Volume I: Issue 1 - 2009

EGYPT’S HERITAGE REVIEW

VOLUME I2009

2009

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Live Colors, NicosiaPublisher

EditoriaLEditor in Chief Moguib Rouchdy

MaNagMENtYasmine El dorghamy

Najla El HalwagyContributors Amr S. Talaat, Iman R. Ab-

dulfattah, Lesley Lababidi, Mennat-Allah El Dorry, Mercedes Volait, Mohamed El Hebeishy, Nigel Hether-ington, Omneya Abdel Barr, Samir W. Raafat, Seif El Rashidy, Shereen Mosaad

Translators Shereen MoussadNesma Gabr

artArt Director Faris Hassanein

Creative & Layout Designer Mohamed Hani

pHotograpHYMiriam Benyamein

Koteiba FayyadMahmoud Saad

Financial Consultant Sabry attia Mossadahmed abbass

MarKEtiNgMarketing Manager Wael ElShafie

SaLES tEaMSales & Advertising Director

Sales Executiverania HalimMarwa Nour

adMiNiStratioN & produCtioNOffice Managers Mirette philips

Magda adibDistribution Manager rana abdel Wahab

Asst. Distribution Officer Wael MostafaDistribution Officer Mohamed Ezzat

Distribution al ahram, FedEXPrepress & Printing Sahara printing Company

goLd SpoNSor

48 Abdel Moneim Hafez Street, Midan El Sabaa’ Emarat, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt Tel/Fax: (+202) 2290 8127 - 2415 8762 Mobile: 010 120 0808 - 010 00 2322 - 010 005 2323E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.turath-egypt.com© Copyright 2007 Turath is a Quarterly publication published by: LC Live Colors Nicosia, CyprusLi

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My brother, the environmentalist in the family, has been trying to drag me along on one of his “Cycler’s Club” trips for quite a long time now. In an effort to promote clean transportation in Egypt, he and a group of people have

been moving around Cairo on bicycles, trying to make the air cleaner, and the streets a little less congested. �is time, he wanted me to join them on a Friday morning ride through Khedivial Cairo. My task was to talk about the history of the surrounding build-ings, and help the fellow cyclers relive the glory years in their imaginations.

I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet, but I will one day... Right now, I wish to invite Turath’s readers to relive Cairo’s glory years in their imaginations.

�e “belle époque” as it is often called, reigns supreme in this issue of Turath. Mercedes Volait tells us of the earliest years of Cairo’s “Ismailia” as Ali Mubarak, then minister of public works, was commissioned to convert an area of shallow ponds and marsh-es into a little piece of Haussmannite Paris, most of which has now vanished. In “Mademoiselle Garden City,” Amr Talaat takes us back to the very first developments on the area we now know by the same name, sans the “Mademoiselle” (the story behind that title is quite amusing, I must add).

�e belle époque is now far behind us, but who knows?.. It was public consciousness that once maintained it, and we hope that same awareness will one day revive it.

Yasmine El Dorghamy

Founder

I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet, but I will one day... Right now, I wish to invite Turath’s readers to relive Cairo’s glory years in their

�e “belle époque” as it is often called, reigns supreme in this issue of Turath. Mercedes Volait tells us of the earliest years of Cairo’s “Ismailia” as Ali Mubarak, then minister of public works, was commissioned to convert an area of shallow ponds and marsh-es into a little piece of Haussmannite Paris, most of which has now vanished. In “Mademoiselle Garden City,” Amr Talaat takes us back to the very first developments on the area we now know by the same

the “Mademoiselle” (the story behind that title is quite

�e belle époque is now far behind us, but who knows?.. It was public consciousness that once maintained it, and we hope that

Cover Photo: Faris HassaneinDetail from the Davies Bryan & Co Building (also known as Shurbagi building) on Adly Street. Built circa 1910 by Robert Williams, architect.

Gomhoureyya street one hundred years ago.

