إبطى ولا تخطى.
Ebti wala tekhti.
Translation: Do things slowly and don't do them wrong.
Meaning: Haste makes waste. No point in hurrying and doing it all wrong. A perfectionist's saying that one can hear still today. But it acquires more meaning when one sees the intricate masonry or glass work of medieval artisans. Before art emerged as an individual pursuit around the fifteenth century, the guild system in Egypt and around the Mediterranean made sure that only the highest quality standards was acceptable in all the manual products people used in everyday life. The mechanization ended the need for guild quality control. And the proverb is perhaps more individualistic now than it was when it was first coined.
Source: ُEgyptian proverbs, (Al-Ahram Center For Translation and Publishing, 1986) by Ahmed Taymour Pasha,
Translated by: Nabil Shawkat
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