CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION.
In few cases are the Mohammadans so much fettered by the directions of
their Prophet and other religious instructors as in the rearing and
education of their children. In matters of the most trivial nature,
religious precedents direct their management of the young. One of the
first duties is to wrap the new-born child in clean white linen, or in
linen of some other colour, but not yellow. After this some person (not
a female) should pronounce the adán[214] in the ear of the infant,
because the Prophet did so in the ear of El-Ḥasan when Fáṭimeh
gave birth to him; or he should pronounce the adán in the right ear, and
the iḳámeh (which is nearly the same) in the left.[215]
It was formerly a custom of many of the Arabs, and perhaps is still
among some, for the father to give a feast to his friends on seven
successive days after the birth of a son; but that of a daughter was
observed with less rejoicing. The general modern custom is to give an
entertainment only on the seventh day, which is called Yóm es-Subooạ.
On this occasion, in the families of the higher classes, professional
female singers are hired to entertain a party of ladies, friends of the
infant's mother, who visit her on this occasion, in the ḥareem; or a
concert of instrumental music, or a recitation of the whole of the
Ḳur-án, is performed below by men. The mother, attended by the
midwife, being seated in a chair which is the property of the latter,
the child is brought, wrapped in a handsome shawl or something costly;
and, to accustom it to noise, that it may not be frightened afterwards
by the music and other sounds of mirth, one of the women takes a brass
mortar and strikes it repeatedly with the pestle, as if pounding. After
this, the child is put into a sieve and shaken, it being supposed that
this operation is beneficial to its stomach. Next, it is carried through
all the apartments of the ḥareem, accompanied by several women or
girls, each of whom bears a number of wax candles, sometimes of various
colours, cut in two, lighted, and stuck into small lumps of paste of
ḥennà, upon a small round tray. At the same time the midwife, or
another female, sprinkles upon the floor of each room a mixture of salt
with seed of the fennel-flower, or salt alone, which has been placed
during the preceding night at the infant's head; saying as she does
this, "The salt be in the eye of the person who doth not bless the
Prophet!" or, "The foul salt be in the eye of the envier!" This ceremony
of the sprinkling of salt is considered a preservative for the child and
mother from the evil eye; and each person present should say, "O God,
bless our lord Moḥammad!" The child, wrapped up and placed on a fine
mattress, which is sometimes laid on a silver tray, is shewn to each of
the women present, who looks at its face, says, "O God, bless our lord
Moḥammad! God give thee long life!" etc., and usually puts an
embroidered handkerchief, with a gold coin (if pretty or old, the more
esteemed) tied up in one of the corners, on the child's head, or by its
side. This giving of handkerchiefs and gold is considered as imposing a
debt, to be repaid by the mother, if the donor should give her the same
occasion; or as the discharge of a debt for a similar offering. The
coins are generally used for some years to decorate the head-dress of
the child. After these presents for the child, others are given for the
midwife. During the night before the seventh-day's festivity, a
water-bottle full of water (a dóraḳ in the case of a boy, and a
ḳulleh[216] in that of a girl), with an embroidered handkerchief tied
round the neck, is placed at the child's head while it sleeps. This,
with the water it contains, the midwife takes and puts upon a tray and
presents it to each of the women; who put presents of money for her into
the tray. In the evening, the husband generally entertains a party of
his friends.[217]
On this day, or on the fourteenth, twenty-first, twenty-eighth, or
thirty-fifth day after the birth, several religious ceremonies are
required to be performed; but they are most approved if observed on the
seventh day. One of these is the naming. I believe, however, that it is
a more common custom to give the name almost immediately after the
birth, or about three hours after. Astrologers were often consulted on
this occasion; but the following directions are given on higher
authority, and are generally followed.--"The father should give his son
a good name, ... not a name of self-praise, as Rasheed [Orthodox], Emeen
[Faithful], etc.... The Prophet said, 'The names most approved by God
are ´Abd-Allah [Servant of God] and ´Abd-Er-Raḥmán [Servant of the
Compassionate], and such like.' He also said, 'Give my name, but do not
distinguish by my surname of relationship:' but this precept, they say,
respects his own lifetime, ... because he was addressed, 'O
Abu-l-Ḳásim!' and now it is not disapproved; but some disapprove of
uniting the name and surname, so as to call a person Moḥammad and
Abu-l-Ḳásim. And if a son be called by the name of a prophet it is
not allowable to abuse or vilify him, unless the person so named be
facing his reproacher, who should say, 'Thou' [without mentioning his
name]: and a child named Moḥammad or Aḥmad should be [especially]
honoured.... The Prophet said, 'There is no people holding a
consultation at which there is present one whose name is Moḥammad or
Aḥmad, but God blesseth all that assembly:' and again he said,
'Whoever nameth his child by my name, or by that of any of my children
or my companions, from affection to me or to them, God (whose name be
exalted) will give him in Paradise what eye hath not seen nor ear
heard.' And a son should not be named King of kings, or Lord of lords;
nor should a man take a surname of relationship from the name of the
eldest of his children; nor take any such surname before a child is born
to him."[218] The custom of naming children after prophets, or after
relations or companions of Moḥammad, is very common. No ceremony is
observed on account of the naming.
