An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians

by Edward William Lane

The rank of a plaintiff or defendant, or a bribe from either, often influences the decision of the judge. In general the Náïb and Muftee take bribes, and the Kádee receives from his Náïb. On some occasions, particularly in long litigations, bribes are given by each party, and the decision is awarded in favour of him who pays highest. This frequently happens in difficult law-suits; and even in cases respecting which the law is perfectly clear, strict justice is not always administered; bribes and false testimony being employed by one of the parties. The shocking extent to which the practices of bribery and suborning false witnesses are carried in Muslim courts of law, and among them in the tribunal of the Kádee of Cairo, may be scarcely credited on the bare assertion of the fact: some strong proof, resting on indubitable authority, may be demanded; and here I shall give such proof, in a summary of a case which was tried not long since, and which was related to me by the Secretary and Imám of the Sheykh El-Mahdee, who was then supreme Muftee of Cairo (being the chief Muftee of the Hanafees), and to whom this case was referred after judgment in the Kádee’s court.

A Turkish merchant, residing at Cairo, died, leaving property to the amount of six thousand purses,[^[216]] and no relation to inherit but one daughter. The seyyid Mohammad El-Mahrookee, the Sháh-bandar (chief of the merchants of Cairo), hearing of this event, suborned a common felláh, who was the bowwáb (or door-keeper) of a respected sheykh, and whose parents (both of them Arabs) were known to many persons, to assert himself a son of a brother of the deceased. The case was brought before the Kádee, and, as it was one of considerable importance, several of the principal ’Ulama of the city were summoned to decide it. They were all bribed or influenced by El-Mahrookee, as will presently be shown; false witnesses were brought forward to swear to the truth of the bowwáb’s pretensions, and others to give testimony to the good character of these witnesses. Three thousand purses were adjudged to the daughter of the deceased, and the other half of the property to the bowwáb. El-Mahrookee received the share of the latter, deducting only three hundred piasters, which he presented to the bowwáb. The chief Muftee, El-Mahdee, was absent from Cairo when the case was tried. On his return to the metropolis, a few days after, the daughter of the deceased merchant repaired to his house, stated her case to him, and earnestly solicited redress. The Muftee, though convinced of the injustice which she had suffered, and not doubting the truth of what she related respecting the part which El-Mahrookee had taken in this affair, told her that he feared it was impossible for him to annul the judgment, unless there were some informality in the proceedings of the court, but that he would look at the record of the case in the register of the Mahkem′eh. Having done this, he betook himself to the Básha, with whom he was in great favour for his knowledge and inflexible integrity, and complained to him that the tribunal of the Kádee was disgraced by the administration of the most flagrant injustice; that false witness was admitted by the ’Ulama, however evident and glaring it might be; and that a judgment which they had given in a late case, during his absence, was the general talk and wonder of the town. The Básha summoned the Kádee and all the ’Ulama who had tried this case, to meet the Muftee in the Citadel; and when they had assembled there, addressed them, as from himself, with the Muftee’s complaint. The Kádee, appearing, like the ’Ulama, highly indignant at this charge, demanded to know upon what it was grounded. The Básha replied that it was a general charge, but particularly grounded on the case in which the court had admitted the claim of a bowwáb to a relationship and inheritance which they could not believe to be his right. The Kádee here urged that he had passed sentence in accordance with the unanimous decision of the ’Ulama then present. “Let the record of the case be read,” said the Básha. The journal being sent for, this was done; and when the secretary had finished reading the minutes, the Kádee, in a loud tone of proud authority, said, “And I judged so.” The Muftee, in a louder and more authoritative tone, exclaimed, “And thy judgment is false!” All eyes were fixed in astonishment, now at the Muftee, now at the Básha, now at the other ’Ulama. The Kádee and the ’Ulama rolled their heads and stroked their beards. The former exclaimed, tapping his breast, “I, the Kádee of Misr, pass a false sentence!” “And we,” said the ’Ulama, “we, Sheykh Mahdee! we, ’Ulama el-Islám, give a false decision!” “O Sheykh Mahdee,” said El-Mahrookee (who, from his commercial transactions with the Básha, could generally obtain a place in his councils), “respect the ’Ulama as they respect thee!” “O Mahrookee!” exclaimed the Muftee, “art thou concerned in this affair? Declare what part thou hast in it, or else hold thy peace: go, speak in the assemblies of the merchants, but presume not again to open thy mouth in the council of the ’Ulama!” El-Mahrookee immediately left the palace, for he saw how the affair would terminate, and had to make his arrangements accordingly. The Muftee was now desired, by the other ’Ulama, to adduce a proof of the invalidity of their decision. Drawing from his bosom a small book on the laws of inheritance, he read from it, “To establish a claim to relationship and inheritance, the names of the father and the mother of the claimant, and those of his father’s father and mother, and of his mother’s father and mother, must be ascertained.” The names of the father and mother of the pretended father of the bowwáb the false witnesses had not been prepared to give; and this deficiency in the testimony (which the ’Ulama, in trying the case, purposely overlooked) now caused the sentence to be annulled. The bowwáb was brought before the council, and, denying the imposition of which he had been made the principal instrument, was, by order of the Básha, very severely bastinaded; but the only confession that could be drawn from him by the torture which he endured was, that he had received nothing more of the three thousand purses than three hundred piasters. Meanwhile, El-Mahrookee had repaired to the bowwáb’s master: he told the latter what had happened at the Citadel, and what he had foreseen would be the result, put into his hand three thousand purses, and begged him immediately to go to the council, give this sum of money, and say that it had been placed in his hands in trust by his servant. This was done, and the money was paid to the daughter of the deceased.

