Friday Odds and Ends

July 21, 2006

Today is Friday, the first day of the weekend in Egypt and in many parts of the Middle East. I generally stay home and wait for the sermons to start sounding over loud speakers at 1 pm. But today was a day of exploration with my driver Harby, and I got to learn something about the way that Friday works here.

One of the sites that has eluded me is the shrine for Umm Kalthum.. one of the Sayyidas whose cults began back in the Fatimid times. I asked Harby about this shrine, and he knew exactly where Umm Kalthum was buried. We headed to the cemetery I expected (Qarafa).. and wound our way down a small street lined with walled and free-standing tombs:

Until we came to the tomb of Um Kalthum. Harby proudly pointed out the writing over the door.. yes, I could see: Umm Kalthum. This was not what I expected, but it was still interesting. This was the tomb of the famous Egyptian singer Umm Kalthum, who died in 1975.

Inside was an octagonal rug, headed by a fancy couch and then flanked by some more ordinary chairs. People come here to pay their respects to the singer. I was also shown a book where visitors had written their Arabic tributes to Umm Kalthum. Unfortunately none of us had a pen, so I did not add my own Arabic note. Off on one side of the tomb was a small indenture where the singer was buried:

That book is an open Qur'an.

We were not the only ones out visiting tombs. Friday is the day when Egyptians head out to visit tombs. The social pattern is to drink tea, eat bread, read the Qur'an, and generally socialize at the place where the person is buried. And you can see from the furniture set up (first picture, above) that the tomb is set up for exactly that kind of visitation. While driving to the tomb we passed numerous flower sellers on the side of the small streets.. attracting the business of people heading to the tomb of a loved one.

Connected to the Qarafa cemetery is a large Friday market. This is the big market day for traditional Egyptians.. although if you shop at Western-style stores, it is a day on which you will find many of the stores closed. We drove through parts of this market, and I saw pretty much everything needed in a house, from bathroom fixtures to drapes to closets to shoes.. The vendors ranged from large store-style booths to individuals sitting cross-legged on the ground with a small store of goods lying for-sale in front of them.. From an overpass I could look down and watch the people in the market:

We followed this view of the Friday market with some serious wandering. We made a run at the Shrine of al-Juyushi, sitting conspicuous atop the Muqattam Hills.. and I got close enough to see it pretty well:

This was as close as I could get, however, as a guard shortly hereafter let us know we could not take pictures. (It seems the army has some kind of base up here.) That was unfortunate because this is a very old shrine, built in 1085 AD. Its original purpose is unknown.. and in fact one scholar believes that it was a watchtower designed to look like a mosque (see Behrens-Abouseif 66). So perhaps this prominent position has always encouraged military applications.

We then visited a couple of mosques near Bab Zuweila.. which I think will be better covered in another blog. After those Harby took me to the mosque of Ali Zeyn al-Abdeen, which is a modern mosque, but which will be for the next couple of nights the setting for a mulid.. a large and festive street party centering around a mosque and the birthday of a saint.

These mulids are pretty thrilling events.. there is perhaps no better introduction to Cairo popular culture.. real Cairo popular culture.. than one of these fairs. During my visit today you could see the outlines for what will happen at night.

All those bulbs will be lit and blinking. The street will also be filled with people. The row of "rides" (below) will be dispersed on the street, and kids and their parents will pay a small fee to get on them.

Walking toward the mosque I was surrounded by kids and people wanting to say something.. but having Harby nearby made the navigation easier. Inside the courtyard I came across this small group singing together (below).. something that there will be much more of in the mulid itself.. which is filled with music. Note the women singing with the men.

The more "traditional" and "popular" Islamic religion becomes.. the more comfortable it is to navigate. This is not the world in which Islamic fundamentalism thrives. These are very poor people who probably could not care less about the global issues that incense the fundamentalists. These people are just looking to get by, and I have always found a warm welcome among them. The following are a few of the people who came up to me at the mosque.. and at their instigation I took a picture of them:

You may notice two black spots on the forehead of the guy in the black Gelabya. That is a prayer callous, and is pretty common to see on men in Egypt. It is a badge of piety since it confirms that he prays often enough to develop actual calluses.

At the center of the mulid celebration is the shrine marking the burial or memorial for a saint. This is the kind of reverence that fundamentalists would love to stamp out.. but that would be a shame, as it is a driving force for a popular religious culture. It is no mystery why fundamentalism thrives (so far as I have seen) in the sterile middle class and wealthy suburbs.. outside the jostle and tumble of the popular and poor neighborhoods.

[That girl in a white shirt to the left of this photo is the same girl who is making a strange face in front of those people who are singing. She watching where I pointed the camera and trying to angle herself into my shot.]