Walking around the streets of Cairo it is hard to ignore a strange mark prevalent on the forehead of many Egyptian men. As far as I know, Egyptian men aren’t overly clumsy nor do their wives like to repeatedly smack them on the forehead… so the questions remain: where does this mark come from and why?
What looks like a rug burn, bruise or even a callous is in fact what many foreigners have come to call a “prayer bruise” allegedly resulting from years of prostrations. For those of you who have never seen a Muslim pray or are unaware of the steps that are required, it is comprised of a series of bowing, standing, kneeling, and two prostrations during which the bare forehead is required to touch the ground, which is usually a prayer rug. It is understandable to think that after years of performing salat five times a day some sort of callous or bruise could result (although of my understanding of physics I doubt it could result in the bruises of such sizes that I have frequently observed). Additionally, from what I’ve read and been told this is a phenomenon specific to Egypt. (Any friends who have traveled to other Muslim nations and have noticed otherwise, please let me know!) So if all Muslims are praying the same amount as mandated by al-Qur’an, why don’t ALL Muslims have this?
Well…apparently this mark of outward piousness is mostly seen among the lower classes of society in Egypt and is commonly self-inflicted as a mark of status. The ways to produce the “prayer bruise” are varied, ranging from deliberate banging of the forehead on the ground to some matter involving a hot iron (I’ll let your imagination run wild with that one). Those who do not have this bruise mockingly refer to it as zebiba, meaning prune or raisin, as a distaste for the enhancement of such a thing in order to seem more religious.
Ouch.
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