of the birth of Hosain, and lasting fifteen days and nights; and at
the same time is kept the Molid of al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb, the last sovereign
but two of the Ayyubite dynasty. In the seventh month occur
the Molid of the sayyida Zenab, and the commemoration of the
Miarāg, or the Prophet’s miraculous journey to heaven. Early in
the eighth month (Shaʽbān), the Molid of the imam Shāfiʽi is observed;
and the night of the middle of that month has its peculiar
customs, being held by the Moslems to be that on which the fate of
all living is decided for the ensuing year. Then follows Ramadān,
the month of abstinence, a severe trial to the faithful; and the
Lesser Festival (Al-ʽid aṣ-ṣaghīr), which commences Shawwāl, is
hailed by them with delight. A few days after, the Kiswa, or new
covering for the Kaʽba at Mecca, is taken in procession from the
citadel, where it is always manufactured, to the mosque of the
Hasanēn to be completed; and, later, the caravan of pilgrims
departs, when the grand procession of the Mahmal takes place. On
the tenth day of the last month of the year the Great Festival
(Al-ʽid al-kabīr), or that of the Sacrifice (commemorating the willingness
of Ibrahim to slay his son Ismail—according to the Arab legend),
closes the calendar. The Lesser and Great Festivals are those known
in Turkish as the Bairam (q.v.).
The rise of the Nile is naturally the occasion of annual customs, some of which are doubtless relics of antiquity; these are observed according to the Coptic calendar. The commencement of the rise is commemorated on the night of the 11th of Baūna, the 17th of June, called that of the Drop (Lelet-en-Nukta), because a miraculous drop is then supposed to fall and cause the swelling of the river. The real rise begins at Cairo about the summer solstice, or a few days later, and early in July a crier in each district of the city begins to go his daily rounds, announcing, in a quaint chant, the increase of water in the nilometer of the island of Rōda. When the river has risen 20 or 21 ft., he proclaims the Wefā en-Nil, “Completion” or “Abundance of the Nile.” On the following day the dam which closed the canal of Cairo was cut with much ceremony. The canal having been filled up in 1897 the ceremony has been much modified, but a brief description of what used to take place may be given. A pillar of earth before the dam is called the “Bride of the Nile,” and Arab historians relate that this was substituted, at the Moslem conquest, for a virgin whom it was the custom annually to sacrifice, to ensure a plentiful inundation. A large boat, gaily decked out, representing that in which the victim used to be conveyed, was anchored near, and a gun on board fired every quarter of an hour during the night. Rockets and other fireworks were also let off, but the best, strangely, after daybreak. The governor of Cairo attended the ceremony, with the cadi and others, and gave the signal for the cutting of the dam. As soon as sufficient water had entered, boats ascended the canal to the city. The crier continues his daily rounds, with his former chant, excepting on the Coptic New Year’s Day, when the cry of the Wefā is repeated, until the Salib, or Discovery of the Cross, the 26th or 27th of September, at which period, the river having attained its greatest height, he concludes his annual employment with another chant, and presents to each house some limes and other fruit, and dry lumps of Nile mud.
The period of the hot winds, called the khamsin, that is, “the fifties,” is calculated from the day after the Coptic Easter, and terminates on the day of Pentecost, and the Moslems observe the Wednesday preceding this period, called “Job’s Wednesday,” as well as its first day, when many go into the country from Cairo, “to smell the air.” This day is hence called Shem en-Nesim, or “the smelling of the zephyr.” The Ulema observe the same custom on the first three days of the spring quarter.
Tombs of saints abound, one or more being found in every town and village; and no traveller up the Nile can fail to remark how every prominent hill has the sepulchre of its patron saint. The great saints of Egypt are the imam Ash-Shāfiʽi, founder of the persuasion called after him, the sayyid Aḥmad al-Baiḍāwī, and the sayyid Ibrāhīm Ed-Desūkī, both of whom were founders of orders of dervishes. Al-Baiḍāwī, who lived in the 13th century A.D., is buried at the town of Tanta, in the Delta, and his tomb attracts many thousands of visitors at each of the three festivals held yearly in his honour; Ed-Desūkī is also much revered, and his festivals draw together, in like manner, great crowds to his birthplace, the town of Desūk. But, besides the graves of her native saints, Egypt boasts of those of several members of the Prophet’s family, the tomb of the sayyida Zeyneb, daughter of ʽAli, that of the sayyida Sekeina, daughter of Hosain, and that of the sayyida Nefisa, great-granddaughter of Hasan, all of which are held in high veneration. The mosque of the Hasanēn (or that of the “two Hasans”) is the most reverenced shrine in the country, and is believed to contain the head of Hosain. Many orders of Dervishes live in Egypt, the following being the most celebrated:—(1) the Rifāʽiā, and their sects the ʽIlwānīa and Saadīa; (2) the Qādirīa (Kāhirīa), or howling dervishes; (3) the Ahmedīa, or followers of the sayyid Aḥmad al-Baiḍāwī, and their sects the Beyūmīa (known by their long hair), Shinnawīa, Sharawīa and many others; and (4) the Barāmīa, or followers of the sayyid Ibrāhīm Ed-Desūkī. These are all presided over by a direct descendant of the caliph Abu Bekr, called the Sheikh El-Bekri. The Saadīa are famous for charming and eating live serpents, &c., and the ʽIlwānīa for eating fire, glass, &c. The Egyptians firmly believe in the efficacy of charms, a belief associated with that in an omnipresent and over-ruling providence. Thus the doors of houses are inscribed with sentences from the Koran, or the like, to preserve from the evil eye, or avert the dangers of an unlucky threshold; similar inscriptions may be observed over most shops, while almost every one carries some charm about his person. The so-called sciences of magic, astrology and alchemy still flourish.
