and the
deep reserve of the religious Moslem, it is something
less than knowledge that he takes away with him.
To anyone who would understand the greater human
forces at work in the world, the importance of something
like a just appreciation of a religion numbering over
two hundred and sixty million souls is at once evident.
Napoleon at one period of his life thought to use this
great force in his project of a world-conquest, and
declared that he might even become a Moslem himself.
In our present day we have seen the approach of Ger-
many to Islamic Turkey, with an undoubted eye on
the Chaliphate of Islam ; the Kaiser going so far
as to speak of the Sultan as " my friend and ally."
In Cairo I have heard the suggestion, from Mr. Carl
Peters himself, which in one of his recent books of travel
he puts into precise words : " There is one factor which
might fall on our side of the balance, and in the case of
a world-war might be made useful to us ; that factor
is Islam. As Pan-Islamism it could be played against
Great Britain, as well as against the French Republic,
and if German policy is bold enough, it can fashion the
dynamite to blow into air the rule of the Western
Powers from Cape Nun (Morocco) to Calcutta."
And yet the extent of the ignorance of Islam in the
West is as great as it is incomprehensible. Any man who
has nothing to guide him but the popular knowledge
of the Prophet of Arabia and his teachings, as they
affect his followers to-day, must find, as I did, when
I came to live with the Arab folk of North Africa, and
later of Egypt, and to read the Koran for myself, how
perplexingly ignorant of the truth he is.
If he turns to the writings of the professional Oriental-
PREFACE ix
ist he finds little real help, for they are redolent of the
lamp, and seldom of the ways and haunts of living men ;
to the writings of the missionaries, he finds them in
many cases imbued with a strange dislike of everything
Islamic, which makes them partial, and inadequate to
really inform the mind of the unprejudiced inquirer.
I do not write this in antagonism to the work of the
missionaries. But I am bound to admit that I know
nothing more misleading than those missionary writings,
which are having the greatest acceptance just now, of
the Rev. W. St. Clair-Tisdall, whose Religion of the Cres-
cent I consider a heartless book, for all its scholarship.
One page of Lady Duff Gordon's kindly observations
of the life of Moslem people in her Letters from Egypt is
worth all its erudition. Mr. Samuel M. Zwemer, the
secretary of the Students' Volunteer Movement in
America, who has lived as a missionary in Arabia, is
another prolific writer whose cruel and relentless attacks
on Islam are finding great acceptance with stay-at-home
people of the West. Though the readers may be excited
thereby at the degradation and darkness they are called
upon to contribute to remove, they are certainly misled
if they think they are gaining a fair view of the life and
religion of the people described. It is strange to me
that men holding views so lacking in sympathetic insight
as these two writers could ever expect to find any
acceptance with, or to do good to, the people they can
so write of.
The controversy aroused by a speech of the Bishop
of London last year, in the Albert Hall, will be fresh
in many minds. Moslems everywhere were amazed
and hurt that they could be said to " turn out the name
of Christ as evil," the name they revere equally with
x PREFACE
the name of their Prophet, and whose virgin mother
they never mention without terms of deep respect.
The Bishop, when the storm broke, admitted that he
knew nothing of Islam, but had gone for his information
to the work, The Reproach of Islam, by the Rev. W. H.
T. Gairdner, who for over ten years has been a missionary
in Cairo. This work is not bitter, as the others are, but
it is, like them, lacking in that sense of human affection,
without which, it seems to me, no man can expect to find
acceptance for a religious message by a strange people ;
for without affection he can never truly understand
their aspirations and their needs.
It is true there are other men amongst the missionaries
to Islam who are pursuing a different line, taking to their
work a genial and unbiased spirit, which puts them in
kindly touch with the people they want to help. As
an instance of a work of this sort, I may mention Aspects
of Islam, by Duncan Black Macdonald. The Rev. C. F.
Andrews, of Delhi, is a man who never says a word about
the Moslem people which is not instinct with kindliness
and justice. If such books increase, it will be impossible
to assert that it is to the works only of ordinary travellers,
and not of missionaries, that one must look for anything
like a true picture of the life and religion of Islamic lands.
I hope my simple work may be found to contribute
a little to the result I desire of greater fairness and
better understanding and appreciation of the motives
and ideals of the followers of Mohammed. My only
equipment is sympathy, a fairly long residence with the
people I have sought to know, and quite exceptional
facilities, in Egypt especially, for getting behind the
veil, for penetrating the mysteries of the religion pre-
dominant there.
