“Al-Misaharati” is part of our tradition in Ramadan

Al-Misaharati is someone who beats a small drum while wandering the streets one or two hours before Al-Fajr prayer [At Sohor time] during the holy month of Ramadan, to wake up people so they can take a meal before they start their fast.

 He’s usually chanting or calling the neighbor’s name, and after the end of Ramadan he tours the houses in the neighborhood he worked in to collect a small amount of money.

 “At the beginning, Al-Misaharati’s mission was to tour the neighborhood of Damascus on religious occasions such as Eid al-Fitr and the night of Isra and Mi’raj.

“In the past, there was only one Al-Misaharati in Damascus and he stood on a high platform and beathis drum, while later on the numbers of Al- Misaharati increased as the urban areas expanded in Damascus,” Professor Ghufran Al-Nashef said in a lecture he gave at the Cultural Center in Kafr Sousa, in Damascus.

” Al-Misaharati takes his son with  him while he tours the alleys  to teach him the principles of this career –mainly songs- with the aim of making him familiar with the people of the neighborhood  and to teach him how to call  people to wake up and prepare themselves for fasting before Al-Fajr prayer,” he added.

In our modern life this social tradition is about to disappear because habits and traditions have changed, but this tradition is still a part of Damascus heritage, and we should preserve it and encourage the return of Al-Misaharati as it was in the old days,” Al –Nashef said.

Reported by: Nada Haj Khidr