had been a troubler of the village peace resented this.
A brawl ensued, and in the deadly rage excited, the
scamp had fired a shot which landed him in prison on
a charge of murder.
His family, a generation ago, had been rich and
respected, but the ne'er-do-well proclivity, with a
quarrelsome love of litigation, had reduced them to a
strip of land worth only a pittance.
Another scamp, an ignorant but amiable poltroon
of a rogue, cunning enough this one to " rise in the
world," and not fall, was a small landowner who carried
with him the conscious dignity of the title of Bey.
Quite illiterate, and with no scruples in the pursuit
of gain, he went his ignominious way for many years,
reaping the satisfaction with life, which marked him,
from a secretly increasing pile of piastres, and caring
nothing for the contumely of men.
There came a day when the palace in Cairo, intent
on facilitating commerce in titles, practically set up a
shop and bagmen, with everything marked in plain
figures at prix fixe. The Oriental is never a miser
unless he is contemplating an extravagant coup. This
HOME-LIFE IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 69
gentleman had seen the goods of the royal establish-
ment, and envied the " wear " on other men. During
a visit to the capital he found that his particular
fancy in adornments was marked during the time of
sale only as low as ^300 ! He went in and proudly
banged the price upon the counter, and the shopman,
all smiles, informed him that the order could be executed
in the course of a week. As a matter of protective form
Lord Cromer was an alert tyrant, and was known to
have an unreasoning dislike of this nice shop and especi-
ally of the gentlemen who were allowed to appropriate
the profits some inquiry was made as to the customer's
suitability for knighthood. A curt reply from Upper
Egypt said if this man wished even to be called effendi
(gentleman) he would disgrace the title. With what
result ? Did the repcit stop the sale ? Not a bit of
it ; it only enhanced the price of the purchase. A
mention of ^450, a peremptory letter to the gentleman
of the " effendi " joke, and an official " character "
was supplied to Cairo in every way satisfactory to the
shopkeeper. Most of the private pile of piastres dis-
appeared, for a bauble which ever since has been a daily
satisfaction to a saucy rogue, who cares nothing that
he never learnt to write even his own name.
At last the time for our departure arrived. Omar
assured me that no one would break a gullah (water-jar)
after us, and that our house, we might rest assured,
would not be swept for three days. This was a great
compliment, for if a person visits you in Egypt, whose
return you do not desire, you speak of " breaking a
gullah after him," and when you are very much in
earnest you actually break a jar. To sweep away the
dust of his feet, in less than three days, would be to
70 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
remove the chance of seeing your guest again ; and for
the same reason you must not sweep a visitor's rooms
at night.
It was a misty morning on which, having made our
adieus with heartfelt thanks for many and great kind-
nesses, our little cavalcade returned across that plain
over which English enterprise and skill had wrought
such beneficent change. In a mile or two the mist
became increased until the particles of moisture in the
air clung to hair and clothes, and made us white, re-
minding the Englishmen of a mild, " muggy " morning
at home in early winter.
When I hear of the weather having radically changed
in the British Isles, of " old-fashioned Christmasses "
and the like, I recall the entries in old diaries, like those
of Pepys and Evelyn, which soon disprove such fallacies.
Of Egypt it is often asserted that the climate has changed;
the fateful British occupation is responsible even for
this, with its irrigation and its tree-planting. But the
same rule applies here I have at hand a diary of the
days of Mohammed AH (he died in 1849), and mornings
like this are spoken of : even a mist at the Citadel,
just as I experienced it, in the early morning when I
went to photograph the Holy Carpet before the crowds
assembled to see it start for Mecca. It was a curious
sensation, nevertheless, in a land to which the preserva-
tion of the antiquities of the tombs bears witness to a
marvellous dryness, to travel, as we did that morning,
through fifty miles of mist which completely veiled the
landscape.
I must relate an episode of our departure from the
country railway station. Naturally I gave a present to
the servants, who had worked hard and faithfully, and
HOME-LIFE IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 71
with delightful good humour, for us in so many ways.
