“But what shall I say if anyone speaks to me?” “Just say Tayeb, that will do for an answer to anything. And I shall be there to change the subject.” I already knew that Tayeb was a fundamental word in the Egyptian language. It is a word which means all sorts of things depending on intonation. Yet it cannot be compared to the English “God Damn” unless it is to mark the difference between a nation with polish and one with nothing more than the police.
-The Women of Cairo, 1850, Gerard de Nerval, recounting a conversation between himself and his dragoman in Cairo
Khawaja Nimra Wahid, Tayeb, Tayeb, Tayeb. Khawaja Nimra Itnayn, Tayeb, Tayeb, Tayeb. Foreigner Number One, Good, Good, Good. Foreigner Number Two, Good, Good, Good.
-Masood Abu Dood, Camel Drover, speaking to Luwees and Daoud
On second thought, Masood may have called me and David not tayeb but kuwayyis, a diminutive form of the classical Arabic kayyis, which in Egyptian dialect is the more common word for tayeb’s main meaning of “good” or “okay”. All I remember was his goofy grin and faux American accent when he called us that, as if he were parroting back to us our own botched pronounciation of his language. So Nerval was right, what Masood really might have been saying was, God Damn, you khawajas sure know how to butcher my beloved Arabic.