| Arabic Electronic Mail Journal |
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| Egyptian Art and Culture |
Edited by S Suwellam, London, UK /
| Ancient Egypt - The British Museum Egypt The state of the arts © 1994-2000 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |
The impact of the West is one of the recurring themes in the modern Egyptian novel, as in Tawfiq al-Hakim's
'Usfur min ash-Sharq ("The Bird from the East") and Yahya Haqqi's novella Qindil Umm Hashim ("The Lamp of
Umm Hashim"). A further theme is that of the Egyptian countryside--romantically handled at first, as in
Muhammad Husayn Haykal's Zaynab, and later realistically, as in 'Abd al-Rahman ash-Sharqawi's al-Ard (The
Land) and al-Fallah ("The Peasant") and in Yusuf Idris' al-Haram ("The Forbidden"). A Dickensian capacity to
catch the colour of life among the urban poor is a characteristic quality of the early and middle work of Egypt's
greatest modern novelist, Najib Mahfuz, notably in Zuqaq al-Midaqq (Midaq Alley).
The modern theatre in Egypt is a European importation--the first Arabic-speaking plays were performed in 1870.
Two dramatists, both born at the turn of the century, have dominated its development--Mahmud Taymur and
Tawfiq al-Hakim. The latter, a versatile and cerebral playwright, has reflected in his themes not only the
development of the modern theatre but also, in embryo, the cultural and social history of modern Egypt. The
changes in Egyptian society are reflected in the themes adopted by younger dramatists.
There is a relatively long tradition of filmmaking in Egypt going back to World War I, but it was the founding of
Misr Studios in 1934 that stimulated the growth of the Arabic-speaking cinema. Modern Egyptian films are shown
to audiences throughout the Arab world and are also distributed in Asian and African countries. The industry is
both privately and state owned--there are many private film-production companies, as well as the Ministry of
Culture's Egyptian General Cinema Corporation.
Contemporary Egyptian music embraces indigenous folk music, traditional Arabic music, and Western-style music.
The revival of traditional Arabic music, both vocal and instrumental, owes much to state sponsorship. Popular
Arabic music consists of a blend of classical Arabic music, folk songs, and Western music. Muhammad 'Abd
al-Wahhab has been one of the leading figures in the development of this genre, as both composer and singer.
Umm Kulthum was the leading vocalist not only of Egypt but also of the whole Arab world for almost 50 years.
Western-style music has been a familiar component in Egyptian musical culture since the 19th century. Pioneers
such as Yusuf Greiss and Abu Bakr Khayrat succeeded in incorporating Arabic elements to give a national
colouring to their Western-style compositions.
'Usfur min ash-Sharq ("The Bird from the East") and Yahya Haqqi's novella Qindil Umm Hashim ("The Lamp of
Umm Hashim"). A further theme is that of the Egyptian countryside--romantically handled at first, as in
Muhammad Husayn Haykal's Zaynab, and later realistically, as in 'Abd al-Rahman ash-Sharqawi's al-Ard (The
Land) and al-Fallah ("The Peasant") and in Yusuf Idris' al-Haram ("The Forbidden"). A Dickensian capacity to
catch the colour of life among the urban poor is a characteristic quality of the early and middle work of Egypt's
greatest modern novelist, Najib Mahfuz, notably in Zuqaq al-Midaqq (Midaq Alley).
The modern theatre in Egypt is a European importation--the first Arabic-speaking plays were performed in 1870.
Two dramatists, both born at the turn of the century, have dominated its development--Mahmud Taymur and
Tawfiq al-Hakim. The latter, a versatile and cerebral playwright, has reflected in his themes not only the
development of the modern theatre but also, in embryo, the cultural and social history of modern Egypt. The
changes in Egyptian society are reflected in the themes adopted by younger dramatists.
There is a relatively long tradition of filmmaking in Egypt going back to World War I, but it was the founding of
Misr Studios in 1934 that stimulated the growth of the Arabic-speaking cinema. Modern Egyptian films are shown
to audiences throughout the Arab world and are also distributed in Asian and African countries. The industry is
both privately and state owned--there are many private film-production companies, as well as the Ministry of
Culture's Egyptian General Cinema Corporation.
Contemporary Egyptian music embraces indigenous folk music, traditional Arabic music, and Western-style music.
The revival of traditional Arabic music, both vocal and instrumental, owes much to state sponsorship. Popular
Arabic music consists of a blend of classical Arabic music, folk songs, and Western music. Muhammad 'Abd
al-Wahhab has been one of the leading figures in the development of this genre, as both composer and singer.
