4
In t r o d u c t i o n
A
place
for
the
mulids
Ahead
of
the
announced
November
democratic
presidential
elections,
open
for
the
first
time
since
decades
to
exiled
political
leaders,
no
one
seems
to
be
forecas ting
that
winds
of
change
will
soon
be
sweeping
Egypt’s
desert
lands.
Nonetheless,
no
political
transformation
can
be
compared
to
the
dramatic
social
and
economic
changes
the
country
has
witnessed
in
the
last
decades.
Overpopulation,
lack
of
state
policies
and
organic
urban
plans
in
Cairene
and
other
urban
informal
settlements
depict
the
many
canvases
that
stand
i n
the
background
of
much
recent
literature
on
so‐ called
islamist
political
activism
and
forms
of
public
collective
organisation,
revealing
much
ab out
the
government’s
alienation
from
civil
society
and
the
latter’s
multi‐ layered
nature.
The
dispossession
of
agricultural
land
as
a
consequence
of
the
1997
Land
Reform
an d
the
re‐ establishment
of
pre ‐ republican
aristocracy
have
thrown
farmers
away
from
their
lands
and
condemned
them
to
landless
peasantry.
As
proof
of
the
reform’s
unprecedented
audacity,
it
is
now
considered
as
a
return
to
the
state
of
jahiliyya
that
describes
forms
of
repression
prior
to
the
1952
Na sserite
coup
d’état
in
Egyptians’
collec tive
imaginary.
The
peasantry’s
predicament
is
worsened
by
the
5
increasing
dependence
of
Eg yptian
economy
from
World
Bank
loans
and
the
arbitrary
policies
of
the
Structural
Adjustment
Plans
1
.
In
view
of
the
elections,
the
appointment
of
Grand
Sheikh
of
al ‐ Azhar
2
‐
a
member
of
the
leading
National
Democratic
Party
and
the
head
of
a
sufi
brotherhood
( tariqa ,
pl.
turuq )
that
is
not
officially
recognised
‐
ra ises
questions
about
the
shifting
relations
between
state
institutions
and
sufi ‐ related
hierarchies.
The
brotherhoods
are
indeed
shown
strong
loyalty
throughout
the
country
and
are
therefore
crucial
agents
in
the
making
of
national
legitimacy
and
social
order
today,
as
much
as
they
were
at
the
dawn
of
British
colonial
rule
3
.
Old
and
recent
sociological
studies
4
have
indeed
privileged
an
analysis
of
the
turuq ’s
double‐ edged
individual
and
collecti ve
practice
of
religion.
Although
it
was
thought
that
the
turuq
were
dying
out
under
the
weight
of
modernity
and
the
rise
of
nation ‐ states,
they
now
show
unforeseen
a bility
to
renovate
their
rootedness
and
inter ‐ local
influence.
Despite
the
many
voices
raised
against
the
nature
of
sufism
( tasawwuf ),
it
has
indeed
flourished
within
the
recent
Islamic
revival
everywhere
in
the
Muslim
world,
as
did
sufi ‐ related
ethnograph ic
studies
5
.
Moreover,
Gaffney’s
(1994)
6
suggestion
about
the
possible
relations
between
last
century’s
demographic
bo om
and
the
mushrooming
of
saint ‐ cults
certainly
needs
more
scholarly
enquiry,
in
urban
and
1
Hop ki ns
&
W estga a rd
( 1998).
2
Ah m ed
el‐ Ta y eb.
See
Ch i h
( 2 004)
on
th e
Kh a lwa ti y y a
of
Qena
a s
i ndi ca ti ve
of
h ow
reli gi ous
a nd
soci o‐ p oli ti ca l
go
h a nd
i n
h a nd
wi th i n
th e
t u r u q .
See
el‐ Loz y
( 2 010)
on
th e
el‐ Ta y y eb’s
a p p oi ntm ent.
3
D e
Jong
( 1984).
4
Gi lsena n
( 1973),
Eva ns‐ Pri tch a rd
( 1949),
Hof f m a nn,
Va leri e
J.
( 1995).
5
Howell
( 2 001)
i n
Indonesi a ;
Si lverstei n
( 2 008)
i n
Turkey ;
Soa res
( 1996)
i n
M a li ;
Si m p son
( 2 008)
i n
Indi a ;
Ewi ng
( 1997)
a nd
W erbner
( 1998)
i n
Pa ki sta n.