It was with hesitation that two or three of them accepted
the money : when I reached my special negro attendant
he drew back with every sign of distress, saying, " La !
la ! la ! " (" No ! no ! no ! ") With persistency I forced
a silver coin upon him ; and as he reluctantly took it,
there were tears of shame, I found in his eyes. I
asked his young master to explain that it is the English
custom to offer a gift to those who have served us.
He accepted the explanation, but the smiles did not
return to his face, even when we shook hands with
him from the carriage window. " It was shameful of
him," he told Omar again, " to take money from his
master's friend."
CHAPTER VI
" The almost miraculous renaissance in Islam which is now pro-
ceeding in Turkey and in other Mohammedan countries reminds one
forcibly of Dante's lines :
'For I have seen
The thorn frown rudely all the winter long,
And after bear the rose upon its top.' "
Claud Field, Mystics and Saints of Islam, p. 202.
.
How few people know anything of the wonders and the
treasures that are hidden off the narrow streets of native
Cairo those silent ways leading to no bazaar, or even
to a single shop to attract the curious from the paths
so well trodden by the dragoman and his trusting
victims. And yet if only some kindly ginn would give
you the right key, it is out of these streets, the old
residential quarters of Prince and Pasha, and of the
religious dignitary wealthier than them all, that the
real Oriental splendour of Cairo may be found.
It was the genii of friendship that put the key into
my hand which enabled me to break out of the dusty
by-ways, so narrow that only an uneven slit of sky
could be seen between the eaves above, into gorgeous
old palaces, with wide courtyards and spacious gardens,
richly decorated halls and chambers, the magnitude and
beauty of which transport one into the days that were
truly golden for the few men who had the power to
possess themselves of the opulence of the East.
The street itself it is seldom more than ten feet
wide is certainly forbidding, as it was meant to be,
r
J
^ :'
r
fl
::
Pht\ [Lekegian, Cairo.
"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."
HOME-LIFE IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 73
for the one object in the days when these houses were
built was privacy ; and 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 an invention, as everyone
knows, by which the curiosity of the ladies of the hareem
might be indulged in seeing what was going on below,
while still making their own concealment effectual.
On the ground floor the houses offer nothing to
the street but a massive stone wall, with a square hole
at intervals, high up and strongly barred. The
gateway is sometimes impressive, with groined arches,
though it only serves to accentuate the prison-like air.
But let the doors be opened the bowabs and the black
eunuchs who sit on the bench are sure to suspect your
credentials, unless their master has sent his special
servant to await you and you are at once in a sunny
and spacious wor!3.
One of the most beautiful of the ancient palaces
I visited is that of the historic house of Sadat, where I
was most courteously received by the Sheikh Abdul
Hamid El-Bekri. The sheikh is the chief descendant
in Egypt of Abu Bakr, the. Prophet's devoted friend,
and the first caliph of Islam.
The courtyard is more than usually beautiful, with
a noble old tree and some exquisite mashrabieh work.
We were received in the salemlik, a hall of fine propor-
tions and the most exquisite ancient decorations, much
of the wall space being covered with precious old
Persian tiles. The beauty of these tiles, which are so
much admired in any place, can only be rightly appreci-
ated when they are seen in the subdued light of a hall
such as this, for which they were made, with decorations
74 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
and proportions designed by the artist who chose them.
I have heard of a man in England buying and demolishing
an old house to possess himself of all its ancient oakwork ;
I fancy these tiles, so rich in the beauty of a lost art,
would far eclipse the value of any Cairene palace that
contained them.
How many strange and wonderful scenes of Oriental
splendour, as well as of horror, have taken place in this
palace. Many meetings of great historical importance
have been held here. Napoleon made great efforts to
ingratiate himself with the head of the Sadat family,
who was at first decorated with the Legion of Honour,
and then, when he did not fall into line with the
Emperor's designs on Egypt, was bastinadoed. This
palace was the scene of the most special of those " ziks,"
in which mystical religious zeal developed into a sort
of frenzy, such as the Western mind cannot contemplate
without terror. It was here that the dervishes, famous
for eating live serpents, gave their chief exhibitions,
until an enlightened head of the house, many years
since, declared the thing disgusting and contrary to the
religion, which distinctly says that snakes are unclean
things and forbidden as food. In these present days,
as Professor Margoliouth says, the reformed Islam of
Egypt discourages the practices whereby the Sufis
endeavour to hypnotise themselves, viz. dancing, sing-
ing, and repetition of syllables supposed to represent
the divine name.
