Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah Volume I Part 9

It is now "long vacation": so the holy building has become a kind of Caravanserai for travellers;

[p.101]perhaps a score of nations meet in it; there is a confusion of tongues, and the din at times is deafening. Around the court runs a tolerably well-built colonnade, whose entablature is garnished with crimson arabesques, and in the inner wall are pierced apartments, now closed with plank doors. Of the Riwak, as the porches are called, the Azhar contains twenty-four, one for each recognised nation in Al-Islam, and of these fifteen are still open to students.[FN#18] Inside them we find nothing but matting and a pile of large dingy wooden boxes, which once contained the college library; they are now, generally speaking, empty.[FN#19]

There is nothing worth seeing in the cl.u.s.ter of little dark chambers that form the remainder of the Azhar. Even the Zawiyat al-Umyan (or the Blind men's Oratory), a place where so many "town and gown rows" have emanated, is rendered interesting only by the fanaticism of its inmates, and the certainty that, if recognised in this

[p.102]sanctum, we shall run the gauntlet under the staves of its proprietors, the angry blind.

The Azhar is the grand collegiate Mosque of this city,-the Christ Church, in fact, of Cairo,-once celebrated throughout the world of Al-Islam. It was built, I was told, originally in poor style by one Jauhar al-Kaid,[FN#20] originally the slave of a Moorish merchant, in consequence of a dream that ordered him to "erect a place whence the light of science should shine upon Al-Islam."

It gradually increased by "Wakf[FN#21]" (entailed bequests) of lands, money, and books; and pious rulers made a point of adding to its size and wealth. Of late years it has considerably declined, the result of sequestrations, and of the diminished esteem in which the purely religious sciences are now held in the land of Egypt.[FN#22] Yet it is calculated that between 2000 and 3000 students of all nations and ages receive instruction here gratis.

[p.103]Each one is provided with bread, in a quant.i.ty determined by the amount of endowment, at the Riwak set apart for his nation,[FN#23] with some article of clothing on festival days, and a few piastres once a year. The professors, who are about 150 in number, may not take fees from their pupils; some lecture on account of the religious merit of the action, others to gain the high t.i.tle of "Teacher in Al Azhar.[FN#24]" Six officials receive stipends from the government,-the Shaykh al-Jami' or dean, the Shaykh al-Sakka, who regulates the provision of water for ablution, and others that may be called heads of departments.

The following is the course of study in the Azhar. The school-boy of four or five years' standing has been taught, by a liberal application of the maxim "the Green Rod is of the Trees of Paradise," to chant the Koran without understanding it, the elementary rules of arithmetic, and, if he is destined to be a learned man, the art of writing.[FN#25]

He then registers his name in Al-Azhar, and applies

[p.104]himself to the branches of study most cultivated in Al-Islam, namely Nahw (syntax), Fikh (the law), Hadis (the traditions of the Prophet), and Tafsir, or Exposition of the Koran.

The young Egyptian reads at the same time Sarf, or Inflexion, and Nahw (syntax). But as Arabic is his mother-tongue, he is not required to study the former so deeply as are the Turks, the Persians, and the Indians. If he desire, however, to be a proficient, he must carefully peruse five books in Sarf,[FN#26] and six in Nahw.[FN#27]

[p.105]Master of grammar, our student now applies himself to its proper end and purpose, Divinity. Of the four schools those of Abu Hanifah and Al-Shafe'i are most common in Cairo; the followers of Ibn Malik abound only in Southern Egypt and the Berberah country, and the Hanbali is almost unknown. The theologian begins with what is called a Matn or text, a short, dry, and often obscure treatise, a mere string of precepts; in fact, the skeleton of the subject. This he learns by repeated perusal, till he can quote almost every pa.s.sage literatim. He then pa.s.ses to its "Sharh," or commentary, generally the work of some other savant, who explains the difficulty of the text, amplifies its Laconicisms, enters into exceptional cases, and deals with principles and reasons, as well as with mere precept. A difficult work will sometimes require "Hashiyah," or "marginal notes"; but this aid has a bad name:-

"Who readeth with note, But learneth by rote,"

says a popular doggrel. The reason is, that the student's reasoning powers being little exercised, he learns to depend upon the dixit of a master rather than to think for himself. It also leads to the neglect of another practice, highly advocated by the Eastern pedagogue.

"The lecture is one.

The dispute (upon the subject of the lecture) is one thousand."

