Shepheard's of Cairo

Shepheard's of Cairo
Author: Tarek Ibrahim
Publisher: Dr Ludwig Reichert
Total Pages: 120
Release: 2019
Genre: Cairo (Egypt)
ISBN: 9783954903689

Few buildings reflect the waxing and waning of European influence in Egypt during the 19th and 20th centuries as profoundly as Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo. Prior to its total destruction during the infamous "Black Saturday" riots of January 1952, the building was a potent symbol of the problematic relationship between native and foreigner, Orient and Occident, colonized and colonizer. Initially the site of Napoleon's headquarters during his ill-fated Egyptian campaign, over the following 150 years, successive expansions and reconstructions transformed the humble lodge into one of the most glamorous and legendary hotels in the world. Hardly a single important political, social or artistic figure that passed through Cairo failed to stay and make an appearance at the hotel. Until recently, a scholarly analysis and documentation on the architecture of Shepheard's Hotel has been cursory at best due the near total absence of primary visual material. Thanks to a spectacular discovery at Grunsberg Castle near Nuremberg, Germany, primary visual material of the building - including original floor plans, correspondence, sketches and photographs - has come to light. The design of the hotel can now be correctly attributed to the previously unknown German architect Johann Adam Rennebaum (1858-1937) who lived and worked in Egypt for more than 50 years. This cache, combined with material from numerous archives in Egypt, Europe and North America, allows for the first comprehensive survey on the art, architecture and design of the legendary lost hotel. More than merely lodging, Shepheard's made design a destination and allowed visitors to step through the looking glass into a fantastic recreation of the wonders along the banks of the Nile, quickly becoming an essential part of the grand tour in Egypt for well-heeled travelers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Street Sounds

Street Sounds
Author: Ziad Fahmy
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2020-08-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1503613046

As the twentieth century roared on, transformative technologies—from trains, trams, and automobiles to radios and loudspeakers—fundamentally changed the sounds of the Egyptian streets. The cacophony of everyday life grew louder, and the Egyptian press featured editorials calling for the regulation of not only mechanized and amplified sounds, but also the voices of street vendors, the music of wedding processions, and even the traditional funerary wails. Ziad Fahmy offers the first historical examination of the changing soundscapes of urban Egypt, highlighting the mundane sounds of street life, while "listening" to the voices of ordinary people as they struggle with state authorities for ownership of the streets. Interweaving infrastructural, cultural, and social history, Fahmy analyzes the sounds of modernity, using sounded sources as an analytical tool for examining the past. Street Sounds also reveals a political dimension of noise by demonstrating how the growing middle classes used sound to distinguish themselves from the Egyptian masses. This book contextualizes sound, layering historical analysis with a sensory dimension, bringing us closer to the Egyptian streets as lived and embodied by everyday people.

The Women of Cairo: Volume I (Routledge Revivals)

The Women of Cairo: Volume I (Routledge Revivals)
Author: Gerard De Nerval
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2017-12-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317575350

The Women of Cairo: Scenes of Life in the Orient, first published in 1929, describes the trip to Egypt and other locations in the Ottoman Empire taken by French Romanticist Gerard de Nerval. The book focuses on both reinforcing and dispelling the old ways in which people saw the Orient, as well as examining their old and new customs. This book is perfect for those studying history and travel.

Unfinished Places: The Politics of (Re)making Cairo’s Old Quarters

Unfinished Places: The Politics of (Re)making Cairo’s Old Quarters
Author: Gehan Selim
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2016-11-10
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317506251

The Emerging Politics of (Re) making Cairo's Old Quarters examines postcolonial planning practices that aimed to modernise Cairo’s urban spaces. The author examines the expanding field of postcolonial urbanism by linking the state’s political ideologies and systems of governance with methods of spatial representations that aimed to transform the urban realm in Cairo. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the study draws on planning, history and politics to develop a distinctive account of postcolonial planning in Cairo following Egypt’s 1952 revolution. The book widely connects the ideological role of a different type of politicised urbanism practised during the days of Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak and the overarching policies, institutions and attitudes involved in the visions for (re) building a new nation in Egypt. By examining the notion of remaking urban spaces, the study interprets the ambitions and powers of state policies for improving the spatial qualities of Cairo’s old districts since the early 20th century. These acts are situated in their spatial, political and historical contexts of Cairo’s heterogeneous old quarters and urban spaces particularly the remaking of one of the city’s older quarts named Bulaq Abul Ela established during the Ottoman rule in the thirteenth century. It therefore writes, in a chronological sequence, a narrative through time and space connecting various layers of historical and contemporary political phases for remaking Bulaq. The endeavor is to explain this process from a spatial perspective in terms of the implications and consequences not only on places, but also on the people’s everyday practices. By deeply investigating the problems and consequences; the strengths and weaknesses; and the state’s reliability to achieve the remaking objectives, the book reveals evidence that shifting forms of governance had anchored planning practices into a narrow path of creativity and responsive planning.

Modern Art in Egypt

Modern Art in Egypt
Author: Fatenn Mostafa Kanafani
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2020-06-25
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1838601104

Following a spectacular surge in interest for Egyptian masters, Modern Art in Egypt fills the void in Egyptian art history, chronicling the lives and legacies of six pioneering artists working under the British occupation. Using Western-style academic art as a starting point, these artists championed cultural progress, re-appropriating Egyptian visual culture from European orientalists to found a neo-Pharaonic School of Realism. Modern Art in Egypt charts the years from Muhammad Ali's educational reforms to the mass influx of foreigners during the nineteenth-century. With a focus on the al-Nahda thought movement, this book provides an overview of the key policy-makers, reformists and feminists who founded the first School of Fine Arts in Egypt, as well as cultural salons, museums and arts collectives. By combining political and aesthetic histories, Fatenn Mostafa breaks the prevailing understanding that has preferred to see non-Western art as derivatives of Western art movements. Modern Art in Egypt re-establishes Egypt's presence within the global Modernist canon.