Books published by The American University in Cairo Press

The first comprehensive study of the work and career of Abdelhalim Ibrahim Abdelhalim, one of Egypt's foremost contemporary architects, this book is inspired by Abdelhalim's deep belief in the power of rituals as a guiding force behind various human behaviors and the spaces in which they are enacted and designed to play out. Each chapter is consequently dedicated to one of these rituals and the ways in which some of Abdelhalim's primary commissions have revealed and expressed that ritual. In the sequence presented these are: the rituals of possession, reverence, order, the transmission of knowledge, procession, human institutions, geometry, light, the sense of place, materiality, and color.

Palestine. For most of us, the word brings to mind a series of confused images and disjointed associations-massacres, refugee camps, UN resolutions, settlements, terrorist attacks, war, occupation, checkered kuffiyehs and suicide bombers, a seemingly endless cycle of death and destruction. This novel does not shy away from such painful images, but it is first and foremost a powerful human story, following the life of a young girl from her days in the village of al-Tantoura in Palestine up to the dawn of the new century. We participate in events as they unfold, seeing them through the uneducated but sharply intelligent mind of Ruqayya, as she tries to make sense of all that has happened to her and her family. With her, we live her love of her land and of her people; we feel the repeated pain of loss, of diaspora, and of cross-generational misunderstanding; and above all, we come to know her indomitable human spirit. As we read we discover that we have become part of Ruqayya's family, and her voice will remain with us long after we have closed the book.

A fascinating survey of changing perceptions of the Fayum landscape from 7500 BC to the early twentieth century

Advanced Arabic through Discussion is a classroom-tested Advanced Arabic course. It uses an inquiry-based approach to challenge advanced learners of Arabic by engaging them in thought-provoking discussions about social, ethical, and legal issues related to advertising, censorship, dress-codes, environment, rap music, extreme sports, GMOs, and other topics. Drawing on her long experience as an Arabic instructor, Nevenka Korica Sullivan has organized the book into sixteen chapters, each accompanied by audio recordings of all reading and listening texts. While exploring each issue, learners are guided to expand their vocabulary, acquire complex structures, and discover the systematic relationships between language form, function, and meaning. The course is designed to create a lively, student-centered classroom where interaction is both the goal and the means of language study; it also can be successfully used with a tutor or for independent study.

. Shortlisted for the "Arabic booker" prize, a mystery, anti-war novel set in the time of the Lebanese civil war and its aftermath. Aber, a young man who fled his village to live and work in a Beirut hospital is haunted by his past as a sniper during the Lebanon Civil War. He scrapes by a living plucking gold teeth from the dead bodies in the morgue in order to sell them for cash. The story takes on the dark notes of a thriller when he is kidnapped from the hospital. He has no idea who the perpetrators are and can only search through his past for clues. . By George Yaraq, a Lebanese novelist and journalist, born in 1958. He has worked as an editor and writer for several Lebanese newspapers, magazines and publishers, and his first novel, Night, was published in 2013.

Full text, no abridgments, of great interest to both historians and Egyptologists, All the author's original illustrations, beautifully reproduced

In this lucidly written, beautifully illustrated book, Nigel Fletcher-Jones places the lower Nubian temples--from Philae in the north to Abu Simbel in the South--in their historical context, telling the story of the discovery of the Abu Simbel temples, and why and how they were moved, explaining what the Nubian temples teach us about ancient Egypt, which gods and goddesses were worshiped there, and the place of Ramesses II in the long line of ancient Egyptian kings and queens. Includes over 80 new photographs, diagrams, and maps.

The story of the Greeks in Egypt from Muhammad Ali to Nasser

The city of a thousand minarets is also the city of eclectic modern constructions, turn-of-the-century revivalism and romanticism, concrete expressionism, and modernist design. Yet while much has been published on Cairo's ancient, medieval, and early-modern architectural heritage, the city's modern architecture has to date not received the attention it deserves. Cairo since 1900: An Architectural Guide is the first comprehensive architectural guide to the constructions that have shaped and continue to shape the Egyptian capital since the early twentieth century.From the sleek apartment tower for Inji Zada in Ghamra designed by Antoine Selim Nahas in 1937, to the city's many examples of experimental church architecture, and visible landmarks such as the Mugamma and Arab League buildings, Cairo is home to a rich store of modernist building styles. Arranged by geographical area, the guide includes entries for more than 220 buildings and sites of note, each entry consisting of concise, explanatory text describing the building and its significance accompanied by photographs, drawings, and maps. This pocket-sized volume is an ideal companion for the city's visitors and residents as well as an invaluable resource for scholars and students of Cairo's architecture and urban history.

