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The life, birth, and early years of 'the Fariyaq'-the alter ego of
the Arab intellectual Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq Leg over Leg recounts
the life, from birth to middle age, of "the Fariyaq," alter ego of
Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, a pivotal figure in the intellectual and
literary history of the modern Arab world. The always edifying and
often hilarious adventures of the Fariyaq, as he moves from his
native Lebanon to Egypt, Malta, Tunis, England, and France, provide
the author with grist for wide-ranging discussions of the
intellectual and social issues of his time, including the ignorance
and corruption of the Lebanese religious and secular
establishments, freedom of conscience, women's rights, sexual
relationships between men and women, the manners and customs of
Europeans and Middle Easterners, and the differences between
contemporary European and Arabic literatures, all the while
celebrating the genius and beauty of the classical Arabic language.
Volumes One and Two follow the hapless Fariyaq through his youth
and early education, his misadventures among the monks of Mount
Lebanon, his flight to the Egypt of Muhammad 'Ali, and his
subsequent employment with the first Arabic daily newspaper-during
which time he suffers a number of diseases that parallel his
progress in the sciences of Arabic grammar, and engages in amusing
digressions on the table manners of the Druze, young love, snow,
and the scandals of the early papacy. This first book also sees the
list-of locations in Hell, types of medieval glue, instruments of
torture, stars and pre-Islamic idols-come into its own as a
signature device of the work. Akin to Sterne and Rabelais in his
satirical outlook and technical inventiveness, al-Shidyaq produced
in Leg over Leg a work that is unique and unclassifiable. It was
initially widely condemned for its attacks on authority, its
religious skepticism, and its "obscenity," and later editions were
often abridged. This is the first complete English translation of
this groundbreaking work.
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The Book of Charlatans (Paperback)
JamÄl al-DÄ«n Ê¿Abd al-Raḥīm al-JawbarÄ«; Translated by Humphrey Davies; Foreword by S A Chakraborty
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R521
R442
Discovery Miles 4 420
Save R79 (15%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Uncovering the professional secrets of con artists and swindlers in
the medieval Middle East The Book of Charlatans is a comprehensive
guide to trickery and scams as practiced in the thirteenth century
in the cities of the Middle East, especially in Syria and Egypt.
Al-Jawbarī was well versed in the practices he describes and may
have been a reformed charlatan himself. Divided into thirty
chapters, the book reveals the secrets of everyone from “Those
Who Claim to be Prophets†to “Those Who Claim to Have
Leprosy†and “Those Who Dye Horses.†The material is informed
in part by the author’s own experience with alchemy, astrology,
and geomancy, and in part by his extensive research. The work is
unique in its systematic, detailed, and inclusive approach to a
subject that is by nature arcane and that has relevance not only
for social history but also for the history of science. Covering
everything from invisible writing to doctoring gemstones and quack
medicine, The Book of Charlatans opens a fascinating window into a
subculture of beggars’ guilds and professional con artists in the
medieval Arab world. An English-only edition.
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Friendly Fire (Paperback)
Alaa Al Aswany; Translated by Humphrey Davies
1
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R307
R227
Discovery Miles 2 270
Save R80 (26%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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The new book from Alaa Al Aswany, author of the international
bestseller 'The Yacoubian Building' and 'Chicago'. 'Friendly Fire'
is a novella and collection of short stories from Alaa Al Aswany,
author of the bestselling 'The Yacoubian Building'. As in that
novel, Al Aswany dissects modern Egyptian society and, with skill
and detachment, reveals the hypocrisy, violence and abuse of power
characteristic of a world in moral crisis. Here, though, the focus
has shifted from the broad historical canvas to the minute stitches
of pain that hold together an individual, a family, a school
classroom and the relationship between a man and a woman. Can a man
so alienated from his society that he regards all its members as no
better than microbes wriggling under a microscope survive within
it? Can cynical religiosity triumph over human decency? Can a man
put the thought of a delicious dish of beans behind him long enough
to mourn his father's death? Alongside these wry questions, other,
less mordant perspectives also have their place: an ageing cabaret
dancer bestows the blessing of a vanished world on her lover's son;
a crippled boy wins subjective victory from objective disaster. In
'Friendly Fire', readers will find again the vivid, passionate
characters of today's Cairo, clamouring to be heard. 'Friendly
Fire' also features an introduction by Alaa Al Aswany giving the
history of the novella, 'The Isam Abd el-Ati Papers', which was
banned in Egypt for a decade.
