about this page
If ever there were a people born in flame, it is the Roma. Throughout time they have maintained a rich culture in the midst of adversity and distrust. As nomads they remain outsiders wherever they are, in the past they embraced and preserved much folklore and music from the places they passed through. As other cultures evolved, they remained the keepers of the past, so as an oral society, they retain something that most civilizations have forgotten.
Since 1982, I have been studying Rom history--pre 17 c. They have a fascinating culture shrouded in misconceptions and misdirection. With the advent of the internet, it is now possible to look across oceans and experience other cultures as never before. I would like to provide a forum for this. I will try to post my favorites list (eventually), excerpts from things I have read, pictures, and anything else that I've found throughout my research. I welcome any documented submittals from others as well.
Anyone who reads this assortment of information should be warned that some of this material may not be considered politically correct by today's standards. Throughout the ages, the Roma have remained a culture apart from others. As such, they were/are persecuted all over the world. Just as history is written by the conqueror, so are many of the references that we piece together. Since they have always been a mostly oral culture, there are no written accounts by them, only about them, by people who did not understand them. After reading through only a few books, this becomes very apparent. They are often romanticized or demonized, and they cleverly used these notions for their own survival throughout the ages. So from the beginning, you must take into account who wrote these things and why, if you want to be fair.
The Rom Timeline at the end of this page is a project that won me an award for research-- a Thistle in the Society of Creative Anachronism--a long, long time ago (before computers). It's meant to be an ongoing project, but I've fallen behind. What I have though, is an ever-expanding list of all the Gypsy sightings throughout history reported (whether disputed or not), along with the name of the book/article where I found it. Mostly, there are no websites listed because I did this project before I had a computer.
In the Society for Creative Anachronisms, SCA, I have portrayed a Rom persona for over twenty years. I am known as Lady Kyleena of the Ansteoran Rom and I set up shop (KyleenaMart) as a traveling merchant at events. It has been very interesting, for even in the portrayal of a persona in the midst of a chivalry oriented society, the stigma of oppression towards these people still surfaces. Ignorance is not bliss, and history is repeating itself every day. I believe that in this ever-shrinking world, we should learn more about each other, and, though this isn't much, it's a start.
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ARTICLE INDEX
1. Persona 101
2. Sites & Favorites
3. Books Online
4. Gypsy Social Organization
5. Gipsy Pride
6. Costuming Through Artistic Rendering
7. The Ancient Method of Cooking
8. More Pictures
9. Kipling Poem Excerpt
10. More Pictures
11. Gipsy Stories and Fables
12. And yet more pix
13. Rom Timeline
14. Timeline Sources
15.The World's Oldest Dance: The Origins of Oriental Dance
(Belly Dance--includes previous article 'Dances in Spain')
Links & formats were last checked & verified on Aug 16, 2020.
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Creating a Persona 101 by L. Kyleena of the Ansteorran Rom--AKA Mary Andrews
So, you’ve joined the Society for Creative Anachronisms and you’re trying to figure out why everybody Gets all dressed up with nowhere to go. Well, you’re in the right place.
The following is a direct quote from the SCA website:
Atmosphere: Each member creates a “persona,” a personal character from a specific timeand place, which the member becomes for events. The goal is to create someone who “might have been” rather than to pretend to be an actual historical figure. The persona is a jumping-off point for research into that time period and place—what the person would have worn, eaten, etc.
Our areas of interest are as varied as was medieval culture: heraldry, knighthood, manuscript illumination and calligraphy, archery, armor making, costuming, jewelry making, needlework and sewing, theater, poetry, dancing, singing, cooking, brewing, equestrian arts, and more…
The SCA also attempts to create an atmosphere embodying those lost ideals that are found in medieval romance: chivalry, honor, and courtesy. Our goal is to re-create the Middle Ages as they should have been, without the strife and pestilence, but with an attempt to preserve the ideals of beauty, grace, chivalry, and fellowship.
Activities: The events we put on are participatory, rather than shows put on for spectators. Instead of putting on a performance for the public, we strive to learn and live in what we call the “current” Middle Ages.
--excerpt from SCA PDF DOCUMENT what is the SCA? http://www.sca.org/docs/for-siteowners.pdf
Persona Benefits: persona play creates atmosphere, brings history to life, draws attention to our organization, and allows everyone a chance to start unfettered by mundane limitations.
Personal Pitfalls: if not done right, can encourage prejudice and restrict options. Therefore it is important to understand the purpose of persona play within the SCA.
To help generate your persona, I recommend the following:
Costumes: many people choose persona by what they would be comfortable wearing, or look best in and then research backwards.
Timelines quickly helps to pin down the parameters of your world. It also provides additional names and events for additional research.
Period Maps to learn period names of the country you lived in, and what the geography was like…where cities were located….
Folk Tales tell you current morals, and illustrate aspects of normal life
Past times/Games tell you about what people did in their leisure hours and allows you an opportunity to meet others and small talk of the “good ‘ol days”
Names can be found everywhere during research
Creating a persona is much like developing a character for a book. It is good figure out as much about your alter ego as you can, but start by deciding what you, personally, want to do. Here we all start with a clean slate. Your mundane career, education, wealth no longer define you—a mundane sanitation worker can become king.
Feel free to try new things here. We are a teaching & learning society and we love to share all the cool things we’ve discovered. So, do not be afraid to approach others with your questions, especially those among us who have gained rank. They started out just like you did….
WHO are you ?WHAT do you want to do? WHERE do you live?WHEN do you live?WHY are you here?
Though it is always fun to develop an elaborate back story, the best way to deliver it is in small portions. Just like in writing, the rule is show, don’t tell. Work in bits and pieces; axioms, remembrances, references. Bring it to life as if it were real. OR simply exude the character and attitude of the people/nation/profession you have chosen. In the end, life is the adventure you make it.
ONLINE RESOURCES:
INTERNET MEDIEVAL SOURCE BOOK: http://www.
NAMES: http://www.s-gabriel.org/
SHORT LIST OF COMPLEAT ANACHRONIST ISSUES REPRINTED ONLINE: http//www:pbm.com/~lindahl/ca.index.html
THE COSTUMER’S MANIFESTO: http://www.costumes.org/ethnic/1PAGES/ETHNOLNK.HTM
THE HISTORY OF COSTUME by Braun & Schneider:http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/TEXT_INDEX.HTML
MONUMENTAL BRASS SOCIETY, PICTURE LIBRARY: http://www.mbs-brasses.co.uk/pic_lib/picture_library.htm
HISTORY OF GAMES TIMELINE: http://www.celticgames.com/gamestimeline.html
ANCIENT ATLAS-MAPS AND GEOGRAPHY: http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/maps/ss/mapsindex.htm
HYPERHISTORY ONLINE: http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html
MYTHOLOGY: http://www.greatdreams.com/myth.htm
ARTS & SCIENCES OF THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE:http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/arts_and_sciences.html
STEFAN'S FLORILEGIUM ARCHIVES: http://www.florilegium.org/
Patrin:Roman culture & history: https://www.oocities.org/~patrin/patrin.htm
Patrin Timeline: http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/timeline.htm
Romani (Gypsy) Names: http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/romany/
Early 14c Byzantine names of Macedonia:
SCA Gypsy research site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCA_Gypsy/
Originally when I joined this Egroup, I started a quest through the archives to list informational entries. I barely scratch the surface here, but I compiled this list of subjects that might be informational. (go to site, click on ‘messages’ and enter into message nbr box. Seems that ‘home,‘messages, and links’ are available without joining the egroup. I’m not sure, but I recommend it. It is a general mail-list for use of all Gypsy clans throughout the SCA and is geared for studies pre1700’s.)
Learn Romani lessons 3199-3202 (see also: 3220, 3275, 4236, 4379, 7214-7221), 80 language English rom 3139 definition: Rom
Persona: 3571 persona 3567 persona play 3178 persona 106 persona 3174 native american
Garb: 122 garb 107 movie persona garb 3323 costume 3326 pants 3382 Russian costume site
3291 diklo 100 henna mehndi 102 henna mehndi 109 movie and mehndi 43 garb 46 garb 64 garb 83 garb sites
Bender tent: 3180 bender tent 42 bender tents
Wagons: 3229 wagon-movie 3230 wagon 3234 wagon-book-site 3242 wagon 3258 book-wagon 3246 wagons 3273 vardo 449 vardo pix 3247 colors
BOOKS: 194 tinkers book 195 tinkers book 3243 book list 3267 book 73 book 60 book religion
77 books and wagons 3152 The Gypsy Cookbook
SITES: 3824-shop site 3592 site-paint wheel 108 site links 168 dance sites 171 A&S search site 204 gypsy sites 241 gypsy dancer site 3141 site-links 3143 site-sewing 3150 UK site 3176 central am. Site 3235 amazon-uk site 3240 sites 3363 gypsy website 3315 music & history sites 3424 history site 3592 site-painted wheel tribe 3824-shop site 458 name site 453 renfaire rom web site 478 url patrin site
VIDEO: 3461 video 3487 video-curse of gypsy 110 movie
PREJUDICE: 3411 ‘Nail throwing” devils advocate 3415 prejudice 3426 prejudice 3212 prejudice
NAMES: 460 names 464 names
CULTURE: 4201 death customs 4210 occupations 3471 music
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Books On-Line
The Jew The Gypsy and El Islam
By the late Captain SIR RICHARD F. BURTON
Edited with a Preface and Brief Notes by W. H. WILKINS
Notes on this Edition
This book is an exact transcription of the collection “The Jew, the Gypsy and El Islam” (Chicago & New York: Herbert S. Stone,1898). This volume was also published by Scribner’s in 1898.The Stone edition collates the same as the first English edition (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1898). — Scanner / Editor “JR” June 12, 2000
PREFACE
The Gypsy has a far less eventful history (than the segment about The Jew), though the materials for its making were collected during a period of over thirty years, and were gathered for the most part by personal research, in Asia mainly, and also in Africa, South America, and Europe. Burton’s interest in the Gypsies was lifelong; and when he was a lieutenant in the Bombay Army and quartered in Sindh, he began his investigations concerning the affinity between the Jats and the Gypsies.
During his many travels in different parts of the world, whenever he had the opportunity he collected fresh materials with a view to putting them together some day. In 1875 his controversy with Bataillard provoked him into compiling his [p. xii] long-contemplated work on the Gypsies. Unfortunately other interests intervened, and the work was never completed. It was one of the many unfinished things Burton intended to complete when he should have quitted the Consular Service. He hoped, for instance, to make fuller inquiries concerning the Gypsies in France, Germany, and other countries of Europe, and especially he intended to write a chapter on the Gypsies in England on his return home.
Even as it stands, however, The Gypsy is a valuable addition to ethnology; for apart from Burton’s rare knowledge of strange peoples and tongues, his connexion with the Gypsies lends to the subject a unique interest. There is no doubt that he was affiliated to this strange people by nature, if not by descent. To quote from the Gypsy Lore Journal 1:
“Whether there may not be also a tinge of Arab, or perhaps of Gypsy blood in Burton’s race, is a point which is perhaps open to question. For the latter suspicion an excuse may be found in the incurable restlessness which has beset him since his infancy, a restlessness which has effectually prevented him from ever settling long in any one place, and in the singular idiosyncrasy which his friends have 1 January, 1891. [p. xiii] often remarked—the peculiarity of his eyes.
‘When it (the eye) looks at you,’ said one who knows him well, ‘it looks through you, and then, glazing over, seems to see something behind you. Richard Burton is the only man (not a Gypsy) with that peculiarity, and he shares with them the same horror of a corpse, death-bed scenes, and graveyards, though caring little for his own life.’ When to this remarkable fact be added the scarcely less interesting detail that ‘Burton’ is one of the half-dozen distinctively Romany names, it is evident that the suspicion of Sir Richard Burton having a drop of Gypsy blood in his descent—crossed and commingled though it be with an English, Scottish, French, and Irish strain is not altogether unreasonable.”
On this subject Lady Burton also wrote:
“In the January number of the Gypsy Lore Journal a passage is quoted from ‘a short sketch of the career’ of my husband (a little black pamphlet) which half suspects a remote drop of Gypsy blood in him. There is no proof that this was ever the case; but there is no question that he showed many of their peculiarities in appearance, disposition, and speech—speaking Romany like themselves. Nor did we ever enter a Gypsy camp without their claiming him ‘What are you doing with a black coat on?’ [p. xiv] they would say ‘why don’t you join us and be our King?’”1
Whether the affinity was one of blood or of nature does not greatly matter; in either case it lends a special interest to Burton’s study of the gypsy….-- W. H. WILKINS
To download this book in eBook, go to:
http://www.jrbooksonline.com/jgei.htm
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PROJECT GUTENBERG
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I entered Gypsy into their search box. This is what I got. There are probably more:
Titles---Etext-No.---Author---Title---Language
452---Birrell, Augustine, 1850-1933 [Commentator]---Borrow, George Henry, 1803-1881
Sullivan, Edmund J., 1869-1933 [Illustrator]
Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest---English
20198---Borrow, George Henry, 1803-1881 Watts, Theodore [Editor]--- Lavengro the Scholar - the Gypsy - the Priest--- English
2733---Borrow, George Henry, 1803-1881---Romano Lavo-Lil: word book of the Romany; or, English Gypsy language---English
18582---Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, 1844-1911---Gypsy Breynton---English
18646---Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, 1844-1911---Gypsy's Cousin Joy---English
565--- Borrow, George Henry, 1803-1881 ---The Zincali: an account of the gypsies of Spain--- English
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The Pariah Syndrome: An account of Gypsy slavery and persecution
by Ian Hancock
Available to read online or to down load in ASCII format @
https://www.oocities.org/~patrin/pariah-contents.htm
…and while you’re there, definitely check out:
Patrin Web Journal: Romani Culture and History.
Patrin is a learning resource and information centre about Roma culture, social issues, and current events.
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Gypsy Social Organization The Rom are unique among nomadic groups still adhering strictly to archaic tribal allegiances, in that their nomadism is on a worldwide scale...The true Gypsy is a member of a distinct ethnic group, sharing a basically common language and particular ways of behavior...The tribes are divided into witzas, or groups descended from a common ancestor, after whom the subtribe is named. For practical purposes, the Gypsies band together in Kumpanias, which form and disband according to changing patterns of interest or circumstances. These temporary relationships are ruled by contractual laws. The kumpania is led by a Rom Baro, or Capo, usually a man in his prime. He is chosen for his knowledge of the ways of life and the language of the countries through which the Rom travel, or intend to travel, as well as for his resourcefulness in dealing with emergencies and for his willingness to lead. His functions give him no special prerogatives, and his only remuneration is the honor he derives from his position. There also exists a more visible form of “authority,”the so-called kings, or vaivodes, who are essentially figureheads and serve as liaison with the Gaje.
Above and beyond the kumpania there is the traditional authority of the kris, or intertribal court of justice. The kris convenes at irregular intervals and as need requires. Because of the inevitable circumstances of nomadic life, the selection of the krisatora, or judges, may depend on what ever qualified men are available at a given time. Most of the sentences imposed by the kris are fines to be paid in food and drink to all those tribesmen attending the kris. The kris can also impose temporary banishment on any member found to suffer an infectious disease; his household may also be banished. Proof of medical cure ends the banishment.
The effectiveness of the pronouncements of the kris depends essentially on the acceptance of its decisions by the majority of the Rom. This acceptance, in turn , depends on belief in the solakh (“solemn oath”) and enforcement by the mule, the ancestor spirits....
--Encyclopaedia Americana (retrieved around 1981)
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Gipsy Pride:
"What were their forefathers a few generations ago? the Highlanders a nest of marauding thieves, and the Borders little better. Or society at the present day - what is it but a compound of deceit and hypocrisy? People say that the Gipsies steal. True; some of them steal chickens, vegetables, and such things; but what is that compared to the robbery of widows and orphans, the lying and cheating of traders, the swindling, the robberies the murders, the ignorance, the squalor, and the debaucheries of so many of the white race: What are all these compared to the simple vice of the Gipsies: What is the ancestry they boast of, compared, in point of antiquity, to ours: People may despise the Gipsies, but they certainly despise all others not of their own race: the veriest beggar Gipsy, without shoes to his feet, considers himself better than the queen that sits upon the throne. People say that Gipsies are blackguards. Well, if some of them are blackguards, they are at least illustrious blackguards descent, and so if fact; for thy never rob each other, and far less do they rob or ruin those of their own family.”
—Walter Simson p.11
THE HISTORY OF THE GYPSIES
DX 115 S5 1878
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Costuming Through Artistic Renderings
Though gypsy research material can sometimes be hard to find, don’t over look the fact that artists have always existed . And what do aritists do? As an artist friend of mine told me they draw and sculpt what they see.” Throughout history many artist have become enamoured with the Gypsies. One such person that she mentioned was Jacques Callot who as a boy of fourteen or fifteen ran away from home (his father was a french nobleman) with the Gypsies. And, what do you know....I had some of his pictures in my files already.... L. Kyleena
me,“Artists paint."
(picures are still not entered...but maybe soon.)
Jacques Callot engravings: Gypsies on the move, Gypsy camp 1622
J. Martin Stock engravings:
Transylvanian Gypsies
playing violin & cimbalom
1776
Tournai tapestry: 1490
Slide show...sources include:
Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society vol II,--IVTHE FORMER COSTUME OF THE GYPSIES
by Henry Thomas Crofton
Cuadernos hispanoamericanos,--EL TRAJE ANTIQUO DE LOS GITANOS: ALTERIDAD Y CASTIGO (Iconografia de los siglos XV-XVIII) by Margarita Torrione
Belly Dance Museum http://www.belly-dance.org/index.html (Gypsy Dancer Gaasbeek goelin carpet & Tchingui or Tsjengi--Ottoma Turkey)
I found the Callot pictures in a book of his art. The tapestry above was located through an online search for Tournai tapestries.
