As their salutations are curious and will give the reader a good idea of Arab courtesies, it may not be uninteresting to mention some of their salaams. The Arabs have an infinity of compliments but there are few if any that are omitted.
G.A. Hoskins, 1837, on the protocols of saying hello in Upper Egypt
Egyptians didn’t get the Sudanese soul shake down and neither did I. KhairAllah and his men when greeting fellow tribesmen mid-trail would let loose their usual gusher of salutations and queries all the while they alternated shaking their interlocutor’s hand with gliding their right palm over the other’s left shoulder downward to his heart. And never did they seem to blink their eyes. Knowing when to break it off stymied me. It often got to the point that the things I had to say to the one I was greeting- Sabah al-Jibna, Sabah al-’Ishta (Morning of Cheese, Morning of Cream!), Allah huwa kareem ilaa al-awlaad (God is generous to the Children), Kayf haalak wa ahwaalak? (How is your Condition and your Conditions?)- stopped making sense. But following KhairAllah in this makeshift desert receiving line, with the stranger eyeing sideways my appearance and dress, he must have thought it okay to just leave it at, Salaam alaykum.