is 4$ monthly, the sub-sheikh .25, the inspector 10,
and the professors, and minor employees, take between
.10 and $ each monthly.
The power of the sheikh of a school mosque is like
that of a rector in a college. These chief country mosques
of Egypt, which are at Tanta, Alexandria, Dessouk, and
Damietta, are all allied to Al Azar University. Over
them all there is a superior Board of Sheikhs, presided
over by the Sheikh Al-Azar, including all the heads of
the school mosques, with some of the ulema of the Cairo
University, this Board making all the rules, which are
carried out at each school by the sheikh and a committee.
As for the students, they are drawn from all classes of
society. Strange to say, although the Tanta school, like
the others, is open to all the Moslem world, this year
the students are all pure Egyptians. Possibly the lads
who come from afar prefer to study at Al Azar itself in
the capital. The only qualification for admittance is to
be under seventeen years of age, in good health, and
with a knowledge of the Koran. The education is free,
and the students in the lower classes are given two or
three loaves of bread every day, while the senior
students take five loaves a day they are about the
size of a Yorkshire tea-cake. There is accommoda-
tion for those students who are too poor to pay for
lodgings in the town.
The teaching at Tanta consists of " all branches
of Moslem theology, and the practice of religion, all
REFLECTIONS IN THE MOSQUES 189
branches of the Arabic language, the history of the
Prophet, and the accredited Traditions, penmanship,
mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, logic and meta-
physics, algebra, drawing, history, geography, physics,
natural history, also something about public health,
and laws and administration." I quote exactly from the
sheikh's words for this curriculum, which he admits has
been enlarged and reformed of late years.
In answer to my question as to what are the aims
and ambitions of such large numbers of students (there
are 13,000 of them in the schools I have mentioned as
allied to Al Azar) the sheikh replied, " Some come for
the love of study but not many others to qualify as
sheikhs to preach or teach in the mosques, or in the schools,
some to become cadis, or judges, in Moslem law ; while
a great number come for usual education, their intention
being to follow the careers of their fathers, in professions,
in commerce, agriculture, or as gentlemen of leisure,
being the sons of men who prefer for their sons a religious
or Koranic education to the modern teaching of the
Government schools they belong, indeed, to the sheikh
class of the turban and robe, rather than to the effendi
class of European language and dress, who too often,
alas ! lose their own religion, and do not adopt yours."
I may conclude this chapter with one of the " free
and reformed " sermons preached in Cairo while I was
there. I omit the usual preface of the profession of
faith in the one God, and the praise of the Prophet.
" The Holy Koran says, and herein is the duty of
man, ' Worship none but God, and be good to your
parents and kindred, and to orphans and to the poor, and
speak with men what is true, and pay the stated alms '
(Sura ii. 77). Praise be to Allah, who rewards those who
190 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
fulfil their obligations and keep their trust. Allah, the
most true of all tellers, said Be faithful to your pledges
and do not break your promises, for these make you
responsible to God. Be sure God knows what you do ;
and when He destined you as the best of all peoples, He
commanded you to do good and forsake evil. The
foundation of true belief is faithfulness in the perform-
ance of every undertaking. A nation which lacks this
quality, and allows itself to become familiar with lying,
will be misguided, and all its striving will be in vain.
Suffering, misery, and poverty will overtake it, and in
the next world punishment more severe and lasting. O
creatures of God ! I call you to the practice of the truth,
and faithfulness in every trust. Is there no reward even
in this world for this ? To be believed by one's friends,
when one speaks, to be trusted in all the affairs of life ?
Such was the example and life of our great predecessors,
who were before all things faithful, and true to them-
selves, and to one another. But, alas ! we have for-
feited the great teachings of our religion, that stand now
as a remonstrance against us. The Prophet on whom
be blessings and peace as you know, hated lying, and he
declared, ' There is no belief in the unfaithful, nor a
religion to the untrustful.' '
" Shun ye the word of falsehood," says the Koran
(Sura xxii. 31). Mohammed declared that the guardian
angel moved away from a man in detestation when he
told a lie. By the testimony of all men who knew him
Mohammed was a truthful man. " We have ever found
thee a speaker of the truth," they admitted, even in the
days before they accepted his message.