Kalaam Gamiil Volume 2 further develops learners' skills in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, along parallel tracks of vocabulary and grammar. It is designed to enable students to communicate effectively with native speakers in a wider range of social situations, with a higher degree of accuracy and fluency by expanding learners' vocabulary and idiomatic expressions, increasing their command of grammar (both syntax and morphology), as well as instilling a measure of cross-cultural understanding. One CD is included.

For the most part of their shared history, Copts and Muslims in Egypt have experienced bouts of sectarian tension alternating with peaceful coexistence. Copts and Muslims in Egypt tells the story of Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt from the coming of Islam to the aftermath of the January 2011 revolution. It begins by describing how the Church of Alexandria came into existence, and created a monastic tradition that would influence the whole of Christendom, before exploring the theological controversies that plagued the Eastern Roman world before the advent of Islam. After bouts of persecution by the Roman emperors, the Copts were strongly opposed by the Melkite Church, but, with the Arab invasion of Egypt in the seventh century, they achieved a measure of independence and individuality that they retained over the centuries. The Copts were also subjected to periods of persecution-by rulers from the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid dynasties, and under the Mamluks-but by and large, a relatively satisfactory form of cohabitation was established. The authors argue that, even if they were occasionally attacked and persecuted, the Copts generally shared the fortunes of their Muslim neighbors, and that religious difference in Egypt was frequently exploited by rulers, both internal and external, for political gain. Copts and Muslims in Egypt provides an engaging and highly readable account of communal relations through key points in Egyptian history.

A prolific film industry has flourished on the banks of the Nile since the earliest days of cinema, producing movies that have been hugely popular and immensely influential not only in Egypt but across the Arab world. Concentrating on productions written and produced entirely in Egypt, Sameh Fathy-a film critic with an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of Egyptian cinema-here selects the 101 most important movies to come out of Cairo's famous studios over the last eighty years. From classic comedies like Salam Is Fine to social dramas like The Second Wife, and from literary adaptations like Call of the Curlew to masterpieces of the cinematic art like The Night of Counting the Years, the author introduces us to each film's writers, producers, directors, and stars, and explains the movie's particular historical, cultural, or artistic significance. Illustrated throughout with posters and stills from all the movies covered.

EXCLUSIVE: Tutankhamun Tells His Side of the Story at Last

Outsiders have long observed the contours of the flourishing scholarly traditions of African Muslim societies, but the voices of the most renowned voices of West African Sufism have rarely been heard outside of their respective constituencies. This volume brings together writings by Uthman b. Fudi (d. 1817, Nigeria), Umar Tal (d. 1864, Mali), Ahmad Bamba (d. 1927, Senegal), and Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975, Senegal), who, between them, founded the largest Muslim communities in African history. Jihad of the Pen, Journey of the Soul offers translations of Arabic source material that proved formative to the constitution of a veritable Islamic revival sweeping West Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A richly intriguing map of Cairo's enthralling history through its street names

Cairo's Islamic monuments are part of an uninterrupted tradition that spans over a thousand years of building activity. No other Islamic city can equal Cairo's spectacular heritage, nor trace its historical and architectural development with such clarity. The discovery of this historic core, first visually by nineteenth-century western artists then intellectually by twentieth-century Islamic art specialists, now awaits the delight of the general visitor. This new, fully revised edition of a popular and handy guide continues to walk the visitor around two hundred of the city's most interesting Islamic monuments. It also keeps pace with recent restoration initiatives and newly opened monuments such as the Amir Taz Palace and the Sitt Wasila House. "e;This book ought to be in the luggage of every visitor to Cairo. Furthermore, once home, lovers and students of Cairo's architecture will find it a convenient and accurate quick reference as well as a cherished souvenir of many profitable and enjoyable rambles among the monuments of Cairo."e;-Jonathan M. Bloom, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt"e;Any visitor to Cairo who wants to see the monuments should not be without it."e;-Bernard O'Kane"e;Anyone interested in knowing more about Cairo's Islamic architecture should pick up the excellent Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide."e;-Lonely Planet: Cairo, 1998

The illuminating and entertaining account of one woman's attempts to really get to grips with the Arabic language

Wahhabism is often understood as a radical version of Islam responsible for inspiring and motivating Islamic terrorism. Western Imaginings: The Intellectual Contest to Define Wahhabism is an inquiry into how Wahhabism has been understood and represented by Western intellectuals, particularly those belonging to the neo-conservative and liberal traditions. In contrast to the existing literature that treats Wahhabism as a historical phenomenon or a monolithic theological ideology, a literature often written by authors keen to promote geopolitical interests or with ideological axes to grind, Davis's work considers Wahhabism as a discursive construct crafted and popularized by a Western intellectual elite. This comprehensive study speaks to how and why Western intellectuals have chosen to represent Wahhabism in specific ways, ranging from an analysis of the particular rhetorical techniques employed by these intellectuals to a consideration of the religious and political beliefs that inspire and motivate their decisions. Western Imaginings is aimed at students of political philosophy, intellectual traditions, and sociology; media and policy professionals; and anyone interested in how Islamic doctrines like Wahhabism have been represented in an international context framed by a heightened anxiety about radical Islam.