In another case, when the Kádee and the council of the ’Ulama were influenced in their decision by a Básha (not Mohammad ’Alee), and passed a sentence contrary to law, they were thwarted in the same manner by El-Mahdee. This Muftee was a rare example of integrity. It is said that he never took a fee for a fetwa. He died shortly after my first visit to this country.—I could mention several other glaring cases of bribery in the court of the Kádee of Cairo; but the above is sufficient.

There are five minor Mahkem′ehs in Cairo; and likewise one at its principal port, Boolák; and one at its southern port, Masr El-’Ateekah. A Sháhid from the great Mahkem′eh presides at each of them, as deputy of the chief Kádee, who confirms their acts. The matters submitted to these minor tribunals are chiefly respecting the sales of property, and legacies, marriages, and divorces; for the Kádee marries female orphans under age who have no relations of age to act as their guardians; and wives often have recourse to law to compel their husbands to divorce them. In every country-town there is also a Kádee, generally a native of the place, and never a Turk, who decides all cases, sometimes from his own knowledge of the law, but commonly on the authority of a Muftee. One Kádee generally serves for two or three or more villages.

Each of the four orthodox sects of the Muslims (the Hanafees, Sháfe’ees, Málikees, and Hambel′ees) has its “Sheykh,” or religious chief, who is chosen from among the most learned of the body, and resides in the metropolis. The Sheykh of the great mosque El-Azhar (who is always of the sect of the Sháfe’ees, and sometimes Sheykh of that sect), together with the other Sheykhs above mentioned, and the Kadee, the Nakeeb el-Ashraf (the chief of the Shereefs, or descendants of the Prophet), and several other persons, constitute the council of the ’Ulama[^[217]] (or learned men), by whom the Turkish Báshas and Memlook chiefs have often been kept in awe, and by whom their tyranny has frequently been restricted: but now this learned body has lost almost all its influence over the government. Petty disputes are often, by mutual consent of the parties at variance, submitted to the judgment of one of the four Sheykhs first mentioned, as they are the chief Muftees of their respective sects; and the utmost deference is always paid to them. Difficult and delicate causes, which concern the laws of the Kur-án or the Traditions, are also frequently referred by the Básha to these Sheykhs; but their opinion is not always followed by him: for instance, after consulting them respecting the legality of dissecting human bodies, for the sake of acquiring anatomical knowledge, and receiving their declaration that it was repugnant to the laws of the religion, he, nevertheless, has caused it to be practised by Muslim students of anatomy.

