The American University in Cairo Press

An exploration of the political thought of one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers and the foremost advocate for the Palestinian cause in the West

Edward Said was one of the most influential intellectuals of the twentieth century. A literary scholar with an aesthete’s temperament, he did not experience his political awakening until the 1967 Arab–Israeli war, which transformed his thinking and led him to forge ties with political groups and like-minded scholars. Said’s subsequent writings, which cast light on the interplay between cultural representation and the exercise of Western political power, caused a seismic shift in scholarly circles and beyond. In this intimate intellectual biography, by a close friend and confidant, Nubar Hovsepian offers fascinating insight into the evolution of Said’s political thought.

Through analysis of Said’s seminal works and the debates surrounding them, Edward Said: The Politics of an Oppositional Intellectual traces the influence of Foucault on Said, and how Said eventually diverged from this influence to arrive at a more pronounced understanding of agency, resistance, and liberation. He consequently affiliated more closely with Raymond Williams, Antonio Gramsci, and more contemporaneously, with his friends the late Eqbal Ahmad and Ibrahim Abu-Lughod.

Said held that it is the intellectual’s responsibility to expose lies and deceptions of the holders of power. A passionate advocate for the Palestinian cause, his solidarity did not prevent him from launching a sustained critique of the Palestinian leadership. Hovsepian charts both Said’s engagement with the Palestinian national movement and his exchanges with a host of intellectuals over Palestine, arguing that Said’s interventions have succeeded in changing the parameters of the discourse in the humanities, and among younger Jews searching for political affiliation.

Drawing on his diaries, in which he recorded his meetings with Said, as well as access to some of Said’s private letters, Hovsepian illuminates, in rich detail, the trajectory of Said’s political thinking and the depth and breadth of his engagement with peers and critics over issues that continue to resonate to this day.

Cutting-edge research by twenty-four international scholars on female power, agency, health, and literacy in ancient Egypt

There has been considerable scholarship in the last fifty years on the role of ancient Egyptian women in society. With their ability to work outside the home, inherit and dispense of property, initiate divorce, testify in court, and serve in local government, Egyptian women exercised more legal rights and economic independence than their counterparts throughout antiquity. Yet, their agency and autonomy are often downplayed, undermined, or outright ignored. In Women in Ancient Egypt twenty-four international scholars offer a corrective to this view by presenting the latest cutting-edge research on women and gender in ancient Egypt.

Covering the entirety of Egyptian history, from earliest times to Late Antiquity, this volume commences with a thorough study of the earliest written evidence of Egyptian women, both royal and non-royal, before moving on to chapters that deal with various aspects of Egyptian queens, followed by studies on the legal status and economic roles of non-royal women and, finally, on women’s health and body adornment. Within this sweeping chronological range, each study is intensely focused on the evidence recovered from a particular site or a specific time-period. Rather than following a strictly chronological arrangement, the thematic organization of chapters enables readers to discern diachronic patterns of continuity and change within each group of women.

· Clémentine Audouit, Paul Valery University, Montpellier, France
· Anne Austin, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
· Mariam Ayad, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
· Romane Betbeze, Université de Genève, Switzerland, and Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL, France
· Anke Ilona Blöbaum, Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
· Eva-Maria Engel, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
· Renate Fellinger, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
· Kathrin Gabler, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
· Rahel Glanzmann, independent scholar, Basel, Switzerland.
· Izold Guegan, Swansea University, UK, and Sorbonne University, Paris, France
· Fayza Haikal, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
· Janet H. Johnson, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Il, USA
· Katarzyna Kapiec, Institute of the Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
· Susan Anne Kelly, Macquarie University Sydney, Sydney, Australia
· AnneMarie Luijendijk, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
· Suzanne Onstine, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
· José Ramón Pérez-Accino Picatoste, Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
· Tara Sewell-Lasater, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
· Yasmin El Shazly, American Research Center in Egypt, Cairo, Egypt
· Reinert Skumsnes, Centre for Gender Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
· Isabel Stünkel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA
· Inmaculada Vivas Sainz, National Distance Education University), Madrid, Spain
· Hana Vymazalová, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czeck Republic
· Jacquelyn Williamson, George Mason University, Fairfax, Viriginia, USA
· Annik Wüthrich, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna, Austria

An introduction to the geology of Egypt and its influence on ancient Egyptian culture

While much is known about Egypt’s towering pyramids, mighty obelisks, and extraordinary works of art, less is known about the role played by Egypt’s geological history in the formation of pharaonic culture’s artistic and architectural legacy. The fertile soils that lined the Nile Valley meant that the people of Egypt were able to live well off the land. Yet what allowed ancient Egypt to stand apart from other early civilizations was its access to the vast range of natural resources that lay beyond the Nile floodplain.

In this engagingly written book, Colin Reader invites readers to explore the influence of geology and landscape on the development of the cultures of ancient Egypt. After describing today’s Egyptian landscape and introducing key elements of the ancient Egyptian worldview, he provides a basic geological toolkit to address issues such as geological time and major earth-forming processes. The developments that gave the geology of Egypt its distinct character are explored, including the uplifting of mountains along the Red Sea coast, the evolution of the Nile river, and the formation of the vast desert areas beyond the Nile Valley. As the story unfolds, elements of Egypt’s archaeology are introduced, together with discussions of mining and quarrying, construction in stone, and the ways in which the country’s rich geological heritage allowed the culture of ancient Egypt to evolve.

Ideal for non-specialists and specialists alike, and supported with over one hundred illustrations, A Gift of Geology takes the reader on a fascinating journey into Egypt’s geological landscape and its relationship to the marvels of pharaonic culture.

An innovative account of the careers of the Nubians who occupied the Egyptian throne, written by a leading Egyptologist and author of Tutankhamun, King of Egypt

The region of Nubia—now spanning the modern border between Egypt and Sudan—was long a subject of Egyptian imperial domination by its ancient pharaohs. However, in the eighth century BC matters were suddenly reversed, when the kings of Kush, the ancient name for Nubia, became the overlords of Egypt for nearly a century, before being forced to withdraw in the face of Assyrian invasions. Yet the Kushite kingdom would endure back in its heartlands for another millennium, the heritage of its Egyptian sojourn still visible in its fields of pyramid-tombs.

This authoritative yet accessible book tells the story of these Nubian pharaohs of Egypt, from the origins of their kingdom of Kush, through their time as rulers of Egypt, to their heritage in the heart of Sudan—and their rediscovery in modern times. The latter uncovers some very unsavory examples of the racist attitudes of some earlier scholars. These engendered enduringly negative attitudes to aspects of careers of the Nubian pharaohs that find little support in the actual surviving evidence. The latter includes a fascinating network of texts from not only Egypt and Sudan, but also Assyria and the Bible, reflecting the interactions and conflicts of the period. There are also the standing monuments of Nubian pharaohs, ranging from temples they built throughout their dominions, to their tombs: pyramids, constructed in their ancestral heartland, in which Nubian and Egyptian funerary customs were intriguingly entangled.

Richly illustrated in full color throughout, this fascinating book by a leading Egyptologist will be essential reading for anyone interested in the lives and times of Egypt’s Nubian pharaohs.

A FOREIGN AFFAIRS BEST BOOK OF 2024

The gripping history of the devastation and resurrection of the Marshes of Iraq, an environmental treasure of the Middle East, now a protected site

The Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq, once the largest wetland system on the planet, have been inhabited for thousands of years by the Ma‘dan, or Marsh Arabs, but they remain remote, isolated, and virtually unknown. In the early 1990s, the Saddam Hussein regime drained the Marshes and set out to destroy not only a critical ecosystem but a unique way of life as well. It stands as one of the greatest environmental and humanitarian disasters of the twentieth century. In the wake of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, local residents destroyed the earthen dams built to divert water from the wetlands and the Marshes were reflooded. Their future, however, is in peril.

The Ghosts of Iraq’s Marshes tells the history of the creation, destruction, and revitalization of the Marshes and their inhabitants against the backdrop of the dramatic events that have convulsed Iraq in the past fifty years. It follows the life of Jassim al-Asadi, an irrigation engineer who was jailed and tortured under Saddam Hussein and who subsequently dedicated his life to the reflooding and restoration of the Marshes. He eventually contributed to the Marshes being declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. Jassim is eminently relatable, and the stories of his life and other marsh dwellers are infused with pathos, tragedy, humor, and passion.

An innovative account of the life of Tutankhamun, the rediscovery of his existence, and the enduring impact of the finding of his tomb, by leading Egyptologist Aidan Dodson

The spectacular discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 has given him an afterlife that has all but eclipsed the young king’s real career. This authoritative yet accessible book tells the story of Tutankhamun, from his own lifetime in the fourteenth century BC, down to modern times. It explores the various theories as to his parentage, his role in the ‘counter-reformation’ that followed the religious revolution of Akhenaten, and his premature death. It also looks at the monuments built during the king’s reign, his key officials, and the arrangements made for his funeral.

Moving forward in time, Tutankhamun, King of Egypt considers the way in which Tutankhamun was written out of official history. The story is then picked up again in the early nineteenth century AD when, with the first decipherment of hieroglyphs, Tutankhamun’s name could once again be read, and the problem of his place in history considered by Egyptologists. Aidan Dodson traces possible solutions through the decades as more and more data came to light, culminating in the discovery of the king’s tomb. Yet, dazzling as that discovery was, many matters regarding Tutankhamun remain obscure today, even with the aid of genetic data. Dodson also looks at how the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb brought about the first of many outbreaks of "Tut-mania," and explores some of its manifestations.

