The population of Egypt in the times of the Pharaohs was probably about six or seven millions.[[36]] The produce of the soil in the present age would suffice, if none were exported, for the maintenance of a population amounting to 4,000,000; and if all the soil which is capable of cultivation were sown, the produce would be sufficient for the maintenance of 8,000,000. But this would be the utmost number that Egypt could maintain in years of plentiful inundation; I therefore compute the ancient population, at the time when agriculture was in a very flourishing state, to have amounted to what I first stated; and must suppose it to have been scarcely more than half as numerous in the times of the Ptolemies, and at later periods, when a great quantity of corn was annually exported.[[37]] This calculation agrees with what Diodorus Siculus says (in lib. i. cap. 31); namely, that Egypt contained, in the times of the ancient kings, 7,000,000 inhabitants, and in his own time not less than 3,000,000.
How different now is the state of Egypt from what it might be, possessing a population of scarcely more than one quarter of the number that it might be rendered capable of supporting! How great a change might be effected in it by a truly enlightened government, by a prince who (instead of impoverishing the peasantry by depriving them of their lands, and by his monopolies of the most valuable productions of the soil; by employing the best portion of the population to prosecute his ambitious schemes of foreign conquest, and another large portion in the vain attempt to rival European manufactures) would give his people a greater interest in the cultivation of the fields, and make Egypt what nature designed it to be—almost exclusively an agricultural country! Its produce of cotton alone would more than suffice to procure all the articles of foreign manufacture, and all the natural productions of foreign countries, that the wants of its inhabitants demand.[[38]]
The desired change may now be easily effected, for since the above was written the Básha has been placed in a new position, which will enable him to acquire a greater and more honourable fame, by the cultivation of the arts of peace, than his conquests, brilliant as they have been, have hitherto procured for him. No one who is acquainted with the modern history of Egypt, and more particularly with the state of the country during the period that intervened between the French expedition and the accession of Mohammad ’Alee to the office of viceroy, can doubt that he possesses extraordinary talents for government; and let us hope that those talents will be rightly employed: but, as he himself affirms, some time will be required for effecting the necessary changes.
CHAPTER I.
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND DRESS OF THE MUSLIM EGYPTIANS.
Muslims of Arabian origin have for many centuries mainly composed the population of Egypt: they have changed its language, laws, and general manners; and its metropolis they have made the principal seat of Arabian learning and arts. To the description of this people, and especially of the middle and higher classes in the Egyptian capital, will be devoted the chief portion of the present work. In every point of view, Masr (or Cairo) must be regarded as the first Arab city of our age; and the manners and customs of its inhabitants are particularly interesting, as they are a combination of those which prevail most generally in the towns of Arabia, Syria, and the whole of Northern Africa, and in a great degree in Turkey. There is no other place in which we can obtain so complete a knowledge of the most civilized classes of the Arabs.
From statements made in the introduction to this work, it appears that Muslim Egyptians (or Arab-Egyptians) compose nearly four-fifths of the population of the metropolis (which is computed to amount to about 240,000), and just seven-eighths of that of all Egypt.
