Felláh

Felláh (pl. FELLÁHÍN), an Arabic word meaning 'tiller' of the soil, specially applied to the agricultural or labouring population of Egypt by the Turks, in a contemptuous sense, as 'yokels,' or 'boors.' They form the great bulk of the population, and are descendants of the ancient Egyptians, intermingled with Syrians, Arabs, and other races which have been converted to Islam. In their physical conformation and features they differ among themselves, those of the northern provinces of the Mediterranean being of whiter hue, while at Assouân they are almost black. They are described as of middle stature, with large skull, facial angle almost 90 degrees, oval face, arched eyebrows, deep dark eyes, large, well-formed mouth, with rather thick lips, thin beard, short nose, large chest, small belly, arched back, and small hands and feet. Their dress generally consists of a blue or brown cotton smock and linen drawers. On their shaven head they wear the tarbâsh, or only a thin cotton cap, but the better-off wind a poor turban round it. The women are singularly graceful and slender, with beautiful skin (despite their tattooing) and often lovely features, and especially magnificent eyes; their dress is a single cotton smock, which they pull up over their mouth before men, and few wear the regular face-veil. They are often married at eleven years, become mothers at twelve, and grandmothers at twenty-four. The children are pot-bellied, dirty, and fly-bitten, but grow up straight, strong, and healthy. Their villages are mere groups of mud-hovels. The food of the Felláhín consists almost entirely of vegetables, chiefly millet bread and beans, which they eat in a crude state. Even rice is too dear for them, and animal food seldom attainable. Their drink is limited to the water of the Nile and coffee, and the only luxury which they enjoy is the green tobacco of the country; yet on this diet they are robust and healthy, and capable of extraordinary labour and endurance. In their social position they are inferior to the Bedouin, who, although they will marry the daughters of the Felláhín, will not give to them their own in marriage. They exhibit the moral qualities of the ancient Egyptians—are intelligent, docile, pliable, cheerful, and sober on the one hand, and quarrelsome, satirical, licentious, and of unbending obstinacy on the other; and they inherit the traditional hatred of their ancestors to the payment of taxes, which were formerly too often extorted by the bastinado. Their condition under British direction has improved, but is still far from satisfactory. Each village is governed by a Sheykh-el-Beled, who is responsible to the Názirs and Mamûrs, or district officials, for the conduct of the inhabitants and their due payment of taxes; and the government of these several officers is frequently characterised by injustice, peculation, and extortion. The political rights recently accorded to the Felláhín are apparently but little understood or exercised. See Lane, Manners and Customs of Modern Egyptians; Clot Bey, Aperçu générale; Lane-Poole, Egypt.