No comments Water and Minarets, 1868
Reverend A.C. Smith
Then the strange architecture, the really handsome fountains, which abound at the comers of the bazaars for the continual refreshment of this water–loving people; the mosques, many of which have no slight pretensions to beauty, above all the minarets, the most graceful and elegant of buildings, and which catch the eye at the distant ends of the streets; the light and airy lattice–work of the windows, which admits the air, but keeps out prying eyes from the rigidly secluded interior; these and many a charming bit of detail, on which one continually stumbles in the more retired part of this extensive city, made our daily rides through the streets of Cairo fascinating and amusing during the whole of our stay.
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| Ancient Egyptian Nile |
At intervals, and more especially at the quieter hours of evening and night, came the musical chant of the Muezzins from the galleries of the tall minarets, calling the faithful to prayer; and as the solemn sound of these aerial invitations to devotion float over the city, it seems like the melodious voice of angels calling out of heaven: “God is great. God is merciful. There is no Deity but God: Mahommed is the Apostle of God. Come to prayer, come to prayer. Prayer is better than sleep. There is no Deity but God.”
But what continually came uppermost in the minds of us all, and I suppose of most of my fellow countrymen in Cairo, was the strong feeling we had that we were living in the midst of the scenes so familiar to us in childhood from that favourite book, The Arabian Nights Entertainments, but never realised till now.
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