Napoleon's Egypt: Invading The Middle East - Reenactor.ru

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL NILE THAT HAS EVER BEEN115In subsequent weeks, Lake Azbakiya and the capital’s canals began resumingtheir centrality in the lives of Cairenes as places to go boating and cool off in theevenings. Captain Say remembered fondly, “The purity of the sky, almost neverveiled by fog, the gold of the stars sparkling on an azure background, the fire ofso many lights reflected in the water, created enjoyment, on those charmingpromenades, in the clarity of the day and the delicious freshness of the night.With what intense pleasure do these people, burned for twelve hours a day byan ardent sun, come to inhale the refreshing breaths of zephyrs on these lakes.”The festival brought out the usual small time carnival acts, soothsayers,spectacles, and Sufi celebrants. Originally a festival of the pharaohs and theirsubjects dedicated to the river god, it had been adapted by Coptic Christiansand then by Muslims but retained the pagan sense of a suspension of ordinarymoral behavior, when “drunkenness, playing, entertainment, and incidents ofdeath could occur.” 17 The more rationalist French observers, as they encounteredEgyptian folk Islam in public, profoundly disapproved of what they saw asthe superstitious practices of the Egyptian little people.François Bernoyer, the quartermaster in charge of designing and overseeingthe production of uniforms for the soldiers in Egypt, was one such philosophicallyminded—one might say Jacobin—civilian. He described a ceremony conductedby mystical Sufis, which he witnessed during the celebration of the risingof the Nile. Bernoyer dismissed the Sufi leaders as charlatans who fooled thepeople, saying:They were dressed like monks. The chief of this group was seated on theground, surrounded by disciples. The first of the spectators presented himselfto receive divine inspiration. He approached the venerable pontiff and prostratedhimself several times before him. The chief took hold of a clump of thepostulant’s hair and made him rise. Then he ordered the postulant, his mienthreatening, to close his eyes and open his mouth wide. He received from thechief spittle in his mouth. He then began shrieking horribly, his members stiffening.One could hear his bones making a cracking sound. It seemed as thoughhis eyes would come out of his head. A thick foam came out of his mouth. Thenhe rolled naked on the sand. 18The sheikh (probably from the Sa’diya Sufi order) brought the ceremony toan end, he said, by bringing from his robe a sack of snakes and letting themcrawl all over the postulant. Later, Bernoyer wrote that he saw an old woman ofsixty or more, completely naked and mounted on a magnificent mare. Shestopped at each house, receiving profound respect from its inhabitants. “They