A dahabeah, also spelled dahabeeyah, dahabiah, dahabiya, dahabiyah and dhahabiyya, as well as dahabiyeh and dahabieh (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

ذهبية /ðahabīya/), is a passenger boat used on the river

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

. The term is normally used to describe a shallow-bottomed,

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...

-like vessel with two or more sails. The vessels have been around in one form or another for thousands of years, with similar craft being depicted on the walls of the

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immuremen ...

s of Egyptian Pharaohs. Indeed, the name derives from the Arabic word for "

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

", owing to similar, gilded state barges used by the Muslim rulers of Egypt in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

History

Until the 1870s the dahabiya was the standard for tourists to travel up and down the river Nile. According to Donald Reid, in 1858 "a forty-day round trip from

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-ai ...

cost about £110; a fifty-day trip to

Aswan Aswan (, also ; ar, أسوان, ʾAswān ; cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of ...

and back, about £150". However, Thomas Cook Ltd introduced the steam boat on the river and brought with them the organisational know how to turn a three-month voyage into a 28-day sight-seeing tour. By 1900, as trains had started to compete with the steam boat, dahabiyas were reserved only for the most wealthy, leisured travelers. This is also the time that saw great change in how dahabiyas were used and viewed. Sir John Gardner Wilkinson's 1847 book "Hand-book for travelers in Egypt" goes into great detail on how to hire a dahabiya. A traveler wishing to travel the Nile would not only have to hire the boat for the duration but provision it, de-bug and de-rat it, oversee the boatmen and even have it re-painted. However, by 1897 tour companies had made the journey much more civil. Thomas Cook promised, "

Dragomans A dragoman or Interpretation was an interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish-, Arabic-, and Persian-speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading po ...

and other necessary servants and food supplies are carefully selected and provided".

Modern Era

Modern dahabiyas still lack a motor-driven propeller. They are towed by diesel-powered tugboats, and have an onboard diesel-powered generator to provide electricity. ''

Dahabeya The ''Dahabeya'' or ''Dahabiya'' is a sailing boat that is based out of Luxor, Esna or Aswan for 3, 7, 9 or 12 nights cruises on the Nile river. History Originally built to carry celebrities and royal families, the ''Dahabeya'' was a luxury plea ...

'' is also the name of a specific vessel.

Etymology

ذهبية /ðahabīya/ is the feminine of ذهبي /ðahabī/ "golden", from ذهب /ðahab/ "gold". In Arabic the feminine suffix ''-a'' can indicate the

singulative In linguistics, singulative number and collective number ( abbreviated and ) are terms used when the grammatical number for multiple items is the unmarked form of a noun, and the noun is specially marked to indicate a single item. This is ...

of inanimates, changing the meaning from "golden" to "a single golden thing". Thus the meaning of ذهبية is something like "a golden one".

Gallery

File:S10.08 Luxor, image 9924.jpg, Dhahabiyeh of American tourists, Luxor, n.d., Brooklyn Museum Archives File:"One of the dahabeahs of Thomas Cook & Son, (Egypt) Ltd.".jpg, "One of the dahabeahs of Thos. Cook & Son, (Egypt) Ltd." (1893) File:Dahabeah R04.jpg, Modern dahabeah on the Nile, being pushed by a tugboat (2018)

References

Boat types ships of Egypt {{Egypt-transport-stub