An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians

by Edward William Lane

SKETCH OF A TOMB WITH THE ENTRANCE UNCOVERED.

Lane’s Modern Egyptians]

[Page 484

The tomb having been opened before the arrival of the corpse, no delay takes place in the burial. The sexton and two assistants take the corpse out of the bier, and deposit it in the vault. Its bandages are untied; and it is laid upon its right side, or so inclined that the face is towards Mekkeh. It is supported in this position by a few crude bricks. If the outer wrapper be a Kashmeer shawl, this is rent; lest its value should tempt any profane person to violate the tomb. A little earth is gently placed by and upon the corpse, by one or more persons: and the entrance is closed by replacing the roofing-stones and earth over the small cell before it. But one singular ceremony remains to be performed, excepting in the case of a young child, who is not held responsible for his actions: a fikee is employed to perform the office of a “mulakkin” (or instructor of the dead):[^[629]] sitting before the tomb, he says generally as follows:—“O servant of God! O son of a handmaid of God! know that, at this time, there will come down to thee two angels commissioned respecting thee and the like of thee: when they say to thee, ‘Who is thy Lord,’ answer them,‘God is my Lord,’ in truth; and when they ask thee concerning thy Prophet, or the man who hath been sent unto you, say to them, ‘Mohammad is the Apostle of God,’ with veracity; and when they ask thee concerning thy religion, say to them, ‘El-Islám is my religion;’ and when they ask thee concerning thy book of direction, say to them, ‘The Kurán is my book of direction, and the Muslims are my brothers;’ and when they ask thee concerning thy Kibleh, say to them, ‘The Kaabeh is my Kibleh; and I have lived and died in the assertion, that there is no deity but God, and Mohammad is God’s Apostle:’ and they will say, ‘Sleep, O servant of God, in the protection of God.’”—The soul is believed to remain with the body during the first night after the burial; and on this night to be visited and examined, and perhaps the body tortured, by the two angels above mentioned.—The Yemeneeyeh and other persons hired to attend the funeral are paid at the tomb: the former usually receive a piaster each. If the funeral be that of a person of rank or wealth, two or three skins of water, and as many camel-loads of bread, being conveyed to the burial ground, as before mentioned, are there distributed, after the burial, to the poor, who flock thither in great numbers, on such an occasion. It has also been mentioned that a buffalo is sometimes slaughtered, and its flesh in like manner distributed. This custom is called “el-kaffárah” (or the expiation): being supposed to expiate some of the minor sins of the deceased; but not great sins. The funeral ended, each of the near relations of the deceased is greeted with a prayer that he may be happily compensated for his loss; or is congratulated that his life is prolonged.

The first night after the burial is called “Leylet el-Wahsheh” (or the Night of Desolation); the place of the deceased being then left desolate. On this night the following custom is observed:—At sunset, two or three fikees are brought to the house: they take a repast of bread and milk in the place where the deceased died; and then recite the “Soorat el-Mulk” (or 67th chapter of the Kur-án). As the soul is believed to remain with the body during the first night after the burial, and then to depart to the place appointed for the residence of good souls until the last day, or to the appointed prison in which wicked souls await their final doom, this night is also called “Leylet el-Wahdeh” (or the Night of Solitude).[^[630]]

Another ceremony, called that of the “Sebhah” (or Rosary), is performed on this occasion, to facilitate the entrance of the deceased into a state of happiness: it usually occupies three or four hours. After the “’eshë” (or nightfall), some fikees, sometimes as many as fifty, assemble in the house; or, if there be not a court, or large apartment, for their reception, some matting is spread for them to sit upon in front of the house. One of them brings a sebhah composed of a thousand beads; each about the size of a pigeon’s egg. They commence the ceremony by reciting the “Soorat el-Mulk” (mentioned above); then say three times, “God is one.” After this they recite the “Soorat el-Falak” (or last chapter but one of the Kur-án), and the opening chapter (the “Fát’hah”); and then three times say, “O God, favour, with the most excellent favour, the most happy of thy creatures, our lord Mohammad, and his Family and Companions, and preserve them:” to which they add, “All who commemorate Thee are the mindful; and those who omit commemorating Thee are the negligent.” They next repeat, thrice one thousand times, “There is no deity but God;” one of them holding the sebhah, and counting each repetition of these words by passing a bead through his fingers. After each thousand repetitions they sometimes rest and take coffee. Having completed the last thousand, and rested, and refreshed themselves, they say, a hundred times, “[I extol] the perfection of God, with his praise:” then, the same number of times, “I beg forgiveness of God, the Great:” after which they say, fifty times, “[I extol] the perfection of the Lord, the Eternal—the perfection of God, the Eternal:” they then repeat these words of the Kur-án—“[Extol] the perfection of thy Lord, the Lord of Might; exempting Him from that which they [namely, Christians and others] ascribe to Him [that is, from the having a son, or partaker of his godhead]; and peace be on the Apostles; and praise be to God, the Lord of all creatures!”[^[631]] Two or three or more of them then recite, each, an “’ashr,” or about two or three verses of the Kur-án. This done, one of them asks his companions, “Have ye transferred [the merit of] what ye have recited to the soul of the deceased?” They reply, “We have transferred it;” and add, “And peace be on the Apostles,” etc., as above. This concludes the ceremony of the sebhah, which, in the houses of the rich, is also repeated on the second and third nights. This ceremony is likewise performed in a family on their receiving intelligence of the death of a near relation.

The men make no alteration in their dress in token of mourning; nor do the women on the death of an elderly man; but they do for others. In the latter cases, they dye their shirts, head-veils, face-veils, and handkerchiefs, of a blue, or of an almost black, colour, with indigo; and some of them, with the same dye, stain their hands and their arms as high as the elbow; and smear the walls of the chambers. When the master of the house, or the owner of the furniture, is dead, and sometimes in other cases, they also turn upside-down the carpets, mats, cushions, and covering of the deewáns. In general, the women, while in mourning, leave their hair unbraided, cease to wear some of their ornaments, and, if they smoke, use common reed pipes.

Towards the close of the first Thursday after the funeral, and often, early in the morning of this day, the women of the family of the deceased again commence a wailing, in their house, accompanied by some of their female friends; and in the afternoon or evening of this day, male friends of the deceased also visit the house; and three or four fikees are employed to perform a khatmeh.—On the Friday morning the women repair to the tomb; where they observe the same customs which I have described in speaking of the ceremonies performed on the two grand “’eeds,” in the second of the chapters on periodical public festivals, etc.; generally taking a palm-branch, to break up, and place on the tomb; and some cakes or bread, to distribute to the poor. These ceremonies are repeated on the same days of the next two weeks; and again, on the Thursday and Friday which complete, or next follow, the first period of forty days[^[632]] after the funeral: whence this Friday is called “el-Arba’-een,” or “Gum’at el-Arba’-een.”

It is customary among the peasants of Upper Egypt for the female relations and friends of a person deceased to meet together by his house on each of the first three days after the funeral, and there to perform a lamentation and a strange kind of dance. They daub their faces and bosoms, and part of their dress, with mud; and tie a rope girdle, generally made of the coarse grass called “halfa,” round the waist.[^[633]] Each flourishes in her hand a palm-stick, or a nebboot (a long staff), or a spear, or a drawn sword; and dances with a slow movement, and in an irregular manner; generally pacing about, and raising and depressing the body. This dance is continued for an hour or more; and is performed twice or three times in the course of the day. After the third day, the women visit the tomb, and place upon it their rope-girdles; and usually a lamb, or a goat, is slain there, as an expiatory sacrifice, and a feast made, on this occasion.