Sugar Moulid Dolls in BasketRAWI Publishing
On the twelfth day of the third month of the Islamic lunar calendar (12 Rabi‘ al-Awal)—corresponding to different dates every year on the Gregorian calendar—the birthday of Prophet Muhammad is celebrated across Muslim communities the world over.
Known as the moulid (meaning birth), for Egyptian children, it’s an extra special occasion.
For this particular moulid, children are treated to elaborately decorated figurines made of halawa (moulded sugar) either in the shape of a aroussa, doll, for girls, or a hossan, a knight on his horse, for boys.
Collection of Moulid Doll FigurinesRAWI Publishing
A Thousand Years Ago
The tradition of sugar sculptures began with the Fatimids, the Ismaili Shia caliphate that ruled Egypt from the 10th to the 12th c. CE. During their famous feasts, they would pile up hundreds of dishes reaching the height of a man and hold eating contests to entertain the public until the arrival of the caliph.
Upon his arrival, two huge sugar palaces decorated with rows of sugar figurines would be paraded from the palace gate. Smaller sugar sculptures would be handed out to the public to enjoy.
Living History
The custom of making sugar sculptures continued in the form of alalieq (hangings), where small sugar sculptures would hang by strings at the confectioners’ stalls in medieval markets. The custom of creating sugar figurines during religious festivities survives to this day, and curiously, some of the figurines are often decorated with 100-year-old Egyptian flags such as the ones in this picture. This red flag in particular has not been in use in Egypt since 1882!
Al-Arabi Factory Worker Decorating a Knight FigurineRAWI Publishing
Surviving in a Gluten- and Sugar-free World
We visited the factory of Mr Ali al-Arabi, great grandson of Mahmoud al-Arabi who established his confectionary ca. 1900. In today’s more health-conscious world, demand for the sugar sculptures has dwindled, and children now are typically given plastic dolls made to mimic the sugar moulid dolls instead.
Here, we see one of the factory workers decorating a knight figurine. The most popular shapes are those of the dolls and knights but older types include ships, mosques, houses and other fun shapes that have fallen out of fashion. Very few workshops survive that still make the classic, thousand-year-old sugar sculptures, in the upcoming video we will tour the century-old workshop of of al-Arabi.
The ‘Moulid’ Dolls - A sweet tradition steeped in a thousand years of history (2020)RAWI Publishing
Colorful Moulid DollRAWI Publishing
As with most sha’abi (popular) art, the colouring and decoration are far from subtle! The doll here towers over two knights, one white indicating that it was made in Cairo, the other red, a colour characteristic of sugar sculptures made outside the capital.
For more on Egyptian culinary history, check out this story on food offerings in ancient Egypt.
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