The J. Martin Stock engravings and the picture to the righ were both retrieved from my favorite Gypsy book:
THE GYPSIES by Angus Fraser.
This portrait "forms a part of a 16c collection of sketches in Art as in northern France and bears the caption... 'the Egyptian woman who by medical art restored health to the King of Scotland, given up by the physicians'." Frazes speculates the King to be either James IV or James V. "James V...was absent for 8 1/2 months from Scotland in France(1536-7). Some such incedent would help to explain the royal favour shown to Gypsies in Scotland at a time when most other monarchs were becoming decidedly less tolerant of them." --p 119-120
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The Ancient Method of Cooking But the ancient method of cooking practiced among the Scottish Gipsies, and which, in all probability, they brought with them, when they arrived in Europe, upwards of four hundred years ago, is, if I am not mistaken, new to the world never having as yet, that I am aware of, been described.* It is very curious, and extremely primitive, and appears to be of the highest antiquity. It is admirably adapted to the wants of a rude and barbarous people, travelling over a wild and thinly-inhabited country, in which cooking utensils could not be procured, or conveniently carried with them. My facts are from the Gipsies themselves, and are corroborated by people, not of the tribe, who have witnessed some of their cooking operations.
The Gipsies, on such occasions, make use of neither pot, pan, spit, nor oven, in cooking fowls. They twist a strong rope of straw, which they wind very tightly around the fowl, just as it is killed, with the whole of its feathers on, and its entrails untouched. It is then covered with hot peat ashes, and a slow fire is kept up around and about the ashes, till the fowl is sufficiently done. When taken out from beneath the fire, it is stripped of its hull, or shell of half-burned straw-rope and feathers, and presents a very fine appearance. Those who have tasted poultry, cooked by the Gipsies, in this manner, say that it is very palatable and good. In this invisible way, these ingenious people could cook stolen poultry, at the very moment, and in the very place, that a search was going on for the pilfered article.
The art of cooking butcher-meat among the Gipsies is similar to that of making ready fowls, except that linen and clay are substituted for feathers and straw. The piece of flesh to be cooked is first carefully wrapped up in a covering of cloth or linen rags, and covered over with well wrought clay, and either frequently turned before a strong fire, or covered over with hot ashes, till it is roasted, or rather stewed. The covering or crust, of the shape of the article enclosed, and hard with the fire, is broken, and the meat separated from its inner covering of burned rags which, with the juice of the meat, are reduced to a thick sauce or gravy. Sometimes a little vinegar is poured upon the meat.. The tribe are high in their praise of flesh cooked in this manner, declaring that it has a particularly fine flavour. These singular people, I am informed also boiled the flesh of sheep in the skins of the animals, like the Scottish soldiers in their wars with the English nation, when their camp-kettles were nothing but the hides of the oxen, suspended from poles, driven into the ground.
The only mode of cooking butcher-meat, bearing any resemblance to that of the Gipsies, is practised by some of the tribes of South America, who wrap flesh in leaves, and,covering it over with clay, cook it like the Gipsies. Some of the Indians of North America roast deer of a small size in their skins, among hot ashes. An individual of great respectability, who had tasted venison cooked in tis fashion, said that it was extremely juicy, and finely flavoured...It is probable that the Gipsy art of cooking would be amongst the first modes of making ready animal food, in the first stage of human society, in Asia-the cradle of the human race....
*I published the part of the Gipsy method...in the Fife Herald,of the 18th greater April 1833.
-Walter Simson p.232-233
THE HISTORY OF THE GIPSIES DX 115 S5 1878
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Kipling poem excerpt
Unless you carry the gipsy eyes that see but seldom weep,
keep your head from the naked skies or the stars'll trouble your sleep.
Watch your moon through your window-pane and take what weather she brews;
but don't run out in the midnight rain nor home in the morning dews.
Then you can huddle and shut your eyes as the gipsy vans come through
...for it isn't fitting the Gorgio ryes should walk as the Romany do.
--Rudyard Kipling Society
http://www.kipling.org.uk/kip_fra.htm
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Gipsy Stories and Fables
- - -excerpts from THE ENGLISH GIPSIES & THEIR LANGUAGE by Charles G. Leland
( downloadable online at Gutenburg press: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16358 )
THE GIPSY AND THE SNAKE: If you kill the first snake you see, you’ll kill the first (principal) enemy you have. That is what they say, but I don’t know whether it is true or not. And once there was a very bad man who was always doing bad deeds. And one day he saw a snake in the forest and ran after it with a great knife in his hand and cut her head off. And then he said to himself, “Now that I’ve killed the snake, I’ll take the life of my most vindictive (literally, most venomous) enemy.” And just as he spoke that word he struck his foot against the roots of a tree, and fell down and drove the knife into his own body (liver or heart). And as he lay dying in the forests, he said to himself, “Yes I see now that It is true what they told me as to killing a snake; for I never had any worse enemy than I have been to myself, and what comes of killing innocent animals is naught good.”
THE GIRL WHO STOLE AN EGG: Once, many hundred years ago (to-day now), a girl was going to steal and egg. “Let me be,” said the egg, “and I will show you where you can get a duck.” So the girl got the duck, and it said (told) to her, “Let me go and I will show you where you can get a goose” (large hen). Then she stole the goose, and it cried out, “Let me go and I’ll show you where you can steal a turkey” (lady-bird). And when she took the turkey, it said, “Let me go and I’ll show you where you can get a calf.” So she got the calf, and it bawled and wept, and cried, “Let me go and I’ll show you where to get a fine horse.” And when she got the horse , it said, “Let me go and I’ll show you where you can find a handsome , rich gentleman who wants a sweetheart.” So she got the nice young gentleman, and lived with him pleasantly one week; but then he told her to go away, he did not want her any more. “What a bad man you are,” wept the girl, “to send me away! For your sake I gave away an egg, a duck, a goose, a turkey, a calf, and a fine horse.” “Is that true?” asked the youth. “By my dead father!” swore the girl, “I gave them all up for you, one after the other, and now you send me away!” “So help me God!” said the gentleman, “if you lost so many things for me, I’ll marry you.” So they were married.
Yes, there are false truths and true lies. You may kiss the book on that.
OF THE GIRL THAT WAS TO MARRY THE DEVIL: On a day a Gipsy mother told a girl’s fortune, and said to her that a dark (black) gentleman loved her. But when the woman demanded her money, the girl said, “Old mother, I haven’t got a halfpenny to give you. But tell me the name of the dark gentleman.” Then the mother roared out, very angry, “Devil is the name of your sweetheart, and he is black enough.”
If you cheat old women you will catch the devil.
OF THE GIPSY WOMAN AND THE CHILD: Once a woman went into a strange land, and she carried a bag on her back with a pig in it. A girl who was ashamed of her child stole the pig from the bag and put the baby in (its place). After an hour the woman heard the child cry, and looked into the bag with great amazement, and said, “If the pigs in this country change into children, into what do the children change?”
In this book, Leland provides each story in the gipsy language before each translation.
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R O M T I M E L I N E
compiled by Mary Andrews / Kyleena of the Ansteorran Rom
BC
350-1200 BC Exodus of Moses
485-465 BC Xerxes I conquests. His sudden retreat from the area of India may have left Egyptians or
Gypsies” behind. GLSJ(vol 3 p227)
420 BC The great Persian poet Ferdowsi, in 1011, in his Shah Namah (book of kings) refers to 10,000
Luri musicians imported from India by Bahram Gour in 420 BC jy
327 BC Alexander invades India, he may have brought Gypsies to Macedonia as artisans and metal workers for
his army
800 AD
800AD It appears certain that the gypsies traveled to the Middle East because their language contains traces of Persian, Kurdish, and Armenian. Some evidence exists that this migration took place around this time, possibly the scarcity of food and the hostility of the local nomadic tribes forced he gypsies onward...probably as small scattered bands. jbm p2
855?AD Gypsies in Byzantium. Jpc
900 AD
900-1100 The bold horse-riding Jats, an Aryan race expelled in the course of religious wars that chronically raked
India...mingled with other low-caste wanderers:the Nats, singers and acrobats; and the Dom
apparently a pre-Aryan people still found in India.... cgl pviii
1000 AD
1000 Gypsy bands begin westward movement from India. ngs (p16-17)
Experts find Romani DNA in an 11th c Norwich Anglo Saxon Skeleton (a young adult male).
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART37392.html
1100 AD
1100 Europe’s earliest record describing people who sound like Gypsies appears in writings of a monk at Mount
Athos, Greece. http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART37392.html ngs p16-17
(In The Life Of George Mtharsmindel of Mount Athos, written mid-11th c., there is mention of Asincan people who we described as well known magicians and rogues.) Jf
1200 AD
1260 ( 1399) Gypsies in Bohemia http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART37392.html
1300 AD
1322 Gypsies in Crete. jpc ngs
Simon Simeonis describes similar people living in Crete. Jf
A priest of Cologne describes a people he refers to as Mandapolos, who had a unique language.
(note that the name Mandapolos is possible a corruption of the Greek word Mantipolos, meaning
fortune teller.) Jf
1346 Gypsies in Corfu. jpc ngs
1378 Tsar Ivan Shishman gave the Rila Monastery a number of villages inwhich some Agoupti (or Gupti)
Gypsies lived. These villagers were among the first Gypsy groupsto settle in Bulgary...Turks divided the
Gypsies into nomadic Moslems and settled Christians, some Gypsies converted to Islam to raise their
status. dmc p2
1348 Gypsies in Serbia.pc, Yugoslavia . ngs
1350 Ludolphus of Sudheim also mentions the Mandapolos. jf
1370 Gypies in Walachia. ngs (p16-17)
1378 Gypsies in the Pelopennese,Zagreb jpc
1384 Forty families were documented as living at the foot of the Carpathians who were called Acigani vel Cygani.
(Polish gypsies are called “Cygan”) jf
1386 The feudum Acinganorum are said to live on Corfu.(this word is the prototype of the German Qigiuner, the
Italian Zingaro, and the French Tsigane, Polish Cygan.)
1400 AD
1407 Gypsies first appearance in Germany, in Hildesheim. 1
1413-1481 The Expansion of Turkish power in the Balkans during this period saw a wave of Gypsy migration into
the region...Bulgarian references to the Gypsies began to emerge.dmc (p2)
1414 Gypsies in Basle. jpc
Second possible appearance in Germany, in Hesse. 2
1415 Gypsies in Chechoslovakia and Hungary. ngs
1416 First anti-Gypsy law issued in Germany.48 such laws are passed between this date and 1774. 4
The acigani vel Cygani were noted in Bohemia. Also a chronicler described a mcalle Emaus from Egypt,
who appeared at Kronstadt Transylvania together with 220 followers. jf
1417 Gypsies in Transylvania, Moldavia, The Elbe. jpc
August 30, the Gypsies reached Zurich, Magdeburg and Lubeck. jf
1417 a band of ‘Secani’ or Tsigans, 300 in number, besides children and infants, arrived in Germany ‘from
Eastern parts’ or ‘from Tartary.’ Their presence is first recorded atLuneburg; and thence they passed on
to Hamburg, Lubeck,Wismar,Rostock, Stralsund, and Greifswald. At their head rode a duke and a count,
richly dressed, with silver belts, and leading like nobles dogs of chase; next came a motley crew
afoot; and women and children brought up the rear in wagons.
They bore letters of safe-conduct from princes, one of which from the Emperor Sigismund they had
probably procured that same year at Lindau on Lake Constance; and they gave out that they whereon a
seven years’ pilgrimage, imposed by their own bishops as a penance for apostasy from the Christian
faith.They encamped in the fields by night outside the city walls, and were great thieves, esp.the women,
'wherefore several were taken and slain.’
1418 Arrival documented in Hamburg. 5
Gypsies in Saxony, Augsburg. jpc
“Poor people from Little Egypt” came to Strasbourg and Frankfurt. jf
...they are heard of at Leipqig, at Frankfort-on-Main, and in Switzerland at Qurich, Basel, Berne, and
Soliure:the contemporary Swiss chronicler, Conrad Justinger, speaks of them as ‘more than two hundred
baptized Heathens from Egypt, pitiful, black, miserable, and rable on account of their thefts, for they stole all
they could.’ At Augsburg they passed for exiles from ‘Lesser Egypt’.... FHG
1419 Arrival documented in Augsburg. 6 Oct.1, at Sisteron in Provence, on Nov. 1 at Augsburg. jf
at Macon in Aug they practiced palmistry and necromancy; and at Sisteron in Provence as ‘Saracens’ they
got large rations from the terrified townsfolk. FHG
1420 ? Gypsies in Denmark. jpc
“Master Andreas, the Prince of Little Egypt” came to Deventer in Holland with his followers and 40 horses. jf
..Lord Andreas, Duke of Little Egypt, and a hundred men, women, and children, came to Deventer in the Low
Countries; and aldermen had to pay 19 florins 10 placks for their bread, beer, herrings, and straw, as well
as for cleaning out the barn in which they lay. FHG
1421 At Tournay, ‘Sir Miquiel, Prince of Latinghem in Egypt,’ received twelve gold pieces, with bread and a barrel
of beer. FHG
1422 Gypsies in Bologna, Rome. jpc
“Andrea, Duke of Egypt” rested on July 18, at Bologna before going on via Forli to Rome for an udience with
the Pope. Also a large horde with 50 horses led by one Michael arrives at Basle, before going on to Italy,
Alsace and France. jf
...the Chronica di Bologna tells how ‘the 18th of July a duke of Egypt,Duke Andrew, arrived at Bologna, with
women, children, and men from his own country. There might be a hundred. This duke having denied the
Christian faith, the King of Hungary (Emperor Sigismund) repossessed his lands until The duke and his
men (about 4000) decided to rebaptized. (Any who refused were put to death.) The King of Hungary then
commanded them to travel about the world for seven years, to go to Rome to see the pope, and then to
return to their own country.When they arrived at Bologna, they had been journeying for five years, and
more than half of them were dead. They had a mandate from the King of Hungary, the Emperor, permitting
them during these seven years to thieve, wherever they might go, without being amenable to justice.
At Bologna they lodged themselves inside and outside the Gate of Galleria, and settled themselves under
the porticoes, except the duke, who lodged at the King’s Inn (Albergo del Re). They remained a fortnight
and many people sought out the duke’s wife, who was suppose to be able to accurately fortell the future.
and of those who wished to have their fortune told, few went to consult without getting their purse stolen,
and the women had pieces oftheir dress cut Off....So it was cried through town that no one should go to
see them under a penalty of fifty pounds and excommunication, for they were the most cunning hieves in all
the world....they left Bologna and went off towards Rome. ‘Observe that they...were lean and black...their
women went in smocks, and wore a pilgrim’s cloak across the shoulder, rings in their ears, and a long
veil on their head...’
On 7th August the same band, now swelled to two hundred, arrived at Forli, where, writes the city
chronicler,’ some said they were from India.’ Vatican archives may confirm an audience with Pope Martin v.;
but all we know is that later in this same year the ‘cunning and lazy strange people called Zigeiner,’ led by
Duke Michael, were back Switzerland with papal as well as imperial safe-conducts. FHG
1424 &1426 The thirty tented Cingari or Cigawnar, who encamped near Ratisbon in , seem to have belonged to
Hungary. Their leader had also a safe-conduct granted him at Zips on 23rd April -1423 by Emperor
Sigismund, and styling him ‘our faithful Ladislas, Woiwode of the Cigani’; and they gave out a Different
reason for their exile:’in remembrance of the flight of our Lord into Egypt.’ The four hundred would-be
pioneers, then sent forward to spy out the lands of promise on behalf of vast hordes behind, who in
1438 began to pour over Germany, Italy, and France by thousands instead of by hundreds, and headed this
time by King Zindl. FHG
1427 Gypsies in Paris. jpc
.
1428 ...in August, there appeared outside Paris, then held by the English, a hundred men, women, and children,
‘good Christians from Lower Egypt, who were headed by a duke, an earl, and ten other horsemen. They told
how the pope...gave them a penance to wander seven years without sleeping in a bed, and letters enjoining
every bishop and nitred abbot to make them one payment of ten livres tournois.’
The Bourgeois of Paris, whose Journal records this visit with a Pepys-like fidelity, describes how multitudes
came from Paris, from Sainct Denis, and from the neighbourhood of Paris to see them. And it is true that
the children, boys and girls, were as clever as could be. And most or nearly all had both ears pierced, and in
each ear a silver ring, or two in each, and they said it was a sign of nobility in their own country. Item the
men were very black, their hair was frizzled; the women, the ugliest that could be seen, and the blackest. All
had their faces covered with wounds, hair black as a horse's tail, for sole dress an old blanket, very coarse,
and fastened on the shoulder by a band of cloth or a cord, and underneath a shift, for all covering....
But in truth I went there three or four times to speak with them, yet never perceived that I lost a penny, nor
did I ever see them look into a hand. But people said so everywhere, and it came to the ears of the Bishop
of Paris, who went there, and took with him a Minorite friear called Little Jacobin.