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8 Heritage NewsWhat’s New with the Old

14 VisitTulun: a man, a mosque, and a time lost?

The Egyptian Post Office Museum

24 Cover StoryThe BirTh of khedivial cairo

28 Featurechampollion-The sTory of a sTreeT in cairo

32 Going, Going… GoneHeritage at RiskBisharin - Hanging in the balance.

36 I Saw, I Thought, I Wrote: Express yourself

40 Egyptian Chic - Arts & Crafts Abdel Zaher Atelier- The art of book-binding.

46 Profile - Champions of HeritageDr. Sherif el Kherdani - A philatelic telling of history.

50 Saved - Working to Keep Our Memories AliveEl Rih el Ahmar: The spirits of Zar

54 Unraveling: Trivia, Surprises and Myth Busters

58 How it all Started: Intangible HeritageEgyptomania in film-Bride of the Nile

Our Persians

68 Egyptian TalesMademoiselle Garden City

76 Read

78 Arabic Sectionالموضوعات المترجمة للعربية

Cover StoryThe Birth of Khedivial CairoPage: 24

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Amr S. Talaat is a historian specialized in Egypt’s mod-ern history. He has con-ducted extensive research on many significant events and personalities of that era. His approach is to always try to take a fresh look on old preconceptions. He has published many articles on the Mohamed Ali Dynasty era and frequently gives lec-tures on the topic.

Iman R. Abdulfattah holds an MA in Islamic Art and Architecture from the Amer-ican University in Cairo (AUC). She currently works for the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) on vari-ous museum projects, most important of which is the renovation of the Museum of Islamic Art.

Lesley Lababidi is the author of Cairo’s Street Stories: Ex-ploring the City’s Statues, Squares, Bridges, Gardens, and Sidewalk Cafes; Cairo The Family Guide; and Si-lent No More: Special Needs People in Egypt; revising and editing two editions of Cairo The Practical Guide. She is a travel writer and photogra-pher in Nigeria, Syria, and Egypt.

Mennat-Allah El Dorry holds an M.A. in Egyptian Archaeology and is a spe-cialist in Archaeobotany. She has worked on many ar-chaeological sites through-out Egypt for the last 6 years. Her interests span from social organisation in the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods, to food and agricultural traditions in monastic settlements to Pharaonic elements in Egyp-tian Cinema.

Mercedes Volait is an archi-tectural historian and the coordinator of the Interna-tional Research Network « Architectures modernes en Méditerranée » at the Cen-

tre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. She has written extensively on the architecture of 19th and 20th c. Cairo and is current-ly preparing a book on An-tiquarianism in 19th century Cairo.

Mohamed El Hebeishy is a freelance travel writer and photographer. His articles and photo-essays cover trav-el destinations, mainly in Egypt and the Middle East. He has also participated in different photography exhi-bitions held in Cairo , Lon-don and Rome . El Hebeishy is author and photographer of the widely acclaimed book ‘Egypt Rediscovered’

Nigel Hetherington (Heri-tage News) is a graduate from the Institute of Archaeology at University College Lon-don and is a member of the International Association of Egyptologists. He runs his own consultancy company; Past Preservers providing historical and archaeologi-cal consultancy and profes-

sional support to the media industry. Nigel is also in the process of researching and writing a book on the his-tory of tourism in Luxor.

Omneya Abdel Barr, is an architect at Dar al-Handa-sah and holds a Masters de-gree in conservation from RLICC,Leuven. She took part in several projects re-lated to the conservation of old edifices; the documen-tation of archeological sites and the rehabilitation of his-toric towns, in Egypt, Syria, France, Italy and Belgium. She was part of the conser-vation team restoring Bayt al-Razzaz in Darb el Ahmar.Omneya is currently con-ducting her PhD research on Mamlouk Architecture at the University of Provence.

Samir W. Raafat was born, raised and educated in Maadi, he studied at AUC

before joining Bank of America during the infitah years. The after effects of Sadat’s Open Door policy were to destroy Maadi turn-ing it into a concrete ghetto. It also resulted in his books Maadi 1904-1962; Society & History in a Cairo Suburb, and, Cairo, The Glory Years. He sees his passion for lo-cal history as fitting in with a world-wide trend towards conservation.

Seif El Rashidy is currently the coordinator of the Dur-ham World Heritage Site. He is an architectural his-torian who worked for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Cairo for ten years. He enjoys writing, especially about architecture, and has contributed to Architectural Record.

