Monsieur Malesh

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Adam Henein, artists, Cairo, contemporary, Egypt

In July 1989 I arrived in Cairo, our Embassy then was in Garden City just off Midan Tahrir in the centre of the City, on Mohammad Fahmy Al-Sayed street. The British Embassy was just up our street with its Victorian Gates and the US Embassy was one street over, a gigantic complex. Garden City has the name implies was built in what was before the 1952 Revolution, the vast garden of a Royal Palace. I lived in the middle of the Nile river on the Island of Zamalek, a beautiful area just to the North of Garden City.

There was always occasions to discover the arts and culture in Egypt and many modern artists at the time were still working. One artist who had designed many large modern sculptures in Cairo and Alexandria lived in one of the out suburbs of the city. From the outside you could not tell what was behind the great wall but once inside it was a beautiful riotous garden of greenery, flowers and art work.

The artist Adam Henein, b.1929 had a gardener to look after his house garden. He nicknamed him Monsieur Malesh. What a funny name, he explained that if he ever asked his gardener about the garden or something needing attention, the reply would be ”Malesh”. The word malesh in Egyptian Arabic means no matter, not to worry, you hear it all the time. Of course when you say Malesh your facial expression must match the meaning of the word, in speaking Egyptian Arabic you quickly learn the hand gestures and the facial expression which conveys the meaning of what you are saying.

Adam Henein captured in stone sculpture his gardener and named it Monsieur Malesh.  When I saw it in his studio I knew he had to come home with me. Monsieur Malesh is one of my remaining souvenir of Cairo and Egypt. He has been in our gardens and amongst plants ever since.

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Mezzeh!

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Africa, Arak, Cairo, Egypt, Food, Levant, Mezzeh, Middle East, Muslims, Pasha, Scotch

I do not know what made me think of it today but I suddenly had a memory of Cairo and other places in the Middle East where I served at a time when I was Consul Pasha.

The name Consul Pasha was bestowed upon me by my Egyptian friends, a Pasha is or was an Honorific title given to people who served at a certain level in the government of the Ottoman Empire, you were either a Pasha or a Bey. A Pasha could also be the brother in law of the Ottoman Sultan, a general or a senior diplomat. In Egypt until fairly recently it was given as a sign of respect.

When you live abroad you often have to get used to many different foods and cuisine tradition which are totally foreign to you. Many countries hold on to their culinary traditions and do not give in to fast food or food globalization. As a tourist you just need to step out of your International chain hotel to realize that no one eats like you do. A good example in Italy, where tourists will stuff themselves with Pizza and cheap pasta because these are the only two foods they recognize from back home. Missing all the other culinary dishes of veal, wild truffles, cheeses, beef and seafood.

One discovery in the Middle East was the variety of the food and its quality. I learned a whole new way of eating and what was wonderful was the freshness of all the dishes, always made daily from scratch and always served fresh. A good Host would make it a point of honour to have the best food for his guests. You would never hear the phrase ” It is just something we threw together at the last minute, nothing fancy”, that would be an insult to your guests. You would also not be served dips and chips or peanuts or something frozen or processed. Same went for liquor, only certain brands of Scotch was acceptable, yes even amongst my Muslim friends. Scotch was not seen as alcool it was the drink of Gentlemen. No one would think of offering you a beer.

If you were not invited at home, the host would make sure he knew a good restaurant and know the owner and or the chef and make sure the quality was high, no haphazard selection of a place they did not known or who did not have a good reputation.

The first time I was invited for dinner, we arrived around 9 PM, dinner would never be served before 11:30PM so in the meantime Mezzeh was served with Raki or Arak anis flavour drink on the rocks with a little water. Also know in Greece as Ouzo or in France as Pastis. It is closely associated with food and all culinary matters in the Levant.

The word Mezzeh is found in all the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and comes from the Turkish meze “taste, flavour, snack, relish”, borrowed from Persian, Maze.

The photo below show the traditional display put before you, an incredible variety. This is before dinner while you are a glass of Arak. Now the real connaisseur will only have a little bite and will not make a point of finishing all the plates presented. This is just so that you are not famished by the time dinner is served later on. All of it is very good and as a novice you might be tempted to eat too much. Your Host will press you to eat more, but does so only out of politeness. You have to know to refuse politely while always showing interest in the dishes. It is a complicate ”Oriental” tradition one could say, but then in the Orient nothing is ever simple. Far too many people fall for the Mezzeh and then are caught not being able to have dinner, that was a faux pas. Worse still colleagues would complain about the hour and make a quick exit after the Mezzeh course. They were never invited again, forgetting that they were not back home and cannot behave as if they were.