Richly illustrated in full color throughout, this fascinating book by a leading Egyptologist will be essential reading for anyone interested in the life and enduring legacy of ancient Egypt’s most famous king.

A rich examination of the securitization of the everyday lives of the citizens of Cairo and how to build a more equitable urban order

Until the year 2000, Cairo had been a model megacity, relatively crime free, safe, and public facing. It featured a thriving public culture and vibrant street life. In recent decades, however, the Egyptian state has accelerated a wholesale dismantlement of public education and public sector jobs and reversed the modest land reforms of the Nasser era. As a result, the vast majority of Cairo’s people have been forcibly deprived of their social rights, social goods, and educational capital.

Eschewing the traditional focus on top-down regime and state security, the contributors to this volume, who represent a wide array of academics, activists, artists, and journalists, explore how repressive policies affect the everyday lives of citizens. They show the ways in which urban security crises are politically fashioned and do not emanate from the urban social fabric on their own: city crime, violence, and fear are created by specific means of extraction, production, and control.

Another kind of city can live again. But how? By tackling a range of issues, including public health, transportation, labor safety, and housing and property distribution, Cairo Securitized unsettles simplistic binaries of thug and police, public versus private, and slum versus enclave, and proposes compelling new ways in which securitizing processes can be reversed, reengineered, and replaced with a participatory and equitable urban order.

Contributors:
Sara Soumaya Abed African Leadership Centre, Kings College London
Zeinab Abul-Magd Oberlin College, USA
Mohamed Ahmed Political Scientist and historian, Cairo Egypt
Rania Ahmed Independent Researcher, Cairo Egypt
Nicholas Simcik Arese University of Cambridge, UK
Ahmed Awadalla University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Ahmad Borham The American University in Cairo, Cairo Egypt
Miguel A. Fuentes Carreño University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Roberta Duffield Scholar on urbanism, public space, Cairo Egypt
Momen El-Husseiny The American University in Cairo, Cairo Egypt
Mohamed Elmeshad SOAS, London UK
Ifdal Elsaket Netherlands-Flemish Institute, Cairo Egypt
Mohamed Elshahed Independent Writer and Curator, Mexico City
Amy Fallas University of California Santa Barbara, USA
Tina Guirguis University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Elena Habersky The American University in Cairo, Cairo Egypt
Hanan Hammad Texas Christian University, USA
Hatem Hassan Impact Justice, Pittsburgh, USA
Amira Hetaba Federal Government of Lower Austria, Austria
Deena Khalil The American University in Cairo, Cairo Egypt
Omnia Khalil City University of New York, USA
Sabrina Lilleby University of Texas, Austin, USA
Paul Miranda Nonviolent Peaceforce, South Mosul, Iraq
Mostafa Mohie American University in Cairo, Cairo Egypt
Laura Monfleur University François-Rabelais, Tours, France
Aya Nassar Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Nora Noralla human rights researcher, Berlin, Germany
Aly El Reggal Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence Italy
Afsaneh Rigot Harvard University, Cambridge USA
Yahia Saleh Malmö University, Sweden
Bassem al-Samragy political analyst at the International Criminal Court, The Hague, The Netherlands
Yahia Shawkat Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
Maïa Sinno Géographie Cités Lab, CNRS / Sorbonne University, Paris France
Mark Westmoreland Leiden University, The Netherlands

Volume one of Taha Hussein's classic work, unabridged, and supported with robust comprehension, interpretation, and analytical exercises, for advanced learners of Arabic

Taha Hussein’s autobiographical novel The Days helped usher in the era of modern Arabic writing and remains one of the most influential and best-known works of Arabic literature. With this guided study, the complete first volume of the novel is accessible to students of Arabic in a way never previously available. While Arabic literature provides a vast body of texts as a window into diverse cultures and eras, the lack of useful teaching material has often forced teachers to spend much of their time creating supplemental material, rather than focusing on the exploration of literary art and themes. This study will walk Arabic students through the unabridged novel in manageable lessons, supported with robust comprehension, interpretation, and analytical exercises, focusing on the historical context, elements of literature, and social themes. This book is organized to mirror the way an experienced teacher of Arabic literature would structure the lessons, and is thus perfectly suited as a textbook for an advanced Arabic or Arabic literature class, or as an independent study package for learners.

A richly illustrated account of the rulers of the first three dynasties of the ancient Egyptian civilization, written by renowned Egyptologist Aidan Dodson

The five centuries that followed the unification of Egypt around 3100 BC—the first three dynasties—were crucial in the evolution of the Egyptian state. During this time all the key elements of the civilization that would endure for three millennia were put in place, centered on the semidivine king himself. The First Pharaohs: Their Lives and Afterlives looks at what we know about the two-dozen kings (and one queen-regent) who ruled Egypt during this formative era, from the scanty evidence for the events of their reigns, through to their surviving monuments. It also considers how they were remembered under their successors, when some of the earliest kings’ names were attributed to allegedly ancient ideas and events, and the ways in which some of their monuments became tourist attractions or were even wholly repurposed.

Aidan Dodson recounts how two centuries of modern scholarship have allowed these rulers to emerge from an oblivion so total that some archaeologists had come to doubt their very existence outside the works of ancient chroniclers. Then, within a decade at the end of the nineteenth century, archaeological discoveries revealed a whole series of tombs and other monuments that not only confirmed these rulers’ existence, but also showcased the skills of Egyptian craftsmen at the dawn of history.

An examination of the history and waning culture of zar in Egypt, and the world in which Muslim women negotiate relations with spirits

Zar is both a possessing spirit and a set of reconciliation rites between the spirits and their human hosts: living in a parallel yet invisible world, the capricious spirits manifest their anger by causing ailments for their hosts, which require ritual reconciliation, a private sacrificial rite practiced routinely by the afflicted devotees. Originally spread from Ethiopia to the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf through the nineteenth-century slave trade, in Egypt zar has incorporated elements from popular Islamic Sufi practices, including devotion to Christian and Muslim saints. The ceremonies initiate devotees—the majority of whom are Muslim women—into a community centered on a cult leader, a membership that provides them with moral orientation, social support, and a sense of belonging. Practicing zar rituals, dancing to zar songs, and experiencing trance restore their well-being, which had been compromised by gender asymmetry and globalization.
This new ethnographic study of zar in Egypt is based on the author’s two years of multi-sited fieldwork and firsthand knowledge as a participant, and her collection and analysis of more than three hundred zar songs, allowing her to access levels of meaning that had previously been overlooked. The result is a comprehensive and accessible exposition of the history, culture, and waning practice of zar in a modernizing world.

A full-color guide to the monuments and landscape of Upper Egypt, now fully revised and updated by leading Egyptologist Aidan Didson

Luxor stands on the site of ancient Thebes, Egypt’s opulent New Kingdom capital. It encompasses the spectacular temples of Luxor and Karnak on the east bank of the Nile, and on the west bank the vast necropolis, which includes the Colossi of Memnon, the famed Ramesseum, Queen Hatshepsut’s magnificent funerary temple, and the Valley of the Kings, riddled with royal tombs, among them the fabled resting place of Tutankhamun. The splendor and profusion of pharaonic monuments at Luxor justifies its reputation as the greatest outdoor museum in the world.

Reaching beyond Luxor, this book also covers all the major sites of Upper Egypt, including Abydos, Dendera, Esna, Edfu, and Kom Ombo. Special attention is given to Aswan, one of the most beautiful places in Egypt, with its nearby island temple of Isis at Philae. The climax of this informed and richly illustrated book comes with the remarkable temples at Abu Simbel, with their colossal figures of Ramesses II and his lovely wife Nefertari cut from the living rock.

This edition, now fully revised and updated by leading Egyptologist Aidan Dodson, and presented in a brand new design and easily portable format, is the perfect companion for visitors to Upper Egypt's famed sites and monuments.

A fascinating, richly illustrated study of the role and significance of ancient statues in Egyptian history and belief

Why do ancient Egyptian statues so often have their noses, hands, or genitals broken? Although the Late Antiquity period appears to have been one of the major moments of large-scale vandalism against pagan monuments, various contexts bear witness to several phases of reuse, modification, or mutilation of statues throughout and after the pharaonic period. Reasons for this range from a desire to erase the memory of specific rulers or individuals for ideological reasons to personal vengeance, war, tomb plundering, and the avoidance of a curse; or simply the reuse of material for construction or the need to ritually “deactivate” and bury old statues, without the added motive of explicit hostility toward the subject in question.

Drawing on the latest scholarship and over 100 carefully selected illustrations, Ancient Egyptian Statues proceeds from a general discussion of the production and meaning of sculptures, and the mechanisms of their destruction, to review the role of ancient statuary in Egyptian history and belief. It then moves on to explore the various means of damage and their significance, and the role of restoration and reuse.

Art historian Simon Connor offers an innovative and lucidly written reflection on beliefs and practices relating to statuary, and images more broadly, in ancient Egypt, showing how statues were regarded as the active manifestations of the entities they represented, and the ways in which they could endure many lives before being finally buried or forgotten.

The sumptuousness and grandeur of Nubian gold jewelry analyzed and illustrated for the first time

The fabled land of Nubia, whose very name means ‘gold,’ was famous in ancient times for its supplies of precious metal, exotic material, and intricate craftsmanship. Many of the adornments made in Nubia are masterpieces of the jeweler’s art—marvels of design and construction rivaling, and often surpassing, adornments made in Egypt and the rest of the ancient Mediterranean world. Although these unique treasures are among the most stunning to have survived from antiquity, they remain little known.

