 6 The Mosque Then the Byzantine Christians, after overthrowing the temples of paganism, meditated rebuilding and remodeling them. Poverty of invention and artistic impotence reduced them to group the spoils in a heterogeneous mass. The seaports of Egypt and the plains and mountains of Syria abounding in pillars of granite, cyanite, and precious marbles, and pharaonic, Grecian and Roman statuary, and in all manner of structural ornaments, the architects were at no loss for material. Their syncretism, the result of chance and precipitancy, of extravagance and incuriousness, fell under eyes too ignorant to be hurt by the hybrid irregularity. It was perpetuated in the so-called Saracenic style, a plagiarism from the Byzantine. Footnote This direct derivation is readily detected in the Mosque, said old Cairo, and Footnote. And it was reiterated in the Gothic, an offshoot from the Saracenic. Footnote The roof supported by arches resting on pillars was unknown to classic antiquity, and in the earliest ages of Al-Islam the cloisters were neither arched nor domed. A modern writer justly observes, quote, 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, unquote, and footnote. This fact accounts in the Gothic style for its manifold incongruities of architecture, and for the phenomenon not solely attributable to the buildings having been erected piecemeal, of its most classic period being that of its greatest irregularity, such architectural lawlessness, such disregard for symmetry, the result, I believe, of an imperfect amalgamation and enrichment, may doubtless be defended upon the grounds both of cause and effect. Architecture is of the imitative arts, in nature, the Myramorphis, everywhere delighting in variety, appears to abhor nothing so much as perfect similarity and precise uniformity. To copy her exactly, we must therefore seek that general analogy compatible with individual variety. In fact, we should avoid the over-display of order and regularity. And again, it may be asserted that however incongruous these disorderly forms may appear to the conventional eye, we find it easy to surmount our first antipathy. Perhaps we end in admiring them the more, as we love those faces in which regularity of feature is compensated for by diversity and frequency of expression. There is nothing, I believe, new in the Arab mosque. It is an unconscious revival of the forms used from the earliest ages to denote by symbolism the worship of the generative and creative gods. The reader will excuse me if I only glance at a subject of which the investigation would require a volume, in which disgust at greater length would be out of place in such a narrative as this. The first mosque in all Islam was erected by Muhammad, a Quba, near Al Medina. Shortly afterwards, when he entered Mecca as a conqueror, he destroyed the three hundred and sixty idols of the Arab Pantheon and thus purified that venerable building from its abominations. He had probably observed in Syrian Bostra the two forms appropriated by the Christians to their places of worship, the cross and the parallelogramic basilica. He therefore preferred for the prayers of the saving faith a square, some others say with others without a cloister. At length in the reign of Al-Waldi, the Kubala, the niche and the minaret made their appearance, and what is called the Saracenic style became forever the order of the Muslim world. The Hindus, I believe, who have been the first to symbolize by an equilateral triangle, their peculiar cult, the Yoni Linga, and their temple architecture, it became either a conoid or a perfect pyramid. Egypt denoted it by the obelisk, peculiar to that country, and the form appeared in different parts of the world. Thus in England, it was a mere upright stone and an Ireland round tower. This we might expect to see. The Henserville and Bretier have successfully traced the worship itself in its different modifications to all people. The symbol would therefore be found everywhere. The old Arab minaret is a plain cylindrical or a polygonal tower without balcony or stages, widely different from the Turkish, modern Egyptian, and Hijazi combinations of tube and prism, happily compared by a French traveler to, quote, une chandelle coif d'une étenoire, unquote. And finally, the ancient minaret, made solid as all Gothic architecture is, and provided with a belfry, became the spire and steeple of our ancestors. From time immemorial in hot and rainy lands, a hypatherial court, either round or square, surrounded by a covered portico, was used for the double purpose of church and mart, a place where God and Mammon were worshiped turn by turn. In some places we find rings of stones, like the Persian pyrothia. In others, circular concave buildings representing the vault of heaven were fire. The divine symbol was worshiped. And in Arabia, columnar aisles, each surmounted by the splendid blue vault, resembled the palm grove. The Greeks adopted this idea in the faines of Crater Bacchus. And at Pusoli, near Naples, it may be seen in the buildings, vulgarly called the Temple of Serapis. It was equally well known to the Celts. In some places, the Temmans was a circle, and others a quadrangle. And such to the present day is the mosque of al-Islam. Even the rewok or porches surrounding the area in the mosque are revivals of older forms. Quote, the range of square buildings which enclose the Temple of Serapis are not, properly speaking, parts of the faine but apartments of the priests, places for victims, and sacred utensils, and chapels dedicated to subordinate deities, introduced by a more complicated and corrupt worship, and probably unknown to the founders of the original edifice, unquote. The cloisters in the mosque became cells used as lecture rooms and stores for books bequeathed to the college. They are unequal because some are required to be of larger, others to be of smaller dimensions. The same reason causes differences of size when the building is distributed into four hypostiles, opening upon the area. The porch in the direction of the Kaaba, where worshipers mostly congregate, demands greater depth than the other three. The wings were not unfrequently made unequal, either from want of building materials or because the same extent of accommodation was not required in both. The columns were of different substances, some of handsome marble, others of rust stone, meanly plastered over with the similar capitals, a vulgarly cut shafts of various sizes, here with a pediment, here without, now turned upside down, then joined together by halves in the center and almost invariably nascent of intercolumn or rule. This is the result of Byzantine syncretism, carelessly and ignorantly grafted upon Arab ideas of the natural and the sublime. Loving and admiring the great, or rather the big in plan. Foot known, the Oriental minds as a clever writer on indium 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 the people of Al Medina than the comparative smallness of their mosque, still with a few exceptions, Arab greatness is the vulgar great, not the grand and footnote. They care little for the execution of mere details and they have not be accummented to discern the effect which clumsy workmanship, crooked lines and visible joints, parts apparently insignificant, exercised upon the whole of an edifice. Their use of colors was a false taste, commonly displayed by mankind and their religious houses and statues of the gods. The Hindus paint their pagodas inside and outside and rub vermilion and token of honor over their deities. The Persian Colossia of Kayamaras and the consort on the Balk Road in the Sphinx of Egypt as well as the temples of the Nile still show traces of artificial complexion. The feigns and classic Greeks had been died in the form of Romanum, one of the finest buildings, still bare stains of the Tyrian purple. And to mention no other instances in the churches in the belfries of modern Italy we see alternating bands of white and black materials so disposed to give them the appearance of giant zebras. The origin of arabesque ornament must be referred to one of the principles of Al-Islam, the Moslem forbidden by Islam to depict his mosque with statuary and pictures. Footnote, 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 hell. Others permitting pictures even of the bodies though not of the faces of men. The Arabs are the strictest of mystic conists 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 unwalls the battles of Rustam and the Turks preserve in the sarglio treasury of Constantinople portraits by Greeks and other artists of their sultans in regular succession. End footnote. Supplied their place with quotations from the Quran in inscriptions called plastic metaphysics, unquote of marvellous perplexity. His alphabet lent itself to the purpose and hence probably arose that almost inconceivable variety of lace-like fretwork of incrustrations of arabesques and of geometric flowers in which his eyes the light to lose itself. Footnote. This is at least a purer taste than that of our gothic architects who weren't invented their cathedrals with statuaries so inappropriate as to suggest to the antiquare remains of the worship of the hellsepant god. End footnote. The Meccan mosque became a model to the world of Al-Islam and the nations that embraced the new faith copied the consecrated building as religiously as christendom produced imitations of the holy sepulture. Footnote. Abruj, Bolona, St. Stefano, and Nuremberg there are, if I recollect right, imitations of the holy sepulture. Although the Palmer might not detect their resemblance at first sight, that in the church of Jerusalem Abruj was built by a merchant who traveled three times the Palestine in order to ensure correctness and totally failed. Erebarts as a writer in the Athenian sprang from the Koran as the gothic did from the Bible. He should have remembered that Erebart in its present shape was borrowed by Al-Walid from the Greeks and perhaps in part from the Persians and the Hindus but the model buildings exist at Mecca and in Al-Yaman centuries before the people had quote luxurious shawls and weavings of cashmere on quote to suggest mural decoration. End footnote. The mosque of Omar at Jerusalem of Amru at Babylon on the Nile and of Tyleun at Cairo were erected with some trifling improvements such as arch-cloisters and inscribed cornices upon the plan of the Kaaba. From Egypt and Palestine the iconography spread far and wide. It was modified as might be expected by national taste what in Arabia was simply an elegant became highly ornate in Spain. Footnote see Theophile Gautier's admirable description of the mosque at Cordova and footnote. Florida and Turkey sturdy in Syria and effeminate in India. Still divergence of detail had not even after the lapse of 12 centuries materially altered the fundamental form. Perhaps no eastern city affords more numerous or more accessible specimens of mosque architecture than Cairo between 300 and 400 places of worship. Footnote Joseph Pitts of Exeter declares that Cairo contained in his day A.D. 1678-93 five or six thousand mosques public and private at the same time he corrects Mr. Collins who enumerated six thousand public and twenty thousand particular buildings and Mishir de Thivenol who part one page 129 supplied the city with twenty three thousand and footnote. Some stately piles others ruinous hobbles many new more decaying and earthquakes shaking the minarets that rival in obliquity the pizon monster are open to the travelers inspection and Europeans by following the advance of their hotel keeper have penetrated and can penetrate into any one of these they please. Footnote in Naibor's time a Christian passing one of the very holy buildings on foot was liable to be seized and circumcised all mosques may now be entered with certain precautions when a Cairo I heard occasionally of a Frank being spat at and insulted but the instances were rare and footnote if architecture be really what I believe it to be the highest expression of a people's artistic feeling highest because it includes all others to compare