Friday Prayer in Zamalek

July 3, 2009

Friday is the "day of gathering" when Muslims show up at a mosque to hear a sermon and complete the prayers. When people imagine a "mosque" it is generally an ideal imposing structure that they have in mind. But the most common type of mosque is the tiny room on the ground floor of a nondescript building. This is the local mosque that Muslims turn to when it is time for one of the daily prayers.. and it is here they come on Friday as well. On Friday these tiny mosques expand into the alleys and streets nearby. As the time for noon prayer approaches you see people spreading the green prayer mats and carpets, and the extent of these mats marks the notional mosque.. and people take off their shoes before stepping into this zone.

Walking through Cairo at the time of the noon prayer is like walking through a succession of outdoor prayer meetings. Every five minutes or so you notice a small gathering tucked away up some street. These have always been a part of my understood landscape of Cairo, but today I tried to document a few of these prayer meetings. Two videos, both taken along 26th of July Street running through Zamalek, were particularly successful. When you think of mosques, this is the image that should come to mind. This is the environment in which a large percentage of Cairenes pray to God.. with cars pushing by and pedestrians passing as well. If you add up all these small mosques in Cairo I'm sure the numer would be in the thousands.

Another element of Islam evident from these videos is the male-dominated nature of public worship. Some formal mosques have an area screened off by wooden panels where women can worship, but in these outdoor prayer centers there's no place for women. When the sermon is over and the prayer begins you can see the men forming parallel lines, in which every person is lined up with each other (this process is featured in the second video below). This brotherhood and equality in the worship is one of the glories of Islam, but it has proven difficult to introduce women into this alignment.