Early Hours in the Levant--Compulsory Use of Lanterns in
Cairo--Separation of the different Quarters of the City--Custom of
sleeping in the open air--The Mahomedan Times of Prayer--Impressive
Effect of the Morning Call to Prayer from the Minarets--The last
Prayer-time, Al Assr--Bedouin Mode of ascertaining this
Hour--Ancient Form of the Mosques--The Mosque of Sultan
Hassan--Egyptian Mode of "raising the Supplies"--Sultan Hassan's
Mosque the Scene of frequent Conflicts--The Slaughter of the
Mameluke Beys in the Place of Roumayli--Escape of one Mameluke, and
his subsequent Friendship with Mohammed Ali--The Talisman of
Cairo--Joseph's Well and Hall--Mohammed Ali's Mosque--His Residence
in the Citadel--The Harem--Degraded State of the Women in the East.
The early hours kept in the Levant cannot fail to strike the European
stranger. At Cairo every one is up and about at sunrise; all business is
transacted in the morning, and some of the bezesteins and principal
bazaars are closed at twelve o'clock, at which hour many people retire
to their homes and only appear again in the cool of the evening, when
they take a ride or sit and smoke a pipe and listen to a storyteller in
a coffee-house or under a tree. Soon after sunset the whole city is at
rest. Every one who then has any business abroad is obliged to carry a
small paper lantern, on pain of being taken up by the guard if he is
found without it. Persons of middle rank have a glass lamp carried
before them by a servant, and people of consequence are preceded by men
who run before their train of horses with a fire of resinous wood,
carried aloft on the top of a pole, in an iron grating called a mashlak.
This has a picturesque effect, and throws a great light around.
Each different district of the city is separated from the adjoining one
by strong gates at the end of the streets: these are all closed at
night, and are guarded by a drowsy old man with a long beard, who acts
as porter, and who is roused with difficulty by the promise of a small
coin when any one wants to pass. These gates contribute greatly to the
peace and security of the town; for as the Turks, Arabs, Christians,
Jews, Copts, and other religious sects reside each in a different
quarter, any disturbance which may arise in one district is prevented
from extending to another; and the drunken Europeans cannot intrude
their civilization on their quiet and barbarous neighbours. There are
here no theatres, balls, parties, or other nocturnal assemblies; and
before the hour at which London is well lit up, the gentleman of Cairo
ascends to the top of his house and sleeps upon the terrace, and the
servants retire to the court-yard; for in the hot weather most people
sleep in the open air. Many of the poorer class sleep in the open places
and the courts of the mosques, all wrapping up their heads and faces
that the moon may not shine upon them.
The Mahomedan day begins at sunset, when the first time of prayer is
observed; the second is about two hours after sunset; the third is at
the dawn of day, when the musical chant of the muezzins from the
thousand minarets of Cairo sounds most impressively through the clear
and silent air. The voices of the criers thus raised above the city
always struck me as having a holy and beautiful effect. First one or two
are heard faintly in the distance, then one close to you, then the cry
is taken up from the minarets of other mosques, and at last, from one
end of the town to the other, the measured chant falls pleasingly on the
ear, inviting the faithful to prayer. For a time it seems as if there
was a chorus of voices in the air, like spirits, calling upon each other
to worship the Creator of all things. Soon the sound dies away, there is
a silence for a while, and then commence the hum and bustle of the
awakening city. This cry of man, to call his brother man to prayer,
seems to me more appropriate and more accordant to religious feeling
than the clang and jingle of our European bells.
The fourth and most important time of prayer is at noon, and it is at
this hour that the Sultan attends in state the mosque at Constantinople.
The fifth and last prayer is at about three o'clock. The Bedouins of the
desert, who, however, are not much given to praying, consider this hour
to have arrived when a stick, a spear, or a camel throws a shadow of its
own height upon the ground. This time of the day is called "Al Assr."
When wandering about in the deserts, I used always to eat my dinner or
luncheon at that time, and it is wonderful to what exactness I arrived
at last in my calculations respecting the time of the Assr. I knew to a
minute when my dromedary's shadow was of the right length.
