Tahtib is an ancient Egyptian martial
art. “Tahtib” is actually short for "Fan A'Nazaha Wa-Tahtib,” or “the
art of being straight and honest with a stick.”
This
martial art has been practiced as far back as Pharaonic period.
This
image is from the Temple of Ramses III
This image is from the Louvre Museum, and is
“Ancient Egyptian.”
According to Egyptologists, the first
technical manual describing the art was found on a bas-relief of a sepulcher of
the Fifth Dynasty 2470-2320 BC. It was
clearly practiced in the Pharaonic period at least through the New Kingdom,
which ended 1778 BC. The following image
was taken by a belly dance colleague in the tomb of Kheuruf near (modern day)
Luxor, and it is likely that was built around 1350 BC.
Later, the slave warrior class known
as the Mamluks emerged, and were elite fighters with a strict chivalric code of
ethics. The Mamluks were Arabs who controlled Egypt and Syria until the Ottoman
Turks invaded. One of the reasons the Mamluks were defeated was because the
Ottomans used firearm weaponry, and the Mamluks were basically an elite warrior
culture, who viewed the use of gunpowder as dishonorable. They were extremely
skilled in hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship.
The music used for tahtib is a mizmar
and a “folkloric drum.”
Sources:
Rogan, Eugene, The Arabs, A History,
Basic Books, Basic Books, 2012
Reda, Mahmoud, Dancing is My Life
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Temple_Ramsis_III_Tahtib.jpg
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