The only office allowed to the religious teacher is
REFLECTIONS IN THE MOSQUES 191
advice, guidance, and warning. Just as the layman will
only with extreme reluctance refer to the faults of a
brother Moslem, so even the preacher must not venture
to expose the follies and frailties of others ; and to pry
into the religious beliefs of other Moslems is not per-
mitted even to the chief sheikhs. It is not proper to make
any outer show of repentance ; sin can only be confessed
to God alone and in the secret heart. Of all these
things, God will judge ; and every function of priest-
craft is opposed to the spirit of Islam.
BOOK III
GREAT FEASTS AND FESTIVALS
CHAPTER I
" Proclaim among the people a Pilgrimage : let them come on foot
and on every fleet camel, coming by every deep defile to be present at
its benefit ... let them pay their vows, and circuit the ancient Kaaba
(the site of which God assigned to Abraham). . . . This do. And they
who perform the rites of God should perform an action which proceedeth
from piety of heart." Koran, Sura xxii. 27-33.
ONE of the greatest events of the year in Egypt is the
starting of the Holy Carpet for Mecca. As regularly as
the month of fasting comes to a joyful end in the
Bairam Feast, the populace begin to look forward to
the festival of the Mahmal, as not only marking the
time of the setting off of the pilgrims to the Holy City,
but as an event of great moment to all men religiously
inclined, especially to the poor who have few hopes of
making the journey themselves.
To thoroughly know a subject it is said a man must
write a book about it. I verily believe there is not a
man living who can give an intelligible account of the
Mahmal of Egypt, who has not either written a book
about it, or assisted in the writing of one ; and then,
most of the accounts are wrong.
For a whole month I clung to the Holy Carpet, as
no Moslem has had the opportunity of doing, in a
determined attempt to fathom its mysteries ; and
during .that time I only found two men who had any-
thing like a clear knowledge of its origin and significance,
its manufacture and its finances, its use and destination.
One was the Bey of the Carpet, the gentleman who is
appointed by the Government to the charge of it, from
195
196 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
the weaving of the first thread, to its final departure,
and who has even escorted the sacred burden no less
then eight times to the very Kaaba in Mecca itself.
The other gentleman was Mohammed Labib Bey
Al-Batanouni, who accompanied H.H. the Khedive of
Egypt on his Pilgrimage, in the year 1908, as historian
of what was regarded as a national event.
As I had the great advantage of the full assistance
of both these authorities, with the added privilege
of penetrating into the precincts of the house where
the Carpet is made by the hereditary craftsmen the
first outsider to cross that guarded threshold I feel
justified in giving an account of what I learned and saw ;
with the thought if I might venture on this without
offence of dedicating the record to the Moslems of
Cairo themselves, who have so far taken the Holy
Carpet for granted that they have never sought for the
full explanation of it. A surprising fact, if one did not
know the East, when one learns that the cost of the
Pilgrimage Caravan of the Egyptian Mahmal is no less
than ^50,000 a year, mostly borne by the State, including
the gifts sent to Arabia with it.
My first interest was whetted by the permission,
given after very natural delays and hesitations, to visit
the place where what is called the Carpet is woven
every year, and where the Mahmal and the beautiful
door coverings and other sacred decorations are em-
broidered. The place where the work is done is an
ancient Arab house once a minor royal palace with
the usual stern outside walls, but opening under an
arched gateway into the square courtyard, which at
once gives light and space and air to the house to
contradict the impression of the narrow, crooked street.
GREAT FEASTS AND FESTIVALS 197
The palace, now known as the Khurunfish, was set
apart for the making of the Carpet by Mohammed All
early last century.
The Bey received us at the gate with courteous
welcome ; our credentials were such that he could
promise to show us every detail of his work, although
our presence was a unique event, admission being denied
even to Moslem people.
" This is a Government place," he said, " but it is
kept under separate rules, and is not accessible as other
Government offices are." I turned to listen to the
melodious voice of a sheikh reading the Koran in a
balcony overlooking the courtyard. " Ours is the only
place under Government where the Holy Koran is
read. This place is as sacred as a mosque during the
time of prayer."