Shereen Mosaad holds a degree in English Litera-ture and works as a Deputy Headmistress in a school in Cairo as well as doing free-lance writing on topics such as Egyptian history and her-itage, contemporary social issues and literary editing, critiques and articles.

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The holiday period saw the usual rush of news from excavations in Egypt as many overseas archaeological missions wound

up their winter work and others announced their plans for the coming spring season: new exhibi-tions were announced; one looking at the legacy of Egypt; another looking at the Nubian rescue campaign, a new book was launched looking at the disputes over the ownership of cultural heri-tage; the British Museum announced the open-ing of a new gallery dedicated to ancient Egypt and much more…

Brief Roundup of New Archaeological Discoveries

Several news stories from the world of Egyp-tian archaeology caught our attention.

New Pyramid Discovery

A press release from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has announced the discovery of the mummy of Queen Seshestet, by Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA.

Queen Seshestet was the mother of King Teti, who founded the Sixth Dynasty. She is believed to have ruled Egypt for over a decade, around 4,300 years ago.

The mummy was discovered in a newly-found pyramid, while her name was not found any-where in the tomb, “all the signs indicate that she is Seshestet,” said Dr Hawass.

Unfortunately, the chamber had been raided

by grave robbers. They took everything, includ-ing valuables, which were buried inside the sarcophagus with Seshestet at the time of her death.

A small number of female pharaohs ruled Egypt during the dynastic period, the most famous be-ing Hatshepsut and of course Cleopatra.

Two tombs discovered in Saqqara

Culture minister Farouk Hosni announced recently that an Egyptian archaeological mis-sion headed by Dr. Zahi Hawass, has discovered two rock-cut tombs at El-Deir bridge area in the Saqqara necropolis, 400 meters south of the step-pyramid.

The first belongs to Iya-Maat, the supervisor of king Unas’ expeditions to bring limestone from the Tura area, granite from Aswan, and Mafet from the Western Desert. He also held several titles, such as ‘supervisor of the king’s proper-ty’. The second tomb belongs to a Fifth Dynasty singer called Thinh. At the front of the tomb is a lintel engraved with the singer’s different ti-tles, including ‘supervisor of all singers’. A relief showing such a singer during a performance is found on one of the tomb’s walls.

Middle Kingdom Settlement in Ain SokhnaIt has also been announced that a French-

Egyptian mission has discovered a previously unknown structure in the area of Ain Sokhna, about 120 km southeast of Cairo. The rectangu-lar building with an interior hall dates to the Mid-dle Kingdom (ca. 1665-2061 BC), and surrounds

A detail from the Iya-Maat tomb. Courtesy of the SCA

The pyramid excavation site.

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nine galleries and three narrow passages.Dr. Zahi Hawass said that an archaeological

team that has been working at the site since 1999 have found the remains of a Middle King-dom settlement. This settlement was an impor-tant logistical center, which served a variety of functions. This year, excavations in the galler-ies led the team to a collection of clay vessels bearing the names of kings of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties, as well as large cedar planks and ropes from boats used to cross the Gulf of Suez to Sinai, where turquoise and copper were mined.

George Castle, the head of the French team, said that other important installations linked to these expeditions were found on the site, in-cluding a natural promontory by the sea. The remains of many successive occupations were found, the most important of which dates to the Old Kingdom. A square building that seems to have been the center of the original complex was also found.

Excavations in Beni SuefLast but not least, a group of stone architec-

tural remains dating to the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2190-2016 BC) have been uncovered at Ehnasya El-Medina in the Beni Suef Gover-norate during routine excavations carried out by the Spanish archaeological mission spon-sored by the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid. Excavations in the courtyard of the temple of the god Heryshef had revealed part of a column drum, and inside the hypostyle hall

the Spanish team discovered Ramesside inscrip-tions and part of a false door.

Carmen Perez-Die, the head of the mission, said that on the western side of the First In-termediate Period necropolis located near the temple, a complete false door from an unidenti-fied tomb was unearthed. The team also found burnt false doors and offering tables, along with the remains of human skeletons in very poor condition. On the eastern side of the cemetery, two individual burials containing well-preserved skeletons were excavated.