This exceptional Egyptian novel - as mesmerising as it is
controversial - caused an unprecedented stir when it was first
published in Arabic. Welcome to the Yacoubian Building, Cairo: once
grand, now dilapidated, and full of stories and passion. Some live
in squalor on its rooftop while others inhabit the faded glory of
its apartments and offices. Within these walls religious fervour
jostles with promiscuity; bribery with bliss; modern life with
ancient culture. At ground level, Taha, the doorman's son, harbours
career aspirations and romantic dreams - but when these are dashed
by unyielding corruption, hope turns to bitterness, with
devastating consequences. Alaa Al Aswany's superb novel about
Egypt's many contradictions is at once an impassioned celebration
and a ruthless dissection of a society dominated by dishonesty.
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The Book of Charlatans (Hardcover)
Jamal al-Din 'Abd al-Rahim al-Jawbari; Translated by Humphrey Davies; Foreword by S A Chakraborty
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R895
Discovery Miles 8 950
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Uncovering the professional secrets of con artists and swindlers in
the medieval Middle East The Book of Charlatans is a comprehensive
guide to trickery and scams as practiced in the thirteenth century
in the cities of the Middle East, especially in Syria and Egypt.
Al-Jawbari was well versed in the practices he describes and may
have been a reformed charlatan himself. Divided into thirty
chapters, the book reveals the secrets of everyone from "Those Who
Claim to be Prophets" to "Those Who Claim to Have Leprosy" and
"Those Who Dye Horses." The material is informed in part by the
author's own experience with alchemy, astrology, and geomancy, and
in part by his extensive research. The work is unique in its
systematic, detailed, and inclusive approach to a subject that is
by nature arcane and that has relevance not only for social history
but also for the history of science. Covering everything from
invisible writing to doctoring gemstones and quack medicine, The
Book of Charlatans opens a fascinating window into a subculture of
beggars' guilds and professional con artists in the medieval Arab
world. An English-only edition.
A merchant's remarkable travel account of an African kingdom
Muhammad al-Tunisi (d. 1274/1857) belonged to a family of Tunisian
merchants trading with Egypt and what is now Sudan. Al-Tunisi was
raised in Cairo and a graduate of al-Azhar. In 1803, at the age of
fourteen, al-Tunisi set off for the Sultanate of Darfur, where his
father had decamped ten years earlier. He followed the Forty Days
Road, was reunited with his father, and eventually took over the
management of the considerable estates granted to his father by the
sultan of Darfur. In Darfur is al-Tunisi's remarkable account of
his ten-year sojourn in this independent state, featuring
descriptions of the geography of the region, the customs of
Darfur's petty kings, court life and the clothing of its rulers,
marriage customs, eunuchs, illnesses, food, hunting, animals,
currencies, plants, magic, divination, and dances. In Darfur
combines literature, history, ethnography, linguistics, and travel
adventure, and most unusually for its time, includes fifty-two
illustrations, all drawn by the author. In Darfur is a rare example
of an Arab description of an African society on the eve of Western
colonization and vividly evokes a world in which travel was
untrammeled by bureaucracy, borders were fluid, and startling
coincidences appear almost mundane. An English-only edition.
Witty, bawdy, and vicious, Yusuf al-Shirbini's Brains Confounded
pits the "coarse" rural masses against the "refined" urban
population. In Volume One, al-Shirbini describes the three rural
"types"-peasant cultivator, village man-of-religion, and rural
dervish-offering anecdotes testifying to the ignorance, dirtiness,
and criminality of each. In Volume Two, he presents a hilarious
parody of the verse-and-commentary genre so beloved by scholars of
his day, with a 47-line poem supposedly written by a peasant named
Abu Shaduf, who charts the rise and fall of his fortunes. Wielding
the scholarly tools of elite literature, al-Shirbini responds to
the poem with derision and ridicule, dotting his satire with
digressions into love, food, and flatulence. Volume Two of Brains
Confounded is followed by Risible Rhymes, a concise text that
includes a comic disquisition on "rural" verse, mocking the
pretensions of uneducated poets from Egypt's countryside. Risible
Rhymes also examines various kinds of puzzle poems, which were
another popular genre of the day, and presents a debate between
scholars over a line of verse by the fourth/tenth-century poet
al-Mutanabbi. Together, Brains Confounded and Risible Rhymes offer
intriguing insight into the intellectual concerns of Ottoman Egypt,
showcasing the intense preoccupation with wordplay, grammar, and
stylistics and shedding light on the literature of the era. An
English-only edition.
