over the common folk, and thus the women gained mastery over them—a pattern that has remained among the women of Egypt to this very day.

According to the People of the Scripture, when the Children of Israel were commanded to leave Egypt, God made that month the first of their year. Every household was instructed to slaughter a lamb; if one lamb was more than they needed, a household and its neighbor were to share it. After slaughtering it, they were to sprinkle some of its blood on the door-posts of their houses as a distinguishing sign. They were not to eat it boiled, but roasted—head, shanks, and entrails together—leaving nothing of it, breaking no bone of it, and taking none of it outside their homes. For seven days their bread had to be unleavened, beginning with the fourteenth day of the first month, which falls in spring. While eating they were to have their waists girded, sandals on their feet, and staffs in their hands, eating quickly and standing. Whatever was left of the evening meal until the next day had to be burned in the fire. This was instituted for them as a festival for their descendants as long as the Torah remained in force; once it was abrogated, its ruling lapsed—and that has indeed occurred.

They further relate that on that night Allah slew the firstborn of the Copts and the firstborn of their beasts so that the Egyptians would be occupied, and the Children of Israel departed about midnight(1). Egypt was filled with great mourning over the loss of its firstborn; there was no house without lamentation. When revelation came to Moses, they set out in haste, carrying their dough before it had risen and wrapping their kneading-troughs in their cloaks, slinging them over their shoulders. They had borrowed a large quantity of jewelry from the Egyptians. They left—six hundred thousand men apart from dependents—taking with them their livestock. According to their Book, their stay in Egypt lasted four hundred and thirty years.

That year, in their terminology, is called “the Year of Pesach,” and the festival is “Pesach”(2). They also keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of the Lamb, which opens the year. These three are their most important festivals, all explicitly mentioned in their Scripture.

When they left Egypt they took with them the coffin of Joseph and set out along the road to the Sea of Suf. By day they marched with a cloud ahead of them containing a pillar of light, and by night with a pillar of fire before them. The route brought them to the seashore, where they encamped. Pharaoh and his Egyptian troops overtook them while they were camped on the bank of the sea, and many of the Children of Israel became anxious,

so much so that some said, “Remaining in Egypt would have been dearer to us than dying in this wilderness.”

Moses said to the one who spoke thus, “Do not fear; Pharaoh and his troops will never return to their land after this day.”

They recount that Allah then commanded Moses to strike the sea with his staff and split it, and that the Children of Israel were to enter the sea.