We were taken at once to a long room to see the
spinning looms, where the raw yellow silk is prepared
before being dyed. Next we saw the actual weaving
of the Carpet how it ever came by such a name
could not be imagined when one has seen it. In reality,
of course, it is the outer cover of the Kaaba, and the
name " Carpet " is never applied to it by any but
Europeans, who persist in so naming it ; and what is
curious, at the same time think that the Mahmal, which
is a camel palanquin, really goes to Mecca with a carpet
inside it, and brings it back to Cairo. There is no
return of any carpet to Cairo. Tourists who think they
are seeing the Holy Carpet's return see only the
Mahmal, coming back, as it went, quite empty.
It would be better to speak of " holy curtains," of
which there are eight used in the complete covering of the
Kaaba. Moslems describe the whole cover as the Kiswa,
198 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
meaning " robe " or " habit." The old man, Hadj
Ahmed el-Seidy, who has worked for fifty years at this
place, having succeeded his fathers in a task which is
hereditary to his family, explained to us the weaving,
of which he and his son alone hold the secret. His is,
of course, a sacred office held by the family of Seidy ;
the hereditary transmission of pursuits and customs is a
tenacious habit of the Arab people from remotest times.
It is this that gives to their genealogies and their tradi-
tions so much credence.
The curtains are black, and the art of making them
consists of weaving the Koran texts into the material,
also in black, with an effect like that of damask, the
lettering, which is large, being in the decorative Arabic.
The watered-silk effect of the lettering is most striking,
and in certain lights, when the cover is hung upon the
Kaaba, it can be read at a considerable distance. The
sentence woven all over the cover is the Islamic pro-
fession of faith " There is no God but God, and
Mohammed is His Prophet."
The length of the curtains we were allowed to
handle them quite freely is about fifteen metres, and
the breadth of each of the eight parts nearly five metres,
a metre being, of course, thirty-nine and one-third
inches. Two of the curtains together make the cover
to each side of the Kaaba. They are tied together by
strings, which are sewn on by pious hands, after the
Carpet has been taken to the Mosque of Hosein, in
Cairo, which sewing I also saw there, and have already
described.
The old Hadj did not at first take kindly to my
presence, and the intentness of my interest in his sacred
work ; but he soon thawed, and then became genial, and
GREAT FEASTS AND FESTIVALS 199
even enthusiastic, as he explained the details, and showed
to me all the beautiful trappings, the tassels worked of
gold, and other elaborate embroideries which go to
Mecca at the same time as the cover. He has been to
the Holy City very many times, as he superintends the
hanging and adjustment of the cover there, details of
which work he explained to me. It is necessary to tie the
cover very securely to the Kaaba, as the winds in Mecca
are uncertain, and come suddenly from all directions. It
is Buckhardt who has a poetical passage bearing so
exactly on this very point of the hanging of the cover.
" The black colour of the Kiswa, covering a large cube in
the midst of a vast square, gives to the Kaaba at first
sight a very singular and imposing appearance. As it is
not fastened down tightly, the slightest breeze causes it
to move in slow undulations, which are hailed with
prayers by the congregation assembled around the
building as a sign of the presence of its guardian angels,
whose wings by their motion are supposed to be the
cause of the waving of the covering. Seventy thousand
angels have the Kaaba in their holy care, and are ordered
to transport it to Paradise when the trumpet of the last
judgment shall be sounded." Being woven of cotton
and silk, the weight of the material causes the curtains to
hang firmly.
A few years ago, the Hadj told me, it was thought that
the old hand-weaving of the Cover could be superseded
by machinery. A very costly loom was brought from
Manchester ; but he did not like it, and so went back to
the ancient process, the secret of which his father had
taught him. The inscription woven into the stuff, it is
his great pride to know, is in the most beautiful form
of Arabic writing, " as, of course, it must be," he
200 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
added, " for to weave the cover for Holy Kaaba, the
centre of the immense world of Islam, the object on
which every Moslem hopes his eyes may rest at least once
before he dies, and before which he may pray, is the
greatest of earthly honours."
Before I left him, the old man was willing even to
be photographed, being encouraged thereto by the Bey.