The police of the metropolis is more under the direction of the military than of the civil power. A few years ago it was under the authority of the “Wálee” and the “Zábit;” but since my first visit to this country the office of the former has been abolished. He was charged with the apprehension of thieves and other criminals; and under his jurisdiction were the public women, of whom he kept a list, and from each of whom he exacted a tax. He also took cognizance of the conduct of the women in general; and when he found a female to have been guilty of a single act of incontinence, he added her name to the list of the public women, and demanded from her the tax, unless she preferred, or could afford, to escape that ignominy, by giving to him, or to his officers, a considerable bribe. This course was always pursued, and is still, by a person who farms the tax of the public women,[^[218]] in the case of unmarried females, and generally in the case of the married also; but the latter are sometimes privately put to death, if they cannot, by bribery or some other artifice, save themselves. Such proceedings are, however, in two points, contrary to the law, which ordains that a person who accuses a woman of adultery or fornication, without producing four witnesses of the crime, shall be scourged with eighty stripes, and decrees other punishments than those of degradation and tribute against women convicted of such offences.

The office of the Zábit has before been mentioned. He is now the chief of the police. His officers, who have no distinguishing mark to render them known as such, are interspersed through the metropolis: they often visit the coffee-shops, and observe the conduct, and listen to the conversation, of the citizens. Many of them are pardoned thieves. They accompany the military guards in their nightly rounds through the streets of the metropolis. Here, none but the blind are allowed to go out at night later than about an hour and a half after sunset, without a lantern or a light of some kind. Few persons are seen in the streets later than two or three hours after sunset. At the fifth or sixth hour, one might pass through the whole length of the metropolis and scarcely meet more than a dozen or twenty persons, excepting the watchmen and guards, and the porters at the gates of the bye-streets and quarters. The sentinel, or guard, calls out to the approaching passenger, in Turkish, “Who is that?” and is answered in Arabic, “A citizen.”[^[219]] The private watchman, in the same case exclaims, “Attest the unity of God!” or merely, “Attest the unity!”[^[220]] The reply given to this is, “There is no deity but God!” which Christians, as well as Muslims, object not to say; the former understanding these words in a different sense from the latter. It is supposed that a thief, or a person bound on any unlawful undertaking, would not dare to utter these words. Some persons loudly exclaim, in reply to the summons of the watchman, “There is no deity but God: Mohammad is God’s Apostle.” The private watchmen are employed to guard, by night, the sooks (or market-streets) and other districts of the town. They carry a nebboot (or long staff), but no lantern.

The Zábit, or A′gha of the police, used frequently to go about the metropolis by night, often accompanied only by the executioner and the “shealeg′ee,” or bearer of a kind of torch called “shealeh,” which is still in use.[^[221]] This torch burns, soon after it is lighted, without a flame, excepting when it is waved through the air, when it suddenly blazes forth: it therefore answers the same purpose as our dark lantern. The burning end is sometimes concealed in a small pot or jar, or covered with something else, when not required to give light; but it is said that thieves often smell it in time to escape meeting the bearer. When a person without a light is met by the police at night, he seldom attempts resistance or flight; the punishment to which he is liable is beating. The chief of the police had an arbitrary power to put any criminal or offender to death without trial, and when not obnoxious, by law, to capital punishment; and so also had many inferior officers, as will be seen in subsequent pages of this work: but within the last two or three years, instances of the exercise of such power have been very rare, and I believe they would not now be permitted. The officers of the Zábit perform their nightly rounds with the military guards merely as being better acquainted than the latter with the haunts and practices of thieves and other bad characters; and the Zábit himself scarcely ever exercises any penal authority beyond that of beating or flogging.