And he, by command of the bishop, made a fine preaching, excommunication all who had believed them
and shown them their hands. And they were obliged to depart, and departed on the day of Our Lady of
September, and went away towards Pontoise.’ Three weeks later, at Amiens, Thomas, Earl of Little Egypt,
with forty followers, received pious alms from the mayor and aldermen after exhibition of the papal letters;
FOR THE NEXT SEVEN YEARS; we find similar scattered bands of Egyptians, Saracens from
Egyptm or Heidens, at Tournai, Utrecht, Arnheim,Bommel, Middelburg, Metz, Leyden, Frankfort, etc. These
according to M. Bataillard, all belonged to the original band, some four hundred strong, which split up
orreunited as occasion required, and which had probably started from the Balkan peninsula. FHG
1428 Arrival documented in Switzerland. 7
1430 (or 1440)Gypsies in Wales. jpc
1438 King Zindl’s thousands of Cingari or Cigawnar from Hungary begin to pour over Germany, Italy and France.
FHG
1447 Gypsies in Barcelona. jpc
The Gypsies reached Spain FHG
1449 Gypsies driven out of Frankfurt-am-Main. 8
1460 James II initiated a proclamation, bearing, that whoever should disperse the company of
gipsies or Saracens from Ireland who infested the county of Galloway in Scotland should have the Barony
of Bombie for reward. (it is likely that the crest of the McLellans is the depictation of the head of a
Gipsy chief. ‘Think on’ is the motto.) ws (p98-99)
1489-1579 Despite the prejudice toward them, the Roma (Gypsies) were a strong presence in Bulgarian towns and
villages. Households ranged from 11-529. dmc (p3)
1492 (or 1505) Gypsies in Scotland . Almost all Scottish Gipsies assert that their ancestors came by way of Ireland.
On the publication of the edict of Ferdinand of Spain, some of the Spanish Gipsies would likely pass over
to the south of Ireland, and thence find their way into Scotland before 1506. Anthonius Gawino is almost certain to be a Spanish name, it is safe to assume that the Gipsies of Scotland are of Spanish Gipsy
descent. Ws (p98-99)
1496-98 Gypsies accused of being foreign spies, carriers of the plague, and traitors to Christendom at the Reichstag
meetings during these years in Freiburg and Landau. 9
1498 New anty-Gypsy laws issued by the Freiburg Diet. 10
1500
1500 Gypsies in Russia. jpc
1501 Gypsies in Poland and Russia FHG
1505 In Scotland the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer for April 22, Item; the Egyptianis be the
King's Command, vij lib.’; 3rd July James IV gave Anthonius Gagino, Earl of Little Egypt, a letter of
commendation to the King of Denmark; FHG
1506 James IV of Scotland wrote a letter to the King of Denmark, in favour of Authonius Gawino, Earl of Little
Egypt, a Gipsy chief. ws ( p98)
1509 Gypsies in Poland. jpc
1512 Gypsies in Sweden FHG
1514 Switzerland encourages “Gypsy Hunts” among its citizens as a means of urging Gypsies to
leave this country. 13
The earliest certain mention oftheir presence in England is this chance allusion in A Dyalog of Syr Thomas
More, knyght(1529)bk.iii.ch.xv. when the king sent the lords to inquire into the death of Richard Hunne in
the Lollards’ Tower, and a eitness appeared who suggested that an Egypcyan, lodged at Lambeth” had the
power to divine who the murderer was by “looking into one’s hand”. FHG
1515 Gypsies in Sweden. jpc
1522 the churchwardens of Stratton in Cornwall received twenty pence from the’Egypcions’ for the use of
the church house; and between 1513 and 1524 Thomas, Earl of Surrey entertained ‘Gypsions’ at his
Suffolk seat, Tendrin Hall. (seeGypsy Lore Journal,i.5-24) FHG
1530 In Scotland; ‘Egyptianis that dansit before the king in Halyrudhous’ received forty shillings FHG
1531 The Augsburg Reichstag forbids Gypsies the use of travel documents in order to make reentry impossible
once banished. 15
1540 Gipsies in Norway. jpc2
Feb. 15, James V of Scotland entered into a league or treaty with “John Faw, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt” at
Falkland. ws (p101-103)
May 26, Johnne Faw, lord and erle of Litill Egipt,’ to whose son and successor, Johnne Wanne, he (James V)
granted authority to hand and punish all Egyptians within the alme...FHG
1541-1542 Act of the lords of council demand that gipsies depart the realm of Scotland within XXX days or be put to
death. James V died in 1542. ws p107
1541-1542 Three separate kingdoms emerged in the former Hungarian empire. Royal Hungary, centered in Slovakia,
was under Hungarian control, while two new provinces in central Hungary and Transylvania emerged under
Ottoman control. In Royal Hungary, Gypsies were increasingly seen as spies and some thing of a Turkish
fifth column, which caused them to be increasingly subjected to restrictions on their lifestyle and trade.
Though still valued for their smithing skills, particularly by the military, these efforts to regulate the Roma
eventually forced them to adopt a nomadic way of life ..The plight of the gypsies in Wallachia and Moldavia
is the worst example of mistreatment of this group since their entrance into the region. Implemented
centuries earlier to ensure the ready availability of their unique skills, the practice of Gypsy slavery evolved
into an abusive system that treated the Roma as no more than cattle. dmc pxi-xii.
1543 In Scotland, Hamilton, Earl of Arran, then regent during the minority of Queen Mary re-establishes
the arrangement with John Faw and once more Gipsies are allowed to control and punish their own people.
1559 In Scotland during the noneth of May and June, the whole body of gypsies were of lod accustomed to gather
i n the stanks (marshes) of Roslin every year, where they acted several plays.. FHG
1566 Fredinand I maintains expulsion and extermination orders; two Gypsies are drowned in the Elb for violating
this order in Dresden. 16
1568 Pope Pius V banishes all Gypsies from the Holy Roman Church. 17
1579 King James VI rules Scotland parliment approves act against strong and idle beggers, vagabonds, and
Egyptians. But the are seldom enforced. ws
Augustus, Elector of Saxony, confiscates Gypsies’ travel permits and banishes them from the state. 18
1580 Governments encourage Gypsy hunts in Switzerland, The Netherlands, and Germany. 19
1600
1600 Scotland orders the whole race to leave and not return under penalty of death. ws (p111)
1609 Scottish law makes it lawful to condemn and execute gipsies upon proof made of the single fact ‘that they
are called, known, repute and holden Egyptians’ ws ( p112)
1652 Townspeople in Bautzen are fined by the local magistrate for doing business with Gypsies. 20
1659 Mass murder of Gypsies in Neudorf, near Dresden. 21
1661 Elector Johann George II of Saxony imposes death penalty on Gypsies found in his territory. “Gypsy
hunts” instigated as means of exterminating Gypsy population. 22
SOURCES
GLSJ Gypsy Lore Society Journals
NGS National Geographic Society (Gypsies Wanderers of the World by Bart McDowell.)
CGL Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling, by Charles G. Leland.
1-22 Gypsy History in Germany and Neighboring Lands by Ian Hancock. (The Gypsies of Eastern Europe by Crow
and Kolsti.)
JPC The Gypsies by Jean Paul Clebert,also:The Timetables of History by Bernard Grun.
JPC2 Les Tzigznes by Jean-paul Clebert.
JF The Gypsies in Poland by Jerzy Ficowski, .(Interpress Punlishers)
DMCA History Of The Gypsies Of Eastern Europe And Russia by Kavid M. Crowe(StMartin’s Press,NY)
JBM Gypsy Lifestyles by John B.McLauglin .(Lexington Books)
WS History of the Gipsies by Walter Simson 1878.
JY The Gypsies by Jan Yoors
FHG Gypsy Folk-Tales By Francis Hindes Groome (ArnoPress, NY 1977)
THE WORLD'S OLDEST DANCE:Located at website:
hftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/culture/music/middle-eastern/dance/belly-dance-FAQ
The Origins of Oriental Dance
By Karol Henderson Harding
a.k.a. Cala of Savatthi
This FAQ researches the various times and places throughout history where eastern dance, especially any form of eastern dance which influenced what was to become "belly dance" occurred. The printed version is available from the society for Creative Anachronism (Order as Creative Anachronist #70) The illustrations mentioned are available in the printed version.
The author of this publication also has a large number of black and white drawings scanned as tif files of various oriental dancers and motifs. These are available from kharding@lamar.colostate.edu ; contact for more info.
"Cala" has been an oriental dancer for over 8 years, and has written for several ethnic dance magazines, including: Habibi, Jareeda, Mideast Dancer, and Shimmy Chronicles. She is also active in the Society for Creative Anachronism.
She also conducts various artistic and costuming endeavors under the name "Joyful Dancer".
METHODOLOGY: By documenting the many places and times when professional entertainers were an integral part of eastern societies, as well as places where music and dance are used as therapeutic devices,
I hope to show that Eastern dance has an ancient and complex history, with many possibilities for re-creation in the Society of Creative Anachronism. In fact, part of the problem in researching any type of eastern performance art or persona is that it involves so many different cultures, and has developed in so many different forms. But, in spite of all this, there is still something that can be readily identified as "belly dance". Research also reveals that it is impossible to completely separate the history of "belly dance" from Gypsies, Spanish dance, Indian dance and Persian dance---hence, the comprehensive view of this report.
The dance which Americans know as "belly dance" has gone by many names. The French who found the dance named it "dance du ventre", or dance of the stomach. It is known in Greece as the cifte telli (also the name of a Turkish rhythm), in Turkey as rakkase and in Egypt as Raks Sharki. Middle Easterners also call it "danse orientale" to distinguish it from the "balady", or country, dance. It developed through the influence of many different areas and continues its long process of development today. After its appearance at the Chicago Exposition at the turn of the century, Americans discovered it, and the French name, danse du ventre, was translated into the "belly dance". In this report, "oriental dance" and "belly dance" will be used interchangeably. "Eastern dance" as used here can include belly dance, Indian dance, or Persian dance.
This improvisational, and uncodified form of dance is, nonetheless, a form of dance distinctly different from the many forms of "folk dance" which developed in the same areas. Across borders and cultures, "belly dance" is recognized as a dance style of its own. There are several points that make oriental dance different from other dance forms and reveal its diverse heritage:
1. It has traditional associations with both religious and erotic elements. This ambiguity has caused belly dance to be disdained, scorned, and loved by many. Its apparent origins are the fertility cults of the ancient world.
People have always endowed their gods with human frailties, and thus these deities had to be appeased with the best of their possessions: the fruits of the field, the fatted calf, and even human beings. The fertility cult in particular existed in all ancient civilizations.
The great Mother Goddess appears under different names such as Mylitta, Isis, Ashtoreth, Astarte, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Venus, Bhagvati, Parvati and Ceres. The function of these goddesses was reproductive, not just in the limited sense of human beings, but in the greater sense of the planet itself. They ensured the cycle of the seasons which regulated the growth of crops. They were responsible for the increase of livestock and the perpetuation of the race. The well being of the city and the countryside depended upon the goodwill of the regional mother goddess. None of these goddesses were celibate because it ran counter to their function. Neither were her priestesses necessarily expected to be celibate. Since the reproductive functions of the goddess were symbolized in the human female's reproductive organs, it must have seemed very natural to give the goddess the gift of a girl's service and virginity.
Thus began the practice of temple prostitutes, who were honored citizens in their day and time. There is ample evidence in the writings of Socrates, Apollodorus, Plautus, Arnobius, Justin and Eusebius of sacred prostitution in the Middle East, West Asia, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and North Africa. Girls might be sent to the temple as the result of a pious vow; sometimes it had a double aim, namely that of serving the deity while earning their marriage portions. Sacred dancing would also have been an integral part of their duties, particularly a type of dance which featured the abdomen, source of the Goddesses' fertility.
In Egypt today, it is still the custom for the bride and groom to hire a belly dancer for their wedding, and to take a picture with their hands on the belly dancer's stomach. This is an obvious reference to the dance's relation to ancient fertility cults. As if there were any doubt on this score, the dancer scholar and performer, Morocco, reports making the acquaintance of a Saudi Arabian woman who arranged for her to take part in a Berber tribal birthing ceremony, reminiscent of ancient times. (Morocco had to pretend to be the unfortunate mute serving girl of her benefactor in order to pass inspection.) The women gathered in a tent, while the men waited outdoors. A hollow was dug in the ground, where the mother-to-be sat. She was surrounded by concentric circles of women who danced with repeated abdominal movements while the woman gave birth.
The same Saudi woman found it highly amusing that the LaMaze "birthing classes" taught the same movements to be found in the timeless art of belly dance. The dance itself was considered by these women to be sacred, and not intended to be seen by men at all. Armen Ohanian, a persian dancer of the nineteenth century, who was a Christian Armenian, wrote of her horror at seeing the debased form of the dance for the first time: "In the true Orient, the most depraved man venerates instinctively in every woman the image of her who gave him birth.... In this olden Asia which has kept the dance in its primitive purity, it represents maternity, the mysterious conception of life, the suffering and the joy with which a new soul is brought into the world."
2. It is traditionally danced barefoot. There are other forms of dance which are done barefoot, but most do not meet all of the criteria which will be mentioned. One relevant form is Spanish dance in the Moorish style. Most Flamenco dance is done with shoes on, but the long history of domination by the Moors, an Eastern conqueror, left a dance form was performed barefoot. In modern times, some famous Egyptian dancers perform in high heels as a way of showing their audiences in a very poor culture that they can afford to wear shoes. This does not affect the traditional reason that dancers danced barefoot: namely, because it connects one directly to Mother Earth.
3. Belly dance grew out the traditions of eastern music.
Although modern belly dancers use music which is western-influenced to varying degrees, the rhythmic influences of near and middle eastern music created a music form that is fundamentally different from that which developed in the west. As musician Ishaq ibn Ibrahim (767-850 A.D.) said, "He who makes a mistake is still our friend; he who adds to, or shortens a melody is still our friend; but he who violates a rhythm unawares can no longer be our friend." Curt Sachs explains that the difference lies in the total absence of harmony in eastern music.
Western music came to depend upon the natural sense of tension and relaxation, a regular rhythm of in and out, and melodies which built upon a progression of chords. Eastern music, however, relies on the rhythms which lead the melody and lend variety to the patterns. Whereas the even flow of western music relies on changes in tempo for variety, the eastern musician hardly mentions standard tempos of music. In addition, eastern music typically begins with an arrhythmic, or free rhythm introduction known as "taqsim" (or division). Vocal music in the east is allowed complete freedom from standard tempo or rhythm when not accompanied by a rhythm instrument. Moreover, Sachs adds, western rhythms are multiplicative or divisive whereas eastern rhythms are additive. This means simply that western rhythms break down evenly into so that a 4/4 is twice as long as a 2/4. By contrast, Eastern rhythms are a series of smaller patterns strung together and cannot be evenly divided as in the following examples: 3+2+2=7, 2+2+2+3=9, 4+3+3=10.
4. The dancers often use some type of rhythm instrument to aid the musicians, or as the sole accompaniment to their dance. Spanish dancers also do this, but there is evidence of a common heritage for these dance forms through association with Gypsies and early Phoenician traders. The earliest dancer's finger cymbals made of metal are those found in the area of Thebes (c.200 BC) with a large central boss and upturned rim, measuring 2-7/16" in diameter. A slightly larger pair was also attributed to Thebes (c.200 BC) with a diameter of 3-3/8". These are more correctly called "crotales", (or krotala) meaning a small bronze cymbal. They were also mounted in sets on stick handles as clappers. However, one of the Thebes sets, as well as a set found in Pompeii (50 AD) are connected with a cord or chain approximately 2 and 1/2 cymbal's diameter in length. This is a critical measurement because this short a cord is awkward to play with two hands. In modern cultures such as Thailand, where the cymbals (ching chang) are still the major rhythm instrument, it is played by a seated musician with two hands and a much longer cord. With shorter cord a dancer could wrap it about one or more fingers and have a pair on each hand. There is, however, a form of pair cymbals with the shorter string still in use in folk dance in India, where they are called manjira.
Scholars have tried to say that all of these ancient crotales were mounted on a stick if they were not of the type which had a raised portion for holding them on top (to be struck with two hands). However, by actually connecting a pair of cymbals in this manner it is apparent to any dancer that by placing the string over the middle finger, or middle two fingers, one can shake them rhythmically. I have found no surviving ancient pictures to support this theory, but it is known that castanets, with references to metal castanets, were used in ancient Greece. Some pictures are available of Roman style dancers with a type of rhythm instrument worn in pairs on the fingers, as in fig. 1.
Whatever these instruments might have been, according to the Greek poets, they were no tinkling delicate instruments. A hymn to the goddess Diana says, "My comrade strikes with nimble hand the well-gilt, brazen sounding castanet". Euripides uses castanets as the epitome of noise when he has Silenus rebuke his companions, "What's the uproar? Why this Bacchus hubbub? There's no Bacchus here, no bronze clackers or rattling castanets?"
It is said that Spanish Gypsies, who are traditionally associated with the spread of eastern dance, did not originally use castanets, moving with "easy, undulating 'filigranos' (soft movements of the arms and hands), reflecting his eastern ethnic heritage. The early gypsies felt no need for devices beyond their own innate, rhythmic hand clapping (palmadas), finger snapping (pitos), clicking of the tongue, and often tapping of a stick (b culo). These sounds were further embellished by the shouts (gritos) and expressions of animation that conjured the magic (duende) of the moment." However, even though gypsies have taken up the use of castanets, many still play them in the primitive manner, on the middle finger instead of the thumb. Thus, references to "metal castanets" are more logical than it might appear at first; and they leave serious confusion as to exactly what these instruments were and how they were played. Modern finger cymbals are played with a cymbal on each middle finger and thumb, as in fig. 8.
5. Oriental dance is uniquely designed for the female body, with an emphasis on abdominal muscles, hip moves, and chest moves. It is firm and earthy, with bare feet connected to the ground. It is a dance characterized by smooth, flowing, complex, and sensual movements of the torso, alternated with shaking and shimmy type moves. Eastern dances are considered to be different because they are "muscle dances", as opposed to the European "step" dances. In traditional belly dancing the knee is never lifted higher than the hip, (not including ancient "phyrric" or leaping dances which were also considered fertility dances). Level changes do allow for dancing while sitting on the floor.
