Best of
Egypt

2011

The Egyptian Royals Collection: Three Historical Novels


Michelle Moran - 2011
    Delve into these stories for an engrossing trip back in time, full of powerful family dynasties, court intrigue, and brave heroines. The novels, which bring to vivid life some of the most fascinating characters of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome, each include a reading group guide. An exciting excerpt from Moran’s newest novel Madame Tussaud is also included.NefertitiThe dramatic and historically accurate story of two unforgettable women—Nefertiti and her younger sister—living through a remarkable period of political unrest.The Heretic QueenIn Ancient Egypt, Nefertiti’s niece, Princess Nefertari, must overcome her family’s past and remake history.Cleopatra’s DaughterThe incredible untold story of the orphaned children of Cleopatra, Egypt’s most powerful and notorious ruler, who are raised in the Ancient Roman court of their parents’ greatest rival.A sneak peek at Madame TussaudMichelle Moran departs from the ancient world and enters the gilded but troubled court of Marie Antoinette with the intriguing story of Marie Tussaud, a woman who survived the French Revolution only by creating death masks of the beheaded aristocracy.

Cleopatra's Moon


Vicky Alvear Shecter - 2011
    But when a cruel Roman Emperor takes the country and whisks the princess to Rome against her will. She finds herself torn between two young men and two possible destinies - until she reaches out to claim her own.

Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control


David Sims - 2011
    Using a wealth of recent studies on Greater Cairo and a deep reading of informal urban processes, the city and its recent history are portrayed and mapped: the huge, spontaneous neighborhoods; housing; traffic and transport; city government; and its people and their enterprises. The book argues that understanding a city such as Cairo is not a daunting task as long as pre-conceived notions are discarded and care is taken to apprehend available information and to assess it with a critical eye. In the case of Cairo, this approach leads to a conclusion that the city can be considered a kind of success story, in spite of everything.

Heart of the Sun: An Anthology in Exaltation of Sekhmet


Candace C. Kant - 2011
    

Grand Hotels of Egypt: In the Golden Age of Travel


Andrew Humphreys - 2011
    As bridgeheads for African exploration, neutral territories for conducting diplomacy, headquarters for armies, providers of home comforts for writers, painters, scholars, and archaeologists in the field, and social hubs for an international elite, more of importance happened in Egypt's hotels than in any other setting. It was through the hotels that visitors from the west--the earliest adventurers, then the travelers and, finally, the tourists--experienced the Orient. This book tells the stories of Egypt's historic hotels (including the Cecil, Shepheard's, the Mena House, Gezira Palace, Semiramis, Winter Palace, and Cataract) and some of the people who stayed in them, from Amelia Edwards, Lucie Duff Gordon and Florence Nightingale to Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, Winston Churchill, and TE Lawrence.

Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt


Emily Teeter - 2011
    Through an examination of artifacts and inscriptions, the text explores a variety of issues. For example, who was allowed to enter the temples, and what rituals were preformed therein? Who served as priests? How were they organized and trained, and what did they do? What was the Egyptians' attitude toward death, and what happened at funerals? How did the living and dead communicate? In what ways could people communicate with the gods? What impact did religion have on the economy and longevity of the society? This book demystifies Egyptian religion, exploring what it meant to the people and society. The text is richly illustrated with images of rituals and religious objects.

The Essential Naguib Mahfouz: Novels, Short Stories, Autobiography (Modern Arabic Literature)


Denys Johnson-Davies - 2011
    His Cairo Trilogy achieved the status of a world classic, and the Swedish Academy of Letters in awarding him the 1988 Nobel prize for literature noted that Mahfouz “through works rich in nuance—now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous—has formed an Arabic narrative art that applies to all mankind.”Here Denys Johnson-Davies, described by Edward Said as “the leading Arabic–English translator of our time,” makes an essential selection of short stories and extracts from novels and other writings, to present a cross-section through time of the very best of the work of Egypt’s Nobel literature laureate.

