In the last two articles we toured Cairo and Alexandria of the 14th century in the company of the famed Arab traveler Ibn Battouta. This week we are going to hear of his impressions about a third Egyptian place, which is Damietta; the town of seagulls.
Damietta is located on both the Nile and the Mediterranean Sea. Most of its houses then had staircases that led to the river and people used a bucket to get water from the Nile.
Concerning the livelihood at Damietta, Ibn Battouta mentioned that people worked in agriculture, heavily cultivating banana trees and transporting the crops to Cairo by boats. Fishing was popular too, since the fishermen had access to both the sea and the Nile and they used to export very high quality fish to Syria and Europe. He commented that sheep herds used to graze day and night in Damietta and water buffalos were famous for their excellent quality of their milk.
In the city there was a small mosque called Sheikh el-Sawi which was frequently visited by a peculiar group called the Kalandrians, who used to shave their heads, beards and eyebrows.
Ibn Battouta recited the story he heard behind this; Sheikh el-Sawi was a very handsome man who was loved and desired by a woman from an area called Saw. This woman used to send him love messages and tried to attract his attention everywhere, but the Sheikh, refusing to be distracted by earthly desires, used to always avoid her. She finally gave up and thought of another plan. She had an old woman intercept his way, asking him to read her a letter from her son, pretending that she could not read and, when he agreed she asked him to read it loudly at her house so that her son’s wife would hear it.
As soon as Sheikh el-Sawi entered the house, she locked him inside and of course the relentless woman, who loved him, was waiting there for him. He pretended to have accepted her invitation on the condition that she would allow him first to go to the toilet. In the toilet he completely shaved his head, beard and eyebrows. When he returned to her he was so ugly that she could not bear him in her sight anymore.
That is how Sheikh el-Sawi was saved from the lady’s attempt and ever since then all his disciples have been following his steps by fully shaving their heads, beards and eyebrows.
Ibn Battouta also spoke about the miracles of Sheikh el-Sawi. One of the stories he recited was about a judge who mocked the sheikh, asking what had happened to him. When Sheikh el-Sawi heard him, he shouted, put his head down and when he raised, it he had a black thick beard. Then he repeated the action for a second time and the hair became white, then a third time, and reverted to being a man without a beard. The judge immediately kissed his hand and became one of his followers.
Plenty of such wondrous stories and events that happened in many different countries were recounted and documented by Ibn Battouta and definitely history is genuinely indebted to this great traveler and narrator.