Richly illustrated with beautiful photographs of these exquisite items, many of them never before published, Nubian Gold also places the jewelry within the cultural contexts in which it was manufactured and employed. It tells the story not only of the treasures themselves but of the exciting tales of their discovery and the rich background of the exotic and remote civilizations that produced them.

The book also explores the innovative techniques used to procure the precious materials used in the jewelry and to craft them into intricate ornaments replete with magical purpose and coded meaning. Featured in the book are not only the intricately crafted pieces themselves but depictions of them in sculpture, relief, and painting as well as references to them in ancient texts, locating them within the full spectrum of Nubian history, from the earliest beginnings of society to the advent of Christianity.

The paradoxes of nineteenth-century colonialism in the Middle East revealed through the accounts of three working class European travelers to Egypt

This book tells the stories of two French women and a French African man, travelers connected to the Saint-Simonian utopian socialists, who came to work for the Egyptian government in the 1830s. They have been marginalized and excluded from the historical record, because they were women, not part of the colonial elite, or of mixed racial heritage. This history brings them alive through extensive archival research and vibrant storytelling.

There is Suzanne Voilquin, a practicing midwife in Cairo who was involved in left-wing popular politics in Paris and became the editor of one of the first feminist newspapers ever published (1832–34). The second traveler, Thomas Ismayl Urbain, was born in French Guyana, where his mother was born a slave and his father was a French sea captain. “Jehan d’Ivray” is the pen name of the third traveler, a teenage woman who married an Egyptian studying medicine in France, and traveled with him to Egypt in 1879. She wrote more than twenty books, including a retrospective look at Suzanne Voilquin and women in the Saint-Simonian movement, bringing the story full circle to another generation.

Their stories brilliantly illustrate the paradoxes of nineteenth century colonialism in Egypt. Suzanne Voilquin grew up in the Parisian working class and sympathized deeply with Egyptians but initially exoticized the differences between Egypt and her home country, while Urbain, a literary pioneer in black pride, nevertheless joined the French army and saw his role in the colonial occupation as a means of helping indigenous people. These characters transcend the neat binary of East and West and offer a rich, nuanced window onto the experiences of French travelers in Egypt during the nineteenth century.

A richly nuanced analysis of how ancient Egyptian society regarded and dealt with pregnancy, mothers, birth, and children

In ancient Egypt, a woman’s primary role was that of mother, and as such she ensured her place within both her household and her community. And so, gods, doctor-magicians, as well as ghosts were all called upon to help the woman become pregnant.

Pregnancy was not without risks, and the many tests, prescriptions, and spells that have survived to this day help us to understand obstetrics as it was practiced in those distant times. Once the woman had eluded the ill will of Seth—who was held responsible for miscarriages—and had reached her term, she was faced with the much awaited and yet also feared moment of birth. The successful delivery of a child into the world was seen as a gift of the gods, but it did not mean that the parent’s worries were over. Indeed, it has been estimated that a third of all children did not reach the age of five years despite the combined efforts of parents and doctor-magicians to protect them.

Amandine Marshall draws upon a wealth of sources, including texts, images, iconography, artefacts, and children’s bodies themselves, as well as medicine, anthropology, and ethnography, to examine these issues and more, and in doing so sheds unprecedented light on the experience of maternity and early childhood in ancient Egypt.

A historical and contemporary study of Palestinian musicianship in exile in the Middle East, spanning half a century in disparate locations

Palestinian Music in Exile is a historical and contemporary study of Palestinian musicianship in exile in the Middle East, spanning half a century in disparate locations including Gaza, Turkey, Kuwait, and Egypt. Grassroots musicians emerge here as powerful actors, their stories taking center stage, offering critiques of existing conditions, and new perspectives on displacement and the transmission of Palestinian narratives, and presenting alternative visions for the future.

Louis Brehony argues that, under conditions of colonial relations and repeated displacement, the reclaiming of public space has gone hand in hand with aesthetic revolution, both broadening and traditionalizing the sounds of Palestine, and carrying messages of sumud (steadfastness) and resistance. Based on a decade’s research in Europe and the Middle East, this timely and inspiring collection of musical ethnographies provides a rich oral history of contemporary Palestinian musicianship and encompasses a broad range of experiences of the ghurba, or state of exile.

The first comprehensive treatment of one of Egypt’s most iconic pharaohs

King Sethy I (also transcribed as Seti, Sethi and Sethos) ruled for around a decade in the early thirteenth century BC. His lifetime coincided with a crucial point in Egyptian history, following the ill-starred religious revolution of Akhenaten, and heralding the last phase of Egypt’s imperial splendor. As the second scion of a wholly new royal family, his reign did much to set the agenda for the coming decades, both at home and abroad. Sethy was also a great builder, apparently with exquisite artistic taste, to judge from the unique quality of the decoration of his celebrated monuments at Abydos and Thebes. This richly illustrated book tells the story of Sethy's career and monuments, not only in ancient times, but in modern history, and the impact of his legacy on today’s understanding and appreciation of ancient Egypt.

Cutting-edge analysis on how to improve life inside the Gaza Strip through architecture and design, illustrated in full-color

The Gaza Strip is one of the most beleaguered environments on earth. Crammed into a space of 139 square miles (360 square kilometers), 1.8 million people live under an Israeli siege, enforcing conditions that continue to plummet to ever more unimaginable depths of degradation and despair. Gaza, however, is more than an endless encyclopedia of depressing statistics. It is also a place of fortitude, resistance, and imagination; a context in which inhabitants go to remarkable lengths to create the ordinary conditions of the everyday and to reject their exceptional status. Inspired by Gaza’s inhabitants, this book builds on the positive capabilities of Gazans. It brings together environmentalists, planners, activists, and scholars from Palestine and Israel, the US, the UK, India, and elsewhere to create hopeful interventions that imagine a better place for Gazans and Palestinians. Open Gaza engages the Gaza Strip within and beyond the logics of siege and warfare, it considers how life can be improved inside the limitations imposed by the Israeli blockade, and outside the idiocy of violence and warfare.

GOURMAND AWARD WINNER 2023, BEST ILLUSTRATED

A delightfully illustrated selection of 100 commonly used Egyptian food expressions

Can you guess what Egyptians mean when they say that something is “a peeled banana” or that someone is “sleeping in honey” or has "turned the sea to tahini"? You may find the answers quite unexpected when you open the pages of this delightful giftbook featuring some one hundred popular food-inflected phrases and sayings used by native speakers of Egyptian Arabic.

Idiomatic expressions lend color, dynamism, and humor to everyday speech, and convey complex ideas and beliefs with an economy of words that also tell us something about the culture from which they spring. Each expression in Fish, Milk, Tamarind is given in Arabic script and English transliteration followed by its literal and intended meanings, while humorous color illustrations throughout help readers visualize and remember the expressions. Learners and native speakers of Arabic, as well as Egypt enthusiasts and language lovers will find much in this book to teach, entertain, and enthrall them.

An authoritatively written overview of ancient Egyptian architecture from the point of view of an archaeologist and architectural historian

The monuments of ancient Egypt have held scholars and tourists in their thrall for centuries. The sheer mass of the pyramids of Giza, the interaction of the temples at Deir al-Bahari with the natural environment, and the use of light in the hypostyle hall of Karnak all make these buildings world-class masterpieces of architecture, rivaling those of Greece and Rome.

Ancient Egyptian Architecture in Fifteen Monuments presents an authoritative overview of Egyptian architecture from the point of view of an archaeologist and architectural historian with decades of fieldwork experience in Egypt and elsewhere. It focuses on fifteen selected masterpieces, from well-known structures such as the Bent Pyramid in Dahshur and the temple of Horus at Edfu to lesser-known monuments in Hierakonpolis, Abydos, Hawara, and Bubastis, each building representing an important stage in the development of Egyptian architecture and a different vision of what architecture should aspire to achieve.

Using sixty reconstruction drawings and black-and-white photographs, Felix Arnold presents new insights into form, meaning, and the organization of space, providing a fresh perspective on ancient Egyptian culture and society.

Illustrated publications and the role of market forces in shaping representations of Egypt at a time when European colonial interests in the region were at their peak, with 80 color and black and white illustrations

In the nineteenth century, following Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1798 campaign in Egypt, new possibilities of travel and improvements in printing technology saw an emergence of publishing ventures in France and Britain dedicated to the production of albums and travel accounts featuring images of Muslim Egypt and Islamic architecture and catering to a growing European fascination with the East.

Visualizing Egypt analyzes the context and process of production of these highly illustrated publications, from their conceptualization to the finished product and its afterlife, from marketing to the sales of these books, and from circulation to their reception by nineteenth-century audiences. By tracing the long, arduous, and often risky publishing journeys of the makers of these books, including publishers, writers, and artists, such as the Frenchman Émile Prisse d’Avennes, Paulina Banas reveals a complex terrain of changing market demands, collaborations, and conflicting views, and the unsettled authorship of these works, prompting us to think more profoundly about artistic and intellectual exchange in the world of nineteenth-century Orientalist book production.

Visualizing Egypt considers nineteenth-century book illustrations on Egypt and the “Orient” not merely as expressions of enduring ideology and colonial propaganda, but as representations shaped by the often-overlooked commercial exigencies of the growing publishing industry and the reckless competition within it.