Ancient Egypt: Tales of Gods and Pharaohs


Marcia Williams - 2011
    In this retelling of nine tales of ancient Egypt, Marcia Williams uses her signature comic-strip style to capture the rich mythology and early history of this great civilization. Beginning with powerful Ra rising from the waters of the Nile to create the gods of the earth, sky, and rain, Ancient Egypt takes readers through the curse of King Tut's tomb and the rise of Cleopatra-- with Rami, Ra's beloved cat, highlighting Egypt's many cultural and technological advances along the way. An instantly engaging, accessible introduction to an ancient civilization, this collection of stories is sure to fascinate and inspire young Egyptologists.

The Naguib Mahfouz Centennial Library: Celebrating One Hundred Years of Egypt's Nobel Laureate


Naguib Mahfouz - 2011
    From Khufu's Wisdom, first published in Arabic in 1939, to his last work of extended fiction, The Coffeehouse (1988), all thirty-five of his novels are here, along with thirty-eight short stories His Echoes of an Autobiography is included, as well as his exquisite late series of intensely short fictions known as The Dreams and the collection of his weekly newspaper columns, Naguib Mahfouz at Sidi Gaber.This unique library brings together all Naguib Mahfouz's translated work for the first time in a very special publishing event. . Volume 1: Khufu's Wisdom, Rhadopis of Nubia, Thebes at War. Volume 2: Cairo Modern, Khan al-Khalili. Volume 3: Midaq Alley. Volume 4: The Mirage. Volume 5: The Beginning and the End. Volume 6: Palace Walk. Volume 7: Palace of Desire. Volume 8: Sugar Street. Volume 9: Children of the Alley. Volume 10: The Thief and the Dogs, Autumn Quail, The Search. Volume 11: The Beggar, Adrift on the Nile, Miramar. Volume 12: Mirrors, Love in the Rain, Karnak Cafe. Volume 13: Fountain and Tomb, Heart of the Night, Respected Sir. Volume 14: The Harafish. Volume 15: In the Time of Love, Wedding Song, Arabian Nights and Days. Volume 16: The Final Hour, Before the Throne. Volume 17: The Journey of Ibn Fattouma, Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth. Volume 18: The Day the Leader Was Killed, Morning and Evening Talk, The Coffeehouse. Volume 19: Echoes of an Autobiography, The Dreams, Dreams of Departure, Naguib Mahfouz at Sidi Gaber. Volume 20: The Time and the Place, The Seventh Heaven, Voices from the Other World."

Exodus: An Exegetical Commentary


Victor P. Hamilton - 2011
    Written in a clear and accessible style, this major, up-to-date, evangelical, exegetical commentary opens up the riches of the book of Exodus. Hamilton relates Exodus to the rest of Scripture and includes his own translation of the text. This commentary will be valued by professors and students of the Old Testament as well as pastors.

Messages from Tahrir: Signs from Egypt's Revolution


Karima Khalil - 2011
    These emotive messages displayed a range of visual inventiveness and linguistic dexterity (in Arabic, English, and several other languages) that expressed very powerful feelings yet often entertained at the same time. Egyptian amateur photographer Karima Khalil here gathers images taken by herself and others of these messages, showing their great variety, from the simple and repeated Irhal ("Leave"), written in a hundred different ways, to poems, rhyming slogans, puns, jokes, and tributes to the martyrs killed by security forces in the protests. These messages form a compelling visual record of a people's long suppressed hopes and desires.

Amenhotep III


Arielle P. Kozloff - 2011
    Amenhotep III ruled for 38 years, from ca. 1391-1353, during the apex of Egypt's international and artistic power. Arielle P. Kozloff situates Amenhotep in his time, chronicling not only his life but also the key political and military events that occurred during his lifetime and reign, as well as the evolution of religious rituals and the cult of the pharaoh. She further examines the art and culture of the court, including its palaces, villas, furnishings, and fashions. Through the exploration of abundant evidence from the period, in the form of both textual and material culture, Kozloff richly re-creates all aspects of Egyptian civilization at the height of the Mediterranean Bronze Age.

