CHAP. V.
KAHIRA.
Topography — Government of Kahira and of Egypt — Pasha and Beys — Mamlûks — Birth, education, dress, arms, pay — Estimate of their military skill — Power and revenue of the Beys — The Chalige — The NILE — Mosques, Baths, and Okals — Houses — Manners and customs — Classes of people — Account of the Copts.
A residence in Kahira at distinct intervals, but extending in all to eleven months, may enable me to attempt some account of this celebrated city, with perhaps more advantages than have fallen to the lot of any recent traveller. A cursory glance of the manners and customs of a people is often fallacious, and a temporary exception is liable to be converted into a general rule.
The yet numerous population, the various nations with their several languages, dresses, and manners, conspire with the romantic fame of Grand Cairo, the second capital of the East, the metropolis of Africa, the scene of surprising events in history, and of yet more surprising incidents in Arabian fable, to impress the spectator with curiosity and admiration.
The city Kahira (مصر القهره) is situated on the East of the Nile, which devolves its majestic flood at some little distance. The suburbs, however, Misr el attiké, and Bulak, or the port, form two points of contact with the river. To the South-East and East is a ridge of the extensive chain which runs along the course of the Nile to Upper Egypt, sometimes receding, and leaving a plain of about a league broad, at other places opposing its barrier to the stream. To the North a plain extends to the Delta, which it resembles in soil and productions. Immediately under the mountain is the castle, now incapable of defence, though esteemed of great strength, before the invention of artillery.
To an eye accustomed to the cities of Europe, their wide streets, and general uniformity, the view of the capital of Egypt might appear mean and disgusting. Yet it is termed by the natives “Misr without an equal, Misr the mother of the world.” Convenience is comparative, and ideas of it must vary with manners and customs. The narrowness of the streets appears even necessary to a native, to protect him from the fierce effulgence of the meridian sun: a slight canopy, extended from house to house, affords him more pleasure than any architectural prospect could convey.
For about the space of three hundred years Egypt had been governed by the military aristocracy of the Mamlûks, when it was subdued by Sultan Selim, in the year 1517. Sensible of the distance, defended situation, and refractory spirit of the province, he thought it politic to enter into a compromise with its former government and antient prejudices. It was likewise well known, that the secure situation of the country, little exposed to any external attack, would have favoured the ambitious designs of a rival Pasha.
By an institution still observed in some instances, he ordained, that the Pasha should be contented to share the power of the Beys, and that the duration of his authority should depend on their collective will. The Beys must necessarily have separate personal interests, which sometimes lead them to intestine outrage and bloodshed; yet, with regard to any external power or influence, their interests are universally the same. As allies or as enemies they form one body and one soul. Selim was too confident in the power and splendour of the Ottoman arms, and in his own character of chief of their religion, to entertain any suspicion that the commands of the Porte would ever be treated except with distinguished respect.