A groundbreaking account of how the ancient Egyptians perceived children and childhood, from the Predynastic period to the end of the New Kingdom

There could be no society, no family, and no social recognition without children. The way in which children were perceived, integrated, and raised within the family and the community established the very foundations of Egyptian society. Childhood in Ancient Egypt is the most comprehensive attempt yet published to reconstruct the everyday life of children from the Predynastic period to the end of the New Kingdom. Drawing on a vast wealth of textual, iconographic, and archaeological sources stretching over a period of 3,500 years, Amandine Marshall pieces together the portrait of a society in which children were ever-present in a multiplicity of situations.

The ancient sources are primarily the expressions of male adults, who were little inclined to take an interest in the condition of the child, and the feelings of young Egyptians and all that touches on their emotional state can never be deduced from the sources. Nevertheless, by cross-referencing and comparing thousands of documents, Marshall has been able to explore how ancient Egyptians perceived children and childhood, and whether children had a particular status in the eyes of the law, society, and the Egyptian state. She examines the maintenance of the child and the care expended on its being, and discusses the kinds of clothing, jewelry, and hairstyles children wore, the activities that punctuated their daily lives, the kinds of games and toys they enjoyed, and what means were employed to protect them from illness, evil spirits, or ghosts.

Illustrated with 160 drawings and photographs, this book sheds unprecedented light upon the experience of childhood in ancient Egypt and represents a major contribution to the growing field of ancient-world childhood studies.

An innovative account of the lives and times of the ‘warrior king’ Thutmose III, and the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, by renowned Egyptologist Aidan Dodson

Thutmose III and Hatshepsut are among the best-known figures in Egyptian history. Thutmose has been called the “Napoleon of ancient Egypt,” during whose reign Egypt’s armies penetrated deep into northern Syria and consolidated Egyptian dominion over much of Sudan. Hatshepsut, one of the handful of female pharaohs, also took to the battlefield, but is best known today for a great trading expedition, down the Red Sea coast to the mysterious land of Punt.

At first, Hatshepsut served simply as regent for her young nephew-stepson Thutmose, but subsequently the two shared the throne of Egypt as co-pharaohs for over a decade. Later, as sole king, Thutmose devoted much of the rest of his life to military matters and large-scale building works, continuing the work of Hatshepsut that created much of the core of the great temple of Karnak. During the very last years of his life, Thutmose launched an attack on the memory of Hatshepsut, with most of her images destroyed. Yet, some four centuries later, Thutmose III and Hatshepsut were still remembered together as great figures of the past, whose conception of pharaonic kingship served as the model for later rulers, into the eighth century BC.

This book, illustrated in full color, traces what we know about the lives and times of Thutmose and Hatshepsut, and the monuments they built to guarantee their afterlives. It then explores their posthumous reputations in ancient times, and ends with the story of how the two pharaohs emerged from the mists of time during the nineteenth century AD, to resume their places in history.

Hyperechios's Exhortation to the Monks for the first time in English translation

Hyperechios is a little-known monk of the fourth to fifth centuries, who is thought to have lived in Roman Palestine, possibly coastal Sinai. He wrote the Exhortation to the Monks, 160 short sayings, much like the apophthegmata, or sayings of the desert fathers and mothers, but also structurally very different—most of the sayings are two lines of poetry that offer instruction.

The Exhortation, and early Christian monastic writings in general, teach that a spiritual life requires a life of training and practice, individually and as a neighbor and friend within one’s community. This volume studies Hyperechios’s Exhortation to better understand the moral and spiritual values in a fourth to fifth-century Christian monastic community, while reflecting also on how these are contemporary with the modern day. Drawing on modern works by scholars and placing the Exhortation in conversation with contemporary writers on the spiritual life, Tim Vivian begins with an introduction about Hyperechios, his location, the text, then a lengthy reflection on spiritual matters. He follows this with an English-language translation of the Exhortation and the Greek text, both accompanied by footnotes that offer biblical and patristic cross-references.

Exhortation to the Monks by Hyperechios will be of interest to scholars and general readers of early Christianity, early monasticism, and Christian spirituality, both ancient and contemporary.

The first illustrated study of ethnic silver jewelry in Yemen, by an expert researcher and collector, new in paperback

Silver Treasures from the Land of Sheba documents a disappearing artistic and cultural tradition with over three hundred photographs showing individual pieces, rare images of women wearing their jewelry with traditional dress, and the various regions in Yemen where the author did her field research. Ransom’s descriptions of the people she met and befriended, and her exploration of the significance of a woman’s handmade jewelry with its attributes of power, protection, beauty, and personal identity, will appeal to ethnic jewelry fans, ethnographers, jewelry designers, and art historians.

Amulet cases, hair ornaments, bridal headdresses, earrings, necklaces, ankle and wrist bracelets are all beautifully photographed in intricate detail, interspersed with the author’s own photographs of the women who shared their stories and their hospitality with her. A chapter on the history of silversmithing in Yemen tells the surprising story of the famed Jewish Yemeni silversmiths, many of whom left Yemen in the late 1940s. This is the first in-depth study of Yemeni silver, uniquely illustrated with photographs of a world that is transforming before our eyes, and animated with the portraits of a precious legacy.

A new comprehensive approach to teaching Arabic reading and writing skills to heritage students at the intermediate and advanced levels

From Reading to Writing, Volume 1 is a content- and task-based textbook for students of Arabic as a heritage language at the intermediate and advanced levels, aimed at developing learners’ basic language skills, especially reading and writing. Although heritage learners can often communicate in colloquial Arabic through exposure to the spoken language at home or in their country of residence, they equally as often face fundamental problems in reading and writing, as well as in speaking Modern Standard Arabic. Through authentic texts, carefully chosen to represent the lived realities of the language, supported by a range of tasks, this book seeks to develop heritage learners’ communication skills to meet the practical requirements of university study and the modern-day workplace. The topics covered also offer intellectually stimulating content to learners while connecting them in a meaningful way to Arab culture and society.

The authors developed the course content with their students for over a decade and have designed the tasks in this book with the notion that language acquisition is not just a set of rules but an interactive process that depends on performing different tasks in multiple contexts. The tasks include prereading and intensive reading activities; comprehension questions; writing, listening, and grammar exercises; and vocabulary building, as well as higher-order questions designed to promote critical thinking skills. The majority of the writing and listening tasks focus on group work to encourage students to collaborate and engage in the learning process.

From Reading to Writing, Volume 1 is also suitable for foreign-language learners of Arabic at the intermediate and advanced levels and native Arabic speakers enrolled at Arab universities.

The dramatic story behind the 3,200-year-old colossal Grand Egyptian Museum Ramesses statue

King Ramesses II ruled Egypt for an extraordinary sixty-six years (1279–1213 BC) during the Nineteenth Dynasty. A great warrior and lavish builder, he fathered dozens of children and is widely regarded as the most celebrated and powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom.

This wonderfully clear, engaging book recounts the dramatic history of the famed red granite colossal statue of Ramesses II now residing in Egypt’s Grand Egyptian Museum. One of the biggest statues ever made and part of the urban landscape of modern Cairo, the statue lent its name to Ramses Square and the city's mainline train station, and was so much a symbol of Cairo that it featured in countless Egyptian films. Susanna Thomas recounts the full history of the statue’s creation and installation in the Great Temple of Ptah at Memphis during the reign of Ramesses II, its reuse by Ramesses IV, and the later history of the statue during the Greco-Roman and Islamic Periods.

The book also provides an overview of how statues were made in ancient Egypt and includes a brief discussion of the statue cults of Ramesses II, kingship, temples, and the expansion of the New Kingdom capital city of Memphis and its temples. The final section covers the history of the statue since its rediscovery and subsequent rescue in the mid-nineteenth century until its installation in the entrance hall of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.

Written by a New Kingdom specialist and curatorial expert and illustrated with over 150 images, Ramesses, Beloved by Ptah tells the fascinating story of this magnificent statue within the wider context of statue cults and the reign of Ramesses II, and its subsequent rescue and restoration in modern times.

World-renowned archaeologist Zahi Hawass weaves a spellbinding narrative about how the pyramids were built and why, new in paperback

Nearly five thousand years ago, the fourth dynasty of Egypt’s Old Kingdom reigned over a highly advanced civilization. Believed to be gods, the royal family lived amid colossal palaces and temples built to honor them and their deified ancestors.

In Mountains of the Pharaohs, Zahi Hawass brings these extraordinary historical figures to life, detailing a soap opera-like saga complete with murder, incest, and the triumphant ascension to the throne of one of only four queens ever to rule Egypt. It was during this dynasty that the magnificent pyramids of Giza were built. These monuments attest not only to the dynasty’s supreme power, but also to the engineering expertise and architectural sophistication that flourished under its rule.

Hawass tells the complete story of the pyramids, weaving archaeological data with a history of Egypt’s powerful pharaohs, and argues that the pyramids—including the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World still standing—were built by skilled craftsmen who took great pride in their work.

Illustrated with black-and-white photographs and drawings, Mountains of the Pharaohs is a compelling account of one of civilization’s greatest achievements.

A new perspective on the dynamics of dynastic rule in the southernmost province of Egypt, from the Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom

The First Upper Egyptian nome, with its capital, Elephantine, was important in ancient times, as it stood on the southern border between Egypt and the Nubian provinces above the First Cataract. Since 2008, Alejandro Jiménez-Serrano has led an archaeological mission at the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa, where Elephantine’s high officials are buried. In Descendants of a Lesser God, he draws on textual records and archaeological data, together with new evidence from his work at the tombs, to cast fresh historiographical light on the dynastic dynamics of these ruling elites.