\ As the sheikh's family was away he took us through
every part of the palace, even to the beautiful hareem
apartments, the chief of which has some very fine
carving. The modern note obtruding itself on the
medieval air of the place was a baby's cot of Parisian
HOME-LIFE IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 75
make. It was evident that the most cheerful part of
the house was as is often the case in these palaces
given over to the ladies' use. Some of the most
beautiful of the decorations are found in these lofty
rooms and balconies ; and there is an abundance of air
and light.
The large garden too, which in the former days
must have been a most delightful resort, was nearly all
hareem (the word only means reserved or private ; the
tramcars have hareem compartments), again following
the same custom. The sakieh (water-wheel), however,
is now broken and silent, its song being ended, and the
garden falls, like the palace, into disuse.
It is not permissible, of course, to discuss the opinions
of a gentleman's wife, but I gathered that Egyptian
ladies of the highest rank are finding the advantages of
the new houses which are turning Cairo into an imita-
tion Paris, with all their " modern conveniences " of
electricity, and situated where friends may easily pay
their visits. A garage too is a necessity now, for hareem
bounds have extended, and narrow streets may no
longer cut off the educated Moslem lady of to-day from
her drives to Gizereh, her shopping excursions, the
visits to the jeweller being a cherished institution with
all Eastern ladies, and no city in the world can show
finer jewels than are to be seen in the shops in Cairo,
from the opera, and other occupations and amusements.
('When the Sheikh El-Bekri had shown me all the
ramifications of the beautiful old palace of his family, he
kindly invited me to pay him a visit, later on, at his
modern home.
The contrast was complete. Out of medievalism
one stepped into the twentieth-century Paris, or rather,
76 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
from the silent fastnesses of a feudal castle, which was a
world in itself, into the modern home, accessible to the
haunts of men, the telephone linking it to every modern
interest of a bustling city.
The salemlik becomes a drawing-room, still for men
only, it is true, and with an entrance separate from the
hareem ; but from its windows I saw the hareem part of
the family starting for their afternoon drive facts to
keep in mind when one comes to consider the question
of the position of the Moslem women and the possibility
of their social and moral advance.
Islam has travelled far since the Sheikh Sayyed Sadat
of that day to whom my host has now succeeded
rode his horse, at the celebrations of the Prophet's
birthday, over the prostrate forms of men who believed
his noble ancestry gave him a miraculous power which
could save them from injury. There are many middle-
aged people still living who witnessed this ceremony of
the Doseh, as it was called. And to-day we discuss it in
this modern drawing-room as a thing belonging to a past
age ; and the sheikh talks with me of Moslem schemes
for bringing Islam abreast of all that is worthy in the
Western world. An enlarged photograph of the late
Sheikh Mohammed Abdul, looking down upon us the
while that enlightened man (he was Grand Mufti)
whose influence on Islam in Egypt eclipses that of any
man during the past century ; and whose teaching, in a
sentence, was Back to the Koran and the simple godli-
ness of the Prophet ; away with the superstitious inven-
tions and the fables of later men ; let Islam be true to
the spirit of its great founder, and his friends, who
extolled learning wherever found. Ali, the Prophet's
grandson, the sheikh reminded me, said, " Eminence in
Photo}
[Dittrich, Cairo.
THE HAREEM OF AN OLD PALACE IN CAIRO.
HOME-LIFE IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 77
science is the highest of honours : he dies not who gives
life to learning."
It was a traditional saying of Mohammed himself
that " whoso pursueth the road of knowledge, God will
direct him to the road of Paradise ; and verily the
angels spread their arms to receive him who seeketh after
knowledge ; verily the superiority of a learned man over
a mere worshipper is like that of the full moon over the
stars."
The sheikh was subdued and sad at the thought
of the slowness of the advance ; men in the East, he
thought, had not yet learned to work disinterestedly and
steadily for the cause of humanity, and to co-operate in
their efforts for the common good. The cultivation of
what is called " public spirit " is what is most needed in
Egypt. Where is the leader who can call it into being ?