Witty, bawdy, and vicious, Yusuf al-Shirbini's Brains Confounded
pits the "coarse" rural masses against the "refined" urban
population. In Volume One, al-Shirbini describes the three rural
"types"-peasant cultivator, village man-of-religion, and rural
dervish-offering anecdotes testifying to the ignorance, dirtiness,
and criminality of each. In Volume Two, he presents a hilarious
parody of the verse-and-commentary genre so beloved by scholars of
his day, with a 47-line poem supposedly written by a peasant named
Abu Shaduf, who charts the rise and fall of his fortunes. Wielding
the scholarly tools of elite literature, al-Shirbini responds to
the poem with derision and ridicule, dotting his satire with
digressions into love, food, and flatulence. Volume Two of Brains
Confounded is followed by Risible Rhymes, a concise text that
includes a comic disquisition on "rural" verse, mocking the
pretensions of uneducated poets from Egypt's countryside. Risible
Rhymes also examines various kinds of puzzle poems, which were
another popular genre of the day, and presents a debate between
scholars over a line of verse by the fourth/tenth-century poet
al-Mutanabbi. Together, Brains Confounded and Risible Rhymes offer
intriguing insight into the intellectual concerns of Ottoman Egypt,
showcasing the intense preoccupation with wordplay, grammar, and
stylistics and shedding light on the literature of the era. An
English-only edition.
The life, birth, and early years of 'the Fariyaq'-the alter ego of
the Arab intellectual Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq Leg over Leg recounts
the life, from birth to middle age, of 'the Fariyaq,' alter ego of
Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, a pivotal figure in the intellectual and
literary history of the modern Arab world. The always edifying and
often hilarious adventures of the Fariyaq, as he moves from his
native Lebanon to Egypt, Malta, Tunis, England and France, provide
the author with grist for wide-ranging discussions of the
intellectual and social issues of his time, including the ignorance
and corruption of the Lebanese religious and secular
establishments, freedom of conscience, women's rights, sexual
relationships between men and women, the manners and customs of
Europeans and Middle Easterners, and the differences between
contemporary European and Arabic literatures. Al-Shidyaq also
celebrates the genius and beauty of the classical Arabic language.
Akin to Sterne and Rabelais in his satirical outlook and technical
inventiveness, al-Shidyaq produced in Leg over Leg a work that is
unique and unclassifiable. It was initially widely condemned for
its attacks on authority, its religious skepticism, and its
"obscenity," and later editions were often abridged. This is the
first English translation of the work and reproduces the original
Arabic text, published under the author's supervision in 1855.
The life, birth, and early years of 'the Fariyaq'-the alter ego of
the Arab intellectual Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq Leg over Leg recounts
the life, from birth to middle age, of "the Fariyaq," alter ego of
Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, a pivotal figure in the intellectual and
literary history of the modern Arab world. The always edifying and
often hilarious adventures of the Fariyaq, as he moves from his
native Lebanon to Egypt, Malta, Tunis, England, and France, provide
the author with grist for wide-ranging discussions of the
intellectual and social issues of his time, including the ignorance
and corruption of the Lebanese religious and secular
establishments, freedom of conscience, women's rights, sexual
relationships between men and women, the manners and customs of
Europeans and Middle Easterners, and the differences between
contemporary European and Arabic literatures, all the while
celebrating the genius and beauty of the classical Arabic language.
Volumes Three and Four see the peripatetic Fariyaq fall in love and
convert to Catholicism for twenty-four hours in order to marry.
