Mahmoud Dessouki is a journalist with a peculiar habit. If he chances upon a pile of papers, or even a scrap, he can't rest until he figures out the minutest details of the story behind them. Because of the persistence of this habit in this Upper Egyptian journalist who lives in Qena, he bumped into a robabikia vendor, a man who roams the streets to sell and buy unwanted objects. (Robabikia comes from Italian roba vecchia, which means old clothes). The vendor's cart was loaded with old books and papers, as if someone had thrown away their entire home library. Dessouki couldn't resist the impulse to buy the whole load. It turned to be a treasure trove packed with valuable stories and accounts. The robabikia merchandise looked like the library of a scientist or scholar, Dessouki told the present writer, who has known this curious journalist for the past 10 years and given him the nickname of “guardian of the secrets of Thebes”. Dessouki's passion for and experience in rare documents and historical records spun the wheel of fortune in his favour, making him a magnet attracting valuable texts. It was this energy that brought the registrations of marriage and divorce known as the Records of Registrar Khalifa Al-Tahawi: Registrar Bahara Aslan of Al-Darb Al-Ahmar in Cairo into his hands. The materials go back to the late 1800s, being the records of Khalifa Al-Tahawi, one of Egypt's first legal maazouns (religious notaries who document marriages and divorces). Previously, the same job was done by the deputy of a judge. The first list setting out the work of legal maazouns in Egypt was issued in 1899. Dessouki has written about the materials in a new book, Records of the Al-Darb Al-Ahmar Registrar: Unknown Stories from Khedival Cairo. “In the years leading to the book's publication, I published excerpts on the Al-Ahram website where I work. But the material I included in the book is more than this. When I published the articles, I had not acquired the stories I later collected from newspapers and magazines published in the 1800s,” Dessouki said. Dessouki in Qena; Records of the Al-Darb Al-Ahmar Registrar (book cover) In the book, he links the dates of the marriage or divorce certificates with the historical events of the time as well as with people's lives. In this sense, the study acquires a new angle, rendering the style a mixture of novel-writing and scientific, social, economic and historical study. In his introduction, Dessouki writes that the study “provides rich materials for academics, particularly because this type of book is rare in Arabic. It tells the stories of the poor, the slaves and the workers of Egypt, unlike the history books that recount the stories of palace-dwellers.” Khalifa, the registrar, was born and lived in Al-Darb Al-Ahmar in Islamic Cairo, which translates as the “red road”. Many stories have been told as to why the neighbourhood was named as such, the most famous of which is that of the Massacre of the Citadel. This massacre took place in March 1811 at Cairo's Salaheddin Citadel where Mohamed Ali Pasha had taken the opportunity provided by the army's imminent travel to the Levant to invite notable Mamelukes over for a feast. When the time came for the ceremonial procession the Mamelukes had to go down a narrow, winding passageway between high walls in single file. Suddenly, the gates at each end were shut and soldiers appeared on top of the walls and opened fire. All of the Mamelukes were killed, except for one who ran, mounted his horse, and later jumped off the Citadel walls. The chroniclers of the time report that blood flooded onto the ground outside the Citadel. Mohamed Ali Pasha instructed soldiers to wash the blood off the streets. The red colour remained, nonetheless, from which comes the name of “red road”, or Al-Darb Al-Ahmar. Ownership contract of an odalisque; A slave's freedom ticket LATER THAT CENTURY: Khalifa lived through the era of the khedive Ismail Pasha, who signed the marriage and divorce certificates of his slaves, and of the khedive Tawfik, during which time the Orabi Revolution was defeated and Egypt extended its influence across the African continent. Around this time, thefts multiplied, even between married couples. One woman even took her husband to the newly established courts of the time (1889), accusing him of stealing from her. The era also saw the introduction of wedding announcements in the newspapers, such as that of the then Al-Ahram managing editor Beshara Takla and Kalkhaton Betsy, daughter of Neamatallah Kababa. Noted members of society also published their marriage announcements in the newspapers, including the daughter of Suleiman Pasha Abaza in the Sharqiya governorate. Al-Ahram also published the news of a first marriage by correspondence, causing heated controversy in Egyptian society. “Such an incident is proof of the importance of print journalism, which is the best and most creditable even in our digital age. Had it not been for this documentation published in the newspapers, many of the stories we know today would have been lost,” Dessouki told Al-Ahram Weekly. Khalifa was known for his meticulousness, not only in writing marriage and divorce certificates, but also in sealing slaves' marriage certificates with a numbered stamp. In his book, Dessouki writes that people could pay huge amounts of money to free such slaves. Accounts told by foreigners who resided in Egypt at the time testify to people's generosity in treating their slaves like family members. Dessouki's book recounts many of the marriage and divorce stories that took place in Al-Darb Al-Ahmar. The writing style is cinematic, encouraging the reader to visualise the faces and places, much like in later black-and-white films. In fact, the events of the book largely take place in the era that Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz was to make famous in his novel Al-Harafish. The first document Dessouki provides is the shortest marriage Khalifa