I will never forget one evening in Damascus when a colleague of mine invited some of our contacts who had been more than generous in their hospitality towards us in the past. He counting his pennies decided to short changed his guests by ordering just a couple of plates of Mezzeh and cheap beer. What a stupid mistake and how embarrassing it was.

In Cairo we use to go to a restaurant called Papillon in Mohandessin (Engineer city) on the Western bank of the Nile with a friend of mine A.M. El Solh. They had a great Mezzeh.

Popular mezzeh dishes in Cyprus, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and Syria include:

Mutabbal/Babaghanoush – eggplant (aubergine) mashed and mixed with seasonings.
Hummus – a dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas
Hummus with meat (hummus bil-lahm)
Falafel – a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, fava beans, or both.
Tashi – Dip made from tahini, garlic, salt and lemon juice with chopped parsley garnish.
Köfte – meat balls and patties consisting of ground meat, usually beef or lamb, mashed onions, spices and a small amount of bread crumbs.
Kibbeh (İçli köfte in Turkey) – dishes made of burghul, chopped meat, and spices
Kibbe Nayye – burghul, chopped lamb meat, and spices
Spicy lamb and beef sausages (naqaniq/maqaniq/laqaniq and sujuk)
Halloumi cheese, usually sliced and grilled or fried.
Souvlaki – Bite sized meat cubes (lamb is very common), grilled on a skewer over charcoal.
Stifado – Slow cooked beef stew with lots of onions, garlic, tomatoes, cinamon, pepper and vinegar.
Afelia – Diced pork marinated in wine with coriander seed, then stewed.
Lountza – Smoked pork loin slice, usually grilled.
Dolma Vegetables like peppers, eggplants or courgettes stuffed with rice, chopped mint, lemon juice, pepper, minced meat. (Turkish)
Sarma (also known as Koubebkia or Mashi Warqenab) – Grape vine leaves, stuffed with rice, chopped mint, lemon juice, pepper, minced lamb. (Turkish)
Yogurt (Mast-o-Khiar in Iran)
Cacık – Dip made from plain yogurt, chopped cucumber with finely chopped garlic and mint leaf.
Tarama – a fish roe dip based on cured carp fish roe, mashed potatoes and olive oil. In the traditional Istanbul variety of this dish, a substantial part of the roe must remain intact.
Labneh – strained youghurt which tastes similar to cream or sour cream only more tart.
Shanklish – cow’s milk or sheep’s milk cheeses
Muhammara – a hot pepper dip with ground walnuts, breadcrumbs, garlic, salt, lemon juice, and olive oil
Pastirma – seasoned, air-dried cured beef meat
Tabbouleh – bulgur, finely chopped parsley, mint, tomato, spring onion, with lemon juice, olive oil and seasonings
Fattoush (Fatuş in southern Turkey) – salad made from several garden vegetables and toasted or fried pieces of pita bread
Arugula (known also as Rocket) salad
Artichoke salad
Olives
Tulum cheese

Yes all of it will be presented to you and then a full dinner. My favorite Mezzeh dish are: Babaghanoush, Hummus, Falafel, Köfte, Halloumi cheese, Dolma, Tabbouleh, Fattoush, Olives, Tulum cheese with a nice drink of Arak. Of course this would be accompanied by conversation on various topics.

Because Ramadan just started a few days ago, dishes served during the Holy Month are totally different, IFTAR is the meal served as sunset. The dishes are too numerous to name and many are special dishes and desserts made specifically for Ramadan. If you do Ramadan and fast during the day, it is important that you not stuff yourself quickly at Iftar, your stomach cannot take it and a polite person will eat slowly, serve food to others and enjoy a long meal, at the same time eating in moderation. But that is another topic for another time.

