An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians

by Edward William Lane

It would be tiresome to detail all the troubles of the Copts under the tyranny of Muslim princes; but some particulars in the history of the persecutions which they endured in the earlier ages of the Arab domination may be here mentioned. The Copts are a people of indomitable presumption and intrigue; which qualities render them very difficult to be governed. They have often incurred severe oppression by their own folly; though they have more frequently been victims of unmerited persecution under tyrannical rulers, and through the influence of private fanatics.[^[645]]

In the year of the Flight 235 (A.D. 849-50), the Khaleefeh El-Mutawekkil ordered several degrading distinctions to be adopted in the dress of the Copts: the men were obliged to wear “honey-coloured” (or light brown) hooded cloaks, with other peculiar articles of dress; and the women, garments of the same colour: and they were compelled to place wooden figures (or pictures) of devils at (or upon) the doors of their houses.

One of the bitterest persecutions that they ever endured, and one which was attributed to their pride, and their display of wealth, and contemptuous treatment of Muslims, befell them during the reign of that impious wretch the Khaleefeh El-Hákim, who acceded to the throne in the year of the Flight 386 (A.D. 996-7), and was killed in 411. Among the minor grievances which he inflicted upon them, was that of compelling them to wear a wooden cross, of the weight of five pounds, suspended to the neck, and garments and turbans of a deep black colour. This seems to have been the origin of the black turban worn by so many of the Christians in the present day. As the distinguishing dress and banners of the Khaleefehs of Egypt were white, black, which was the colour that distinguished their rivals, the ’Abbásees, was, in their eyes, the most hateful and ignominious hue that they could choose for the dresses of the despised Copts. I find no earlier mention than this of the black turban of the Christians of Egypt. At the same time that the Copts were compelled thus to distinguish themselves, the Jews were ordered to wear a round piece of wood, of the same weight as the crosses of the Christians, and suspended in the same manner. All the churches were given up to be destroyed and plundered, with all the property appertaining to them; and many of them were replaced by mosques. Finally, a sentence of banishment to Greece was pronounced against all the Christians of Egypt, and the Jews; but so strong was the love which they bore to their native country amid all their miseries, and so much were they actuated by that common but absurd disposition, which most sects possess, of hating most bitterly those differing least from them in faith, that a multitude of Copts thronged round the great palace of the Khaleefeh, and implored and obtained a revokement of this sentence. Many Copts, during this and other persecutions, embraced the faith of El-Islám.

In the month of Regeb, 700 (A.D. 1301), happened an event which, for the first time, as well as I can learn, occasioned the Copts to be distinguished by the blue turban, as they mostly are at present. A Maghrab′ee ambassador, approaching the Citadel (of Cairo), saw a man handsomely attired, wearing a white turban, and riding a mare, with many attendants walking by his stirrups, paying him great honours, asking favours of him, and even kissing his feet; while he turned aside from them, and repulsed them, calling to his servants to drive them away. The Maghrab′ee, informed that this person was a Christian, was so enraged that he was about to lay violent hands upon him; but he refrained, and, ascending to the deewán in the Citadel, related to some of the Emeers there present what he had just seen, with tears in his eyes, drawn by his pity for the Muslims. In consequence of his complaint, the chief persons among the Christians and Jews were summoned to the deewán: and orders were given that the Christians should wear blue turbans, and waist-belts; and the Jews, yellow turbans: and that no person of either of these sects should ride horses or mules. Many Christians, it is added, embraced El-Islám rather than wear the blue turban.

On Friday, the 9th of Rabeea el-A′khir, 721 (A.D. 1321), in the reign of Mohammad Ibn-Kalaoon, all the principal churches throughout Egypt, from Aswán to the Mediterranean, sixty in number, and twenty-one of these in the metropolis and its neighbourhood, were destroyed through a plot formed by some fanatic Muslims. This havoc was accomplished chiefly during the period of the congregational prayers of the Muslims, at noon. At the close of the prayers of the Sultán and his court, in the mosque of the Citadel, a man, in a state of apparent frenzy, cried out in the midst of the congregation, “Destroy ye the church which is in the Citadel!” Another man, a fakeer, in the great mosque El-Azhar, before the appearance of the Khateeb (or Preacher), seemed to be affected by an involuntary trembling, and cried out, “Destroy ye the churches of the presumptuous and infidels! Yea, God is most great! God give victory and aid!” Then he shook himself, and cried, “To the foundations! To the foundations!” Some members of the congregation said, “This is a madman:” others said, “This is an indication of some event.” On their going out of the mosque, they saw that the act which he had urged had been commenced: numbers of persons were pressing along the streets with the plunder of the churches, many of which were reduced to mere mounds of rubbish. The Sultán threatened a general massacre of the people of El-Káhireh (now Masr, or Cairo) and El-Fustát (or Old Masr) for this outrage; but was diverted from his purpose by the revenge which the Christians exacted. Refraining from the execution of their plot for the space of a month, that they might be less liable to suspicion, they set fire, on different days, to a vast number of mosques, houses of Emeers, and private dwellings, both in El-Káhireh and El-Fustát. Several of the incendiaries were detected; and some burnt alive; and a number of Muslims also were put to death, most of them hanged, along the principal street leading from the southern gate of the city of El-Káhireh to the Citadel, ostensibly for insulting an Emeer, whom they accused of favouring the Christians; though there was no proof that they were the persons who committed this offence: they had been arrested without discrimination, to atone for the injury, and to be made examples to their fellow-citizens. The Sultán, however, alarmed by the clamours of a tremendous mob, was afterwards constrained to grant licence to his Muslim subjects to plunder and murder every Christian whom they might chance to meet. The Christians at that time had reverted to the habit of wearing the white turban; and the Sultán caused it to be proclaimed, that every person of this sect, who was seen wearing a white turban, or riding a horse, might be plundered and killed; that they should wear the blue turban; that they should not ride horses nor mules, but only asses, and with their face to the animal’s tail; and should not enter a bath unless with a bell suspended to the neck. At the same time, the Emeers were forbidden to take any Christians into their service; and all of this sect who were in the service of the government were displaced.

After having suffered frequent and heavy exactions and other oppressions, a vast number of the Christians both in Upper and Lower Egypt, in the year of the Flight 755 (A.D. 1354-5), embraced the faith of El-Islám. The number of proselytes in the town of Kalyoob alone, who changed their faith in one day, was four hundred and fifty. Most of the churches of Upper Egypt were destroyed at the same time; and mosques were built in their places.

From the period just mentioned, the Copts continued subject to more or less oppression, until the accession of the present Básha of Egypt, under whose tolerant though severe sway nothing more is exacted from the Christian than the Muslim, excepting an inconsiderable tribute, which is more than balanced by a remarkable immunity, not conferred by favour (it is true), but not on that account the less valued and envied; I mean the exemption from military service.

II.—THE JEWS OF EGYPT.

The Jews, in every country in which they are dispersed (unlike any other collective class of people residing in a country which is not their own by inheritance from the original possessors, or by conquest achieved by themselves or their ancestors), form permanent members of the community among whom they dwell: a few words respecting the Jews in Egypt will therefore be not inappropriate in the present work.

There are in this country about five thousand Jews (in Arabic, called “Yahood;” singular, “Yahoodee”), most of whom reside in the metropolis, in a miserable, close, and dirty quarter, intersected by lanes, many of which are so narrow as hardly to admit of two persons passing each other in them.