Jiménez-Serrano analyzes the origin of the local elites of Elephantine, and their role in trade and international relations with Nubia and neighboring regions, from the end of the Old Kingdom to the end of the Middle Kingdom. He explores the development of these power groups, organized as they were in complex households, which in many ways emulated the functioning of the royal court. Delving deeply into the funerary world, he also highlights the relationship between social memory and political legitimacy through his examination of the mortuary cult of a late Old Kingdom governor of Elephantine, Heqaib, who was transformed into a local divinity and later claimed as the mythic ancestor of the ruling family of Elephantine.

The history of ancient Egypt has traditionally been written from a court perspective. This new history of a strategically important region not only modifies existing perceptions of provincial life in the Middle Kingdom among the elites, but also introduces new evidence to support more complex and detailed reconstructions of the dynastic families in power.

“[A] remarkable journey.”—The Telegraph

The incredible life story of legendary cardiac surgeon and scientist Magdi Yacoub, an outsider who succeeded against the odds

Veteran journalists Simon Pearson and Fiona Gorman follow the remarkable life of heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub from his formative years in Egypt, through spectacular success at Cairo University, to his long and distinguished career in Britain. Although at times he clashed with the medical establishment in London, Yacoub pioneered great advances in heart surgery. He was knighted in 1992, and in 2014, he was awarded the highest honor in the gift of the Queen, the Order of Merit.

Written with unprecedented access and drawing on extensive interviews and research, the biography recounts how Yacoub transformed the treatment of children with congenital heart disease. He performed some of the first heart transplants in Britain and the first heart-lung transplants in Europe. At London’s Harefield Hospital, he created the greatest heart transplant center in the world. Among his patients are men and women who are still thriving more than thirty-five years after he gave them new hope.

This story is also about science, the development of new medical techniques, and a deeper understanding of how the human body works. Today, at an age when most people have long since retired, Yacoub is still pushing the boundaries of scientific understanding and surgical know-how. He is also taking heart surgery to places that until now have had little access to cardiac treatment, developing centers of excellence across Africa, including in Egypt, where his hospital in Aswan has an international reputation, and a new center is rising in Cairo.

Yacoub’s life is one of triumph and tragedy, success and failure, fierce criticism and high praise—it is also an enthralling journey through the worlds of scientific research and medical politics and ethics at the highest levels.

An introductory media Arabic book for the elementary and low intermediate levels

With the proliferation of satellite television news and social media channels, students of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) have access to an increasingly vast range of print and broadcast news from the Arab world. Media Arabic for Beginners is a unique textbook designed to lead elementary and low intermediate level students of MSA to a solid level of proficiency in the language of Arabic media.

Through active engagement with authentic texts selected from a wide variety of news sources and websites, learners are familiarized with vocabulary, idioms, lexical items, and collocations, while grammatical concepts are introduced and explained in context. With sixteen texts accompanied by sixteen audio files and supportive PowerPoint presentations, this content-based approach allows students to develop and enhance their reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills. Vocabulary and grammatical points are presented as PowerPoint slides, making for discrete and manageable learning targets.

Media Arabic for Beginners is structured around four themes, each devoted to a dominant news topic: Official Visits and Talks; Elections and Referendums; Attacks and Explosions; and Demonstrations and Protests. Each unit is in turn made up of four lessons, each lesson featuring a text from a particular perspective together with pre-reading activities, reading activities, post-reading activities, and a section with particular focus on grammar. The texts progress from very simple to more complex, as students steadily increase their reading fluency. Each unit ends with a thorough review section with various activities, such as comprehension questions, vocabulary translation, and role play.

PROSE AWARD WINNER, ART HISTORY & CRITICISM
The first-ever book-length history of Arab graphic design

Arab graphic design emerged in the early twentieth century out of a need to influence, and give expression to, the far-reaching economic, social, and political changes that were taking place in the Arab world at the time. But graphic design as a formally recognized genre of visual art only came into its own in the region in the twenty-first century and, to date, there has been no published study on the subject to speak of.

A History of Arab Graphic Design traces the people and events that were integral to the shaping of a field of graphic design in the Arab world. Examining the work of over eighty key designers from Morocco to Iraq, and covering the period from pre-1900 to the end of the twentieth century, Bahia Shehab and Haytham Nawar chart the development of design in the region, beginning with Islamic art and Arabic calligraphy, and their impact on Arab visual culture, through to the digital revolution and the arrival of the Internet. They look at how cinema, economic prosperity, and political and cultural events gave birth to and shaped the founders of Arab graphic design.

Highlighting the work of key designers and stunningly illustrated with over 600 color images, A History of Arab Graphic Design is an invaluable resource tool for graphic designers, one which, it is hoped, will place Arab visual culture and design on the map of a thriving international design discourse.

Classic Egyptian favorites from one of Cairo’s leading restaurants, in a new soft cover edition

Traditionally, Egyptian cooking has been best practiced and enjoyed at home, where generations of unrecorded family recipes have been the sustaining repertoire for daily meals as well as sumptuous holiday feasts. Abou El Sid, one of Cairo’s most famous restaurants, here presents more than fifty of its most classic recipes in a cookbook for the enjoyment of home cooks all over the world.

Egyptians will recognize their favorites, from holiday dishes such as Fettah to the arrays of appetizers like aubergine with garlic, special lentils, and tahina; those new to Middle Eastern food will find the recipes simple and simply delicious, and enjoy the Egyptian table even if they don’t have the heritage of the pharaohs in their family backgrounds.

An intimate look at the true story of the funerary business of a Theban mortuary priest 2800 years ago as unearthed by an ancient papyrus

Petebaste son of Peteamunip, the choachyte, or water-pourer, lived during the first half of the seventh century BCE in the reigns of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty Kushite kings Shabaka and Taharqa and was responsible for the comfortable and carefree afterlife of his deceased clients by bringing their weekly libations.

But Petebaste was also responsible for a wide range of other activities—he provided a tomb to the family of the deceased, managed the costs of the personnel and commodities, and took care of all necessary paperwork, while also tending to the gruesome preparation of the mortal remains of the deceased.

Drawing on an archive of eight abnormal hieratic papyri in the Louvre that deal specifically with the affairs of a single family, Donker van Heel takes a deep dive into the business dealings of this Theban mortuary priest. In intimate detail, he illuminates the final stage of the embalming and coffining process of a woman called Taperet (‘Mrs. Seedcorn’) on the night before she would be taken from the embalming workshop to her final resting place, providing fascinating insight into the practical day-to-day aspects of funerary practices in ancient Egypt.

A groundbreaking historiography of the reign of Akhenaten

More ink has probably been spilled on Akhenaten and his times (‘the Amarna Period’) than any other figure from ancient Egypt, with a vast range of interpretations and theories that can leave the uninitiated utterly bewildered.

Against this background, Akhenaten: A Historian’s View examines what scholars have said over the years regarding key aspects of the period, to produce a ‘history of histories,’ exploring exactly how various chains of arguments were arrived at—and how houses of cards thus erected have subsequently come tumbling down. In particular, it teases out ideas based on solid documentation from those based on theory and fancy, and tracks ways in which new evidence became available, how it was interpreted, and how it fed—or didn't—into the big picture.

This book thus fills a major gap in the literature of the Amarna Period and also contributes to the wider, and much neglected, field of the historiography of ancient Egypt.

A comprehensive study of the iron objects found in Tutankhamun’s tomb that include daggers, quivers, arrows, and an elaborately decorated bow case

A century after Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon’s sensational discovery in 1922 of the virtually intact tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, the boy-king and his treasures continue to fascinate people all over the world. Although nearly 5,400 objects accompanied the young pharaoh on his journey to the afterlife, many of them have not been investigated in detail.

Iron from Tutankhamun’s Tomb analyzes iron artifacts from the tomb in depth for the first time. This group consists of small iron chisels set into wooden handles, an Eye of Horus amulet, a miniature headrest, and the blade of a richly decorated golden dagger. The most important of these were placed in close proximity to the king’s mummy, emphasizing the high value attributed to this rare material in late Bronze Age Egypt—a time when iron smelting was not yet known in the land of the Nile.

Written by a research team of archaeologists, scientists, and conservators, this comprehensive study explores in fascinating detail the context and meaning of these artifacts, while establishing for the first time that Tutankhamun’s iron came from meteorites. They complete their examination with the results of chemical analyses, offering in the process a rich overall understanding of iron and its significance in ancient Egypt.

A multi-faceted account of Egyptian economic development by nineteen internationally recognized authorities and the critical challenges the economy is likely to face in the next twenty years

The Egyptian Economy in the Twenty-first Century addresses the question of why Egypt, despite possessing a plethora of assets—such as a fertile agriculture, a strategic geographic location, oil and gas deposits, innumerable tourist sites, a labor force prized by regional countries, and a diaspora that remits large amounts of funds—has seldom performed to its economic potential during the last sixty years. Indeed, economic weakness created political weakness, and often exposed the country to foreign diktats. What should the country do to change this state of affairs?

Nineteen internationally recognized authorities on the Egyptian economy discuss the critical challenges that the Egyptian economy is likely to face in the next two to three decades, challenges which must be overcome in order to improve the life of Egypt’s citizens and to protect the country from external pressures. Their analyses cover population and employment; development strategies; principal macroeconomic issues; development of a digital economy; fiscal and monetary matters; the external sector; poverty and income distribution; the enterprise structure; higher education; water availability; urbanization; institutional performance; and many others.

