Dance in the Middle East

‘Awalim, singular ‘alma (sometimes transliterated as ‘almeh), literally means “learned women,” meaning they were educated in the arts of singing, poetry, music composition, playing musical instruments, and performance. Scholar Natalie Smolenski points out that the word is the feminine counterpart of ‘alim, which is “the title given to male religious scholars;” indeed, she says, “many of these women were well versed in subjects of religion in addition to their musical and literary training.”¹ According to English traveler Edward Lane who lived in Egypt at the turn of the 20th century, the ‘awalim were often highly paid, respected, and wealthy women would invite them into their homes to entertain their families. The ‘awalim performed mostly for the women of the harem² (the women’s living quarters), and were allowed to go in and out of the harem without needing permission.³ Lane notes that the ‘awalim would perform “on the occasion of any great rejoicing among the women,” such as “the birth of a son,” “circumcision,” or “a wedding.”⁴  Scholar of Egyptian dance history Marjorie Franken says that in the late 19th century, “the awalim and the ghawazi were poles apart in their social acceptability and adherence to the conventions of female seclusion.” The ‘awalim were allowed in the harems of the upper-class,⁵ and to protect the ‘awalim’s honor in the presence of men, male family members and guests would have to listen to their singing on the other side of a mashrabiyya—a window covering of intricate lattice work through which it is difficult to see—or the women would play on a balcony over an inner courtyard, so that the men could hear their music, but not see them play. The ‘awalim would participate in wedding celebrations, but only as singers, never as dancers. They might have attended bride’s private wedding parties, such as her henna night.⁶

The ghawazi, unlike the ‘awalim, performed in public, and were generally viewed by Egyptian society as disreputable, as they performed unveiled in public, often in front of coffeehouses.⁷ They also smoked the water pipe and drank “considerable amounts of brandy.” In general, they were not regarded by Egyptian society as “decent women.”⁸ They followed the mawlid, saint’s day, celebrations that often include carnival-like entertainments. Early travelers described them as dancers only, not as prostitutes, a distinction that changed later. Finger cymbals were, and continue to be, an integral part of their performances; they were also known to have danced with a variety of props,⁹ such as scarves, sticks, and candles.¹⁰ They were sometimes hired to perform outside of wedding celebrations, but never inside, and often the morning after the dakhla (consummation).

The ghawazi (singular ghaziya) are thought to be descended from the Romany tribes who settled in Egypt as early as the 5th century. In fact, their name implies an outsider status; ghazi means “invader” in Arabic.¹¹ Like other dancers in the Middle East, the earliest record we have of them is from European travelers in the region no earlier than the 18th century. Marjorie Franken says that in 1817, one traveler estimated there were 6-8,000 ghawazi in Egypt. ¹² Travelers’ accounts from this time describe them as looking and dressing different from other Egyptians, and nearly every European who encountered them were fascinated by their unfamiliar and “strange” dances. Traveler Edward W. Lane said the ghawazi performed “unveiled in the public streets,” and their dancing had “little of elegance,” with its “chief peculiarity being a very rapid vibrating motion of the hips from side to side.” ¹³ In his novel, Askaros Kassis the Copt, Edwin de Leon, wrote in 1870 that the ghawazi “writhed and twisted their lithe bodies and sinuous limbs in strange muscular contortions—into almost impossible positions—keeping time to the music with every motion.” ¹⁴ Travelers in the early 19th century, according to Marjorie Franken, “did not describe the ghawazi dancing girls as prostitutes,” however this is a distinction that would change in the mid-1800s. 

As the French and British armies took greater interest in Egypt in the early 19th century, the ‘awalim were increasingly described as singers and who were sometimes dancers, and the ghawazi as dancers and who were sometimes prostitutes. Edward W. Lane in 1908 wrote that the ghawazi were “the most abandoned of the courtesans of Egypt.” ¹⁵ As more Europeans frequented Egypt female entertainers made themselves more visible, taking advantage of the new clientele in the foreign soldiers and travelers. ¹⁶ The Egyptian leadership, still vassals of the Ottoman Empire, increased their taxes on the female entertainers, seeing them as a steady source of revenue for the state. However, Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, self-declared leader of Egypt with the Ottoman’s temporary approval, was eager to please the religious authorities who objected to a tax on vice and to portray Egypt as a more European-style country; he banished the public female entertainers (and prostitutes) from working in Cairo in 1834. If they were not deported, then they fled, particularly to Esna, Qena, and Luxor (Upper Egypt). It was there that they turned increasingly to prostitution, partly because of the requests of foreign tourists who followed them there, but also because of the poverty the dancers faced in Upper Egypt. ¹⁷

