#CAIRO 1870: DANCING GIRLS IN THE ROYAL #HAREM

 

Luise Muehlbach’s account of her visit to the Sultan’s harem, continued:

 

There were twelve dancing girls, and I had never seen such rich and beautiful costumes in our theatres as these dancers were wearing. The lower part of their body was covered by long and voluminous dresses of purple velvet with wide gold-embroidered panels in front and down their thighs. One might call these garbs wide trousers, but they were not quite like trousers. They were open in front but tied to the closed back part, so that they gave the impression of trousers at first, while seen from the back they looked like wide, pleated dresses. They appeared trouser-like only from the front and were gathered at the ankles with golden bands. Gold-embroidered shoes of purple velvet were on the dancers’ feet, and the pleated dresses were tied around their waist with a golden belt. Their upper bodies were covered with a transparent silk garment. Above it they wore a short jacket with wide, open sleeves of purple velvet. Their hair was long and uncurled and tied together with a golden ribbon ending in a bow…

          The music began. Flutes and violins first, then the clashing of tambourines, then shrill tones of the fagot could be heard together with the murmur of the bass. The Egyptian music gladdened the hearts of the Egyptian ladies, while it was a somewhat strange pleasure for us.

          After the introductory music, the dancers stepped up. At first these beautiful women twirled slowly in a circle, then the music became louder and the dancers moved faster. They whirled in ever more turbulent and denser circles, they no longer held hands, but with wonderful vibrations bent forward, then thrust their head and whole upper body backward. It was precious to see the full, beatific smile playing on their lips, and the light in their fiery eyes was wonderful. Their faces became ever more enraptured, their movements more passionate. The movement of their arms and the vibrations of individual body parts became more vehement. The Egyptians do not dance with their whole body, as we do. It is not the whole figure that rises or whirls around dancing. Rather, it is sometimes the arms that dance while the rest of the body remains quiet, at other times the feet, occasionally only the upper body, resulting in a marvellous swaying and vibrating of the whole figure. At one point it looked as if they wanted to throw themselves on the floor in their rapture, then they jumped up again in a vehement movement, lifting up their whole body, then their upper body swayed forward blissfully, then backwards. Finally the whole figure seemed to rest after a tumultuous happiness and rapture. This is accompanied by music which whirls and intones and complains in a very strange manner, and the dancing is so passionate and rapturous that the singers and musicians exult and the princesses clap their hands enthusiastically and shout “Allah! Allah!”.

          At last, breathless and panting, not from exhaustion but from rapturous bliss, the dancers sank to the floor. They rested on their backs in picturesque poses, with their head leaning back, their mouths half open, and a blissful smile on their lips. While they rested, the musicians started a different strain…

 Then a human voice rose up, shrill and loud, in a strangely vibrating tone, which is regarded as beautiful among Egptian singers. They began to sing in this way, accompanied by soft musical chords.

          Of course I could not understand the words, but I saw from the expression on the faces of the princesses, from the sweet quivering and trembling of the dancers, who slowly rose from the floor and stretched out their arms high with yearning, that it must be a love song, and when the first stanza ended, the singers fell silent and the soft chords of the musicians trembled in the air…

          When that stanza ended as well, a loud jubilant cry issued from the lips of the princesses, and they gave loud praise and thanks to the singers…

          Since I could not understand the words, I was not as affected by the somewhat monotonous melody and the shrill singing. As far as the Egyptians are concerned, however, the melody is unimportant compared to the exact enunciation of the words and their declaiming, to which music is subordinated.

          All Egyptians greatly venerate poetry; music is only an accompaniment, going along with the verse. Our music and especially our operas seem to them completely unnatural. When I talked to the princesses about this, for they often attended the Italian opera sitting behind a golden screen, one of the ladies answered with a smile: “But no one could be emotionally touched by an opera, even if people pretend to be touched, for it is always clear that the pain is not real and it would be quite impossible that dying people sing on and act like that.”

(Translated from Reisebriefe aus Aegypten)

 

#CAIRO 1870: THE ROYAL #HAREM

 

In 1870 Luise Mühlbach (1814-1873), best known as the author of historical novels, received an invitation from the Khedive (Sultan) Ismail Pascha of Egypt to visit Cairo. She published an account of her journey in the form of letters, Reisebriefe aus Aegypten. Here is her description of the Khedive’s harem:

 

…We got out of the carriage. Four large, ugly eunuchs stood by the door. They grasped [Mühlbach and her daughter] our upper arms and escorted us through the courtyard to the wing of the castle which housed the apartments of the princesses.

          We stopped at a large glass door which led directly into the castle. The door was opened from the inside; the eunuchs remained outside, and we entered a salon of great length and width. The floor was covered with carpets and there were divans all around the walls. A group of some twenty girls advanced from the back, all dressed in airy gowns, some with their heads covered with turbans, others with small gold-embroidered caps, and others again wearing silver ribbons which hung down in back looping around their hair. Four of these girls walked toward us smiling, took us, like the eunuchs, by the upper arms and led us through the salon to a wide carpeted staircase. We mounted the stairs led by them, and at the top encountered yet another giant salon furnished with carpets and divans.

          There the slave girls conducted us to three ladies resting on silk-covered divans. Then a young lady approached us. To my great surprise she addressed me in German and explained that she was our translator and had been asked to mediate the conversation between myself and the princesses. She was the governess of the young princesses, a woman of Swiss descent and able to speak French and German.

          The slave girls released our arms, and led by the translator, we approach the princesses. They rose from the divan and shook hands with us. Then one of the ladies indicated that we should take our seat beside her on the divan. She moved the cushion on which her arm was resting a little closer to me and indicated that I should make myself comfortable, which meant folding under one leg, sliding onto the divan and leaning on the cushion where her beautiful arm, adorned with bangles was resting. An easy chair was offered to my daughter, and after she had sat down, one of the slaves rolled the chair up to the princesses, so that she faced them.

          As we began our conversation, I gave some attention to the beautiful women, and indeed, the princesses were worth looking at. I sat beside the mother of Prince Mohamed Wawfik. Although the heir apparent was already 18 years old, his mother was still a beautiful and youthful-looking woman. In the Orient women marry young and the ladies of the harem knew how to cultivate and preserve their charms. I don’t want to be accused of indiscretion and therefore dare not say too much of the appearance of the princesses. They are young and beautiful, their black eyes have a fiery glow, as only oriental eyes do, their purple lips are always ready to smile and reveal two rows of excellent teeth. Their figures are not svelte, but of a fullness, which is popular in the Orient. The ladies greeted me by putting their hands first on their knees, then on their hearts and then against their forehead.

 (Translated from REISEBRIEFE AUS AEGYPTEN)