In order to become a Fakih, or divine of distinguished fame, the follower of Abu Hanifah must peruse about ten volumes,[FN#28] some of huge size, written in a diffuse style;

[p.106]the Shafe'i's reading is not quite so extensive.[FN#29] Theology is much studied, because it leads directly to the gaining of daily bread, as priest or tutor; and other scientific pursuits are neglected for the opposite reason.

The theologian in Egypt, as in other parts of Al-Islam, must have a superficial knowledge of the Prophet's traditions. Of these there are eight well known collections,[FN#30] but only the first three are generally read.

School-boys are instructed, almost when in their infancy, to intone the Koran; at the university they are

[p.107]taught a more exact system of chanting. The style called "Hafs"

is most common in Egypt, as it is indeed throughout the Moslem world.

And after learning to read the holy volume, some savans are ambitious enough to wish to understand it: under these circ.u.mstances they must dive into the 'Ilm al-Tafsir,[FN#31] or the Exegesis of the Koran.

Our student is now a perfect Fakih or Mulla.[FN#32] But

[p.108]the poor fellow has no scholarship or fellowship-no easy tutorship-no fat living to look forward to. After wasting

[p.109]seven years, or twice seven years, over his studies, and reading till his brain is dizzy, his digestion gone, and his eyes half blind, he must either starve upon college alms, or squat, like my old Shaykh Mohammed, in a druggist's shop, or become pedagogue and preacher in some country place, on the pay of L8 per annum. With such prospects it is wonderful how the Azhar can present any attractions; but the southern man is essentially an idler, and many become Olema, like Capuchins, in order to do nothing. A favoured few rise to the degree of Mudarris (professors), and thence emerge Kazis and Muftis. This is another inducement to matriculate; every undergraduate having an eye upon the Kazi-ship, with as much chance of obtaining it as the country parocco has of becoming a cardinal. Others again devote themselves to laical pursuits, degenerate into Wakils (lawyers), or seek their fortunes as Katibs-public or private accountants.

To conclude this part of the subject, I cannot agree with Dr. Bowring when he harshly says, upon the subject of Moslem education: "The instruction given by the Doctors of the Law in the religious schools, for the formation of the Mohammedan priesthood, is of the most worthless character."[FN#33] His opinion is equally open to

[p.110]objection with that of those who depreciate the law itself because it deals rather in precepts than in principle, in ceremonies and ordinances rather than in ethics and aesthetics. Both are what Eastern faiths and Eastern training have ever been,-both are eminently adapted for the Oriental mind. When the people learn to appreciate ethics, and to understand psychics and aesthetics, the demand will create a supply. Meanwhile they leave transcendentalism to their poets and philosophers, and they busy themselves with preparing for heaven by practising the only part of their faith now intelligible to them-the Material.

It is not to be supposed that a nation in this stage of civilisation could be so fervently devout as the Egyptians are, without the bad leaven of bigotry. The same tongue which is employed in blessing Allah, is, it is conceived, doing its work equally well in cursing Allah's enemies. Wherefore the Kafir is denounced by every s.e.x, age, cla.s.s, and condition, by the man of the world,[FN#34] as by the boy at school; and out of, as well as in, the Mosque. If you ask your friend who is the person with a black turband, he replies,

"A Christian. Allah make his Countenance cold!"

If you inquire of your servant, who are the people singing in the next house, it is ten to one that his answer will be,

"Jews. May their lot be Jahannam!"

It appears unintelligible, still it is not less true, that Egyptians who have lived as servants under European roofs for years, retain the liveliest loathing for the manners

[p.111]and customs of their masters. Few Franks, save those who have mixed with the Egyptians in Oriental disguise, are aware of their repugnance to, and contempt for, Europeans-so well is the feeling veiled under the garb of innate politeness, and so great is their reserve when conversing with those of strange religions. I had a good opportunity of ascertaining the truth when the first rumour of a Russian war arose. Almost every able-bodied man spoke of hastening to the Jihad,-a crusade, or holy war,-and the only thing that looked like apprehension was the too eager depreciation of their foes. All seemed delighted with the idea of French co-operation, for, somehow or other, the Frenchman is everywhere popular. When speaking of England, they were not equally easy: heads were rolled, pious sentences were e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, and finally out came the old Eastern cry, "Of a truth they are Shaytans, those English.[FN#35]" The Austrians are despised, because the East knows nothing of them since the days when Osmanli hosts threatened the gates of Vienna. The Greeks are hated as clever scoundrels, ever ready to do Al-Islam a mischief. The Maltese, the greatest of cowards off their own ground, are regarded with a profound contempt: these are the proteges which bring the British nation into disrepute at Cairo. And Italians are known chiefly as "istruttori" and "distruttori"[FN#36]-doctors, druggists, and pedagogues.

