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.

    60/468 (page 26)
    OyTIANG 24 Weise) nls de Sep ge Greeks oo. Arile Aa me ha i ae Armenians . figs Sip 20 Ue) ls Sie PEWS Sap Aa Che» Sle Se oe a ee Of the remainder (namely, Arabians, Western Arabs, Nubians, Negro slaves, Memloo’ks [or white male slaves], female white slaves, Franks, &c.), amounting to about 70,000, the respective numbers are very uncer- tain and variable. The Arabs of the neighbouring de- serts ought not to be included among the population of Egypt*. Cairo, I have said, contains about 240,000 inhabitantsf. We should be greatly deceived if we judged of the population of this city from the crowds that we meet in the principal thoroughfare-streets and markets: in most of the by-streets and quarters, very few passengers are seen. Nor should we judge from the extent of the city and suburbs; for there are within the walls many vacant places, some of which, during the season of the inundation, are lakes (as the Bir’ket el-Ezbekee’yeh, Bir'ket el-Feel, &c.) The gardens, several burial- grounds, the courts of houses, and the mosques, also occupy a considerable space. Of the inhabitants of the metropolis, about 190,000 are Egyptian Moos’lims; * The Moos‘lim Egyptians, Copts, Syrians, and Jews of Egypt, with few exceptions, speak no language but the Arabic, which is also the language generally used by the foreigners settled in this country. The Nubians, among themselves, speak their own dialects. + The population of Cairo has increased to this amount, from about 200,000, within the last three or fuur years. Since the computation here stated was made, the plague of this year (183%) has destroyed not fewer than one-third of its inhabitants, as before mentioned; but this deficiency will be rapidly supplied from the villages.