Bøger udgivet af American University in Cairo Press

"The Fayoum, a broad, fertile depression in Egypt's Western Desert, known for its great salt lake, its rich green fields, and its unique pharaonic and Greco-Roman remains, is also home to three very different centers of pottery production. The potters of Kom Oshim specialize in decorated garden pots and other utilitarian ware, and guard the special secret of how to make the largest clay vessels in Egypt, up to an extraordinary two and a half meters tall. At al-Nazla, ancient traditions are kept alive, as members of a single extended family continue to use millennia-old techniques passed down from generation to generation, hand-forming among other things their distinctive spherical water jars with amazing dexterity and speed. In the small village of Tunis, the establishment of a pottery school by a Swiss couple in 1990 led to a complete transformation, and the village now hosts more than twenty-five pottery workshops and showrooms, whose products are sold in Cairo, London, and New York. In this lively insight into a varied and vital craft, the author reveals the stories of the three villages and the skilled potters who make their living there, looking at how they learned their trade and how they work, from the preparation of the clay to the formation of the pots on the wheel or by hand, to the decoration, the glazing, and the firing, and finally to the display or distribution and sale of the finished product. For past and future travelers to Egypt, lovers of the craft of pottery, practitioners, and collectors, this beautifully illustrated exploration of the ceramics of the Fayoum will inspire and enchant."--

"The individually designed anthropoid sarcophagi of the Ptolemaic period (ca. 330-30 BCE) offer a particularly rich and varied repertoire of hieroglyphic inscriptions and religious scenes. Being at the end of a long tradition of funerary literature, many of the epigraphs on these objects are variations or reinterpretations of older texts that have been circulated and transmitted over millennia. Others are entirely new creations that provide insight into funerary beliefs of late ancient Egypt. The present volume is the second and last publication of a joint project between scholars from Cairo University and the University of Tèubingen on Late and Ptolemaic period sarcophagi housed in the museums of Cairo. It includes the detailed publication of eighteen sarcophagi, which until now have only been known through brief descriptions. The facsimile drawings, detailed pictures, translations and commentaries presented here will allow scholars to approach this corpus with a broad range of research questions."--

"At its beginning in 2007, the Southern Movement in South Yemen was a loose merger of different people, most of them former army personnel and state employees of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) who were forced from their jobs after the war in 1994, only four years after the unification between the PDRY and the Yemen Arab Republic. This bold ethnographic account of a persistent Arab uprising, in a rarely studied corner of the Middle East, explores why the Southern Movement has grown so tremendously during the last decade and how it developed from a primarily social movement demanding social rights into a mass protest movement claiming independence for a state that had long vanished from the world map. Anne-Linda Amira Augustin asks why so many young people born after 1990 joined the movement and demanded the re-establishment of a state that they had never themselves experienced. At the core of South Yemeni resistance lies the transmission from generation to generation of a dominant counternarrative, which may be seen as the continuation and rehabilitation of the PDRY's national narrative. This narrative, amplified through everyday communication in families and neighborhoods, but also by mediamakers, journalists, academics, civil society actors, and by the movement's activists, opposes the national-unity narrative of the Republic of Yemen and intensifies the demands for an independent state.""--

"As a frequently contested territory, Mount Lebanon has an equally contested history, one that is produced, shaped, and revised by as many players as those who molded the Lebanese state since its inception in 1920. The Lebanese Maronite Church has had more at stake in the process of history writing than any other group or institution. It is arguably one of the most influential institutions in Lebanese history and definitely the most influential institution in the country at the moment of the state's birth. Writing the History of Mount Lebanon traces the genealogy of Maronite identity by examining the historical traditions that shaped its contemporary manifestation. It explores the presence of a tradition in Maronite Church historiography that was maintained by the historians of the Church, whose claims and hypotheses ultimately defined the communal identity of the Maronites in Mount Lebanon and deeply influenced subsequent Lebanese national identity. Rooted in a reexamination of the existing literature and bringing evidence to bear on this particular aspect of history-writing in Lebanon it shows how early Maronite ecclesiastic historiography's plea for inclusion as a part of Catholic orthodoxy was transformed and recast in subsequent centuries by lay and secular historians into a demand for exclusion and exclusivity, which in turn led to the rise of exclusivist political identities based on sectarian belonging in Mount Lebanon. Ultimately, Mouannes Hojairi shows how history-writing is one of the main instruments in generating and perpetuating nationalist ideologies and how historians are central agents of nationality."--

