Mawlids, traditional festivals in honour of saints, are among the most popular, but also the most controversial Islamic traditions in Egypt. Millions of people - even half of all the Egyptians, according to an unofficial estimate - participate in these festivals. In the public sphere, however, Islamists and conservative men of religion often find themselves side to side with many secularists, both vehemently opposing what they consider a shameful deviation from proper Islamic and/or modern culture

Schielke, S.

Leiden University Scholary Publications

Regional IssuesI S I M  N E W S L E T T E R  7 / 0 1 23N o t e s1 .D i y-a b, Mu .h a m m ad .H-a fi .z (1999), ‘a l - Dı̄n al-shacbı̄,a l - dh-a k i r aw a - l - m uc-a s h’, S u.t-u.h 30, pp. 16-18.2 . A good example of this argumentation is cA b da l - L a.tı̄f, Mu .h a m m a dF a h mı̄ (1999, first 1948), ‘Al-Sayyid a l - B a d a wı̄ wa-dawlat a l - d ar -a wı̄sh f ı̄ M i.s r, ’Maktabat a l - d ir-as-a ta l - s h acb i y y a 30, Cairo: a l - H ay'aa l - mi.s r i y y aa l -c-a m m al i - l - k i t-a b.3 . cA qı̄ d a tı̄ (22.6.1999), p. 6.4 . Ibid., pp. 10-11.5 . Ibid., pp. 6, 10-11. See also a l - L iw -a 'a l - I sl -a mı̄( 2 4 June 1999), pp. 4-5.6 . Armbrust, Walter (1996), Mass Culture andModernism in Egypt, Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, pp. 165-197.7 . See e.g. ‘Bacd an i k h t a l a.t a l- .h-a b i lb i l -n-a b i l. F aw .d-a f ı̄m a yd-a nR a m sı̄s’ , a l - A hr -a m (20 June 2000).8 . Wassef, Nadia (2000), Medical Discourses on thePractice of Clitoridectomy: A Comparative View,Congress paper at the 7t h IAMES Congress, Berlin5-9 August 2000.Samuli Schielke is a doctoral student at the OrientalSeminary of the University of Bonn, Germany.E-mail: schielke@rocketmail.comMi ddl e Ea stS A M U L I  S C H I E L K EM a w l i d s, traditional festivals in honour of saints, areamong the most popular, but also the most contro-versial Islamic traditions in Egypt. Millions of people– even half of all the Egyptians, according to an unof-ficial estimate1 – participate in these festivals. In thepublic sphere, however, Islamists and conservativemen of religion often find themselves side to sidewith many secularists, both vehemently opposingwhat they consider a shameful deviation from properIslamic and/or modern culture.M a w l i d s are celebrated annually at saints’shrines. People often travel to these festi-vals from long distances in order to pay re-spect to the saint, find a solution to a prob-lem or a cure for an illness, meditate, meetfriends and relatives, and just have fun. Is-lamic m a w l i d s – a number of Christian andJewish m a w l i d s exist as well – are closelyconnected to Sufism: Sufi d h i k r ( m e d i t a t i o n )and visits to the shrine of the respectivesaint, often a Sufi shaykh, are central to thefestivities. Yet it is insufficient to describem a w l i d s entirely in terms of mysticism andreligious practice. These religious aspectsare mixed with more profane ones: a m a w l i dis also an important social occasion that of-fers a great variety of commercial entertain-ment. On the ‘great night’, the final eveningof a m a w l i d, people crowd the area sur-rounding the shrine, visiting tents with Sufid h i k r and merchants offering snacks andsweets, target shooting and circus perfor-m a n c e s .The sacred and profane elements of thefestival are mixed in a seemingly unorga-nized fashion. This impression is shared bythe participants: mūl i d (colloquial form a w l i d) is a common metaphor for chaos.This mixture of apparently incompatible el-ements is an essential feature of them a w l i d s and one of the main reasons whymany people find these festivals highly irri-t a t i n g .Antidote for modernitySince the late 19t h and early 20t h c e n t u r i e s ,the veneration of saints has been a main tar-get of modernist and reformist criticismconcerned with traditional Islamic practices.The reformists, in their response to Euro-pean claims of cultural superiority as op-posed to the alleged backwardness, fatalismand superstitions of the Muslims, chose todissociate true, authentic Islam from thepopular religious traditions of the Muslims,the latter being held responsible for the ret-rogression of contemporary Muslim soci-e t i e s .M a w l i d s , perhaps the most visible ex-pressions of saint veneration, became acentral issue of this kind of criticism. Theywere regarded as both unauthentic, thusun-Islamic, and irrational, thus anti-mod-ern: a mere expression of ignorance (j a h l ),an antidote for the reformist and mod-ernist discourse.2These arguments – equally popular amongIslamists and secularists – are fairly wellknown to students of modern Islam. Howev-er, they fail to give a complete picture ofwhat exactly makes m a w l i d s so offensive tosome people. There is a third, seldom out-spoken, but nevertheless very central crite-rion for the perception of the m a w l i d f e s t i-vals; namely, the question concerning theaesthetic quality of modern Islamic culture.The importance of this question is revealedin the following.The m a w l i d of al-Shacrāw ı̄After the death, in June 1998, of the enor-mously popular television preacherMu .ha m m a d M u t a w a l lı̄ a l - S h acrāwı̄, a cultsimilar to the traditional cult of saints beganto develop around him. His picture could beseen almost everywhere. Prayers related tohim and books written by or about himflooded the newspaper stands, and rerunsof his sermons were shown on television.The funeral of a l - S h acrāwı̄ was a mass event,and soon a popular cult developed aroundhis tomb in his native town D a qādūs in theNile Delta. Consequently, the Shaykh’s sec-ond son cAbd a l - Ra .hı̄m organized a m a w l i dto commemorate the first anniversary of hisfather’s death.This m a w l i d took place in mid-June 1999and the final evening was celebrated on the1 7t h of