Note 38 — Chapter V

Note 38. On Khatmehs, or Recitations of the whole of the Ḳur-án at Private Festivities. The most approved and common mode of entertaining guests at modern private festivities among the Arabs is by a Khatmeh, which is the recitation of the whole of the Ḳur-án. Three or more persons of the inferior class of the professors of religion and law, who are called faḳeehs (vulgarly, fiḳees), are usually hired for this purpose. Schoolmasters, and students of the collegiate mosques who devote themselves to religion and law, are the persons most commonly thus employed. Their mode of recitation is a peculiar kind of chanting,334 which, when well executed, I found very agreeable, at least for an hour or so: but the guests seldom have to listen to the chanting of the whole of the Ḳur-án: the reciters usually accomplish the greater portion of their task, in a somewhat hurried manner, before the guests have assembled, each of them chanting, in turn, a certain portion, as a thirtieth part of the whole (called a "juz"), or half of one of these sections (a "ḥezb"), or, more commonly, a quarter (rubạ). Afterwards they chant more leisurely, and in a more musical manner; but still by turns.—These recitations of the whole of the Ḳur-án are performed on various festive occasions, but are most usual after a death; the merit of the performance being transferred to the soul of the deceased.