PREFACE xi
A profound study of Islam, based upon the immense
Arabic literature, it is not in my power to attempt. I
have striven only to give the living people the oppor-
tunity, which they have never had, of stating for them-
selves their beliefs and their views. I have tried to fit
into the picture of their life, as I saw it, something of
their ideals, with a sympathetic appreciation of what
I found to be good and true in the practice of their
religion. The teaching they follow is not wanting in
stimulation to noble impulses, or of restraining power
against evil. In commending to them a higher message,
like that of the Gospel of Christ, it is not, to my mind,
necessary in any degree to deny these things. Indeed,
I am convinced that it has been a great mistake to do
this, accounting probably for that want of advance which
is always to be deplored.
If it is thought that my picture is too favourable,
that I have dwelt too' little upon the decadence of
Islam, and of the low moral tone prevailing in the East,
I can only answer that I look upon my work as merely
a supplement to volumes that have been written on this
phase of the subject. I have sought the brighter colours,
which I consider other men have ignored, hoping truth
may gain by a little genial light being thrown upon the
whole scene, which before has been too much depressed
by the severe and sombrous tones in which it has been
represented.
To mention the names of all those leaders and
authorities in Islam in Egypt who helped me, and with
whom I discussed all the important questions of their faith,
would be to tabulate almost every name of importance
in the Moslem world at its intellectual centre Cairo.
To the Head of the Church in Egypt I tender my
xii PREFACE
grateful acknowledgments, as well as to every other
man sheikh or cadi, teacher or administrator, who so
courteously assisted me. To private friends innumer-
able, in all parts of Egypt, who did so much to make my
long stay profitable and enjoyable, I give thanks. Such
friendship as I have found in the East would enrich the
life of any man. To mention names in any category
would be tedious as well as invidious.
CONTENTS
BOOK I
MOSLEM LIFE IN TOWN AND VILLAGE
CHAP. PAGE
I. LIFE IN A REMOTE VILLAGE ..... 3
II. THE FELLAHEEN AT HOME . . . . -15
III. TALK ABOUT NATIONALISM, LORD CROMER'S WORK, SLAVERY
AND OTHER THINGS . . . . . 31 ^
IV. A VISIT TO A NOMAD VILLAGE . . . . .47
V. WHAT THE PEOPLE EAT. VILLAGE CHARACTERS, GRAVE AND
GAY ........ 58
VI. PALACE HOMES IN CAIRO . . . . . .72
VII. A COUNTRY PALACE : TALKS WITH THE SHEIKH OF TANTA . 83 ~
VIII. A GLORIOUS GARDEN, AND A PASHA'S BEQUESTS . . 98
BOOK II
REFLECTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS IN THE MOSQUES
I. ATTENDING THE EVENING PRAYER AND HEARING AN IN-
FORMAL SERMON . . . . . .113
II. AT ANOTHER CAIRO MOSQUE ..... 123
III. ADMISSION TO THE MOST SACRED MOSQUE, AND SEEING THE
SEWING OF THE HOLY CARPET, AND ALSO THE SACRED
RELICS OF THE PROPHET . . . . .135
IV. A NATIVE BANQUET. MOSLEM MYSTICS IN RETREAT, AND A
GREAT ZIKR . . . . . . .156
V. How THE MOSQUES ARE GOVERNED. A MODERN MOSQUE
SERMON ....... 174
xiii
xiv CONTENTS
BOOK III
GREAT FEASTS AND FESTIVALS
CHAP. PAGE
I. WHAT is THE HOLY CARPET, AND THE MAHMAL? . . 195
II. THE STARTING ON THE PILGRIMAGE . . . .214
III. THE VISITING OF SAINTS' TOMBS. THE HORRIBLE PROCESSION
OF HASSAN AND HOSEIN IN CAIRO. NIGHTS FOR GOD . 224
IV. THE PROPHET'S BIRTHDAY IN CAIRO .... 241
BOOK IV