Although the narrative revolves around a series of debates over the
nature of male-female relationships, opportunities also arise for
disquisitions on the physical and moral significance of such
diverse topics as the buttocks, the unreliability of virginity
tests, and the human capacity for self-delusion. Lengthy stays in
England and France allow for animadversions on the table manners
and sexual aberrations of their citizens, but the discussion,
whether it involve dance-halls, pleasure gardens, or poetry, almost
always ends up returning to gender relations. Akin to Sterne and
Rabelais in his satirical outlook and technical inventiveness,
al-Shidyaq produced in Leg over Leg a work that is unique and
unclassifiable. It was initially widely condemned for its attacks
on authority, its religious skepticism, and its "obscenity," and
later editions were often abridged. This is the first complete
English translation of this groundbreaking work.
Witty, bawdy, and vicious, Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī’s Brains
Confounded pits the “coarse†rural masses against the
“refined†urban population. In Volume One, al-Shirbīnī
describes the three rural “typesâ€â€”peasant cultivator, village
man-of-religion, and rural dervish—offering anecdotes testifying
to the ignorance, dirtiness, and criminality of each. In Volume
Two, he presents a hilarious parody of the verse-and-commentary
genre so beloved by scholars of his day, with a 47-line poem
supposedly written by a peasant named AbÅ« ShÄdÅ«f, who charts the
rise and fall of his fortunes. Wielding the scholarly tools of
elite literature, al-Shirbīnī responds to the poem with derision
and ridicule, dotting his satire with digressions into love, food,
and flatulence. Volume Two of Brains Confounded is followed by
Risible Rhymes, a concise text that includes a comic disquisition
on “rural†verse, mocking the pretensions of uneducated poets
from Egypt’s countryside. Risible Rhymes also examines various
kinds of puzzle poems, which were another popular genre of the day,
and presents a debate between scholars over a line of verse by the
fourth/tenth-century poet al-Mutanabbī. Together, Brains
Confounded and Risible Rhymes offer intriguing insight into the
intellectual concerns of Ottoman Egypt, showcasing the intense
preoccupation with wordplay, grammar, and stylistics and shedding
light on the literature of the era. An English-only edition.
The life, birth, and early years of 'the Fariyaq'-the alter ego of
the Arab intellectual Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq Leg over Leg recounts
the life, from birth to middle age, of 'the Fariyaq,' alter ego of
Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, a pivotal figure in the intellectual and
literary history of the modern Arab world. The always edifying and
often hilarious adventures of the Fariyaq, as he moves from his
native Lebanon to Egypt, Malta, Tunis, England and France, provide
the author with grist for wide-ranging discussions of the
intellectual and social issues of his time, including the ignorance
and corruption of the Lebanese religious and secular
establishments, freedom of conscience, women's rights, sexual
relationships between men and women, the manners and customs of
Europeans and Middle Easterners, and the differences between
contemporary European and Arabic literatures. Al-Shidyaq also
celebrates the genius and beauty of the classical Arabic language.
Akin to Sterne and Rabelais in his satirical outlook and technical
inventiveness, al-Shidyaq produced in Leg over Leg a work that is
unique and unclassifiable. It was initially widely condemned for
its attacks on authority, its religious skepticism, and its
"obscenity," and later editions were often abridged. This is the
first English translation of the work and reproduces the original
Arabic text, published under the author's supervision in 1855.
A merchant's account of his travels through an independent African
state Muhammad ibn 'Umar al-Tunisi (d. 1274/1857) belonged to a
family of Tunisian merchants trading with Egypt and what is now
Sudan. Al-Tunisi was raised in Cairo and a graduate of al-Azhar. In
1803, at the age of fourteen, al-Tunisi set off for the Sultanate
of Darfur, where his father had decamped ten years earlier. He
followed the Forty Days Road, was reunited with his father, and
eventually took over the management of the considerable estates
granted to his father by the sultan of Darfur. In Darfur is
al-Tunisi's remarkable account of his ten-year sojourn in this
independent state. In Volume One, al-Tunisi relates the history of
his much-traveled family, his journey from Egypt to Darfur, and the
reign of the noted sultan 'Abd al-Rahman al-Rashid. In Darfur
combines literature, history, ethnography, linguistics, and travel
adventure, and most unusually for its time, includes fifty-two
illustrations, all drawn by the author. In Darfur is a rare example
of an Arab description of Africa on the eve of Western colonization
and vividly evokes a world in which travel was untrammeled by
bureaucracy, borders were fluid, and startling coincidences appear
almost mundane. A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
The life, birth, and early years of 'the Fariyaq'-the alter ego of
the Arab intellectual Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq Leg over Leg recounts
the life, from birth to middle age, of 'the Fariyaq,' alter ego of
Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, a pivotal figure in the intellectual and
literary history of the modern Arab world. The always edifying and
often hilarious adventures of the Fariyaq, as he moves from his
native Lebanon to Egypt, Malta, Tunis, England and France, provide
the author with grist for wide-ranging discussions of the
intellectual and social issues of his time, including the ignorance
and corruption of the Lebanese religious and secular
establishments, freedom of conscience, women's rights, sexual
relationships between men and women, the manners and customs of
Europeans and Middle Easterners, and the differences between
contemporary European and Arabic literatures. Al-Shidyaq also
celebrates the genius and beauty of the classical Arabic language.
