Hawazi

The house is one of the six main large ethnic groups of gypsies. The territory of residence of this branch is the Arabic-speaking countries, Turkey , Iran , Iraq , Cyprus , Transcaucasia , Central Asia , and Israel . One of the most poorly studied gypsy branches. The house and hawazi came to Egypt through Syria , possibly at a rather late time. The Gawazis themselves called themselves “baramika” (barmaki, baramka), claimed to have their own kind from a family whose members were at one time close and then victims of Caliph Harun ar-Rashid , this family is mentioned in several tales of “A Thousand and One Nights” ^[1] . In the 19th century, unjustified documents suggested that the hawazis were descendants of the dancers who entertained the ancient pharaohs of Egypt, analogies were drawn between the images of that era and the hawazi dances.

In large cities, Gawazis usually occupied part of the quarter reserved for public women. Their performances were banned in 1834 by Muhammad Ali of Egypt ^[2] . After that, they settled in South Egypt. Part of the hawazi remained in Cairo , posing as Almei .

The first reliable mention of Gavazi dates back only to the 18th century . One reason for the lack of data on gawazi is the influence of Islam . From a religious point of view, their relaxed and frank dances were questionable, although theological attempts were made to justify their existence. The first hawazi images that have survived to our time were made by European travelers in the middle of the 19th century , however, most often Europeans mistook them for Almea and under this name they appear in the paintings. Belly dance has been mentioned in connection with gawazi since the 1860s. From the second half of the XIX century, a large number of photographs of the hawazi made by Europeans came.

There were a small number of young male performers called khawals ^[2] . Among the hawali were Egyptians who portrayed the hawazi, dressing in women's clothing, and their dance. This was due to the belief that there is nothing obscene in gawazi dancing, except that it is not appropriate for a woman to appear in front of men with an open face ^[1] . Young men or boys, who in all respects resemble hawali (clothing, manner of holding, appearance) and dancing hawazi dances, were called "gink". They belonged to the ethnic minorities of Egypt and emphasized the most erotic elements of dance ^[1] . Part of the gawazi did not belong to the gypsies, but it was called so because of the specific dances that they made for a living.

For a number of reasons: the strengthening of Islamic fundamentalism , the difficult economic situation that does not allow spending large sums of money on traditional holidays, the strong influence of Western culture, the hawazi traditions are currently disappearing ^[3] . The styles of Upper and Lower Egypt differ. The most outstanding dancers from an artistic point of view belong to the ethnic minorities of Nauar, Halab and Bahlavan, and live in Upper Egypt. Their dances are accompanied by drums and mizmar (an instrument similar to an oboe ^[4] and sounding like a trumpet ) ^[5] . At present, the Hawati family Banat Mazin (Banat Mazin), belonging to the Nauar, settled in Luxor and became widely known for dancing in the 60-70s of the XX century, is well known ^[6] . Many experts believe that the Mazin family is the only family practicing authentic hawazi dances, since the tradition of their performance there has never been interrupted and has not experienced significant external influence.

Gavazi performed at religious and other folk festivals (usually camped), but more often performed on weekdays in the streets of large cities in front of the crowd. During family celebrations, they were invited to rich houses to entertain the guests, but were not allowed into the house, and even more so in the harem . Hawaii performed their dances in the courtyard or in front of the doors of the house.

Hawaii did not cover their faces in the streets. Their dances were aimed at arousing sensuality in the audience, often they accompanied their performance with singing. The dancers were accompanied by musicians with kamanga (or with rebab ) and tar , or with darbuka and zummar (or with freezing). The performer on the container was most often the old woman. The main role in the family and speaking in front of the gawazi public was given to the woman, the man usually performed the duties of a servant, pimp, accompanist .

The British traveler and orientalist Edward William Lane wrote about hawazi costumes in the first third of the 19th century:

“On the street, the hawazi dance in clothes that are usually worn by middle-class women at home in a harem, i.e. in yalak or antari and shintiyan - all from beautiful fabrics ...

For some, a costume consists of a muslin tube worn over a shirt, shintiyan ^[7] and a muslin or crepe tarhi. They all carry a lot of jewelry: beads, hand and anklets , chains of gold coins around the head and often a nose ring; hawazi must be painted with henna and kitchen. ”

- Edward William Lane. The mores and customs of modern Egyptians. Chapter 19. Street dancers. ^[one]

In the costumes of Gawazi, there is a connection with the Turkish folk costume ^[8] , this is due to the fact that Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1517 to 1805 (and formally - until 1914 ).

• Edwina Nearing. Khairiyya Mazin Struggles to Preserve Dying Tradition of Ghawazi Dance in Egypt. Cairo, May 1996. Snakeskin.