Fellah

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

The name applied contemptuously by the Turks to the agricultural labourer of Egypt; the Fellahin ( pl . of Fellah) comprise about three-fourths of the population; they are of good physique, and capable of much toil, but are, despite their intelligence and sobriety, lazy and immoral; girls marry at the age of 12, and the children grow up amidst the squalor of their mud-built villages; their food is of the poorest, and scarcely ever includes meat; tobacco is their only luxury; their condition has improved under British rule.