the several styles the different epochs to observe how each monarch building his own mosque and calling it by his own name identified the manner of the monument with himself and to trace the gradual decadence of art through one thousand two hundred years down to the present day must be a work of no ordinary interest orientalists limits of my plan however compel me to place only the heads of the argument before the reader may I be allowed to express a hope that it will induce some learned traveler to investigate the subject in every way worthy his attention the desecrated jami talion ninth century is simple and massive yet elegant and in some of its details peculiar footnote the handbook contains the story current among the learned concerning the remarkable shape of the minaret and footnote one of the four colonnades footnote the columns support pointed arches which therefore were known to Cairo 200 years before they were introduced into england by the discoveries of mature mariette it is now ascertained that the egyptians were perfectly acquainted with the round arch in keystone at a period and to send it to the architectural existence of greece and footnote still remains unoccupied by paupers to show the original magnificence of the building the other porches are walled up and inhabited in the center of a quadrangle about 100 paces square is a domed building springing from a square which occupies the proper place of the kaba this jami footnote a jami is a place where people assemble to pray a house of public worship a masjid is any place of prayer private or public from masjid we derive our mosque it changes on the road to europe are almost as remarkable as that described in the satiric lines alfana vienti equesans dute meis il fat evuer el si que inventen di la queschi i el bin chang sur la route and footnote cathedral is interesting as a point of comparison if it be an exact copy of the meccan temple as it stood in a d 879 it shows that the ladder has greatly altered and this are modern day next in date to the talian mosque is that of the sultan al-hakim third caliph of the fatemites and founder of the drues mysteries the minarets are remarkable in shape as well as size they are unprovided with the usual outer gallery and are based upon a cube of masonry and they are pierced above with apertures apparently meaningless a learned kareen informing that these spires were devised by the eccentric monarch to disperse like large sensors fragrant smoke over the city during the hours of prayer the azhar and hesein footnote so called because supposed to contain relics of Hassan and Hasein the martyred grandsons of muhammed the tradition is little credited in the persians ostentiously avoid visiting the place quote you are the first ajami that ever said the fatah at this holy spot unquote quote the mujware or guarding the tomb after compelling me almost by force to repeat the formula which he recited with the prospects of a few piasters and quote mosques are simple and artless piles celebrated by sanctity but remarkable for nothing save ugliness few buildings however are stately or an appearance or give a nobler idea of both founder and architect than that which bears sultan hasan's name the stranger stands all struck before walls high towering without a single break uh... high-patriot court sir severe and masculine beauty a gateway that might suit the palace of the titans and a lofty minaret of massive grandeur this mosque finished about a d thirteen sixty three with its fortress aspect owns no more relationship to the efforts of a later age than does canterbury cathedral to an anglo indian gothic for dignified beauty and refined taste the mosque and tomb of kayak bay and the other manluk kings are admirable even in their present state picturesque this presides over decay and the traveler has seldom seen a lot more striking than the rich light of the stained glass pouring through the first shades of evening upon the marble floor the modern mosques must be visited to see egyptian architecture in its decline in fall that of sitna zaynab our lady zaynab founded by murad bay the manluk and interrupted by the french invasion shows even in its completion some lingering traces of taste but nothing can be more offensive than the building which every tourist flogs donkey in his hurry to see old Muhammad Ali's folly in the citadel its greek architect has toiled to caricature a mosque to emulate the glories of our english oriental pavilion outside as monkton millen sings quote the shining minarets then high unquote are so thin so high above the lumpy domes that they look like the spindles of crouching crones and are placed in full sight of sultan hasan the giant so as to derive all the disadvantages of the contrast is the pointed arch forgotten by man that this hapless building should be disgraced by large and small parallel germs of glass and wood so placed and so formed as give its exterior the appearance of a european theater coiff with oriental cupolas footnote this is becoming the fashion for young egyptians who will readily receive a pair of common green persines 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 chasseur is gradually yielding to black shoes which blister the feet with the heat but are european and therefore bantan it must however be confessed that the fine old carved woodwork of the windows was removed because it was found to be dangerous in cases of fire unquote outside as well as inside money has been lavished upon alabaster full of flaws round the bases of pillars run guilt bands in places the walls are painted with streaks to resemble marble and the woodwork is overlaid with tinsel gold after a glance at these abominations one cannot be surprised to hear the old men of egypt lament that in spite of european education and of prizes encouraging geometry and architecture modern art offers a melancholy contrast to antiquity it is said that hh abbas pascha proposed to rekt for himself a mosque that shall far surpass the boasts of the last generation i venture to hope that his architect will light the sacred fire from sultan hasan's not from mohammed ali's turkot grecian splendors the former is like the genuine osmanly of past ages fierce cold with a stalwart frame index of a strong mind there was a sullen grandeur about the man the latter is the pert and puny modern turk in pantaloons frock coat and fez ill-dressed ill-conditioned and ill-bred body and soul we will now enter the mosque al azar at the dwarf wooden railing we take off our slippers hold them in the left hand soul to soul that no dirt may fall from them and cross the threshold with the right foot ejaculating bismillah and etc next we repair to the maiza or large tank for ablution without which it is unlawful to appear in the house of ala we then seek some proper place for devotion place our slippers on some other object in front of us to warn the lounger and perform a tuba prayer in honor of the mosque footnote irreligious men neglect this act of propriety there are many in egypt who will habitually transgress one of the fundamental orders of the faith namely never to pray when in a state of religious impurity and popular argo prayer without ablution is called salat men look kia or slaves prayers because such men perform their devotions only in order to avoid the master's staff others will touch the caran when impure a circumstance which highly disgusts indian muslims and footnote this done we may wonder about and inspect the several objects of curiosity the moon shines splendidly upon a vast open court paved with stones which are polished like glass by the feet of the faithful there is darkness in the body of the building a large oblong hall at least twice too lengthy for its height supported by a forest of pillars thin poor-looking crooked marble columns planted avenue like upon torn and dirty matting a few oil lamps shed doubtful light over scanty groups who are debating some point of grammar or are listening to the words of wisdom that fall from the mouth of a wise footnote an advisor or lecturer any learned man who generally in the months of ramazon and muharam after the friday service and sermon delivers a discourse upon the principles of el islam and footnote presently they will leave the hypostyle and throw themselves upon the flags of the quadrangle where they may enjoy the open air and avoid some fleas it is now quote long vacation unquote so the holy building has become a kind of caravan sorry for travelers perhaps a score of nations meeting 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 rework as the porches are called the azar contains 24 one for each recognized nation in el islam and of these 15 are still open to students footnote amongst them is a foundation of jawi scholars some of our authors by a curious mistake have confounded moslem jawa by the egyptian pronounce gawa with goa the christian colony of the portuguese and footnote inside them we find nothing but madding in a pile of large dingy wooden boxes which once contained the college library they are now generally speaking empty footnote chiro was once celebrated for its magnificent collection of books besides private libraries each large mosque had its biblioteca every ms of which was marked with the words walk entailed bequest or wakifah elilla talah bequeath to god almighty but chiro 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 chiro 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 principal opportunity of buying books is during the month ramazon when they are publicly sold in the azar mosque the orientalist will however meet with many disappointments besides the difficulty of discovering good works he will find in the booksellers scribes ad hoc genus omni a finished race of scoundrels and footnote there is nothing worth seeing in the cluster of little dark chambers that formed the remainder of the azar even the zwayats l amyan or the blind man's oratory a place where so many quote town and gown rows unquote have emanated is rendered interesting only by the fanaticism of its inmates and the certainty that if recognized in this sanctum we shall run the gauntlet under the staves of its proprietors the angry blind the azar is the grand collegiate mosque of this city the christ church in fact of kairu once celebrated throughout the world of al-islam it was built i was told originally in poor style by one jowar al-qaid footnote lane modern egyptians has rectified barren von hammer pergstahl's mistake concerning the word azar our english orientalist translated 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 jowar al-qaid general under el-mouaz about ad 970 wilson ascribes it partly to el-mouaz the fatemite ad 973 partly to his general and successor el-hakim question mark in parentheses and footnote originally the slave of a moorish merchant in consequence of a dream that ordered him to erect a place once the light of science should shine upon al-islam unquote it gradually increased by wekf entailed the quests of lands money and books and pious rulers made a point of adding to its size and wealth footnote wekf property became mortemane my friend yacob artin declares that the whole nile valley has parcel by parcel been made wekf at some time or other and then retaken and footnote of late years it has considerably decline the result of sequestrations and of the diminished esteem in which the purely religious sciences are now held in the land of egypt footnote if i may venture to judge after the experience of a few months there is now a reaction in favor of the old system Muhammad 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 infidels 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 and footnote yet it is calculated that between two thousand and three thousand students of all nations and ages receive instruction here gratis each one is provided with bread in a quantity determined by the amount of endowment at the rewok set apart for his nation with some article of clothing on festival days and a few piasters once a year footnote finding the indian rewok closed and hearing that an endowment