Contributors:
- Gouda Abdel Khalek, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
- Khaled M. Abu-Zeid, Regional Water Resources, CEDARE (Center for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe), Cairo, Egypt.
- Fatma El Ashmawy, World Bank.
- Ragui Assaad, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
- Izak Atiyas, Economic Research Forum, Cairo, Egypt.
- Marwa Biltagy, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
- Lahcen Bounader, International Monetary Fund.
- Ishac Diwan, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.
- Ahmed Ghoneim, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
- Khalid Ikram, Washington DC, USA.
- Karima Korayem, al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
- Heba el-Laithy, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
- Noha el-Mikawy, Ford Foundation, Middle East and North Africa, Cairo, Egypt.
- Mohamed Mohieddin, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt.
- Heba Nassar, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
- Osman Mohamed Osman, Cairo, Egypt.
- Noha Razek, University of Regina, Canada.
- David Sims, Cairo, Egypt.
- John Waterbury, Princeton, New Jersey.

A portable, easy-to-use map guide that locates over 700 hundred Islamic-era monuments in historic Cairo using the most sophisticated Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology

This portable, easy-to-use map guide helps you locate over seven hundred Islamic-era monuments in Cairo’s historic core, stretching from the city’s northern walls all the way southward to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun and the Citadel, and beyond to Coptic Cairo, which includes monuments that pre-date Islamic rule. Clearly divided into six digestible main sections, the first five contain clusters of monuments, while the sixth covers structures scattered all around the old Cairene urban fabric.

The clear, uncluttered cartographic style makes finding where you want to go a pleasure, and the maps are accompanied by a comprehensive index of monuments that gives their dates where known, their location referenced to their corresponding map pages, and a timeline of key periods and dynasties.

Attractively designed in full color and including over twenty photographs of key monuments, this guide is conveniently packed into a slim 104 pages—handy enough to take anywhere and great for planning and remembering excursions. It is not only an ideal companion for the city’s visitors and residents but an invaluable resource for historians, writers, and students.

The complete series of innovative new coursebooks in Egyptian colloquial Arabic

Drawing on her years of experience as an Arabic instructor and course developer, Samia Louis has used a functional approach to create a bright, innovative set of coursebooks for the study of Egyptian colloquial Arabic—the spoken dialect most frequently studied and most widely understood in the Arab world. Now three new books, for beginner, early advanced, and higher advanced students, have been added to the series. Designed according to the ACTFL guidelines for teaching Arabic as a foreign language, each book of Kallimni ‘Arabi trains students through highly structured lessons in the crucial skills, with particular emphasis on listening and speaking, using real-life situations and expressions. The associated audio files consist of recordings of the dialogs and exercises in each chapter, made by Egyptian native speakers.

“The books in the [Kallimni ‘Arabi] series altogether present the best Arabic textbooks available . . . miles ahead of most others.”—David Wilmsen, American University of Beirut

A modern approach to one of the world’s oldest cuisines and winner of Best Mediterranean Cuisine Book (Gourmand World Cookbook Awards), new in paperback

Combining mouthwatering recipes with a fresh, contemporary design, The Taste of Egypt brings the sophisticated colors and flavors of Egyptian and Middle Eastern cuisine to the modern home kitchen in unpretentious, down-to-earth style. Impress your dinner guests with sublime appetizers such as stuffed-vine leaves and roast eggplant dip. Cook up a storm with silky cumin-infused lentil soup, sensational spiced meatballs, and delicious artichokes cooked in red pepper sauce. There are summery salads to fill a picnic hamper and hearty slow-cooked beans and basterma (fenugreek-spiced cured beef) to evoke the bustling warmth of a Middle Eastern food market. And the recipes for sweet delights are designed to satisfy even the most persistent sweet tooth. Presented in a vibrant, accessible style, The Taste of Egypt is a celebration of a great culinary tradition and an exciting addition to the repertoire of the modern home cook.

"How a female artisan became the Arab world’s top jewelry designer"—CNBC on Azza Fahmy

The inspiring personal story of an exceptional female artist and entrepreneur who overcame great obstacles to become one of the most recognized jewelers in the Arab world and an international luxury brand

In the Egypt of the 1970s, a young Azza Fahmy set out into the all-male world of Historic Cairo's jewelry district to apprentice as a silversmith. This was the start of a remarkable success story that would make her name an international luxury brand. With warmth and candor, she recalls a happy childhood in Upper Egypt, spent in the bygone world of postwar Egypt. This idyllic start to life ended abruptly with the death of her father, when Azza Fahmy was only thirteen, and the family was forced to move to Cairo, to begin a new life under much reduced circumstances.

It was a chance find at a book fair that changed the course of events for her—sparking a passion for silversmithing, and inspiring her to seek out the master craftsmen of Khan al-Khalili, the great craft district of Historic Cairo, and the nearby Sagha, or goldsmiths’ and silversmiths’ district. Through her intimate knowledge of these jewelry workshops, Azza Fahmy takes us through the quarter’s exquisite architecture and bustling alleyways, peopled with silversmiths, goldsmiths, brass workers, and artisans of every stripe, and lays out the indelible influence this now disappearing world has left on her acclaimed jewelry designs.

While Azza Fahmy’s story is one of great accomplishment, woven through it are her struggles as a single mother, a middle-class Egyptian, and a woman working in a man's profession. This memoir, a tribute to the people and places that shaped her creative imagination, is also an ode to the conviction that with hope and perseverance, anything is possible.

An alternative reading of the relationship between the state and smallholder peasants in mid-nineteenth-century Egypt

This book examines the rural history of Egypt during the middle years of the nineteenth century, a period that is often glossed over, or altogether forgotten. Drawing on a wide array of archival sources, some only rarely utilized by other scholars, it argues that state policy targeting the peasant land tenure regime was informed by the dual economic principles of the Ottoman, or traditional, philosophy of statecraft, and that the workings of the relevant regulations did not produce extensive peasant land loss and impoverishment.

Maha Ghalwash presents a rich, detailed analysis of such crucial issues as land legislation, tax impositions, the system of tax collection, modes of land acquisition, large-scale peasant abandonment of land, the emergence of surplus lands, the formation of large, privileged estates, distribution of village land, female land inheritance, and the nature of peasants’ political activity. In investigating these issues, she highlights peasant voices, experiences, and agential power.

Traditional interpretations of the rural history of nineteenth-century Egypt generally specify an avaricious state, so indifferent to peasant well-being that it consistently developed harsh policies that led to unremitting, extensive peasant impoverishment. Through an examination of the relationship between the absolutist state and the majority of its subject population, the peasant smallholders, during 1848–63, this study shows that these ideas do not hold for the mid-century period.

State, Peasants, and Land in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Egypt will be of interest to students of Middle East history, especially Egyptian rural history, as well as those of peasant studies, subaltern studies, gender studies, and Ottoman rural history.

Jewish women exiled from Egypt to New York share glimpses of a lost world, by the author of Khul-Khaal: Five Egyptian Women Tell Their Stories

Between 1948 and 1957, a period that witnessed two wars between Egypt and Israel, 60,000 members of Egypt’s 75,000-strong Jewish population left the country, compelled by growing hostility to them because of their presumed links to Zionism, economic insecurity, and after 1956, overt expulsion. Decades later, during the 1980s and 1990s, the personal reminiscences of eight Egyptian Jewish women, presently residents of New York who had left Egypt, were meticulously collected by Nayra Atiya.

While Atiya’s sample of eight narrators represents only a tiny percentage of the Jews who left Egypt, their accounts tell us much about the middle- and upper-class Jews who migrated to the Americas and Europe, giving us a vivid sense of their lives in Egypt before their departure and the dynamic role they played in Egyptian society. They were the children or grandchildren of generations of Jews who migrated to Egypt from around or near the Mediterranean to escape economic hardship and persecution or, in one case, a family conflict.

With one exception, Atiya’s interlocutors resided in relatively upscale neighborhoods in Egypt near other Jewish families. They lived in elegant apartments, with servants, fine foods, memberships in elite clubs, and summers spent near Alexandria or in Europe. In Zikrayat, Atiya movingly captures the essence of these women’s characters and experiences, the fabric of their day-to-day lives, and the complex, many-layered mood of those times in Egypt. In doing so she brings to life the ties that bind all Egyptians, offering a glimpse into a now vanished world—and the heartbreak of exile and migration.

A fresh perspective on the global economic influences that shaped modern Egypt through the history of an affluent Cairo suburb, Maadi

In the early years of the twentieth century, a group of Egypt’s real-estate and transportation moguls embarked on the creation of a new residential establishment south of Cairo. The development was to epitomize the latest in community planning, merging attributes of town and country to create an idyllic domestic retreat just a short train ride away from the busy city center. They called the new community Maadi, after the ancient village that had long stood on the eastern bank of the Nile.

Over the fifty years that followed, this new, modern Maadi would be associated with what many believed to be the best of modern Egypt: spacious villas, lush gardens, popular athleticism, and, most of all, profitability. Maadi: The Making and Unmaking of a Cairo Suburb, 1878–1962 explores Maadi's foundation and development, identifying how foreign economic privileges were integral to fashioning its idyllic qualities. While Maadi became home to influential Egyptians, including nationalists and royalty, it always remained exclusive—too exclusive to appeal to the growing number of lower-income Egyptians making homes in the capital. Annalise DeVries shows how Maadi’s history offers a fresh perspective on the global economic influences that shaped modern Egyptian history, as they helped configure not only the country’s politics but also the social and cultural practices of the well-to-do.

