While Bhopa is a group targeting to rural areas with villagers, Manganiyar and Langa entertain towns areas (former Rajas areas) and have much deeper educational process and very rich repertoire of songs and instrumental compositions. They have high skills of improvisation and performing in big ensembles.
Being both Muslim, Manganiyar and Langa have patrons from different religions Langa from Islam community and Manganiyar from Hindu society. The Manganiyar would be careful to string their sarangi with steel while the Langa would use gut strings freely.
BY THE RIVER OF JORDAN
Dom is a self-determination name (endonym) of a widespread groups of gypsies in the Middle East and North Africa. Gypsy is the term of English language and in the Arab world the Nawar is one of the most widely used designations. But Nawar is applied not only to the gypsies, but to other nomadic and non-sedentary groups. It has a negative connotation of unworthy, low-born and uncivilized person and insulting meaning of a worthless of gypsies for Arabs.
In 669 AD, 710 AD and 720 AD Zott gypsies (not a self-designation name, but an exonym very close-related with Jatt) were sent by the Arab rulers from Persia to the city of Antioch on the Mediterranian coast (Kenrick 1993). When Antioch was captured by the Greeks in 855 AD, some Zott were sent to Greece and some have migrated to Crete and then returned to Lebanon and Israel. Their history of traces in the Middle East was the result of multiple migrations. And their migration toward North Africa began probably during the last quarter of the first millennium (ibid.).
Traditional tent of Dom of Jordan has a tubular metal frame without central posts. It is very wide inside, about eight by five meters. Inner space differs from tents of Bedouin, there is no any special womens section. Bedding is folding to keep them off the ground. Food cooking is placed outside of the tent. There can be a TV, ran off a car battery, inside the tent, and a gas-stove for cooking outside of it.
The population of Dom in Jordan is about 35,000 people. There are at least five tribes: the tamarreh is the largest, kaakov, gaagreh, balahayeh and nawasfeh. Two other segments of the Gypsy population are discernable in these four groups: the Palestinian Dom and a conglomeration of numerous other smaller families (primarily from Iraq and Syria), most of whom are still nomadic. These groups claim that they had been blacksmiths and drivers in Iraq, shoeing camels and horses among other tasks (Phillips 2000), they often rented or bought houses until the Gulf War. Some families are settled and some are scattering throughout the country and even to Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
In Mafraq area there are other two tribes of mixed origin. One of them is sawatha. Phillips researched one of its clans jennayd (he was told that this clan consisted of approximately 100 families), whose ancestors have come from Palestine through Iraq about 100 years ago. Phillips also informs us that the other tribe hamashlir is known for dancing (ibid.).
Domari is the native language of Dom people, and it dates back to the Indian heritage. Its synonym in Arabic is Nawari. Dom are multilingual people. It is common to find Dom who speaks two or three languages. But their literacy level is very low and very few people can read or write. Some Dom think that their language and heritage are main reasons that stand behind called Nawar, and this is why they try to get rid of them (Moawwad 1999).
Being by negative attitude of surrounding peoples, Dom prefer to identify themselves with other peoples: settled Nawar want to be known as Arabs and nomadic as other nomadic pastoralists of the region. In Jordan they claim to be known as Turkmen.
There is a strong problem with a school education extremely few Dom families are sending children to school and none of the local authorities had organized the provision of a camp-teacher to visit the camp and educate the children (Ryder 2001). Dom children learn early in life to hide their identity. They walk into nearby residential areas to catch the school bus in order to avoid being identified and ridiculed (Williams 2003).
Blacksmithing, dancing and playing music for hire are not requested in Jordan, so now Dom live by selling products such as clothing and housing utensils and begging. They usually do trading and begging on the streets which is illegal under Jordanian law (Ryder 2001).
IN THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS
The Dom of Egypt with their lifestyle, physical characteristics and dress fit very well into the Egyptian communities. Many of the facial features of the Dom are very similar to the Egyptians. Dom women traditionally recognized by their colorful dress, long earrings and tattooed faces. The male Dom, wearing the conventional galabeya are dressed in the same way as the local Egyptian men. The face of the Dom is typically darker and thinner than the Egyptian face, the features are sharper.