Very curious measures, such as we read of in some of the tales of “the Thousand and One Nights,” were often adopted by the police magistrates of Cairo, to discover an offender, before the late innovations. I may mention an instance. The authenticity of the following case, and of several others of a similar nature, is well known. I shall relate it in the manner in which I have heard it told.—A poor man applied one day to the A′gha of the police, and said, “Sir, there came to me, to-day, a woman, and she said to me, ‘’Take this “kurs,”[^[222]] and let it remain in your possession for a time, and lend me five hundred piasters:’ and I took it from her, Sir, and gave her the five hundred piasters, and she went away: and when she was gone away, I said to myself, ‘’Let me look at this kurs;’ and I looked at it, and behold, it was yellow brass: and I slapped my face, and said, ‘’I will go to the A′gha, and relate my story to him; perhaps he will investigate the affair, and clear it up;’ for there is none that can help me in this matter but thou.” The A′gha said to him, “Hear what I tell thee, man. Take whatever is in thy shop; leave nothing; and lock it up; and to-morrow morning go early; and when thou hast opened the shop, cry out, ‘’Alas for my property!’ then take in thy hands two clods, and beat thyself with them, and cry, ‘’Alas for the property of others!’ and whoever says to thee, ‘’What is the matter with thee?’ do thou answer, ‘’The property of others is lost: a pledge that I had, belonging to a woman, is lost; if it were my own, I should not thus lament it;’ and this will clear up the affair.” The man promised to do as he was desired. He removed everything from his shop, and early the next morning he went and opened it, and began to cry out, “Alas for the property of others!” and he took two clods, and beat himself with them, and went about every district of the city, crying, “Alas for the property of others! a pledge that I had, belonging to a woman, is lost; if it were my own, I should not thus lament it.” The woman who had given him the kurs in pledge heard of this, and discovered that it was the man whom she had cheated; so she said to herself, “Go and bring an action against him.” She went to his shop, riding on an ass, to give herself consequence, and said to him, “Man, give me my property that is in thy possession.” He answered, “It is lost.” “Thy tongue be cut out!” she cried: “dost thou lose my property? By Allah! I will go to the A′gha, and inform him of it.” “Go,” said he; and she went, and told her case. The A′gha sent for the man; and, when he had come, said to his accuser, “What is thy property in his possession?” She answered, “A kurs of red Venetian gold.” “Woman,” said the A′gha, “I have a gold kurs here: I should like to show it thee.” She said, “Show it me, Sir, for I shall know my kurs.” The A′gha then untied a handkerchief, and, taking out of it the kurs which she had given in pledge, said, “Look.” She looked at it and knew it, and hung down her head. The A′gha said, “Raise thy head, and say where are the five hundred piasters of this man.” She answered, “Sir, they are in my house.” The executioner was sent with her to her house, but without his sword; and the woman, having gone into the house, brought out a purse containing the money, and went back with him. The money was given to the man from whom it had been obtained, and the executioner was then ordered to take the woman to the Rumeyleh (a large open place below the Citadel), and there to behead her; which he did.

The markets of Cairo, and the weights and measures, are under the inspection of an officer called the “Mohtes′ib.” He occasionally rides about the town, preceded by an officer who carries a large pair of scales, and followed by the executioners and numerous other servants. Passing by shops, or through the markets, he orders each shopkeeper, one after another, or sometimes only one here and there, to produce his scales, weights, and measures, and tries whether they be correct. He also inquires the prices of provisions at the shops where such articles are sold. Often, too, he stops a servant, or other passenger in the street, whom he may chance to meet carrying any article of food that he has just bought, and asks him for what sum, or at what weight, he purchased it. When he finds that a shopkeeper has incorrect scales, weights, or measures, or that he has sold a thing deficient in weight, or above the regular market price, he punishes him on the spot. The general punishment is beating or flogging. Once I saw a man tormented in a different way, for selling bread deficient in weight. A hole was bored through his nose, and a cake of bread, about a span wide, and a finger’s breadth in thickness, was suspended to it by a piece of string. He was stripped naked, with the exception of having a piece of linen about his loins, and tied, with his arms bound behind him, to the bars of a window of a mosque called the Ashrafeeyeh, in the main street of the metropolis, his feet resting upon the sill. He remained thus about three hours, exposed to the gaze of the multitude which thronged the street, and to the scorching rays of the sun.