Ultimately the means of Maadi’s appeal also paved the path for its undoing. When foreign tax and legal privileges were abolished, Maadi, too, became untethered from a vision for Egypt’s future and instead appeared more and more as a figure of the country’s past.

An examination of the myriad lifetimes lived by ancient Egyptian artifacts

Egypt has a particular longue durée, a continuity of preservation in deep time, not seen in other parts of the world. Over the centuries, ancient buildings have been adopted for purposes that differed from the original. Temple sites have been transformed into places of worship for new deities or turned into houses and tombs. Tombs, in turn, have been adapted to function as human dwellings already in the Late Antique Period.

The Afterlives of Egyptian History expands on the traditional academic approach of studying the original function and sociopolitical circumstances of ancient Egyptian objects, texts, and sites to examine their secondary lives by exploring their reuse, modification, and reinterpretation.

Written in honor of the Egyptologist, Edward Bleiberg, this volume brings together a group of luminous scholars from a wide range of fields, including Egyptian archaeology, philology, conservation, and art, to explore the historical circumstances, as well as political and economic situations, of people who have come into contact with ancient Egypt, both in antiquity and in more recent times.

• Yekaterina Barbash, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY USA
• Lisa Bruno, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY USA
• Simon Connor, F.R.S.–FNRS, Brussels, Belgium and University of Liege, Liege, Belgium
• Kathlyn (Kara) Cooney, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA USA
• Richard Fazzini, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY USA
• Peter Lacovara, Ancient Egyptian Archaeology and Heritage Fund, Albany, NY USA
• Ronald J. Leprohon, University of Toronto, Canada
• Mary McKercher, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY USA
• Edmund Meltzer, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, California USA
• Joachim Friedrich Quack, Heidelberg University, Tiffin, Ohio USA
• Paul Edmund Stanwick, independent scholar, New York, NY USA
• Emily Teeter, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL USA
• Kathy Zurek-Doule, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY USA

The essential field guide to the birds of Egypt and the Middle East by a leading naturalist, stunningly illustrated with full-color photography

This compact, incisive photographic identification guide to 280 bird species in Egypt and the Middle East shows the region’s most commonly seen, unique, and endemic species, and is perfect for resident and visitor alike. Each bird species is illustrated with a high-quality full-color photograph, accompanied by a detailed description, which includes nomenclature, size, distribution, habits, and habitat. The user-friendly introduction covers biogeography, migration, bird topography, and a glossary. Also included is an all-important checklist of all of the birds of Egypt encompassing, for each species, its common and scientific name as well as its status in each country and its global International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status.

"An absolute necessity for anybody with an interest in pharaonic Egypt."—Kara Cooney, author of When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt

The discovery of ancient Egypt and the development of Egyptology are momentous events in intellectual and cultural history. The history of Egyptology is the story of the people, famous and obscure, who constructed the picture of ancient Egypt that we have today, recovered the Egyptian past while inventing it anew, and made a lost civilization comprehensible to generations of enchanted readers and viewers thousands of years later.

This, the third of a three-volume history of Egyptology, follows the progress of the discipline from the trauma of the First World War, through the vicissitudes of the twentieth century, and into Egyptology's new horizons at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Wonderful Things affirms that the history of ancient Egypt has proved continually fascinating, but it also demonstrates that the history of Egyptology is no less so. Only by understanding how Egyptology has developed can we truly understand the Egyptian past.

A rich study, with new research data, on eighteen Ptolemaic period sarcophagi housed in museums in Cairo, including the Grand Egyptian Museum

The individually designed anthropoid sarcophagi of the Ptolemaic period (ca. 330–30 BCE) offer a particularly rich and varied repertoire of hieroglyphic inscriptions and religious scenes. Being at the end of a long tradition of funerary literature, many of the epigraphs on these objects are variations or reinterpretations of older texts that have been circulated and transmitted over millennia.

Others are entirely new creations that provide insight into funerary beliefs of late ancient Egypt. The present volume is the second and last publication of a joint project between scholars from Cairo University and the University of Tübingen on Late and Ptolemaic period sarcophagi housed in the museums of Cairo. It includes the detailed publication of eighteen sarcophagi, which until now have only been known through brief descriptions. The facsimile drawings, detailed pictures, translations, and commentaries presented here will allow scholars to approach this corpus with a broad range of research questions.

A beautifully illustrated study of mosaic art in Greco-Roman Egypt

The art of the mosaic was developed by the Greeks, notably within the royal court of Macedonia, and was initially unknown to the Egyptians. Macedonian mosaicists then established busy workshops in the capital, Alexandria, and in the new towns of Greek Egypt. Under the stimulus of commissions from the Ptolemaic court, these workshops soon showed that they were capable of innovation. Beginning with pebbles, they then used tesserae of different sizes, and adopted new materials (glass, faience, paint) in order to transpose onto the floor images from grand paintings, which was the major art form of the time and was characterized by the vivid use of color.

Alexandrian mosaicists were at the forefront of creativity during the Hellenistic period and their influence spread around the Mediterranean. After the Roman conquest of Egypt they adapted to the tastes of their new sponsors and to changes in architecture and were able to retain an important place within this art as it developed across the entire empire, in Rome and from east to west.

The Mosaics of Alexandria provides the first overview of the mosaics and pavements of Egypt that were created between the end of the fourth century BC and the sixth century AD. It presents a selection of some seventy mosaics and pavements from Alexandria and Greco-Roman Egypt. Generally little known and more often than not unpublished, these works are illustrated here in full color, some for the first time. The aim is to better understand the artistic and artisanal production of a type of decoration that played an important role within the living environment of the ancients.

This book will be a fascinating and invaluable resource, not only for advanced learners of Arabic but for linguists, rhetoricians, and philosophers of language.

The complete series of innovative new coursebooks in Egyptian colloquial Arabic

Aimed at the growing number of students studying Arabic worldwide, the Kallimni ‘Arabi series takes an innovative, functional approach to the study of Egyptian colloquial Arabic—the spoken dialect most frequently studied and most widely understood in the Arab world. Kallimni ‘Arabi Mazboot, the fourth book in the series, is designed for adult students at the early advanced stage of learning the language.

Drawing on her years of experience as an Arabic instructor, author Samia Louis has developed a course rich in everyday cultural content and real-life functional language as well as comprehensive grammar. Written in accordance with the ACTFL guidelines for teaching Arabic as a foreign language, this highly structured course trains students in the crucial skills, with emphasis on listening and speaking.

Each chapter includes a conversation unit that enables students to improve their communication skills and allows for progressive acquisition of vocabulary and grammar through interactive classroom tasks and everyday situations, from expressing personal likes and dislikes to initiating conversations and describing events and experiences. The associated audio files have recordings of each chapter’s dialogues and exercises, made by native Egyptian speakers to enrich the student’s exposure to the spoken language in its natural context and speed. The associated audiovisual files comprise a series of video programs entitled “People’s Opinions,” which further help the students to place colloquial Egyptian within context.

“The books in the [Kallimni ‘Arabi] series altogether present the best Arabic textbooks available . . . miles ahead of most others.”—David Wilmsen, American University of Beirut

No matter where we come from, we all have our unique local expressions and proverbs that raise confused eyebrows when translated literally. These phrases usually carry humor and wisdom at their core, but are only fully understood in their native language. A Roving Eye explores some of these phrases and sayings from one of the world's most expressive tongues, Egyptian Arabic, the most widely spoken form of Arabic.

Including some one hundred popular phrases and proverbs, all linked to parts of the body and features of the face, A Roving Eye uses striking black-and-white photography to bring these expressions to life. The result is a book that will delight both learners and native speakers of Arabic, as well as lovers of Egypt who have little knowledge of the language. Each phrase or saying features a photograph, the original expression in Arabic, its transliteration, and its equivalents in English (both literal and proverbial). The whole book makes a perfect gift or a fun read for family and friends.

The complete series of innovative new coursebooks in Egyptian colloquial Arabic

Aimed at the growing number of students studying Arabic worldwide, Kallimni ‘Arabi Aktar takes an innovative, functional approach to the study of Egyptian colloquial Arabic—the spoken dialect most frequently studied and most widely understood in the Arab world. Picking up where the previous title in this series, Kallimni ‘Arabi, leaves off, this volume is designed for adult students at the high-intermediate/low-advanced levels of language proficiency. Drawing on her years of experience as an Arabic instructor, author Samia Louis has developed a course rich in everyday cultural content and real-life functional language as well as comprehensive grammar. Written in accordance with the ACTFL guidelines for teaching Arabic as a foreign language, this highly structured course trains students in the crucial skills, with emphasis on listening and speaking.

Each chapter includes a conversation unit that enables students to improve their communication skills and allows for progressive acquisition of vocabulary and grammar through interactive classroom tasks and everyday situations, from expressing personal likes and dislikes to initiating conversations and describing events and experiences. The online associated audio files carry recordings of each chapter’s dialogues and exercises, made by native Egyptian speakers to enrich the student’s exposure to the spoken language in its natural context and speed.

A sustained critique of postwar reconstruction in Syria as a politically neutral process

In 2011, emboldened by the Arab Spring, the Syrians rose up against their government. The Syrian regime used violence to suppress the protests, so that what began as pro-democracy protests eventually morphed into a civil war with heavy outside intervention. Today, the Assad regime has fallen, but large parts of the country lie in ruins, millions of Syrians are displaced, and the economy is in freefall. Reconstruction as Violence delves into the complex interplay of post-conflict reconstruction in Syria, challenging the traditionally held dichotomy between the end of violence and the commencement of rebuilding.