The Muslim Egyptians are descended from various Arab tribes and families which have settled in Egypt at different periods; mostly soon after the conquest of this country by ’Amr, its first Arab governor; but by intermarriages with the Copts and others who have become proselytes to the faith of El-Islám, as well as by the change from a life of wandering to that of citizens or of agriculturists, their personal characteristics have, by degrees, become so much altered, that there is a strongly marked difference between them and the natives of Arabia. Yet they are to be regarded as not less genuine Arabs than the townspeople of Arabia itself, among whom has long and very generally prevailed a custom of keeping Abyssinian female slaves, either instead of marrying their own countrywomen, or (as is commonly the case with the opulent) in addition to their Arab wives; so that they bear almost as strong a resemblance to the Abyssinians as to the Bedawees, or Arabs of the Desert. The term “Arab,”[[39]] it should here be remarked, is now used wherever the Arabic language is spoken, only to designate the Bedawees collectively. In speaking of a tribe, or of a small number of those people, the word “’Orbán” is also used; and a single individual is called “Bedawee.”[[40]] In the metropolis and other towns of Egypt, the distinction of tribes is almost wholly lost; but it is preserved among the peasants, who have retained many Bedawee customs, of which I shall have to speak. The native Muslim inhabitants of Cairo commonly call themselves “El-Masreeyeen,” “Owlád-Masr” (or “Ahl-Masr”), and “Owlád-el-Beled,” which signify people of Masr, children of Masr, and children of the town; the singular forms of these appellations are “Masree,” “Ibn-Masr,” and “Ibn-el-Beled.”[[41]] Of these three terms, the last is most common in the town itself. The country people are called “El-Felláheen” (or the Agriculturists), in the singular “Felláh.”[[42]] The Turks often apply this term to the Egyptians in general in an abusive sense, as meaning “the boors,” or “the clowns;” and improperly stigmatize them with the appellation of “Ahl-Far’oon,”[[43]] or “the people of Pharaoh.”
In general, the Muslim Egyptians attain the height of about five feet eight, or five feet nine inches. Most of the children under nine or ten years of age have spare limbs and a distended abdomen; but, as they grow up, their forms rapidly improve. In mature age most of them are remarkably well proportioned. The men, muscular and robust; the women, very beautifully formed, and plump; and neither sex is too fat. I have never seen corpulent persons among them, excepting a few in the metropolis and other towns, rendered so by a life of inactivity. In Cairo, and throughout the northern provinces, those who have not been much exposed to the sun, have a yellowish, but very clear complexion, and soft skin; the rest are of a considerably darker and coarser complexion. The people of Middle Egypt are of a more tawny colour, and those of the more southern provinces are of a deep bronze or brown complexion—darkest towards Nubia, where the climate is hottest. In general, the countenance of the Muslim Egyptian (I here speak of the men) is of a fine oval form; the forehead, of moderate size, seldom high, but generally prominent; the eyes are deep-sunk, black, and brilliant; the nose is straight, but rather thick; the mouth well formed; the lips are rather full than otherwise; the teeth particularly beautiful;[[44]] the beard is commonly black and curly, but scanty. I have seen very few individuals of this race with grey eyes, or rather, few persons supposed to be of this race; for I am inclined to think them the offspring of Arab women by Turks or other foreigners. The Felláheen, from constant exposure to the sun, have a habit of half shutting their eyes; this is also characteristic of the Bedawees. Great numbers of the Egyptians are blind in one or both eyes. They generally shave that part of the cheek which is above the lower jaw, and likewise a small space under the lower lip, leaving, however, the hairs which grow in the middle under the mouth; or, instead of shaving these parts, they pluck out the hair. They also shave a part of the beard under the chin. Very few shave the rest of their beards,[[45]] and none their moustaches. The former they suffer to grow to the length of about a hand’s breadth below the chin (such, at least, is the general rule, and such was the custom of the Prophet); and their moustaches they do not allow to become so long as to incommode them in eating and drinking. The practice of dyeing the beard is not common, for a grey beard is much respected. The Egyptians shave all the rest of the hair, or leave only a small tuft (called “shoosheh”) upon the crown of the head.[[46]] This last custom (which is almost universal among them), I have been told, originated in the fear that if the Muslim should fall into the hands of an infidel and be slain, the latter might cut off the head of his victim, and finding no hair by which to hold it, put his impure hand into the mouth in order to carry it; for the beard might not be sufficiently long.[[47]] With the like view of avoiding impurity, the Egyptians observe other customs which need not here be described.[[48]] Many men of the lower orders, and some others, make blue marks upon their arms, and sometimes upon the hands and chest, as the women, in speaking of whom this operation will be described.
MEN OF THE MIDDLE AND HIGHER CLASSES.