The first century Roman writer Martial and his contemporary Isidore of Seville mention a dancer performing moves characteristic of eastern dance, and using a rhythmic instrument. Martial refers to the skill of the women of Gades (Cadiz) in Baetica (Andaluc!a) in his lines on Telethusa, who was so bewitching that the man who acquired her as a slave bought her back as a wife. He had seen her in the marketplace "performing wanton gestures to the accompaniment of Baetic castanets, which she had been taught to play in the manner of the Gaditanian women." These dancers of Cadiz are thought by Esther Van Loo to be Phoenician or Cretan in origin. This is a reasonable assumption because there were Phoenician traders in Spain as early as the eleventh century B.C., and Cadiz, one of the oldest towns in Europe, was founded by the Phoenicians. Loo further concludes that castanets themselves were first known to Spain in connection with a Syrian fertility rite in honor of Isis or Cybele. Other scholars have concurred with this idea.
In Virgil's "Copa", the tavern hostess dances in front of her inn to lure a passerby: "A Syrian tavern-hostess, her head tied in a Greek scarf, trained in moving her quivering sides to the Crotalum, springs gaily drunken from her smoky inn shaking her rattling reeds against her elbow...". Whatever type of rhythm instrument she is playing, be it a pair of clappers or metal or wooden castanet, her dance sounds distinctively like a belly dance.
If we follow this idea back to its roots, it is easy to see how the sensual dances which originated with Greek mystery rites and comedy dances, where the dancer might have also played a type of cymbal or clapper, travelled to Spain where it became what is today Flamenco, and that another form of this dance developed throughout the Middle and Near East as what we call belly dance. Both types of dance are also associated with the Gypsies, who came out of India, through Persia, and spread by the Middle Ages throughout Europe.
6. The use of various other props in the dance such as snakes, swords, veils, and candles. These items have magical, protective functions for primitive peoples that can still be found in the folk dances of these countries. Snakes clearly relate to the ancient mystery cults. The snake is a complex symbol which represented both male and female principles, and also immortality in the form of the snake eating its tail.
7. The spectators pay the dancer directly in the form of coins or cash thrown on the floor or placed on the dancer's body. There is no other dance form in which this occurs. In classical Greece, a woman from a poor family tied a sash around her hips and went to dance for her dowry in the marketplace. Spectators threw small gold coins at her, money which she then sewed into her bodice and hip-belt as decoration, since she had no where else quite as safe to keep them. Today, dancers still wear costumes decorated with "dowry" coins. In Egypt at the time of the fourth dynasty (approx. 2680- 2560 BC), dancers were presented with gold necklaces in payment. By the 19th century, when the custom of tipping was known as "nukoot", a dancer would go into a backbend to receive the money, which would be moistened and placed on the dancer's upturned face. It is still the custom to give a belly dancer money while she dances, and there is no other kind of professional dancer who receives money directly from her audience.
8. Although belly dance developed from the dances of the people, or folk dance, belly dance tends to evolve into a dance for professional dancers and trained soloists. In comparison with folk dances, which tend to be simpler moves for large groups of people, Oriental dance evolved toward more sophisticated moves requiring some training, and to its performance by solo dancers in a totally improvisational style or ensembles of 2-3 dancers with choreography. This report will show the progression in several cultures of a dance which began in temples, passed on to the secular in an erotic form, and evolved into a class of professional dancers. Thus, as historians would d say, it progresses from the religious sphere to the realm of dance as spectacle or entertainment. And, at the same time, various forms of eastern dance continue to be used in a medicinal or religious sense in the various trance dances found throughout the middle east today.
II. A WORLD HISTORY OF ORIENTAL DANCE ANCIENT GREECE AND MACEDONIA
Lilian Lawler, an eminent Greek scholar, noted that the Greeks have participated in esoteric religious rites which included dancing throughout their history. The rites of Dionysus and Bacchus have been most commented upon, but there were many more deities, especially those which pertained to fertility. At the shrine of the goddess Artemis in southern Greece, choruses of young girls sang and danced in her honor. In Sparta, girls and young women came to the shrine of Artemis and performed unrestrained, ecstatic dances to the goddess wearing "only one chiton", that is what was normally their underdress. In connection with the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, in Asia Minor, there is mention of mysteries in which maiden priestesses engaged in "ecstatic dances". At Ancyra, also in Asia Minor, it is said that women performed dances likened to "Bacchic orgies" in both the cults of Artemis and the Goddess Athena as well.
There was also the Goddess Hecate, mysterious goddess of magic arts. She had power over the dead and was worshipped at night, in secret rites which undoubtedly included dancing. Pan, the ancient god of nature, was also worshipped in nocturnal mysteries and dances in the Greek world. There were also mysteries celebrated in honor of Aphrodite, goddess of human love and fertility on the island of Cyprus. Ecstatic and lewd dances to the tympanum (a type of cymbal) were a feature of these rites. And there were, of course, the great mysteries celebrated at Eleusis, near Athens, for Demeter and Persephone.
The Greeks "borrowed" many of these cults from Thrace, Syria, Phrygia, and Asia Minor in general. They were often characterized by frenzied nocturnal dances, with crazed outcries, to the stirring accompaniment of shrill flutes, tympana, metal cymbals, castanets of wood, earthenware or metal, horns, "bull-roarers", and rattles. There is also mention of snake handling, of trances, of prophesying, and even of self-mutilation. Some were performed openly and some only in secret. In these situations, music and dance were used as a form of "medicine" for illness of the spirit and the body, as will be seen in the "trance dance" cults that still survive in many parts of the middle east.
Little is known about the rites of the Cabiri, where Phillip of Macedonia (father of Alexander the Great) met his future wife, Olympia. But these rites are recorded as having taken place at night, attended by Dionysaic excesses. The cult was very old, probably Phoenician in origin, and was rooted in nature worship as was that of Dionysus. The mysterious ritual was conducted by torchlight. Olympia was a princess of Epirus, site of the ancient oracle of Dodona, and should have been familiar with the mysticism of the cults of the northern and western borderlands of the Greek world. She is, in fact, said to be a priestess of Dionysus who led her followers in orgiastic rites in which snakes apparently played a major part. One ancient author wrote of her habit of taking tame snakes out of baskets of ivy and "allowing them to curl themselves around the thyrsis of the woman so as to terrify the men". It is said that Phillip eventually became so nervous about his wife's religious observances that his affection cooled, and he "seldom came to sleep with her".
If additional confirmation is needed as to the symbolism of snakes, a surviving folk custom relating to the ancient fertility rites was recorded just before World War II. One of these rituals was the yearly charming of the poskok vipers on a "snake hill" near Skopje, Turkey, making them slither over female garments spread out on the ground, thus bringing fertility to the winners. These rituals are now prohibited by law. About ten miles from Skpoje there is another village which also has a "snake hill" believed to be the capital of the Snake Tsar of the world. Thousands of Posoks live in its rocky slopes. These are the deadliest form of European vipers. The belief was that no snakes would strike on snake day (March 14 and 22) and that none could be injured. The women who wished to become pregnant would taunt the snakes, and if jumped on by a snake would wash their garments in water, which their husband would then wash his face in. They would expect a child the following year.
While the Greeks of classical times deplored "professionalism" of any kind, it is quite likely that members of the lower classes constituted "professional" dancers and musicians. The transition from religious to purely secular is a major change for the dance everywhere it occurs. Certainly at their favorite entertainment, the "symposia" or dinner party courtesan dancers were called upon to entertain. In Greek vases they are pictured in scanty costume, or entirely nude, dancing spiritedly to the music of the flute. These courtesans also performed a variety of the pyrrhic dance (leaping), with helmet, shield and spear. The so called "Ionic dances" are also associated with the courtesans, spoken of as notorious for their softness and lasciviousness.
The steps and figures in which Greek courtesans engaged, as Lawler points out, look very much like those associated with the dances of comedy. Included in this genre were several figures the essential character of which was a rotation of the hips and abdomen; the same movement was as found in the dances of courtesans. One such figure or dance is called "makter" or "maktrismos", both words derived from "maktra" which translates as "a kneading-trough, tub". We are told specifically that it involved a lascivious swaying of the hips. A similar dance called variously "igde, igdis, igdisma", derives its name from the word for "a mortar", which in turn goes back to a verb meaning "grind, pound". In this dance 'they used to rotate the hips in the manner of a pestle' (in a mortar); it also involved "writhing, twisting". Lawler concludes that this dance must have included both a rotation of the hips, a movement which reminded the Greeks of the stirring of a pestle and also an occasional sharp jerk, suggestive of pounding. It was certainly a lewd performance, and was not some sort of "folk dance" about the pounding of food as some scholars have suggested. It lacks only the name to be a lively version of our own "belly dance".
From the fourth century onward to the Greco-Roman times one finds in Greek literature the complaint that the dance is deteriorating. "In ancient times...the dancers moved modestly, and gathered up their garments decently. Their emphasis was on the feet and the gestures of the hands."With the popularity of Christianity, many of the dancers were forced to retreat from the capital to small towns, and some undoubtedly went to the East, to Constantinople, where spectacles and dances continued to be popular.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES
Any discussion of references to dance in the Bible will, of necessity, be controversial. And any "proof" that one scholar can devise, a dozen others can refute. Nonetheless, I present the following as a commentary on the function of the dance in the culture of the middle east.
The Song of Solomon has had many volumes of interpretation by biblical scholars who explain in depth such things as the relationship of the church to God, etc. But Carlos Suares has taken a unique approach to its interpretation by exploring the meanings of each word according to the code of the cabbala, as well the usual meanings of the words.
The line in the Song which is usually translated as "your rounded thighs are like jewels" has been retranslated by Suares as "The curves of your hips seem to torment themselves." He notes that the Hebrew word "yerekh" means hip as well as thigh and the translation of hhalaeem as "jewels" in the orthodox version is incorrect. The root of hhalaeem, he states, is "hhal" which means "to fall, to write, dance, or tremble." Thus, "the curves of your hips seem to torment themselves", which is a perfectly reasonable description of a belly dance. Through the Song of Solomon there are references to the Shulamite's fertility, a "keeper of the vineyards", and references to the moon, an ancient female symbol. Interestingly enough, our Shulamite is veiled. The Song of Solomon, whatever its christian symbolism might be, bears great similarity to ancient Egyptian love songs, both in style and spirit. It is, in any case, a very ancient composition.
The second pertinent passage in the bible is the well-known story of Salome, who is said to have danced for the head of John the Baptist. Before we discuss this story once more, consider that in the time the bible stories were created, their greatest competition for the hearts of the people were the many pagan religions already in existence, many of which would have been mother goddess or fertility cults. There are numerous references to these cults, if one understands that these cults often featured sacred trees or groves of trees where rituals were conducted. Therefore, one finds in the bible numerous references to "groves", and building altars in groves, where the protagonist is condemned; Reference Deuteronomy 16:21; Judges 6:25, 6:28, 6:30; I Kings 15:13, 16:33; 2 Kings 17:16, 21:3, 21:7, 23:4, 23:6, 23:15, and 2 Chronicles 15:16. It is possible that the story of Salome was a Christian reinterpretation of a pagan legend, whose entire point was to condemn the pagan worshippers.
With this in mind, Buonaventura suggests another interpretation of this story. One of the ancient legends of the goddess Ishtar, Babylonian Goddess of love and fertility, concerned her descent into the Underworld, which caused the seasons to occur. When Ishtar went below for six months of the year, the earth died and nothing was born; when her husband Tammuz went below for the other six months, the earth was reborn and all celebrated her return. When Ishtar is forced to visit the underworld, She passes through the seven-times-seven gates. At each seventh gate she must part with one of her "attributes" (wealth, power, beauty, temples) so that she arrives there naked and defenseless, as indeed every person who dies passes into death. The "Dance of the 7 veils" symbolizes the 7 gates through which Ishtar (Inanna, Demeter/Persephone) had to pass in her journey to the underworld. The Hebrew word "Shalome" means "welcome", thus "Salome" could very likely have been doing a version of an ancient pagan dance of welcome. Whether this dance actually occurred, or whether it is merely a symbolic retelling, is for Biblical scholars to debate. But it is another link between the fertility cults of the ancient world and the world of the bible.
INDIA
Many clay figurines of dancing girls have been excavated from the ancient cities of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa. Although it is impossible to determine if these early dancers were connected to religious rites, it is certainly true that it forms an important part of religion in India today, and that when the great temples were first built in India, dancing girls were attached to them as a matter of course. It is impossible to determine if these early dancers of the Indus valley were involved in any form of temple prostitution. The ninth and tenth centuries saw the most glorious period of temple architecture, and their beauty was complimented by the devadasis (lit. "servants of god). These women were held in high regard, housed in luxurious quarters and granted tax-free lands. Each of them had undergone intensive training in music and dance, were skilled in languages, and had been 'married' to the temple deity.
These "temple marriages" were considered lucky for a girl since she would never be considered a widow. Her presence, therefore, on auspicious occasions such as weddings and births was regarded as essential. Much like the geisha of later Japan, and the Almeh of Egypt, these women were highly educated and polished in manner and were able to provide their patrons with intellectual stimulation, which their wives would have been unable to do. The institution of dancing girls, therefore, became an accepted part of Indian society, even after it became a Muslim society in the Mughal era. Non-temple dancers known generally as tavaifs were not devadasis, but were sophisticated courtesans and repositories of culture and refinement. However, the tavaifs were also "married" to trees and flowers in the same sense that the temple dancers were married to the deity.
The institution was so accepted that no respectable wife would admit to training in singing and dancing because those were needed only by the lower caste dancing girls. In later times, these dancers would also be known as "Bayaderes" and would appear in other countries.
In some South Indian Princely states and the Madras High Courts, temple dancers were allowed to adopt daughters from outside their profession or caste, who were then legally entitled to inherit from their adopted mother. In Indian society, the birth of a son was welcomed because he could inherit the family wealth. However, another option was open to the family if there were only daughters. They could "marry" a daughter to the temple, she would serve for a time as a devadasi, after which she would return home and assume all the privileges of a son and heir. She would even be given the important duty of applying the funeral torch to the funeral pyres of her mother and father. The devadasis were outlawed in the early nineteenth century by the British, who wished to prevent the abuses of the system such as kidnapping girls to fill the temples. Nevertheless, these dancers are responsible for preserving much of Indian culture and dance as it exists today.
Indian dance evolved dance forms codified and distinct from what we know as belly dancing. But these Indian dancers influenced dance in Egypt and in the areas surrounding them. There is also an obvious relation between Northern Indian dance and Persian dance, but it is difficult to say whether Persian influenced Indian or vice versa. The decline of the Mughal empire and the rise of European power in later centuries saw the gradual decadence of one form of Indian dance, the Kathak. It degenerated from a purely religious dance to a more voluptuous dance performed by women of low reputation. It was this debased form of Kathak that the European adventurers called "nautch", which was a corruption of the Indian word "naach", meaning dance. This infamy hurt even the reputation of the temple dancers and contributed to their decline.
Curt Sachs considers India the possible source of eastern rhythms, having the oldest history and one of the most sophisticated rhythmic development. The other possible source considered by Sachs is the ancient civilization of Sumeria, which influenced the Phoenician and surrounding cultures. It is probably no accident that Sanskrit, the language of India, is one in which there is no pre-determined accent upon the long and short syllables; the accents are determined by the way in which it falls in the sentence. Sanskrit developed in the first thousand years B.C. Each section of the ancient holy book, the Rigaveda, has a distinct rhythm associated with each section so that the two aspects are learned as one.
Classical Indian dancers do not use finger cymbals in the manner of belly dancers because their hands are busy forming the sacred mudras. However, finger cymbals are still used in some folk dances. One particularly interesting variation is still performed by the Kamara tribe. Indian finger cymbals, called "manjira" are tied to different parts of the body, and it is generally performed by two or three women who sit on the ground. The dancer's face is veiled, a naked sword is held between the teeth, a decorated pot is balanced on the head, and the manjira are held in each hand. Thus equipped the women sit on the ground and produce a variety of sounds by striking the manjira tied to her body. The dancer remains on the ground, shifting and sliding along while complex arm movements are performed. This is considered by the Kamara to be a fertility ritual, although it has the same elements as a dance.
ANCIENT EGYPT
To the ancient Egyptians, dance was an essential part of their culture. People from every social class were exposed to music and dancing. The laborers worked in rhythmic motion to the sounds of songs and percussion, and street dancers entertained passers by. Dance troupes were available for hire to perform at dinner parties, banquets, lodging houses, and even religious temples. Some women from wealthy harems were trained in music and dance. However, no well-bred Egyptian would consider dancing in public, because that was the privilege of the lower classes. Wealthy Egyptians kept slaves to entertain at their banquets, and offer pleasant diversion to their owners. The same idea is reported by those study middle eastern countries today: the more responsibility a woman has, such as being the female head of household, the less often she will dance, even in private. In fact, she might only dance on some significant occasion, like the betrothal of a son or daughter, to make the agreement official. Egypt is considered by many modern dancers to be the source of belly dance.
Elizabeth 'Artemis' Mourat, performer and dance-scholar has categorized these dances into six types: religious dances, non-religious festival dances, banquet dances, harem dances, combat dances, and street dances. Although the Egyptians also had temple dancers, we are primarily concerned with the last three. Little information exists on the wandering street dancers. However, an interesting legend has come to us about the birth of the kings of the Fifth Dynasty. The story tells how the god Ra was about to become the father of triplets. The mother, Ruditdidit as the wife of Rausir who was a priest of Ra. Rausir did not know that the father of the children was his beloved Ra. When Ruditdidit felt labor pains, Ra sent four goddesses (Isis, Nephthys, Maskhonuit, and Hiquit) and the god Khnumu to help her. In order to arrive unrecognized, the goddesses transformed themselves into street musicians and dancers. The god Khunumu assumed the role of their porter. When the group arrived, they were informed that the lady of the house was suffering the pangs of childbirth, they replied, "let us in, for lo, we are skilled in midwifery."