Akin to Sterne and Rabelais in his satirical outlook and technical
inventiveness, al-Shidyaq produced in Leg over Leg a work that is
unique and unclassifiable. It was initially widely condemned for
its attacks on authority, its religious skepticism, and its
"obscenity," and later editions were often abridged. This is the
first English translation of the work and reproduces the original
Arabic text, published under the author's supervision in 1855.
The life, birth, and early years of 'the Fariyaq'-the alter ego of
the Arab intellectual Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq Leg over Leg recounts
the life, from birth to middle age, of 'the Fariyaq,' alter ego of
Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, a pivotal figure in the intellectual and
literary history of the modern Arab world. The always edifying and
often hilarious adventures of the Fariyaq, as he moves from his
native Lebanon to Egypt, Malta, Tunis, England and France, provide
the author with grist for wide-ranging discussions of the
intellectual and social issues of his time, including the ignorance
and corruption of the Lebanese religious and secular
establishments, freedom of conscience, women's rights, sexual
relationships between men and women, the manners and customs of
Europeans and Middle Easterners, and the differences between
contemporary European and Arabic literatures. Al-Shidyaq also
celebrates the genius and beauty of the classical Arabic language.
Akin to Sterne and Rabelais in his satirical outlook and technical
inventiveness, al-Shidyaq produced in Leg Over Leg a work that is
unique and unclassifiable. It was initially widely condemned for
its attacks on authority, its religious skepticism, and its
"obscenity," and later editions were often abridged. This is the
first English translation of the work and reproduces the original
Arabic text, published under the author's supervision in 1855.
A merchant's account of his travels through an independent African
state Muhammad ibn 'Umar al-Tunisi (d. 1274/1857) belonged to a
family of Tunisian merchants trading with Egypt and what is now
Sudan. Al-Tunisi was raised in Cairo and a graduate of al-Azhar. In
1803, at the age of fourteen, al-Tunisi set off for the Sultanate
of Darfur, where his father had decamped ten years earlier. He
followed the Forty Days Road, was reunited with his father, and
eventually took over the management of the considerable estates
granted to his father by the sultan of Darfur. In Darfur is
al-Tunisi's remarkable account of his ten-year sojourn in this
independent state. In Volume Two al-Tunisi describes the geography
of the region, the customs of Darfur's petty kings, court life and
the clothing of its rulers, marriage customs, eunuchs, illnesses,
food, hunting, animals, currencies, plants, magic, divination, and
dances. In Darfur combines literature, history, ethnography,
linguistics, and travel adventure, and most unusually for its time,
includes fifty-two illustrations, all drawn by the author. In
Darfur is a rare example of an Arab description of Africa on the
eve of Western colonization and vividly evokes a world in which
travel was untrammeled by bureaucracy, borders were fluid, and
startling coincidences appear almost mundane. A bilingual
Arabic-English edition.
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Risible Rhymes (Hardcover)
Muhammad Ibn Mahfuz Al-Sanhuri; Edited by Humphrey Davies
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R741
Discovery Miles 7 410
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Written in mid-seventeenth-century Egypt, Risible Rhymes is in part
a short, comic disquisition on "rural" verse, mocking the
pretensions and absurdities of uneducated poets from Egypt's
countryside. The interest in the countryside as a cultural, social,
economic, and religious locus in its own right that is hinted at in
this work may be unique in pre-twentieth-century Arabic literature.