The minarets of Cairo are the most beautiful of any in the Levant;
indeed no others are to be compared to them. Some are of a prodigious
height, built of alternate layers of red and white stone. A curious
anecdote is told of the most ancient of all the minarets, that attached
to the great mosque of Sultan Tayloon, an immense cloister or arcade
surrounding a great square. The arches are all pointed, and are the
earliest extant in that form, the mosque having been built in imitation
of that at Mecca, in the year of the Hegira 265, Anno Domini 879. The
minaret belonging to this magnificent building has a stone staircase
winding round it outside: the reason of its having been built in this
curious form is said to be, that the vizier of Sultan Tayloon found the
king one day lolling on his divan and twisting a piece of paper in a
spiral form; the vizier remarking upon the trivial nature of the
employment of so great a monarch, he replied, "I was thinking that a
minaret in this form would have a good effect: give orders, therefore,
that such a one be added to the mosque which I am building."[2] In
ancient times the mosques consisted merely of large open courts,
surrounded by arcades; and frequently, on that side of the court which
stood nearest to Mecca, this arcade was double. In later times covered
buildings with large domes were added to the court; a style of building
which has always been adopted in more northern climates.
The finest mosque of this description is that of Sultan Hassan, in the
place of the Roumayli, near the citadel. It is a magnificent structure,
of prodigious height; it was finished about the year A.D. 1362. The
money necessary for its construction is said to have been procured by
the following ingenious device. The good Sultan Hassan was determined to
build a mosque and a tomb for himself, but finding a paucity of means in
his treasury, he sent out invitations to all the principal people of the
country to repair to a grand feast at his court, when he said he would
present each of his loving subjects with a robe of honour. On the
appointed day they accordingly all made their appearance, dressed in
their richest robes of state. There was not one but had a Cashmere shawl
round his turban, and another round his waist, with a jewelled dagger
stuck in it; besides other ornaments, and caftans of brocade and cloth
of gold. They entered the place of the Roumayli each accompanied by a
magnificent train of guards and attendants, who, according to the
jealous custom of the times, remained below; while the chiefs, with one
or two of their personal followers only, ascended into the citadel, and
were ushered into the presence of the Sultan. They were received most
graciously: how they contrived to pass their time in the fourteenth
century, before the art of smoking was invented, I do not know, but
doubtless they sat in circles round great bowls of rice, piled over
sheep roasted whole, discussed the merits of lambs stuffed with
pistachio-nuts, and ate cucumbers for dessert. When the feast was
concluded the Sultan announced that each guest at his departure should
receive the promised robe of honour; and as these distinguished
personages, one by one, left the royal presence, they were conducted to
a small chamber near the gate, in which were several armed officers of
the household, who, with expressions of the most profound respect and
solicitude, divested them of their clothes, which they immediately
carried off. The astonished noble was then invested with a long white
shirt, and ceremoniously handed out of an opposite door, which led to
the exterior of the fortress, where he found his train in waiting. The
Sultan kept all that he found worth keeping of the personal effects of
his guests, who were afterwards glad to bargain with the chamberlain of
the court for the restoration of their robes of state, which were
ultimately returned to them--_for a consideration_. The mosque of Sultan
Hassan was built with the proceeds of this original scheme; and the tomb
of the founder is placed in a superb hall, seventy feet square, covered
with a magnificent dome, which is one of the great features of the city.