This story raises an interesting question. Did street dancers actually have a sideline as midwives, so that it would be plausible for this story to have occurred? And was this a logical development from the old association of the dance with fertility cults? There is no way to know, but it is possible. These dancers were evidentally accustomed to arriving unannounced and conducting a regular circuit of performances. Edward Lane, who visited Egypt in the 19th century, described the procedure for the ritual of facial tattooing of female children in Egypt, and added that this was usually done by itinerant Gypsy women. His book of 1860 illustrated face, hand, and feet tatoos of ancient design. Like the practice of applying henna designs to the bride and bridegroom, tattooing also has magical-protective meaning for tribal peoples.
Nudity was very much a part of Egyptian society. In the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom, women frequently wore very short skirts and danced bare breasted. They often danced quite nude, except for the hip belts and perhaps jewelry. Henna was used to stain the hands and nails for beauty, and for its medicinal and magical properties. This custom has also survived: The traditional Turkish wedding ceremony still contains a Henna ceremony for the new bride the night before the wedding.
The women of the harem were known as the "adorned ones". They were there to please and delight their master. Harem women and society ladies were instructed by choirmasters and mistresses of dance as part of their education. They also learned to play the lute, the lyre, the harp and, most importantly the sistra and menits which were religious instruments. Banquet and harem dances were certainly more refined and sophisticated than the street dances. They featured solos, pas de deux, pas de trois and group dances. That is to say, they created choreography instead of just improvising the dance as they went along. There was a definitive system for choreographic notation. These steps and gestures had names such as "the calf, the successful-capture-in-the-boat, the leading-along-of-an-animal, the fair-capture-of-the-beauty, the taking-of-the-gold and the colonade."
Fortunately for modern researchers, the acrobatic dances and pair dances of ancient Egypt were described by a young man of Syracuse, who visited Memphis at the end of the fourth century B.C. He wrote the following letter describing the entertainment provided at a private banquet. Irena Lexova provides the following translation from the German version by Fritz Wegge:
"Suddenly they disappeared and in their place came forward a group of dancers who jumped about in all directions, gathered together again, climbed one on top of the other with an incredible dexterity, mounting on the shoulders and the heads, forming pyramids, reaching to the ceiling of the hall, then descended suddenly one after the other to perform new jumps and admirable 'saltomortales'. Being in constant motion, now they danced on their hands, now they gathered in pairs, one turning his head down between the legs of his mate, then they lifted themselves mutually and returned to the original position, each of them alternatively being lifted and upon falling lifted his partner up."
He then describes a man and woman dancing with "clappers", i.e. wooden castanets:
"Now I caught sight of a troupe of musicians, coming with various musical instruments in their hands, in which I recognized harps, guitars, lyres, simple and double pipes, tambourines and cymbals. We were overwhelmed constantly by songs which were most cordially applauded by the audience. Then, at a given sign, the middle of the hall was taken by a man and a girl dancer, who were provided with clappers. These were made out of two small pieces of wood round and concave, located in the palms, and gave rhythm to the dancing steps when suddenly knocked together. These two dancers danced separately or together in harmonious configurations, mixed with pirouettes, soon parting and again approaching each other, the young dancer running after his mate and following her with expressions of tender desire, while she fled from him constantly, rotating and pirouetting, as if refusing his endeavors after amorous approach. This performance was done lightly and energetically in harmonious postures, and seemed to me to exceedingly entertaining."
Lexova further notes that a number of these castanets have been preserved in the collection of the Berlin museum, as noted by Curt Sachs in his German treatise on the musical instruments of the Egyptians. They are described as being of small size, so that they "can be seized by the hand in such a way that on the picture one cannot perceive them." Lexova further theorizes that in pictures where the dancer's hand is formed into a fist, it is likely holding castanets. The other rhythm instruments which gave great freedom of movement were true clappers, i.e. short wood, bone or ivory sticks, of various shapes and sizes. Dancers of the New Kingdom are shown using both tambourines and castanets in dance.
Yet another interesting prop used by the dancers was a short curved stick, or cane, carved with little gazelle heads. Given the popularity of various rhythm instruments, including rattles, Lexova states that these were probably canes with rattles on the end. Since that modern Egyptian dancers also do a "cane dance", this is a very interesting connection to ancient Egyptian culture.
From her study of tomb drawings, Lexova identifies one step as being the most fundamental of Egyptian steps: one the modern belly dancer would call a "down". A "down" step is the opposite of an "up", that is, on a "down" the hip goes down when the foot goes down. This is much harder to do, and less natural than an "up", when the hip lifts as one steps. Furthermore, these Egyptian "downs", are emphasized by the action of the foot which is not simply placed flat, but first places the toes and then the heel on the ground. The "down" is still a very typically "Egyptian" step.
In Egyptian dance, the feet were always bare, with traveling steps based on natural movements. The dancers were familiar with a wide range of movements: all types of jumps, hops and ballet-style pirouettes They used simple walking, vigorous walking, stamping, running, short hops, or leaping. They did turns of 180 degrees. The hands were usually soft, relaxed and open. But there were also movements where the fist was clenched, or the palms were rigid and geometrical. Irena Lexova described the body movements as follows: "the movements of the trunk may be classified from the technical point of view into forward inclines, reclines, sideways inclines, hip, belt, waist and shoulder circulation. Dancers can combine these movements and execute them whilst keeping their spines stiff or accompany them by bending the spine forwards or backwards. Having regard to the manner of execution, one could distinguish movements performed at a normal speed from swings and retarded movements." In other words, the early Egyptian dances had a much large range of movement that allowed by traditional "belly dance".
But as the Egyptian civilization grew it and became more sophisticated, and was influenced by other cultures. They felt the effects of Phoenicia, Syria, Palestine, Nubia, the Sudan, Ethiopia and the Bedouins. Foreign customs and wealth poured into Egypt. Around 1500 B.C. the Egyptians brought the previously mentioned Bayaderes, who were the elegant temple dancers of India. As an ancient text describes, the dances were becoming less like marches and more elegant: "the lines flow softly and pleasantly; nowhere do they bend sharply or break; and even where the mood is impetuous and impassioned, the movement remains close."
After the New Kingdom there were several invasions: the Libyans, the Sudanese, the Assyrians, and the Persians all influenced Egypt. In 30 B.C. Egypt became a Roman province. Martial, a Roman writer from the last half of the first century A.D., mentioned that dancers from the Nile were sent to Rome. Egyptian culture, whose development had been influenced by its neighbors, was also taken abroad to influence the new Roman Empire.
Perhaps one of the oldest records of a dance contract can be found in the archives of Greek papyri purchased by Cornell University. The following contract, recorded in koine (the Greek used in the Hellenistic period), dates from 206 A.D.: "To Isadora, castanet dancer from Artemisia of the village of Philadelphia. I wish to engage you with two other castanet dancers to perform at the festival at my house for six days beginning with the 24th of the month of Payni May 26-June 24 according to the old calendar, you receive as pay 36 drachmas for each day and for the entire period four artabas of barley and 20 pairs of bread loaves and whatsoever garments or gold ornaments you may bring down, we will guard these safely; and we will furnish you with two donkeys when you come down to us and a like number when you go back to the city. Year 14 of Lucius Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax and Marcus Aurelius Antonius Pius, Augusti, and Publicus Septimus Geta Caesar Augustus, Payni 16."
The dancer Isadora is referred to specifically as a "krotalistria", whereas the normal term for a dancer in Greek is "orchestria". Therefore, Isadora was a specialist in castanet dancing. (Fig 1 shows one type of "castanet dancer"). She was furnished with transportation and insured against lost of her costumes and props. Had she been a slave, she would not have been allowed to negotiate her own contracts. Thus, Isadora was also a free woman, and agreed to bring two other dancers with her. She could have had other dancers in her troupe as well. Given that the standard pay for bricklayers of the same era was about 2-1/2 drachmas per day, and a skilled weaver about 7-1/2 drachmas a day, the pay of 36 drachmas a day for the dancers was substantially higher. Saretta, who provided this analysis, added that there were approximately 14 other contracts in this period for entertainers who performed in the cities of the Empire.
Curt Sachs claims that Egyptian castanets existed in two forms: First, one shaped like a small wooden boot, cut in half lengthwise and grooved in the leg part, while the tapering foot part served as a handle. The second form was shaped more nearly like the modern Spanish castanuelas; but it was less flat and looked more like the chestnut (castana), for which it was probably named. Sachs adds that neither form is properly Egyptian. The best ones were Greek, and could have come originally from Phoenicia. The actual instruments found in Egypt, in the New Kingdom era, also include a small pair of finger cymbals with an upraised boss in the center, connected by the aforementioned short string. These are virtually identical to a pair found in Pompeii, c. 50 A.D., which are connected by a short chain. Whether the dancers used connected finger cymbals or a more rounded "castanet", the tradition of castanet dancers was widespread throughout the ancient world.
MEDIEVAL EGYPT AND THE GHAWAZEE
The well-known Ghawazee of Egypt (and the Ouled Nail of North Africa), are unfortunately not documented until the time that European foreigners start to travel in the middle east and write about the scandalous and exotic dancers of Egypt. The reason is likely to be the same that there is no written record of the dancing boys and girls of Istanbul; it simply was not respectable, and/or important enough for anyone to write about in a society where only the most elite and most respectable knew how to write. Therefore, we will discuss what these foreigners found when they wrote about the Ghawazee, even though none of it dates to before the 1600's. From the previous history of Egyptian culture, it is readily apparent that indeed, there were professional dancers from earliest times, and that dance was a part of everyday life. What these early itinerant dancers might have worn, or been called, we have no record of. So we will continue the story as seen by outsiders.
In 1798 the first organized expedition to Egypt was undertaken by a European power: Napoleon landed there seeking an alternative route to India. In Cairo, his soldiers encountered the Ghawazee, otherwise known as banat el beled. The Ghawazee (which meant "invaders of the heart"), were gypsies. They were found in settlements along the lower Nile and also in Cairo, where they quickly discovered a new source of revenue - the French soldiers. Bonaparte's Generals likened them to a pestilence and suggested that they be drowned if they were found loitering. In fact, the writer Auriant tells about four hundred of the Ghawazee who were captured and decapitated, after which their bodies were bundled into sacks and thrown into the Nile. General Billier then suggested to the government that they should try to find proper work for the Ghawazee. On a more practical level, the French later set up licensed brothels in the city. Not only could the women be checked by doctors, they could be taxed.
The attitude of the Egyptians themselves toward the dancers was much different. During the reign of Haroun Al Rashid in Egypt in the ninth century, dancers outnumbered singers to such an extent that it was decided to train some of them more fully in the musical arts. These became known as Almeh (from Alemah, Arabic for learned women) The Almeh were not seen by Napoleon's army, because they were so disgusted with the foreigners that they withdrew from the city and did not return until Napoleon left. Except for special occasions it was considered improper to have Ghawazee inside the house, which was the province of the more respectable Almeh. The Almeh were often part of private harems, and taught the arts of love through their sensuous dances. Although these early foreigners found the Ghawazee quite obscene, their pictures show women wearing fitted tunics with a low cut bodice, large full skirts, and bulky scarfs around their hips (fig 2). The tunic, cut low around the bodice appears to have derived from the Persian/Turkish tunics as seen on the ladies of the Ottoman Court. Another distinctive feature associated with the Ghawazee are the elbow-length sleeves with a decorative piece of material off the elbow; these are quite logically derived from the Persian coat, which had detachable sleeves, and sleeves which were so long as to be impractical and purely decorative. They are also shown wearing fitted jackets which go halfway down over their hips. Yet another version is the sheer blouse, with small fitted vest, and long full skirt starting at the hips (fig 12). A very full pair of Turkish "hareem" pants might also been seen instead of the skirt.
There exists in Egypt today a family with claim to be the true descendants of the "Ghawazee". They were generally said to have been centered in Esna, Qena, or Luxor. The modern-day descendants live in Luxor, and are known are the Banat Mazin, or the Mazin family. The Egyptian National Folkloric group used research done with this family to choreograph "Ghawazee" dances for the new folkloric tradition. Interestingly, the Mazin dancers speak of their dance as "raqs sha'abi", or folk dance, rather than "raqs sharqi" or belly dancing. "They said that oriental dancers moved around more, and had a more varied repertoire, especially of arm movements. Oriental dancers performed to "oriental" music with the classic middle eastern instruments, a taqsiym (slow/arrhythmic) section; while the proper music of the Ghawazee was folk music on the mizmar and tabla baladi, or perhaps the rebabi (a type of string instrument). Oriental dancers wore revealing costumes of delicate, gauzy materials; Ghawazi wore heavier, more complicated outfits which, they said, did not allow as much freedom of movement" (fig. 12)
As to the dance style of these 19th century Ghawazee, those who see Edward Lane's time- stopped, very elegantly engraved dancing ladies forget that he intended nothing of the kind! Quamar notes that, a 19th century engraver, noted that their dances had "little of elegance; it's chief peculiarity being a very rapid vibrating motion of the hips, from side to side". Qamar noted that the chief movement of the Ghawazee dance was a side-to-side shimmy performed extensively to a very fast 4/4 beat, and was the basic movement to which the dancers returned again and again. The dancers not only dance, they also sing, tell jokes, and generally interact with the audience. This aspect of their performance would have been lost to foreigners, who did not understand the language.
Another type of dance associated with Egyptian folkloric dance is the men's cane dance, or stick dance, shown in fig. 5. The Tahtib is the oldest form of Egyptian martial art to have survived, intact, from remote antiquity according to Magda Saleh. Egypt's first theatricalizer of folk dance, Mahmoud Reda, reports viewing representations of this form depicted on the great monuments and tombs in Luxor (fig 4). The long stick used in the Tahtib in Egypt - thick and solid bamboo staff - is know as Asa or Asaya, shoum or Nabboot. As Edward Lane reported: "The Nebboot is a formidable weapon and is often seen in the Egyptian peasant: he usually carries it on a journey; particularly when he travels by night." The tahtib is a favorite at any festive occasions, such as weddings, welcoming parties, and harvest festivals. It is also practiced by the men as a pastime and used as a means of self- defense.
It has also become the custom for female dancers to dance with a cane, in a much more delicate fashion, (see fig. 3 & 6) This may include balancing the cane, holding the cane and shimmying, and swinging the cane about at above and below head level. It has been suggested that the women's cane dance is a "parody" or "comedy" of the men's dance. The ghawazee cane dance witnessed by Qamar did include, however, a very interesting and distinctive step. It is a step-hop, (fig 6) which the National Folkloric group calls the "tawalli" step. The step is basically a hop on one foot, and a lifting of the other leg with the thigh horizontal to the floor at hip level, and the leg bent downward at the knee. In addition to being a very folkloric move, it also bears great similarity to the hop-step shown in pictures of Turkish dancing boys and girls.
Modern belly dancers also perform sword dances, in the sense of sword balancing. Eva Cernik, a professional dancer who travels regularly to Egypt and Turkey, tells this anecdote about sword dancing: "There was a time in Egyptian history when dancers were sold as slaves into the courts, or as property of the wealthy. Some acclimated well, but some retained their independence in a very special way. They took to dancing with swords normally used in battle. They did not wave them around in fighting mode, as the men did, but rather they delicately balanced them on their heads, dancing undaunted, expressing themselves beneath the sword. 'You control my life, you hold the sword over my head, but you do not control my spirit.'" Whether this story is true or not, it is a wonderful explanation.
TURKEY AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
The Turks came from Central Asia and settled in the Central Anatolian plateau. They were there for centuries before they gained possession of other parts of Anatolia, captured Istanbul and advanced into Europe, Africa and Asia to create an empire. The Anatolian peninsula is the bridge between Asia and Europe and many major migrants have travelled its path. Over a period of more than two thousand years it has been inhabited by representatives of various civilizations - Hittites, Greeks Phrygians, Lydians, Isaurians, Cappodocians and Byzantines to mention only a few. Although there is no one Turkish national dance, there are several thousand folk dances which incorporate elements from many of these cultures. Islamic prohibitions against dancing mainly affected the city dwellers, and not the peasants in isolated villages.
Metin And, a Turkish expert on Turkish Folk Dances maintains that there are great similarities between many Turkish folk dances and the dances of the Balkans (Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece), and that some dances claimed by the Greeks may actually have come from the Turks. This is vehemently denied by most Greek scholars. Mr. And particularly mentions a style of dance called the "zeybek" (Turkish) which the Greeks call "zeybeckikos". More to the point, the Turkish word for dance "Ciftetelli" is also the name of a dance performed in Greece. He attributes this to their common heritage on the Anatolian plains. The ciftetelli, both a fast and a slow version, are familiar to all dancers who use Turkish music. The fast ciftetelli (or chiftetelli) rhythm is more exclusively Turkish than the slower.
Many references to practices in Turkish folk dances hint at the meaning of several standard dance props used by belly dancers. In the Turkish wedding ceremony, there is a henna ceremony performed for the bride at night, which includes a large circle dance where the participants hold lighted candles on plates. Both the henna decoration and the candles are considered to have a magical protective function. Men and women attend separate henna parties for the bride and bridegroom. The exact tradition varies from region to region: In Arapkir, the only women allowed to dance with lighted candles on saucers are those who are happy in marriage and have been married but once. Similar kinds of dances can be found in other countries which have been exposed to Moslem influence such as Persia, North Africa and Malaya, where the dance is called "menari hinei". The wedding ceremonies also utilize a sword as a magical protective device; for example, the sword dances performed in front of the wedding procession. There is also a Syrian Bride's dance, where the sword reminds the bridegroom to give her the proper respect!
Metin And classified the dances of Turkey into three categories: Religious dance, Dancing for one's own pleasure (as in folk dances), and Dance as Spectacle. Under the category of religious dance, the long honorable history of Sufi dancing emerges. Dance was also part of the lives of everyday people, who danced for their own pleasure. But the institution of professional dancers was so highly developed that it deserves a more detailed look.