News from the Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings in Luxor is probably one of the most well known archaeological and World Heritage sites in the world, everlastingly associated with the discovery of the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun. The necropolis of the

The newly found Middle Kingdom Structure. Courtesy of the SCA

Heryshef temple excavation site. Courtesy of the SCA

False door from unidentified tomb. Courtesy of the SCA

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pharaohs of the New Kingdom for over five hun-dred years has been a focus of attention from scholars, rival elites, privileged travelers, and invading armies and now tourists for over three thousand years.

Once described as finished and devoid of any archaeological interest, the valley has become the focus of renewed archaeological activity in the last few years

This season sees the return of the Theban Mapping Project under its director Dr Kent Weeks, to KV5 and the The Amarna Royal Tombs Project reports that two radar searches under-taken in 2000 suggest that hollow spaces un-derlie two regions of the Valley near King Tut`s tomb and a recently-uncovered tomb near King Amenmesse`s resting place.

And Dr. Otto Schaden returned to the valley for the 2009 season. Roxanne Wilson informed us that Dr. Schaden safely arrived in Luxor and officially opened KV-10 and KV-63 on the 6th of January. In Otto’s words, “KV-10 (where every-thing is stored) is ‘very dusty!’ but the cleaning crew are already hard at work” So far then, there is not much to report but we will have a follow up soon.

Second Pier Discovered at Karnak

An Egyptian mission lead by archaeologist Mansour Boraik has recently discovered a pier used by Ancient Egyptians to access the Karnak temple complex during the dry season. The dis-covery was further evidence of the importance the complex held in the religious life of Ancient Egypt, as other temples typically had a single dock.

And around the world….Egyptomania Exhibition at the Bolton

Museum, Aquarium and ArchiveOne of the ways, in which Ancient Egyptian

art and culture has left its mark on the world is through what has become know as Egyptomania which is celebrated in a new exhibition at the Bolton Museum, Aquarium and Archive in the United Kingdom.

Egyptomania refers to the post-pharaonic ap-peal with Ancient Egypt and its numerous mani-festations. This includes obvious visual expres-sions of Egyptian themes, for example in films and architecture, as well as the employment of Egyptian motifs by architects, philosophers, occultists and groups with political or social aims. Egyptomania began with the Greeks and Romans and continues today in modern civili-zations with various degrees of fascination. Its various Egyptianizing forms are referred to as the Egyptian Revival, the Neo-Egyptian, Egypti-anate, Egyptiana and Pharaonism.

The exhibition reveals the depth of this fasci-nation with Ancient Egypt with material ranging from 8th century BC Iraq to the modern day with a look at Roman sculpture, Renaissance books, Victorian china and silverware, tourist souvenirs and smoking paraphernalia along the way.

The exhibition is free and opens on Saturday 7th February and runs until Saturday 9th May 2009. The museum is open Monday to Satur-day, 9am - 5pm. More information at http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/

Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Trea-sures of the Ancient World

One of the most contested topics over the last few years in the field of cultural heritage has been the recovery or repatriation of cultural ar-

Courtesy of the SCA

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tefacts removed from their original location in countries such as Egypt and Greece during past colonial rule.

Many of these battles have become very public and have raged for decades, such as the fierce debates over who owns the Parthenon Marbles (sometimes referred to as the Elgin Marbles) held in the British Museum in London, but which orig-inally came from the temple of Athena in Greece. Egypt has recently joined the fray with demands for the return, or at the least a long term loan of key masterpieces of Egyptian cultural history from the national museums of the West.

Now a new book, Loot, has been written by Sharon Waxman, a former New York Times jour-nalist and she has dared to ask the questions many of us have wanted the answers to in this debate over who owns the past. A never-ending debate we’re sure.

New Exhibition: Abu Simbel, the Salvage of the Temples, Man and TechnologyThe Aswan High Dam, once operational would

create a lake the length of England, one which would submerge most of the ancient land of Nubia, cause the enforced movement of over 100,000 people and destroy countless ancient archaeological sites. Yet out of it, a new consen-sus concerning the protection of cultural heri-tage was born.