Palestinian-Armenian Ivana eloped with a British doctor in the 1940s, in the midst of the Nakba, and emigrated to England. Over half a century later, her daughter Julie has been tasked with her dying wish: to take her ashes back to their old home in Acre.

Aspiring photographer Dunya Noor discovers early on that her curious spirit, rebellious nature, and very curly hair are a recipe for disaster in 1980s Syria.

Little is known about Egypt's Gypsies, called Dom by scholars, but variously referred to by Egyptians as Ghagar, Nawar, Halebi, or Hanagra, depending on their location. Moreover, most Egyptians are oblivious to the fact that there are today large numbers of Gypsies dispersed from the outskirts of villages in Upper Egypt to impoverished neighborhoods in Cairo and Alexandria. In Gypsies in Contemporary Egypt sociologist Alexandra Parrs draws on two years of fieldwork to explore how Dom identities are constructed, negotiated, and contested in the specifically Egyptian national context. With an eye to the pitfalls and evolution of scholarly work on the vastly more studied European Roma, she traces the scattered representations of Egyptian Dom, from accounts of them by nineteenth-century European Orientalists to their portrayal in Egyptian cinema as belly-dancers in the 1950s and beggars and thieves more recently. She explores the boundaries-religious, cultural, racial, linguistic-between Dom and non-Dom Egyptians and examines the ways in which the Dom position themselves within the limitations of media discourses about them and in turn differentiate themselves from the dominant population. This interplay of attitudes, argues Parrs, sheds light on the values and markers of belonging of the majority population and the paradigms of nation-state formation at the governmental level. Based on extensive interviews with government workers and ordinary individuals in routine contact with the Dom, as well with Dom engaged in a variety of trades in Cairo and Alexandria, Gypsies in Contemporary Egypt is about the search for the fragments of identity of the Egyptian Dom.

A collection of letters in a small painted box passed down through three generations of a London family is the starting point for a vivid account of a three-month journey up and down the Nile in a bygone age. The letters, like a time capsule, bring to life a lost world of Edwardian travel and social mores, of Egypt on the brink of the modern age, of the great figures of Egyptology, of aristocrats and archaeologists. In 1907/08 Ferdinand Platt (known to his family as Ferdy) traveled to Egypt as personal physician to the ailing 8th Duke of Devonshire-one of the giant statesmen of the late Victorian age-and his family party, recounting his adventure in letters to his young wife in England. Throughout the journey Ferdy not only reported on the sights of the country around him, with his amateur Egyptologist's eye, and the people he met along the way (including Howard Carter and Winston Churchill) but also recorded his private thoughts and intimate observations of a formal and stratified society, soon to be witness to its own extinction. Introduced by Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson and Ferdy's great-nephew Julian Platt, the letters open an intriguing window onto travel in Egypt during the Belle Epoque and the golden age of Egyptology.

A lavishly illustrated photographic journey through the history and traditions of the ancient churches of Ethiopia. The ancient Aksumite Kingdom, now a part of Ethiopia, was among the first in the world to adopt Christianity as the official state religion. In AD 340 King Ezana commissioned the construction of the imposing basilica of St. Mary of Tsion. It was here, the Ethiopians say, that Menelik, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, brought the Ark of the Covenant containing the Ten Commandments. By the fifth century, nine saints from Byzantium were spreading the faith deep into the mountainous countryside, and over the next ten centuries a series of spectacular churches were either built or excavated out of solid rock, all of them in regular use to this day. Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has the best known cluster, but the northern region of Tigray, less well known and more remote, has many churches that are architectural masterpieces of the basilical type.Ethiopia: The Living Churches of an Ancient Kingdom traces the broad sweep of ecclesiastic history, legend, art, and faith in this sub-Saharan African kingdom as seen through the prism of sixty-six breathtaking churches, unveiling the secrets of their medieval murals, their colorful history, and the rich panoply of their religious festivals, all illustrated with more than eight hundred superb color photographs by some of the most celebrated international photographers of traditional cultures. This magnificent, large-format, full-color volume is the most comprehensive celebration yet published of Ethiopia's extraordinary Christian heritage. Ethiopia is the third book on iconic places of worship published by Ludwig Publishing and the American University in Cairo Press, following the bestselling success of The Churches of Egypt and The History and Religious Heritage of Old Cairo.