Turkish dances developed on two different planes, and in two cultural settings: Istanbul the capital of the Ottoman empire, a few other large cities, and the rural villages. Mr. And maintains that the geographic isolation of remote villages has helped to preserv over a thousand folk dances. These peasants are the pastoral unsettled fragments of the nomad hordes who strayed into Asia Minor in the Middle Ages, some of whom are still semi-nomadic. The second level of development was the court influence at the time of the Ottoman empire. The slightest event at court could effect the entire populace: the birth of a new prince, the circumcision ceremony, a marriage the accession of a new ruler, or merely the girding on of the sultan's sword. All entailed the need for a public ceremony.
These festivities were on a huge scale, including spectacular pageants consisting of mock battles between Moslems and Christians, water triumphs, various plays, circus acts, fireworks, horse races, dancing and music. One miniature survives which shows dancing boys performing on water, by means of each one standing on a small, round raft which is balanced by counter- weights under the water. The dancers are tied to the raft by a vertical pole worn under their long skirts to conceal the attachment. Levni, an 18th century miniature painter, clearly depicts the ropes used to manipulate these small rafts. The sultan is watching the performance from the shore. It is impossible to say when this dance might have originated.
In Istanbul these festivities would have occurred in the same Hippodrome where the festivities of the Byzantine Empire had been held. There were also the usual anniversary, religious, commemorative and patriotic holidays which included dancing as part of the celebrations. These would have featured trade guilds, amateurs, and professional dancing troupes. Unfortunately, very little is known about the dances done by the professional dancers who entertained at these events. The specific information which is available on these spectacles dates from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, because the foreign visitors who saw these dances wrote a great deal about them.
The dancing girls and dancing boys are a recognized institution throughout the Near East; they were the actors and actresses of their time. However so little is known about them because dancing was regarded by the scholarly writers of the past as an "improper and wicked sport", especially when indulged in by professionals. The name for both dancing boys and girls is of the origin of this word is its similarity to the word " ingene" meaning gypsy. The majority of these dancers were, in fact, gypsies. The " upperchested harp, which is sometimes called a "jew's harp". There are two other words for dancing boys: "k ek" (and their music k ek e), and "tav~an a". The "tavsan rasan" dance (tavsan=rabbit) refers to the grimaces, facial contortions, light steps, and jumps, and facial expressions which imitated the rabbit. The difference in tav~an and k ek was more in the manner of their dressing according to Metin And.
The k__ek, or dancing boys, were organized into different guilds or companies of entertainers called "kol". By the mid 1600's there were said to be some three thousand of these dancers, in approximately twelve companies. They were usually gypsies, Armenians or Jews, as Turks were not supposed to enter such a degrading profession. Be that as it may, these dancers were so beloved by their audiences that poets sang their praises in verse, praising their physical beauty and their skills.
The dancing boys were young boys whose dance and external appearance suggested femininity. Sometimes they grew their hair long and decorated their locks with ornaments and wore pointed hats. On some occasions they even dressed like girls. Their dancing consisted of leisurely walks, finger snapping, short mincing steps, slow movements, suggestive gestures, somersaulting, wrestling, rolling upon the ground and other forms of mimicry. The boys danced as long as they preserved their good looks and could conceal their beards. This custom which so astounded western travellers arose because of Islamic prohibitions against association with women. The dancing boys were a safe substitute for the prohibited women and girls, and any sexual liaisons which might have resulted were very much a part of the culture, even if not considered respectable.
The dancing girls also had a following. They were very reported to be very popular and a delight to see. A kol or company of engi consisted of the Kolba~i, the leader of the company and her assistant, and usually twelve dancing girls and four musicians called straci, one of whom played the fiddle, the other a double drum called nekkare, and the remaining two played tambourines. Their age limit was thirty to thirty-five. The Kolba~i and her assistant were older women. Their dancing was described as suggestive contortions, a good deal of stomach play and twisting of the body, falling upon the knees with the trunk held back (a backbend) to the extent that the spectators were encouraged to put a coin on their forehead. This is the same custom observed in Egypt called "nukoot". Every muscle and both shoulders were made to quiver (i.e. a shimmy) and all this was alternated with graceful poses and feminine affectations. Sometimes they would perform a pantomime of physical love with an expression of restrained passion; retiring as if alarmed or humiliated and sometimes taking bold or daring attitudes, pretending to throw their breasts or lips to the spectators.
The homosexual tendencies which occurred amongst the dancing boys also occurred amongst the female engi dancers, who sometimes performed in the bath houses. There was a special name for this type of dancer, called Z refa (lit. graceful). There was a special kind of handkerchief and a special symbolic language used to reveal their inclinations. Just as dancing boys chiefly impersonated females dancing, the female dancers occasionally impersonated males, as they had always done when women performed plays in the seclusion of the harem. Another interesting aspect of harem performances is that the musicians who played for the Sultan's harem dancers were expected to play blindfolded.
One accessory of the dancing girls was a silken scarf. Holding the two ends of the silken scarf in their fingers, they would either play the shy maiden or the flirting courtesan; of they would twist a colored scarf into a rope and wind it round the head or neck, or else they would hold the scarf in front of their face like a veil, hence the names of the dance which have survived are "kaytan oyunu" or "tura Oyunu" (kaytan and tura mean silk cord, braid, knotted handkerchief). It was described as a pantomime on amorous relations executed to the accompaniment of eng and tambourine. Modern belly dancers, in imitation of this practice use large rectangular or half-circle veils.
The study of stylized miniature drawings of these dancers shows one distinctively Turkish dance step which survives in Turkish folk dance today as the "stomp" (see Fig. 6): One can find countless pictures with calpara sticks in their hands, one arm overhead, and one foot raised with soles parallel to the floor, as if ready to stomp. It is entirely likely that the two distinctive populations, city and country peasants, had some effect upon each other. Two other distinctively Turkish dance movements, listed by Metin And, are crouching or kneeling movements, and foot stamping.
The authors of a French treatise on Turkish dance dated 1583 noted that many writers believe that the style of engi dancing originated from Spain. Metin And notes that this is quite probable, since there was a Jewish emigration movement from Spain to Turkey in the late 15th and early 16th century. A description of a dance published in 1759 also made the comparison: "the agility of the dances is accompanied with several postures displeasing to modesty. Some danced in the Spanish manner, with tolerable gravity, and with castingets in each hand. The band consisted of flutes, and drums of different sizes, which they beat on the upper part with a stick, and on the under with a bowl forming by this means differents sounds." This was more likely a re-occurrence of cross-culturization, since both dances came from eastern roots.
In Europe, Mr. And notes, engi dancing is invariably called belly dancing or danse du ventre, though the use of the pelvic or abdominal muscles is only one of the forms of cengi dancing. In his opinion, belly dancing is more likely to refer to a widespread and degenerated form of comic dancing in Anatolia.
The largest contribution of Turkish culture to belly dance is a rhythmic one. Turkish finger snapping (a special two-handed finger snap) is common to both gypsies and eastern dance in general. Turkey has a history of the manufacture of metal cymbals of all sizes; the cymbal was used with warlike effect by the Janissaries, those feared mercenaries. Mr. And also notes that both the dancing boys and girls marked time with finger snapping, with the calpara clapper sticks, or metal finger castanets called 'zil'. At some point small finger cymbals were played with a pair on each hand in the modern manner by dancers and entertainers. In fact, the most common word for modern cymbals is "zill", which is the Turkish word for them (Fig. 8). (The Arabic word is sagat.) They also used pairs of wooden clappers, one set in each hand, as portrayed in numerous miniature drawings. These were called "carpara" or "calpara", which derived from the Persian word "chalpara", meaning literally "4 pieces" (fig. 7). They even had an instrument similar to the ancient crotales, which was a simple set of tongs with three arms,(or zilli masa) with small cymbals attached to them. It was called egane, or 'jingling johnnie'
In addition, Turkish music features complex and unusual rhythm patterns, such as the "asak" or limping rhythms which are polyrhythmic and asymmetrical such as 9/8, 9/4, 10/8, 7/8. The 9/8, or karslima (or kashlima) rhythm is often used as the opening rhythm for dance sets by belly dancers. The word "karslima" means "facing", and Mr. And says that this dance was originally one in the folk genre where two rows of dancers faced each other.
ARABIC MUSIC IN PERSIA AND SPAIN
Arabic music reached its culmination during the reign of Harun-al- Rashid, and his successors, the Abbasids, who were immensely influenced by the Persians. They held court in Damascas and Bagdad. (The previous Sassanid dynasty was the last truly Persian dynasty). During his reign a festival was organized in which two thousand slaves were gathered together to sing. One of his successors, Al-Amin continued the tradition: The musician Ibn Sadaka tells that on a certain Palm Sunday he entered the palace of Al-Mamun, "There were twenty Byzantine slaves present, dressed in garments of Grecian silk, with girdles, golden crosses at their necks, and carrying palm and olive branches in their hands. The Caliph commanded Ibn Sadaka to sing and play while the Byzantine slaves danced some of their native dances. All of which transported the Caliph to such an extent that he got drunk and gave Ibn Sadaka a thousand pieces of gold." The wealthy citizens of Badgdad and other large cities of the empire likewise kept talented slaves for entertainment purposes.
When the Arabs entered the Spanish Peninsula in 711, they brought with them the same prohibitions on music and dance advocated by Islam. The religious law they imposed upon native Spaniards considered only "slaves and infamous folk" fit to be musicians. Their testimony was not legal in courts of law, and books about songs could not be lawfully sold. It was also forbidden to rent a house if flute or "bandola" playing was intended within. But as in the Empire, music eventually won out and even respectable women established singing schools in their homes. Trained performers like the female singer and lutist, Ajfa, were brought from the orient to the court of Abdu'r- Rahman I in Cordova. Abdu'r-Rahman II was so enamoured of the oriental singers that he had three women brought from the school of Medina (Fadal, Alam, and Kalam), with their own special section of rooms in his palace. Fadal had been a slave to one of the daughters of Harun-al-Rashid and had grown up in Bagdad. Thus, the same songs and instruments were used in Spain as in the Orient through the middle of the ninth century A.D.
By the twelth century, nomadic, wandering poets and musicians who wandered from city to city on the Spanish Peninsula were so numerous that there was a special designation for them, "ahdab". This meant people who were fond of jokes, yarns, and cheerful verses, many of which were quite bawdy. These compare to the "gaya ciencia" or ministrelsy of Europe. When Granada fell to the Christians in 1492, the Moriscos (or Moorish) entertainers continued to be appreciated, even as many Moors, Gypsies and Sephardic Jews were escorted to the ports and driven out of the country.
GYPSIES AND THE DANCES OF SPAIN
The history of oriental dance is intertwined with that of Gypsies, in their various guises in each country they travelled through. They came from India and spread across Europe, and finally stopped in Andulasia, an isolated Spanish region. The Spanish Gitana in fig. 9 is the modern heir to this tradition. Wherever they went they made money in whatever way they could, including working as entertainers. The Gypsies who traveled westward brought many of these sounds to the west. The Gypsies took the combination of complex Indian rhythms mixed with the Islamic melodic themes to Andulasia. "One can hear the strong Arabic influence in flamenco music....the dance moments in flamenco with the hips and the portrayal of strong emotion and passion are essentially Arabic." Flamenco dances, primarily associated with the gypsies of Andulasia are considered to be of fairly recent origin. However, these dances probably incorporate many traditional characteristics of Spanish dancing, thus preserving them.
Perhaps the earliest record of Gypsy migrations is that recorded in the Shah Nameh (or King's Book) written about 1,000 AD. The Persian poet Firdawsi tells of twelve thousand itinerant minstrels, the Luri, sent to Persia from India about 420 AD, upon the request of a Sassanide prince, Bahram Gur, who intended that they should lighten the life of his hard-working people and charm away their misery. He provided them with grain and agriculture that they should support themselves. This plan was, of course, doomed to failure. The Luri used the supplies and made no attempt at farming. Furious at the waste, the prince sent them all away and condemned them to roam and earn a living by smuggling and begging. This account was confirmed in 940 A.D. by the Arab historian, Hamza. insert map page, fig. 10 & 11
The connection of Gypsies to India has been proven by ethnologists and linguists. The story the Gypsies have always told about "being from Egypt", and therefore Gypsies has no particular validity. By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries scholars had begun to question the theory of Egyptian origins. Grellman, one of the outstanding scholars of this era, analyzed Gypsy language, Romany, and found that it was "basically composed of Sanskrit words, many still in pure form, and that it most closely resembled the dialects spoken in northwestern India (1807:11-14)" (fig. 10). He therefore concluded that they did, indeed, originate in India. This theory was further confirmed by anthropological studies of Gypsy physical characteristics; Kroeber notes that the Gypsies "originated in India and they show definite evidence of that fact in their blood type and in the Romany speech of which they retain remnants".
The incredibly ancient and complex history of India does not lend itself to tracking one small group of nomadic people, but the arrival of the Aryans about 1500 B.C. as conquerors could have crowded them to less desirable areas. In addition, about a thousand years later the north of India suffered attacks from Greeks, Persians, Scythians and Kusheans. Gypsiologists speculate that their migrations might have begun about the year 1000 A.D. Their travels left them scattered throughout the countries of the East (fig. 10-map)
Indians themselves have been less than eager to claim the Gypsies. Jean-Paul Clebert obtained the following information from a Bengali man: "The only tribes which can be called Gypsies are the Vanjara, the Lamani, the Chhara and the Luri.... The Vanjara live in the neighborhood of Bombay, in the Gudjerat, the Maharashtra and Hyderabad. They are beggars and makers of trumpery objects; they live a nomad existence in groups, and use donkeys but not wagons. They sleep in tents. They may engage in magical medicine, but they are neither smiths nor mountebanks. The Lamani are a very handsome people with comparatively fair skins, and tattooed. Their women wear long dresses, heavy bracelets and little bells attached to their ankles. The people thereabouts believe that they come from Iran, and accuse them of kidnapping children. As for the Chhara, they are first and foremost thieves. A local proverb claims that a Chhara who is a bad pickpocket has no chance of getting married". Clebert speculates that this name Chhara may be related to that of the Churari, which designates one of the contemporary groups of Gypsies.
The Gypsies were given names by the inhabitants of each country they visited, and linguists have generated many theories based upon these names: Luri (Baluchistan), Luli (Iraq), Karaki, Zangi (Persian), Kauli (Afghanistan), Cinghan s or Tchingan s (Syria and Turkey), and Katsiveloi, Tsiganos, or Atsincanoi (Greek). Nevertheless, the first law of linguistics as stated by Martin Block says that 'The number of foreign words adopted by the Gypsies corresponds to the length of their sojourn in the different countries'. By applying this principle, the Gypsies remained in the Near East, Persia and mainly in Turkey and Greece between the 10th and 15th centuries. Basic Romany does, in fact, comprise many Greek, Turkish, and Armenian words.
The tradition of the Kalderash Gypsies, who consider themselves the only true Gypsies, tells that some Gypsies who were smiths were responsible for the maintenance or working stock, and followed the Tartar armies on their moves from place to place. MacMunn agreed with this in his treatise "Moeurs et coutumes des basses classes de l'Inde" in 1394, stating 'The Bohemians of Europe, without any doubt, followed the armies of the Huns, Tartars and Seljuks, and our own Gypsies who work in metals and grind our knives certainly sharpened swords and blades for the armies who traversed Europe in every sense.' Unfortunately, documents relating to the Huns and Tartars never mention the Gypsies, thus the existence of these camp followers remains unproven.
Gypsies, or Rom, began to appear in Southeastern Europe over six hundred years ago (fig. 11- map): Clebert summarizes the dispersion of the Gypsies as follows: Byzantium (855 A.D.?), Crete (1260 or 1322), Corfu (1346), Serbia (1348), The Peloponnese (1378), Basle (1414), Transylvania and Moldavia (1417), Saxony (1418), France (1419), Denmark (1420?), Bologna and Rome (1422, Paris (1427), England (1430), Scotland (1492), and Russia (1500). as shown in fig. 11. They entered Northern Spain by 1447 to join with the colonies of Rom who had entered from the south earlier via North Africa. One unusual fact should be noted, though: the Gypsies had a distinct aversion to travel over water, and Clement notes that they set foot onto ships "with the utmost repugnance".
The Gypsies found kindred spirits in the region of Spain known as Andulasia. Not only does this area provide plenty of isolated areas to escape from law and regulation, it's inhabitants had been influenced by the occupation of the Moors. The legendary ruler Nasrid Granada left a heritage of romanticism, and oriental mysticism. Starkie notes that both Gypsies and Andulasians shared several common beliefs including a preoccupation with the death theme, and their inherent nature as a proud people intent on preserving their traditions. The Andulasians said of the Gypsies, "tienne la alegria de estar triste rejoices in being sad " (1953:96). In addition, both groups place a high value on individualism and familial loyalty. Thus was born the caste of Flamenco. "Flamenco" came to mean "Gypsy" and the class of Spainards who associated with Gypsies or led a Gypsy-like life. This lifestyle included the flamenco arts of music, dancing and bullfighting. Strangely enough, although numerous laws were passed specifically against Gypsies, the Spanish inquisition had little effect upon them. It was reported that the Gypsies were looked upon with such contempt that the holy officials were indifferent as to whether they had religion or not.
The Gypsy culture is one in which one tells the "Gadjo" (or outsider) whatever he/she wishes to hear, or whatever makes a good story. Although we think of them as a gay and happy people, the music which they make for themselves is invariably tragic, sorrowful or revengeful. For the Gadjo, they sing happier songs because they know it is preferred. Their private lives are distinctly separate from their public lives. "Public" is whenever they are forced to interact with outsiders to make a living. Although they have a well-deserved reputation as thieves, there are traditional Gypsy occupations, such as entertainer, metalworker, fortunetelling, and horsetraders. The trades practiced by certain castes in Northern India were traditionally those of smith and metal worker, musician and public entertainer as well as purveyor of herbal medicine - all trades linked to occult practices and pagan beliefs. To this day, many nomadic women in the Near East bear hand and ankle tatoos thought to be Gypsy in design, often a universal symbol meaning a traveler. This intense tribal pride is significant in maintaining their cultural identity throughout their travels, and is characteristic of true Gypsies.
