El Mesaharaty roams the streets before dawn prayers to remind people to eat and pray before fasting.
Known for his small drum and unique voice, El Mesaharaty is usually a man, though female Mesaharaty were also famous during Ahmad Ibn Tulun's rule in Egypt. At the time, a woman with a beautiful voice was allowed to chant from her window to wake her neighbours up in time to eat Suhoor before fasting.
The profession dates back to the time of Prophet Muhammad, whose companion, Bilal Ibn Rabah, had been the first Mesaharaty in Islamic history. A saying of the Prophet even documents Bilal's role as the first Mesaharaty: "When Bilal calls out at night, eat and drink until you hear the calling of Ibn Umm Maktum." Ibn Umm Maktum was the muezzin who proclaimed the call for the Fajr prayer.
In 578 AH, during one of his visits to Mecca, the Arab traveller Ibn Jubayr explained that the call for Suhoor sounded from the eastern minaret of the Masjid al-Haram (the Holy Mosque). The muezzin, accompanied by two children, would call: "Those who are asleep, wake up for Suhoor. O sleepers, wake up to attain success." The children would repeat after him.
However, Egypt's first Mesaharaty was Anbasa Ibn Ishaq, who, during the Abbasid Caliphate in 237 AH (852 AD), used to roam the streets of Cairo calling out, "O those who worship Allah, have your Suhoor, for Suhoor is a great blessing."
During the Fatimid reign in Egypt, Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered his soldiers to pass by houses and remind people to eat Suhoor. Eventually, Egyptians adopted the practice and added a small drum called Al-Baza, which the Mesaharaty would strike with leather or wood. The Mesaharaty had to wear a galabiya and was escorted by a little boy who held a lantern for him while he roamed the dark streets. The Mesaharaty did not get paid for his job; however, at the end of the month, many households would give him money as a form of Eidiya (a customary sum of money handed out to children during Eid to celebrate and buy what they want).
According to Orientalist historian Edward Lane, the Mesaharaty of the Ottoman era used to roam the streets in high-end neighbourhoods, hitting the drum three times and chanting: "Muhammad the guide is a messenger of Allah." Then he would beat the drum three more times and say, "May God make your night happy," adding the names of the men of the houses he passed by and their children. Finally, he would chant a free-verse poem. Women would throw him coins to proclaim to the neighbourhood that a young lady of marriageable age lived in certain houses, informing potential suitors. In rural areas, the village's Omda, or mayor, played the role of Mesaharaty.
Egyptian composer and singer Sayyid Mekkawi remains the most famous Mesaharaty in modern Egypt. Mekkawi's voice, singing the lyrics of vernacular poet Fouad Haddad in a radio programme called El Mesaharaty, resonates deeply with Egyptians. The radio programme later became televised during Ramadan, showing Mekkawi dressed in a white galabiya, roaming the streets of Cairo, chanting, praising God, and beating his small drum while being escorted by a small boy holding a lantern.
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