Tweets from Tahrir


Nadia Idle - 2011
    Thousands of young people documented on cell phones every stage of their revolution, as it happened. This book brings together a selection of key tweets in a compelling, fast-paced narrative, allowing the story of the uprising to be told directly by the people in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.Many of the activists were “citizen journalists”, using Twitter to report what was happening. Others used the social network to organize, communicating the next steps necessary for the revolution to move forward. Nearly everyone online gave instant reactions to the extraordinary events occurring before their eyes. History has never before been written in this fashion. The tweet limit of 140 characters evidently concentrated the feelings of those using Twitter. Raw emotion bursts from their messages, whether frantic alarm at attacks from pro-government thugs or delirious happiness at the fall of the dictator. To read these tweets is to embark a rollercoaster ride, from the surprise and excitement of the first demonstration, to the horror of the violence that claimed hundreds of lives, to the final ecstasy of victory.Many of those tweeting also took photographs with their phones and these illustrate the book, providing remarkable snapshots from the heart of the action.Edited by young activists Alex Nunns and Nadia Idle, an Egyptian who was in Tahrir Square when Mubarak fell, Tweets from Tahrir is a highly original take on one of the most important and dramatic events in recent world politics. The result is as gripping as any thriller – but it’s all real.

Casting off the Veil: The Life of Huda Shaarawi, Egypt's First Feminist


Sania Sharawi Lanfranchi - 2011
    She decided instead to acquire an education and to participate in the liberation of Egypt from the British occupation. Huda became famous overnight when she led a peaceful walk of veiled women across Cairo in 1919 to free the leaders of the Egyptian resistance who were detained by the British forces. She was then invited by the members of the Bureau of the IAWS (International Alliance for Women's Suffrage) to participate in the international conference in Rome in 1923. Huda became the lifelong friend of Western and other feminist leaders at that conference. It was after this conference in Cairo when she and her two traveling companions removed their face veil upon leaving the train at the railway station and were spontaneously imitated by all the other women in what became a landmark gesture in Egyptian history. In 1923, Huda founded the Egyptian Feminist Union affiliated to the IAWS, and began publishing a French magazine, L'Egyptienne, to circulate information about Egypt's plight and achievements under the occupation, and to promote peace between Eastern and Western countries. She soon became - and remained for many years - one of the Vice-Presidents of the International Organization of Women. Huda Shaarawi alternated political advocacy with social and cultural projects. She spoke on behalf of the Arab and African peoples in International Fora, founding two magazines in Arabic to circulate information in her area of the world. Huda founded schools, supported artists, medical dispensaries, and cottage industries, and participated in funding the establishment of the first entirely Egyptian Bank and its many affiliated projects. A promoter of progress, Huda stubbornly and tirelessly advocated peace, justice, and equality in an increasingly violent world.

Heart of the Gods


Valerie Douglas - 2011
    The tale of the star-crossed lovers and their battle to save ancient Egypt from the Djinn helped him choose his career. He believes he’s finally found the Tomb - only to discover its Guardian is all too real. And as lovely as she is lethal. Ky, however, isn't the only one searching. It's a race to reach the Tomb before others unleash what lies within in their effort to claim the legendary Horn of the Djinn and the fabled Heart of the Gods.

Rise : the story of the Egyptian revolution as written shortly before it began


Tarek Shahin - 2011
    'Al Khan' Comic Strips Published in Egypt in the Lead-Up to the Uprising

The Secret of the Sphinx: A Teen Adventure Novel


J.K. Drew - 2011
    A baffling riddle. A secret room beneath the Great Sphinx. As archaeologist Tom McCroy and his nephew, Lorton, prepare to map a recently-discovered passageway that leads beneath the famous stone statue, little do they realize the danger that awaits. Hidden within the ancient catacombs is something incredible...and something terrible. Now with time running out, will the legendary Sphinx give up its greatest secret...and will Lorton and Tom survive long enough to find it?