The sheikh's eldest son, a lad of fifteen, was able to
talk to me in good English ; he is receiving a modern
education, instead of studying at Al Azar, as his ancestors
have done for hundreds of years ! Surely a most signi-
ficant fact with regard to the future of Islam in Egypt.)
It was soon after these visits that the Sheikh El-
Bekri succeeded to the higher honours of the chief de-
scendant in Egypt of the Prophet Mohammed, in
succession to his father-in-law, Sayyad Sadat, who leaves
no male children.
Another splendid old palace is that to which I went
one night to offer condolences to Sayyed Sadat on the
death of a relative. The whole place was brilliantly
illuminated, as is usual for all ceremonies held at night
in the East ; even the narrow winding road leading to
the house was bright with innumerable lamps specially
set up for the occasion.
78 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
The mellow colours of the great courtyard, and the
brightness of the interior decorations, and the carpets
under the light of myriad candles sparkling in the
midst of the lustre hangings, made a wonderful setting
for all the chief dignitaries of Islam who were gathered
there, as a sign of sympathy \
As the only European present, I felt the contrast
between these robed and turbaned figures, and the black
and white ugliness of the Englishman's evening livery.
Here was the aged Sheikh Al-Azar, the Sheikh El-
Islam, and the Grand Mufti, with all the lesser lights of
the Church. We sat round the room on the divans,
while the Koran was chanted by men well known for the
sweetness of their voices and the purity of their diction.
Scarcely a word passed, for it is wrong to speak when
holy writ is being recited ; and one must not smoke, or
sit in a lounging attitude, or with crossed legs. Coffee
is, nowadays, permitted, and on these occasions is con-
stantly handed round.
I think these visits at times of bereavement, when
one's presence without any of those halting and pain-
ful words of condolence it is so hard to express on the
formal visit paid in England is taken in itself as a sign
of sympathy, and the comforting words of one's scripture
are read by men trained to express their true meaning,
are an excellent custom.
In addition to the palaces there are many fine old
houses in Cairo, to be reached by the same narrow ways,
where the quiet home-life of the well-to-do Moslems
of the middle-class goes on in ways unknown to Euro-
peans. These houses are spacious and airy, though from
the street they look so forbidding.
Built round the usual square courtyard, where grow
HOME-LIFE IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 79
some high date-palm trees perhaps, with a central
fountain, they are delightful retreats from the noise and
dust without. These houses have little interior decora-
tion and few treasures of tile and mashrabieh. j
I visited many such homes ; one of them dwells in my
mind as a delightful picture of patriarchal happiness
a fine old man, surrounded by his children and grand-
children, with his servants and their children and grand-
children, ruling them all with firmness and the most
kindly grace.
The first thing in the house his younger son showed
to me with pride was the place of prayer, where all the
men, master and dependants, meet at the stated hours
to adore and supplicate their God.
Such homes rarely, if ever, have any pictures ; here
the only adnrnmp.nt nf the JY^ S was a large framed
inscription in gold, on a blue ground, of the words, in
Arabic, of course " In the Name of God, the Com-
passionate, the Merciful," hung on the wall of the
salemlik, so that it is the first thing one sees on entering
the house.
The traditional saying of the Prophet, " The angels
do not enter a house in which is a dog, nor that in
which there are pictures," still keeps the Moslem
home, to Western ideas, a rather forlorn place, which
the splendour of the carpets and the growing addition
of modern furniture does little to redeem. )
The use of photography is increasing ; one of the
sons of this house possesses a camera, and enlarged
portraits of departed relatives are now found on many
walls. And the educated Moslem thinks that a mistake
has been made in attributing to the Prophet any sayings
which can be construed into limiting advance in art,
8o VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
as in science. When he forbade the making of pictures
" If you must make pictures, make them of trees
and things without souls " it was his sole intention
to forbid the use of pictures in the mosque. \
It was Mohammed's intense hatred of idolatry that
led him to denounce drawing in the same breath as
sculpture ; art, as such, detached from every form of
the worship of God, it is maintained, was never con-
templated when Mohammed declared that " whoso-
ever draweth a picture shall be punished at the last
day by ordering him to breathe a spirit into it ; and
this he can never do, and so he will be punished as long
as God wills." This is a traditional saying. The
teaching of the Koran itself is shown in these words :
" O believers, surely wine and games of chance, and
statues and the divining arrows, are an abomination
of Satan's work " (Sura v. 92). In Cairo there is now
a School of Art in which Moslem students are showing
great proficiency in both statuary and portrait painting.