Umm Kulthum was the leading vocalist not only of Egypt but also of the whole Arab world for almost 50 years.
Western-style music has been a familiar component in Egyptian musical culture since the 19th century. Pioneers
such as Yusuf Greiss and Abu Bakr Khayrat succeeded in incorporating Arabic elements to give a national
colouring to their Western-style compositions.
Article:
Egypt Opens New Library of Alexandria
Egypt Opens New Library of Alexandria
Chad Cohen
National Geographic Today
October 16, 2002
National Geographic Today
October 16, 2002
The Eastern Harbor of Alexandria has been a crossroads of culture and continents for 2,300 years. This is
where the Pharos lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of
the ancient world, guided people from all nations safely into port; where Queen Cleopatra first laid eyes on
Julius Caesar.
Today, in an event that speaks of renewal even as the threat of war looms in the Middle East, Alexandria is
trying to recapture the spirit of perhaps its richest
legacy—the Great Library of Alexandria—by opening the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
The ancient library dominated the ancient world of learning from approximately the third century B.C. to the
fourth century A.D. The new one sits on the Eastern
Harbor on or near the site of the original.
A microchip, a rising sun, a flying saucer, the new Library of Alexandria—Bibliotheca Alexandrina—gleams
on the edge of the Mediterranean, on the Eastern
Harbor near the site where archaeologists believe the ancient library once stood.
Photograph courtesy of Bibliotheca Alexandrina
In an opening ceremony worthy of pharaohs, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is welcoming heads of state,
royalty, and dignitaries from around the world. There
is even a performance by Sinead O'Connor.
Clash of Civilizations
"In a world worried about the clash of civilizations, about war, about hatred and about killing, I think it's
significant that out of Egypt comes this new library, a place
of understanding, learning, tolerance and brotherhood," said Ismail Serageldin, the library's director and a
former World Bank vice president.
"Egypt is the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of three monotheistic religions, so the library will very
much reflect religious tolerance," said Mohammed Aman,
dean of the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who wrote the
Bibliotheca's manuscript-selection policy.
During the 1980s, Egypt and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization resolved
to build the Bibliotheca Alexandrina with the same
universal goals as the ancient one: a focal point for research, the advancement of knowledge and the open
exchange of ideas.
An international design competition chose the Norwegian firm Snohetta to build the library. The building—in
the shape of a massive disc inclined toward the
Mediterranean—evokes the image of the Egyptian sun illuminating the world.
International Effort
Countries from around the world—especially the Middle East—contributed to the U.S. $220 million-plus
building effort. Saddam Hussein's $21-million check
cleared just days before the Gulf War.
An international spirit still reigns at the Bibliotheca. Italians and Egyptians are working together to preserve
rare manuscripts. Greeks are helping with antiquities; the
French, with a science museum; and Americans, with computer systems. Dozens of countries are sending
books.
The legacy demands a high standard.
Around 295 B.C., the scholar Demetrius of Phalerum convinced the new pharaoh, Ptolemy I Soter, that
Alexandria could rival Athens as a center of culture and
learning—by establishing a library that would house all the books in the world.
History says that the Ptolemies became so hungry for knowledge that they seized books from every ship that
came into harbor. They made a copy for the ship but
kept the originals for themselves.
The library housed the masterpieces of classical civilization: the works of Aristotle and Plato; original
manuscripts of Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides; Egyptian
treatises on astronomy and medicine; Buddhist texts; and the first translations of the Hebrew scriptures.
Eventually historians believe Alexandria amassed 700,000
scrolls,.
Original Library, Up in Flames
While today's library plans to have a broad general collection, it isn't trying to gather the entire creative
legacy of humankind under one roof.
Right now they have about 250,000 books on the shelves, less than a typical college library in the United
States. Although the Bibliotheca has room for about five
million books, the Library of Congress, the world's largest, has nearly 20 million.
Rather than competing, the Bibliotheca is building up special collections on Egypt, the Middle East, and
Islam.
The library will also try to attract researchers and scholars from around the world. "It is a vision that was
realized on this very spot over 2,300 years ago when the
library was founded," said Serageldin.
Alexandria is where Euclid devised geometry; Herophilus discovered that the brain, not the heart, was the
seat of thought; Aristarchus, 1,800 years before
Copernicus, determined that the Earth revolved around the sun; and Eratosthenes set up a simple experiment
that measured the Earth's circumference. In tribute to
these discoveries, the new library features a museum dedicated to science history and a large planetarium
graces the entrance.
