Wednesday, 6 September 2017

Effect of not going to “Sahel[1]”




In our locality and maybe in other places in our beloved Egypt, we are used to call the river “the sea”… and we distinguish between “the sea” which means the river and the salt-water sea; that is the Mediterranean Sea which was mentioned in the Sufi popular myth fable talking about Ahmad al-Badawi[2] and Khadra ash-Sharifa in the time of Crusades or foreign invasions over Egypt. In such fable, we used to sing saying: “Sidna[3] as-Sayed[4]… he has been always generous… he crossed the salty-water sea… in a beautiful night”… also, he was accompanied by Sidi[5] Ibrahim al-Desouqi[6]…“Sidi Ibrahim is always close to God… he crossed the salty-water sea in a beautiful night”. We used to listen to the narrator describing, while he is influenced, how Mawlana[7] al-Badawi was standing ashore the salty-water sea and the ship where Khadra was kidnapped aboard was getting far… and then he kneeled while opening his mouth towards the salty water sea, taking it into his mouth that the seabed showed… then he crossed the sea along with Sidi Ibrahim and the Dervishes until they came back with Khadra ash-Sharifa and the rest of the war prisoners… the man used to sing “Allah… Allah… al-Badawi brought the war prisoners back”.

The narrator used to tell another side of the story; that was the conflict between good represented by the veiled Bedouin boy against evil represented by an Iraqi woman; that was Fatima bint Berri, the very beautiful that aimed at seducing grand revered figures into stealing their Sufi pledges… the master heard about her and decided to go to her… and so the conflict started when she amassed armies of lice against him and so he recalled the armies of ants to fight her while he was masked behind the veil draped over his face until he defeated her and made her come to repent her deeds and brought back the pledges she stole to their people!

There are other places in our countryside that give the name “sea” for fresh water channels as we have “Youssef sea” and the “small sea”… there is also “al-Qatani sea”; that is a 3- or 4-meter wide fresh water channel that meanders from Basyoun[8] going northwards passing by many villages including “Shabratna” where our hamlet Ganag lies within its vicinity… this “Qatani sea” is known by the young children who died in it… and so we received tens of warnings not to swim in it after the accident of Qatifa drowning… Qatifa was a girl that shepherded sheep. She was crossing over the water lock when she fell and drowned… days later, her dead body showed up after the divers came equipped with hooks sweeping the “seabed”.

Maybe that mix between the “sea” meaning the fresh water river and the salty-water sea is the reason behind the confusion in interpreting the word “river” when God gave his orders to Moses’ mother to cast him in it… does river here mean the Nile; meaning “the sea” as we call it in our slang wording until today… or does it mean the lakes extending from Suez isthmus to the Mediterranean before the Suez Canal was dug… some of those concerned in connecting between religious stories and history say that Moses – which is an ancient Egyptian word that means the son – was born in the time of Hyksos; those herders who settled eastside of Delta near the salty lakes like al-Tamsah lake and other ones.

In the time of our grandfathers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and maybe until the beginning of the twentieth century, there was no paved road connecting our vicinity in middle Delta to Alexandria, Rosetta, and Edku… and so, the one who wanted to go to Alexandria used to take a donkey or camel ride to Kafr az-Zayyat[9] along with a companion who used to walk on his feet behind the rider so that he can take the animal back after the traveller reaches his destination… then the traveller can take sailboats or steam-driven barges going north.

I still remember the tale of my grand grandfather Ali Muhammed Elgammal who sneaked before dawn over his animal ride having two of his eleven sons behind his back… he took a narrow side road extending among the fields away from the common road connecting the village to the road reaching to Dessouq because the village chief Abo Ramon had prohibited travel without having a prior permission from him… specially those who almost challenged him and worked on renovating the big mosque known as al-Hashemi mosque with the high minaret having the Rosette style known for its many lines… that minaret have two balconies, one above the other, and it ends with a relatively-elevated circular cylinder crowned with an elliptical head that has wooden sticks stretching out of it for birds to stand over them and not poop over the minaret’s head.

He arrived at Kafr az-Zayyat, then took the boat to Rosetta, then to Alex… in Kom ad-Dekka[10], he bought the marble columns needed for the mosque and brought them back with him aboard the boat where camels were waiting… they tied them with thick robes… and rolled them from Kafr az-Zayyat to our hamlet when the village chief, the powerful man, was surprised to see the columns… my grand grandfather; Ali Elgammal was severely punished for this… I may tell his story later.

In the same time of the summer season of the year like our present time now, we used to receive the nice goods coming from the cities overlooking the Mediterranean delivered to us by the boats going southwards and passing by the villages overlooking Rosetta branch of the Nile… at each village, they used to dock to land the men coming from Burullus, Baltim, or Rosetta wearing their known costume; those loose pants with tight-endings wrapping over the men’s calves… the usually-black or light-calico cloth-like pants is wrapped around the men’s waist with a robe weaved out of pure wool, lining, or Flax… they also used to wear an open waistcoat… as to the head, they used to wear a cap that has a round peak falling over the neck back.

Those men used to carry a big dry-palm-leaves-weaved basket over their backs in addition to two small other ones… in the big one, they used to put the pure Rosetta salt with the big crystalline particles… as to the smaller ones, they used to hold river mussels, sardines, and Ramikh dates of al-Hayyanni type; it is a type of dates that is green and have not turned to red or black yet but it became soft and has a delicious sweat taste.

I wrote long time ago about that time when we were young devils blocking the way before those men who used to carry heavy weights tied to their backs with thick robes burdening them to the extent that made them half bending forward and almost could fall down if they got stumbled and hardly could turn around… we used to divide into two groups, one engaging with the man in the front pleading “please kind man, give us some salt to eat”… while he shouts “go away, you ill-bred boy”… he used to say it in the same way like how some people inhabiting the north of Egypt do… while the other group was there in the back snatching some salt grains or river mussels and sardines.

I remembered the sea and went on recalling my memories with it as I, unfortunately, have not been to the sea this summer and I have not been to any summer resort since last March as I am overwhelmed by the capital heat and very much bothered by politics and journalism… you are really lucky; you who have been to the north coast or summer resorts this summer.

Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar



This article was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper on September 6, 2017.

To see the original article, go to:

#almasry_alyoum #ahmed_elgammal



[1] Sahel: (Arabic: ساحل) means coast in Arabic; the writer here means the North Coast of Egypt; a well-known summer resort in Egypt.
[2] A revered Sufi figure.
[3] Meaning our master in Arabic.
[4] Another title for Ahmad al-Badawi.
[5] Meaning our master in Arabic.
[6] A revered Sufi figure.
[7] Another word meaning our master.
[8] A city in Gharbeya governorate.
[9] A city in the middle of Delta.
[10] A neighborhood in Alexandria.

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