MAKKAH, 27 September 2006 — Dealing with irate hungry customers, growling stomachs and rowdy crowds are all in a day’s work for the boys that sell “ful” and “tamees” to the fasting people of Makkah in Ramadan.
“Ful,” a dip made from mashed beans, together with chunky pizza-base-like Afghan bread called “tamees,” are hugely popular in Ramadan and are delicacies savored at sunset, the time when Muslims break their fasts.
In Makkah, “ful” is considered the master of all Ramadan dishes and, according to locals, Makkawis have a greater tendency to like “ful” compared to Saudis from other areas of the Kingdom.
There are over 130 “ful” shops in Makkah and despite the fact that “ful” and “tamees” only cost SR1, street-brawls regularly occur. The half an hour before iftar is a volatile moment, as people forget the essence and spirituality of fasting and fume over the most trivial of things.
To really get an idea of how people take their “ful” seriously, this Arab News reporter waited until it was just 14 minutes before iftar and approached a crowded shop where people had eagerly gathered to buy some.
As I briskly walked up and down the sidewalk, looking at the long queue, I selected a 6.3ft tall African man as my victim and wriggled myself in front of him. My cheeks immediately turned red and I began feeling a little hot under the collar.
“Tell him to get back,” hissed an old man standing behind the African. “He should be ashamed pushing in like that, I’ll wrench his head off,” croaked another, who was clearly suffering from the heat of the setting sun and the pangs of hunger.
Slowly, I turned round and was met with a barrage of abuse from all the people behind me including the African man, who with bloodshot eyes, said: “Get back in line.”
Feeling a little uneasy, I explained that Ramadan is the month where people should be forgiving and patient. Showing me his plate, he said: “If you’re not gone in three seconds, I’ll make iftar on your head.”
My legs turned to jelly and I made a sharp exit.
As I quickly moved away, my eyes caught the sight of a Saudi man waiting patiently inside his car. I approached him to ask why he was not waiting in line. “This is a dangerous time to join a bunch of angry and frustrated people who are all waiting to buy a one riyal dish,” he said.
But why was he waiting in his car, why did he not just go home if he was too scared to queue up? “The missus doesn’t like it cold, she likes it hot,” he winked, adding, “I have an agreement with the shop owner to buy SR2 of ‘ful’ at the time of prayer so that I can bring it hot to her. As you can see I end up breaking my fast in the car just so that the wife gets her ‘ful’ hot.”
Impressed by his dedication to his wife I moved on.
Standing in a lengthy queue outside another “ful” shop was Fayeq Ibrahim who was patiently waiting in line. Ibrahim says he has been waiting for more than an hour to buy “ful” and “tamees”. “Iftar will not be complete without some ‘ful’ on the table. You really need to be patient, things happen while you wait that can make you lose your temper and then spoil the sanctity of the fast,” he said.
Ibrahim says that lining up for “ful” is a testing moment. “There is a lot of fighting and cursing. At times arguments even end up in fist fights.”
After a while Ibrahim revealed that he does not eat “ful.” “I do not eat it, but my family does. I certainly do not want to see it missing from my table in Ramadan; it is a psychological thing that I cannot explain. I must see it or else it would not feel like iftar time,” he said.
Majed Makki was also patiently standing outside a “ful” shop. “It has become necessary to buy ‘ful’ every day in Ramadan or else something major would be missing,” he said, adding, “It is a volatile situation. It is sad that some people lose their tempers because someone has pushed in or someone else has taken longer than expected. I have seen many fights break out just because of ‘ful,’ which is stupid. The whole idea of fasting is to be forgiving, patient and kind.”
Ziad Abdullah is a “ful” shop-owner and remembers a massive street brawl last year. “I was serving a long line on the second day of Ramadan when I saw one of my friends waiting in line. I thought I should serve him first and that it would not hurt. I asked him to come forward and asked him how much he wanted,” he reminisced.
Abdullah said that people began shouting and objecting that his friend should not be served since he was last in the line. “One of the old men waiting in the line threatened to throw a plate in his hand on my face if I put a drop of ‘ful’ into the small container that he was carrying. My friend did not like the tone of the old man and threatened to hit him. Without any warning hell broke loose,” he said.
A big fight soon erupted involving over 30 people. “It took us a long time to end it, but at the end my friend was back last in line and I definitely learned a hard lesson: Never mess with hungry people waiting for ‘ful’ half an hour before iftar.”
Another “ful-fan” is Nasser Hussain, who says he will never forget the day when he spent a day in a police cell during Ramadan because of “ful.”
“A couple of years ago, I had been waiting in a line for ‘ful.’ It was 45 minutes before Maghreb when all of a sudden we saw a Saudi man coming from the back of the queue to the front of the line demanding ‘ful.’ We did not like this behavior, especially since we were waiting for a long time. We asked him to maintain the line but he told us arrogantly that he was in a hurry. We asked him repeatedly to go in the back of the line, but he continued to refuse. We were left with no other choice but to beat him up. Police came to arrest us and I along with seven others had to break our fast in a cell,” Hussain recalled.
He added that his brother came to visit him after he heard that he was arrested and brought some “ful” and “tamees.” “The funny thing was that we had a big fight because of ‘ful’ and then ended up breaking our fast eating ‘ful.’ It was a regrettable situation and at the end, we promised the police that we would keep our cool next time and only then were we released.”