In hindsight, the first act of the Nubian rescue campaign was to be the creation of an Egyptian documentation and study center, advocated by

Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt (Curator of Egyptian antiquities at the Louvre in Paris). This centre supported by UNESCO and the Egyptian government, was to become the nerve center for the campaign in Nubia.

Following their own attempts at attracting a global understanding of the impending threat and the scale of the rescue operation required, the governments of Egypt and the Sudan in-dependently applied for worldwide assistance through UNESCO. This was the first such re-quest the organization had received since its in-ception in 1945, however, within three months, the executive board of UNESCO had authorized the then Director-General, Dr. Vittorino Vero-nese to start preparations for the campaign.

The Egyptian government later (October 1959) made a series of concessions to potential exca-vators, in an attempt to encourage the widest participation possible, these included:

• Exempting rare finds, the artefacts recovered from any excavation would be split 50/50

• Licenses would be granted for further re-search outside the High Dam area

• Some rescued temples would be given to par-ticipating countries

The request of the Egyptian and Sudanese governments resulted in a international appeal, made on 8 March 1960 by the Director General, Veronese.

“ It is not easy to choose between a heritage of the past and the present well-being of a people, living in need in the shadow of history’s most splendid legacies; it is not easy to choose be-tween temples and crops. … These monuments, whose loss might be tragically near, do not be-long solely to the countries who hold them in trust. The whole world has a right to see them endure. They are part of a common heritage…Treasures of universal value are entitled to uni-versal protection.”

With this role in mind, a team of experts was hastily arranged and they began a survey of sites and the priority that must be given to each. The campaign grew in size very quickly and by the late summer of 1962, there were twenty-two for-eign missions operating in Egypt and the Sudan.

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The focus of attention then became the campaign to raise funds to move the large temples of Phi-lae and Abu Simbel, as most of the initial surge in donations had now dwindled. This additional campaign would eventually result in the saving of not just Philae and Abu Simbel, but the com-plete removal and reconstruction of all but three temples, which due to logistical problems, could not be moved.

Despite the international nature of campaign, Egypt was the principal contributor; the Egyp-tian government also approved a series of inter-national exhibitions, both as a fundraising tool and as an attempt to raise global awareness re-garding the rescue campaign.

The focus of this new exhibition will be to fea-ture the people, the methods of work and the machinery used in the project”. Particular at-tention will be placed on the involvement of the 2000 Egyptians, who’s contribution in terms of hard work, professionalism, competence and talent in saving the monuments has till now not been widely acknowledged..

The Exhibition runs from the 15th-26th May 2009, will be inaugurated in Rome inside Had-rian’s temple. From then it will travel to other major European cities.

The British Museum Opens New Gallery for Nebamun Wall Paintings

On the 21st January 2009 a new permanent

gallery will open at The British Museum in Lon-don for the 11 surviving fragments of the stun-ning wall paintings from tomb-chapel of Nebam-un from the West Bank at Luxor. The 10-year project to restore the reliefs and establish a gal-lery to display them has cost £1.5m and this will be the first time in nearly ten years for them to be seen by the public.

Nebamun, was an accountant in the Temple of Amun at Karnak who died c. 1350 BC.

“These are the greatest paintings we have from Ancient Egypt,” Richard Parkinson told the Guardian Newspaper says. “There is nothing to touch them in any museum in the world. We’re restoring, as much as possible, the original set-ting for the paintings. They were removed from the chapel’s walls in the 1820s and have since been displayed as separate fragments as if they were individual European works of art. Now they are joined back together, and can be seen as they were meant to be seen, as a whole”

Drawing on the latest research and fieldwork at Luxor, a computer ‘walk-through’ of the re-constructed tomb-chapel will be available in the gallery with an interactive version online.

Next to the paintings, 150 artefacts will show how the tomb-chapel was built, how it remained open for visitors, and also the nature of Egyptian society at the time. Most of the objects are con-temporary with Nebamun and reflect those de-picted in his paintings. Some, however, contrast

Detail of a feast for Nebamun, fragment of a scene from the tomb-chapel of Nebamun. Thebes, Egypt, Late 18th dynasty, around 1350BC. Copyright British Museum.