still belonged to it i called twice upon Sheikha Gordeen wishing to claim the stipend as a precedent but i failed in finding him at home and was obliged to start hurdly for Suez the indians now generally study in the solium minia or afghan college and footnote the professors who are about a hundred and fifty a number may not take fees from their pupils some lecture on account of the religious merit of the action others to gain the high title of teacher in al-azair footnote as the attending of lectures is not compulsory the result is that the lecturer is always worth listening to may i commend this consideration to our college reformers at home in my day men were compelled to waste notoriously to waste an hour or two every morning for the purpose of putting a few pounds sterling into the pocket of some droning dawn and footnote six officials receive stipends from the government the Sheikha El Jami or dean the Sheikha El Saka 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 azar the schoolboy 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 Quran without understanding it the elementary rules of arithmetic and if he is destined to be a learned man the art of writing footnote the would-be calligrapher must go to a constant in opal kwaja school master and after writing about two hours a day regularly through a year or two he will become if he has the necessary disposition a skillful penman this acquirement is what little valued in the present day as almost nothing is to be gained by it the Turks particularly excel in the ornamental character called souls i've seen some karans beautifully written and the late pascha gave an impetus to this branch of industry by forbidding under the plea of religious scruples the importation of the incorrect karans cheaply lithographed by the Persians at Bombay the Persians surpassed the Turks in all but the souls writing of late years the paschas of Cairo have employed a gentleman from Corsan whose traveling name is quote Mirza Sanglak unquote to decorate their mosques with inscriptions i was favored with a specimen of his art and do not hesitate to rank him the first of his age and second to none amongst the ancients but those Raphaels of calligraphy mirror of Shiraz and ramen of harat the Egyptians and Arabs generally speaking right of course in clumsy hand and as usual in the east the higher the rank of the writer the worse his scrawl becomes and footnote he then registers his name in al-Azhar and applies himself to the branches of study most cultivated in al-Islam namely Nawa syntax Fik the law hadas the traditions of the prophet and tafsir or exposition of the Quran the young Egyptian reads at the same time surf or inflection and Nawa 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 footnote the popular volumes are one al-Emsla showing the simple conjugation of the trilateral verb two bisya the work of some unknown author explaining the formation of the verb into increased infinities the quadrilateral verb and etc and three Maxuas a well-known book written by the great Imam Abu Hanifa for the Izzi an explanatory treatise the work of a Turk Isat Effendi the last of the Mara of Ahmad al-Saud these five tracks are bound together in a little volume printed at the government establishment al-Emsla is explained in Turkish to teach boys the art of parsing Egyptians generally confine themselves in al-Sarf to Izzi and the Dami'at al-Afal of the grammarian ibn Malik and six in Nawa first the well-known Adrumian printed by Mishur Wussel and its contemporary al-Kafrari thirdly the alfiyah thousand districts of ibn Malik written in a verse of mnemonic purposes but thereby rendered so difficult as to require the lengthy commentary of al-Ashmumi the fifth is the well-known work called katar al-Nida the dewdrop celebrated from Cairo to Kabul and last of all the Azari and footnote master of grammar our student now applies himself to its proper end in purpose divinity of the four schools those of Abu Hanifa and al-Shafi are most common in Cairo the followers of ibn Malik abound only in southern Egypt and the Berbera country and the Hanbali is almost unknown the theologian begins with what is called the ment or text 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 passage literatum he then passes to its shahar or commentary generally the work of some other sabbant 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 quote we read it with note but learneth by rote unquote says a popular dog rule the reason is that the student's reasoning power is being little exercise he's 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 eastern pedagogue quote the lecture is one the dispute upon the subject of the lecture is one thousand unquote in order to become a faqi or a divine of distinguished fame the follower of abu hanafa must peruse about ten volumes footnote i know little of the hanafi school but the name of the following popular works were given to me by men upon whose learning i could depend the book first read is the text called mara al-fala containing about 20 pages and its commentary which is about six times longer then comes the matin al-kanzi a brief text of from 35 to 40 pages followed by three long shara the shortest of these al-ta'i contains 500 pages the next mullah miskin at least 900 and the shara enyi nearly 2000 to these exceeds the text al-durr the work of the celebrated kusra 200 pages with a large commentary by the same author and last is the matin tenwir al-absar containing about 500 pages and its shara a work upwards of four times the size many of these books may be found especially when the ms is an old one with haisea or marginal notes but most men write them for themselves so that there is no generally used collection the above mentioned are the works containing a full course of theological study it is rare, however, to find a man who reads beyond the al-kanz with the shortest of its commentaries the al-ta'i and footnote some of huge size written in a diffuse style the sheffaise reading is not quite so extensive footnote he begins with a little text called after the name of its author abu shuja's of isfan and proceeds to its commentary a book of about 250 pages by eban kassim of gaza there is another shira neatly four times larger than this al-kattib it is seldom read then comes al-ta'i here the work of zikirya al-ansari a celebrated divine buried in the mosque of al-shefi and its commentary by the same author a goodly ms of 600 pages most students here cry quote enough unquote the ambitious pass on to al-minyaj and its commentary 1600 pages nor need they stop at this point a man may addle his brains over muslim theology as upon Aristotle's schoolman till his eyesight fails him both subjects are all but interminable and footnote 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 but only the first three are generally read footnote the three best known are the arbein al-nawawi and the sahi hain quote the two universally acknowledged to be trustworthy unquote by al-muslim and al-bokhari celebrated divines the others are al-jami al-saghir quote the smaller collection unquote so-called to distinguish it from a rarer book al-jami al-qabr the quote greater collection unquote both are the work of al-si-udi the full course concludes with al-shifa shamel and the labors of qazi ayahs and footnote schoolboys are instructed almost when in their infancy to entone the Quran at the university they are taught a more exact system of chanting the style called hafs is most common in egypt as it is indeed throughout the muslim world and after learning to read the holy volume some savans are ambitious enough to wish to understand it under these circumstances they must dive into elm al-tafsir or the exegesis of the Quran footnote the two tafsirs are known all over the modern world the smaller one is called jalal lani the two jalals i.e. the joint work of jalal al-si-udi and jalal al-mahila and fills two stout volumes octavo the larger is the exposition of al-baywuzawi which is supposed to contain the whole subject some few divines read el-kazin and footnote our student is now a perfect faki or mula footnote to conclude the list of muslim studies not purely religious al-mantic or logic is little valued it is read when judged advisable after al-na-wah from which it flows and before ma-ani bayan rhetoric to which it leads in egypt students are generally directed to fortify their memories and give themselves a logical turn of mind by application to al-jabr algebra the only logical works known are the is-a-guji the greek text of poor fiery al-sham-si-ya the book of sulam with its sar-al-ak-sari and lastly qazi-mir equally neglected are the tarao-a-rik history and the hikmat or philosophy once so ardently cultivated by muslim savans indeed it is now all but impossible to get books upon these subjects for upwards of six weeks i ransacked the stalls at the bazaar in order to find some one of the multitudinous annals of al-hijjahs without seeing for sale anything but the fourth volume of a large biographical work called al-akid al-saman fi-tariq al-beled al-amin the ilm al-aruz or prosody is not among the arabes as with us a chapter hung on to the tale of grammar it is a long and difficult study prosecuted only by those who wish to distinguish themselves in arabiyat the poetry and the eloquence of the ancient and modern arabes the poems generally studied with the aid of commentaries which impress every verse upon the memory are the burda and the hamsiyah well-known odes by muhammad of abusir they abound in obsolete words and are useful at funerals as on other solemn occasions the bannet suad by kab el-abar or akbar a companion of the apostle and the diwan umar ibn fariz a celebrated mystic are also learned compositions few attempt the bulky volume of el-mutunabi though many place it open upon the sofa few are still the 10 verse compositions of al-har ibrahim nor did the modern egyptians admire those fragments of ancient arab poets which seems so sweetly simple to the european ear the change of faith has altered the national taste to such an extent that the decent bard must now sing of women in the masculine gender for which reason a host of modern poet stars can attract the public ear which is deft the voices of the quote golden song unquote in the exact sciences the egyptian muslims a backward race according to european estimation are far superior to the persians and the muslims of india some of them become tolerable erythmeticians though very inferior to the coptic christians they have good and simple treatises on algebra and still display some of their ancestors faculty in the acquisition of geometry the ilm al-mikhat or calendar calculating was at one time publicly taught in the azar the printing press has doomed that study to death natural sciences find but scant favor on the banks of the nile astronomy is still astrology geography a heap of names and natural history a mass of fables alchemy geomancy and summoning of fiends are pet pursuits but the former has so bad a name that even amongst friends that is always a little too is ilm al-qaf the science of k so-called from the initial letter of the word kamiya of the state of therapeutics I have already treated at length aided by the finest of years and flexible organs of articulation the egyptian appears to possess many of the elements of a good linguist the stranger wonders to hear a kyrian donkey boy shouting sentences in three or four european dialects with a pronunciation as pure as its own how far this people succeeded in higher branches of language my scanty experience does not enable me to determine but even for students of arabic nothing can be more imperfect than in those useful implements vocabularies and dictionaries the kareens have it is true the kamu of feruzabaliki but has never been printed in egypt it is therefore rare and when found lost pages and clerical errors combined with the intrinsic difficulty of the style exemplify the sayings of gullias that the most learned orientalist must act the part of a diviner before he can form that of interpreter they have another