6
See
ch a p ter
3,
‘ The
M o s q u e
a nd
t he
Cu l t
o f
t he
Sa int ’.
6
rural
settings.
What
we
know
for
sure
is
that
the
history
of
the
rationalisation
and
institutionalisation
of
turuq
began
before
British
colonial
rule
and
the
intensification
of
Western
cultural
and
economic
penetration.
At
that
time ,
the
interests
of
sufi
sheykhs
and
national
politics
were
already
deep ly
interwoven.
7
As
part
of
sufi
brotherhood’s
religious
and
social
cosmologies,
the
celebrations
known
as
mawalid
(sing.
mulid )
are
maybe
their
most
visible
public
manifestations ,
and
both
colonial
and
pre ‐ colonial
travel
chronicles
into
the
Egyptian
Orient
report
long
and
detailed
accounts
of
the
celebrations’
odd
customs
8
.
Originally,
the
word
mulid
derives
from
the
birthday
of
the
Prophet,
mawlid
en nabi ;
it
was
consequently
extended
to
indicate
the
celebrations
in
honour
of
the
birth
or
death
of
remarkable
religious
personalities.
Gilsenan
(1973)
divides
mulids
in
different
categories,
roughly
distinguished
by
the
subjects
of
celebration
and
the
measure
of
participation,
from
the
big
festivals
celebrated
in
honour
of
members
of
the
ahl
al bayt
9
or
famou s
sufi
sheykhs
10
,
to
the
modest
lineage ‐ linked
or
tribal
celebrations.
7
W h i lst
D e
Jong
( 1984)
rep orts
th e
i nsti tuti ona li sa ti on
of
a
Counci l
of
Suf i
Broth erh ood
a s
a
m ea ns
by
wh i ch
t u r u q
sough t
p rotecti on
f rom
sta te
encroa ch m ent,
a ccordi ng
to
Ch i h
( 2 004)
i t
rep resented
a
f i na l
bla st
to
th ei r
a utonom y .
M oreover,
Golubof f ’s
( 2 001)
a rti cle
on
a
m ulti eth ni c
Jewi sh
com m uni ty
i n
p ost‐ Sovi et
M oscow,
a nd
Ch a u
( 2 005)
on
p ost‐ revoluti ona ry
north ern
Ch i nese
tem p les
descri be
si m i la r
brea kdowns
between
secula r
a nd
reli gi ous
di scourses
a nd
i nsti tuti ons
i n
di f f erent
contex ts.
Ewi ng
( 1983)
on
sta te
a uth ori ti es
encroa ch m ent
i n
Pa ki sta ni
sh ri nes
a f f a i rs
a nd
sa i nt
cults.
8
M cPh erson
( 1941),
La ne
( 1836).
But
m u l id s
a re
not
ex clusi vely
Egy p ti a ns.
Si m i la r
f esti vi ti es
a re
com m on
every wh ere
th rough out
th e
south ern
a nd
north ern
M edi terra nea n
sh ores,
celebra ti ons
of
Ch ri sti a ns
sa i nts
i ncluded.
In
M orocco
th ey
a re
known
a s
m a w s im
a nd
i n
Pa ki sta n,
wh ere
th ey
a re
a lso
m ost
p op ula r,
a s
‘ u r s .
9
Such
a s
m u l id
a s‐ Sa y eda
Zey na b
a nd
m u l id
a l‐ Husa y n
i n
Ca i ro.
10
M u l id
a s‐ Sa y ed
a l‐ Ba da wi
i n
Ta nta
or
m u l id
a s‐ Sa y ed
Ibra h i m
a l‐ D i suqi
i n
D i suq.
7
Focusing
mainly
on
narratives
around
the
big
mulids
of
Cairo,
Disuq
and
Tanta,
this
paper
addresses
the
ways
mulids
have
come
to
represent
a
foca l
point
in
the
discussion
on
the
forms
an d
place
of
religion
in
today’s
Egypt.
Addressed
by
public
discourses,
struggling
to
define
the
‘ right’
ways
of
being
Muslim,
mulids
seem
to
shun
any
easy
categor isation.
They
balance
a
loose
observation
of
heterogeneous
religious
practices
and
the
rational isation
of
revivalist
tendencies
that
lean
towards
an
ongoing
definition
of
orthodoxy.
Cairo’s
as ‐ Sayeda
Zeynab’s
mulid
suspension
in
2009
bears
witness
to
the
unprecedented
apex
recently
reached
by
the
controversy.
