Volume 1

An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians, written in Egypt during the years 1833, -34, and -35, partly from notes made during a former visit to that country in the years 1825, -26, -27, and -28 / By Edward William Lane.

  • Edward William Lane
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians, written in Egypt during the years 1833, -34, and -35, partly from notes made during a former visit to that country in the years 1825, -26, -27, and -28 / By Edward William Lane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in Arabic characters, the following declaration of his innocence—“ I am a wel’ee of God; and have died a martyr.” It is a very remarkable trait in the character of the people of Egypt and other countries of the East, that Moos'lims, Christians, and Jews adopt each other’s super- stitions, while they abhor the more rational doctrines of each other's faiths. In sickness, the Moos’lim sometimes employs Christian and Jewish priests to pray for him: the Christians and Jews, in the same predicament, often call in Moos'lim saints, for the like purpose. Many Christians are in the frequent habit of visiting certain Moos'lim saints here; kissing their hands; begging their prayers, counsels, or prophecies; and giving them money and other presents. Though their prophet disclaimed the power of per- forming miracles, the Moos’lims attribute to him many; and several miracles are still, they say, constantly, or occasionally, performed for his sake, as marks of the divine favour and honour. The pilgrims who have visited El]-Medee’neh relate that there is seen, every night, a ray or column of faint light, rising from the cupola over the grave of the Prophet to a considerable height, apparently to the clouds, or, as some say, to Paradise ; but that the observer loses sight of it when he approaches very near the tomb*. This is one of the most remarkable of the miracles which are related as being still witnessed. On my asking one of the most grave and sensible of all my Moos'lim friends here, who had been on a pilgrimage, and visited El-Medee’neh, whether this assertion were true, he averred that it was; * It is also said, that similar phenomena, but not so brilliant distinguish some other tombs at El-Medee/neh and elsewhere.