It has been maintained by some that the gypsies have no true religious beliefs, and no music of their own, so successfully have they taken on the flavor of each culture where they have lived. However, in reality their entire culture centers around shamanistic beliefs in the spirits that dwell in nature, a distinct remnant of Central Asian shamanistic beliefs. Gypsies believe that certain demons and spirits hold sway over each individual's daily life. For example the Gypsy artist must wait and hope for his personal "duende" or demon, to enter into him and flood him with inspiration before achieving true artistry, even when he/she must perform to eat. Thus, the entertainment of Gadjo becomes a game of fooling the uninformed that the spirit has entered the performer even when it has not. This deep emotion helped create in Andalusia the "cante jondo" or deep song, which contrasts to the lighter "canto flamenco". Flamenco dance styling has a distinct similarity to classical Persian dance, as well as modern Central Asian dance, in the distinctive use of arms and the high body center. Whereas modern Arabic dance centers its moves in the abdomen and keeps the arms mostly at shoulder level, both Flamenco and Persian dance center the weight in the chest and use the maximum amount of space above the head to perform graceful and effect arm and hand movements.
Gypsy dancing is never "just to be dancing", comments Gypsiologist Barbara Sellers. "Instead it seems to be part of an immense and significant non-verbal vocabulary of Gypsy communication and behavior. It is at the heart of an essential transformation, a transcended state, an escape from the reality of their daily lives to a more satisfying state of mind". This is especially important to remember because oriental dance is consistently related to both religion and eroticism in various contexts. Modern Flamenco dance has developed its own styling and culture, but its roots are the same as those for belly dance styling. Sellers mentions the dance of the Turkish Gypsies, the Kocek(i) as one specific dance which encourages this much desired transcendent state. To this day in Istanbuhl, Turkey, there is a Turkish Gypsy quarter known as "Sukule".
Gypsy women are considered by western culture to be extremely immodest because they have no shame about the upper body, exposing their breasts to nurse or for other reasons. However, they have many taboos about the lower body. Exposure of the lower half of the body, publicly or privately, is considered extremely defiling and therefore taboo. Therefore, the traditional dress of gypsy women is a wrap-around skirt with pleats, requiring nine to ten yards of material; it reaches to the floor, for women's ankles are not supposed to be seen. There are also taboos against a husband and wife sharing the same set of soaps and towels, the same set of dishes, and numerous taboos about how men and women may touch. The attire of gypsy women as they dance in the caves of Spain is traditionally, dancing barefoot, with a large full skirt, and a blouse which might not reach to the waist (Fig. 9). This costume bears similarity to the ancient court costumes of India, which featured a short top and a very full skirt and head scarf (fig. 10).
The elusive nature of Gypsy culture leads to much frustration on the part of the researcher. For instance, when tracing the history of finger cymbals, one finds them played, along with the calpara sticks, by the dancers of Istanbul (who were mostly Gypsies or Jews). Spanish Gypsies are said to have disdained the use of castanets, declaring them "false finger snaps", using even their fingers and mouth for rhythm. And when they did take up finger cymbals, often played them "in the old manner", placed over the middle finger. There is, of course, no record of when small metal finger cymbals began to be played in the modern manner by dancers with two pairs: one on each thumb and middle finger. Although Turkey, with its tradition of cymbal-making and use is a likely location. Any dancer would readily see that with a separate pair on each hand there is a much freer range of movement possible. And we remember, once again, that gypsies also had a long tradition of metal work.
ISLAMIC PROHIBITIONS AND THE DANCERS OF PERSIA
Despite its prohibitions against dance and music, Islam has never succeeded in eliminating either from the culture of the middle east. The Sufis, a less conservative group, sought more direct contact with God and looked upon dance in a more tolerant way. Sufi theologian and scholar, al-Ghazzali, a theologian and scholar cited certain conditions under which it was acceptable. According to al-Ghazzali, "melodies which stir up gladness, joy and emotion, their manifestation through poetry, airs, dancing and movement are praiseworthy.". He points out that time, place, social usages, one's ability, and the circumstances should be taken into account. He even discusses the attitude of the mind of the dancer to the dancing, noting that only genuine ecstasy will make his movements light and brisk.
Sufi dancing is completely different in intent from a performance, which is meant to entertain the audience. In Sufi ceremonies, the participants seek to lose their individuality and approach mystic perfection in "oneness". During the dance, it is imperative that the Sufi follow the leader as closely as possible. When, for example the sheik begins his dance and allows his turban to fall to the ground, the rest of the dervishes must imitate him. The Mawlawis use flutes for their dances; other sects may also use drums. Some sects include women as well as men in the participants.
The secular dance most closely related to Islamic intent is the classical dance of the Persians. True Persian dancing has been almost completely lost; since it is not allowed in modern Iran. It did survive to modern times in the remote areas of Afghanistan, which was closed to the outside world until nearly the 19th century. During the time of the last Shah, an effort was made to revive old Persian culture, and a Persian National Folkloric troupe existed. There is also, fortunately, an Afghani Persian woman, Dr. Mahera Harouny, who teaches classical Persian in relation to Sufi philosophy living in Salt Lake City, Utah. By studying videotape made of their dance of the folkloric troupe, as well as study under Dr. Harouny, I have identified certain essentially "Persian" movements.
First, Persian movement originates from the shoulder. Being much higher on the body, it is inherently more delicate and more spiritual (Fig. 8). It uses much more of the space above the head, and uses the hips not at all. This style of armwork is the source for the original "Persian arms", i.e. "Snake arms", done by oriental dancers everywhere. When classical styling is done to very classical music it is possible to raise the arms very high; in more secular or lively, i.e. party type music the arms stay much closer to chest level. This is evident even when men and women dance for personal entertainment; they lead from the shoulder rather than from the hip as Egyptians do. Accepted dance props include long strips of silk ,or wine vases, or a rose; all of these are handled with grace and delicacy.
Secondly, in classical Persian the dancer does not acknowledge the existence of her audience. She is supposedly in a higher or trance-like state of mind, communing with God. Her arm offerings upward are offerings to God. It is not officially "Islamic" dance, but it does use the imagery and intent of Persian classical poetry. In more lively party dances, the dancer might acknowledges her audience with occasional glances or brief little smiles. But there is no sense in which she approaches the frank sexuality of the traditional belly dance. The proponents of Islam believed that excitement was bad for the soul; but that serene music could bring one closer to God. Thus, the Classical Persian dancer portrayed the very concept of beauty, the soul reaching out towards God. This lovely dance was preserved by men and women in the privacy of their homes because of its mystic implications. It is completely different in execution and intent from the standard dances of courtesans and dancing boys.
Historically, Central Asia also had a tradition of dancing boys, called Batchas (meaning "child"). There was already a practice of dressing boys up as girls for their circumcision ceremony, that is, in baggy white drawers, tight at the ankles. One observer characterized the dance of the batchas as "a mixture of dance, gymnastics and song, beating of castanets, all mixed up and always of an obscene character." Some of these children may have been taken from their parents by force for their parent's indebtedness. But as Laurel Gray explains, while these dancing boys suffered from low social status, they were much sought after and maintained high standards of performance. Among the desirable traits were "a spontaneous vivacity, an absolute sense of rhythm...light in movement and well-proportioned. Physically he should have the strength to stand the long exercises...be unusually flexible and able to execute the turns and the swaying of the hips with great rapidity.
The Muslims in Persia also had their courtesans. According to Dr. Bettina Knapp, all dancers were courtesans, and indeed were so sought after and so powerful in the capital city of Isfahan, that they formed a corporation: fourteen thousand women, all of whom were registered and directed by a "superior". These beautiful and wealthy young women wore sumptuous clothing and jewelry and used their talents and their art for their own purposes. That they were also looked down upon is shown by the fact that no one referred to them by their stage names, but referred to them in keeping with the price range they charged their clients. They asked for "11 tomans, 10 tomans, or 8 tomans" (tomans = a Persian gold coin). These courtesans were a part of Isfahan society until the eighteenth-century when the Agha Mohammed Khan, a Shiite, came to power. He abolished all the rights and favors accorded the courtesans and severely punished all those who disobeyed his law: "a woman could not appear in public." and therefore, there were no more singers, no more dancers, and no more theater.
In modern Persia (Iran) music and dancing have been forbidden once again by Moslem fundamentalists. But amongst the gulf peoples there is one form of dance which is an interesting hybrid of Persian and Arabic dance; Bandari could even be called "Persian belly dance". The explanation is that in this area Persians and Arabs have traditionally intermarried and produced a unique blend of the two cultures. As performed by the National Folkloric troupe, the dance of the gulf ports (Bandari = port), Bandari is performed with separate lines of men and women. The men wear vests and short wrap skirts; the women wear headpieces, a traditional tunic over narrow Persian pants, and headscarves, as well as black masks. The dance involves a back-forward chest shimmy with one foot ahead of the other. Variations in the dance include waving the hands above the head, moving in a circle with hip movements, and sinking to the floor and tossing the head in a circle. It is a wild, celebratory dance which can be done as a group or as a solo.
TRANCE DANCING AND THE CULT OF THE ZAR
Trance dancing is not merely dancing for entertainment; it is part of a religious ceremony intended to cure an illness caused by a demon. While it is possible, and very dramatic, to do a Zar type dance as entertainment, the true Zar is a religious ceremony. To make this more clear, the following explains what a Zar ceremony involves.
The use of acting-out or possession trances has a history going back to the cult of Dionysos and the Corybantes. What little we know of these cults strongly resembles the zar cult as practiced in modern Christian Ethiopia, as well as in the Sudan and throughout the middle east. This kind of trance is also related to the fire walking still practiced in Thrace, one of the homelands of Dionysos. The whirling dervishes of Konya in Turkey also enter a type of trance while dancing. Konya is also one of the ancestral homes of Phrygian Dionysos.
Zar cults involve groups with specific membership, generally women, which require an initiation process. The trancers impersonate various spirits and act out their roles, often in detail. Each Zar spirit has his or her characteristic whirl called gurri which includes a series of rapid turns. The intent of the ceremony is not to exorcise the demon, but to work out an accommodation with it. These societies provide women both entertainment and religious consolation. These cults thrive despite traditional Islamic beliefs. In fact, religious clerics in the Sudan consider the zayran (zar demons) to belong to the class of spirits known as jinn, whose existence the Quran substantiates. They are generally considered to be amoral, capricious, hedonistic and self-indulgent. Zar cults in the Sudan thrive in both city and country, although the city groups may be better organized. In Khartoum and Omdurman there are a number of full-time, professional zar practioners, male (homosexual and therefore sexually neutral), and female dancers (shaykha) who are paid for their services and attract large followings of the possessed.
The Zar ceremony is conducted in this way: When musicians and participants are assembled, the patient is brought in. The incense is lit, and the drumming begins. Appropriate chants and rhythms are played to summon the spirits. A number of women may be possessed by the same spirit and exhibit it simultaneously. When the patient is finally able to identify the spirit by which she is possessed, it is drawn into dialogue. Some sort of animal sacrifice is usually offered to the offending spirit. It may be placated with gifts and other offerings. Next morning the group will go in procession to the Nile (or local body of water) with remnants of the sacrificial meal, and the instruments and participants are cleanses in the river.
THE BERBER DANCES OF MOROCCO AND TUNISIA
The Berbers, who are the original inhabitants of Morocco, do not identify themselves with the Muslims of Morocco. However, both Arab Berbers and Muslims believe in Jnum (spirits). What makes these dances worthy of study is that attaining a trance-like state seems to be a common goal in most Berber dances, even when not specifically a trance dance. The dance most pertinent to this discussion is the Guedra. Like other Moroccan dances, the use of repetition and the constant crescendo of both music and movements create a hypnotic effect on the dancer and spectator. An actual light-headedness or ecstatic feeling results, and eventually leads to total exhaustion. The abrupt collapse seen in the Guedra at the end is also characteristic in most of these ancient Moroccan dances. They believe if there is not a feeling of complete release at the end of the dance, ill health and bad luck will beset the dancer. The theory that the Guedra represents an expression of life from birth to death is a very general analogy frequently used to explain the concepts behind the dance. The following is a description and translation of this dance as performed in Tunisia compiled by Dr. Bettina Knapp:
"Danced bare chested until the end of the protectorate in 1956, the Guedra begins as the participants, men and women wearing blue indigo and black costumes, stand in a circle, chanting and clapping hands. The woman performer, in the center of the circle, begins by sitting on her heels or at times, by standing, as she slowly gets down on her knees, the lower part of her body never participating in her performance. As she moves about, she slowly and progressively emerges from the one or two veils which cover her face and body. In so doing, she extends or half-flexes her arms, held breast high, alternating them from left to right."
The Guedra is performed by Moroccan Berber tribespeople as well as the Chikhat, the name given to singers, dancers, prostitutes and professional musicians. These are usually lower-class and country women, widows or divorcees obliged to bring up one or more children. They learn to sing erotic and traditional love poetry, and often join official dance troupes for a time and perform at festive occasions such as marriage and circumcision ceremonies.
"All of this, however, is peripheral: what is of utmost significance and what makes this dance unique is the extraordinary nature of the hand work and most specifically the finger work. Each joint of each finger moves in accordance with a cadenced pattern, in keeping always with the rhythms and harmonies of the song of the moment. The syncopated movements of her shoulder and breast areas follow the rhythmic beats of the percussion instrument while her head sways laterally, and her hair, adorned with all sorts of shells and beads, enhances the beauty of the composite picture. As the rhythm intensifies, the dancer grows increasingly breathless, her facial contours seem tense and contorted, her eyes close, as her entire being suddenly seems to be under some kind of spell. Exhausted by the physical and emotional effort of the dance, she leaves the magic circle and another takes her place."
The Tunisians also have a true trance dance, the Stambali, performed by Tunisian blacks in relation to their patron saint, Sidi Saad. It is performed in sanctuaries and in the homes of those who need its therapeutic powers. The Stambali involves the sacrifice of an animal, as does the Zar.
CONCLUSIONS
The ancient art of oriental dance has a long and colorful history. It began with the many fertility cults of the ancient world, and in the temples of ancient India. The existence of various nomadic groups of professional entertainers, and groups specifically identified with Gypsies, provided for the cross- culturization and transmission of these dances. Although regional variations have always existed, the popularity of what is commonly know as "oriental dance" or "belly dance" continues in the modern middle east and through the world.
It has evolved in many different countries in many different ways, while still retaining the distinctive associations of oriental dance. It's origins are lost in the mysteries of ancient fertility cults, and that dance in the east continues to have religious associations. The survival of this ancient dance despite cultural and moral prejudices is a tribute to the appeal it has to the human spirit.
As Curt Sachs has noted, when people want to celebrate, they dance. Modern western dancers have no more relationship to these old cults than do children who hunt for Easter Eggs or people who hang greenery in their houses at Christmas; both of these are ancient pagan symbols. The women (and men) who dance today do so for very practical reasons: because it is enjoyable, it is excellent exercise for muscle-toning, and an opportunity for social involvement. In other words, for fun, fitness and friendship.
The fact that the dance has survived to this day, and continues to develop, testifies to its enduring appeal. In modern western culture female images are often presented negatively, destructively, and consistently exploited. By contrast, oriental dance presented in an appropriate atmosphere is a positive statement about the beauty, strength and grace of all that is feminine. It was a dance originally intended to be for women, by women. For Eastern women, oriental dance has a distinctively different message because it is generally performed in gatherings of women only; in these situations, it affirms the ability of a woman to maintain her beauty (and therefore her power over her husband), and hearkens back to the power of the ancient fertility cults. In the middle east today, the fertility of a woman is still a prime factor in calculating her value. A newly-wed bride has no status, but her husband's mother rules the home, and probably picked her son's bride.
Oriental dance as performed in nightclubs and stage situations in the United States, tends to be a solo performance; the costumes are very flashy, and sometimes very skimpy. Due to the fact that American culture is used to seeing women who are scantily-clad, this is not necessarily as titillating as it sounds. What is unfortunate is that it gives the impression that only those who are young and beautiful should dance, and that they do it only for the pleasure of the men in the audience. It is even more unfortunate that these situations also tend to involve audiences who are inebriated or rude, and do their best to demean the dancer. This is a case of confusing the art of the dance with the dancer's audience, for which he/she is not responsible.
Oriental dance in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) retains many of the positive values it has in eastern culture. Dancing tends to be improvisational, informal, and performed amongst friends. Costumes tend to be covered and ethnic, and less emphasis is placed on the beauty and youth of the dancer. Oriental dance done in the context of a communal event, like a SCA event, is much closer to the spirit of the dance than that done commercially in the United States. Oriental dance has seldom been taken seriously by classsically trained Western dancers, and this has made it more difficult to gain respectability. In addition, its tradition of improvisational dance, as well as its sensual and erotic connections make it more difficult for these western dancers to understand. I heartily encourage more people to explore this most ancient of dance forms, so that they, too, can you understand the power and joy which it expresses.
III. COSTUMES FOR VARIOUS STYLES OF ORIENTAL DANCE
The following are suggestions for alternative costumes for eastern dance; not all of them are practical for "belly dance", where a hip line accent is a necessity. None except the Indian costume shows bare skin between the bottom of the bra line and the hipline because this style of costume is a much later development than the period of time encompassed by the SCA. A more authentic interpretation of the so-called "cabaret" style of belly dance costume would be a long, sheer white blouse with a short, fitted vest over it.
