Day 8

Today we went to Islamic Cairo. Kind of a weird thing to call it seeing as most of Cairo practices Islam and all. But this area is where many very important mosques and Islamic monuments have existed since 969 A.D. what?! The first mosque ever built in Africa was there and Napoleon's army took up shop in Islamic Cairo in the late 1700's/early 1800s. Here's a little background if you are interested. In fact in one of the mosques is a HUGE broken clock given to Cairo by Napoleon. It was broken when he gave it to them and has never worked to this day. What an ass. You can see it here on the far right.

The mosques we went to are all enclosed in the Cairo Citadel which was built in the late 1100's to protect important Islamic and governmental sites from those damn Crusaders. When you enter a mosque you have to take off your shoes and though it's not required, it is respectful for women to cover their heads, legs, arms and chest. Modesty is very important in Islam and covering one's body is a key part of that. Of course not everyone chooses to show such respect - especially swarmy European tourists. Now, in all fairness, Katy (Sarah & Dina's childhood friend) is English and she was all sorts of covered with us, but MY GOD. There were loads of European women wearing tank tops and short tight shorts and tube tops and all matter of totally inappropriate clothing. I was honestly shocked. But I digress. The mosques are amazing. 5 times a day Muslims go to mosque for salat (prayer). Walking around Cairo you see men with calloused spots that look like bruises in the middleof their foreheads from praying. On Fridays there are sermons. Prayer time is initiated by the "call to prayer",or adhan, which is called from the top of the minaret by a muezzin (literally a guy whose job it is to do the adhan). Many mosques in Cairo are outdoor or at least have outdoor meeting areas where they cleanse themselves from a big fancy tub of water (at least I assume its water...) before going into the carpeted area where prayers take place. Many mosques separate men and women on different floors or with a room divider. In those that don't the men stand in front and the women in back. I know, I know, at this point you're probably thinking "how sexist" but the reasoning is actually fairly hilarious if you ask me. Back in the day women didn't attend mosque except for Fridays since it was recognized that women had a lot more responsibilites than men so it is was moredifficult for them to attend 5 prayers a day. Nowadays it is easier for women to attend, but prayers require you tokneel down and touch your forehead to the ground. It is important for people to not become distracted during prayers so they put the women in back so the men are not distracted by their ba-dunk-a-dunks (rear ends) constantly being in their faces. And that's that. So here are some pics from the various mosques we went to. They are all in the citadel except for the very last one which is about a 15 minute walk away and where Dina wants to do her Kateb el Kitav - the signing of the religious marriage contract. The contract has been adapted since the time of Mohammed to meet the times. Within it the manhas to answer 'yes' or 'no' to a number of stipulations such as "do you allow your wife to travel, etc". Pretty interesting stuff that is actually quite cool. OK, enough with the religious/history lesson. I know that's not why you are here, so here are some pics of Islamic Cairo:

After a brief but much needed nap we went dinner and then the Cairo Jazz Club to see some live music. It reminded me a lot of bars in Chicago. While Muslims don't drink it is ok for non-Muslims but booze is INSANELY expensive. One beer can cost more than lunch. The band was really good - they played all American covers - Michael Jackson, Jamiroquoi (sp?), DMB, and tons of other stuff. As we were leaving Khaled Aboul Naga, a famous Egyptian actor who is semi-openly gay (a BIG no-no in Egypt) walked in! I've never heard of him before but apparently he's kind of a big deal. K, that's all for now!!!