First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 1995. Published a few years after the author's death this text offers explanatory notes for his translation of The Thousand and One Nights. The editor Lane had utilized as the main basis for this the Arabic text printed at the press of Biilaq in the suburbs of Cairo established by the Pasha Muhammad 'Ali, but had enriched it by a copious commentary. Since the stories making up the Nights illustrate almost the whole gamut of public and settled domestic life in the Arab Middle Ages, from the opulent surroundings of Caliphs and Sultans to the humblest dwellings of petty tradesmen and bazaar artisans, Lane was able to construct on these foundations a remarkably detailed picture of society as it functioned in the urban centres of Mediaeval Islam.

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The great nineteenth-century British traveler Edward William Lane (1801-76) was the author of a number of highly influential works: An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836), his translation of The Thousand and One Nights (1839-41), Selections from the Kur-an (1843), and the Arabic-English Lexicon (1863-93). Yet in 1831, publication of one of his greatest works, Description of Egypt, was delayed, and eventually dropped, mainly for financial reasons, by the publishing firm of John Murray. The manuscript was sold to the British Library by Lane's widow in 1891, and was salvaged for publication as a hardcover book, in 2000, by Jason Thompson, nearly 170 years after its completion. Now available in paperback, this book, which takes the form of a journey through Egypt from north to south, with descriptions of all the ancient monuments and contemporary life that Lane explored along the way, will be of interest to both ancient and modern historians of Egypt, and is an essential companion to his Manners and Customs.

Few works about the Middle East have exerted such wide and long-lasting influence as Edward William Lane's An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. First published in 1836, this classic book has never gone out of print, continuously providing material and inspiration for generations of scholars, writers, and travelers, who have praised its comprehensiveness, detail, and perception. Yet the editions in print during most of the twentieth century would not have met Lane's approval. Lacking parts of Lane's text and many of his original illustrations (while adding many that were not his), they were based on what should have been ephemeral editions, published long after the author's death. Meanwhile, the definitive fifth edition of 1860, the result of a quarter century of Lane's corrections, reconsiderations, and additions, long ago disappeared from bookstore shelves. Now the 1860 edition of Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians is available again, with a useful general introduction by Jason Thompson. Lane's greatest work enters the twenty-first century in precisely the form that he wanted.

Edward William Lane (1801-1876), Arabic scholar, first went to Egypt in 1825 for the sake of his health. He made several voyages up the Nile and came to speak Arabic fluently, even adopting Egyptian manners and dress. He was therefore perfectly equipped to begin work on an intimate study of Egyptian life. His other works include a translation of the Thousand and One Nights, and an exhaustive thesaurus of the Arabic language. Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians was first published in two volumes in 1836. It remains a standard work on the subject. Every page contains some item of essential information regarding Arab life: from religion, law and literature, through to domestic matters, art and superstition. The edition is reproduced in facsimile from the 1896 edition, and it retains the abundance of rich and usual photographs and engravings.