that month. The festivities centred onthe Shaykh’s shrine – at that time still underconstruction – located next to the IslamicCentre of a l - S h acrāwı̄, which is now presidedby the Shaykh’s son. A continuous stream ofvisitors passed by the shrine, paying theirrespects to the Shaykh and seeking hisblessing (b a r a k a). At the Centre, an officialceremony took place which was set to satis-fy reformist standards: addresses were read,a l - S h acrāwı̄’s religious heritage was dis-cussed, local poets recited panegyrics onthe Shaykh, and awards were granted foryoung authors from the region. The officialprogramme was followed by the recitationof the Q u r ’ān.On the street in front of the Centre, themore informal and significantly bigger partof the festival took place. In a large tent,d h i k r was conducted. Along the street,chickpeas, snacks, sweets, amulets, funnyhats and other inexpensive souvenirs werebeing sold. Steps away, target shootingstands, swing boats and merry-go-roundshad been set up next to a stage where am u n s h i d, accompanied by a band, waschanting religious hymns.Belly-dancing as well as the consumptionof alcohol and hashish, which are amongthe more controversial practices of m a w l i d s,were absent from the festival in Daqādūs.The atmosphere was one of a communalgathering with neighbours, families, Sufisand followers of the Shaykh coming togeth-er. Especially for youths, the m a w l i d s e r v e dnot only for consolidating existing commu-nal ties but also for creating new ones: facil-itated by the relaxation of gender segrega-tion during the festivities, young men andwomen used the occasion to see and bes e e n .’Who will stop this mockery?’3The m a w l i d of a l - S h acrāwı̄ caused a stormof protest in the religious media. Althoughthe sacralization of a l - S h acrāwı̄ was greatlyencouraged by the pro-government conser-vative religious current, most of its repre-sentatives were certainly not willing to ac-cept the m a w l i d.They pointed out that the Shaykh wouldnever have accepted such an occasion (infact, a l - S h acrāwı̄’s comments on m a w l i d shad been quite ambivalent) and thatm a w l i d s were un-Islamic and immoral. Whatwas presented as particularly offensive inthe headlines and commentaries was theturning of a legitimate pious celebrationinto a popular festival with all its entertain-ment and commerce. In this sense, theweekly religious newspaper cA qı̄ d a tı̄ c o m-mented disapprovingly: ‘The m a w l i d of a l -S h acrāwı̄ turned into an amusement centreof dervishes and a festival of chickpeas,sweets and children’s play.’4Any other m a w l i d would have receivedonly a routine condemnation, if any at all.But a l - S h acrāwı̄’s importance as an icon ofthe conservative religious current caused aserious clash between the ideal of Islamicculture and living Islamic tradition. Accord-ing to these critics, a l - S h acrāwı̄’s memoryshould be celebrated, but not in such ashameful, un-Islamic way.5Islam and chickpeasNow what is so shameful and un-Islamicabout chickpeas? In fact, chickpeas are acentral symbol when describing a m a w l i d.‘Leaving the m a w l i d without chickpeas’ is acommon expression for doing somethingwhile missing the actual point or use of it.Chickpeas – just as sweets and games –stand as an archetype for the commercialand entertaining aspects of a m a w l i d.This by itself would not be offensive. Butin a m a w l i d, chickpeas are part of a religiousevent. Sacred aspects are so closely con-nected to profane ones that one cannotmeaningfully distinguish between the two.For the visitors to a m a w l i d, the festival isboth: entertaining religion and pious fun. Itis this synthesis of religion and entertain-ment that makes a m a w l i d so attractive tosome and so offensive to others.Condemning the m a w l i d s is, to a great ex-tent, an aesthetic judgement; the festivitiesfail to fulfil a modernist ideal of rational,constrained, pious, cultivated, well-orga-nized and well-controlled culture. Based onthis criterion of dignity, the modernist/re-formist discourse insists that occasions ofhigher importance – not only religious, butalso social, political and private – must becharacterized by purity, dignity and educa-tional value. Everyday popular culture maybe tolerated, but should definitely not be al-lowed to enter the sphere of ideal modernIslamic culture.This modernist aesthetics of culture canbe found in a variety of other issues. Com-mercial mass culture is opposed to the sub-lime ideal of educational and politically con-structive high culture.6Or, to give another example, the discus-sion on the ‘modern city’ is preoccupiedwith issues such as cleanliness, order and or-ganization, representing itself in the di-chotomy between educated, civilized citi-zens walking along wide prospects on oneside, and a chaotic m a w l i d in the narrow al-leys of a slum on the other.7In a similar way, the apologetic discourseon female circumcision centres around theconcepts of beauty and purity and the prob-lem of control.8At this point, more questions arise thancan currently be answered. However, twogeneral remarks can be made. Firstly, in con-temporary cultural criticism in Egypt, argu-ments based on aesthetic quality are com-mon and apparently share some identicalpremises. Secondly, this theoretical ideal ofbeauty, purity, dignity and order often findsitself in grave contradiction to reality – a re-ality which is not as similar to modernistclarity as it is to the proverbial meaning ofm a w l i d as cheerful chaos. ◆Girl in a swing-boati n the m a w l i do f Shaykh a l - S h acr -awı̄in Daq-ad-u s, Nile Delta.Pious Fun at Saints Festivalsin Modern Egypt

Pious Fun at Saints Festivals in Modern Egypt

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Pious Fun at Saints Festivals in Modern Egypt

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