This book is at once the history of a remarkable and fascinating phenomenon--a British-style public school rooted in Egyptian soil boasting such alumni as King Hussein of Jordan, Omar Sharif, and Edward Said--and a reflection of the spirit of Alexandria during the first half of the twentieth century. Its publication in October 2002 is timed to coincide with the school's centenary. Victoria College, Alexandria, founded in October 1902, was named after the British queen Victoria, who had died the year before. It was the brainchild of a group of British businessmen who formed the nucleus of Alexandria's small British community. Deliberately fashioned as an independent, secular school, open to anyone who could afford its fees, it attracted the children both of the elite--royalty, diplomats, magnates, politicians, landowners--and of very ordinary people. Its pupils came not only from all over Egypt, but from the entire Middle East and beyond. This immensely readable history is, in the first place, a book about and for the Old Victorians. In a series of colorful sketches, backed by plentiful quotation from documents in the school archives, a series of engaging and distinguished characters come to life, not least Victoria's first two headmasters, C.R. Lias and his successor R.W.G. Reed--the two men whose enlightened vision and skillful leadership made the school what it was. Yet at the same time, this is a book whose appeal extends far beyond its immediate subject matter. In the process of putting together the story of a school, the authors have uncovered a wealth of material that will interest Middle East and postcolonial scholars as well as educationists, social historians, and students of human nature.

This first academic study of the history of modern sports in Ethiopia during the imperial rule of the 20th century argues that modern sports offers new possibilities to explore the meanings of modernity in Africa. Providing an in-depth analysis of the role of sports in modern educational institutions, volunteer organizations, and urbanization processes, the author shows how agents, ideas and practices linked societal improvement and bodily improvement.

Egypt’s was the first non-Western country to undergo an industrial revolution. It was a major commercial center during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was one of the first countries to have (albeit briefly) a constitutional government. Its struggle for independence was among the earliest in the non-Western world. Its capital, Cairo, has served as a headquarters and a meeting place for nationalist leaders. Its schools and universities attracted students from many other African and Asian countries. For the Arab world, its educational and legal institutions set the pattern that most other Arabic-speaking countries have followed. Its books, magazines, and newspapers circulate widely. Its radio and television broadcasting became the model for other Arab states. The leadership of Jamal Abd al-Nasir and Anwar al-Sadat profoundly influenced other Arab and Third World leaders. And the demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square became the iconic movement for the so-called “Arab Spring” in the rest of the Middle East. This fourth edition of Historical Dictionary of Egypt covers its history from its emergence as an independent actor during the reign of Ali Bey (1760-1772) up to and including the first two years of the Arab Spring (February 2013). This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on of persons, events, institutions, political groups, economic and social conditions, policies, relationships with other countries, ideas, religions, ideologies, and commodities relevant to the modern history of Egypt. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Egypt.

Publisher Description

Cairo is ... The largest metropolis in Africa since the Middle Ages, it was in Ibn Battutah's words 'the mother of cities.' With a present-day population of around eighteen million, this sprawling metropolis is home to one thousand new migrants every day, drawn to the seething intensity of a modern, cosmopolitan capital that blends together the cultures of the Middle East and Europe. The fabled city on the banks of the River Nile, once home to pharaohs and emperors, now forms a focal point of the Islamic faith and of the Arab world. Andrew Beattie explores the turbulent past and vibrant present of this city where the enduring legacies of the ancient Egyptians, the early Coptic Church, British colonial rule and the modernist zeal of the post-independence era have all left their mark.

The World Yearbook of Education 2010 volume, Education and the Arab 'World': Political Projects, Struggles, and Geometries of Power, strives to do justice to the complex processes and dynamics behind the world of Arab education. Western interest in all things Arab has greatly increased over the course of the decade, but this interest runs the risk of forgetting that the Arab world is positioned within wider contexts of regional, geopolitical, and global processes. This volume examines Arab education in a range of contexts regional, diasporic, and trans-national to better understand how the field of Arab education is formed through local, regional, geopolitical and global engagements and resonances. In doing so, contributors from a range of disciplines open critical conversations about the intersections of history, culture, geopolitics, policy, and education. The World Yearbook of Education 2010 offers new conceptual and empirical approaches that deal with some of the often-neglected aspects of the study of Arab education: contested political projects; struggles towards emancipation, recognition and liberation; and a larger concern for social justice, equity, and political inclusion. Andrlias Mazawi is associate professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. He is also an associate fellow at the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Educational Research at the University of Malta.Ronald G. Sultana is professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of Malta, where he also leads the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Educational Research. He is the founding editor of the Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies.

Opening up the field of diasporic Anglo-Arab literature to critical debate, this companion spans from the first Arab novel in 1911 to the resurgence of the Anglo-Arabic novel in the last 20 years. There are chapters on authors such as Ameen Rihani, Ahdaf

Aimée Israel-Pelletier examines the lives of Middle Eastern Jews living in Islamic societies in this political and cultural history of the Jews of Egypt. By looking at the work of five Egyptian Jewish writers, Israel-Pelletier confronts issues of identity, exile, language, immigration, Arab nationalism, European colonialism, and discourse on the Holocaust. She illustrates that the Jews of Egypt were a fluid community connected by deep roots to the Mediterranean and the Nile. They had an unshakable sense of being Egyptian until the country turned toward the Arab East. With Israel-Pelletier's deft handling, Jewish Egyptian writing offers an insider's view in the unique character of Egyptian Jewry and the Jewish presence across the Mediterranean region and North Africa.

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A sociologist examines the history of Egypt from the pharaohs to the present, shedding light on its cultural deterioration and the dilemmas it faces today. The story of Egypt’s long history is one of gradual descent from a wealthy, organized, sophisticated society to its contemporary milieu of corruption and poverty. For more than four thousand years, it earned the moniker om el donya, mother of the world. But when Cleopatra died, the independent rule of the pharaohs died with her. This seismic event not only transferred power to Rome, but also shattered the foundations of Egyptian society. For the following two millennia, a succession of foreign occupations and despotic rulers undermined Egypt’s national identity. They exported her wealth, imported a new language and culture, and spawned social values that are inimical to the very notion of modernity. Understanding these developments provides one possible route to getting a handle on the social and cultural situation in Egypt today.