Intially, the status of the ‘awalim was not as negatively affected by the ban as was that of the ghawazi. Van Nieuwkerk says the “higher-class ‘awalim could continue their usual activites,” such as “singing and making music in the harems.” She says that “it is possible that singing and dancing on special occasions such as native weddings was still allowed in Cairo.” ¹⁸ Eventually, however, the position of the ‘awalim fell from respectable to fallen, and the terms ‘awalim and ghawazi appeared to be used interchangably. One traveler, H. de Vaujany, noted in 1883 that “the almehs have fallen from their earlier position; they have come down to the rank of the most vulgar courtesans.”¹⁹ Van Nieuwkerk, too, says that “the word ‘alma completely lost its original meaning of learned woman,” and “by the 1850s it denoted a dancer-prostitute.” ²⁰ 

Before Muhammad Ali banished the ghawazi and ‘awalim from Cairo, Van Nieuw-kerk says that there was also an unnamed third category of female entertainers between the two in class and status. They were from lower-class families and performed in working-class neighborhoods. ²¹ This third group of performers might have contributed to the confusion between the two terms, and why some people have used them interchangeably.

The “dancing girls” returned to Cairo when Abbas Basha lifted the ban in the 1850s, probably in order to levy taxes on their earnings once again, but were not allowed to perform publicly except on special occasions. Despite these restrictions, however, there was still an abundance of female entertainers. When the British declared a protectorate in Egypt in 1882, and, for all intents and purposes, directed the Egyptian government, they sought to regulate entertainments, such as those at the mawlid saint’s days and at cafes. The “cafe-chantant” became the new venue of choice, where dancers and singers could be hidden from the public, and entertainment could be “increasingly institutionalized and regulated.” In 1869, Khedive Ismail built an opera house in Cairo, in Ezbekiyyah Gardens, to provide an “area of familiarity and amusement for the growing number of European professionals in Cairo.” ²² These café-chantants and the push for more European-style venues eventually gave rise to nightclubs which showcased “native dancing,” and as Van Nieuwkerk notes, “at the turn of the century, the local dancing, for the first time, was called belly-dancing.” ²³

Ironically, when the “dancing girls” returned to Cairo, they settled on Muhammad ‘Ali Street, a long boulevard constructed to connect the citadel, once the traditional seat of the government, to the new palace and Ezbekiyyah Square in Cairo’s new European district. Both Franken and Van Nieuwkerk provide excellent accounts of this new center for entertainment. Van Nieuwkerk tells us that Muhammad ‘Ali street “consisted of music shops” selling instruments, as well as cafes and “agencies for parties.” She also notes that at the beginning of the 20th century, wedding celebrations were still gender-segregated, creating a demand for all-female musical ensembles and dancers. Under the management of the usṭa—an experienced and older woman who was once or still was a performer—women, still called ‘awalim, could find performance work and eventually become an usṭa herself. ²⁴ The ‘awalim would travel to their work veiled, as they would before the banishment. 

In the 1930s and 1940s, the ‘awalim faded from Cairo’s entertainment scene. Wedding celebrations became “less segregated and less extravagant,” and “people either abolished professional entertainment at the women’s party or allowed female guests to be present at the men’s party.” In addition to social changes, economic and political strife in the 1930s spurred a religious revival in Cairo, and in the 1940s the Muslim Brotherhood and fundamentalist groups attempted to ban the mawlid celebrations, claiming that they were un-Islamic. President Gamal Abdel Nasser repressed the religious groups, reviving the festivals in the 1950s, but by this point the ‘awalim had effectively vanished. Muhammad ‘Ali street began to decline in the 1970s, as economic strife struck Egypt and those seeking entertainment turned to nightclubs or recorded music. ²⁵

While the tradition of the ‘awalim has faded, the ghawazi continue to perform in Egypt. According to researcher Sahra Kent, only five ghawazi groups remain, the most famous of them being the Benat Mazin in Upper Egypt, and their matriarch, Khayriyya Mazin.