Pool in Nebamun’s estate garden, fragment of a scene from the tomb-chapel of Nebamun. Thebes, Egypt, Late 18th dynasty, around 1350BC. Copyright British Museum.

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with the idealized world-view that is shown on elite monuments like the tomb-chapel and show that most people’s experience of life was not necessarily all about leisure and prestige as in the paintings. Spectacularly, luxurious objects, such as a glass perfume bottle in the shape of a fish, are juxtaposed with crude tools of basic survival, such as a fishing net, to suggest that most of what we know of Ancient Egypt is about the small wealthy elite.

The Revenge of the Mummy

Singapore will soon get an attraction called The Revenge of the Mummy at its new Univer-sal Studios theme park, a ride based on the old Mummy movies.

The ride is planned to be just like the one by the same name at the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, which was built by Premier Rides in 2004. Jim Seay, president of Premier Rides, said that ride is consistently recognized as one of the top attractions at the Orlando park because of its advanced special effects, anima-tronics and surround sound.

The ride is based on “The Mummy” movies, the first of which was made in 1932 and starred ac-tor Boris Karloff as Imhotep, an Ancient Egyp-tian mummy, who is accidentally brought back to life by a worker on a field expedition.

A 1999 remake of that movie starred Brendan Fraser as a field guide, who leads an archaeolo-gist, played by Rachel Weisz, into a lost Egyptian city, where she accidentally revives Imhotep. Annoyed, Imhotep retaliates by sending in the Biblical 10 plagues of Egypt, including locusts and turning water to blood, and attacking the archaeologists with fleets of flesh-eating scar-abs.

About 150 to 200 people are feverishly at work on the engineering and manufacturing of the ride, which will have more advanced electronics than the Orlando version, he said.

Nebamun hunting in the marshes, fragment of a scene from the tomb-chapel of Nebamun. Thebes, Egypt, Late 18th dynasty, around 1350BC. H83cm, W,98cm. Copyright British Museum.

Courtesy of Universal Studios Hollywood

TULUN A MAN, A MOSQUE AND A TIME LOST?

B O A BP B K F

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When we were about to get married, my fiancée and I had this nostalgic idea to have our katb kitab (signing of the marriage contract) cel-

ebrated at the mosque of Ibn Tulun. A week before the wedding and after all the effort we had to go through to get the necessary permits, we discovered that most of the mishqahs were not functioning. It turned out that as soon as the sun goes down, this architectural gem is dressed in utter darkness. Since there was not enough time left to change the situation, we had to let go of the idea and instead of being wed in a millennium old mosque, we got married in a 50 year old franchise hotel.

But why IbnTulun? We were in search for a place of special significance, not

just in its walls and ornamentation, but also in its history and location; a place that has lived and survived through time.

Imagine the people coming and going, living and dying, leaving traces, waste, breath and blood. Then try to feel their presence, their thoughts, their laughter and sounds. Now imagine the lights of the city, its dust and the move-ments and vibrations of its inhabitants. If you mix it all to-gether you can start to see the significance of a landmark that has lived through a long part of the history of a very, very old city.

In fact, it was precisely one thousand one hundred and twenty nine years ago that Ahmad Ibn Tulun finished the construction of his great mosque.

Who is he and how did he arrive to Egypt? Ibn Tulun was born in Baghdad in 835 AD, he was the

son of a Turkish slave of the Abbasid Caliph el-Ma’mūn. In 868 AD The Caliph al-Mu’tazz appointed Ibn Tulun’s step father, Bayik bey as Egypt’s governor who in return sent his stepson to be his regent and that is how he ar-rived in Egypt in September of the same year. Ibn Tulun immediately noticed that the existing capital was too small to accommodate his armies, so he decided to establish a new royal capital and started building his residence and mosque on the hills of Yashkur, a location that gave him domination over Fustat and ‘Askar, the capitals of his pre-decessors. Under his rule, Egypt became an independent province of the Abbasids and the age of the Tulunid dy-nasty began.

