Arabian Society in the Middle Ages: Studies From The Thousand and One Nights

by Edward William Lane

Lá iláha illa-lláh. Lá iláha illa-lláh. Lá iláha illa-lláh.

Then they repeated these words again, to the following air, in the same manner:

Lá iláha illa-lláh. Lá iláha illa-lláh.

They next rose, and, standing in the same order in which they had been sitting, repeated the same words to another air. After which, still standing, they repeated these words in a very deep and hoarse tone, laying the principal emphasis upon the word "Lá" and the penultimate syllable of the following words, and uttering apparently with a considerable effort: the sound much resembled that which is produced by beating the rim of a tambourine. Each zikkee turned his head alternately to the right and left at each repetition of "Lá iláha illa-lláh." One of them, a eunuch, at this part of the zikr, was seized with an epileptic fit, evidently the result of a high state of religious excitement; but nobody seemed surprised at it, for occurrences of this kind at zikrs are not uncommon. All the performers now seemed much excited; repeating their ejaculations with greater rapidity, violently turning their heads, and sinking the whole body at the same time: some of them jumping. The eunuch above mentioned was again seized with fits several times; and I generally remarked that this happened after one of the munshids had sung a line or two and exerted himself more than usual to excite his hearers: the singing was, indeed, to my taste, very pleasing. The contrast presented by the vehement and distressing exertions of the performers at the close of the zikr, and their calm gravity and solemnity of manner at the commencement, was particularly striking. Money was collected during the performance for the munshids. The zikkeers receive no pay.

The most approved and common mode of entertaining guests at modern private festivities among the Arabs is by a Khatmeh, which is the recitation of the whole of the Ḳur-án. Three or more persons of the inferior class of the professors of religion and law, who are called faḳeehs (vulgarly, fiḳees) are usually hired for this purpose. Schoolmasters, and students of the collegiate mosques who devote themselves to religion and law, are the persons most commonly thus employed. Their mode of recitation is a peculiar kind of chanting, which, when well executed, I found very agreeable, at least for an hour or so: but the guests seldom have to listen to the chanting of the whole of the Ḳur-án: the reciters usually accomplish the greater portion of their task, in a somewhat hurried manner, before the guests have assembled, each of them chanting in turn a certain portion, as a thirtieth part of the whole (called a juz), or half of one of these sections (a ḥezb), or, more commonly, a quarter (rubạ). Afterwards they chant more leisurely, and in a more musical manner; but still by turns. These recitations of the whole of the Ḳur-án are performed on various festive occasions, but are most usual after a death; the merit of the performance being transferred to the soul of the deceased.

In the year 1834, when I was residing in Cairo, a General in the service of Moḥammad ´Alee hired a large party of men to perform a recital of the Ḳur-án in his house in that city, and then went up into his ḥareem and strangled his wife, in consequence of a report which accused her of inchastity. The religious ceremony was designed as preparatory to this act, though the punishment of the woman was contrary to the law, since her husband neither produced four witnesses of the imputed crime, nor allowed her to clear herself of the charge by her own oath. Another case of diligence in the performance of a religious duty, accompanied by the contemplation of murder, but murder on a larger scale, occurred in the same city shortly after. Suleymán Agha, the Siláḥdár, being occupied in directing the building of a public fountain as a work of charity to place to the account of a deceased brother, desired to extend the original plan of the structure; and to do this, it was necessary that he should purchase two houses adjoining the plot in which the foundations had been laid: but the owners of these houses refused to sell them, and he therefore employed a number of workmen to undermine them by night and cause them to fall upon their inhabitants. His scheme, however, but partially succeeded, and no lives were sacrificed. This man was notorious for cruelty, but he was a person of pleasing and venerable countenance and engaging manners: whenever I chanced to meet him, I received from him a most gracious salutation. He died before I quitted Egypt.

FOOTNOTES:

[64] D'Ohsson (i. 315, 316) asserts the Ḳuṭb to be the chief minister of the Ghós; and gives an account somewhat different from that which I offer of the orders under his authority: but perhaps the Turkish Darweeshes differ from the Arab in their tenets on this subject.

[65] It is said that "the Nuḳaba are three hundred; the Nujaba, seventy; the Abdál, forty; the Akhyár, seven; the ´Omud, four; the Ghós [as before mentioned], one. The Nuḳaba reside in El-Gharb [Northern Africa to the west of Egypt]; the Nujaba, in Egypt; the Abdál, in Syria; the Akhyár travel about the earth; the ´Omud, in the corners of the earth; the abode of the Ghós is at Mekkeh. In an affair of need, the Nuḳaba implore relief for the people; then, the Nujaba; then, the Abdál; then, the Akhyár; then, the ´Omud; and if their prayer be not answered, the Ghós implores, and his prayer is answered." (El-Isḥáḳee's History, preface.)—This statement, I find, rests on the authority of a famous saint of Baghdád Aboo-Bekr El-Kettánee, who died at Mekkeh, in the year of the Flight, 322. (Mir-át ez-Zemán, events of that year).