But he that soweth in the whirlwind shall reap in the storm. In
consequence of the great height and thickness of the walls of this
stately building, as well as from the circumstance of its having only
one great gate of entrance, it was frequently seized and made use of as
a fortress by the insurgents in the numerous rebellions and
insurrections which were always taking place under the rule of the
Mameluke kings. Great stains of blood are still to be seen on the marble
walls of the court-yard, and even in the very chamber of the tomb of the
Sultan there are the indelible marks of the various conflicts which have
taken place, when the guardians of the mosque have been stabbed and cut
down in its most sacred recesses. The two minarets of this mosque, one
of which is much larger than the other, are among the most beautiful
specimens of decorated Saracenic architecture. Of the largest of these
minarets the following story is related. There was a man endued with a
superabundance of curiosity, who, like Peeping Tom of Coventry, had a
fancy for spying at the ladies on the house-tops from the summit of this
minaret: at last he made some signals to one of the neighbouring ladies,
which were unluckily discovered by the master of the house, who happened
to be reposing in the harem. The two muezzins (as they often are) were
blind men, and complaint was made to the authorities that the muezzins
of Sultan Hassan permitted people to ascend the minarets to gaze into
the forbidden precincts of the harems below. The two old muezzins were
indignant when they were informed of this accusation, and were
determined to watch for the intruder and kill him on the spot, the first
time that they should find him ascending the winding staircase of the
minaret. In the course of a few days a good-natured person gave the
alarm, and told the two blind men that somebody had just entered the
doorway on the roof of the mosque by which the minaret is ascended; one
of the muezzins therefore ascended the minaret, armed with a sharp
dagger, and the other waited at the narrow door below to secure the game
whom his companion should drive out of the cover. The young man was
surprised by the muezzin while he was looking over the lower gallery of
the minaret, but escaping from him he ran up the stairs to the upper
gallery: here he was followed by his enemy, who cried to the old man at
the bottom to be ready, for he had found the rascal who had brought
such scandal on the mosque. The muezzin chased the intruder round the
upper gallery, and he slipped through the door and ran down again to the
lower one, where he waited till the muezzin passed him on the stairs,
then taking off his shoes he followed him lightly and silently till he
arrived near the bottom door, when he suddenly pushed the muezzin, who
had been up the minaret, against the one who stood guard below; the two
blind men, each thinking he had got hold of the villain for whom he was
in search, seized each other by the throat and engaged in mortal combat
with their daggers, taking advantage of which the other escaped before
the blind men had found out their mistake. At the next hour of prayer,
their well-known voices not being heard as usual, some of the attendants
at the mosque went up upon the roof to see what had happened, when they
found the muezzins, who were just able to relate the particulars of
their mistake before they died.
It was in the place of the Roumayli that the gallant band of the
Mameluke beys were assembled before they were entrapped and killed by
the present task-master of Egypt, Mohammed Ali Pasha. They ascended a
narrow passage between two high bastions, which led from the lower to
the upper gate. The lower gate was shut after they had passed, and they
were thus caught as in a trap. All of them were shot except one, who
leaped his horse over the battlements and escaped. This man became
afterwards a great ally of Mohammed Ali, and I have often seen him
riding about on a fine horse caparisoned with red velvet in the old
Mameluke style. On the wall in one part of this passage, towards the
inner gate, there is a square tablet containing a bas-relief of a spread
eagle: this is considered by the superstitious as the talisman of Cairo,
and is said to give a warning cry when any calamity is about to happen
to the city. Its origin, as well as most things of any antiquity in the
citadel, is ascribed to Saladin (Yousef Sala Eddin), who is called here
Yousef (Joseph); and Joseph's Well, and Joseph's Hall, are the two great
lions of the place.
The well, which is of great depth, is remarkable from its having a broad
winding staircase cut in the rock around the shaft: this extends only
half way down, where two oxen are employed to draw water by a wheel and
buckets from the bottom, which is here poured into a cistern, whence it
is raised to the top by another wheel. It is supposed, however, that
this well is an ancient work, and that it was only cleaned out by
Saladin when he rebuilt the walls of the town and fortified the citadel.
The hall, which was a very fine room, divided into aisles by magnificent
antique columns of red granite, has unfortunately been pulled down by
Mohammed Ali. He did this to make way for the mosque which he has built
of Egyptian alabaster, a splendid material, but its barbarous Armenian
architecture offers a sad contrast to the stately edifice which has been
so ruthlessly destroyed. It is indeed a sad thing for Cairo that the
flimsy architecture of Constantinople, so utterly unsuited to this
climate, has been introduced of late years in the public buildings and
the palaces of the ministers, which lift up their bald and miserable
whitewashed walls above the beautiful Arabian works of earlier days.
The residence of the Pasha is within the walls of the citadel. The long
range of the windows of the harem from their lofty position overlook
great part of the city, which must render it a more cheerful residence
for the ladies than harems usually are. When a number of Eastern women
are congregated together, as is frequently the case, without the society
of the other sex, it is surprising how helpless they become, and how
neglectful of everything excepting their own persons and their food.
Eating and dressing are their sole pursuits. If there be a garden
attached to the harem they take no trouble about it, and at
Constantinople the ladies of the Sultan tread on the flower-beds and
destroy the garden as a flock of sheep would do if let loose in it. A
Turkish lady is the wild variety of the species. Many of them are
beautiful and graceful, but they do not appear to abound in intellectual
charms. Until the minds of the women are enlarged by better education,
any chance of amelioration among the people of the Levant is hopeless:
for it is in the nursery that the seeds of superstition, prejudice, and
unreason are sown, the effects of which cling for life to the minds even
of superior men.