Yet Egyptian human nature is, like human nature everywhere, contradictory. Hating and despising Europeans, they still long for European rule. This people admire

[p.112]an iron-handed and lion-hearted despotism; they hate a timid and a grinding tyranny.[FN#37] Of all foreigners, they would prefer the French yoke,-a circ.u.mstance which I attribute to the diplomatic skill and national dignity of our neighbours across the Channel.[FN#38] But whatever European nation secures Egypt will win a treasure. Moated on the north and south by seas, with a glacis of impa.s.sable deserts to the eastward and westward, capable of supporting an army of 180,000 men, of paying a

[p.113]heavy tribute, and yet able to show a considerable surplus of revenue, this country in western hands will command India, and by a ship-ca.n.a.l between Pelusium and Suez would open the whole of Eastern Africa.[FN#39]

There is no longer much to fear from the fanaticism of the people, and a little prudence would suffice to command the interests of the Mosque.[FN#40] The chiefs of corporations,[FN#41] in the present state of popular feeling, would offer [p.114]even less difficulty to an invader or a foreign ruler than the Olema. Briefly, Egypt is the most tempting prize which the East holds out to the ambition of Europe, not excepted even the Golden Horn.

[FN#1] In the capitals of the columns, for instance.

[FN#2] This direct derivation is readily detected in the Mosques at Old Cairo.

[FN#3] The roof supported by arches resting on pillars, was unknown to cla.s.sic antiquity, and in the earliest ages of Al-Islam, the cloisters were neither arched nor domed. A modern writer justly observes, "A compound of arcade and colonnade was suggested to the architects of the Middle Ages by the command that ancient buildings gave them of marble columns."

[FN#4] "The Oriental mind," says a clever writer on Indian subjects, "has achieved everything save real greatness of aim and execution."

That the Arab mind always aimed, and still aims, at the physically great is sufficiently evident. Nothing affords the Meccans greater pride than the vast size of their temple. Nothing is more humiliating to the people of Al-Madinah than the comparative smallness of their Mosque. Still, with a few exceptions, Arab greatness is the vulgar great, not the grand.

[FN#5] That is to say, imitations of the human form. All the doctors of Al-Islam, however, differ on this head: some absolutely forbidding any delineation of what has life, under pain of being cast into h.e.l.l; others permitting pictures even of the bodies, though not of the faces, of men. The Arabs are the strictest of Misiconists; yet even they allow plans and pictures of the Holy Shrines. Other nations are comparatively lax. The Alhambra abounds in paintings and frescoes. The Persians never object to depict in books and on walls the battles of Rustam, and the Turks preserve in the Seraglio treasury of Constantinople portraits, by Greeks and other artists, of their Sultans in regular succession.

[FN#6] This is at least a purer taste than that of our Gothic architects, who ornamented their cathedrals with statuary so inappropriate as to suggest to the antiquary remains of the worship of the h.e.l.lespontine G.o.d.

[FN#7] At Bruges, Bologna, (St. Stefano), and Nurnberg, there are, if I recollect right, imitations of the Holy Sepulchre, although the "palmer" might not detect the resemblance at first sight. That in the Church of Jerusalem at Bruges was built by a merchant, who travelled three times to Palestine in order to ensure correctness, and totally failed. "Arab art," says a writer in the "Athenaeum," "sprang from the Koran, as the Gothic did from the Bible." He should have remembered, that Arab art, in its present shape, was borrowed by Al-Walid from the Greeks, and, perhaps, in part from the Persians and the Hindus, but that the model buildings existed at Meccah, and in Al-Yaman, centuries before the people had "luxurious shawls and weavings of Cashmere" to suggest mural decoration.

[FN#8] See Theophile Gautier's admirable description of the Mosque at Cordova.

[FN#9] Joseph Pitts, of Exeter, declares that Cairo contained in his day (A.D. 1678-93) 5 or 6000 Mosques, public and private; at the same time he corrects Mr. Collins, who enumerated 6000 public, and 20,000 particular buildings, and M. de Thevenot, who (Part I. p. 129), supplied the city with 23,000!

[FN#10] In Niebuhr's time, a Christian pa.s.sing one of the very holy buildings on foot was liable to be seized and circ.u.mcised. All Mosques may now be entered with certain precautions. When at Cairo, I heard occasionally of a Frank being spat at and insulted, but the instances were rare.

