Sunday, March 23, 2008

~ within the antiquated ~


(picture's source)

Isn't it such a beautiful scene to one's eyes & soul, when seeing men gathering around together, making a united effort in beautifying our world? This was the feeling I had when I was watching those Armenian men, months ago, dancing together to some strong loud beats while hitting the ground so hard making their tapping go beautifully with the rhyming beats.. Again this feeling came to life when I saw Palestinian men doing almost the same moves to some similar beats..

I always think about the roots of things.. Like how did they start, how did they begin.. I often look up their source, or simply make up my own story ;) Like for instance these dances: I don't know from where exactly I got this feeling, but I, for some reason, got this notion that loooooong ago, men used to do this stomping while performing some agricultural activities!

'Hoyamal' is this old chant that fishermen used to sing here while fishing.. I thought it originated from the word 'amal', which stands for 'hope'.. But I found out somewhere that it means 'God's blessing' :)

It's interesting to realize that everything good & bad has a starting point.. I hope we could be the starting points to any good thing, no matter how small it may be..

~

P.S. It'd be amazing if anyone could help my sister in finding out where 'Egypt' came from.. I know that 'Misr' is the old name of Egypt, so where did the name 'Egypt' come from?

21 comments:

MASS said...

Thats what we are good for.. dancing and singing to supposedly ease our hardships "al hilm al 3arabi" "ad-dameer al arabi" and such stuff

reminds me of a clip for Malcom X talking to his fellow black people about how nationalism frees people
( in his nation of islam days)

"they did not sing we will overcome"

Egypt is from Egyptos which means coptic ( i think)

sara said...

For some reason, your comments somehow bring me a smile :)

Thanks for the thought, I'll let sis know :)

LuLu...! said...

MAN....

Y DIDNT U TELL ME????
HUH??

:@

sara said...

'cuz tab'an I thought you're highness was sleeping!

:P

Gold said...

Egypt came from the Latin word Ecopt, which originated from the word Coptos, which is the name of the community that lived in Egypt for long ages: the Copts.

We are all Egyptians, so we are all Copts, they say in Egypt and in Arabic 'Al-Aqbaat'

see? Copt? :)

Hello out there! still pounding the ground like those men did?

MASS said...

well.. am glad it can make you smile :S.

aaahh now Gold is a patriotic Egyptian

I dont really buy this whole thing of we are 2aqbaa6.. Egypt has had major settlments, the "higsoos" Jews and Arabs.. there is a lot of mix with mediteranians too..also Africans in the south

there is no such thing as an egyptian race. Egyptians are like the koshari they make..

well appart from that am from Arab tribal descent and i only like koshari from arza2 in maadi.

sorry Sara to hijack your post
am Arab after all we do hijack stuff..

sara said...

Abdo,
Hello out there!
Thanks for sharing its meaning.. Finally we got to know it :D
I had a VERY coptic colleague back in college who had a very good heart.. He was a good example of Copts :)
And hey, no matter how hard I try, I can't pound as good as them :(

MASS,
LOL MR. ARAB MAN.. It's okay, you can hijack my post.. I'm cool with that..
I hope to try this koshary out sometime inshaAllah :)

Gold said...

mo3allemy MASS..

Arzak is one of the best Koshary places in Cairo indeed, just clean with some exquisite touch, and I do love it when they pray in time no matter what, they close down the shop and they all pray once the adhan calls.., a rare place in Cairo now where they give you service with a smile..

Don't you miss it already? :D

And btw, the Copts of Egypt mostly get married from people of the same race mostly, for a really really long time since the time of the Pharaohs. you could see a Coptic girl from Egypt and imagine that she really DOES look like Cleopatra or Nefertiti or any of those statues of Egyptian ladies we see among the monuments..

Sara the Koshary is ready, all you have to do is come and claim it :D

sara said...

Oh, the guy from uni was sooooo canadian.. But originally coptic.. So i don't really know how they look like..

I wish I could have been able to come in this weather :( SubhanaAllah, we were planning on coming last weekend to Luxur, but no naseeb!

LuLu...! said...

koshari...we 7omos 2el shaam...

man...feeeenak ya zamaaan...2ayaam 2el 7omos el shaam we el nile...

lol...

i wonder wats the singular form of "aqbaat" in arabic??

qabat?? lol

sara said...

hahahaha :D

homos sham beats koshary.. maleesh da'wa! mhmmmmmmmm.. A lotta lemons & spicies.. yummy yummy :)

sara said...

Egypt (Gk. Aigyptos, Lat. Aegyptus)

Anonymous said...

I thought how am i gonna beat Koshary and 7omos elsham...till i remembered elfashenka7...
hehehe i bet u :P

nuh ibn zbigniew gondek said...

As salaam alaikum sister!

Jazak'allahu khairn for your patience with my lukewarm effort recently!

Ma'as salaama,
nuh ibn

sara said...

rasha,
:D What a name! fa shen ka7 ?
What's that rasha? :D

Alaikum assalam brother,
I hope it's all been going good for you & the family..
Always looking forward to reading your work :)
ma'assalama..

Gihan said...

You are Tagged :)

sara said...

Thanks gjoe :)

I'll do it as soon as I get the time to :)

Maqsood Qureshi said...

Saroooooooooooo: I miss you so much! :( Sulk! Marry me, Dummy! I love you like a maniac! Can’t you feel the vibes eh?

sara said...

Masqood,

What do you mean you miss me?!

I don't think any girl would like this kinda proposal!

All I feel is disrespectful vibes!

sara said...

Maqsood*

Maqsood Qureshi said...

Saroooooooooooo: “Demigoddess shooing pigeons away!” Remember? Irreverence? Nope. Outright, point-blank no. That’s an unthinkable.
How’d I possibly do this with absolute, unfeigned sincerity -- distinctly proper convention and formality – with zero chance of denial?