THE GREAT QUESTIONS OF ISLAM AS INTERPRETED
THROUGH THE MOSLEMS THEMSELVES
I. THE MOSLEM CONCEPTION OF GOD ..... 259
II. WHAT DO THEY THINK OF SIN AND PRAYER? . . . 271
III. A STUDY IN FANATICISM ...... 287
IV. OF FATALISM . . . . . . .307
""V. WHAT THE MOSLEMS THINK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST . 319
VI. BELIEFS AS TO THE EQUALITY AND BROTHERHOOD OF MAN . 332
VII. THE POSITION OF WOMEN. ..... 340
VIII. A NEW WAY WITH MOSLEMS . . . . .371
NOTES ........ 400
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE GORGEOUS NEW MOSQUE OF EL-RIFAI, NEAR THE CITADEL, IN
CAIRO ........ Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
A VILLAGE SCENE : DRAWING WATER FROM THE NILE FOR
IRRIGATION PURPOSES ...... 8
AN EGYPTIAN WOMAN AND BABE . . . . .16
THE "OLDEST INHABITANT," AGED no, ENGAGED WITH HIS
DAUGHTER IN PICKING CORN COBS AT HIS COTTAGE DOOR . 18
"ON THE VILLAGE GREEN" . . . . . .18
THE IMAM AT THE MOSQUE DOOR, HOLDING IN HIS HAND THE
WOODEN SWORD ON WHICH THE PREACHER LEANS IN THE
PULPIT ........ 22
THE AUTHOR IN SHEIKH'S DRESS . . . . .22
AN EGYPTIAN FAMILY HAVING A MEAL . . . .26
PLOUGHING IN EGYPT BY A METHOD WHICH GOES BACK TO THE
DAYS OF THE PATRIARCHS . . . . . -36
A VILLAGE SCENE IN EGYPT: THRESHING THE CORN . . 50
A VILLAGE SCENE : DRAWING WATER FROM THE NILE BY THE
HAND-WORKED SHADOUF . . . . . .54
THE DAILY VISIT OF THE WATER-CARRIER . . . .64
"THE ONLY TRACE OF GRACIOUSNESS THE PALACE EVER SHOWED TO
THE OUTER WORLD OF THE STREET WAS THE BEAUTIFUL
MASHRABIEH WORK OF THE BAY WINDOWS AT THE TOP OF THE
HOUSE" ........ 72
THE HAREEM OF AN OLD PALACE IN CAIRO . . . .76
INSIDE THE COURTYARD OF AN OLD PALACE IN CAIRO . . 80
"A DRINK OF WATER IN THE NAME OF ALLAH !" . . .88
A SCENE IN THE GREAT UNIVERSITY OF AL AZAR IN CAIRO . 94
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
THE ABLUTION FOUNTAIN . . . . . .102
DOME AND MINARET ... ... 114
THE MINARETS OF AL AZAR UNIVERSITY, CAIRO . . .146
A TYPICAL STREET SCENE IN CAIRO SHARIA HELMIEH . . 168
THE GORGEOUSLY EMBROIDERED COVER FOR THE TOMB OF IBRAHIM
AT MECCA ........ 202
THE MAHMAL IN CAIRO, GUARDED BY EGYPTIAN TROOPS . . 202
EGYPTIAN WOMEN VISITING THE MAHMAL AT ABBASIEH . . 204
WORKERS OF THE HOLY CARPET IN THEIR DISTINCTIVE ROBE . 204
THE CAMP OF THE MAHMAL (THE HOLY CARPET) . . .216
THE MAHMAL AT ABBASIEH, NEAR CAIRO .... 216
ONE OF THE FAMOUS CITY GATES AT CAIRO .... 242
THE GATHERING CROWDS OF MEN AND BOYS FOR THE PROCESSION
ON THE PROPHET'S BIRTHDAY ..... 242
THE "WHIRLING DERVISHES" AND MUSICIANS . . . 252
PRAYER AT THE PATRON'S TOMB IN THE MOSQUE OF SULTAN
BARKOUK, CAIRO ....... 274
A STREET IN NATIVE CAIRO, PENETRATED BY THE NOON-DAY SUN . 288
THE MAGNIFICENT ARCADE OF CENTURY ARCHES IN THE RUINS
OF THE MOSQUE OF IBN TOULOUN, CAIRO. . . . 304
THE HOUSE TOMBS UNDER THE CITADEL, CAIRO . . .314
ONE OF THE SPLENDID FOUNTAINS WHICH ARE FOUND AT ALMOST
EVERY TURN IN THE STREETS OF CAIRO .... 334
THE DOORWAY OF AN ARAB HOUSE ..... 348
TAKING A DRINK AT A PUBLIC FOUNTAIN .... 368
OUTSIDE ONE OF THE OLD-FASHIONED KORAN SCHOOLS KUTTABS
IN CAIRO . . . . . , . .388
BOOK I
MOSLEM HOME-LIFE IN TOWN AND
VILLAGE
VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
CHAPTER I
" Strange as it may appear to a generation accustomed to look upon
Islam as a cloak for all kinds of vice, it is nevertheless true that . . . many
Christians who have come into contact with a living Moslem Society
have been profoundly impressed by the virtues exhibited therein."