Osiris' Missing Part


Mona Risk - 2011
    According to the legend, the evil Egyptian god of storm, Seth, killed his brother Osiris, chopped him into fourteen pieces and flung them all over Egypt. Isis, goddess of family, reassembled thirteen of his body parts. Since she couldn't find his supernatural male member, where his godly power was stored, she reattached a human one. Isis has always loved Osiris, the charming god of labor. While dreaming of marriage, family and a son, she helps him fight Seth. Together they struggle to survive iniquities and perils. His trip to the Afterlife has changed Osiris. He regrets his past womanizing. Guided by oracles she utters when they make love, they search lands and seas for his missing organ so he can recover his godly attributes. Osiris has fallen in love with Isis but the sins of his past and their unexpected consequences threaten to separate them more painfully than Seth's mayhem and curses.

The Road to Tahrir: Front Line Images by Six Young Egyptian Photographers


Omar Attia - 2011
    Between them they photographed many of the unprecedented and startling events around the city and in the square, from the early battles of the protesters against heavily armed security forces, through the attacks by paid thugs on camel and horseback, and the peaceful occupation of Tahrir Square, to the victory celebrations and the inspiring clean-up afterward. Together in this stunning visual record they present the days of the Revolution in sequence, from tear gas to tears of joy, picturing a story of determination and courage that inspired the world.

Mistress of the Temple


Yvonne Harlech - 2011
    ‘Yvonne Harlech’s passion for this era leaps off the page at you and you find yourself absolutely absorbed. Feeling the desert sun burning your skin and just wishing you could be there at those feasts! It’s rare to come across a biographical novel that is so engrossing. It was such a good read that the images have remained. Thoroughly enjoyable, rich and satisfying; Mistress of the Temple has entered my top ten of favourite books and is unlikely to be removed.’ Rachel Malone, Historical Novel Society ‘Yvonne Harlech is a mistress of her craft and has a real gift for moving seamlessly through time and state of consciousness. To read is to become happily lost in a dream that may not be a dream. But Oh! What a pleasure of a book!’ Catherine Dees, co-author Omm Sety’s Egypt. An enchanting account of temple life in the 19th Dynasty, where a love affair transcends the millennia. An imaginative fusion of fact and fiction…interweaving the past and present into an enriching novel about love, memory, and the enduring power of ancient Egypt. The dramatic tale continues in the follow-up, Harp of Joy

Servant of the Gods


Valerie Douglas - 2011
    Captured by the Egyptian army and made the spoils of war, she finds herself forced to fight in the ring for entertainment. In a desperate attempt to regain her freedom she throws herself on the mercy of the Gods, only to discover that her fate is written in prophecy...

Invoking the Egyptian Gods


Judith Page - 2011
    This book presents authentic rituals to invoke the gods. Step into their hidden realm, where true gnosis and healing are found.A deeply spiritual experience unfolds as you begin to invoke the deities of ancient Egypt. Discover your true magickal name, create a doorway into other dimensions, receive messages from the Neteru, and become one with the gods once again.Call upon Isis for boundless love Invoke the warrior goddess Sekhmet for protection Summon Nut to unleash your creativity Reconnect with Hathor, Osiris, and many other gods and goddesses Combining elegant rites with an evocative description of each deity's myths, this book invites you to begin a soul-level transformation and awaken to your own strength, power, and divinity.