lexicon the siha and an abbreviation of the same the siha el-seghir or the lesser both of them liable to the same objections as the kamus for the benefit of the numerous students of turkish and persian short grammars and vocabularies have been printed at a cheap price but the former are upon the model of arabic a language essentially different in formation and the latter are mere strings of words as a specimen of the state of periodical literature i make quote the history of the quote bulak independent unquote as european facetiously call it when muhammad al-een determined to have an quote organ unquote directed an officer to be editor of a weekly paper the officer replied that no one would read it and consequently that no one would pay for it the pasha remedied this by an order that a subscription should be struck off from the pay of all employees european and egyptian whose salary amounted to a certain sum upon which the editor accepted the task but being paid before his work was published he of course never supplied his subscribers with their copies and footnote but the poor fellow has no scholarship or fellowship no easy tutorship no fat living to look forward to after wasting seven years or twice seven years over his studies and reading till his brain is dizzy his digestion gone and his eyes half blinded he must either starve upon college alms or squat like my old shake muhammad in a druggist shop or become pedagogue and preacher in some country place on the pay of l eight per annum with such prospects it is wonderful how the azar can present any attractions but the southern man is essentially an idler and many become olemma like cappuccines in order to do nothing a favored few rise to the degree of mudari's professors and then submerge khazis and muftis this is another inducement to matriculate every undergraduate having an eye upon the kazi ship which is much chance of obtaining it as the country paroco has of becoming cardinal others again devote themselves to lakehole pursuits to generate into wakils lawyers or seek their fortunes as kettibs public or private accountants to conclude this part of the subject i cannot agree with dr browning when he harshly says upon the subject of muslim education quote the instruction given by the doctors of the law in the religious schools for the formation of the muhammad in priesthood is of the most worthless character unquote footnote would not a superficial hasty and somewhat prejudiced egyptian or persian say exactly the same thing about the systems of christ church and trinity college and footnote his opinion is equally open to 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 practicing 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 civilization could be so fervently devout as the egyptians are without the bad leaving of bigotry the same tongue which is employed in blessing a la is it is conceived doing its work equally well in cursing a la's enemies wherefore the calf here is denounced by every sex age class and condition by the men of the world footnote and when the men of the world as sometimes happens profess to see no difference in the forms of faith or whispers that his residence in europe has made him friendly to the christian religion you will be justified in concluding his opinions to be letitudinarian end footnote 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 turban he replies quote a christian a la make his continents cold unquote 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 quote jews may there a lot be jahanam unquote it appears unintelligible still it is not less true that egyptians live as servants under european roofs for years retain the liveliest loathing for the manners and customs of their masters few francs save those who have mixed with the egyptians in oriental disguise are aware of their repugnance to and contempt for europeans so well as 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 rumor of a russian war arose almost every able-bodied man spoke of hastening to the jihad crusade or holy war and the only thing that looked like apprehension was the two eager depreciation of their phones all seemed delighted with the idea of french cooperation for somehow or other the frenchman is everywhere popular when speaking of england they were not equally easy heads were rolled pious sentences were ejaculated and finally out came the old eastern cry quote of a truth they are shaytains those english unquote footnote i know only one class in egypt favorable to the english the donkey boys and they found our claim to the possession of the country upon a base scarcely admissible by those skilled in kezu history namely that we hire more asses than any other nation and footnote the austrians are despised because the east knows nothing of them since the days when osmanly hosts threatened the gates of vienna the greeks are hated as clever scoundrels ever ready to do al islam a mischief the maltees the greatest of cowards of their own ground are regarded with profound contempt these are the protégés which bring the british nation into disrepute at cairo and italians are known chiefly as quote distrutory unquote and quote distrutory unquote doctors drugists and pedagogues footnote the story is that Muhammad Ali used to offer his flocks of foreigners their choice of two professions quote destruction unquote that is to say physics or quote instruction unquote and footnote yet egyptian human nature is like human nature everywhere contradictory hating and despising europeans they still long for european rule this people admire an iron-handed and lion-hearted despotism they hate a timid and grinding tyranny footnote of this instance is abound lately an order was issued to tax the villages of the badawin settled upon the edge of the western desert who even in Muhammad Ali's time were allowed to live free of assessment the old le inhabitants of a little village near the pyramids refused to pay and turned out with their match locks defying the pascha the government then insisted upon they're leaving their houses and living under hair cloth like bedwin since they claim the privileges of badawin the sturdy fellows at once pitched their tents and when i returned to Cairo in december 1853 they had deserted their village i could offer a score of such cases proving the present debased condition of egypt and footnote of all foreigners they would prefer the french yoke a circumstance which i attribute to the diplomatic skill and national dignity of our neighbors across the channel footnote at Constantinople the french were the first to break through the shameful degradation to which the ambassadors of infidel powers were bribed by 300 to 400 rations a day to submit it matured the saint priest refused to give up his sword general sabbastani insisted upon wearing his military boots and the republican ober du bejeu rejected the dinner and the rich dress with which quote the naked and hungry barbarian who ventured to rub his brow upon the sublime port quote was fed in clothes before being admitted to the presence saying that the ambassadors of france wanted neither this nor that a Cairo mature sabbataire the french council general has had the merit of doing away with some customs prejudicial to the dignity of his nation the next english envoy will if anxious so to distinguish himself have an excellent opportunity it is usual after the first audience for the pascha to send in token of honor a sorry steed to the newcomer this custom is a mere relic of the days when mohammed the second threatened to stable his charger in saint peters and when a ride through the streets of Cairo expose the inspector general taught and is sweet to lapidation and quote avani unquote to send a good horse is to imply degradation but offer a bad one is a positive insult and footnote but whatever european nation secures egypt will win a treasure moded on the north and south by seas with the glasses of impassable deserts to the eastward and westward capable of supporting an army of 180 000 men of paying a heavy tribute and yet able to show a considerable surplus of revenue this country in western hands would command india and by a ship canal between palusium and suez would open the whole of eastern africa footnote as this canal has become a question of national interest its advisability is surrounded with all the circumstance of unsupported assertion and bold denial the english want a railroad which would confine the use of egypt to themselves the french desire a canal that would emit the hearty cruises of the mediterranean into the red sea the cosmopolite will hope that both projects may be carried out even in the seventh century omar forbade amrout to cut the isthmus of suez her fear of opening arabia to christian vessels as regards the feasibility of the ship canal i heard monsieur linant the bell phones the best authority upon all such subjects in egypt expressly assert after leveling and surveying the line that he should have no difficulty in making it the canal is now a fact as late as april 1864 lord palmerston informed the house of commons that laborers might be more usefully employed and cultivating cotton than in quote digging a canal through a sandy desert and in making two harbors in deep mud and shallow waters unquote it is however understood that the premiere was the only one of his cabinet who took this view mr robert stevensson c e certainly regretted before his death the opinion which he had been induced to express by desire and footnote 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 footnote there are at present about 18 influential shikes at kyro too fanatic to listen to reason these it would be necessary to banish good information about what goes on in each mosque especially on fridays when the priests preach to the people and a guard of honor placed at the gates of the kazi the three muftis and the shike of the azar are simple precautions sufficient to keep the olima in order these rakiz al-usab as they are called are the most influential part of the immense mass of dark intrigue which kyro like most oriental cities conceals beneath the light surface they generally appear in the ostensible state of barbers and dyers secretly they preside over their different factions and form a kind of small them the french used to pay these men but napoleon detecting them and stirring up the people whilst appearing to maintain public tranquility shot 18 or 20 about half of their number and thereby improve the conduct of the rest they are to be managed as sir charles napeer governed sin by keeping a watchful eye upon them a free administration of military law disarming the population and forbidding large bodies of men to assemble and footnote the chiefs of corporations in the present state of popular feeling would offer even less difficulty to an invader or a foreign ruler than the olima briefly egypt is the most tempting prize which the east holds out to the ambition of europe not accepted even the golden horn end of chapter six recording by jersey city frankie chapter seven of pilgrimage to el medina and mecca this is a liberivox recording all liberivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberivox.org chapter seven of personal narrative of a pilgrimage to el medina and mecca by richard francis burton chapter seven preparations to quit kairu at length the slow month of blessings passed away we rejoiced like romans finishing their charisma when a solvo of artillery from the citadel announced the end of our linton woes on the last day of ramadan all gave alms to the poor at the rate of a piastra and a half for each member of the household slave servant and master the next day first of the three composing the bayram or id footnote one festival it lasts the first three days of shawal the month immediately following ramadan and therefore among muslims corresponds with our pascal holidays which succeed lent it is called the lisa festival the greater being in suil the pilgrimage month end of footnote the lisa festival we arose before dawn performed our ablutions and repaired to the mosque to recite the