The Map of Love (85 page)

Sallim silahak ya
Urabi:
surrender your arms,
Urabi. Used for when an opponent is in an impossible position — as
Urabi was in Tel el-Kebir. Chess terminology: Wazir: [Prime] Minister. In the West the Queen; the Elephant is the Bishop, the Horse is the Knight and the Fortress is the Rook.

sanduq
el-dunya:
Literally ‘the box of the world’. A peep-show. Putting your head beneath a black hood and your eye to the peephole, you could see the seven wonders of the world or the Eiffel Tower etc.

Satir:
One of the names of God. Literally He who shields, covers, protects.

Sattar:
One of the names of God. Emphatic form of He who shields, covers, protects.

sayyid:
master, also used as ‘mister’.

sayyidna:
our master, used to a sheikh.

sebertaya:
small stove lit with
seberto
(spirits, alcohol).

sett:
lady.

Settena Maryam:
Our Lady Mary.

setti:
my lady.

shahada:
the creed. ‘I bear witness that there is no God but God and that Muhammad is his prophet.’ From sh/h/d: to bear witness. This is the first of the five essential bases of Islam and what a Muslim will say in extremis, such as at the moment of death.

sheikh el-mestakhabbi, el-:
the hidden sheikh (kh/b/a: to grow faint; kh/bb/a: to hide (transitive); makhba
is a hideout, an air-raid shelter)

Shobbeik lobbeik, khaddamak bein eidek:
the traditional opening line of the jinni of the lamp. ‘Lobbeik’ is a variation on 1/bb/a; to respond. ‘Shobbeik’ is there for the rhyme, although it is also a variant on ‘What’s the matter with you?’ in Levantine dialect. ‘Khaddamak’: your servant, from kh/ d/m: to serve. Bein: between. Eideik: your hands.

shwayya:
a little.

si:
shortened version of
sidi
.

sidaq:
money given as pledge of marriage. Normally given by the man to the woman, the lesser part on the signing of the marriage contract, the greater held back as the woman’s insurance against divorce.

sidi:
my master (abbreviated from
sayyidi)
used in secular context.

Southern Lebanon Army Militias:
army created and funded by Israel from right-wing Lebanese militias.

Sublime Porte:
a title for the Sultan (al-Bab al-’Ali).

sufragi:
a male attendant. From Turkish ‘sufra’: table (laid for dining), one who attends the ‘sufra’ — a footman.

suhur:
late meal eaten to prepare for the next day’s fast during Ramadan. Can be any time from two in the morning until just before the rising of the sun.

sura:
a chapter of the Qur
an.

Suret Yasin:
the Chapter of Yasin. A favourite chapter for reciting for the dead as it tells of God’s mercy and of paradise.

syce:
groom. From Arabic ‘sayis’, root: s/a/s, to tame (siyasah is politics, siyasi is both a politician and a tactful person, musayasah is coaxing).

takht:
literally ‘a raised platform’ and by métonymie transfer the musical ensemble to accompany a singer. It consists of a lute, a qanun (a kind of small horizontal harp), a tambourine and a tabla (drum). The musicians are all seated.

tar ab:
explained in text,
mutrib:
one who causes tarab,
shab tereb:
a gay dog, a young blade;
tarabattatta tarabattat-tee:
tra-la-la;
Jamal wa Taroob:
a Lebanese singing couple who were in vogue in Cairo in the Sixties;
etmanni mniyyah:
make a wish;
w’estanni
alayya:
and give me some time;
iddili Pmiyya:
count to a hundred,…

tarbush:
fez.

tarha:
headcover of black chiffon used by traditional women. If worn in the house it is white and shows great piety.

tayyib:
good, very well, OK.

Tewfiq:
the Khedive of Egypt in 1882 during the
Urabi Revolution.

Tokar, I’ll have you sent to:
a common expression of threat. Tokar was a distant province in the Sudan known for its harsh climate and conditions. When the Sudan was under Egyptian/Turkish rule, an officer or civil servant who incurred the displeasure of the authorities was posted to Tokar — there to live a miserable life and die an early death.

Toshki:
a huge irrigation project, inaugurated in January 1997, to create another main branch for the Nile at Toshki, slightly south-west of Aswan.

Toubah and Baramhat:
Coptic names of the months corresponding to January and April. Fallaheen, in their dealings
with the land, still work by the old Coptic calendar as it most accurately corresponds to the specific climate of Egypt.

umdah:
the headman of a village. In 1997 a law was passed making it possible for women to hold the position of
umdah.