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LETTER FROM EGYPT

LETTER FROM EGYPT with garish red cheeks and kohled eyes parades in front of the cafes. Another dances alone with a chair. Beggar children with snot dangling from their noses play in the rag heaps alongside the edge of the square. Despite the fact that traditional Islam condemns saint worship, it flourishes all over the Middle East. Some scholars say that it predated Islam as a form of animism and crept up from the Sudan to the Nile valley. In the country, each village, and in the city, each neighborhood is endowed with its own saint and festival day (Moulid) celebrated one day every year. Each saint has his own tariqa or “following” which dictates the in- volved code regarding the presence of women, time and frequency of worship and mantra. The Egyptian government, however, uses the Moulid and other traditional rituals to weld the religious zeal of the masses to an apolitical activity. Since most of the participants are lower or middle class, the Moulid could be a powerful mallet for crushing political opposition.The excitementof the Moulid lends itself to hysteria, since it is used, like the hookah, as a way to forget the agony of daily life and sink http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Theater Duke University Press

LETTER FROM EGYPT

Shteir, Rachel
Theater , Volume 19 (3) – Jun 1, 1988
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 1988 by Yale School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theatre
ISSN
0161-0775
eISSN
1527-196X
DOI
10.1215/01610775-19-3-96
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

with garish red cheeks and kohled eyes parades in front of the cafes. Another dances alone with a chair. Beggar children with snot dangling from their noses play in the rag heaps alongside the edge of the square. Despite the fact that traditional Islam condemns saint worship, it flourishes all over the Middle East. Some scholars say that it predated Islam as a form of animism and crept up from the Sudan to the Nile valley. In the country, each village, and in the city, each neighborhood is endowed with its own saint and festival day (Moulid) celebrated one day every year. Each saint has his own tariqa or “following” which dictates the in- volved code regarding the presence of women, time and frequency of worship and mantra. The Egyptian government, however, uses the Moulid and other traditional rituals to weld the religious zeal of the masses to an apolitical activity. Since most of the participants are lower or middle class, the Moulid could be a powerful mallet for crushing political opposition.The excitementof the Moulid lends itself to hysteria, since it is used, like the hookah, as a way to forget the agony of daily life and sink

Journal

Theater – Duke University Press

Published: Jun 1, 1988

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