The city was called Qatāi’ (the quartered city). Each group of his followers settled in a zone and started raising constructions around his large ceremonial mosque. Domi-nated by this magnificent building, the city dazzled with its sumptuous palaces, lush gardens, ornate hammams, and colorful souks. It became famous with its large public square and hippodrome. Qatai’ was influenced in style by the great cities of Persia and the Byzantine Empire. Sadly, the entire place was eventually burnt by the Abbasids in 905 A.D.

All was lost but the mosque. As mentioned earlier, the monument is built on a hill

called Gebel Yashkur “the hill of the thanksgiving”, known to be a blessed spot. Maqrizi mentions that it was named after an Arab tribe who came to settle on it with the Arab conquest of Egypt. Nowadays the name Yashkur is hard-ly heard, we hear mostly Tulun and Qal’at al-Kabch. The latter takes us back to the Ayubid’s dynasty founded by Salah Eddin El Ayubi in the 12th century, as this cita-del was built by one of his sucessors, Najm Eddin Ayoub. Back then the land between the mosque and the Southern gate of the Fatimid walled city “Bab Zuweilah” was noth-ing but sumptuous gardens. Up the hill one used to have a view of al-Qahira, Fustat, Roda Island all the way to the shores of Giza.

The mosque is therefore located on a very exception-al spot in the city; a transitional area between Old Cairo (Fustat) and Fatimid Cairo (al-Qahira). Fustat was left to decay after the destruction of Qatāi’, but was later urban-ized again with the Mameluk reign ( 1250-1517 AD), when the siege of power was shifted from the walled city to the Citadel of Salah Eddin. Two of the mosque’s sides face Sal-iba street in the North and Tulun street in the South, two major East-West axes in the South of the medieval city.

Saliba is the axis that crosses the extension of El-Muezz Street, the Qasabah of al-Qahira. It was the path of the great ceremonial parades of the Mameluk sultan celebrat-ing each year the opening of the khalij (bay). Maqrizi men-tions it as al-jisr al-A’zam (the great bridge) as it used to separate between Birket el-Fil in the North and Birket Qar-un in the South; Cairo’s famous ponds that disappeared with the 19th century urbanization. Great constructions of Mameluk and Ottoman Sultans and Emirs remain on both its sides. We have today; three mosques, three madrassas, five sabils, and one khanqah.

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Tulun Street on the other hand is the first path taken by all voyagers coming from Fustat or the South. One can

imagine the desfilé of travelers and caravans entering the city from one of its Southern gates, Bab Tulun (a gate now dis-

appeared but present by name). From this point one can still experience an extraordinary view over the city with its collection of Mameluk minarets and domes, until the eyes reach the rampart of Saladin’s Citadel.

The mosque still dominates the heart of Cairo. It is lo-cated in Sayeda Zeinab; Cairo’s most populous and an-cient quarter that owes its name to the mosque by the

same name where the granddaughter of prophet Mu-hammed (pbuh) is known to be buried. Each year on the 23rd of the Islamic month of Rajab, the area celebrates her birth. It is one of Cairo’s most crowd-ed and frantic mulids that brings together pilgrims from all over the country with each tarika holding its zikr in the narrow alleyways.

The beauty of medieval Cairo is expressed in the monuments left but it is also expressed in the hidden built fabric still retaining Mameluk and Ottoman urban patterns and unfortunately barely surviving ongoing mutation and destruc-tion. Together with the listed monuments, it

composes a very rich architectural and urban heritage, creating a remarkable

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unity in scale and providing spaces with high urban qual-ity lacking today in the modern extensions of the city.

Now let’s take a closer look at the mosqueWe are in the oldest mosque in Egypt surviving in its

original form. Covering an area of 26,318 m², it is the third largest mosque in the world. Its footprint is about 1.3 times as large as that of the Piazza and Cathedral of San Marco in Venice. The mosque boasts a large squared courtyard with a central fountain surrounded by alignments of arcades that support a roof. Its north, east and west sides have double walls called the ziyadahs. The mosque originally was backed by Ibn Ţulun’s palace, and a door adjacent to the minbar allowed him direct access to the mosque. It is entirely built of well-fired red brick covered in carved stucco. The origin of the architect is not certain; some say he was a Copt, others think he was from Iraq. But, unlike in the mosque of Amr Ibn el-‘As , he built this one without using columns from old churches. Only two columns were used, the ones of the mihrab. This was the request of Ibn Tulun.

