Page 191 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1927

nickname in the place is "the snake", he had an awful brother, much travelled, who eats pork & drinks, a real bad
Mohomedan.

Then to one Mohamed Tageb Khunji who was in his shop & then across the road to his deadly enemy & opposite
neighbour Mohamed Sherif, a leading Persian merchant. His three small boys were sitting in an upstairs room at three
small desks doing lessons. Khunji wants to build a balcony & an upper story to his house which would almost touch
Mohamed Sherif's balcony above the street. The Municipality are deciding whether he is to be allowed to do it or not & as
both parties have supporters it has become quite a big affair. Drank coffee & tea & had a most interesting talk. Then to
the Kadi, but he was asleep so returned to Kanoos & called on his nephews, the old man has gone to India, then on my
way home, to Moyad's, he was at Muharraq but his old father was there, a grubby old man & a dirty room but interesting
to talk to & full of ideas having seen much of the world, India, East Africa & the Near East. He complained that Arabs
never look ahead & that unless there were Englishmen to give them ideas they just stagnated. He said he was having his
grandsons taught English as it was essential for trade but that as they went to the mission all the Arabs said he was
breaking the rules of his religion by sending them there. He agreed that the Govt should experiment in agriculture & said
he was sure that cotton would grow here - well. M called on the Kanoo ladies, who all had colds and imminent babies, &
reproached her for going home & leaving me, of course quite wrong according to Arab custom. In the afternoon we
motored to Abdul Rahman Zayanis, such a nice house out on the plain behind the Palace. M called on his wife & I called