Islamic Architecture

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Abbasid, Cairo, Creswell, Fustat, Ibn Tulun, Islamic, King Farouk, Mosque, Muslim, Persia, Samarkand

When I went to Egypt on posting in 1989 I did not know I would discover an entire history of architecture I was not aware of. In Europe we hear of the great Cathedrals built at the end of the Middle-Ages, intricate monuments of stone built to inspire Faith and glorify God. There is much imagery in stone in those Cathedrals, originally all painted in vibrant colours, it was done on purpose, few knew how to read or write, so how do you tell Bible stories, you have to illustrate them in some fashion and it has to be done in such a way as to be instantly recognizable to all looking at the narrative depicted in stone. Thus we have today those magnificent monuments all over Europe. In the Orthodox Christian Church it is the same story though the architecture is very different. The Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople/Istanbul was modelled on the Pantheon of Rome with it’s great dome. But in all cases Christian Churches used the model of the Roman Basilica, originally a place of business in Antiquity, where you met your lawyer or notary or your business partner to transact contracts or get a loan. Today a Basilica is a place of Christian worship and nothing else.

Islamic architecture had to come up with a different plan for its mosque. In Islam there is this prohibition taken from the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses of not making any images. Commandment no. 2 says:

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Like the Jews, Muslims take this Commandment very seriously, so how do you decorate your place of worship, after all a Mosque like a Synagogue or a Church is a place of worship. The fall back position was to illustrate the greatness of God the Father, YHWH or (Allah), but how to do it then? The Arabs had a great knowledge of astronomy, geometry and mathematics, this knowledge was virtually non existent in Europe or forgotten in large part with the decline of the Roman Empire in the West as of the 6th Century. In fact the numerals we use today 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and the concept of 0 comes from the Arabs. The Arabs also had important contact and cultural exchanges with Persia and what is today India. This allowed them to develop a style of Architecture which would be much admired by the Crusaders and then copied in some fashion in Christian Churches in Europe. I took great deal of pleasure visiting the numerous mosques of Cairo which are between 800 to 1300 years old. They reflect the style of architecture of the ruler of Egypt at the time. The great Arab dynasties are all represented, Umayyad (661-750 AD), Abbasid (750-1258 AD),Fatimid (910-1171 AD), Ayubid (1174-1250 AD) Mamluk (1250-1517 AD), Ottoman Turk (1517-1923). The Capitals of those Empires where either Baghdad, Damascus or Istanbul, meaning that many rulers came from outside Egypt.

One day at work I was walking by the Library, I quickly discovered a book in a rubbish bin at the Embassy, from time to time a clean up would be made of books no longer considered worth keeping and they would be thrown out or given out. The book I discovered was a classic, I do not know if it is still available today but if you find it, please read it, an eye opener on early Muslim architecture by K.A.C. Creswell, C.B.E. who ended is illustrious career as Chair of Muslim Architecture at the American University in Cairo. He was also the founder of the Institute of Muslim Art and Archeology at the Egyptian University in 1931, a post he occupied until the Egyptian revolution which overthrew the Monarchy. My favorite in Cairo was the Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun, East of the Citadel. Ahmad Ibn Tulun was the son of a Turkic Slave who worked for the Sultan Al-Mamun. Ibn Tulun was born in 835 AD in Samarra, a city between Tikrit and Baghdad in Irak. Samarra is a UNESCO protected site.

Minaret of the Mosque of Samarra

He received an excellent education despite his very humble origin and was appointed by the Sultan, Governor of Cairo or Fustat as it was then known. Upon arrival in Fustat which is today only a suburb of greater Cairo, he established himself in a new neighbourhood bound to the East by the Citadel and to the North and West by an area which runs from the Citadel to Sayyida Zaynab and to the South by the great Aqueduct, also built on the orders of Ibn Tulun. He built a great palace with 9 gates of which nothing remains today and a Polo field which is the Maydan today just below the Citadel. The mosque is the work of a Christian Architect and is modelled in part on the great mosque of Samarra. The Mosque of Ibn Tulun was completed in April 879 AD, the foundation inscription is still there to read. By 1296 things had changed and the mosque was completely abandoned, the city had grown and this was no longer a desirable neighbourhood. However it was restored a few years later and is in a very good state of preservation to this day. The story of the restoration of the Mosque is interesting, a man was in jail and he promised God that if he was freed and became the ruler of Egypt, he would restore the Mosque and magnify God’s name. He was freed and the rest is history.

the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, Cairo

The Mosque of Ibn Tulun impresses by its great size and by the noble simplicity of its plan. Upon entering one is struck by its air of peace and serenity, completely cut off from the noise of the street. The mosque measures 26,318 sq meters or about 6.5 acres and is surrounded by a great outer wall with cresting. It is entirely constructed of red bricks and the whole thing is coated with a fine and very hard white stucco which is decorated.