On the same day, however, two practices which I am about to mention are
prescribed to be observed; though, as far as my observations and
inquiries allow me to judge, they are generally neglected by the modern
Muslims. The first of these is a sacrifice. The victim is called
´aḳeeḳah. It should be a ram or goat; or two such animals should
be sacrificed for a son, and one for a daughter. This rite is regarded
by Ibn-Ḥambal as absolutely obligatory: he said, "If a father
sacrifice not for his son, and he [the son] die, that son will not
intercede for him on the day of judgment." The founders of the three
other principal sects regard it in different and less important lights,
though Moḥammad slew an ´aḳeeḳah for himself after his
prophetic mission. The person should say, on slaying the victim, "O God,
verily this ´aḳeeḳah is a ransom for my son such a one; its blood
for his blood, and its flesh for his flesh, and its bone for his bone,
and its skin for his skin, and its hair for his hair. O God, make it a
ransom for my son from hell fire." A bone of the victim should not be
broken.[219] The midwife should receive a leg of it. It should be cooked
without previously cutting off any portion of it; and part of it should
be given in alms.
After this should be performed the other ceremony above alluded to,
which is this:--It is a sunneh ordinance, incumbent on the father, to
shave or cause to be shaved the head of the child, and to give in alms
to the poor the weight of the hair in gold or silver. This should also
be done for a proselyte.[220] On the subsequent occasions of shaving the
head of a male child (for the head of the male is frequently shaven), a
tuft of hair is generally left on the crown, and commonly for several
years another also over the forehead.
Circumcision is most approved if performed on the same day;[221] but
the observance of this rite is generally delayed until the child has
attained the age of five or six years, and sometimes several years
later. (See p. 200).
The Muslims regard a child as a trust committed by God to its parents,
who, they hold, are responsible for the manner in which they bring it
up, and will be examined on this subject on the day of judgment. But
they further venture to say, that "the first who will lay hold of a man
on the day of judgment will be his wife and children, who [if he have
been deficient in his duty to them] will present themselves before God,
and say, 'O our Lord, take for us our due from him; for he taught us not
that of which we were ignorant, and he fed us with forbidden food, and
we knew not:' and their due will be taken from him."[222] By this is
meant, that a certain proportion of the good works which the man may
have done, and his children and wife neglected, will be set down to
their account: or that a similar proportion of their evil works will be
transferred to _his_ account.
