Egypt & Naguib Mahfouz

Kelsey Kurdts

GeographyNorthern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Libya and the Gaza Strip, and the Red Sea north of Sudan, and includes the Asian Sinai Peninsula

More than eight times the size of Ohio; slightly more than three times the size of New Mexico

Vast desert plateau interrupted by Nile valley and delta

History 4th century - split with the Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire)

7th century - conquered by the Arabs

969 - conquered by the Fatamids of Tunisia (built Cairo, the capital)

1250 - Beybars seized power. Egypt became rich and powerful.

1517 - conquered by the Ottomans

17th - 18th centuries- economic decline

1719 - suffered from the plague

1798 - Napoleon defeated Egypt but was defeated by the British

1859 - began work on the Suez Canal

1863 - Khedive Ismail modernized Egypt

1882 - uprising in Egypt. Worried about investments in the canal.

1942 - invaded by Germany

1948 - defeated in war with Isreal and again in 1967

1978 - Anwar Sadat made peace with Isreal. As a result, the economy boomed.

1981 - Sadat was assassinated and replaced with Hosni Mubarak

Today - Egypt faces the problems of a rapidly rising population and a lack of farming land. However the tourist industry is booming and Egypt has great potential for exporting natural gas.

People and SocietyPopulation : 88,487,396

Ethnic groups : Egyptian 99.6%, other 0.4%

Languages : Arabic (official), English and French widely understood by educated classes

Religion : Muslim (predominantly Sunni) 90%, Christian (majority Coptic Orthodox) 10%

CultureFood - Egyptian cuisine consists of local culinary traditions such as Ful medames, Kushari, and Molokhia. It also shares similarities with food found throughout the eastern Mediterranean like kebab and falafel.

Art - The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art. The wall painting done in the service of the Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene.

Music - Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous Egyptian, African and Western influences. One of the most respected early electronic music composers, Halim El-Dabh, is an Egyptian.

Sports - Football is the most popular sport in Egypt followed by basketball, handball, squash, and tennis.

LiteratureEgyptian literature traces its beginnings to ancient Egypt and is some of the earliest known literature.

Egyptians were the first culture to develop literature in book form.

The Nile had a strong influence on the writings of the ancient Egyptians

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Arab world experienced al-Nahda, a Renaissance-esque movement which touched nearly all areas of life, including literature.

One of the most important figures from this time was Naguib Mahfouz, the first Egyptian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

There is a new writing movement of literature in Egypt that spawned during the 1990s. The difficulty of living in poverty has inspired new Egyptian literature that focuses on crises, namely irrational and fragmented works that focus on isolated individuals dealing with an ever-expanding and changing Arab culture.

The 1990s has also seen a rise of women writers due to the ease of modern, privatized publishing.

Naguib MahfouzDOB : 1911

Place of Birth : Cairo

Religious Affiliation : Muslim

Education : Graduated from Cairo University with a degree in philosophy.

Politics : n/a

Relevant Literary or Philosophical movement : Nationalism, Imperialism

Genres : novelist, numerous short stories, movie scripts, plays

Main themes : Focuses on the condition and the disinclination to challenge authority. More recently, it documents the crisis of identity and conscience suffered by Egyptian Intellectuals during periods of social turmoil and political dissatisfaction.

Style : Asks philosophical questions on what it means to be human.

Examples : “And his heart was brimming with a love for people, animals and things, with an overwhelming feeling of optimism…How did it come? How long would it last? Oh no, this must just be a fleeting mood which could never be permanent… Let him enjoy it now, live with it, treasure it, before it became a vague memory in the distant horizon.”

Other : In 1988 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature.

Sources

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt

http://www.localhistories.org/egyptmod.html