Weddings, funerals and a controversial Soap opera.

Sana'a, Yemen 2008

Weddings are a daily occurrence in the months leading up to Ramadan when weddings do not take place. In the Islamic world, the time frame between the official marriage contract signing and the wedding may be a few days, or it may be months.  But although the contract signing is the official one, the couple do not live together until the actual celebration of it, married or not. There may be many reasons for the delay; financial, waiting for distant family members to be there at the same time, a death in the family etc.  Weddings in the Islamic world are extremely expensive affairs and Yemen is no exception;  hospitality is expected to be lavish and the whole neighborhood or community is invited, everyone must be fed and a meal is nothing without meat, qat must be procured at the very least for the males of the families involved and in the case of wealthier families, for everyone, women need clothes and the bride needs a dowry including jewelry, and everything has gone up in price including gold, qat and lamb!

Women celebrate at home and/or in special halls rented for the occasion with fancy food, shishas and qat, as well as loud music live or taped, while for the men, huge tents are erected throughout the city where they wander in and out as and when they can, gathering to chat, smoke, chew qat and dance. There is almost always an oud player. (An oud being a fretless, 11-stringed instrument shaped like an old-fashioned lute – the word lute itself coming from the Arabic – 'al-oud'.) 

Fortunately the oud player and singer who sings at weddings in my area is excellent and I am treated to a free concert every second or third week. I say fortunate, because he plays until 0315 and then the Imam takes over. 

I have spoken of the Imam opposite me before. I have adjusted to him by working until 0430 and wakening up with the noon prayer. But this morning another mosque broadcast the pre-dawn call to prayer – the tisbeyeh - at 0305. The dawn prayer does not start until 0425 but clearly the Imam thought the people needed rousing. The dawn call to prayer is quite mystical because the muezzins of distant mosques blend with those close by in a harmonious concerto because they are not all exactly on cue. But my Imam also broadcasts the entire prayer long after the muezzin, which is somewhat less mystical, and yesterday children were reciting suras over the microphone after the end of the dawn prayer which was less mystical still……

There have been several funerals at 'my' Imam's mosque of late. Pre-telephone days, the quickest way of letting people in the neighborhood know that someone had died was the local mosque - the Imam would broadcast the prayers of the dead, mentioning the name of the person who had died, to alert everyone who would visit the family bringing condolences and food, and attend the funeral, which in Islam takes place as quickly as possible.  Nobody who lives in the house of a deceased person should cook for three days during which time friends and neighbors cook and take food to the family. In traditional families this is still done. In the Old City the custom of reciting prayers has survived as has the strains of a somber dirge which is haunting but strangely soothing at the same time.  If the person has died during the night, these prayers will begin soon after the dawn prayer and there will be prayers and chanting from the mosque for three days after death.
 
Funeral rites in Yemen are simple. Shortly after death, the body is washed and wrapped in a shroud and taken to the mosque. After prayers, the salat al-ghaib,  the body will be taken to the graveyard borne through the streets on a litter carried by different people. In some Muslim countries the pallbearers change every seven steps, in Yemen they do change although it does not appear that there is a formula - everyone will touch the litter as a gesture of respect but also to gain a kind of blessing.  In the case of women the litter may be decorated with a sitara, the traditional, multi-colored patterned cloth that Sana’ani women covered themselves with until the black abaya, or balto, became more popular. There may also be sprigs of fresh flowers on top of the bier. Like the men, the bier is covered with a green or black shroud embroidered with Koranic texts. The body is then interred on its side with the face towards Mecca. Women do not take part in public funeral rites even if the deceased is a woman, and normally visit the grave the following day.

Funeral procession for a woman with the sitara decorating the bier

People are already beginning to stock up on rice, water, beans, flour and sugar for all the special foods which are made during Ramadan, before the prices rise. It is the custom to have new clothes at Eid al-Fitr, the holiday at the end of Ramadan, so women are shopping for clothes before those prices go up too. Samosas have already made their appearance – delicious filo-pastry triangles filled with either meat, spinach or cheese which are served here with a spicy tomato-based dipping sauce called zahawag. Then there is harissa – a sweet dessert, after which it is traditional to drink a glass of chai ma zanjabil or ginger tea, which is actually ginger, gishr or coffee husks and tea.  Ramadan is a festive time, people live at night and sleep during the day so the working day is turned upside down. Lights are strung across streets and because everyone is up at night, more electricity is required.  The grid already cannot cope so power outages during the day are common but nobody cares because they are all asleep and all cooking is done on propane.

In keeping with the global warming phenomenon, we are not having the daily inundations which we would expect at this time of year. The mini-monsoon in Spring was late so perhaps the summer monsoon will do the same. We have had a few spectacular storms with attendant flooding - the kids in the neighborhood love it because they wade in the filthy water of as-Sailah which becomes a canal, drivers are less enthusiastic especially when they get stuck.

Lightning over the Old City

Ramadan is also the time when special soap operas are aired. One of the most popular soaps in the Arab world at the moment called Noor, after the main female lead, is originally Turkish. It is a massive hit for the Saudi TV channel MBC4. Ironically when it first came out in Turkey it was not that popular, but a Syrian production company bought it and dubbed it into Arabic using the voice of a well-know Syrian actress for Noor. People are hooked. There is no nudity or sex, but there is the odd episode of drunkenness, drinking and kissing, and Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti is most displeased by the whole thing and has prohibited Muslims from watching it saying it is “replete with evil”.  I wonder if this will mean any changes? The channel is Saudi-owned but based in Dubai, and if they give it up it would take all of a nanosecond for another TV station to buy up the rights. It has all the makings of a good soap opera……….

Marooned in as-Sailah