Halebi are often described as the gifted fortune-tellers, Ghawazi as the dancers and entertainers, free and impetuous, Ghagar as the beggars, cunning and resourceful, and Hanagra as the dishonest thieves.
The Dom are still involved in metalwork by way of fabricating metal products, cleaning and repairing brass utensils, fixing of old stoves and making keys. Walking through the back streets of Khana Khalili, a popular tourist area in Cairo, one is able to view the production of numerous ornamental metal objects produced by the Dom.
Metal workers in the rural area are known as blacksmiths, with some distinction being encompassed by the differentiation. They, like European Gypsies, are involved in making agricultural implements and horse-ware and even saddles. Smithing is seen as a family occupation, with husbands and wives working together (like Gadia Lohar do), but tinkering involves only the men, whose wives are not involved in the trade but engaged in other occupations.
The Dom of Egypt are often involved in the sphere of entertainment. Following the moulids (religious festivals) around the country, the Dom of Egypt are frequently found working the swings, running the aiming games, performing tricks and many other forms. Some of the Dom are more reliant on tourism for their livelihood many of the camel and horse drivers around the Giza pyramids are Dom, while Dom children can be found selling trinkets down near the Sphinx. Dom dancers can be found in many hotels along the Pyramid street in Giza. In the rural areas of Egypt the Ghawazi still perform. The Dom women perform fortune telling through palm reading and speaking with seashells. Some Dom musicians declare that most of rababah players are Halab (Haleb, Halebi).
Increasingly disappearing tradition of Dom epic poets is rarely seen now during entertaining audiences at weddings and local coffee-houses. Derogatorily called Ghagar by non-Dom villagers, they prefer to call themselves Haleb (Halebi). Prior to the invasion of technology, these Dom men were frequently hired to recite the traditional poems of Arab heroes and to play the rababah during the celebration. With clever usage of the Arabic language, the poet would perform late into the night, delighting the imagination of his audience with tales of battles won and heroes triumphing.
In context of Cairo they are entertainers, peddlers of haberdashery in the major markets and increasingly beggars. The factor of tourism has resulted in a powerful motivation for many Ghagar musicians and dancers drawing them to Cairo and concentrating them in particular areas of the older city. The Ghagar musicians, singers and dancers are differentiated socially from both other Ghagar and Khashar. They train animals, not always monkeys, to perform tricks. Gypsy entertainers are the acrobats and jugglers, many of whom are Nawar (who perform in poorer areas of the city and in the tourist zones) rather than Ghagar.
The Ghagar (Ghajar) community of Egypt are primarily metal-workers. They have been nomadic, but now are almost entirely sedentary, plying their traditional trades in villages close to their own in the Sett Guiranha district. The Ghagar, Nawar and Halebi Dom occupy the same position as Gypsy communities in Europe.
The Ghagar communities of Southern Egypt have seen increasing migration to Cairo in relatively large numbers, drawn by the economic opportunities offered, especially as metal workers, dancers and fortune-tellers, and these can find accommodation in small apartments in outlying districts of Cairo. The major area of settlement for the Dom (Ghagar, Halebi and some Nawar) is on the south-eastern extremity of the city in the old cemeteries among the tombs. One other area inhabited by the Ghagar is in the old quarter of the city, in the streets running down from the centre. Here, aluminum ducting, rotisseries, railings and stoves are made and repaired by Ghagar. This concrete local groups is known as tinkers both by non-Ghagar (Khashar) and Ghagar themselves.
In the process of modernization many older structures have been demolished and countless communities have been moved. In this manner many of the Dom have been dispersed throughout the city of Cairo. Canal areas once dotted with Gypsy tents and huts now have been cleared and allocated for agricultural use. Large Dom communities have now disappeared, being replaced by smaller communities that are more integrated within the Egyptian society. Streets once brimming with Dom blacksmiths and tinkers have slowly disappeared as the need for their serviced has diminished. Once inhabitants of specific areas of Cairo, the Dom can now be found throughout most parts of the city.
Primarily found living in communities of unfinished brick and mud brick buildings in the poorer areas, the Dom quietly maintain a sense of community. In some areas their neighborhoods are interspersed with the homes of the homes of the many poor farmers while in other neighborhoods they are in majority. A vast necropolis in Cairo, popularly known as the City of the Dead, is home to a large Dom