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At the time of the Egyptian Revolution in 1952, the population of Egypt was around 22 million. At the end of 2002, it stood at 69 million, and was growing at a rate of 1.33 million a year. What happens to a society that grows so quickly, when the habitable and cultivable land of the country is strictly limited? After the success of Whatever Happened to the Egyptians?, Galal Amin now takes a further bemused look at the changes that have taken place in Egyptian society over the past half century, this time considering the disruptions brought about by the surge in population. Basing his arguments on both academic research and his own personal experiences and impressions, and employing the same light humor and keen sense of empathy as in his earlier work, the author discusses how runaway population growth has not only profound effects on many aspects of society-from love and fashion to telephones, the supermarket, and religion-but also predictable effects on the economy.

In a small town in the Nile Delta lives Houda the deaf and mute butcher's apprentice. Revealing the town's private stories through public sign language, Houda articulates the unspoken and the forbidden, to unsettle the apparent quietude of rural society. But his desire threatens to scandalize the town and rock its codes of public behavior.

For most of the modern world, ancient Nubia seems an unknown and enigmatic land. Only a handful of archaeologists have studied its history or unearthed the Nubian cities, temples, and cemeteries that once dotted the landscape of southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Nubia's remote setting in the midst of an inhospitable desert, with access by river blocked by impassable rapids, has lent it not only an air of mystery, but also isolated it from exploration.This book attempts to document some of what has recently been discovered about ancient Nubia, with its remarkable history, architecture, and culture, and thereby to give us a picture of this rich, but unfamiliar, African legacy.

In the Nile Valley and desert oases south of Cairo-Upper Egypt-surviving domestic buildings from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries demonstrate a unique and varied strand of traditional decoration. Intricate patterns in wood, iron, or plaster adorn doorways, balconies, windows, and rooflines in towns and villages throughout the region.One of the most distinctive cultural features of these traditional homes is the decorated wooden balcony-screen-with jigsaw-cut patterns often based on creative repetitions, inversions, and mirrorings of the Arabic letter waw-which was designed to veil the residents from public view while allowing them to take the air and watch the outside world go by.Here, Ahmed Abdel-Gawad presents a wide range of these exuberant and largely unknown designs, in both photographs and detailed architectural drawings, for the use and appreciation of designers, decorators, artists, and lovers of vernacular architecture.

One of the many striking things about Egypt's 25 January Revolution as manifested in Cairo's Tahrir Square was the imagination and creativity of the posters, placards, and signs that the protesters wore, waved, or hung from buildings, fences, and lampposts day by day throughout the demonstrations. 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.

Besides its archaeological treasures, Egypt is also home to an exotic and mysterious wealth of wildlife, hiding at times in its temples and tombs, its deserts and oases. The Nile nourishes an array of habitats, flora, and fauna often overlooked by the archaeologically curious tourist. This full-color foldout guide introduces an exciting array of animals and plants, from river wetland residents to desert survivors. Water-resistant and compact, it is the perfect travel companion, filled with beautiful illustrations, comprehensive text, diagrams, and maps.Includes:- Map of Egypt and opportune locations to see wildlife- Palms & other common native and non-native plants- Mammal species: carnivores, insectivores, rodents- Common reptiles & amphibians- Insects & invertebrates- Freshwater fish of the NileAbout the series: The AUC Press Nature Foldout series combine, in beautifully practical form, a wealth of information written by leading experts with striking full-color illustrations on the flora and fauna of Egypt and the Middle East. Designed for nature lovers and outdoor adventurers, as well as for indoor use, the foldouts come in an easily foldable format, at once compact, waterproof, and portable, making them durable and convenient travel guides. Size is 23 x 8.5 in. / 58.5 x 21.5 cm unfolded.

You are bored, bored, bored, stuck in a half-job, berated by your parents and unsure whether you should marry your cousin. You want to change. A chance encounter on Facebook leads you to Emmie and her underground world of strange fashion, drinking, dancing, sex, and drugs. You become an Emo and discover philosophical atheism and practical Satanism.