The mother is enjoined by the law to give suck to her child two full
years, unless she have her husband's consent to shorten the period, or
to employ another nurse. "For suckling the child, a virtuous woman, who
eateth only what is lawful, should be chosen; for the unlawful [food]
will manifest its evil in the child; as the Prophet ... said, 'Giving
suck altereth the tempers.' But it is recommended by the Sunneh that the
mother herself suckle the child; for it is said in a tradition, 'There
is nothing better for a child than its mother's milk.' 'If thou wouldst
try,' it is added, 'whether the child be of an ingenuous disposition in
its infancy or not, order a woman who is not its mother to suckle it
after its mother has done so: and if it drink of the milk of the woman
who is not its mother, it is not of an ingenuous disposition.'"[223]
Children, being regarded by Muslim parents as enviable blessings, are to
them objects of the most anxious solicitude. To guard them from the
supposed influence of the envious or evil eye, they have recourse to
various expedients. When they are taken abroad, they are usually clad in
a most slovenly manner, and left unwashed, or even purposely smeared
with dirt; and as a further precaution a fantastic cap is often put upon
the child's head, or its head-dress is decorated with one or more coins,
a feather, a gay tassel, or a written charm or two sewed up in leather
or encased in gold or silver, or some other appendage to attract the
eye, that so the infant itself may pass unnoticed. If a person express
his admiration of another's child otherwise than by some pious
ejaculation, as for instance by praising its Creator (with the
exclamation of "Subḥána-lláh!" or Má sháa-lláh!" etc.) or invoking a
blessing on the Prophet, he fills the mind of the parent with
apprehension; and recourse is had to some superstitious ceremony to
counteract the dreaded influence of his envious glance. The children of
the poor from their unattractive appearance are less exposed to this
imaginary danger: they generally have little or no clothing and are
extremely dirty. It is partly with the view of protecting them from the
evil eye that those of the rich are so long confined to the ḥareem:
there they are petted and pampered for several years, at least until
they are of age to go to school; but most of them are instructed at
home.
The children of the Muslims are taught to show to their fathers a degree
of respect which might be deemed incompatible with the existence of a
tender mutual affection; but I believe that this is not the case. The
child greets the father in the morning by kissing his hand, and then
usually stands before him in a respectful attitude, with the left hand
covered by the right, to receive any order or to await his permission to
depart; but after the respectful kiss, is often taken on the lap. After
the period of infancy, the well-bred son seldom sits in the presence of
his father; but during that period he is generally allowed much
familiarity. A Syrian merchant, who was one of my near neighbours in
Cairo, had a child of exquisite beauty, commonly supposed to be his
daughter, whom, though he was a most bigoted Muslim, he daily took with
him from his private house to his shop. The child followed him, seated
upon an ass before a black slave, and until about six years old was
dressed like most young ladies, but without a face-veil. The father then
thinking that the appearance of taking about with him a daughter of that
age was scandalous, dressed his pet as a boy, and told his friends that
the female attire had been employed as a protection against the evil
eye, girls being less coveted than boys. This indeed is sometimes done,
and it is possible that such might have been the case in this instance;
but I was led to believe that it was not so. A year after, I left Cairo:
while I remained there, I continued to see the child pass my house as
before, but always in boy's clothing.
It is not surprising that the natives of Eastern countries, where a very
trifling expense is required to rear the young, should be generally
desirous of a numerous offspring. A motive of self-interest conduces
forcibly to cherish this feeling in a wife; for she is commonly esteemed
by her husband in proportion to her fruitfulness, and a man is seldom
willing to divorce a wife, or to sell a slave, who has borne him a
child. A similar feeling also induces in both parents a desire to obtain
offspring, and renders them at the same time resigned to the loss of
such of their children as die in tender age. This feeling arises from
their belief of certain services, of greater moment than the richest
blessings this world can bestow, which children who die in infancy are
to render to their parents.
The Prophet is related to have said, "The infant children [of the
Muslims] shall assemble at the scene of judgment on the day of the
general resurrection, when all creatures shall appear for the reckoning,
and it will be said to the angels, 'Go ye with these into Paradise:' and
they will halt at the gate of Paradise, and it will be said to them,
'Welcome to the offspring of the Muslims! enter ye Paradise: there is no
reckoning to be made with you:' and they will reply, 'Yea, and our
fathers and our mothers:' but the guardians of Paradise will say,
'Verily your fathers and your mothers are not with you because they have
committed faults and sins for which they must be reckoned with and
inquired of.' Then they will shriek and cry at the gate of Paradise with
a great cry; and God (whose name be exalted, and who is all-knowing
respecting them) will say, 'What is this cry?' It will be answered, 'O
our Lord, the children of the Muslims say, We will not enter Paradise
but with our fathers and our mothers.' Whereupon God (whose name be
exalted) will say, 'Pass among them all, and take the hands of your
parents, and introduce them into Paradise.'" The children who are to
have this power are such as are born of believers, and die without
having attained to the knowledge of sin; and according to one tradition,
one such child will introduce his two parents into Paradise. Such
infants only are to enter Paradise; for of the children who die in
infancy, those of believers alone are they who would believe if they
grew to years of discretion. On the same authority it is said, "When a
child of the servant [of God] dies, God (whose name be exalted) saith to
the angels, 'Have ye taken the child of my servant?' They answer, 'Yea.'