[FN#11] The "Handbook" contains the story current among the learned concerning the remarkable shape of the minaret.

[FN#12] The columns support pointed arches, which, therefore, were known at Cairo 200 years before they were introduced into England. By the discoveries of M. Mariette, it is now ascertained that the Egyptians were perfectly acquainted with the round arch and key-stone at a period antecedent to the architectural existence of Greece.

[FN#13] A "Jami'" is a place where people a.s.semble to pray-a house of public worship. A "Masjid" is any place of prayer, private or public.

From "Masjid" we derive our "Mosque": its changes on the road to Europe are almost as remarkable as that described in the satiric lines,- "Alfana vient d'equus, sans doute, Mais il faut avouer aussi, Qu en venant de la jusqu'ici Il a bien change sur la route."

[FN#14] So called, because supposed to contain relics of Hasan and Husayn, the martyred grandsons of Mohammed. The tradition is little credited, and the Persians ostentatiously avoid visiting the place.

"You are the first 'Ajami that ever said the Fatihah at this holy spot," quoth the Mujawir, or guardian of the tomb, after compelling me, almost by force, to repeat the formula, which he recited with the prospect of a few piastres.

[FN#15] This is becoming the fashion for young Egyptians, who will readily receive a pair of common green persiennes in exchange for fine old windows of elaborately carved wood. They are as sensible in a variety of other small matters. Natives of a hot climate generally wear slippers of red and yellow leather, because they are cool and comfortable: on the banks of the Nile, the old chaussure is gradually yielding to black shoes, which blister the feet with heat, but are European, and, therefore, bon ton. It must, however, be confessed that the fine old carved wood-work of the windows was removed because it was found to be dangerous in cases of fire.

[FN#16] Irreligious men neglect this act of propriety. There are many in Egypt who will habitually transgress one of the fundamental orders of their faith, namely, never to pray when in a state of religious impurity. In popular Argot, prayer without ablution is called Salat Mamlukiyah, or "slaves' prayers," because such men perform their devotions only in order to avoid the master's staff. Others will touch the Koran when impure, a circ.u.mstance which highly disgusts Indian Moslems.

[FN#17] An "adviser," or "lecturer,"-any learned man who, generally in the months of Ramazan and Muharram, after the Friday service and sermon, delivers a discourse upon the principles of Al-Islam.

[FN#18] Amongst them is a foundation for Jawi scholars. Some of our authors, by a curious mistake, have confounded Moslem Jawa (by the Egyptians p.r.o.nounced Gawa), with "Goa," the Christian colony of the Portuguese.

[FN#19] Cairo was once celebrated for its magnificent collections of books. Besides private libraries, each large Mosque had its bibliotheca, every MS. of which was marked with the word "Wakf"

(entailed bequest), or "Wukifa l'Illahi Ta'ala" (bequeathed to G.o.d Almighty). But Cairo has now for years supplied other countries with books, and the decay of religious zeal has encouraged the unprincipled to steal and sell MSS. marked with the warning words. The Hijaz, in particular, has been inundated with books from Egypt. Cairo has still some large libraries, but most of them are private property, and the proprietors will not readily lend or give access to their treasures.

The princ.i.p.al opportunity of buying books is during the month Ramazan, when they are publicly sold in the Azhar Mosque. The Orientalist will, however, meet with many disappointments; besides the difficulty of discovering good works, he will find in the booksellers, scribes, et hoc genus omne, a finished race of scoundrels.

[FN#20] Lane (Mod. Egyptians) has rectified Baron von Hammer-Purgstall's mistake concerning the word "Azhar"; our English Orientalist translates it the "splendid Mosque." I would venture to add, that the epithet must be understood in a spiritual and not in a material sense. Wilkinson attributes the erection of the building to Jauhar al-Kaid, general under Al-Moaz, about A.D. 970. Wilson ascribes it partly to Al-Moaz the Fatimite (A.D. 973), partly to his general and successor, Al-Hakim (?).

[FN#21] Wakf, property become mortmain. My friend Yacoub Artin declares that the whole Nile Valley has parcel by parcel been made Wakf at some time or other, and then retaken.

[FN#22] If I may venture to judge, after the experience of a few months, there is now a re-action in favour of the old system. Mohammed Ali managed to make his preparatory, polytechnic, and other schools, thoroughly distasteful to the people, and mothers blinded their children, to prevent their being devoted for life to infidel studies.

The printing-press, contrasting in hideousness with the beauty of the written character, and the contemptible Arabic style of the various works translated by order of government from the European languages, have placed arms in the hands of the orthodox party.