act of propriety. There are many in Egypt who
will habitually transgress one of the fundamental orders
of their faith, namely, never to pray when in a state
of religious impurity. In popular Argot, prayer
without ablution is called Salat Mamlukiyah, or “slaves’
prayers,” because such men perform their devotions
only in order to avoid the master’s staff.
Others will touch the Koran when impure, a circumstance
which highly disgusts Indian Moslems. [FN#17] An
“adviser,” or “lecturer,"-any learned
man who, generally in the months of Ramazan and Muharram,
after the Friday service and sermon, delivers a discourse
upon the principles of Al-Islam. [FN#18] Amongst them
is a foundation for Jawi scholars. Some of our
authors, by a curious mistake, have confounded Moslem
Jawa (by the Egyptians pronounced Gawa), with “Goa,”
the Christian colony of the Portuguese. [FN#19] Cairo
was once celebrated for its magnificent collections
of books. Besides private libraries, each large
Mosque had its bibliotheca, every Ms. of which
was marked with the word “Wakf” (entailed
bequest), or “Wukifa l’Illahi Ta’ala”
(bequeathed to God Almighty). But Cairo has now
for years supplied other countries with books, and
the decay of religious zeal has encouraged the unprincipled
to steal and sell MSS. marked with the warning words.
The Hijaz, in particular, has been inundated with
books from Egypt. Cairo has still some large
libraries, but most of them are private property, and
the proprietors will not readily lend or give access
to their treasures. The principal opportunity
of buying books is during the month Ramazan, when
they are publicly sold in the Azhar Mosque. The
Orientalist will, however, meet with many disappointments;
besides the difficulty of discovering good works,
he will find in the booksellers, scribes, et hoc genus
omne, a finished race of scoundrels. [FN#20] Lane
(Mod. Egyptians) has rectified Baron von Hammer-Purgstall’s
mistake concerning the word “Azhar”; our
English Orientalist translates it the “splendid
Mosque.” I would venture to add, that the
epithet must be understood in a spiritual and not in
a material sense. Wilkinson attributes the erection
of the building to Jauhar al-Kaid, general under Al-Moaz,
about A.D. 970. Wilson ascribes it partly to
Al-Moaz the Fatimite (A.D. 973), partly to his general
and successor, Al-Hakim (?). [FN#21] Wakf, property
become mortmain. My friend Yacoub Artin declares
that the whole Nile Valley has parcel by parcel been
made Wakf at some time or other, and then retaken.
[FN#22] If I may venture to judge, after the experience
of a few months, there is now a re-action in favour
of the old system. Mohammed Ali managed to make
his preparatory, polytechnic, and other schools, thoroughly
distasteful to the people, and mothers blinded their
children, to prevent their being devoted for life to
infidel studies. The printing-press, contrasting
in hideousness with the beauty of the written character,
and the contemptible Arabic style of the various works