Arnold, The Preaching of Islam, p. 345.
HOSPITALITY and all that generous chivalry which the
protection and care of guests may call forth, are virtues
which cover all sins with a true Moslem, especially if
he be of Arab descent, however remote. To be hospit-
able was as important to the ancient tribesmen of
Arabia as to be brave :
" A rushing rainflood when he gave guerdons ; \
When he sprang to the onset, a mighty lion."
Those writers who seek to discredit the Prophet
by pointing to the pre-Islamic virtues, should look here
for their evidence. The tribal system, when each tribe
was ruled by the most generous and the bravest member
of it, who pitched his tent at the point most likely to
be attacked by an enemy or seen by a returning friend,
or a needy wayfarer, had in it noble qualities. With
the destruction of the tribal system there was sure to be
a diminishing of these virtues, as displayed in royal
fashion especially by the chosen leader. But it should
not be forgotten that by the same process of reasoning
4 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
it may be shown that the feudal times in England were
better than the days of greater security and freedom,
for the mass of the people, which succeeded them.
But, as a matter of fact, these noble virtues as shown
in the primitive chief have largely survived in the whole
Arab race, and in a thousand ways still manifest them-
selves to the delight of those who come into such inti-
mate relations with the Arab Moslems as admit them
into the inner shrine of the home, whether it be the
tent or the palace. Not even the austerities of the sect
of the Wahabees, who in a blaze of grim Puritan zeal
last century tried to take Islam back to the teaching of
the Koran and the example of the Prophet, by abolishing
all personal display and making smoking and even coffee-
drinking a sin they would not have carpets on their
floors because the Prophet had none could suppress
the inherited instincts of a generous hospitality in
the Arab mind, as Palgrave testifies in the story of his
travels in Central Arabia. It was Palgrave who found
painted over a door the distich of the celebrated poet,
Omar-ibn-el-Farid :
" Welcome to him of whose approach I am all unworthy,
Welcome to the voice announcing joy after lonely melancholy,
Good tidings thine ; off with the robes of sadness ; for know
Thou art accepted, and I myself will take on me whatsoever grieves
thee."
It has been my privilege to enjoy the hospitality and
genial protection of Moslem people under almost every
condition in the Palace of the Pasha, and in the " town
house " of the country gentleman in Cairo, as well as in
the home of the " Squire " on his distant estates in Upper
Egypt. In the Delta, too, I have stayed in what we
should call a ducal house, famous for its lavish entertain-
HOME-LIFE IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 5
ment of guests, who might be embarrassed by the wealth
of hospitality shown them, but for that charming
courtesy with which it is offered a courtesy perfect in
its quietness and restraint, which enables it to wed
itself with the desires and wishes of the guest in such a
way that the mind becomes free to enjoy the good that
is offered without a single disturbing thought.
This same chivalry towards a guest appears equally,
as I well know, in the tent of the desert, and the mud
hut of the remote oasis, where it can charm away the
limitations of poverty as surely as it can soften the
demonstrativeness of wealth. I valued very highly these
opportunities of intimate acquaintance with the people,
apart from the true friendships I formed, for the Euro-
pean rarely sees the best of Moslem society. He easily
makes acquaintance with the official class, the Egyptian
who has learned in European cities to despise his religion ;
but he is debarred as a rule from entering the circle of
true Moslems of good birth and education and pious
life.
We were invited to spend a week in a remote village
in Upper Egypt with friends whom we had known and
visited in Cairo. Arrived at the nearest railway station
we were met by a son of the house, with a regular caval-
cade of servants and horses, and the humble ass, for the
five-mile ride across the fertile plain. The white Arab
mare reserved for my use was gorgeous in its trappings ;
it was the squire's own beast, in gala array. The servants
each beast had an attendant were of the fellaheen
class, gentle and smiling, as that simple people usually
are ; especially when, as in this case, they are attached to
an old historic house and a master whom they revere,
and as their ancestors have been, " time out of mind."
C.
j
6 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
Our winding^narrpw path lay through the fields, and
by the waterways, whicrjTalone bring the possibility of
fertility to them ; the fields being green everywhere with
the tall ripe crop of sugar-cane and Indian corn, as well
as with the new beans just springing up.
All this part of Egypt flourishes under the boon of
the ever-spreading system of irrigation, which men even
in the days of Mohammed Ali dreamed of, and realised
on paper but which British rule has made possible.