Born in 1907, Margo Veillon was one of Egypt's best-loved artists. Presented here is a sampling of her work spanning seventy-five years of her productive career, in a variety of graphic media-pen and ink, watercolor, pencil, and crayon, as represented in a legacy bequeathed to the American University in Cairo. Although she lived part of her life in Europe, it is clearly Egypt that held her imagination and inspired her artistic innovation. Possessed with an ability to capture the energy of a specific moment in time, Margo Veillon drew people and animals, landscapes and street scenes with her characteristic sly humor and gift for depicting a lively vignette or serene visual moment in just a few strokes. These threads and others no less individual and innovative make up the extraordinarily rich tapestry of Margo Veillon's artistic career, brought together in the AUC Permanent Collection.

The tale of one man's quest and survival in the Sahara Desert, set in the framework of Tuareg mythology

During the New Kingdom (c. 1570-1070 BCE), the Valley of the Kings was the burial place of Egypt's pharaohs, including such powerful and famous rulers as Amenhotep III, Rameses II, and Tutankhamen. They were buried here in large and beautifully decorated tombs that have become among the country's most visited archaeological sites. The tourists contribute millions of badly needed dollars to Egypt's economy. But because of inadequate planning, these same visitors are destroying the very tombs they come to see. Crowding, pollution, changes in the tombs' air quality, ever-growing tourist infrastructure-all pose serious threats to the Valley's survival. This volume, the result of twenty-five years of work by the Theban Mapping Project at the American University in Cairo, traces the history of the Valley of the Kings and offers specific proposals to manage the site and protect its fragile contents. At the same time, it recognizes the need to provide a positive experience for the thousands of visitors who flock here daily. This is the first major management plan developed for any Egyptian archaeological site, and as its proposals are implemented, they offer a replicable model for archaeologists, conservators, and site managers throughout Egypt and the region. Published in both English and Arabic editions and supported by the World Monuments Fund, this critical study will help to ensure the survival of Egypt's patrimony in a manner compatible with the country's heavy reliance on tourism income.

No chapter in Egypt's contemporary history has been more turbulent and unpredictable than the past three years. In a very short period of time, the Arab world's most populous country has seen a transition from rule by an iron-fisted dictatorship to a populist uprising to military omnipotence to Islamist electoral victory to constitutional turmoil to societal polarization. Egypt's iconic revolution has been neither victorious nor defeated. Egypt in Flux is a collection of essays on the political, social, economic, and cultural dimensions of change in the country's ongoing revolutionary current.

In the light of the escalation of sectarian tensions during and after Mubarak's reign, the predicament of the Arab world's largest religious minority, the Copts, has come to the forefront. This book poses such questions as why there has been a mass exodus of Copts from Egypt, and how this relates to other religious minorities in the Arab region; why it is that sectarian violence increased during and after the 2011 Revolution, which epitomized the highest degree of national unity since 1919; and how the new configuration of power has influenced the extent to which a vision of a political order is being based on the principles of inclusive democracy. The book examines the relations among the state, the Church, Coptic citizenry, and civil and political societies against the backdrop of the increasing diversification of actors, the change of political leadership in the country, and the transformations occurring in the region. An informative historical background is provided, and new fieldwork and statistical data inform a thoughtful exploration of what it takes to build an inclusive democracy in post-Mubarak Egypt.

In his latest exploration of the Egyptian malaise, Galal Amin first looks at the events of the months preceding the Revolution of 25 January 2011, pointing out the most important factors behind popular discontent. He then follows the ups and downs (mainly the downs) of the Revolution: the causes of rising hopes and expectations, mingled with successive disappointments, sometimes verging on despair, not least in the case of the presidential elections, when the Egyptian people were invited to choose between a rock and a hard place. This is followed by an outline of a possible brighter future for Egypt, based on a more balanced and faster growing economy, and a more democratic and equitable society, within a truly independent, modern, and secular state. The story of what happened to the 2011 Revolution may be a sad one, but if viewed within the larger context of Egypt's economic and social developments of the last century, on which the author's previous books threw very useful light, it can be regarded as one important step forward toward a much better future.

