Figure of a bride for Maulid an-Nabi

ʿArusat al-Maulid

For almost a thousand years in the land along the Nile, the birthday of the Prophet, the Maulid an-Nabi, has been celebrated with sugared goods and sweetmeats made of nuts and honey. In Cairo merchants sell a variety of figures made out of sugar, wrapped with coloured paper; these are particularly popular with children. Girls receive a brightly coloured ʿArusat al-Maulid, a "birthday bride", while boys are given the decorated, mounted figure of Abu Zayd al-Hilali, an Arabic hero from the time of the Fatimid Caliphate in the eleventh century.

In the 1970s the "Maulid-brides" are produced out of sugar in Cairo in special workshops using two-part wooden models, and are delivered for the birthday festival of the Prophet to sweetshops and market stalls. The pop-up workshops are busy with the creation of the Maulid-figures for just about a month. In enclosed courtyards at the back, many young girls decorate the bride figures, which are dried and ornamented with sugar mouldings, with the clothing and appropriate accessories of tissue paper. The "brides" are brought to the places of sale on foot or by bicycle, with fifty to a hundred pieces transported on large wooden trays. Independently of the embellishment of the figures, the price is based on the weight and the quality of the sugar. In addition to the bride and the mounted heroes, military equipment such as tanks and aeroplanes are particularly popular. Appropriate to the occasion, religious objects are also found, such as the Mahmal, the massive tent on the back of a camel which, until 1926, led the great caravan to Mecca every year during the pilgrimage month; or Islamic sacred buildings and their components such as mosque, minaret, and the stepped Mimbar (pulpit).