All the canals we passed are new ; until two years since
the natural flood from the Nile was the only chance for
the one annual crop where now three crops are grown
every year.
My friends are Arab Egyptians, with all the piety of
the early Moslems, and unspoiled by that contact with
modern civilisation which their wealth enables them to
have. Naturally they owe much to this threefold en-
riching of their lands, and they are candid enough to
admit this. The railway too, which recently reduced
the road distance from the village by eight miles, and
made possible a daily post, is a greatly appreciated
benefit.
It is not necessary to blindly love the British occupa-
tion to acknowledge the material benefits it has so
lavishly brought with it, or to give up all that is repre-
sented by Nationalistic ideals because one will not
accuse it of " Egypt's ruin," or curse everything English
as it concerns the country of the Nile, in the fashion of
Mr. Wilfred Blunt.
An amusing period to our journey was made by the
caual.,.about half-way, which had to be crossed by ferry.
Here was an opportunity to see the country-folk at close
quarters the promiscuous little crowd waiting for the
HOME-LIFE IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 7
ferry on this side, and the group packed on the ferry-
boat coming towards us, to say nothing of the various
animals which accompanied them. Anyone who knows
Egypt can imagine the noise, the excitement, the chaff
and badinage as each man gives advice which no one
heeds to every other soul within range.
The boatman, as an exception from the general
good temper, was a wag, but of the surly and sarcastic
order. His remarks to his human cargo were an example
of that coarseness coming from a brutal frankness of
expression so universal in the East, and which to English
ears is revolting. A criticism he hurled at a peasant
girl of fourteen or so, for her clumsiness, and at which
both men and women smiled, would I hope have
brought him a swift blow from the roughest navvy in
England. In Chaucer's day our own forefathers were
lacking in what we now think is decent reserve in speech ;
we had not advanced too far when Shakespeare or even
Fielding wrote. I am told that in Egypt a slow im-
provement is noticeable as education increases : and
on the effendi (or gentle class), at least, intercourse with
Western people is having its effect, as I can testify. I
admit that the coarseness is still appalling in native
conversation ; but it is something gained that the
Egyptians have come to realise that its repression is re-
quired by all decent Europeans with whom they have
dealings. Neither my wife nor I ever had a coarse
remark addressed to us during the many months we have
lived with Eastern people.
This boatman was particularly enraged with one of
our servants, a negro, whose mule slipped into the
canal from the muddy deck of the ferry ; the servant
nimbly jumping on to its back and swimming it across
8 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
the canal, by which two fares were lost ! Vials of
wrath for the negro, succeeded by withering scorn for
all our servants, the only tangible point of insult being
that they were wearing boots and such boots ! the
young master's " left-offs," treasured for years, and put
on to-day in honour of visitors. He would tell the
Bey their master that such stuck-up rascals were
unfit to serve him. All of which abuse was received
with good-natured smiles by our party, whom he
obviously wished to excite to conflicting rage.
It was interesting to see the skill with which those
in charge of buffaloes perhaps a young girl or a boy of
six or seven would induce the beasts to go through
the stream so as to avoid the ferry charge. The saving
of the tenth of a penny is worth any exertion where
the folk are so poor as the fellaheen of Egypt are.
We were a merry boat-load that eventually started ;
there is nothing of bucolic muteness about these poor
labouring people, but good-humoured and ready
civility, a responsive smile, very little impertinent
curiosity, and a willingness to serve.
At last we remounted and rode away. The land
we now passed had all been under water at high Nile,
so that the two or three villages in sight standing on
slight eminences had lately been islands, but the flood
had now returned to the waterways and the river.
The villages, standing amidst their palm trees, with the
minaret of the mosque always rising as the crowning
point, looked very picturesque.
Soon in the distance the village in which we were
to stay appeared, standing prettily on its small round
hill or mound. In the centre was the large house,
remarkable in an Egyptian village from having three
Photo\ [Lekegian, Cairo.
A VILLAGE SCENE : DRAWING WATER FROM THE NILE BY THE
HAND-WORKED SHADOUF.
.. t
, *::
HOME-LIFE IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 9
storeys and standing very high above the other focuses.
It was, however, the minarets of the mosques that our
friend Omar very proudly pointed out for here there
are two or three places of prayer, one of them built by
the chief family of the village.
We turned across the last field of beans, then into
a lane, and were at once in the narrow ways of the
hamlet ; such a sudden contrast from those wide spaces
of land and sky of the valley of the Nile.
The great house we had seen from afar belongs to