certified during his life as a maazoun. On 13 March 1893, Golfidan Ahmed was divorced from Ahmed Fath Al-Bab Al-Zayat after just a four-month marriage. The couple's marriage took place during an economic crunch. Al-Zayat was unemployed, and his wife came from a lower or middle-class family. She was the youngest of her siblings, and her brothers bore witness to her marriage. Her brother Mustafa was a shoemaker. Shoemaking was a popular craft in Egypt at the time, and it was not only taken up by locals. Armenians were known for their shoemaking, particularly in Al-Darb Al-Ahmar. Indeed, Egyptian shoes gained fame all over the world because of their quality. Khalifa wrote on Ahmed and Al-Zayat's divorce certificate that the couple couldn't remarry unless they signed a new contract with Ahmed's consent. Al-Zayat gave Ahmed another marriage settlement, documenting that he still owed her a deferred amount payable in three monthly instalments. Through this document, Dessouki reminds his readers of how much Cairo in 1882 had changed in customs, traditions, clothing and housing. A maazoun's traditional garb FOREIGN ELEMENTS: The number of British people living in the capital multiplied. The year the British colonisation of Egypt began in 1883 there were 90,890 British people living in Egypt. This figure had jumped to 112,570 before the end of the century. The British destroyed Egypt's craft industries, Dessouki writes. The Cairo market became dedicated to cotton and British products, and the British colonisers wiped out the paper factory in Boulaq and the textiles and weaving industry. Through information provided in Khalifa's documents about witnesses to marriage and divorce certificates, Dessouki is able to describe some of the jobs available at the time. Khalifa mentions Ahmed Haggag, a witness, who worked as a copper merchant, for example. The trade was flourishing during the era of the khedive Ismail. There were 73 copper factories and 80 bleaching stores in Cairo, and one of the streets full of copper shops held trade exhibitions twice a week. Khalifa was also the registrar who wrote the marriage certificate of Set Al-Hosn Kol Al-Bida Al-Jarkasiya, later Dessouki's ticket to the world of slavery. The bride's name signified many things, as it translates as “the white Circassian beautiful woman”. Circassian women were seen as being especially beautiful, and they originally came from the north-western Caucasus. Dessouki also writes that odalisques (young women) were illegally sold after the trade in slaves was banned during the era of the khedive Said Pasha in 1856. These odalisques were taken to Istanbul, as if they were merchants' wives. Once there, they were secretly sold to women who taught them how to read and write and sew before they were taken back to Egypt where they were guarded by eunuchs who prevented the authorities from inspecting them. The excuse given was that they were from the harems of prominent figures of the time. However, the odalisques were in fact sold to traders who kept them tucked away in secret houses until they were sold to the highest bidders. The copper market in the 19th century Khalifa's document says that on 27 February 1893, Al-Jarkasiya, the daughter of Abdallah and a “deflowered adult”, was wed to Ali Ahmed, an assistant gardener at the Ortato —the Italian for gardens — who was the son of Ahmed Othman, a scribe. Ali Ahmed had apparently met Al-Jarkasiya during his work in the gardens of the country's elite, where most of the trees were transported from Europe. Dessouki takes the groom's job as the starting point for a story about Mohamed Ali Pasha and his son Ibrahim Pasha who planted guava, coffee, teak, papaya, graviola, ginger, pine, mango, coconut, black pepper, cinnamon, tea, and other plants and trees in his gardens. The transport of European and Asian trees to Egypt lasted until the era of the khedive Ismail, he writes. Dessouki suggests that Idriss Agha, witness to the marriage and a master gardener, told the groom that Ibrahim Pasha had brought decorative trees from India, Latin America, Japan and China and that he produced an agricultural magazine for people in the area that ceased publication after his death. In the marriage certificate, Khalifa wrote that Al-Jarkasiya had been released as a slave from the service of Zahra, the wife of Selim Pasha Al-Selihdar. Dessouki thinks that she lived in an environment where women knew how to seduce men, just like Zahra had seduced Al-Selihdar. The certificate also notes that the groom paid seven piastres as the price for the document, with Khalifa also giving a copy to the bride. The stories in Dessouki's book are many. Although the reasons for divorces are not mentioned in Khalifa's records, Dessouki has researched the social life of the time and the political and economic conditions. Through his meticulous investigation of the archives of Al-Ahram, he has been able to suggest marriage opportunities and the reasons for divorce. Overall, the book is an attempt by Dessouki to observe history from a different perspective: that of the marginalised and those who strive to make ends meet. He departs from the methods adopted by scholars who concentrate on politicians, such as Ahmed Orabi and the various khedives. The people who fill his book are auxiliary characters from the time. Dessouki's heroes are slaves and workers. He also points out that the documents he includes were created under different regimes, including those of the khedive Ismail, the khedive Tawfik and the khedive Abbas Helmi II. The once unknown story of Khalifa the maazoun is testimony to the harsh conditions that Egypt endured during British colonialism and after the Orabi Revolution was quelled. Perhaps Khalifa's records were the only witnesses to joyful occasions at that time. 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Records of the Al-Darb Al-Ahmar Registrar, Cairo: Dar Waraqat Publishing and Distribution, 2019, pp255.