He saith, 'Have ye taken the child of his heart?' They reply, 'Yea.' He
asketh them, 'What did my servant say?' They answer, 'He praised thee,
and said, Verily to God we belong, and verily unto Him we return!' Then
God will say, 'Build for my servant a house in Paradise, and name it the
House of Praise.'"
To these traditions, which I find related as proofs of the advantages of
marriage, the following anecdote, which is of a similar nature, is
added. A certain man who would not take a wife awoke one day from his
sleep, and demanded to be married, saying as his reason, "I dreamed that
the resurrection had taken place, and that I was among the beings
collected at the scene of judgment, but was suffering a thirst that
stopped up the passage of my stomach; and lo, there were youths passing
through the assembly, having in their hands ewers of silver, and cups of
gold, and giving drink to one person after another; so I stretched forth
my hand to one of them, and said, 'Give me to drink; for thirst
overpowereth me;' but they answered, 'Thou hast no child among us; we
give drink only to our fathers.' I asked them, 'Who are ye?' They
replied, 'We are the deceased infant children of the Muslims.'"[224]
Especial rewards in heaven are promised to mothers. "When a woman
conceives by her husband," said the Prophet, "she is called in heaven a
martyr [_i.e._ she is ranked, as a martyr in dignity]; and her labour in
childbed and her care for her children protect her from hell fire."[225]
"When the child begins to speak, the father should teach him first the
kelimeh [or profession of faith], 'There is no deity but God:
[Moḥammad is God's apostle]'--he should dictate this to him seven
times. Then he should instruct him to say, 'Wherefore exalted be God,
the King, the Truth! There is no deity but He, the Lord of the
honourable throne.'[226] He should teach him also the Throne-verse,[227]
and the closing words of the Ḥashr, 'He is God, beside whom there is
no deity, the King, the Holy,'" etc.[228]
As soon as a son is old enough, his father should teach him the most
important rules of decent behaviour: placing some food before him, he
should order him to take it with the right hand (the left being employed
for unclean purposes), and to say, on commencing, "In the name of God;"
to eat what is next to him, and not to hurry or spill any of the food
upon his person or dress. He should teach him that it is disgusting to
eat much. He should particularly condemn to him the love of gold and
silver, and caution him against covetousness as he would against
serpents and scorpions; and forbid his spitting in an assembly and every
similar breach of good manners, from talking much, turning his back upon
another, standing in an indolent attitude, and speaking ill of any
person to another. He should keep him from bad companions, teach him the
Ḳur-án and all requisite divine and prophetic ordinances, and
instruct him in the arts of swimming and archery, and in some virtuous
trade; for trade is a security from poverty. He should also command him
to endure patiently the chastisements of his teacher. In one tradition
it is said, "When a boy attains the age of six years he should be
disciplined, and when he attains to nine years he should be put in a
separate bed, and when he attains to ten years he should be beaten for
[neglecting] prayer:" and in another tradition, "Order your children to
pray at seven [years], and beat them for [neglecting] it at ten, and put
them in separate beds."[229]
Circumcision is generally performed before the boy is submitted to the
instruction of the schoolmaster.[230] Previously to the performance of
this rite, he is, if belonging to the higher or middle rank of society,
usually paraded about the neighbourhood of his parents' dwelling, gaily
attired, chiefly with female habits and ornaments, but with a boy's
turban on his head, mounted on a horse, preceded by musicians, and
followed by a group of his female relations and friends. This ceremony
is observed by the great with much pomp and with sumptuous feasts.