The contributors to this volume—architects, urbanists, geographers, and historians—employ critical concepts such as urbicide, domicide, and “civilian crisis architecture” to argue against the conventional theoretical frameworks that support a neat separation of phases. They illustrate how reconstruction often extends the dynamics of conflict into the urban and social realms, suggesting that the built environment becomes a battleground for further violence. They emphasize the importance of acknowledging the historical, economic, societal, legal, and bureaucratic contexts that shape reconstruction efforts, arguing for initiatives that prioritize equity, inclusivity, and community participation.

Reconstruction as Violence starkly underscores the authors’ stance that to overlook any of these dimensions, or to disengage from the reconstruction process altogether, represents a political choice with potentially detrimental effects on Syria and beyond in the Arab world, where countries like Palestine, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon, and Sudan are undergoing similar cycles of destruction and rebuilding. It calls for a reimagined approach to reconstruction, one that fosters peace, resilience, and social justice in post-conflict societies.

Contributors:
Sawsan Abou Zainedin, Madaniya, London, UK
Ammar Azzouz, University of Oxford, UK
Valérie Clerc, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, France
Emma Katherine DiNapoli, human rights lawyer, London, UK
Omar Ferwati, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
Rim Lababidi, architect and independent scholar, Ohio, USA
Wendy Pullan, University of Cambridge, UK
Nasser Rabbat, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Hashim Sarkis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Deen Sharp, London School of Economics, UK
Heghnar Watenpaugh, University of California Davis, CA, USA

A rich examination of the securitization of the everyday lives of the citizens of Cairo and how to build a more equitable urban order, now in paperback

Until the year 2000, Cairo had been a model megacity, relatively crime free, safe, and public facing. It featured a thriving public culture and vibrant street life. In recent decades, however, the Egyptian state has accelerated a wholesale dismantlement of public education and public sector jobs and reversed the modest land reforms of the Nasser era. As a result, the vast majority of Cairo’s people have been forcibly deprived of their social rights, social goods, and educational capital.

Eschewing the traditional focus on top-down regime and state security, the contributors to this volume, who represent a wide array of academics, activists, artists, and journalists, explore how repressive policies affect the everyday lives of citizens. They show the ways in which urban security crises are politically fashioned and do not emanate from the urban social fabric on their own: city crime, violence, and fear are created by specific means of extraction, production, and control.

Another kind of city can live again. But how? By tackling a range of issues, including public health, transportation, labor safety, and housing and property distribution, Cairo Securitized unsettles simplistic binaries of thug and police, public versus private, and slum versus enclave, and proposes compelling new ways in which securitizing processes can be reversed, reengineered, and replaced with a participatory and equitable urban order.

Contributors:
Sara Soumaya Abed African Leadership Centre, Kings College London
Zeinab Abul-Magd Oberlin College, USA
Mohamed Ahmed Political Scientist and historian, Cairo Egypt
Rania Ahmed Independent Researcher, Cairo Egypt
Nicholas Simcik Arese University of Cambridge, UK
Ahmed Awadalla University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Ahmad Borham The American University in Cairo, Cairo Egypt
Miguel A. Fuentes Carreño University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Roberta Duffield Scholar on urbanism, public space, Cairo Egypt
Momen El-Husseiny The American University in Cairo, Cairo Egypt
Mohamed Elmeshad SOAS, London UK
Ifdal Elsaket Netherlands-Flemish Institute, Cairo Egypt
Mohamed Elshahed Independent Writer and Curator, Mexico City
Amy Fallas University of California Santa Barbara, USA
Tina Guirguis University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Elena Habersky The American University in Cairo, Cairo Egypt
Hanan Hammad Texas Christian University, USA
Hatem Hassan Impact Justice, Pittsburgh, USA
Amira Hetaba Federal Government of Lower Austria, Austria
Deena Khalil The American University in Cairo, Cairo Egypt
Omnia Khalil City University of New York, USA
Sabrina Lilleby University of Texas, Austin, USA
Paul Miranda Nonviolent Peaceforce, South Mosul, Iraq
Mostafa Mohie American University in Cairo, Cairo Egypt
Laura Monfleur University François-Rabelais, Tours, France
Aya Nassar Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Nora Noralla human rights researcher, Berlin, Germany
Aly El Reggal Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence Italy
Afsaneh Rigot Harvard University, Cambridge USA
Yahia Saleh Malmö University, Sweden
Bassem al-Samragy political analyst at the International Criminal Court, The Hague, The Netherlands
Yahia Shawkat Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
Maïa Sinno Géographie Cités Lab, CNRS / Sorbonne University, Paris France
Mark Westmoreland Leiden University, The Netherlands

A social and political history of two decades of Egyptian neoliberalism through children’s picture books published in Egypt in the post-2000 era

Children’s picture books are some of the most transparently ideological materials available to parents and educators, and as cultural objects they are an expression of the zeitgeist of a particular era. They reveal much about the hopes, values, and aspirations of the society that produces them, as well as that society’s vision of its place in the wider world at large.

Children’s Picture Books and Contemporary Egyptian Society examines a new wave of Egyptian picture books that was published in the current century to see how these books responded to larger societal trends and transformations in Egypt, as well as to explore the ideologies that lie behind them. Yasmine Motawy argues that a host of factors, including the growth of gated communities and international schooling, the proliferation of lucrative literary awards, returning Gulf migrants, television dramas, and nationwide reading advocacy initiatives helped give rise to a new kind of children’s picture book in Egypt.

Motawy focuses on three clusters of selected picture books to investigate the extent to which these books reproduce hegemonic discourses or, alternatively, open up new horizons of childhood agency and societal transformation. The first cluster includes books that directly socialize the child by showing them ‘how things are done,’ in both the domestic sphere and the increasing globalized spaces that children frequent with their families. The second cluster aims at reframing cultural notions around femininity through the retelling of folk and fairy tales, while the third cluster addresses children's abilities to assess the impact of their actions on their environment, and invites them to examine their personal suitability to positions of power and stewardship.

Christian–Islamic encounters through religious arts, architecture, and material culture in the medieval era

The coexistence of Christianity and Islam in the medieval Mediterranean led to an interchange of knowledge in architecture and material culture that went well beyond religious and geographical boundaries. The use of Islamic objects in Christian contexts, the conversion of churches into mosques, and the mobility of craftsmen are only some manifestations of this process. From crosses found in mosques to European-Christian coins with pseudo-shahada inscriptions, medieval material culture is rich with visual evidence of the two faiths intermingling in both individual objects and monuments.

In this volume, thirteen international scholars explore various aspects of pan-Mediterranean Christian-Islamic encounters in material culture and art, from textiles to precious oils, and from metalwork to ceramics, covering most of the Mediterranean, as well as parts of its extended hinterland, from Spain and Italy to Egypt and Georgia.

Within this frame, one of the most relevant, yet underexplored lines of investigation is that of the “aesthetic space,” the notion that aesthetic pleasure transcends boundaries, paving the way to a cross-religious experience and appreciation. “Indeed, God is beautiful, and He loves beauty,” as mentioned in a Hadith narration, a universal cry of visual beauty that resonates with all cultures and civilizations.

Contributors:
Paschalis Androudis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Faruk Bilici Inalco, Paris, France
Maria Bormpoudaki Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Piraeus, Greece
Sami Luigi De Giosa University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Hélène Fragaki University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany
Hani Hamza Independent scholar, Cairo, Egypt
Ana Cabrera Lafuente Instituto de Turismo de España (Turespaña/Tourspain), Madrid, Spain
Alison Ohta Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London, United Kingdom
Richard Piran McClary University of York, York, United Kingdom
Nino Simonishvili Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
Nikolaos Vryzidis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Arielle Winnik Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, United States

A foundational text on the early modern history of Tunis that places Tunisian history firmly within Ottoman history

The Tunisian historiography of the modern era has broadly centered on a narrative of three successive powers: the pashas, first, followed by the deys (the "symbolic uncles" of the Turkish militia), who were in turn deposed by the beys (native civil rulers arising out of Hafsid times). This approach has provided all the components of a national narrative: it has posited the decline of the pasha’s authority as a consequence of the Tunisian province’s autonomy, and has framed the wars between deys and beys as a conflict of identity between the Turks and the locals.

While this linear story is seductive in its apparent coherence, it leaves several questions in the shadows, in particular, the interference of several external forces in the affairs of the province: most notably, the Ottoman Empire. The Regency of Tunis was effectively controlled by the Ottomans who had reactivated a former Hafsid institution, the mhalla. A kind of itinerant power, the mhalla succeeded in allowing the Ottomans to establish peace through the creation of tax regulations and matrimonial alliances with the tribes. Thus, the Regency of Tunis was able to distinguish itself from other imperial provinces through the founding of a monarchical house symbolically linked to the Empire and, at the same time, socially anchored in its territory.

Relying on local sources in Tunisian archives, Leïla Blili places the Regency of Tunis firmly within the Ottoman Empire, revealing the complex connections between the imperial center and its far-flung province, and challenging the long-standing theory of Tunisian autonomy. Blili's examination of social continuity during moments of intense political turbulence restores the place of women in the narrative of state formation, underlining the significance of the matrimonial politics of sovereigns and the crucial political and social roles women played in the regency.