As such, the work provides a companion piece to its slightly
younger contemporary, Yusuf al-Shirbini's Brains Confounded by the
Ode of Abu Shaduf Expounded, which also takes examples of
mock-rural poems and subjects them to grammatical analysis. The
overlap between the two texts may indicate that they both emanate
from a common corpus of pseudo-rural verse that circulated in
Ottoman Egypt. Risible Rhymes also examines various kinds of puzzle
poems-another popular genre of the day-and presents a debate
between scholars over a line of verse by the fourth/tenth-century
poet al-Mutanabbi. Taken as a whole, Risible Rhymes offers
intriguing insight into the critical concerns of mid-Ottoman Egypt,
showcasing the intense preoccupation with wordplay, grammar, and
stylistics that dominated discussions of poetry in al-Sanhuri's day
and shedding light on the literature of this understudied era. A
bilingual Arabic-English edition.
Witty, bawdy, and vicious, Yusuf al-Shirbini's Brains Confounded
pits the "coarse" rural masses against the "refined" urban
population. In Volume One, al-Shirbini describes the three rural
"types"-peasant cultivator, village man-of-religion, and rural
dervish-offering anecdotes testifying to the ignorance, dirtiness,
and criminality of each. In Volume Two, he presents a hilarious
parody of the verse-and-commentary genre so beloved by scholars of
his day, with a 47-line poem supposedly written by a peasant named
Abu Shaduf, who charts the rise and fall of his fortunes. Wielding
the scholarly tools of elite literature, al-Shirbini responds to
the poem with derision and ridicule, dotting his satire with
digressions into love, food, and flatulence. Volume Two of Brains
Confounded is followed by Risible Rhymes, a concise text that
includes a comic disquisition on "rural" verse, mocking the
pretensions of uneducated poets from Egypt's countryside. Risible
Rhymes also examines various kinds of puzzle poems, which were
another popular genre of the day, and presents a debate between
scholars over a line of verse by the fourth/tenth-century poet
al-Mutanabbi. Together, Brains Confounded and Risible Rhymes offer
intriguing insight into the intellectual concerns of Ottoman Egypt,
showcasing the intense preoccupation with wordplay, grammar, and
stylistics and shedding light on the literature of the era. An
English-only edition.
The map of a city is a palimpsest of its history. In Cairo, people,
places, events, and even dates have lent their names to streets,
squares, and bridges, only for those names often to be replaced,
and then replaced again, and even again, as the city and the
country imagine and reimagine their past. The resident, wandering
boulevards and cul-de-sacs, finds signs; the reader, perusing
novels and histories, finds references. Who were ?Abd el-Khaleq
Sarwat Basha or Yusef el-Gindi that they should have streets named
after them? Who was Nubar Basha and why did his street move from
the north of the city to its center in 1933? Why do older maps show
two squares called Bab el-Luq, while modern maps show none?
Focusing on the part of the city created in the wake of Khedive
Ismail's command, given in 1867, to create a "Paris on the Nile" on
the muddy lands between medieval Cairo and the river, A Field Guide
to the Street Names of Cairo lists more than five hundred current
and three hundred former appellations. Current street names are
listed in alphabetical order, with an explanation of what each
commemorates and when it was first recorded, followed by the same
for its predecessors. An index allows the reader to trace streets
whose names have disappeared or that have never achieved more than
popular status. This is a book that will satisfy the curiosity of
all, be they citizens, long-term residents, or visitors, who are
fascinated by this most multi-layered of cities and wish to
understand it better.
"Khoury is one of the greatest writers of our times and perhaps the
greatest Arabic-language writer of this generation, definite Nobel
Prize material" Avraham Burg, Haaretz Who is Adam Dannoun? Until a
few months before his death in a fire in his New York apartment - a
consequence of smoking in bed - he thought he knew. But an
encounter with Blind Mahmoud, a father figure from his childhood,
changed all that. From Mahmoud he learned the terrible truth behind
his birth, a truth withheld from him for fifty-seven years by the
woman he thought was his mother. This discovery leads Adam to
investigate what exactly happened in 1948 in Palestine in the city
of Lydda where he was born: the massacre, the forced march into the
wilderness and the corralling of those citizens who did not flee
into what the Israeli soldiers and their Palestinian captives came
to refer to as the Ghetto. The stories he collects speak of
bravery, ingenuity and resolve in the face of unimaginable
hardship. Saved from the flames that claimed him, they are his
lasting and crucial testament. Translated from the Arabic by
Humphrey Davies
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