El-Jabartee mentions a fête celebrated on the occasion of the
circumcision of a son of the Ḳáḍee of Cairo, in the year of the
Flight 1179 (A.D. 1766), when the grandees and chief merchants and
´ulamà of the city sent him such abundance of presents that the
magazines of his mansion were filled with rice and butter and honey and
sugar; the great hall, with coffee; and the middle of the court, with
fire-wood: the public were amused for many days by players and
performers of various kinds; and when the youth was paraded through the
streets he was attended by numerous memlooks with their richly
caparisoned horses and splendid arms and armour and military band, and
by a number of other youths, who, out of compliment to him, were
afterwards circumcised with him. This last custom is usual on such
occasions; and so also is the sending of presents, such as those above
mentioned, by friends, acquaintances, and tradespeople. At a fête of
this kind, when the Khaleefeh El-Muḳtedir circumcised five of his
sons, the money that was scattered in presents amounted to six hundred
thousand pieces of gold, or about £300,000. Many orphans were also
circumcised on the same day, and were presented with clothes and pieces
of gold.[231] The Khaleefeh above mentioned was famous for his
magnificence, a proof of which I have given before (p. 122 ff.). At the
more approved entertainments which are given in celebration of a
circumcision, a recital of the whole of the Ḳur-án, or a zikr, is
performed: at some others, male or female public dancers perform in the
court of the house or in the street before the door.
Few of the children of the Arabs receive much instruction in
literature, and still fewer are taught even the rudiments of any of the
higher sciences; but there are numerous schools in their towns, and one
at least in almost every moderately large village. The former are mostly
attached to mosques and other public buildings, and, together with those
buildings, are endowed by princes or other men of rank, or wealthy
tradesmen. In these the children are instructed either gratis or for a
very trifling weekly payment, which all parents save those in indigent
circumstances can easily afford. The schoolmaster generally teaches
nothing more than to read, and to recite by heart the whole of the
Ḳur-án. After committing to memory the first chapter of the sacred
volume, the boy learns the rest in the inverse order of their
arrangement, as they generally decrease in length (the longest coming
first, and the shortest at the end). Writing and arithmetic are usually
taught by another master; and grammar, rhetoric, versification, logic,
the interpretation of the Ḳur-án, and the whole system of religion
and law, with all other knowledge deemed useful, which seldom includes
the mere elements of mathematics, are attained by studying at a
collegiate mosque, and at no expense; for the professors receive no pay
either from the students, who are mostly of the poorer classes, or from
the funds of the mosque.
The wealthy often employ for their sons a private tutor; and when he has
taught them to read, and to recite the Ḳur-án, engage for them a
writing-master, and then send them to the college. But among this class,
polite literature is more considered than any other branch of knowledge,
after religion. Such an acquaintance with the works of some of their
favourite poets as enables a man to quote them occasionally in company,
is regarded by the Arabs as essential to a son who is to mix in good
society; and to this acquirement is often added some skill in the art
of versification, which is rendered peculiarly easy by the copiousness
of the Arabic language and by its system of inflexion. These
characteristics of their noble tongue (which are remarkably exhibited by
the custom, common among the Arabs, of preserving the same rhyme
throughout a whole poem), while on the one hand they have given an
admirable freedom to the compositions of men of true poetic genius, have
on the other hand mainly contributed to the degradation of Arabic
poetry. To an Arab of some little learning it is almost as easy to speak
in verse as in prose; and hence he often intersperses his prose
writings, and not unfrequently his conversation, with indifferent
verses, of which the chief merit generally consists in puns or in an
ingenious use of several words nearly the same in sound but differing in
sense. This custom is frequently exemplified in the "Thousand and One
Nights," where a person suddenly changes the style of his speech from
prose to verse, and then reverts to the former.
One more duty of a father to a son I should here mention: it is to
procure for him a wife as soon as he has arrived at a proper age. This
age is decided by some to be twenty years, though many young men marry
at an earlier period. It is said, "When a son has attained the age of
twenty years, his father, if able, should marry him, and then take his
hand and say, 'I have disciplined thee and taught thee and married
thee: I now seek refuge with God from thy mischief in the present world
and the next.'" To enforce this duty, the following tradition is urged:
"When a son becomes adult and his father does not marry him and yet is
able to do so, if the youth do wrong in consequence, the sin of it is
between the two"--or, as in another report,--"on the father."[232] The
same is held to be the case with respect to a daughter who has attained
the age of twelve years.
