Sufi Dancing and a Journey through Narrow Cairene Streets

Last night was one of the best nights since my arrival in Cairo.  Nothing was truly planned, but it turned out to be an amazing night.

Yesterday, as always I had Arabic class.  Directly after class our Arabic group went to lunch at Cafe Noir with Professor Sullivan and Cynthia Rapp.  We basically discussed Egyptian politics, cultural, and important societal topics with Professor Sullivan.  Mainly we spoke about the Egypt-U.S. relationship and about the current regime that controls Egypt.  After lunch, I had planned to go to Zar music in downtown Cairo.  I really wanted to go explore this area and see some historical sights like Groppi's and the Yacoubian building, and also shop in famous bookstores like Lehnert and Landrock.  However, the group decided to go to see Sufi dancing instead at the Khan al-Khalili, which is a massive market that seems like a maze of small streets.  At the 'Khan', vendors often say things like, "How can I take your money today?" or if you are with women they say, "Lucky man! Want a belly dancing dress? She make you very happy tonight...".  Today one vendor even called me "Casanova" as I was walking with my friends Katie and Lauren.  Anyway, I am sure that the women on this trip have excellent stories about the remarks vendors make to them.  At times though, they do flirt with the line between funny and actually harassing the girls, and I have found that the best way to stop this is by telling them that the girls are my sisters.  It truly dissuades them from wanting to sell me belly dancing dresses for them, for example.

After walking a bit through the 'Khan', we went to the Sufi dancing show.  Sufism originally comes from Islam, although many Muslims see sufists as non-practitioners of Islam.  Sufi dancing, or the Whirling Dervish, is where a group of men in elaborate and colored robes spin around for a very long time, creating an artistic, almost hypnotic scene.  They remove one part of the lower robe (the part that spins), until they are in their base robe, if you will.  Let me also give some  background on what exactly Sufi dancing is.  It is considered active meditation as  Islamic prayers are read and music is being played.  The man who is spinning looks to be in a trance-like state at times.  The music mainly consists of percussion, flutes, a type of violin-like instrument, and a man singing religious verses.  Also, there was this one percussion player who looked so happy.  He appeared to be having the time of his life.  He was by far my favorite in the show.  The following pictures can sum up this dance so much better than any explanation I could ever offer. 

After the Sufi dancing, me, Zack, and Nick went across from the Khan al-Khalili to explore a bit.  We walked for a good amount of time through mixes of dirt roads and broken concrete with multiple shops around us.  However, we were no longer in the tourist area, for we were the only non-Arab people in sight.  You could also tell that we were no longer in a touristy area because there were no longer English signs anywhere.  We walked through a historic carpet and clothes market, which in the past used to be the silk market.  The streets very narrow and we could get the sense that we were seeing a true Cairene market.  Also, we accidentally saw Bab Zuweila, which is a beautiful gate with two minarets on either side of the gate.

We walked a bit more and we saw that everyone was watching the Al-Ahly - Zamalek game, for you could see crowds of people crowding around miniature televisions in their small shops.  Once in a while you would random shouts of excitement when Al-Ahly scored (Al-Ahly ended up winning 3-1).  We also saw mules carrying carts of melons, chickens and roosters, piles of meat ready to be cut, and basically anything else you can imagine.  Finally, we did find a place to eat, and we ordered Kushary, which is a mix of pasta, rice, tomato and hot sauce, meat, and lentils.  It was extremely good and cheap, and we were able to enjoy some of the match.  As we walked down the street I spotted these delicious looking pastries.  They were like massive chocolate covered croissants and I had to have one to end the adventurous night.  The croissants were amazing and it was also pretty good news to hear that they were only 1 Egyptian Pound, or around 20 American cents. 

At this point we had no idea where we actually were and realizing it was around 11:30, we decided to head back to our hotel in Zamalek.  Overall, it was a fascinating and almost surreal experience.  I hope that in the little time I have left I can have more nights like these, for I feel that I experienced some true Egyptian culture tonight that cannot be absorbed in the tourist destinations we often go to.  Last night we were basically forced to communicate in Arabic and we stuck out so much due to our appearance.  Ultimately, it was simply a marvelous day filled with spontaneity.