A Short History of the Fatimid KhalifateO'Leary, De Lacy
History
A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate
O'Leary, De Lacy
Egypt -- History -- 640-1250; Egypt -- Kings and rulers; Fatimites -- History
We have already seen that strict laws against going out at night were
made as the result, no doubt, of abuses arising from the nightly
illuminations and merry-making. Now, in 395, more stringent regulations
were made. It was enacted that no women were to appear in the street
unveiled, and that no persons were to use the baths without wearing
wrappers. In Jumada II. of this year, a general prohibition was issued
against any persons going out of doors after sunset, so that the streets
were deserted by night. In accordance with another law all vessels
containing wine were seized, the vessels broken, and the wine poured out
(Maq. ii. 286). Another law dealt with the dogs which roam about most
eastern cities and who, in Muslim lands are savage because they lack
human intercourse, for the religion of Islam has placed the dog and the
pig apart as animals who are in all circumstances unclean, so that no one
who has touched either of these is able to pray or eat without formal
ablution. Now al-Hakim commenced a war of extermination against dogs,
with the result that in Cairo many were slain and very few could be seen
in the streets. Severus says that this rule was made because al-Hakim’s
ass had taken fright at a dog barking at it: in strict accuracy the
Khalif had not at this time adopted the custom of riding an ass, but this
is a minor detail.
Stricter rules also were made excluding ordinary civilians from Kahira,
from which it appears that the seclusion of the guarded city had been
somewhat relaxed. In future no one was to be allowed to ride into it,
but must dismount and proceed on foot, and all those who let out asses
for hire were to be excluded from its precincts, whilst no one was to be
allowed to pass in front of the royal palace even on foot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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