It is to this restriction, of course, that the wonderful
ingenuity and beauty attained by Arabesque decora-
tion is due. If anyone wishes to see what such decora-
tion is capable of, he should visit the new Mosque of
El-Rifaii, in Cairo. I imagine that there is not a single
note of importance in the whole range of such decora-
tion which is not here turned to gorgeous effect, through
the knowledge and skill of Hertz Pasha. This splendid
mosque, just beneath the Citadel, was not opened till
this summer (1912), but I had special permission to
visit it last winter.
With regard to animals, it must not be supposed
that because the dog is forbidden the house, and is
regarded as an unclean beast it is the mouth of the
Photd\ [Lekegtan, Cairo.
INSIDE THE COURTYARD OF AN OLD PALACE IN CAIRO.
HOME-LIFE IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 81
dog that is dreaded, experience in hot countries shows
with what cause that therefore the Moslem has no
thought for animals. Having myself seen a dog become
suddenly raving mad in a desert village, I can understand
the Prophet's precautions. A rich Moslem recently
left ^40 a year for bread for dogs. It is the general
belief that animals will with man appear at the resurrec-
tion, and some of the most worthy will be admitted to
Paradise. " Fear God with regard to animals," said
Mohammed, " ride them when they are fit to be ridden,
and get off when they are tired. Verily there are
rewards for doing good to dumb animals, and giving
them water to drink." A traditional story of the
Prophet says, " An adultress was forgiven, who, passing
by a dog by a well and seeing it holding out its tongue
from thirst which was near killing it, took off her boot,
and made a rope of one of her garments, and drew water
for the dog." And all the Prophet's teaching agreed
with this ; many are the touching and beautiful stories
told of his own love of birds and beasts.
Like all writers on Islam who do not know the
living people, having gone solely to books, Mr. Bosworth
Smith, although his generous panegyric is valued as
almost the only book ever written by a scholarly English-
man in which a favourable word is said for this religion,
gives too much praise to the Moslem's treatment of
animals. It is another of the contradictions of the
East, that in this matter they are both better and worse
than the Western people. The injustice is to write
down all Oriental folk as cruel.
Playing in the courtyard we saw the children of the
household and the little black son of Bilal the gatekeeper
descended from a long line of slaves to the family,
6
82 VEILED MYSTERIES OF EGYPT
though, now being as free as his master. Indeed it is the
Moslem custom in houses of this sort to bring children
up in pairs, the servant's child with the master's, giving
each almost identical advantages ; and later, if the poor
dependent proves clever, sending him to the same
school or university, and in the case of girls allowing
them to learn from the same governesses. Many a
child of slaves has in this manner won his way to the
very highest position ; for here birth is no obstacle,
which in Christendom is the almost impassable bar,
guarded as it is in the last resort by snobbery, that
cruellest and least relenting of foes to humble advance.
For our entertainment, sometimes, a negro lad of
the house would swarm up one of the high trees and
secure for us some dates ; his master joking him on the
fact that such a small proportion of those gathered
ever reached himself or his family ! Such again are
the principles of equality, when put into actual practice.
CHAPTER VII
" A man's true wealth hereafter is the good he has done in this world
to his fellow-man. When he dies, people will ask, What property has he
left behind him ? But the angels will ask, What good deeds has he sent
before him ? "
Miskat-ul-Masabih, trans, by Capt. Matthews, I. vi. 445.
ANOTHER country-house visit took us into an entirely
different realm, and opened another phase of Islamic
life in Egypt. I had the pleasure during my stay in
Cairo of trying to be of some use to the many students
there ; with the result that I am able to again abundantly
deny the charge, so often made against Oriental people,
that they are wanting in gratitude.
The tangible kindnesses I received on all sides were