Minaret of the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, Cairo

The Minaret is especially fine and very different from any other in Cairo again very reminiscent of Samarra, though you can see influences to the great mosques of Basra and Baghdad. It is built of limestone and is divided in 4 storeys and is 41 meters in height, it has a staircase on the outside which makes one complete turn in an anti-clockwise direction. It is agreed that many Iraqi workmen must have worked on this mosque. The decoration style is clearly foreign to Cairo and the mosque does look like a foreign building planted on the soil of Egypt. Ibn Tulun was from Samarra and he came with thousands of his countrymen to Egypt. The Mosque of Ibn Tulun is a good example of the Abbasid Empire architecture. An empire that covered a huge area from Samarkand in Uzbekistan to Bahrain.

Here I am admiring the intricate Islamic carvings c.1990

As his customary in any Mosque, I am barefoot. 

Visible in this photo the outer wall which surrounds the whole Mosque

Of course there are lots of beautiful mosques in Cairo all with great stories of their construction. The mosque Al-Rifai holds the tombs of the Royal Family it is also interesting to visit because it also houses the mausoleum of the last Shah of Iran, Mohamed Reza Pahlavi who died in Cairo in July 1980 and received a Head of State Funeral at the time from President Anwar Sadat. The Shah was related to the Royal House of Egypt by marriage, his first wife Fawzia was the sister of King Farouk.

Wedding day in Cairo 1939, King Farouk, his sister Princess Fawzia and Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi. They would divorce in 1948.

Tomb of Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi at Al-Rifai Mosque in Cairo. The flags are his own personal standard and the Imperial Flag of Iran. The tomb is in green jasper stone.

 

 

Cairo Markets

Tags

Cairo, Egypt, Fatimid, Khan al Khalili

One of the pleasures of Cairo is its old market place the Khan al Khalili. It is in the centre of the old Islamic heart of the city, bordered by Bab-Al-Futtuh (Gate of Conquest) Bab al-Nasr (Gate of Victory) and the Mosques of Al-Azhar, Al-Hakim and Al-Hussein all dating from 1000 years ago, marvels of Islamic Architecture. There are also many wonderful monuments to the different dynasties and rulers of the City from the Fatimid period.

Within all this architecture a great Souk established itself and has been in place for centuries now. You find everything in the Khan, from food to furniture, gold and silver jewellery, to tailors, spice vendors, restaurants, cafés, it is truly like Ali BaBa’s cavern.

One of the oldest Café’s in the old Khan al Khalili, Al-Fishawy always a nice place to have a Turkish coffee or a glass of tea with mint.

So many of the old Khan al Khalili is featured in the books of Nobel Literature prize Laureate (1988), Naguib Mahfouz, just like this street, an area he knew very well.

Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006), I had the very great pleasure to speak with him at the Zamalek Marriott Hotel in 1990. His books are wonderful, especially the Cairo Trilogy, full of humanity and life’s unruly details, his characters are so very real, the reader feels an attachment to them.

Bread delivery on a bicycle, I often saw them, day and night and wondered how do they do it without falling or being run over by a car or bus.

An area I came to know very well and I always enjoyed walking around 

The Khan al Khalili was also an excellent gold market, Cairo was the Mint of the Ottoman Empire and to this day solid gold coins can be found and many other good quality gold jewellery pieces in 18k, 22K and 24K. White and Yellow gold rings, bracelets and necklaces with good craftsmanship can be bought. No gold is sold under 18K because it is not considered of good value by Egyptian customers. I bought my wedding ring in the Khan 22K white and yellow gold, the metal is so soft it took the imprint of my finger with time.

I also bought an old pocket watch with a Swiss movement, these watches were common as conductors on Tramways and trains used them in the Ottoman Empire to mark time and keep tram schedules. I bought two had them cleaned and they work fine to this day. I determine that the watches are about 105 years old. If they could talk the stories these watches could tell.