Djekhy & Son, two businessmen living 2,500 years ago in the densely populated neighborhoods built around the great temple of Amun at Karnak, worked as funerary service providers in the necropolis on the western bank of the Nile. They were also successful agricultural entrepreneurs, cultivating flax and grain. In 1885, the German Egyptologist August Eisenlohr acquired a unique collection of papyri that turned out to be Djekhy's archive of mainly legal documents. Using this rich trove of evidence, augmented by many other sources, the author has painted a vivid picture of life in ancient Egypt between 570 and 534 bce, during the little-known Saite period. Approaching the subject from both business and personal aspects, he gives us a fresh look at some facets of ancient Egypt that have mostly been hidden from view-such as putting up one's children as security for a loan.

Revised and substantially expanded for a new edition, this learning aid now contains more than 3,500 Arabic verbs from 1,450 verb roots. Entries feature English definitions, the perfect and imperfect tenses and verbal noun of each verb, and sentences to illustrate the correct usage and clarify the meaning.

Together with such figures as the scholar Taha Hussein, the playwright Tawfik al-Hakim, the short story writer Mahmoud Teymour and-of course-Naguib Mahfouz, Yahya Hakki belongs to that distinguished band of early writers who, midway through the last century, under the influence of Western literature, began to practice genres of creative writing that were new to the traditions of classical Arabic. In the first story in this volume, the very short ''Story in the Form of a Petition,'' Yahya Hakki demonstrates his ease with gentle humor, a form rare in Arabic writing. In the following two stories, ''Mother of the Destitute'' and ''A Story from Prison,'' he describes with typical sympathy individuals who, less privileged than others, somehow manage to scrape through life's hardships. The latter story deals with the people of Upper Egypt, for whom the writer had a special understanding and affection. It is, however, for the title story (in fact, more of a novella) of this collection that the writer is best known. Recounting the difficulties faced by a young man who is sent to England to study medicine and who then returns to Egypt to pit his new ideals against tradition, ''The Lamp of Umm Hashim'' was the first of several works in Arabic to deal with the way in which an individual tries to come to terms with two divergent cultures.

In an innovative concept in the teaching of Modern Standard Arabic, this new content-based book aims to bolster study for advanced students in both linguistic skills and literary appreciation through the reading of short stories in the original Arabic by four great but very different writers: Mahmoud Taher Lashin, Naguib Mahfouz, Yusuf Idris, and Tayeb Salih. Creative reading tasks and exercises focus on the writing and literary styles of the four writers, while grammar is reinforced through text analysis and writing assignments, with an emphasis on building vocabulary and idiomatic expressions, as well as developing a deeper understanding of cultural issues. With an integrated skills approach, al-Rubaa contains not only reading but also writing, listening, and speaking activities.The stories included in the book are:¿ by Mahmoud Taher Lashin: "From the Diaries of Noah," "That's Right"¿ by Naguib Mahfouz: Stories 26 and 29 from Tales of Our Alley, Dream 6 from Dreams of Convalescence¿ by Yusuf Idris: "House of Flesh," "In Passing"¿ by Tayeb Salih: "A Song of Love," "A Step Forward," "Yours until Death"

How do Egyptian Muslims celebrate Ramadan? How do Copts-Egyptian Christians-celebrate Easter? What should you expect to find on the table when invited to eat in an Egyptian home? What do you say when an Egyptian colleague sneezes? Exactly what do Egyptians do with a mortar and pestle, a sieve, and a bag of nuts seven days after the birth of a baby?Samia Abdennour, once an outsider from Palestine, now thoroughly at home in Egypt, is here to tell you all about these matters-and many more. In a book that aims to introduce the unfamiliar newcomer or interested foreign reader to the hows, whats, and whys of Egyptians life, the author covers such diverse topics as birth, marriage, and death; religious festivals and fasting; food in the home and on the street; business etiquette and terms of politeness. She describes how some traditions differ between the two religious communities, the Muslims and the Copts, and how some customs are shared by all Egyptians-like the spring festival of Shamm al-Nisim ('smelling the breezes') that goes back to pharaonic times. With Egyptian Customs and Festivals, you need never be at a loss in a social situation in Egypt-or fail to understand what your neighbors are up to. Illustrated throughout with color photographs of daily life and special occasions, this fascinating and informative book is a must-have for anyone new to Egyptian culture.