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| Picture taken from Cairo streets |
Piercing walls was the
common way to steal and ransack houses in our countryside long time ago. The
gangs or Manaser[1] made use of the fact that most
of the walls – if not all – were built of mud bricks[2] and that mortar used to
attach those bricks to one another was made of mud as well. In addition, a
height equal to ten courses of bricks starting from earth surface level used to
be damp due to groundwater which made it easier for the thieves to break the
bricks into rubbles.
The thieves used to
remove the bricks using any solid tool facing almost no resistance, not even the
width of the wall which was about two bricks and a half wide at most. When wall
piercing was complete and the hole was wide enough for the thief to delve into
the house, he used to go directly to the pen or the house courtyard where he
could find the copper-made cookware. If he failed to find any of those precious
copper-made tools, he used to make his way to the birds in the pen targeting
ducks in particular for ducks were more expensive and fleshier than the rest!
Thieves wouldn’t have
been able to make their way directly through the pierced hole to the pen or the
house courtyard unless they have gathered enough information by one of those
whom Egyptian peasants name Dasiesa[3]; meaning the spy. That spy
could be a hawker seller or buyer; the first used to sell household items,
cloth, soap, fine-tooth combs, and cheap perfumes while the second used to buy
eggs, pigeon droppings – or what we call Zebl -, old copper-made
cookware, and maybe gold and broken silver. The spy could be as-Sakka[4]
as well; the man who asks for permission to enter the house to fill Azyar[5]
usually erecting behind the house door. He could be, but rarely, the beggar who
used to stand by the door for long time asking for anything. And more rarely,
the Quran reciter; the man or woman who used to recite Quran every morning
after prayers mat is laid over the ground in the hall near to the house
courtyard and pen as well.
I have a strong feeling
I’m trying hard to evade that Egypt is currently being pierced by Manaser
having many origins and names exactly like those of the traditional or
old-style gangs or Manaser. Manaser is the plural form of Mansar[6]
meaning the eagle’s nest; such title was given to gangs who used to steal, ransack,
or kidnap. Every Mansar used to have Sheikh Mansar[7];
meaning the gang’s head or leader who is sometimes feared by the government
itself at that time.
What is more devastating
is that our beloved country has been ferociously subjected to erosion and
destruction factors more than that inflicted on the mud bricks we mentioned
above. What our country is facing has and will never have occurred if it wasn’t
for those Dasiesa. Those who are not ashamed to do such ugly task in
daylight feeling no remorse at all, unlike the old-fashioned Manaser who
used to steal cattle, copper, and chickens in the dead of night.
I will not continue for
I’m trying to evade that feeling as I said. That feeling which has many clues
I’m currently working on gathering, reading, understanding, and criticizing
them until I have the courage to write about it so that I can be able to bear and
handle the blows and stabs I will receive from those modern-time Manaser.
I will now tell you a
story telling history of some of our deep social life which I lived myself.
Such moments which were full of black comedy.
I recall when my friend
Ali Abu Mesmaas was late in the bathroom which was situated to the left of the
living room. The bathroom used to have a wooden door with a glass window and a
window looking from the fourth floor over a workshop owned by one of the most
known engineering companies. The window used to have four iron bars fixed over
it preventing any Mansar from entering if he thought about climbing the
sewerage pipes coming from the ground and reaching the last floor of the
building to the roof.
In the beginning, I
knocked the door in light distant knocks hearing my friend’s hems; meaning he
heard me, but after it had been almost an hour, I kept knocking the door in
heavy quick blows and finally broke into the bathroom damaging its lock to find
my friend standing over the higher part of the toilette trying to bend the
window’s iron bars in order to jump. After a lot of dispute, we were able to
get him out to tell us the whole story. He didn’t know how to use the toilette
and so he squatted over it and tried to pee. He started opening all tabs he
could find and then pushed the toilette’s siphon handle to get startled by a
flushing of water he had never witnessed. He was terrified and thought a
disaster had happened and hence decided to jump off the bathroom window.
It was a situation full
of seriousness, laughter, and funny stories he lived. He told us that in some
areas in Sinai, people used to drink water coming from a well called Mab’uq
but pronounced like Mab’ug, where they used to gather around to discuss
their disputed matters and buy and sell goods.
A prestigious judge of Mab’ug’s
well was once accused of planting an illegal kind of plant along with a
high-profile friend of his. The judge was arrested while his friend escaped to
the highest mountains. The judge was transferred to a penitentiary in the
Western desert. He used to bemoan his bad luck by narrating some Bedouin poetry
saying: “after I was sitting among elite people who used to rule, I’m now a
poor man residing in prison. Those who live in the mountains are not even
worthy to reproach”, he meant his friend who fled to the mountains. The fleeing
friend, meantime, when he heard about his friend’s reproach, replied: “the
judge is eating eggs in prison and getting fatter, that’s why he can’t escape.
Those who escaped did the right thing instead of staying at prison tied with a
rope”. The man meant that his friend, the judge, has become fatter due to
eating at prison and that the one who escaped shall not be reproached for
choosing his freedom and that he is better than the one who is tied by ropes;
meaning like a dog. My Sinai-born friend Ali, may he rest in peace, went
telling how the judge escaped his prison using a highly-elaborate plan for he
didn’t like to be described as a dog tied with ropes by his friend.
We may continue telling
the rest of the escape stories later… that of the judge and mine as well!
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was
published in Almasry alyoum newspaper on April 6, 2016.
#almasry_alyoum#ahmed_elgammal#Egypt#Sinai
To see the original
Arabic article, go to:
[2] A mud brick is
a brick,
made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a
binding material such as rice husks or straw. In warm regions
with very little timber available to fuel a kiln, bricks were
generally sun dried. In some cases brick makers extended the life of mud bricks
by putting fired bricks on top or covering them with stucco.
(Source: Wikipedia)
[3] Dasiesa: (Arabic: الدسيسة) comes from the
Arabic verb اندس meaning
to go among crowds to know about them.
[4] As-Sakka: (Arabic: السقا) the man who
used to grab water from rivers and reservoirs and deliver it to homes, schools,
mosques for inability to have water pipes at that time. A very nice novel
called as-Sakka mat or as-Sakka has died was written by
Youssef es-Sabaiey depicting the life of a man who used to have this
profession. The word stemmed from the Arabic verb يسقي which means to
water.
[5] Azyar: (Arabic: أزيار) plural for zeer (Arabic: زير) is a big almost
barrel-shaped wide-mouth clay pot where water is put to remain cool.
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