The Lingering Conflict: Israel, the Arabs, and the Middle East, 1948–2011


Itamar Rabinovich - 2011
    His presentation includes a detailed insider account of the peace processes of 1992–96 and a frank dissection of the more dispiriting record since then.Rabinovich's firsthand experiences as a negotiator and as Israel's ambassador to the United States provide a valuable perspective from which to view the major players involved. Fresh analysis of ongoing situations in the region and the author's authoritative take on key figures such as Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu shed new light on the long and tumultuous history of Arab-Israeli relations. His book is a shrewd assessment of the past and current state of affairs in the Middle East, as well as a sober look at the prospects for a peaceful future.While Rabinovich explains the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians—a classic dispute between two national movements claiming the same land— The Lingering Conflict also considers the broader political, cultural, and increasingly religious conflict between the Jewish state and Arab nationalism. He approaches the troubled region in an international context, offering provocative analysis of America's evolving role and evaluation of its diplomatic performance.This book builds on the author's previous seminal work on geopolitics in the Middle East, particularly Waging Peace. As Rabinovich brings the Arab-Israeli conflict up to date, he widens the scope of his earlier insights into efforts to achieve normal, peaceful relations. And, of course, he takes full account of recent social and political tumult in the Middle East, discussing the Arab Spring uprisings—and the subsequent retaliation by dictators such as Syria's al-Asad and Libya's Qaddafi—in the context of Arab-Israeli relations.

Policing Egyptian Women: Sex, Law, and Medicine in Khedival Egypt


Liat Kozma - 2011
    Some of these women were runaway slaves, others were deflowered outside of marriage, and still others were prostitutes. Kozma traces the effects of nineteenth-century developments such as the expansion of cities, the abolition of the slave trade, the formation of a new legal system, and the development of a new forensic medical expertise on these women who lived at the margins of society.Kozma makes use of extensive archival material to chronicle the everyday interactions of nonelite women at the police station and in the courts. From honor killings to child marriages to female slavery, Kozma presents an in-depth depiction of women’s experiences in Khedival Egypt. In an era when women and blacks were thought uneducable, Kozma shows that Egypt was training black women in what was then modern medicine. Known as hakimas, these female doctors played an important role in transforming how women were treated in the court system. Illustrating the ways in which the practices of the modern state gave rise to modern subjectivities, Kozma demonstrates how subaltern women experienced and helped shape nineteenth-century modernity.

The Mero� Head of Augustus


Thorsten Opper - 2011
    Once forming part of a statue of Rome's revered first true emperor, the head was violently separated from the body and carried away in triumph by ancient Meroitic tribesman shortly after its creation. For nearly two millennia it remained buried in front of a temple in their capital city of Meroe (modern Sudan), so that worshippers ritually had to trample the face of the supreme leader of Rome. The head was recovered in 1910 and remarkably well preserved, is one of the British Museums most treasured objects.This book reveals the significance of the head in the light of Augustus' rise to power and the role of portraits in the Roman world. Accompanied by a series of new photographs that highlight the wonderful, dramatic qualities of the head, this is an absorbing introduction to a Roman object, that like many others, was made as a continuous reminder of the all- embracing power of Rome and its emperor.

Wonders of the Horus Temple: The Sound and Light of Edfu


Zahi A. Hawass - 2011
    This new, full-color presentation serves as the ideal record--or fortaste--of the Edfu Sound & Light Experience, with historical introduction to the area and the temple by internationally renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, and the complete script of the show, accompanied by over 60 beautiful photographs of the light show and of the Horus Temple and surrounding sites.

To Breathe the Breath of Isis


Elizabeth Marx - 2011
    One man. An eternity of love hammered into twenty-one pieces of silver.Marguerite is a victim of a vicious attack. The resulting brain damage causes amnesia and when she inexplicably appears in a tomb in Thebes, she insists she was coming to meet Robert Bruton. Disorientated, destitute, and alone, she senses that her necklace has led her to this familiar swashbuckler who takes her breath away; however, he claims he does not know her. Lord Robert Bruton, eminent Egyptologist, and possible spy for the crown, has never discovered anything as captivating as the young woman he recovers unconscious on his dig. He has staked his career on finding the final resting place of Queen Tiye and wonders why Marguerite possesses a piece of jewelry belonging to the Eighteenth Dynasty queen. She could be a tomb robber, an American spy, or a madwoman spouting fantastical stories. As the necklace’s curse is revealed, the fire of Marguerite’s and Bruton’s ancient bond burns between them. But when Marguerite disappears, Bruton fears that the wings of Isis have carried away the true treasure he has been seeking his entire life.For to breathe the breath of Isis is to be reborn.