It was extremely interesting to be able to see and
handle the famous band which encircles the Kaaba, a
little above the middle, and which has been described
by all travellers who have seen it, and is so conspicuous
in all photographs of the chief place of prayer to the
whole Moslem world. This magnificent belt is about
two and a half feet deep ; it is of the same material as
the cover, with what is called the Throne verse, from the
Koran, heavily embroidered on it in gold " God !
there is no God but He ; the Living, the Eternal : nor
slumber seizeth Him nor sleep ; His whatsoever is in
the Heavens, and whatsoever is in the Earth. . . . His
Throne reacheth over the Heavens and the Earth, and
the upholding of both burdeneth Him not ; and He is
the High, the Great " (Sura ii. 256). It is edged in
silver embroidery, the corners of the border being
appliqued with green silk, also ornamented with silver
embroidery.
The hangings, both for the outside and the inside of
the doors of the Kaaba, are splendid examples of the
art of embroidery in gold and silver, with panels of
green and pink satin on the groundwork of black, with
embroidered writing in addition to the conventional
designs. Burton says that the curtain which covers
the outside of the door into the Kaaba is called " Kaaba's
face veil," and that this signifies the Church visible as
GREAT FEASTS AND FESTIVALS 201
a virgin or bride, an idea which, has found its way
into the poetry of the East, the Kaaba being termed
" Mecca's bride." The " holy of holies " is guarded
by eunuchs as though it were the abode of a fair bride.
I found, however, no confirmation of this.
Another highly decorated cover which I saw is for
the door of the great pulpit of the Kaaba square called
the Haram very similar in colouring and design. I
saw the two valuable copper jugs which are sent each
year, filled with purest rose-water, for the washing of
the Kaaba. I also examined the embroidered bag for
the key of the Kaaba, which the Bey of the Carpet
carries in the Cairo procession, when the Holy Curtain
first sets out on its journey. His, too, is a hereditary
office, and he showed me with pride the magnificent
trappings of his horse, which are used on ceremonial
occasions.
In a separate room we are shown the very beautiful
covering for the tomb of Ibrahim, to which an old man
is adding the last loving touches. This cover is carried
in the Holy Carpet procession, set upon a frame exactly
the size and shape of the tomb, and is mistaken for a
second Mahmal, not alone by the Europeans, but by
the great majority of the Moslems, so secretly are these
provisions for the religious observances and customs of
the Pilgrimage carried out, and so little does the Eastern
mind ever burden itself with any care of exact informa-
tion. The groundwork of the embroidery here again
is black, the raised embroidery is in gold and silver, the
panelling being of green and rose-pink satin, with
Koranic writings in gold. Round the bottom is a
silk fringe of scarlet and yellow, over a flounce of green
satin. The tassels at the corners are of gold, as are
202 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
the medallions which, are put on at the corner where
the cover joins. The beauty of the embroidery, both
in the Arabic writing and the conventional designs, is
seen in my photographs.
It is a pious act to supply covers of this sort for the
tarkeebeh of saints, as well as to repair the domed tombs
in which they stand ; a friend of mine, at his own charge,
keeps such a tomb in good repair, and renews the cover,
of a saint buried in his native village, although the
sheikh's claims to remembrance have been entirely lost
the only instance I met of such traditional knowledge
having slipped from the Arab memory.
That the taking of all these sacred objects connected
with the Carpet to Arabia is in itself a considerable
undertaking, was brought home to us by seeing the
tents and the waterskins and other requirements for
the long journey. I am told that the staff of the
Egyptian commission do an admirable work each year, in
Mecca, for the pilgrims of all nations, in the matter of
sanitation, by the improved methods and appliances
which they are able to demonstrate.
We now went into the courtyard, and the two very
fine camels in a way held sacred too which are kept
here solely for the purpose of conveying the Mahmal
to Mecca, were brought out for us. They are of great
size, and of the cream colour which distinguishes the
finer breed of camels. The younger camel is kept in
reserve, owing to the great age of the beast which has
been to Mecca for a vast number of years, and is doubt-
less the most famous animal in the whole of the Islamic
world. These animals live a secluded but luxurious
life within these precincts. By the credulous populace
all sorts of miraculous signs mark them out in the first
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GREAT FEASTS AND FESTIVALS 203
instance for selection to their sacred task, and afterwards
attend their journeyings.