The first and most famous blow to the ancient library came in 48 B.C., when Julius Caesar laid siege to
Alexandria and set fire to the city. Historians believe flames
consumed about 10 percent of the library.
By midpoint in the new millennium, the library had fallen completely. Historians believe that not a single scroll
survives.
Today the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina proves that perhaps the most important element of the ancient
library persists—its spirit. And this time the building is
fireproof.
where the Pharos lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of
the ancient world, guided people from all nations safely into port; where Queen Cleopatra first laid eyes on
Julius Caesar.
Today, in an event that speaks of renewal even as the threat of war looms in the Middle East, Alexandria is
trying to recapture the spirit of perhaps its richest
legacy—the Great Library of Alexandria—by opening the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
The ancient library dominated the ancient world of learning from approximately the third century B.C. to the
fourth century A.D. The new one sits on the Eastern
Harbor on or near the site of the original.
A microchip, a rising sun, a flying saucer, the new Library of Alexandria—Bibliotheca Alexandrina—gleams
on the edge of the Mediterranean, on the Eastern
Harbor near the site where archaeologists believe the ancient library once stood.
Photograph courtesy of Bibliotheca Alexandrina
In an opening ceremony worthy of pharaohs, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is welcoming heads of state,
royalty, and dignitaries from around the world. There
is even a performance by Sinead O'Connor.
Clash of Civilizations
"In a world worried about the clash of civilizations, about war, about hatred and about killing, I think it's
significant that out of Egypt comes this new library, a place
of understanding, learning, tolerance and brotherhood," said Ismail Serageldin, the library's director and a
former World Bank vice president.
"Egypt is the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of three monotheistic religions, so the library will very
much reflect religious tolerance," said Mohammed Aman,
dean of the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who wrote the
Bibliotheca's manuscript-selection policy.
During the 1980s, Egypt and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization resolved
to build the Bibliotheca Alexandrina with the same
universal goals as the ancient one: a focal point for research, the advancement of knowledge and the open
exchange of ideas.
An international design competition chose the Norwegian firm Snohetta to build the library. The building—in
the shape of a massive disc inclined toward the
Mediterranean—evokes the image of the Egyptian sun illuminating the world.
International Effort
Countries from around the world—especially the Middle East—contributed to the U.S. $220 million-plus
building effort. Saddam Hussein's $21-million check
cleared just days before the Gulf War.
An international spirit still reigns at the Bibliotheca. Italians and Egyptians are working together to preserve
rare manuscripts. Greeks are helping with antiquities; the
French, with a science museum; and Americans, with computer systems. Dozens of countries are sending
books.
The legacy demands a high standard.
Around 295 B.C., the scholar Demetrius of Phalerum convinced the new pharaoh, Ptolemy I Soter, that
Alexandria could rival Athens as a center of culture and
learning—by establishing a library that would house all the books in the world.
History says that the Ptolemies became so hungry for knowledge that they seized books from every ship that
came into harbor. They made a copy for the ship but
kept the originals for themselves.
The library housed the masterpieces of classical civilization: the works of Aristotle and Plato; original
manuscripts of Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides; Egyptian
treatises on astronomy and medicine; Buddhist texts; and the first translations of the Hebrew scriptures.
Eventually historians believe Alexandria amassed 700,000
scrolls,.
Original Library, Up in Flames
While today's library plans to have a broad general collection, it isn't trying to gather the entire creative
legacy of humankind under one roof.
Right now they have about 250,000 books on the shelves, less than a typical college library in the United
States. Although the Bibliotheca has room for about five
million books, the Library of Congress, the world's largest, has nearly 20 million.
Rather than competing, the Bibliotheca is building up special collections on Egypt, the Middle East, and
Islam.
The library will also try to attract researchers and scholars from around the world. "It is a vision that was
realized on this very spot over 2,300 years ago when the
library was founded," said Serageldin.
Alexandria is where Euclid devised geometry; Herophilus discovered that the brain, not the heart, was the
seat of thought; Aristarchus, 1,800 years before
Copernicus, determined that the Earth revolved around the sun; and Eratosthenes set up a simple experiment
that measured the Earth's circumference. In tribute to
these discoveries, the new library features a museum dedicated to science history and a large planetarium
graces the entrance.
The first and most famous blow to the ancient library came in 48 B.C., when Julius Caesar laid siege to
Alexandria and set fire to the city. Historians believe flames
consumed about 10 percent of the library.
By midpoint in the new millennium, the library had fallen completely. Historians believe that not a single scroll
survives.
Today the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina proves that perhaps the most important element of the ancient
library persists—its spirit. And this time the building is
fireproof.
