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Men sitting on a sidewalk in
Cairo's Zamalek neighborhood one Friday morning. They are
listening to someone across the street preach.
Today Kerabi travels by bus for nearly an hour to his
shop, and his wife cannot easily make the journey. His
children are all in schools located far from the Khan, so
life is no longer the concentrated family affair it once
was. But Khan al-Khalili still offers a rare glimpse of life
in the Third World as it used to be. It embodies the
bustling marketplaces of medieval society preserved for the
moment in a vital, living culture.
As I walk among the crowds, bearers pass by carrying trays
of dark, sweet tea to the shopkeepers, who cannot leave,
even for a minute, while potential customers are in the
street. I stroll through an area of perfume shops, where
delicate, blown-glass bottles hold scents that cannot be
mass-labeled or fit into a mass-market rung. Each shopkeeper
knows where the fragrance comes from and often can tell you
about the man who made it and the name of his father and
grandfather.
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Copyright 2003 THE
WORLD AND I Magazine. All rights reserved.
The World & I is published monthly by News World Communications,
Inc.
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