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.
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