Debut in English from an novelist who is both a bestselling author in his home country and has been shortlisted for the "Arabic Booker," the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Deftly combines historical events and figures with fiction. Hinges on the real-life, infamous heist in which a prominent businessman was murdered in his Cairo villa in the 1920s. The book is in development for a Netflix series

""In recent years, archeological research has undergone major changes. The material turn in archaeology and related disciplines prompted the adoption of sophisticated scientific, digital, and technical approaches and methods often conducted on a micro level, enhancing our understanding of depositional processes and of the creation and life of an archeological object. This volume reflects seven seasons of transdisciplinary archaeological research at a cluster of rock-cut tombs in Sheikh Abd al-Qurna, an ancient Egyptian hillside cemetery and part of the much larger Theban Necropolis. Organized in twelve main chapters, Life Histories of Theban Tombs presents current investigations in landscape archaeology (including recent excavations at a large debris hill previously covering a tomb), geo- and bioarcheology, the archaeology of tomb construction, burial practices, and domestic uses as well as various epigraphical, visual, and material studies[should there be a serial. The last two sections provide additional insight into the applied recording, surveying, and visualization methods and techniques and the database system used for data recording and organization. ""--

A magical story of a Crusade-era bookseller who embarks on a journey through the Islamic world's great medieval cities, winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature In the epic fashion of the great Arab explorers and travel writers of the Middle Ages, scribe and bookworm Mazid al-Hanafi narrates this journey from his remote village in the Arabian Desert. Dreaming of grand libraries, his passion for the written word draws him into a secret society of book smugglers and into the famed cultural capitals of the period-Baghdad, Jerusalem, Cairo, Granada, and Cordoba. He discovers a dangerous new world of ideas and experiences the cultural diversity of the Islamic Golden Age, its sects, philosophical schools, wars, and ways of life. Omaima Al-Khamis's magical storytelling and her vivid descriptions of time and place trace a route through ancient cities and cultures and immerse us in a distant era, uncovering the intellectual debates and struggles which continue to rage today.

A fascinating examination of the role of lighting in ancient Egyptian culture Artificial lighting is one of the earliest tools used by humans. By the time we began to paint cave walls, we were producing lamps consisting of an illuminant, a fat or oil, and a wick, such as a strip of fabric or a piece of reed or wood. Drawing on archaeological, textual, and iconographic sources, Meghan Strong examines the symbolic part that artificial lighting played in religious, economic, and social spheres in ancient Egyptian culture. From the earliest identifiable examples of lighting devices to the infiltration of Hellenistic lamps in the seventh century BC, Sacred Flames explores the sensory experience of illumination in ancient Egypt, the shadows, sheen, color, and movement that resulted when lighting interacted with different spaces and surfaces. The soft, flickering light from lamps or hand-held lighting devices not only facilitated the navigation of darkened environments, such as allowing workers to see in underground chambers in the Valley of the Kings, or served as temple offerings, but also impacted upon the viewer''s perception of a space and the objects within it. Sacred Flames illustrates the active role that lighting played in Egyptian society, providing a richer understanding of the symbolic and social value of artificial light and the role of lighting in ritual space and performance in ancient Egyptian culture, while serving as a case study of the broader impact of artificial light in the ancient world.

"K is an introverted man in his mid-twenties, working for a big, faceless petrochemical company. After reading Kafka, K decides to write his own diary, but he is constantly frustrated by his lack of experiences, his concerns about his privacy, and the demands of his dull job and family. When he receives the news that he has leukemia, he finds himself torn between a sense of devastation and a revelation that he has finally found a way out of his writing predicament, as he begins to rebel against the social and economic constrains that threaten to overwhelm him. Through Aziz Mohammed's measured but forceful writing, this is an absorbing, sensitive, and at times darkly humorous telling of K's experience of illness, his contemplation of death, and his determination to maintain his independence of decision through it all"--

A rigorous study of the problem of evil in Islamic theology Like their Jewish and Christian co-religionists, Muslims have grappled with how God, who is perfectly good, compassionate, merciful, powerful, and wise permits intense and profuse evil and suffering in the world. At its core, Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil explores four different problems of evil: human disability, animal suffering, evolutionary natural selection, and Hell. Each study argues in favor of a particular kind of explanation or justification (theodicy) for the respective evil. Safaruk Chowdhury unpacks the notion of evil and its conceptualization within the mainstream Sunni theological tradition, and the various ways in which theologians and philosophers within that tradition have advanced different types of theodicies. He not only builds on previous works on the topic, but also looks at kinds of theodicies previously unexplored within Islamic theology, such as an evolutionary theodicy. Distinguished by its application of an analytic-theology approach to the subject and drawing on insights from works of both medieval Muslim theologians and philosophers and contemporary philosophers of religion, this novel and highly systematic study will appeal to students and scholars, not only of theology but of philosophy as well.