peculiar prayer of the season and to hear the sermon which made us be merry and wise after which we ate and drank heartily then with pipes and tobacco pouches in hand we sought it out to enjoy the contemplation of smiling faces and street scenery the favorite resort on this occasion is the large cemetery beyond the babel nazar the favorite resort on this occasion is the large cemetery beyond the babel nazar footnote two in chapter five of this volume i have mentioned the cemetery as berkhard's last resting place end of footnote that stern old massive gateway which opens upon the suiz road there we found a scene of jollity tents and ambulance coffee houses were full of many quipped in their anglis sunday best listening to singers and musicians smoking chatting and looking at jugglers buffoons snack charmers dawayes eight leaders and dancing boys habited in women's attire eating stalls and lollipop shops booths full of playthings and sheds for lemonade and syrups lined the roads and disputed with swings and merry-go-rounds the regards of the little muslims and muslims the chief item of the crowd fair kairings carried in their hands huge palm branches intending to ornament their worth the terms of parents and friends yet even on this solemn occasion there is they say not a little flirtation and lovemaking parties of policemen are posted with orders to interrupt all such irregularities with a long cane but their vigilance is notoriously unequal to the task i could not help observing that frequent pairs doubtless cousins or other relations wandered to unusual distances among the sandhills and that sometimes the confusion of a distant bastinado struck the air these trifles did not however by any means interfere with the general joy everyone wore something new most people were in the fresh suits of finery intended to last through the year and so strong as personal vanity in the breasts of orientals men and women young and old that from Cairo to Calcutta it would be difficult to find a sad heart under a handsome coat the men swaggered the women minced their steps rolled their eyes and were eternally arranging and cocketing with their head veils the little boys strutting about foully abused any one of their number who might have a richer suit than his neighbors and the little girls ogled everyone in the ecstasy of consent and glanced contentiously at other little girls their rivals weary of the country the haji and i wondered about the city paying visits which at this time are like new year calls in continental europe i can describe the operation of calling in egypt only as the discussion of pipes and coffee in one place and of coffee and pipes in another but on this occasion whenever we meet a friend we throw ourselves upon each other's breasts placing right arms over left shoulders and vice versa squeezing like wrestlers with intermittent hugs then laying cheek to cheek delicately at the same time making the loud noise of many kisses in the air footnote three you are bound also to meet even your enemies in the most friendly way for which mortification you afterwards hate them more cordially than before end of footnote the compliment of the season is kulum antem bil kair every year may you be well in fact our many happy returns of the day after this come abundant good wishes and kindly prophecies and from a religious person a blessing and a short prayer to complete the resemblance between a muslim and a christian festival we have dishes of the day fish shirak the cross bun and a peculiarly indigestible cake called an egypt cuck footnote for persian end of footnote the plum pudding of al-islam this year's id was made gloomy comparatively speaking by the state of politics report of war with russia with france with england who was going to land three million minutes to his and with infidel domin general rang through egypt in the city of mars footnote five with a due difference to the many of a different opinion i believe kaira corrupted through the italian into kairu to mean not the victorious but the city of kair or mars the planet it was so called because as richison has informed the world it was founded in ad 968 by one johar a dalmatian renegade before mentioned when the warlike planet was in the ascendant end of footnote became unusually marshal the government armories arsenals and manufacturers were crowded with kidnapped workmen those who purposed a pilgrimage feared forcible detention wherever men gathered together in the mosques for instance or the coffee houses the police closed the doors and made forcible capture of the able bodied this proceeding almost as barbarous as our imprisonment law filled the main streets with detachments of squaded-looking riches marching to be made soldiers with collars around their necks and irons on their wrists the dismal impression of the scene was deepened by crowds of women who habited in mourning and scattering dust and mud over their rent garments followed their sons brothers and husbands with cries and shrieks the death whale is a peculiar way of cheering on the patriot departing pro patria mori and the origin of the customers characteristic of the people the principal public amusements allowed to oriental women are those that come under the general name of fantasia birth feasts marriage festivals and funerals and the early campaigns of Muhammad Ali's family in Syria and al-hijjahs having in many cases deprived the bereaved of their sex-right keen for the dead they have now determined not to waste the opportunity but to revel in the luxury of woe at the live man's wake footnote six there were no weeping women no neighbors came in to sit down in the ashes as they might have done had the soldier died at home there was no newbie in dance for the dead no egyptian song of the women lauding the memory of the deceased and beseeching him to tell why he had left them alone in the world to weep letter from wooden march 25 1854 describing a turkish soldier's funeral end of footnote another cloud hung over Cairo rumors of conspiracy were afloat the jews and christians here is ready to take alarm as the english and italy trembled at the fancied preparations for insurrection massacre and plunder and even the muslims whispered that some hundred desperados had resolved to fire the city beginning with the bankers quarter and to spoil the wealthy egyptians of course hh abbas pasha was absent at the time and even had he been at Cairo his presence would have been of little use the ruler can do nothing towards restoring confidence to a panic-stricken oriental nation at the end of the year as a counter-irritant to political excitement the police magistrates began to bully the people there is a standing order in the chief cities of egypt that all who stir abroad after dark without a lantern shall pass the night in the station house footnote 7 captain hains wisely introduced the custom into aidan i wonder that it is not made universal in the cities of india where so much iniquity is perpetrated under the shadow of night end of footnote but at Cairo in certain quarters the asbackia footnote 8 the reason being that respectable europeans and the passengers by the overland mail live in lodge in this quarter end of footnote for instance a little laxity is usually allowed before i left the capital the license was withdrawn and the sudden strictness caused many ludicrous scenes if by chance you cladden oriental garb had sent on your lantern to a friend's house by your seventh and had literally followed it five minutes after the hour of eight you were sure to be met stopped collared questioned and captured by the patrol you probably punched three or four of them but found the dozen too strong for you held tightly by the sleeves skirts and collar of your wide outer garment you were hurried away on a plane of about nine inches above the ground your feet mostly treading the air you were dragged along with a rapidity which scarcely permitted you to answer strings of questions concerning your name nation dwelling faith profession and self in general especially concerning the present state of your purse if you lent an ear to the voice of the charmer that began by asking crown to release you and gradually came down to tuppence half many you fell into a simple trap the butt end of a musket applied a posteriori immediately after the transfer of property convicted you of willful waste but if more sensibly you pretended to have forgotten your purse you were reviled and dragged with increased violence of shaking to the office of the Zabit or police magistrate you were spun through the large archway leading to the court every fellow in uniform giving you as you passed a cuff cuff on the back of the neck despite your rage you were forced up the stairs to a long gallery full of people in a predicament like your own again your name nation i suppose you to be masquerading offence and other particulars were asked and carefully noted in a folio by a ferocious looking clerk if you knew no better you were summarily thrust into the hustle or condemned cell to pass the night with pickpockets or ruffians pal mal but if an adept in such matters you insisted upon being conducted before the pusher of the night and the clerk fearing to refuse you were hurried to the great man's office hoping for justice and dealing out ideal vengeance to your captors the patrol here you found the dignitary sitting with pen and paper before him and pipe and coffee cup in hand upon a wide duane of dingy chints in a large dimly lit room with two guards by his side and a semicircle of recent seizures vociferating before him when your turn came you were carefully collared and led up to the presence as if even at that awful moment you were mutinously and murderously disposed the pasha looking at you with a vicious sneer turned up his nose ejaculated a jummy and prescribed the best scenario you observed that the mere fact of being a person did not give mankind a right to capture and prison and punish you you declared more over that you were no persian but an indian under british protection the pasha a man accustomed to obedience then stared at you to frighten you and you we will suppose stared at him till with an oath he turned to the patrol and asked them your offence they all simultaneously swore by allah that you had been found without a lantern dead drunk beating respectable people breaking into houses invading and robbing herons you openly told the pasha that they were eating abominations upon which he directed one of his guards to smell your breath the charge of drunkenness being tangible the fellow a comrade of your capturers advances nose to your lips as might be expected cried contorted his countenance and answered by the beard of effendina footloat nine our lord ie hh the pasha kik is an interjection noting disapproval or disgust five or uh end of footnote that he perceived a pestilent odor of distilled waters this announcement probably elicited a grim grin from the pasha of the night who loves kurosawa and who is not indifferent to the charms of cognac then by his favor for you improved the occasion you were allowed to spend the hours of darkness on a wooden bench in the adjacent long gallery together with certain little parasites for which polite language has no name footnote nine shortly after the ramizan of 1853 the consul i am told obtained an order that british subjects should be sent directly from the police office at all hours of the night to the consulate this was the most sensible measure end of footnote in the morning the janissary of your consulate was sent for he came and claimed you you will lead off criminally again you gave your name and address and if your offence was merely sending on your lantern you were dismissed with advice to be more careful in future and assuredly your first step was towards the hamam but if on the other hand you had to clean yourself a european you would either have been dismissed at once or sent to your consul who was here judged jury and jailer egyptian authority has of late years lost half its prestige we missed a lane first settled at kyro all europeans accused