Magic games or magic?.. The wanderers in Egypt reap profits in millions from the Internet

CAIRO -

In Egypt, it happens that a young man breaks into a café or a youth gathering in the street, to offer them tricks, accompanied by a photographer with a professional camera or a phone lens, so he records the event and broadcasts it on social media, and makes profits from the views.

They are the ones who can be called wanderers, the most prominent of whom are two young men, Azzam and Chris, who were not only famous for their excellent skills, but also for their keenness to highlight their religiosity - despite the difference in the religion of the two - while performing tricks.

Young Azzam roams the streets presenting his tricks during religious seasons sometimes by doubling the value of the currency owned by simple cleaners 100 times or more, and begins his deceptive paragraph with the basmalah, and God seeks refuge in God that one of his tricks in knowing what is going on in minds is called a prediction because prediction is forbidden, rather it is just “expectation.” ".

Young Chris - as he roams the streets and cafes - is keen to hang the Egyptian ankh sign on his neck, and the word ankh means "life", and it resembles the symbol of the cross, distributing money to simple people who work in difficult occupations he meets on the road.

Both young men use social media skillfully. Azzam has more than one and a half million followers on Facebook, while Chris Al-Masry's page says he has 14 million followers.

In the past, roving magicians got their money from sympathetic café-goers after they made fire-outs and sleight of hand games that roving magicians - in their old edition - used to offer.

The two players appeared on the social media around the same time at the end of 2019, and since then, their skills have developed remarkably.

Azzam puts on the front of his Facebook page a message of thanks to the two million followers who achieved one billion views during 2020, and a simple calculation can imagine the size of his profits.

Interestingly, Azzam - a student at the Faculty of Engineering - responded to his followers who described what he was doing with magic, with a religious exhortation inlaid with verses from the Holy Quran.

Azzam emphasized that what he does is skills he learned over the years, warning them against the temptation of the Antichrist as long as they were deceived by just simple tricks he offers.

His followers saw a contradiction in his words, and Marwan Ahmed said, "I ask God, if you are truthful, to grant you success, and if you are a liar, to make you an example and a sign."

As for Baraa Muhammad, he seemed unconvinced of what Azzam had said, and said, "When our Lord is angry with a servant, He blesses him for his forbidden livelihood."

Flying in the air

Chris Al-Masry's page says that his followers are 14 million, and he is also keen to show his Christian religiosity with distinctive signs on his body, such as the cross tattoo on his wrist, and he appears in a black robe in all his rounds and paragraphs.

Just as Azzam was keen to present a religious sermon to his followers, Chris Al-Masry was keen in the first video to appear in front of a door engraved with crosses, he went to him among his followers in a cinematic way, and the audience looked at him with passion and fascination.

Chris stood in front of the door and grabbed a slaughtered pigeon, attached its head to its body and released it alive to fly amid the amazement of those present.

The stories of flying pigeons are very present in the religious heritage in general and Christianity in particular, and there are many stories about a pigeon landing on church towers accompanying the "appearance of the Virgin", according to popular tales!

This scene called for criticism of Chris from his followers, and Ahmed Bilal said in his comment below the video, “Considering that these games are entertainment and not acts of charlatanism and magic, your presentation of this strange content destroys them, and this means that you began sending messages that your content took a completely different curve to the previous, and the follower, whatever it is. His affiliation, whatever his inclinations, will notice it."

And unlike Azzam, who always dazzles his followers by highlighting his skills in reading their minds and anticipating what they will write, Chris highlights his physical skills, as he once did in the air.

The common element of the tricks they offer is the use of cards.

The two also agree that after each game they offer, they announce that they are not offering magic, but sleight of hand games, as Egyptian law considers those who claim to practice magic to be "fraudulent charlatans".

Article 336 of the Penal Code stipulates that “anyone who commits deception, sorcery and fraud shall be punished with imprisonment from 24 hours to 3 years.”

Despite this, Azzam puts the title "The Magician Azzam" on his posters and advertisements, and also calls these pages as "Azzam Magic", which is the same as Chris does.

Azzam invents a trick to collect the image of the artist Samir Ghanem, who died recently (communication sites)

Satellite TV on line

Azzam and Chris have become guests on programs and satellite channels that try to avoid thorny public issues, so they tend to try to increase views through such exciting topics.

In turn, the two young men seemed to welcome these meetings, which added to their work more credibility and respect.

It seems that these gains and fame tempted the old masters to try to return to the arena with modern tools.

And the magician Bassam Sharaf - and he was a guest a few years ago on several programs with games similar to what the two magicians offer - went out to announce that what Azzam presented was outside the ordinary and does not belong to the world of magic games, denying at the same time in press statements that it is being done with the help of Jin, but it is done with "collusion between a team Program and Azzam.

The young man had withdrawn money on the air from an electronic card belonging to the program, and he also told the announcer and the producers about secrets that only they know.

In the manner of the Harry Potter series of films, Bassam Sharaf established an academy for sleight of hand games, and also established a store to sell tools for these games, and sought to market them by saying that Azzam was one of its graduates, and he was a "distinguished student" as he put it.

On the other hand, specialists in sleight of hand games set out to reveal the methods of Azzam and Chris in particular, including the YouTuber Saddam Al-Ezzi, who refuted the method of each trick.

Egypt has always been famous throughout ancient history as the land of witches and sorcerers, before this fame was recently snatched by the Kingdom of Morocco.

Recorded the heavenly books honorable attitude to the magicians of Egypt Banhaazhm of the Prophet Moses and his brother Aaron -alehma Salam against the Pharaoh of Egypt, although Pharaoh accused them of witchcraft, saying: "They said that two of the Sahran want to Akhrjacm from your land Bsharhama and Ivhba Boutraguetkm ideal" as stated in verse 63 of Surah Taha.

The Holy Qur’an talks about magic in Egypt as a kind of eye magic, not changing reality, which means that it is a game of deception for the eyes in modern terms.

Ancient Egyptian texts recorded methods for what can be called white magic, according to ancient Egyptian antiquities expert Ahmed Saleh.

Saleh explained that the magical power possessed by the magician in ancient Egypt is called "Haka", and according to ancient Egyptian beliefs, the magician could be an idol, such as Ptah, the idol of the city of Memphis, who used his magical abilities to find the world, and he could also be a recital priest (for texts and spells).