Naguib Mahfouz's The Thief and the Dogs (1961) is a multi-faceted story that is equal parts crime thriller, morality tale, and political allegory. The novel begins with career criminal Said Mahran's release from prison. He immediately sets off for the home of his ex-wife's new husband, desperate to settle a score with the man he feels betrayed him and hoping to reunite with his young daughter, Sana. Instead, she rejects him.

The thief and the dogs

MAHFOUZ, Naguib

The American University in Cairo Press

Under the directorship of the late Robert K. Vincent, Jr., conservation projects funded by USAID in collaboration with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities ranged widely in their scope. Information about early animal domestication was compiled from prehistoric sites in the Sinai; the shattered sarcophagus of Ramesses VI was reassembled in his tomb; exquisite Greco-Roman mosaics were conserved in Alexandria, and fine Coptic wall paintings were cleaned. The wooden door leaves of Bab Zuwayla were saved from decay, and numerous training programs were conducted, including archaeological field schools for Egyptian antiquities inspectors. Contributors: Hoda Abdel Hamid, Matthew Adams, Jere Bacharach, Elizabeth Bolman, Edwin. C. Brock, Betsy Bryan, Anthony Crosby, Randi Danforth, Agnieszka Dobrowolska, Jaroslaw Dobrowolski, Mark Easton, Renee Friedman, Alaa el-Habashi, Douglas Haldane, Nairy Hampikian, W. Raymond Johnson, Michael Jones, Charles Le Quesne, Carol Meyer, Anthony Mills, David O’Connor, Bernard O’Kane, Diana Craig Patch, Lyla Pinch-Brock, William Remsen, Salah Zaki Said, Shari Saunders, Gerry Scott III, Peter Sheehan, Hourig Sourouzian, Robert K. Vincent, Jr., Nicholas Warner, Fred Wendorf, Willeke Wendrich, and A.J. Zielinski.

Preserving Egypt’s Cultural Heritage (ARCE)

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Review\n"How does time pass in a refugee camp? This seemingly straightforward question is at the heart of Melissa Gatter’s wonderful ethnography of refugee lives and aid regimes in Azraq camp in Jordan. Her focus on tempo, pace, and time opens up the multi-faceted world of street-level-humanitarian bureaucracy, hope and despair in ongoing displacement, and people’s desires for ordinary futures."—Ilana Feldman, George Washington University\n"With wide-ranging, outstanding ethnographic material and with excellent, equally outstanding theoretical analysis, I have rarely been so immediately and deeply taken by a book as this one."—Sophia Hoffmann, University of Erfurt\n"In this detailed ethnography of temporal bordering practices in the Azraq Refugee Camp, Melissa Gatter offers valuable insights into the everyday bureaucracy, affects, future imaginaries, and resilience among exiled Syrians. Time and Power in Azraq Refugee Camp is a notable contribution to contemporary studies on forced displacement, camps, and temporality. Gatter’s book is also a contribution to the growing literature on forced migration in Western Asia."—Shahram Khosravi, Stockholm University\nThe politics and governance of Jordan’s Azraq camp for Syrian refugees\nAzraq refugee camp, built in 2014 and host to forty thousand refugees, is one of two official humanitarian refugee camps for Syrian refugees in Jordan. Time and Power in Azraq Refugee Camp investigates the relationship between time and power in Azraq, asking how a politics of time shapes, limits, or enables everyday life for the displaced and for aid workers.\nBased on ethnographic fieldwork, carried out during 2017–2018, the book challenges the perceptions of Azraq as the ‘ideal’ refugee camp. Melissa Gatter argues that the camp operates as a ‘nine-to-five emergency’ where mundane bureaucratic procedures serve to sustain a power system in which refugees are socialized to endure a cynical wait―both for everyday services and for their return―without expectations for a better outcome.\nTime and Power in Azraq Refugee Camp also explores how refugees navigate this system, both in the day-to-day and over years, by evaluating various layers of waiting as they affect refugee perceptions of time in the camp―not only in the present, but the past, near future, and far future.\nFar from an ‘ideal’ camp, Azraq and its politics of time constitute a cruel reality in which a power system meant to aid refugees is one that suppresses, foreclosing futures that it is supposed to preserve.

