H is for ...Hello!...and...Haddad ...and... Helwa... and... Hammam

is for

Hello! is ‘Marhaba’ in Arabic, when you meet face to face. On the telephone the Arabs say Allo or Alluw,  closer to a French-ish accent rather than English, which somehow reminds me of Hercule Poirot. So. Marhaba! I'm back, and we're into the second week of the A-Z Challenge.

Diana Haddad, one of the most popular Arab artistes, an Emirati of Lebanese origin. Her breakthrough single ‘Amaneh’ greeted me when I first came to the Gulf, a great rhythmic chart-topper of 1997, have a listen. 

Helwa!

Helwa literally means ‘sweet’ and is used the same way as ‘cute’ or ‘nice’ or ‘sweet’ would be used by an English speaker in the colloquial. The word is originally from the root word h-l-w in Arabic and has diffused into Turkish, Yiddish, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali and even globally, used to mean desserts generally but actually refers to one particular dish, interpreted differently.

This confection is made from some kind of grain-flour (wheat – usually semolina), nuts, or even veggies such as carrots, yams, pumpkins. The main ingredient is combined with vast amounts of fat (usually ghee- clarified butter), sweetened with sugar or honey, and sprinkled with roasted nuts, cardamom, cloves, saffron, mace, rosewater etc. Yum! eaten hot or cold.

Incidentally, the Arabs have a massive sweet tooth, just like the Bengalis! Eat a huge variety of desserts. Not exactly the first place of choice if you want to preserve your sanity! Or your waistline.

Roadside vendor of Lokmat el Qadi, sweet dumplings.

Mersa Matruh, Egypt.  

Hammam

A Hammam is a public bathhouse, and has a long history in the Middle East. Bathhouses came to the Middle East from Byzantium, through the traditions of the Eastern Roman Empire.  Baths dating back to the 3^rd century BCE have been excavated in the ruins of Karanis, a Graeco-Roman settlement on the edge of Fayoum, near Cairo. 

Ruins of Karanis. Where remains of an ancient bathhouse 

have been found. Kom Oushim, Fayoum. Egypt.

The coming of Islam spurred the building of Hammams in the region – Islam demanded ritual ablutions as part of spiritual practice.  And as the Islamic Empire expanded, the capital moved from Medina first to Damascus, then to Baghdad and then onwards to Cairo and Istanbul. Each successive leader built newer and more lavish bathhouses both for their private palaces and for their citizenry all through their lands. The culture of hammams reached a peak during Ottoman rule, and the practice is still known by the name of 'Turkish bath' the world over.

Replica of dome at Khirbat al Mafjar Bathhouse, Jericho. 8th century. 

National Archaeological Museum. Amman. Jordan.

Freshwater, reflective bath built for Dona Maria de Padilla. 

Alcazar of Seville, built in the Moorish style. 

Essentially the hammam consisted of three separate chambers – one for heat/steam treatment, one for tepid water washing, and one for cold treatment.  Apart from these, there were sections for massage, soaping/scrubbing, washing off - various grooming activities. Floors were made of marble, surfaces were decorated with stuccowork or frescoes, elaborate fountains and faucets were incorporated into the décor.  Western painters found the bathhouses fascinating and painted some scintillating hot (and of course totally imaginary! feeding into the 'exotic' stereotypes of the East according to some Arab scholars) scenes set in them.

The Harem Bathing. Painting byJean-Leon Gerome,
Orientalist. (1824-1904)

Bathing was of course, segregated – men and women used separate baths or used common facilities on different days/times.  Women's use of bathhouses marked a special social tradition in the Middle East, wedding rituals and confinement ceremonies were celebrated there. The bathhouses were an acceptable venue for women to go to alone without males.

The bathhouse culture in most places has lost its shine because of private bathing practices and faster modern lives. But the hammams in Turkey and Morocco still carry on the glamorous, leisurely tradition.



Are the traditional hammams outdated? should they be phased out? Or be restored/revived as major ways to detox in Hyper-stressed modern urban living?

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, there were two horrible attacks on worshippers at Tanta and Alexandria in Egypt, more than 40 people killed, hundreds injured.  It is heartbreaking this quagmire of violence the region seems to be trapped in. What can one say?

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2017