of aggression against muslims where he tells us surrendered to the turkish magistrates now the native powers have no jurisdiction over strangers nor can the police enter their houses if the west would raise the character of its eastern co-religionists it will be forced to push the system a point further and to allow all bona fide christian subjects to register their names at the different consulates whose protection they might prefer this is what russia has so unwarrantably and outrageously attempted we can find ourselves to a lesser injustice which deprives eastern states of their right as independent powers to arrest and to judge foreigners who for interests or convenience settle in their dominions but we still shudder at the right of arrogating any such claim over the born ledges of oriental powers what however would be the result we're great britain to authorize her son's resident at paris or florans to refuse attendance at a french or italian court of justice and to demand that the police should never force the doors of an english subject i command this consideration to all who stickle for abstract rights when the interest and progress of others are concerned and who become somewhat latitudinarian and concrete in cases where their own welfare and aggrandizement are at stake besides patience i made some pleasant acquaintances at kairou inton zananier a young syrian of considerable attainments as a linguist paid me the compliment of permitting me to see the fair face of his harem mr hachadu nuri an armenian gentleman well known in bombay amongst other acts of kindness introduced me to one of his compatriots kwaja whose advice was most useful to me the kwaja had wandered far and wide picking up everywhere some scrap of strange knowledge and his history was the romance expelled from kairou for a youthful pegadillo he started upon his travels qualified himself for sanctity at mecca and almedina became a religious beggar at bagdad studied french at paris and finally settled down as a professor of languages footnote 11 most eastern nations owned to their fine air for sounds are quick at picking up languages but the armenian is here what the russian is in the west the facile print chips of conversational linguists i have frequently heard them speak with the purest accent and amourable freziology besides their mother tongue turkish arabic persian and hindustani nor do they vince less aptitude for acquiring the occidental languages end of footnote under an amnesty at kairou in his house i saw an armenian marriage the occasion was memorable after the gloom and sameness of muslim society nothing could be more gladdening than the unveiled face of a pretty woman some of the guests were undeniably charming brunettes with the blackest possible locks and the brightest conceivable eyes only one pretty girl wore the national costume footnote 12 it has been too frequently treated of to leave room for a fresh description though pretty and picturesque it is open to the reproach of muslim dressing namely that the indoor toilet admits of a display of busts and is generally so scanty and flimsy that it is unfit to meet the eye of a stranger this probably the effect of secluding women has now become a cause for concealing them end of footnote yet they all smoked two books and sat upon the duans and as they entered the room they kissed with a sweet simplicity the hands of the priest and of the other old gentleman present amongst the number of my acquaintances was a mech and boy Muhammad al-basyuni from whom i bought the pilgrim garb called al-hiram and the kafan or shroud with which the muslim usually starts upon such a journey as mine he being in his way homewards after a visit to constantan opal was most anxious to accompany me in the character of a companion but he had travelled too much to suit me he had visited india he had seen englishmen and he had lived with the nawa balu of surat moreover he showed signs of over-wisdom he had been a regular visitor till i cured one of his friends of an ophthalmia after which he gave me his address at mecca and was seen no more haji wali described him in his party to be nasjara extractors and certainly he had not misjudged them but the sequel will prove how much dmg dekt and got linked and as the boy Muhammad eventually did become my companion throughout the pilgrimage i will place him before the reader as summarily as possible he is a beardless youth of about 18 chocolate brown with high features and a bold profile his bony and decided mech and cast of face is lit up by the peculiar egyptian eye which seems to descend from generation to generation footnote 13 he was from the banks of the nile as his cognomen al-basyuni proves but his family i was told had been settled for three of four generations at mecca end of footnote his figure is short and broad with a tendency to be obese the result of a strong stomach and the power of sleeping at discretion he can read a little write his name and is uncommonly clever at a bargain mecca had taught him to speak excellent arabic to understand the literary dialect to be eloquent in abuse and to be profound at prayer and pilgrimage constantan opal had given him a taste for anachronistic singing and female society of the questionable kind a love of strong waters the hypocrite looked positively scandalized when i first suggested the subject and an offhand latitudinarian mode of dealing with serious subjects in general i found him to be the youngest son of a widow whose doting fondness had molded his disposition he was selfish and affectionate as spoiled children usually are volatile easily offended and is easily pacified the oriental coveting other men's goods and profuse of his own the arab with a matchless intrepidity of countenance the traveler brazen lunged not more than half brave exceedingly astute with an acute sense of honor especially where his relations were concerned the individual i have seen him in a fit of fury because someone cursed his father and he and i nearly parted because on one occasion i applied to him an epithet which etymologically considered might be exceedingly insulting to a high-minded brother but which in popular parlance signifies nothing this point donner was the boy muhammad's strong point during the ramadan i laid in my stores for the journey these consisted of tea coffee life sugar rice dates biscuit oil vinegar tobacco lanterns and cooking pots a small bell shaped tent costing 12 shillings and three water skins for the desert footnote 14 almost all the articles of food were so far useful that they served every one of the party at least as much as they did their owner my friends drank my coffee smoked my tobacco and ate my rice i bought better tea at mecca than at kairou and found his good sugar there it would have been wiser to lay in a small stock merely for the voyage to yambo in which case there might have been more economy but i followed the advice of those interested in setting me wrong turks and egyptians always go pilgrimageing with a large outfit as notably the east indian cadet of the present day and your outfit eric kairou as well as cornhill is sure to supply you with a variety of super flutes the tent was useful to me so where the water skins which i preferred to barrels is being more portable and less liable to leak good skins cost about a dollar each they should be bought new and always kept half full of water end of footnote the provisions were placed in a kafas or hamper artistically made of palm sticks and in a huge sahara or wooden box about three feet each way covered with leather or skin and provided with a small lid fitting into the top footnote 15 this shape secures the lid which otherwise on account of the weight of the box wouldn't fallibly be torn off or burst open like the kafas the sahara should be well padlocked and if the owner be a saving man he does not entrust his keys to a servant i gave away my kafas at yambo because it had been crushed during the sea voyage and i was obliged to leave the sahara at el medina as my badaway camel shake positively refused to carry it to mecca so that both these articles were well now useless to me the kafas cost four shillings and the sahara about 12 when these large boxes are really strong and good they're worth about a pound sterling each end of footnote the former together with my green box containing medicines and saddlebags full of clothes hung on one side of the camel account poised to the big sahara on the other flank the badawan like mulleteers always requiring a balance of weight on the top of the lobe was placed transversely a shibria or cot on which shake nurse squatted like a large crow this worthy had strutted out into the streets armed with a pair of horse pistols and assault almost as long as himself no sooner did the mischievous boys of kairu they as bad as the gamma of paris in london catch sight of him then they began to scream with laughter at the sight of the hindi indian and arms till like a vagrant owl pursued by a flight of larks he ran back into the caravan sarai having spent all my ready money at kairu i was obliged to renew the supply my native acquaintances advised me to take at least 80 pound sterling and considering the expensive outfit for desert traveling the sum did not appear excessive i should have found some difficulty in raising the money had it not been for the kindness of a friend at alexandria john thurbin now i regret to say no more and mr sam shepherd then of shepherds hotel kairu presently a landed proprieture near rugby and now also gone my indians scrutinized the diminutive square of paper footnote 16 at my final interview with the committee of the royal geographical society one member sir woodbine parish advised in order to be made out on the society's bankers another sir rogerick murchison kindly offered to give me one on his own kutsun co but i having more experience in oriental traveling begged only to be furnished with the diminutive piece of paper permitting me to draw upon the society it was at once given by dr sugar the secretary and it proved of much use eventually it was purposely made to be as small as possible in order to fit into a talisman case but the traveler must bear in mind that if his letters of credit be addressed to orientals the sheet of paper should always be large and grand looking these people have no faith in notes commercial epistolary or diplomatic end of footnote the letter of credit as a raven may sometimes be seen peering with header scants into the interior of a suspected marabone can this be a bona fide draft they mentally inquired and finally they offered politely to write to england for me to draw the money and to forward it in a sealed bag directed almedina i need scarcely say that such a style of transmission would in the case of precious metals have left no possible chance of its safe arrival when the difficulty was overcome i bought 50 pounds worth of german dollars maria terezes and invested the rest in english and turkish sovereigns footnote 17 before leaving kairu i bought english sovereigns for 112 and sold them in arabia for 122 piastres abutakas pataks or spanish pillar dollars as they're called in al-hijaz cost me 24 piastras and in the holy city were worth 28 the sinku french five franc piece is bought for 22 piastres in egypt and sells at 24 in arabia the silver margity cost 20 at kairu and is worth 22 in the red sea and finally i gained three piastres upon the gold gazi of 19 such was the rate of exchange in 1853 it varies however perpetually and in 1863 may be totally different end of footnote the gold i myself carried part of the silver i sewed up in sheik noor's leather waist belt and part was packed in the boxes for this reason when badawan began plundering a respectable man if they find a certain amount of ready money in his baggage they do not search his person if they find none they proceed to a bodily inspection and if his waist belt be empty they are rather disposed to rip open his stomach in the belief that he must have some peculiar ingenious way of secreting valuables having passed through this trouble i