Five Favourite Egyptians

[selenak]

In honour of yesterday, five of my favourite Egyptians throughout history:

1) Hatshepsut. Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty, one of the few female rulers of ancient Egypt; while warfare occured early in her reign, she ushered in a long and peaceful era, re-established trade networks and left behind a rich country. Her successor and stepson tried

Comments

[kalypso_v]

Pleased to hear Alexandr(i)a Leaving again, and to have an excuse to air my Cavafy icon...

I kept thinking, yesterday, that there was something familiar about February 11, and eventually it came to me that it was the day Mandela walked out of prison 21 years ago. So I hope that's a good omen for the other end of Africa.

[selenak]

You know, you are the first to bring up the Mandela anniversary! (That I've read, anyway.) Everyone else is making ominous noises about February 11th being the anniversary of the Persian revolution.

Also, it's awsome that you have a Cavafy icon!

[trobadora]

FWIW, I've seen both mentioned a lot.

[kalypso_v]

If Mubarak ever read "The god abandons Antony", he failed to absorb the message.

[violaswamp]

Your posts are always so educational! I didn't know about el-Tawtawi or Cavafy.

El-Tawtawi is probably the most on-the-nose of the list for the current political moment.

[selenak]

I came across Cavafy during the Athens book fair ten years ago when about every Greek journalist/printing media person I talked to named him as their favourite poet and couldn't believe I had never heard of him. And el-Tawtawi I found when doing some research on Egypt during the first half of the 19th century (he was born in 1801). A really interesting person, and you have to love those elaborate Arabic book titles. The Paris guide is called "The extraction of pure gold in the abridgement of Paris, or the precious diwan in the iwan of Paris", and one of his laters is "The roads of Egyptian hearts in the joys of the contemporary arts", and he also wrote poetry, on the wonder of the steam engine as well as on the sight of an Egyptian relic. :) I think the current day developments would have thrilled him and made him happy and proud.