Authorities.—The standard authority for the Moslem Egyptians is E. W. Lane’s Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, first published in 1836. The best edition is that of 1860, edited, with additions, by E. S. Poole. See also B. Saint-John, Village Life in Egypt (2 vols., 1852); S. Lane Poole, Social Life in Egypt (1884); P. Arminjon, L’Enseignement, la doctrine, et la vie dans les universités musulmanes d’Égypte (Paris, 1907). For the language see J. S. Willmore, The Spoken Arabic of Egypt (2nd ed., London, 1905); Spitta Bey, Grammatik des arabischen Vulgardialektes von Ägypten, Contes arabes modernes (Leiden, 1883). For statistical information consult the reports on the censuses of 1897 and 1907, published by the Ministry of the Interior, Cairo, in 1898 and 1909. (E. S. P.; S. L.-P.; F. R. C.)
Finance.
The important part which the financial arrangements have played in the political and social history of Egypt since the accession of Ismail Pasha in 1863 is shown in the section History of this article. Here it is proposed to trace the steps by which Egypt, after having been brought to a state of bankruptcy, passed through a period of great stress, and finally attained prosperity and a large measure of financial autonomy.
In 1862 the foreign debt of Egypt stood at £3,292,000. With the accession of Ismail (q.v.) there followed a period of wild extravagance and reckless borrowing accompanied by the extortion of every piastre possible from the fellahin. The real state of affairs was disclosed in the report of Mr Stephen Cave, a well-known banker, who was sent by the British government in December 1875 to inquire into the situation. The Cave report showed that Egypt suffered from “the ignorance, dishonesty, waste and extravagance of the East” and from “the vast expense caused by hasty and inconsiderate endeavours to adopt the civilization of the West.” The debtor and creditor account of the state from 1864 to 1875 showed receipts amounting to £148,215,000. Of this sum over £94,000,000 had been obtained from revenue and nearly £4,000,000 by the sale of the khedive’s shares in the Suez Canal to Great Britain. The rest was credited to: loans £31,713,000, floating debt £18,243,000. The cash which reached the Egyptian treasury from the loans and floating debt was far less than the nominal amount of such loans, none of which cost the Egyptian government less than 12% per annum. When the expenditure during the same period was examined the extraordinary fact was disclosed that the sum raised by revenue was only three millions less than that spent on administration, tribute and public works, including a sum of £10,500,000, described as “expenses of questionable utility or policy.” The whole proceeds of the loans and floating debt had been absorbed in payment of interest and sinking funds, with the exception of £16,000,000 debited to the Suez Canal. In other words, Egypt was burdened with a debt of £91,000,000—funded or floating—for which she had no return, for even from the Suez Canal she derived no revenue, owing to the sale of the khedive’s shares.
Soon after Mr Cave’s report appeared (March 1876), default took place on several of the loans. Nearly the whole of the debt, it should be stated, was held in England or France, and at the instance of French financiers the stoppage of payment was followed by a scheme to unify the debt. This scheme included the distribution of a bonus of 25% to holders of treasury bonds. These bonds had then reached a sum exceeding £20,000,000 and were held chiefly by French firms. The unification scheme was elaborated in a khedivial decree of the 7th of May 1876, but was rendered abortive by the opposition of the British bondholders. Its place was taken by another scheme drawn up by Mr (afterwards Lord) Goschen and M. Joubert, who represented the British and French bondholders respectively. The details of this settlement, promulgated by decree of the 17th of November 1876, need not be given, as it was superseded in 1880. One of the securities devised for the benefit of the bondholders in the abortive scheme of May 1876 was retained in the
