The bride’s father gives a dinner at the bridegroom’s house on Monday, at which the principal dishes are usually rice and milk, and boiled fowls. In the evening, after this dinner, the bridegroom and his ashbeen go about to invite his friends to a great feast to be given on the evening following, which concludes the marriage-festivities.
Such are the ceremonies which are usually observed on the marriage of a virgin-bride. Sometimes, the Patriarch, bishop, or priest, who is employed to perform the marriage-service, dissuades the parties from expending their money in zeffehs and repeated feasts; counselling them rather to devote the sums which they had purposed to employ in so vain a manner to the relief of the wants of the clergy and poor; and in consequence, the marriage is conducted with more simplicity and privacy. A widow is always married without ostentation, festivity, or zeffeh. A virgin bride of the poorer class is sometimes honoured with a zeffeh; but is generally conducted to the bath merely by a group of female relations and friends, who, wanting the accompaniment of musical instruments, only testify their joy by “zagháreet:” in the same manner, also, she proceeds to the bridegroom’s house; and she is there married by a priest; as the expenses of lighting and otherwise preparing the church for a marriage fall upon the bridegroom. Many of the Copts in Cairo, being possessed of little property, are married in a yet more simple manner, before mentioned. To be married by one of their own clergy, they must obtain a licence from the Patriarch; and this covetous person will seldom give it for less than a hundred piasters (or a pound sterling), and sometimes demands, from such persons, as many riyáls (of two piasters and a quarter each): the parties, therefore, are married by a licence from the Kádee; for which they usually pay not more than two piasters, or a little less than five pence of our money.
The newly-married wife, if she observe the approved rules of etiquette, does not go out of the house, even to pay a visit to her parents, until delivered of her first child, or until the expiration of a year, if there appear no signs of her becoming a mother. After this period of imprisonment, her father or mother usually comes to visit her.
A divorce is obtained only for the cause of adultery on the part of the wife. The husband and wife may be separated if she have committed a theft, or other heinous crime; but in this case, neither he nor she is at liberty to contract another marriage, though they may again be united to each other.
One of the most remarkable traits in the character of the Copts is their bigotry. They bear a bitter hatred to all other Christians; even exceeding that with which the Muslims regard the unbelievers in El-Islám. Yet they are considered, by the Muslims, as much more inclined than any other Christian sect to the faith of El-Islám; and this opinion has not been formed without reason; for vast numbers of them have, from time to time, and not always in consequence of persecution, become proselytes to this religion. They are, generally speaking, of a sullen temper, extremely avaricious, and abominable dissemblers; cringing or domineering according to circumstances. The respectable Copt, to whom I have already acknowledged myself chiefly indebted for the notions which I have obtained respecting the customs of his nation, gives me a most unfavourable account of their character. He avows them to be generally ignorant, deceitful, faithless, and abandoned to the pursuit of worldly gain, and to indulgence in sensual pleasures: he declares the Patriarch to be a tyrant, and a suborner of false witnesses; and assures me that the priests and monks in Cairo are seen every evening begging, and asking the loan of money, which they never repay, at the houses of their parishioners and other acquaintances, and procuring brandy, if possible, wherever they call.
Many of the Copts are employed as secretaries or accountants. In every village of a moderate size is a “M’allim”[[642]] who keeps the register of the taxes. The writing of the Copts differs considerably from that of the Muslims, as well as from that of other Christians residing in Egypt. Most of the Copts in Cairo are accountants or tradesmen: the former are chiefly employed in government offices: among the latter are many merchants, goldsmiths, silversmiths, jewellers, architects, builders, and carpenters; all of whom are generally esteemed more skilful than the Muslims. Those in the villages, like the Muslim peasants, occupy themselves chiefly in the labours of agriculture.
The funeral-ceremonies of the Copts resemble, in many respects, those of the Muslims. The corpse is carried in a bier, followed by women, wailing in the same manner as the Muslim′ehs do on such an occasion; but is not preceded by hired chanters. Hired wailing-women are employed to lament in the house of the deceased for three days after the death (though this custom is disapproved of by the clergy and many others; being only a relic of ancient heathen usages): and they renew their lamentations there on the seventh and fourteenth days after the death; and sometimes several weeks after. The Copts, both men and women, pay regular visits to the tombs of their relations three times in the year: on the ’Eed el-Meelád, ’Eed el-Gheetás, and ’Eed el-Kiyámeh. They go to the burial-ground on the eve of each of these ’eeds; and there pass the night; having houses belonging to them in the cemeteries, for their reception on these occasions: the women spend the night in the upper apartments; and the men below. In the morning following, they kill a buffalo, or a sheep, if they can afford either; and give its flesh, with bread, to the poor who assemble there: or they give bread alone. This ceremony, which resembles the “kaffárah” performed by the Muslims on the burial of their dead, is not considered as any expiation of the sins of the deceased; but probably originates from an ancient expiatory sacrifice: it is only regarded as an alms. As soon as it is done, the mourners return home. They say that they visit the tombs merely for the sake of religious reflection. In doing so, they perpetuate an ancient custom, which they find difficult to relinquish; though they can give no good reason for observing it with such ceremonies.
I shall close this account of the Copts with a few notices of their history under the Muslim domination, derived from El-Makreezee’s celebrated work on Egypt and its Metropolis.[[643]]
About seventy years after the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs, the Copts began to experience such exactions and persecutions, notwithstanding the chartered favours and privileges which had at first been granted to them, that many of them rose in arms, and attempted to defend their rights; but they were reduced, after sustaining a great slaughter. The monks, for the first time, had been subjected to an annual tribute of a deenár[[644]] each. The collector of the tribute branded the hand of each monk whom he could find with a stamp of iron; and afterwards cut off the hand of every person of this order whom he detected without the mark; and exacted ten deenárs from every other Christian who had not a billet from the government to certify his having paid his tribute. Many Monks were subsequently found without the mark: some of these were beheaded, and the rest beaten until they died under the blows: their churches were demolished; and their crosses and pictures destroyed. This took place in the year of the Flight 104 (A.D. 722-3), at the close of the reign of the Khaleefeh Yezeed Ibn-’Abd-El-Melik. A few years after, in the reign of the successor of this prince (Hishám), Handhal′ah Ibn-Safwán, the Governor of Egypt, caused the hand of every Copt to be branded with an iron stamp bearing the figure of a lion, and greatly aggravated their misery: so that many of those residing in the provinces again rebelled, and had recourse to arms; but in vain; and a terrible persecution followed.
From the period of the conquest until the reign of Hishám, the Jacobites (or almost all the Copts) were in possession of all the churches in Egypt; and sent their bishops to the Nubians, who consequently abandoned the Melekite creed, and adopted that of the Jacobites; but in the reign of this Khaleefeh, the Melekites, by means of a present, obtained the restoration of those churches which had formerly belonged to them: these, however, soon after returned to the possession of the Jacobites; and in aftertimes, were now the property of one sect, and now of the other, being purchased by presents or services to the government.