immediately fell into another my hardly earned alexandrian passport required a double visa one at the police office the other at the consuls after returning to egypt i found it was the practice of travellers who required any civility from dr warn then the english official at kairu to enter the presence furnished with an order from the foreign office i had neglected the precaution and had ample reason to regret having done so failing at the british consulate and unwilling to leave kairu without being on regular the egyptians warned me that suez was a place of obstacles to pilgrims footnote 18 the reason of this will be explained in a future chapter end of footnote i was obliged to look elsewhere for protection my friend haji wali was the first consulted after a long discussion he offered to take me to his consul the persian and to find out for what some i could become a temporary subject of the char we went to the sign of the lion and the sun and we found the dragamon footnote 19 the consular dragamon is one of the greatest abuses i know the tribe is for the most part levantine and christian and its connections are extensive the father will perhaps be interpreted to the english the son to the french consulate by this means the most privy affairs will become known to every member of the department except the head and eventually to that best of spy train as the turkish government this explains how a subordinate whose pay is 200 pounds per annum and who spends double that sum can afford after 12 or 13 years service to purchase a house for 2000 pounds and to furnish it for as much more besides which the condition the ideas and the very nature of these drugamons are completely oriental the most timid and cringing of men they dare not take the proper time with the government to which in case of the expulsion of a consul they and their families would become subject and their prepositions are entirely oriental hana massara dragamon to the consul general at kairou in my presence and before others advocated the secret murderer for muslim girl who had fled with the greek on the grounds that an adulteress must always be put to death either publicly or under the rose yet this man is an old and tried servant of the state such evils might be in part mitigated by employing english youths of human ample supply if there were any demand would soon be forthcoming this measure has been advocated by the best authorities but without success most probably the reason of the neglect is the difficulty how to begin or where to end the orginal labor of consular reform and a footnote a subtle Syrian christian who after a rigid inquiry into the state of my purse my country was no consideration at all footnote 20 in a previous chapter I have alluded to the species of protection formally common in the east europe it is to be feared is not yet immaculate in this respect and men say that we're a list of protected furnished by the different consulates at kairou it would be a curious document as no one egyptian or foreigner would if he could possibly help it be subject to the egyptian government large sums might be raised by the simple process of naturalizing strangers at the persian consulate 110 dollars the century for the consul and the decade for his drugamon have been paid for protection a stern fact this for those who advocate the self-government of the childish east end of footnote introduce me to the great man I have described this personage once already and he merits not a second notice the interview was truly ludicrous he treated us with exceeding water motioned me to sit almost out of hearing and after rolling his head in profound silence for nearly a quarter of an hour voucher safe the information that though my father might be a shirazi and my mother in afghan he had not the honor of my acquaintance his companion a large old persian with polyphemian eyebrows in a mulberry beard put some gruff and discouraging questions I quoted the verses he is a man who benefits his fellow men not he who says why and wherefor and how much upon which an imperious wave of the arm directed me to return to the drugamon who had the effrontery to ask me four pounds sterling for a persian passport I offered one he derided my offer and I went away perplexed on my return to Cairo some months afterwards he sent to say that had he known me as an englishman I should have had the document gratis a civility for which he was duly thanked at last my sheikh muhammad had upon the plan thou art said he an afghan I will fetch her the principle of the afghan college at the other and he if they'll make it worth his while the sinner whisper will be thy friend the case was looking desperate my preceptor was urged to lose no time presently sheikh muhammad returned in company with the principle a little thin ragged bearded one eyed hairlift divine dressed in very dirty clothes of nondescript cut born at muscat of afghan parents and brought up at mecca he was a kind of cosmopolite speaking five languages fluently and full of reminiscences of toil and travel he refused pipes and coffee professing to be aesthetically disposed but he ate more than a half my dinner to reassure me I presume should I have been fearful that abstinence might injure his health we then chatted in sundry tongues I offered certain presents of books which were rejected at such articles being valueless and the sheikh abud al wahab having expressed his satisfaction at my account of myself told me to call for him at the asa mosque next morning accordingly at 6 p.m. sheikh muhammad and abdulla khan footnote 21 khan is a title assumed in india and other countries by all afghans and pathans their descendants simple as well as gentle end of footnote the latter equipped in a gigantic sprigged muslin turban to so as to pass for a student of theology repaired to al-haza passing through the open quadrangle we entered the large hall which forms the body of the mosque in the northern wall was a dwarf door leading by breakneck stairs to a pigeonhole the study of the learned afghan sheikh we found him ensconced behind piles of musty and greasy manuscripts surrounded by scholars and scribes with whom he was cheapening books he had not much business to transact but long before he was ready the stifling atmosphere drove us out of the study and we repaired to the hall presently the sheikh joined us and we all rode on to the citadel and waited in a mosque till the office hours struck when the doors were opened we went into the duan and sat patiently till the sheikh found an opportunity of putting in a word the officials were two in number one an old invalid very thin and sickly looking dressed in the turkish european style whose hand was being severely kissed by a troupe of religious beggars to whom he had done some small favors the other was a stout young clerk whose duty was to engross and not to have his hand kissed my name and other essentials were required and no objections were offered for who holier than the sheikh avid al wahab emin yunus al sulaymani the clerk filled up a printed paper in the turkish language apparently borrowed from the european method for spoiling the traveler certified me upon the sheikh's security to be one abdillah the son of yusuf joseph originally from kabul described my person and in exchange for five piastres handed me the document i received it with joy with bails and benedictions and many wishes that ala might make it the official's fate to become pilgrims we left the office and returned towards al-haza when we had nearly reached the mosque shag muhammad lagged behind and made the sign i drew near the afghan and asked for his hand he took the hint and muttering it is no matter it is not necessary by ala it is not required extended his fingers and brought the musculos guineorum to bear upon three dollars poor man i believe it was his necessity that consented to be paid for the doing a common act of muslim charity he had a wife and children and the calling of an alum footnote 22 a theologian a learned man end footnote is no longer worth much in egypt my departure from kaira was hastened by an accident i lost my reputation by a little misfortune that happened in this wise at haji wali's room in the caravan sarai i met a yuzbashi or captain of albanian irregulars who was in egypt only from al-hijaz he was a tall bony and broad-shouldered mountaineer about 40 years old with a large bomb brow the fierce eyes thin lips lean jaws and peeky chin of his race his mistachos were enormously long and tapering and the rest of his face like his head was close shaven his footstone footnote 23 the stiff white plaited quilt worn by albanians end of footnote was none of the cleanest nor was the red cap which he wore rakishly pulled over his frowning forehead quite free from stains not permitted to carry the favorite pistols he contented himself with sticking his right hand in the empty belt and stalking about the house with the most military man yet he was as little of a bully as carpet night that same ali aga his body showed many a grizzly scar and one of his shin bones had been broken by a turkish bullet when he was playing tricks on the albanian hills an accident inducing a limp which he attempted to conceal by a heavy swagger when he spoke his voice was effectively gruff he had a sad knack of sneering and i never saw him thoroughly sober our acquaintance began with a kind of storm which blew over and left fine weather i was showing haji wali my pistols with damasin barrels when ali aga entered the room he sat down before me with a grin which said intelligibly enough what business have you with weapons snatched the arm out of my hand and began to inspect it as a connoisseur not admiring this procedure i wrenched it away from him and addressing myself to haji wali proceeded quietly with my dissertation the captain of regulars and i then looked at each other he cocked his cap on one side and token of excited pugnacity i twirled my mustachios to display a kindred emotion had he been armed and in al-hijaz we should have fought it out at once for the anorts a terribly collared pistola as the italians say meaning that upon the least provocation they pull out a horse pistol and fire it in the face of friend or foe of course the only way under these circumstances is to anticipate them but even this desperate prevention seldom saves a stranger as whenever there is danger these men go about in pairs i never met with a more reckless brood upon the line of march albanian troops are not allowed ammunition for otherwise there would be half a dozen duels a day when they quarrel over their cups it is the fashion for each man to draw a pistol and to place it against his opponent's breast the weapon's been kept accurately clean seldom misfire and if one competent draw trigger before the other he would immediately be shot down by the bystanders footnote 24 those curious about the manners of these desperados may consult the pages of Giovanni finati married london 1830 and i will be answerable that he exaggerates nothing end of footnote in egypt these men who are used as a regulars and are often courted upon the hapless villagers when unable or unwilling to pay taxes for the terror of the population on many occasions they have quarrelled with foreigners and insulted european women and al-hijjah's the recklessness or was even the badwan the town's people say of them that tripe sellers and bath servants at stumble they become pharaohs tyrants ruffians in arabia at jeda the are not to have amused themselves with firing in the english console mr. ogilvy when he walked upon his terrace and this man shooting appears a favorite sport with them at kyro numerous stories illustrate the songfire with which they used to knock over the camel drivers if anyone did ride past their barracks the arbanians vaunt their skill in using weapons and their pretensions impose upon arabs as well as egyptians yet i have never found them wonderful with any arm the pistol alone accepted and our officers who have visited their native hills speak of them as tolerable but by no means first rate rifle shots the