Happy Tuesday! It’s a
beautiful autumn day up here in New England. I hope to get out and enjoy it a
little bit between running errands around campus!
Anyway, on top of
leading my first class ever, and spending about two hours on one question of my
civil engineering homework, I drank coffee way too late in the day and now I
can’t seem to fall asleep. The idea of doing more work right now seems cruel
and unusual, so I figure I’ll write a post on one of my favorite superstitions
in Arabic culture…
The eye! Al-ayn!
Maybe you’ve seen it
before, because it’s also in Greek and Turkish culture too. Anyway, the ayn is
a fascinating phenomenon because it explains so much about the culture while it
also has a dual-meaning of being both lucky and unlucky simultaneously.
If anyone would like
to comment with their own opinion on the ayn, feel free, but here’s my
understanding: the idea behind the ayn is that every person wants a lot of
things that they don’t have yet. Which makes sense! I know I’m definitely in that
boat. I want multiple degrees, a satisfying and challenging career, and a
family, which is not easy to pull off. So, the idea expands on that theory to
say that a person who wants what they don’t have will look to someone who
already has that stuff and get jealous. Like, I might see a hydrogeologist and
want their career! The theory behind the ayn continues to suggest that a
person’s desire or jealousy can create bad luck for the person who already has
it all.
Now, I would hate the
idea of creating bad luck for someone who is five years ahead of me in terms of
life goals, which is why this superstition is a little scary, to say the least.
But there’s something incredibly endearing about the ayn for me, and I think
it’s because I associate it so much with my mother-in-law. If I have car
trouble or if I spill a whole cup of tea on me before I run out the door,
mummy-in-law will say something like, “The ayn is on you, habibti.” And even if
I’m upset at my mishap, I can’t help but laugh at her confident assertion that
someone is giving me serious eye.
Even if they don’t
believe in it, it’s rare to find an Arab family without an ayn somewhere in the
house. Now, I don’t think everyone is as into the ayn theory as my mummy-in-law,
but what does this possibly illuminate about Arabic culture? Well, I’ve noticed
that people can be rather humble at times when I wonder how they aren’t proudly
announcing their accomplishments. A friend might wait for a long time to
announce their job promotion, or avoid telling people how well they
did on a test, or be shy to show friends their new car. And then, when things
like that happen, I wonder how much the underlying cultural assumptions that develop the ayn also play into that
tendency towards conservatively discussing achievement.
Whether or not it’s
real, I still keep the eye on the wall, because you never know!
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