The
official
reason
given
for
the
suspen sion
was
that
the
gathering
of
tens
of
thousands
of
people
could
enhance
spreading
the
N1H1
virus,
also
known
as
swine
flu.
Whilst
mulids’
detractors
welcomed
the
news
with
favour,
it
encountered
harsh
popular
opposition ,
culminating
in
clashes
between
aspirant
celebrants
and
state
authorities
11
.
In
reality,
the
controversies
entangled
in
mulid
festivals
go
much
deeper
into
the
cultural,
social
and
political
patterns
of
Egypt ’s
public
sphere
and
Egyptians’
everyd ay
lives.
This
paper
attempts
to
make
sense
of
how
public
discou rses
penetrate
the
ways
Egyptians
celebrate
mulids .
Shrines
are
places
where
debated
religious
practices
mix
with
elements
publicly
considered
as
profane
–
entertainment
stands,
markets,
parades
and
masquerades.
According
to
LeVine
(2008),
cultural
studies
should
‘reengage
with
religious
themes,
discourses
and
spheres
of
intellectual
and
public
activity
in
light
of
recent
advances
in
public
sphere
11
El‐ Beh ery
&
el‐ M a h dy
( 2 010).
8
theory’.
Therefore,
my
dissertation
will
focus
on
practices
deemed
as
‘fun’
that
nonetheless
are
not
limited
to
escapist
types
of
entertainment,
but
afford
a
complex
re‐ formulation
of
more
traditional
aesthetic
experiences.
My
argument
is
that,
through
the
practice
of
fun,
contradictive
instances
dichotomised
at
a
discursive
level
become
lived
as
united,
individual
kinaesthetic
experiences.
In
the
first
chapter,
I
introduce
some
theoretical
arguments
that
are
the
basis
of
my
argumentation.
It
will
be
clear
how
an
expanding
notion
of
youth ,
that
breaks
biographical
limits
and
comes
to
embrace
bigger
societal
groupings ,
is
consonant
with
theorisations
of
social
a nd
cultural
marginality,
linked
to
modes
of
sociality
incoherent
with
hegemonic
conventions.
The
will
to
have
fun
is
one
of
the
contexts
in
which
this
irreverence
is
played
out,
which
sociolog ical
an d
anthropological
works
have
unfortunately
consistently
overlooked.
I
will
give
an
insight
into
the
ways
in
which
practices
of
‘fun’
are
institutionalised
and
made
proper,
but
also
into
how
boredom
can
become
an
existent ial
feeling
that
encourages
the
selection
of
more
or
less
proper
ways
of
enjoying
oneself.
The
second
chapter
will
discuss
the
raging
debate
over
mulid
celebrations
in
detail .
At
a
discursive
level,
the
overdetermination
of
religion’s
place
and
shape
in
public
and
private
space
has
led
to
a
radical
dichotomisation
of
terms
that
ends
up
breaking
religious
experiences
in
parts;
backward
and
modern,
serious
and
frivolous,
orthodox
and
heterodox.
I
will
demonstrate
how
practices
of
fun
and
the
birth
of
a
new
musical
genre
afford
the
re‐ contextualisation
of
the
sufi
aesthetic
experience
and
assert,
at
the
level
of
the
action ,
the
lost
unity
of
mulids .
9
Finally,
to
make
sense
of
this
apparently
contradictive
theorisation,
in
the
third
chapter
I
enrich
the
bakhtinan
application
of
literary
theory
to
festivals
by
introducing
the
parody
as
a
paradigmatic
scheme
of
some
mulid ‐ celebrants’
experience.
According
to
bakhtinan
and
later
definitions,
parody
is
at
the
same
time
antithetical
and
supportive
of
the
text
it
parodies.
Moreover ,
it
confers
to
the
parodied
text
a
sort
of
‘authorisation’ ,
at
the
same
time
stating
the
preponderance
of
its
own
semantic
value.
I
will
show
how
this
paradigm
applies
to
fun
performances
that
reinterpret
sufi
practices,
thereby
commenting
on
mulids’
general
predicament
a nd
on
the
personal
fate
of
mulid ‐ goers.
Finally,
the
discourse
is
situated
in
the
ongoing
debate
around
nondiscoursive
practices
as
sites
of
instantiation
of
alternative
modes
of
sociality.
Through
their
very
performances,
the
subjects
of
my
analysis
affir m
the
unity
of
their
subjecti vities,
at
once
displaying,
if
not
the
measure ,
at
least
the
nature
of
their
agency.
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