Cairo the City of one thousand minarets

Al-Qahira, Misr

Tags

Cairo, dachshunds, Egypt, life, Mamluks, Nile, Salaheddin, Shepheard, Zamalek

I went on posting to Egypt in 1989 after completing my posting to Mexico, quite a change in geographic location, I was also responsible or accredited to the Sudan. Both countries have a long history. Egypt is the largest and most populous country in the Near East or North Africa and the leader of the Arab World until recently. Radio, television and movie production all came from Cairo, the oldest movie production studios are in Cairo circa 1938 and Egyptian culture dominated the air waves this also means that Egyptian Arabic dominated the Arab Speaking World. It is in terms of a spoken language not as pure as Classical Arabic spoken by Bedouins, often you will hear students of Arabic wanting to go live with the Bedouins to learn highly classical Arabic which is quite beautiful but so difficult to learn.  If you want a comparison Egyptian Arabic is like American slang if you compare it to British English in terms of vocabulary pronunciation. Grammatically Arabic is a complicated language and difficult to master unless you are a serious student. It is poetic language very florid and it follows very different rules in terms of how you formulate a sentence again in comparison to English which is relatively simple as a language.

The Cairo of 1989 was like New York a big, noisy, bustling town, it is truly a city that does not sleep, with a population of 9 million people compared to 2014, the population is now 14 million. Cairo is also a very old City, its foundation dates around 869 AD and architecturally it has many influences and you can clearly see the history of Egypt through the centuries in the buildings and palaces of the City. Various dynasties the Abassid, the Fatimid, the Ayubid, Umayyad dynasties and rulers built the patrimony of Cairo, always following the idea of a great Imperial City to reflect the long rule of the Egyptians over neighbouring countries and region. These Arabic dynasties ruled from Bagbdad and Damascus, later under Ottoman Turkish rule from Istanbul but Cairo being more populous attracted quickly more political clout. Mecca in the Hejaz in comparison is a religious centre and a relatively small new town.  Cairo also became a religious centre with great mosques and the Al-Azhar University with examples of magnificent Islamic architecture, truly marvels of art and with many connections to Mecca due to the migration to Egypt of the relatives of the Prophet after his death. The historian K.A.C.Creswell wrote a wonderful book on early Muslim architecture in 1958.

The night I arrived in Cairo was in early July, so fairly warm around 28 C. my plane touched down around 10pm, Cairo Airport was about 30 Km outside the city then, a big sprawling complex, welcoming all the major airlines of the world. The Embassy driver was waiting for me and took me to my hotel which was on the Nile about two blocks from our Embassy in Garden City. I immediately noticed the heavy traffic and people walking everywhere, Cafés full of people, lights, music and the stench of blood everywhere.

Mausoleums of Mamluk rulers on Moqattam Hill, Cairo

The stench of drying blood was very strong and as we came closer to the centre of the city it was unpleasant. We took the Moqattam Cliff road passing through the Cemetery of the Mamluks and then around the Old Citadel of Salaheddin turning down on to Qasr Al-Ayni road which passes along the Aqueduct (c.1311) to Fumm Al-Khalig on the Nile and turning again unto the Corniche. I asked the driver about the smell and he looked at me and said, Sir it is the great EID and people follow the tradition of slaughtering sheep as Abraham was commanded by God. I also noticed in the more popular neighbourhood that people would then smear the door ways of their houses with the blood of the sheep another biblical tradition.

The aqueduct of Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad stretches half a kilometre from the Nile to the Citadel. 

The meat of the sheep is then roasted and served up, first to any poor person you might know or beggar, this is an obligation and people respect it. When we got to my hotel the Semiramis Intercontinental which is next door to the famous Shepheard hotel, home of British spies and intrigue during WWII, it was around 11:30 pm. The street was absolutely packed with revellers, music, lights, it was like a carnival.

As I entered the lobby with my numerous suitcases, I must have had 4 or 5, they were taken by several Bellhops and then I was greeted by the most fantastic spectacle, there was a great wedding reception going on at least 300 people were singing and dancing, there was a great band dressed in Mamluk era costumes, drums and trumpets and a dozen belly dancers with candelabras on their heads. I was pulled into the Conga line and only dropped off at the Front Desk where the reception clerk greeted me with a smile and said ”Welcome to Egypt Sir”. In many ways the next few years for me in Egypt (Misr) would be like my arrival, one adventure after another, leaving me to this day with great souvenirs.