Circumcision Circumscribed: Female Excision and Cultural Accommodation in the Medieval Near East

Abstract

In a famous passage in his Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, E. W. Lane described the ceremonies commonly held to celebrate the circumcision of a young boy in 19th-century Cairo. Family and friends of the boy, his schoolteacher, the barber who performed the operation and his assistant, musicians, and other retainers all participated in a celebration of an overtly public character. Dressed in fancy clothes and feted with song and dance, the boy, aged five or six or slightly older, was paraded through the streets of his neighborhood, often on horseback, to his parents' house, where the operation was performed. Cups of coffee might be distributed to passersby while guests and relations were, of course, treated to a celebratory feast. Modes of celebration may have changed, but festivities surrounding the circumcision of a young boy are still common in the Muslim countries of the Near East.