Time and Power in Azraq Refugee Camp: A Nine-to-Five Emergency (Refugees and Migrants within the Middle East)

Politics & Social Sciences

Gatter, Melissa

Social Sciences

Volume one of Taha Hussein's classic work, unabridged, and supported with robust comprehension, interpretation, and analytical exercises, for advanced learners of Arabic\nTaha Hussein’s autobiographical novel The Days helped usher in the era of modern Arabic writing and remains one of the most influential and best-known works of Arabic literature. With this guided study, the complete first volume of the novel is accessible to students of Arabic in a way never previously available. While Arabic literature provides a vast body of texts as a window into diverse cultures and eras, the lack of useful teaching material has often forced teachers to spend much of their time creating supplemental material, rather than focusing on the exploration of literary art and themes. This study will walk Arabic students through the unabridged novel in manageable lessons, supported with robust comprehension, interpretation, and analytical exercises, focusing on the historical context, elements of literature, and social themes. This book is organized to mirror the way an experienced teacher of Arabic literature would structure the lessons, and is thus perfectly suited as a textbook for an advanced Arabic or Arabic literature class, or as an independent study package for learners.

Taha Hussein's The Days: A Guided Study for Arabic Learners (Great Works of Arabic Literature: Guided Texts for Arabic Learners) (Arabic Edition)

Literature & Fiction

DiMeo, David

Literary

Review\n"Simon Connor has brilliantly synthesized his recent scholarship on Egyptian statues to produce a masterpiece. Connor looks carefully at the evidence of the statues themselves, especially the kinds of alterations they suffered over the entirety of their existence. He offers lucid and jargon-free interpretations of what he sees. Both experienced scholars and students will greatly benefit from reading this book."—Edward Bleiberg, Brooklyn Museum\n“This is a long-needed, tremendously exciting study and there is probably no better individual to undertake it than Simon Connor. While there are numerous volumes on ancient Egyptian sculpture, few delve into the matters addressed in Ancient Egyptian Statues and none approach it as a principal focus.”—Peter Lacovara, The Ancient Egyptian Archaeology and Heritage Fund and co-author of Nubian Gold\n"Simon Connor’s concise account of ancient Egyptian sculpture is a totally original, well informed, and fascinating look at why statues were made, how they were regarded, and how and why they were used and reused for many different purposes. This beautifully illustrated book holds many surprising facts and insights on the production and consumption of art in antiquity. A must read for anyone who loves Egyptian sculpture."—Emily Teeter, University of Chicago\n"Simon Connor tells an engaging story of ancient Egyptian statues, from their creation and original placement to their reuse in various and sometimes surprising contexts. His wide-ranging selection of examples and his comprehensive bibliography provide ample material for study for scholars and Egyptophiles alike."—Ronald J. Leprohon, University of Toronto\n"This important new study challenges the pervasive (Western) notion that statues capture one moment in time. Pharaonic sculpture can seem particularly static. Simon Connor masterfully demonstrates the constant dialogue between people and Egyptian sculptures, charting multiple lives and afterlives."—Campbell Price, University of Manchester\nA fascinating, richly illustrated study of the role and significance of ancient statues in Egyptian history and belief\nWhy do ancient Egyptian statues so often have their noses, hands, or genitals broken? Although the Late Antiquity period appears to have been one of the major moments of large-scale vandalism against pagan monuments, various contexts bear witness to several phases of reuse, modification, or mutilation of statues throughout and after the pharaonic period. Reasons for this range from a desire to erase the memory of specific rulers or individuals for ideological reasons to personal vengeance, war, tomb plundering, and the avoidance of a curse; or simply the reuse of material for construction or the need to ritually “deactivate” and bury old statues, without the added motive of explicit hostility toward the subject in question.\nDrawing on the latest scholarship and over 100 carefully selected illustrations, Ancient Egyptian Statues proceeds from a general discussion of the production and meaning of sculptures, and the mechanisms of their destruction, to review the role of ancient statuary in Egyptian history and belief. It then moves on to explore the various means of damage and their significance, and the role of restoration and reuse.\nArt historian Simon Connor offers an innovative and lucidly written reflection on beliefs and practices relating to statuary, and images more broadly, in ancient Egypt, showing how statues were regarded as the active manifestations of the entities they represented, and the ways in which they could endure many lives before being finally buried or forgotten.

Ancient Egyptian Statues: Their Many Lives and Deaths

Connor, Simon

An authoritatively written overview of ancient Egyptian architecture from the point of view of an archaeologist and architectural historian The monuments of ancient Egypt have held scholars and tourists in their thrall for centuries. The sheer mass of the pyramids of Giza, the interaction of the temples at Deir al-Bahari with the natural environment, and the use of light in the hypostyle hall of Karnak all make these buildings world-class masterpieces of architecture, rivaling those of Greece and Rome. Ancient Egyptian Architecture in Fifteen Monuments presents an authoritative overview of Egyptian architecture from the point of view of an archaeologist and architectural historian with decades of fieldwork experience in Egypt and elsewhere. It focuses on fifteen selected masterpieces, from well-known structures such as the Bent Pyramid in Dahshur and the temple of Horus at Edfu to lesser-known monuments in Hierakonpolis, Abydos, Hawara, and Bubastis, each building representing an important stage in the development of Egyptian architecture and a different vision of what architecture should aspire to achieve. Using sixty reconstruction drawings and black-and-white photographs, Felix Arnold presents new insights into form, meaning, and the organization of space, providing a fresh perspective on ancient Egyptian culture and society.