The female children of the Arabs are seldom taught even to read. Though
they are admissible at the daily schools in which the boys are
instructed, very few parents allow them the benefit of this privilege;
preferring, if they give them any instruction of a literary kind, to
employ a sheykhah (or learned woman) to teach them at home. She
instructs them in the forms of prayer and teaches them to repeat by
heart a few chapters of the Ḳur-án, very rarely the whole book.
Parents are indeed recommended to withhold from their daughters some
portions of the Ḳur-án; to "teach them the Soorat ed-Noor [or 24th
chapter], and keep from them the Soorat Yoosuf [12th chapter]; on
account of the story of Zeleekhá and Yoosuf in the latter, and the
prohibitions and threats and mention of punishments contained in the
former."[233]
Needle-work is not so rarely, but yet not generally, taught to Arab
girls, the spindle frequently employs those of the poorer classes, and
some of them learn to weave. The daughters of persons of the middle and
higher ranks are often instructed in the art of embroidery and in other
ornamental work, which are taught in schools and in private houses.
Singing and playing upon the lute, which were formerly not uncommon
female accomplishments among the wealthy Arabs, are now almost
exclusively confined, like dancing, to professional performers and a few
of the slaves in the ḥareems of the great: it is very seldom now that
any musical instrument is seen in the hand of an Arab lady except a kind
of drum called darabukkeh and a ṭár (or tambourine), which are found
in many ḥareems, and are beaten with the fingers.[234] Some care,
however, is bestowed by the ladies in teaching their daughters what they
consider an elegant gait and carriage, as well as various alluring and
voluptuous arts with which to increase the attachment of their future
husbands.
I have heard Arabs confess that their nation possesses nine-tenths of
the envy that exists among all mankind collectively; but I have not seen
any written authority for this. Ibn-´Abbás assigns nine-tenths of the
intrigue or artifice that exists in the world to the Copts, nine-tenths
of the perfidy to the Jews, nine-tenths of the stupidity to the
Maghrabees, nine-tenths of the hardness to the Turks, and nine-tenths of
the bravery to the Arabs. According to Kaạb El-Aḥbár, reason and
sedition are most peculiar to Syria, plenty and degradation to Egypt,
and misery and health to the Desert. In another account, faith and
modesty are said to be most peculiar to El-Yemen, fortitude and sedition
to Syria, magnificence or pride and hypocrisy to El-´Irák, wealth and
degradation to Egypt, and poverty and misery to the Desert. Of women, it
is said by Kaạb El-Aḥbár, that the best in the world (excepting
those of the tribe of Ḳureysh mentioned by the Prophet) are those of
El-Baṣrah; and the worst in the world, those of Egypt.[235]
FOOTNOTES:
[214] The call to prayer which is chanted from the mádinehs (or
minarets) of the mosques. It is as follows:--"God is most great!" (four
times). "I testify that there is no deity but God!" (twice). "I testify
that Moḥammad is God's Apostle!" (twice). "Come to prayer!" (twice).
"Come to security!" (twice). "God is most great!" (twice). "There is no
deity but God!"
[215] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 9. The iḳámeh differs from the
adán in adding "The time for prayer is come" twice after "come to
security."
[216] The dóraḳ has a long narrow neck, the ḳulleh a short wide
one.
[217] See Modern Egyptians, chap. xiv.
[218] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 9.
[219] Compare Exodus xiii. 13; and xii. 46.
[220] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 9; and Mishkát el-Maṣábeeḥ,
ii. 315, f.
[221] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 9.
[222] Ibid.
[223] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, 1.1.
[224] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 2.
[225] Idem., section 7.
[226] Ḳur-án, xxiii. 117.
[227] "God! there is no deity but He," etc., Ḳur. ii. 256.
[228] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 9.
[229] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 9.
[230] An analogous custom is mentioned in a note appended to the account
of circumcision in chap. ii. of my work on the Modern Egyptians.
[231] Mir-át ez-Zemán, events of the year 302.
[232] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 9, and Misḳát el-Maṣábeeḥ,
ii. 86.
[233] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 6.
[234] See Modern Egyptians, ch. xviii.
[235] El-Maḳreezee's Khiṭaṭ, and El-Isḥáḳee.