Disarming Words: Empire and the Seductions of Translation in Egypt


Shaden M. Tageldin - 2011
    Tageldin unravels the complex relationship between translation and seduction in the colonial context. She examines the afterlives of two occupations of Egypt—by the French in 1798 and by the British in 1882—in a rich comparative analysis of acts, fictions, and theories that translated the European into the Egyptian, the Arab, or the Muslim. Tageldin finds that the encounter with European Orientalism often invited colonized Egyptians to imagine themselves "equal" to or even "masters" of their colonizers, and thus, paradoxically, to translate themselves toward—virtually into—the European. Moving beyond the domination/resistance binary that continues to govern understandings of colonial history, Tageldin redefines cultural imperialism as a politics of translational seduction, a politics that lures the colonized to seek power through empire rather than against it, thereby repressing its inherent inequalities. She considers, among others, the interplays of Napoleon and Hasan al-'Attar; Rifa'a al-Tahtawi, Silvestre de Sacy, and Joseph Agoub; Cromer, 'Ali Mubarak, Muhammad al-Siba'i, and Thomas Carlyle; Ibrahim 'Abd al-Qadir al-Mazini, Muhammad Husayn Haykal, and Ahmad Hasan al-Zayyat; and Salama Musa, G. Elliot Smith, Naguib Mahfouz, and Lawrence Durrell. In conversation with new work on translation, comparative literature, imperialism, and nationalism, Tageldin engages postcolonial and poststructuralist theorists from Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, and Gayatri Spivak to Jean Baudrillard, Walter Benjamin, Emile Benveniste, and Jacques Derrida.

Zahi Hawass's Travel Guide to Secret Egypt: Behind the Scenes with the World's Most Famous Egyptologist


Zahi A. Hawass - 2011
    

Urban Space in Contemporary Egyptian Literature: Portraits of Cairo


Mara Naaman - 2011
    Using the work of several Egyptian novelists, this study explores the significance of this space to ideas of modernity, class consciousness, and the anti-colonial struggle. Drawing on urban studies scholarship, Arabic literary criticism, and cultural theory, this wide-ranging work argues that a re-examination of the historic city center in the face of globalization and the ongoing fragmentation of urban space is essential to understanding what it means to be Egyptian today.

Egyptian Mythology & Egyptian Christianity


Samual Sharp - 2011
    Although scholarly and thorough, the information in this text should be cross-checked with later works. With Their Influence on the Opinions of Modern Christendom. "When Christians shall at length acknowledge that many of those doctrines, which together now make up orthodoxy, or the religion of the majority, as distinguished from the simple religion which Jesus taught and practised; when they shall acknowledge that many of them are so many sad and lamentable errors; then, and not till then, will they seek to know their origin, and enquire from which of the several branches of Paganism they sprung. They will then see that most of the so-called Christian doctrines, that have no place in the New Testament, reached Europe from Egypt, through Alexandria." Contents: Religion of Upper Egypt; Religion of Lower Egypt; Religion Under the Persian Conquerors; Religion Under the Ptolemies; Religion Under the Romans; Christianity Under the Roman Emperors; Christianity Under the Byzantine Emperors.

Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization


Emily Teeter - 2011
    Essays on the rise of the state, contact with the Levant and Nubia, crafts, writing, iconography, and evidence from Abydos, Tell el-Farkha, Hierakonpolis, and the Delta, were contributed by leading scholars in the field. The catalog features 129 Predynastic and Early Dynastic objects, most from the Oriental Institute's collection, that illustrate the environmental setting, Predynastic and Early Dynastic culture, religion, and the royal burials at Abydos. This volume will be a standard reference and a staple for classroom use.