Ancient Egyptian Architecture in Fifteen Monuments

Arnold, Felix

Palmyra (Arabic edition): Mirage in the Desert

An autobiographical account of a young man's journey into extremism In 1986, when this memoir opens, Khaled al-Berry is a typical fourteen-year-old boy in Asyut in Upper Egypt. Soon, his love of soccer draws him into the orbit of members of a radical Islamist group, university students from the surrounding countryside who play the game regularly on a pitch near his home. Attracted at first by the image of the group as "strong Muslims," al-Berry's involvement develops until he finds himself deeply committed to its beliefs and implicated in its activities. This ends when, in his third year at university, he is arrested on campus by the police and thrown in jail. His experience of confinement and a return to life on the outside lead to his eventual alienation from radical Islam. Vulnerable, searingly honest, gripping, and often funny, this tale of one man's journey to the edge of radicalism and back also gives critical and intelligent insight into an Islamist movement's debates, preoccupations, motives, and intentions.

Life is More Beautiful Than Paradise: A Jihadist's Own Story

Biographies & Memoirs

Al-Berry, Khaled

Leaders & Notable People

An interdisciplinary exploration of the most recent research trends and directions in the humanities This issue of Alif is dedicated to efforts to redefine and reorient the humanities in light of global institutional and intellectual realities. "Mapping" is construed in several ways: the more literal meaning of geographical "reorientation" in the sense of efforts to redefine the relationship between global north and south, and between Western and non-Western intellectual traditions. It also refers to the remapping of the modern university by interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work in the humanities that brings it to new shores such as the digital humanities and medical humanities. Essays map out ways for the humanities to better engage the extra-academic pressures shaping the modern university as it remains true to its own best long-standing goals and values. Editorial Board (alphabetically by last name): <div style="margin-left: 2em">Omaima Abou Bakr (Cairo University) Saad Albazei (King Saud University) Gaber Asfour (Cairo University) Mohammed Berrada (University of Mohamed V) Ira Dworkin (Texas A&M University) Ziad Elmarsafy (King's College London) Sabry Hafez (SOAS, University of London) Richard Jacquemond (Aix Marseille University) Céza Kassem-Draz (AUC and Cairo University) As'ad Khairallah (American University of Beirut) Andrew N. Rubin (University of Texas at Dallas) Randa Sabry (Cairo University) Doris Enright-Clark Shoukri (AUC) Hoda Wasfi (Ain Shams University) </div> Contributors (alphabetically by last name): <div style="margin-left: 2em">Shereen Abouelnaga, Cairo University, Egypt Tamer Amin, American University of Beirut, Lebanon Brian James Baer, Kent State University, Ohio, USA Abdesslam Benabdelali, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco Claire Gallien, University Paul Valéry, Montpellier, France Nadia Hashish, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt Naglaa Saad Hassan, Fayoum University, Egypt Hassan Hilmy, Hassan II University, Casablanca, Morocco Samia Al Hodathy, Paris Nanterre University, France Hala Kamal, Cairo University, Egypt David Konstan, New York University, USA Hossam Nayel, the Academy of Arts, Cairo, Egypt Antonio Pacifico, Oriental University Institute, Naples, Italy Yasmine Sweed, MSA University, Cairo, Egypt Levi Thompson, University of Colorado-Boulder, USA Youssef Yacoubi, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, USA </div>

Alif 40: Mapping New Directions in the Humanities

A rich interdisciplinary study of the relationships between space, both physical and virtual, and social and political participation Where 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, Egypt Hicham Ait-Mansour, Mohamed V University, Rabat, Morocco Fadma Aït Mous, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco Mouloud Amghar, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, Morocco Yazid Anani, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, Palestine Mai Ayyad, Cairo University, Egypt Youness Benmouro, Mohamed V University, Rabat, Morocco Yasmine Berriane, Centre Maurice Halbwachs (CNRS), Paris, France Mokhtar El Harras, Mohamed V University, Rabat, Morocco Ulrike Freitag, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany Sarah Jurkiewicz, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany Mona Khalil, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt Azzurra Sarnataro, La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy Renad Shqeirat, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah, Palestine Dorota Woroniecka-Krzy&#380;anowska, German Historical Institute, Warsaw, Poland

Spaces of Participation: Dynamics of Social and Political Change in the Arab World

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