captain of arregulars being unhappily debarred the pleasure of shooting me after looking fierce for a time rose and walked majestically out of the room a day or two afterwards he called upon me civilly enough sat down drank a cup of coffee smoked a pipe and began to converse but as he knew about a hundred arabic words and i as many turkish our conversation was carried on under difficulties presently he asked me in a whisper for a raki footnote 25 vulgarly raki the cognac of egyptan turkey generically the word means any spirit specifically it is applied to that extracted from dates or dried grapes the latter is more expensive than the former and costs from five to seven piastres the bottle it whitens the water like odour cologne and being considered a stomachic is patronized by europeans as much as by asiatics in the asbaki gardens at kairu the traveller is astonished by perpetual shouts for seropo da gomma as if all the western population was afflicted with sore throat the reason is that spiritist liquors in a muslim land must not be sold in places of public resort so the infidel asks for a syrup of gum and obtains a dram of a raki the favourite way of drinking it is to swallow it neat and to wash it down with the mouthful of cold water taken in this way it acts like the piti vea dub sense egyptian women delight in it and eastern toppers of all classes and sexes prefer it to brandy and cognac the smell of which being strange is offensive to them end footnote i replied that there was none in the house which induced a snare and an ejaculation sounding like khma as the slang synonym among fast muslims for water drinker after rising to depart he seized me waggishly with an eye to a trial of strength thinking that an indian doctor and a temperance man would not be very dangerous he exposed himself to what is professionally termed a cross buttock and had his nut come in contact with the stone floor instead of my bed he might not have drunk for many a day the fall had a good effect upon his temper he jumped up patted my head called for another pipe and sat down to show me his wounds and to boast of his exploits i could not help remarking a ring of english gold with a bezel of bloodstone sitting strangely upon his coarse sun-stained hand he declared that it had been snatched by him from a console at jeda and he volubly related in a mixture of albanian turkish and arabic the history of his acquisition he begged me to supply him with a little poison that would not lie for the purpose of quieting a troublesome enemy and he carefully stowed away in his pouch five grains of calamel which i gave him for that laudable purpose before taking leave he pressed me strongly to go and drink with him i refused to do so during the day but wishing to see how these men sacrificed debakas promised compliance that night about nine o'clock when the caravan saray was quiet i took a pipe in a tobacco pouch footnote 26 when egyptians at the middle classes call upon one another the visitor always carries with him his tobacco pouch which he hands to the servant who fills his pipe end of footnote stuck my dagger in my belt and slipped into ali aga's room he was sitting on a bed spread upon the ground in front of him stood four wax candles all orientals hate drinking and anybody bright light in a tray containing a basin of stuff like soup migra a dish of cold stewed meat and two bowls of salata footnote 27 the salata is made as follows take a cucumber pear slice and place it in a plate sprinkling it over with salt after a few minutes season it abundantly with pepper and put it in a bowl containing some peppercorns and about a pint of curds when the dish is properly mixed a live coal is placed upon the top of the compound to make it bind as the Arabs say it is considered a cooling dish and is esteemed by the abstemious as well as by the topper sliced cucumber and curds the materials peaked out of an iron pot filled with water one was a long thin white glass flask of uraqi the other a bottle of some strong perfume both were wrapped up in wet rags the usual refrigerator ali aga welcomed me politely and seeing me admire the preparations made me beware how i suspected an albanian of not knowing how to drink he made me sit by him on the bed through his dagger to a handy distance signalled me to do the same and prepared to begin the bout taking up a little tumbler in shape like those from which french pastilians used to drink lagout he inspected it narrowly wiped out the interior with his forefinger filled it to the brim and offered it to his guest footnote 28 these albanians are at most half asiatic as regards manner and the east generally the host drinks of the cup and dips his hand into the dish before his guest for the same reason that the master of the house proceeds his visitor over the threshold both actions denote that no treachery is intended and to reverse them as amongst us would be a gross breach of custom likely to excite the liveliest suspicions end of footnote with a bow i received it with a low salam followed its contents at once turned it upside down and proof of fair play replaced it upon the floor with a jointy movement of the arm somewhat like a pugilist delivering a rounder bowed again and requested him to help himself the same ceremony followed on his part immediately after each glass and rapidly the cup went about we swallowed a draught of water and ate a spoonful of the meat or the salata in order to call our palates then we reapplied ourselves to our pipes emitting huge puffs a sign of being fast men and looked facetiously at each other drinking being considered by muslims a funny and pleasant sort of sin the albanian captain was at least half seas over when we began the bout yet he continued to fill in to drain without showing the least progress towards ebriety i am vain for a time expected the badmasti and the gross facetiae which generally a company of southern and eastern tipsiness ali aga indeed occasionally took up the bottle of perfume filled the palm of his right hand and dashed it in my face i followed his example but our pleasantries went no further presently my companion started a grand project namely that i should entice the respectable haji wali into the room where we might force him to drink the idea was facetious it was making a bowstreet magistrate pulp at a casino i started up to fetch the haji and when i returned with him ali aga was found in a new stage of freshness he had stuck a green-leaved twig upright in the floor and it so turned over a gugglet of water that its contents trickled slowly and in a tiny stream under the verge while he was sitting before it mentally gazing with an outward show of grim chaotic tenderness upon the shady trees and the cool rills of his fatherland possibly he had peopled the place with young barbarians at play for verily i thought that a tear which had no business there was glistening in his stony eye the appearance of haji wali suddenly changed the scene ali aga jumped up seized the visitor by the shoulder compelled him to sit down and exceced by the old man's horror at the scene filled a tumbler and with the usual grotesque grimaces insisted on its being drunk off haji wali stoutly refused then ali aga put it to his own lips and drained it with a hurt feeling and reproachful aspect we made our unconvivial friends smoke a few puffs and then we returned to the charge in vain the haji protested that throughout life he had avoided the deadly sin in vain he promised to drink with us tomorrow in vain he quoted the quran and alternately coaxed and threatened us with the police we were inexorable at last the haji started upon his feet and rushed away regardless of anything but escape leaving his tabush his slippers and his pipe in the hands of the enemy the host did not dare to pursue his recreate guest beyond the door but returning he carefully sprinkled the polluting liquid on the cap pipe and shoes and called the haji an ass in every tongue he knew then we applied ourselves to supper and dispatched the soup the stew and the salata a few tumblers and pipes were exhausted to obviate indigestion when ali aga arose majestically and said that he required a troupe of dancing girls to gladden his eyes with a ballet i represented that such persons are no longer admitted into caravan sarai's footnote 29 formally these places like the coffee houses were crowded with bad characters of late years the latter have been refused admittance but it would be as easy to bar the door to gnats and flies they appear as foot pages as washer women as beggars in fact they evade the law with ingenuity and impunity end of footnote he inquired with calm ferocity who had forbidden it i replied the pasha upon which ali aga quietly removed his cap brushed it with his dexter forearm fitted it on his forehead raking forwards twisted his moustaches to the sharp point of a single hair shouldered his pipe and moved towards the door vowing that he would make the pasha himself come and dance before us i foresaw a brawl and felt thankful that my boon companion had forgotten his dagger prudence whispered me to return to my room to bolt the door and to go to bed but conscience suggested that it would be unfair to abandon the albanian in his present helpless state i followed him into the art or gallery pulling him and begging him as a despairing wife might urge a drunken husband to return home and he like the british husband been greatly irritated by the unjovial advice instantly belated with his pipe stick footnote 30 is male pasha was murdered by malek numer chief of schendi for striking him with a triple across the face travelers would do well to remember that in these lands the pipe stick and the slipper disgrace a man whereas a whip or a rod would not do so the probable reason of this is that the two articles of domestic use are applied slightly not seriously to the purposes of punishment end of footnote the first person he met in the gallery and sent him flying down the stairs with fearful chouts of oh egyptians oh ye accursed oh guiness of pharaoh oh race of dogs oh egyptians he then burst open a door with his shoulder and reeled into a room where two aged dames were placidly reposing by the side of their spouses who were basket makers they immediately awoke seeing a stranger and hearing his foul words they retorted with a hot volley of a tupperation put to flight by the old woman's tongues aliyaga in spite of all my endeavors reeled down the stairs and fell upon the sleeping form of the night porter whose blood he vowed to drink the oriental form of threatening spiflication happily for the assaulted the august servant a sturdy albanian lad was lying on a mat in the doorway close by roused by the tumult he jumped up and found the captain in a state of fury apparently the man was used to the master's mood without delay he told us all to assist and we're lending a helping hand half dragged and half carried the albanian to his room yet even in this ignoble plight he shouted with all the force of his lungs the old war cry oh egyptians oh race of dogs i have dishonoured all secandria all kahira all suways footnote 31 anglis alexandria kairu and sues an extensive field of operations end of footnote and in this haunting frame of mind he was put to bed no welsh undergraduate at oxford under similar circumstances ever gave more trouble you had better start on your pilgrimage at once said haji wali meeting me the next morning with a goganard smile he was right throughout the caravan serai nothing was talked off in nearly a week but the wickedness of the captain of albanian irregulars and the hypocrisy of the staid indian doctor thus it was gentle reader that i lost my reputation of being a serious person at kairu and all i have to show for it is the personal experience of an albanian drinking bout i wasted but little time in taking leave of my friends telling them by way of precaution that my destination was mecca via jeda and firmly determining if possible to make almadina via yambu conceal says the arab's proverb they tenets they treasure and they're traveling end of chapter seven