A rich interdisciplinary study of the relationships between space, both physical and virtual, and social and political participationWhere do people meet, form relations of trust, and begin debating social and political issues? Where do social movements start? In this fascinating collection, scholars and activists from a wealth of disciplinary backgrounds, including sociology, anthropology, history, and political science, take a fresh look at these questions and the factors leading to political and social change in the Arab world from a spatial perspective. Based on original field work in Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, and Palestine, Spaces of Participation connects and reconnects social, cultural, and political participation with urban space. It explores timely themes such as formal and informal spaces of participation, alternative spaces of cultural production, space reclamation, and cultural activism, and the reconfiguring of space through different types of contestation. It also covers a range of spaces that include sports clubs, arts centers, and sites of protest and resistance, as well as virtual spaces such as social media platforms, in the process of examining the relationships and tensions between physical and virtual space.Spaces of Participation underlines the temporal and transformative quality of participatory spaces and how they are shaped by their respective political contexts, highlighting different forms of access, control, and contestation.Contributors:Randa Aboubakr, Cairo University, EgyptHicham Ait-Mansour, Mohamed V University, Rabat, MoroccoFadma A├»t Mous, University of Hassan II of Casablanca, MoroccoMouloud Amghar, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, MoroccoYazid Anani, Birzeit University, Ramallah, PalestineMai Ayyad, Cairo University, EgyptYouness Benmouro, Mohamed V University of Rabat, MoroccoYasmine Berriane, Centre Maurice Halbwachs, Paris, FranceMokhtar El Harras, Mohamed V University, Rabat, MoroccoUlrike Freitag, Freie Universit├ñt (Free University), Berlin, GermanySarah Jurkiewicz, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, GermanyMona Khalil, Cairo University, Cairo, EgyptAzzurra Sarnataro, University of Rome "La Sapienza," Rome, ItalyRenad Shqeirat, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah, PalestineDorota Woroniecka-Krzy┼╝anowska, German Historical Institute, Warsaw, Poland

"The Gaza Strip is one of the most beleaguered envrionments on earth. Crammed into a space of 139 square miles (360 square kilometers), 1.8 million people live under an Israeli siege, enforcing conditions that continue to plummet to ever more unimaginable depths of degradation and despair. Gaza, however, is more than an endless encyclopedia of depressing statistics. It is also a place of fortitude, resistance, and imagination; a context in which inhabitants go to remarkable lengths to create the ordinary conditions of the everyday and to reject their exceptional status. Inspired by Gaza's inhabitants, this book builds on the positive capabilities of Gazans. It brings together environmentalists, planners, activists, and scholars from Palestine and Israel, the US, the UK, India, and elsewhere to create hopeful interventions that imagine a better place for Gazans and Palestinians. Open Gaza engages the Gaza Strip within and beyond the logics of siege and warfare, it considers how life can be improved inside the limitations imposed by the Israeli blockade, and outside the idiocy of violence and warfare"--

A documentation, using latest technologies, of the Late and Ptolemaic Period anthropoid sarcophagi housed in Cairo's Grand Egyptian MuseumThe individually designed anthropoid sarcophagi of the Late and Ptolemaic Period housed in Cairo's Grand Egyptian Museum are often the only surviving parts of a burial. Especially since the Ptolemaic period, an increasingly rich and varied repertoire of texts and scenes can be found on the sarcophagi's surfaces, some of which show parallels to temple decoration. They thus represent an important source of funerary texts and images as well as clues to the religious ideas of late ancient Egypt. However, until now, most of this collection was known only from the entries in Marie-Louise Buhl's The Late Egyptian Anthropoid Stone Sarcophagi (Copenhagen, 1959). Drawing on the latest technologies, this publication, the result of a joint project of Cairo University and University of Tübingen scholars, presents an extensive and detailed catalogue of the Late and Ptolemaic Period anthropoid sarcophagi housed in the museum. With over 450 photographs and drawings.

In this important and timely publication, top international scholars present current research and developments about the art, archaeology, and history of the ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Syria. Palmyra became tragic headline news in 2015, when it was overtaken by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), which destroyed many of its monuments and artifacts. The essays in this book include new scholarship on Palmyra's origins and evolution as well as developments from both before and after its damage by ISIL, providing new information that will be relevant to current and future generations of art historians and archaeologists.