Cairo: Histories of a City

AlSayyad facilitates understanding of Cairo's long history by focusing discussion of historical epochs on corresponding districts, edifices, and architecture. Treatment of the eventful medieval and early modern periods is especially rewarding. The whirlwind evolution of Cairo since I spent a year there during '83-'84 (when there were merely some 10 million inhabitants) has produced a place that, I'm sure, I would scarcely recognize. Sic transit. And quid nunc....

It's a surprise birthday present for me that I don't know about, but I bet I'll enjoy it. :-)

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Does anyone know the evolution of Egypt's eternal city better than Nezar AlSayyad? He has written books about Cairo before, "The Streets of Islamic Cairo" in the first flush of infatuation in 1981 and "Cities and Caliphs" in 1991 as his blind love ended. Now, we get AlSayyad's fond but clear-eyed expertise on his city when it is most needed to understand the revolution in process. The histories quickly move through Memphis, ancient Egypt and the Coptic Enclave to expand on the city of the Fatimids, Mamluks, Ottomans.The final third of the book is devoted to the period from the 19th century to the dawn of the 21st century. The author skeptically or regretfully portrays the museumification of historic quarters that replace "craft-workers and small shops" with cafes and tourist-oriented facilities. Illegally constructed neighborhoods for migrants and poor residents became autonomous through government neglect, and were forced to develop their own social institutions and networks. "In the late 1980's and early 1990's, Islamist organizations began to establish roots there and the government's laissez-faire approach changed to one of hostility and repression, culminating in confrontations between residents and the state." At the opposite end of the economic scale, lavish shopping malls and gated luxury neighborhoods of leisure, consumption and residences such as Dreamland were developed.The book is extensively illustrated with the author's clear maps and beautiful color photographs, augmented with historic illustrations including Jean-Leon Gerome's gorgeous painting "La Priere au Caire." The narrative is highly readable, making it the ideal resource for scholars and Arab Spring commentators but also for armchair travelers and readers discovering the fascination of Egyptian novelists.

This book is on the Rorotoko list. Professor AlSayyad's interview on "Cairo" ran as the Rorotoko Cover Feature on August 31, 2011 (and can be read in the Rorotoko archive).

YOU NEED THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ANY OF THE ABOVE!