GREEK/ROMAN "CASTANET" DANCERS
For those who enjoy emphasizing the "creative" in SCA, this is a field ripe for recreation. Enough documentation exists to prove that these dancers, using some type of castanet or cymbal, or clapper, danced with great joy and vivacity. (fig. 1). We lack knowledge of exactly what their music might have been, but certainly there were flutes, lyres, and some type of drum. Appropriate colors for these costumes could include yellow or green and vermillion, since these are mentioned as "appropriate to women devoted to the cult of pleasure".
PERSIAN, TURKISH AND GHAWAZEE
Classical Persian Costume (fig. 13) as shown in the Persian miniatures consists of loosely fitted, long dresses with long sleeves, generally worn with a long coat over it. There are a couple of major difficulties with trying to document a costume in this manner. First, it is difficult to know what time period these figures are actually intended to portray. The Persian miniatures are usually illustrations from the Shah Nameh, or Book of Kings, written by Firdausi about the glorious history of Persia. Firdausi glorifies that part of Persian (Iranian) history when they were still ruled by Persians, their golden age being about 800 A.D. However, Firdausi wrote his masterpiece for the Turkish conquerors of his native land in the 1400's. The second difficulty is that since portrayal of the human figure was in actuality prohibited by Islam, the Persian miniature artists avoided conflict by not attempting to portray daily reality. They intentionally used a flat perspective system and portrayed mythical heroes in a sphere that was considered to be beyond reality. It is the same idea used by the Romanesque artists who portrayed royalty and religious figures as icons, removed from reality. All the ladies pictured, of course, have white headscarves and are extremely modest. It is, therefore, difficult to say what the average woman might have worn from 800 A.D. to 1400 A.D. A more accurate idea could be gained by study of the many statuettes found in these areas. The periods of Persian costuming are: the Median (900-600 B.C.), the Achaemenian (550-330 B.C.), the Parthian (250 B.C. to 224 A.D.), Sassanian (224-652 A.D.), the 12th century, the 15th century and the Safavid dynasty (1501-1722), and Zand (1750 to 1796).
Dr. Harouny, an Afghani Persian woman now living in the United States, describes the historical dress of the Persian Empire in an unpublished treatise on Persian dance Radif-E Raqs. Since this information is so difficult to locate, I have excerped much of the description of Persian dress:
At the beginning of the Persian empire, dress was simple with clothing being woven and tailored by the women of the family. Clothing of Lamb's wool was common and styles were uni-sex in nature. A Persian when dressing, first covered the body with white cotton underwear. Over this was placed a single garment made up of two pieces attached at the rear. The upper part was a circular cut of pleated cloth, the bottom a large long skirt. The skirt had either one or two pleats permitting a long stride of the legs. The top of the garment extended from the back over the shoulders and arms, falling in pleats in front, the large pleats providing ample arm movement, the side pleats over each arm functioning as sleeves. At the waist, a leather belt pulled in all the pleats of the skirt.
As the empire grew, more wealth created a taste for more luxurious fabrics which featured richer decoration, and the use of rare dyes. Whereas formerly wool, cotton and linen and been used, now silk made its debut from the Chinese. Beautiful fabrics were created with gold and silver threads. Purple was generally the royal color, white had religious connotations, and lapis lazuli blue, olive green, turquoise and many shades of brown were commonly used. The Parthians came to power and ruled for 470 years, and Persia became even more influential.
The Sasanians succeeded the Parthians in 224 A.D. and a reaction set in against foreign influences. This feudal society afforded the upper classes great luxury. The typical dress was a loose long sheath tightened at the waist and pleated at the knee. Over the sheath, draped much like a sari, was a stole of elegant material, usually fine muslin, which could be fastened around the waist to serve as an additional skirt or draped over the shoulder. Another style of the period featured a knee length dress, which revealed a pair of trousers underneath. When Islam came to Persia, a radical religious and social change occurred, but the desert Arabs had little effect on culture. Rather, they adopted the dress and manners of the Persians and there were no major changes for many years. Dresses became somewhat shorter and the sleeves wider and fuller. Armbands with Kufic designs were worn to indicate adherence to Islam. Sassanian textiles were delicate, soft and had exquisite patterns on them.
Styles continued in much the same manner up to the 11th and 12th centuries. At the height of the Abbasid period, popularly reflected in the Thousand and one Nights tales, the women wore over their dresses a coat which was open in front with a scarf or belt at the waist. With the advent of the Turks from Central Asia to Persia the later invasions by the Mongols, new ideas were introduced. The same long dresses were worn but now were covered with elaborate embroidery.
Safavid styles embraced the whole of the 16th and 17th centuries along with the first third of the 18th century. They were a reaction to the Turkish influence and an attempt to model ancient Persian ideas. Safavid women's dress consisted of long trousers tight at the ankle with a draw-string waist covered by a loose ankle-length robe open in front with sleeves that were tight at the wrist. Like the men, women wore a mantle as part of their basic clothing in public. The dress length might vary, revealing the trousers which might be striped. A large length of cloth cut on the bias would be worn as a cumberbund around the hips, and folded over with both ends hanging down from the front of the waist falling just above the hemline of the dress. A princess wearing such a garment might carry jeweled daggers tucked on each side as an ornament and as self-defense.
The wearing of chadors, the type of outer veil wore today when outside the home did not evolve until the 18th century. Until then, women had simply covered themselves with white veils when outdoors.
What this illustrates is how slowly fashions changed in the near and middle east. There are two definite styles of pants: the more purely Persian pant is cut narrow and is cuffed and loose at the bottom. The true Turkish Hareem pants are extremely full, gathered with drawstrings, and gathered tight at the ankles. To reproduce these costumes, it's important to note that the Persians loved flowered, decorated fabrics, and that stripes are more typically Turkish. Both loved bright colors located close together on the color wheel, such as: turquouse/purple, yellow/brown, etc. The Persian musician (shown on the cover) is a lovely example of Turkish hareem pants worn, for convenience with a blouse and vest. In order to make these correctly, you must use a minimum of 60 inches wide for each leg. Attempting to make them with 45 inches width or less results in a skimpy, non-authentic look. People from India, Pakistan, Central Asia, and the Persians of the Bandari area, all wear styles akin to the Persian pants, which are cut narrow in the leg with a cuff.
The dress of the Ghawazees as seen in 19th century illustrations is simply the Persian coat with slits, which they called an Yelek. This is the same basic garment (an Anteri) worn by the Turkish Cengi dancer shown in figure 7. The remains of the long decorative sleeves portrayed in the miniatures can be seen in the pieces of cloth trailing open at the elbows. Under this slit coat, the Ghawazee wear the large Turkish hareem pants. The coat should be nearly ankle-length to be authentic and the neckline may be cut lower around the breasts. As an alternative to the long coat, there is the Ghawazee variation using a tightly-fitted waist length coat. There is even one variation (not shown) of a coat with a hip length ruffle over a full skirt. A skimpy coat cut off at the knees is not authentic. It should also be noted that there is a sheer white underdress or long blouse worn under either coat or jacket. The Ghawazee retain the Persian cumberband by using a scarf. These 19th century Ghawazee also braided their hair and wore an elaborate headpiece to cover their head.
Another Ghawazee variation was described by Quamar el-Mulok, (fig. 12) who interviewed two of the dancers of the Mazin family, Karam and Amal, in 1976 is as follows:
" a thin, white blouse, covered by a little sleeveless vest. Where their grandmothers had worn long, dark skirts of velveteen or satin, Karam and Amal wore knee-length skirts of dense chiffon or georgette, covered from top to bottom with rows of bugle bead fringe tipped with large spangles....Yesteryear's girdle of tasseled, ankle-length brocade streamers and shorter tasseled silk ropes attached to a narrow roll of cloth around the hips was now an arrangement of four or five broader streamers covered with large, flat spangles, hanging down the front of the skirt to the hem. Gone were the silver anklets, the long necklaces of coins and strings of beads, the small fillet or cap perched atop the bound-up hair. In their place was a necklace that has become symbolic of Egyptian folkloric dance: a breast ornament of filigree crescents of decreasing size suspended from a coin-edged rib band sewn to the garment beneath, and a regal headdress.
Fig 12 shows the padded roll worn more towards the hips because modern dancers would more realistically wear them lower; in actuality it was probably worn closer to the waist. It is possible that the Ghawazee simply wore what the common people wore, which had to be durable to last working the streets, and that they added a hip roll and perhaps jewelry to accentuate their moves. Unfortunately, there we cannot determine when this costume originated. This style has been superseded by a simple balady dress (balady means "country"), sometimes decorated with beads, for the modern Ghawazee.
MODERN AND ANCIENT EGYPTIAN
The Ghawazee are among Egypt's Gypsies, and naturally subject to foreign influence. This raises the question of what the native Egyptian dress actually was. Irena Lexova, who copied pictures from the Egyptian pyramids and studied them as dance movement had the following conclusions: Women in the Old Kingdom put on the short men's skirts (i.e. aprons) or danced completely nude on many occasions because the usual long dress was too restrictive of movement. Nude dancers wore a belt around the waist which concealed nothing. Otherwise dancers might wear long or short transparent garments, sometimes with one breast completely revealed. Women's ordinary dress in the New Kingdom consisted of a transparent broad, long cloak with narrow or broad sleeves. Their most frequent ornaments were narrow or broader brightly decorated collars, shown in both the Middle and new Kingdom illustrations. They also wore bracelets, earrings, ribbons round their chests, ribbons or garlands on the dancer's heads, and hair combs. One peculiar ornament was a cone made of semi-solid perfumed fat which was fastened on top of the head and provided sweet fragrance as it melted.
After the last of the Egyptian kingdoms, there is little or no documentation on what people wore. But a look at the clothes worn in Egypt today show that little has changed, except that fabrics are heavier and nudity is no longer so acceptable. The men performing the stick dance are wearing the same type of long tunic earlier worn only by the women. According to Amira El-Kattan, a modern Egyptian dancer, the Egyptians never wore pants, and often slit their tunics up to the thigh to give more freedom of movement. Both Egypt and India would have been able to produce very fine cottons of superior quality.
We do know that the Egyptians were famous for their production of a special type of Egyptian net embroidery called Asyut or Asuit. In the Museum of Montbijou at Berlin are preserved specimens of netting made by Egyptians over three thousand years ago. These nets are made from flax. The Egyptian production of this hand-made net surpasses modern fibers in intricacy of design, each net composed of some three-hundred and sixty-five individual fibers. Their dye techniques were equally sophisticated; metallic salts to improve the fastness of dyes has been found in textiles in tombs dating from before 1500 B.D. These early embroideries were done with the application of precious metals, especially gold. The pure metal was beaten into thin plates, divided into small slips which were rounded by a hammer, and then filed to form wire. Few remains of ancient wire work have been found. This net would certainly have qualified as "transparent", as shown on the tomb pictures.
Records of this beautiful art disappears in Egypt until the 1800's when it was reintroduced by the French and Germans, possibly in the area of Asyut, where metal embroidered shawls began to appear and were made for export. Egyptians today call this fabric "tulle bitteli", or "tule" and pronounced as "tulley". One manufacturer calls them "toile", which is French for net. If any of these old shawls can be located they are prohibitively expensive. However, modern imitations are available from eastern dance suppliers, and are quite affordable. Even though their use cannot be strictly documented in the intervening years, an imitation asyut dress were be a very wonderful ethnic accent for a costume. Modern Egyptian dancers, as shown in fig. 6, are very fond of Asyut and it makes a lightweight and practical dance costume. Of course, modern dancers would prefer more material underneath than the ancient Egyptians wore!
MORROCCAN AND TUNISIAN
The cultures in the area of North Africa has a costume which is too interesting not to mention (fig. 14). The Haik is worn with variations by both men and women and makes an extremely practical field costume, although some dancers might consider it a bit bulky for dancing. A similarly draped garment is worn be Bedouin tribal women. Anyone attempting to recreate a "trance dance" could certainly wear a haik (or Melia as it is called in Tunisia). As shown in fig 13, the haik is a completely wrapped, no-sew garment. Although documentation is scarce on when this garment became popular, it most closely resembles the ancient greek pailla. The garment is wrapped from left to right, starting in the back. The first wrap forms a "blouse" by the attachment of special cloak clips, which resemble the ones used by the Celts. The Tunisian version, (right, fig. 14) however, has a decorated chain between the left and right circle. The Tunisian dancer pictured in fig. 14 (right) wears a blouse (Qamisa) and draws hers tightly underneath the breast, while the Moroccan girl beside her (left, fig. 14) simply wears the haik loosely drawn at the shoulders. The Haik is belted at the waist, and the Tunisian dancer wears a distinctive white, fringed yarn belt.
Another dance extremely appropriate to this costume would be one using a large pot as a prop. Tunisian dances typically feature a "w" arm position with the arms held upward from the elbows; the wearing of numerous bracelets would also be authentic and flattering. A headpiece is mandatory, although several types are seen. The type of headscarf, know as a Mharma or Shaar, which was seen on black slaves in the United States was likely derived from this area, where it is still worn. It is actually two pieces, a larger scarf to cover, and then a smaller scarf or decoration with the ends tied on top of the head.
SPANISH GYPSY
Since the connection between Gypsies and India has been so thoroughly explored, it will perhaps not be surprising that their costume has a great deal in common with the costumes of medieval Northern India. The Spanish cave Gypsy in fig 12 would look much like the court lady of India if she also wore the head veil. Kay Ambrose, in her study of Indian dance, presents the costume in fig. 9, as an authentic medieval costume for Indian dance. She explains that the heavily overdressed appearance of today's Bharata Natya which conceal the dancer's figure do not appear before the 19th century. The lady pictured is a court lady of Rajput. "Rajputs have that love of ornaments, gold brocades and diaphanous swinging skirts which is almost feminine but is so often characteristic of the genuine warrior. They love to glitter like the Sun, from whom they are supposed to be descended.... Their ladies are dreams of modest delicate beauty. Their dancers also dress in full court regalia.... Also in Rajputana, the village women of Jaipur kick waives in the hens of huge skirts with every step and lustrous eyes regard the stranger with composure. The perpetual water shortage makes white an impractical colour, and the result is costumes of flaring yellows and reds and patterned, emerald green. " What gypsy could ask for more!
Gypsy costumes must be researched in relation to a distinct geographic location. Middle Gypsies in Iran and Turkey wear the same long tunic as other middle easterners, or the North Indian type skirt. European Gypsies changed their costume to accommodate local customs. But in almost every descriptions of Gypsies their large, full skirts are mentioned as well as their love of bright colors (especially red, black and green). Married Gitanas in Spain are said to wear a red scarf to indicate their marital status, while unmarried women let their hair hang freely.
MAKE-UP AND HAIR FOR EASTERN DANCE
For a truly authentic Eastern look, there is no substitute for wearing Kohl (or sorme in Persian). The dictionary defines kohl as an "antimony". It is essentially an inorganic solution which blackens the area around the eye, and is completely hygenic if the stick used to apply it is clean. Kohl is inexpensive and long-lasting when worn; it is waterproof, but not "spit-proof". Kohl can be purchased from the larger middle eastern grocery stores, or from some belly dance supply sources. To apply kohl in the same manner as the ancient Egypitans: obtain a wooden stick of 3-5" in length (with ends rounded), dip in olive oil, wipe off the excess oil, and then in the kohl. Hold the stick horizontal to your eye, place the front end of it on your eye, at the inside corner, and move slowly outwards, keeping it between the two lids and still touching the eye. This does not produce any pain. In face, the Bedouins use kohl as eye medicine because the excess kohl will gather at the inside of the eye and be washed out. This effectively removes any sand or particles that have gotten in the eye. WARNING: If you wear contacts, you must apply the kohl FIRST, before putting in contacts. Secondly, since I am familiar with HARD or GAS PERMEABLE contacts, I make no guarantee as to what this will do to SOFT contacts.
Many tribal or authentic looks assume that a woman has long hair. Naturally, in today's society most women do not. There are ways, however to get the same effect. You can make headpieces and caps with fake braids or ponytail pieces built-in. Secondly, you can do what modern Central Asian dancers do to achieve long braids (This type of dance requires the braids as part of the costume.) Bedouin women wear an odd number of braids, from 5-7. Central Asian women may wear as many as eight. However, if you have thin hair, you may only be able to braid in five. The procedure is as follows:
Purchase a piece (or two) of quality synthetic hair in ponytail form. It must be the kind with hair sewn-in individually. Cut this apart into a minimum of 3 sections per ponytail if your hair is thick, or 6 pieces if your hair is thin. Section out your own hair into as many sections as you with to braid, and pin. Pick up a section of imitation hair and likewise, comb and section it into 3 parts, laying it down carefully. Now put your hands to your own hair and separate it with your fingers into 3 parts, leaving your right hand in place. With your left, pick up the sectioned artificial hair, using your fingers to maintain the separations and lay it underneath your own hair, matching a section of artificial hair for each of your own. Grab one outer section with your right hand and one with your left and start braiding. Braid OVER and not under; this will help to hide the knot at the top of the artificial braid. It is critical to start this process slightly above the hairline and to braid tightly and cleanly, since they will loosen up. Central Asian dancers do not put any kind of tie on the ends, since theirs are long enough to reach their hips it actually doesn't unbraid. However, any type of tiny bells or beads would be quite apropriate for a "nomad" look.
A bedouin nomad's headpiece, to be worn over a scarf, is also easy to make. Weave, or purchase, a strip approximately 40 inches long and about 1 inch wide (not including another 6-8 inches worth of extra strings. To these attach any pieces of jewelry or small bells which strike your fancy. To wear, wrap from the front so that the pieces cross in back, and the extra strings hang at each side. Wearing a small cap underneath may facilitate keeping the headdress on, and also supporting the weight of a heavy headpiece. Turbans are also worn with a cap underneath, which might or might not show. Although turbans, or turban-like wraps were by women in some cultures, turbans were generally male headgear. ===============================================================================
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