There are seventy men employed in this place, and
to mark the special nature of their work each has a robe
of cream colour with a small pattern in old gold, all
hand woven, and so strong that the Bey declared they
would wear for fifty years. These robes are worn for
the procession when the Mahmal and the curtains go
before the Khedive, so that the actual workers may be
recognised. Two or three of the men now put on their
robes, and I was able to photograph them. No man is
employed who is not a pious Moslem, regularly observing
all the prayers.
Before leaving, the Bey told me that the yearly
expenses of the work under his charge amount to 4550.
The cost of the silver and gold thread alone is 515.
It will be noticed that all this time we have seen
nothing of the Mahmal itself, that palanquin about which
so many fables have been woven the most credulous
and misleading by European writers. I think, indeed,
the Mahmal might be termed the puzzle of Egypt ;
even Lane professed that he did not know why it was
regarded with such reverence by the Moslem people.
We have seen the sacred camel on whose back the
Mahmal travels ; but where is the palanquin itself,
and what is the true part it fills in the Pilgrimage ?
The sacred camels have nothing whatever to do with
taking the Carpet, just as the Mahmal has no con-
nection with the Carpet. For one thing, the immense
weight of the Kaaba coverings makes the suggestion
that one camel could carry them, even without the
heavy Mahmal itself, quite ludicrous.
At the present moment the Mahmal is, I learn, in
204 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
the care of the Minister of Finance, at his official
residence in Cairo. It is impossible to see it there ;
but as I am so interested, an invitation is promised me
to a celebration which takes place in the building under
the Citadel on the night before the Kaaba hangings
and the Mahmal start for Mecca. There the Mahmal
will be shown, and, more interesting still, there will
be set up an exact model of the Kaaba, with all the
curtains hung as they will appear in the Holy City.
There is no religious celebration in Cairo more
impressive and beautiful than this festival, held on the
eve of the setting out of the Mahmal's Pilgrimage to
Mecca. There are other great public occasions, when
the Oriental splendour of illumination breaks out, to thrill
the thronging populace, and the out-of-door excite-
ments of the fair are linked with the claims of pious
significance. But this official fete in the pavilions at
the foot of the Citadel combines in equal proportions a
sense of the sacred office with that of subdued enter-
tainment, a feeling of religious awe being curiously
mingled with that of rejoicing. Not that Oriental
splendour is lacking ; indeed, the scene that burst
upon our vision, when our carriage had driven to the
door of the Citadel building, along a long avenue of
special street lamps, placed only a yard or two apart,
was dazzling in its beauty. The thousands of candles
and electric lights, in an endless vista, as one looked
through the whole range of halls and tented pavilions,
with the sparkling lustres of the almost solid mass of
chandeliers, shone down upon the picturesqueness of
an Eastern gathering enriched by the vivid colouring
and the gold embroideries of all the draperies I had
seen in the making, which in this light gained a thousand-
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GREAT FEASTS AND FESTIVALS 205
fold in beauty. The blackness of the Kaaba cover,
hung round the first room, through which shot now
and then the graceful Arabic so cunningly buried in
its sable depths, only served to accentuate the bright
beauty of the other hangings.
On entering, Eastern politeness of course necessitated
that we should first drink coffee, with the choice, how-
ever, of the peculiar hot drink called Kirfa, drunk only
at religious ceremonies, and at weddings, while large
trays of sweetmeats were handed round.
By this time the Bey has heard of our arrival, and
comes to greet us, and escort us through the rooms.
He is naturally most proud of the Kaaba room, arranged
in the exact proportions, so that the covering and the
door curtain hang just as they will hang at Mecca.
From this we pass to a gorgeous pavilion, one of
those huge tents, the walls decorated with the brilliantly
coloured applique work in Arabesque design, with verses
from the Koran, so much used in Egypt for all ceremonial
occasions. Here the lighting is almost overpoweringly
brilliant, from the myriads of candles in their lustre
setting.
The covering of the Prophet Ibrahim's tomb was set
up here, and received much attention ; but the real
centre which drew every Moslem man and child was
the Mahmal, now to be seen in public for the first time
since its return from last year's pilgrimage. Round the
Mahmal men crowded ; they stroked a fringe of it,
always with the right hand, of course (for the left hand
is reserved for dishonourable acts), and then to imbibe