Today the mosque is one of the most re-nowned of the Muslim World as it repre-sents a rare architectural expression of

the cultural influence of the city of Samarra in Iraq where Ahmed

Ibn Tulun lived with his family until the age of 15 and where

he received his military training and theological studies. 250 years only after the birth of Islam, we find ourselves in front of a strong architectural style, retaining traces from the past but being entirely freed from any direct imitation of the previous styles. The collection of ornaments on the carved stucco and the multiple designs of the gypsum win-dows are simply unique and indeed remarkable.

Ibn Tulun built this mosque to be a Jame’: a Friday-prayer mosque. It was the focal point of his capital and served as the center of administration for the Tulunid dy-nasty. Over the years it started hosting other functions. At the end of the 12th century it became a factory for wool belts, and at the middle of the 19th century it was turned into an shelter for the elderly. Several houses were built against its walls. Like many other Egyptian monuments, the mosque suffered from the injustice of time and was left to decay over several periods in history.

The first known initiative for restoration was in 1177 A.D. under orders from the Fatimid wazir Badr al-Jamālī. The second was in 1296 A.D under the Mameluk sultan Lashin’s orders, who also added the central fountain. In the early 20th century it was subject to important resto-ration works by the Comité de Conservation des Monu-ments de l’Art Arabe (an Egyptian governmental institu-tion within the ministry of Awqaf created by a Khedivial decree in 1881 for the preservation of Islamic monuments and arts).

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A strong debate was raised in the 1920s re-garding its buffer zone and the decision was taken to demolish all the houses built against its walls. However, two of the oldest and best-preserved houses were left intact. This explains their presence at the corner of the East ziya-dah. Beit al-Kritliyya and Beit Amna bint Salim, known today as the Gayer Anderson Museum.

Ibn Tulun mosque was restored by the Su-preme Council of Antiquities in 2004. Let’s hope that a better maintenance plan will be active to ensure its preservation and perhaps allow ar-rangements for some ceremonies to take place to bring life and joy to its courtyard, where we then can enjoy its majesty by night.

Now that you got acquainted with the mosque and its surroundings, I hope you will enjoy visit-ing its outstanding courtyard and perhaps if you are lucky, climb its unique spiral minaret. But I would also like you to be more adventurous and go discover the old Southern ends of Medi-eval Cairo, you will see the remnants of wekalas, the shadows of courtyard houses, mushrabi-yahs from old and maybe the remaining door of a hammam here or there. We are in a popular area that has a charm of its own. You can have tea in one of the many open cafés, eat some fool and Koshari and later enjoy the taste of fresh juices while contemplating the minaret of Tulun and the domes of Sarghatmish.

Enjoy your walk and your mosque.

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A strong debate was raised in the 1920s re-garding its buffer zone and the decision was taken to demolish all the houses built against its walls. However, two of the oldest and best-preserved houses were left intact. This explains their presence at the corner of the East ziya-dah. Beit al-Kritliyya and Beit Amna bint Salim, known today as the Gayer Anderson Museum.

Ibn Tulun mosque was restored by the Su-preme Council of Antiquities in 2004. Let’s hope that a better maintenance plan will be active to ensure its preservation and perhaps allow ar-rangements for some ceremonies to take place to bring life and joy to its courtyard, where we then can enjoy its majesty by night.

Now that you got acquainted with the mosque and its surroundings, I hope you will enjoy visit-ing its outstanding courtyard and perhaps if you are lucky, climb its unique spiral minaret. But I would also like you to be more adventurous and go discover the old Southern ends of Medi-eval Cairo, you will see the remnants of wekalas, the shadows of courtyard houses, mushrabi-yahs from old and maybe the remaining door of a hammam here or there. We are in a popular area that has a charm of its own. You can have tea in one of the many open cafés, eat some fool and Koshari and later enjoy the taste of fresh juices while contemplating the minaret of Tulun and the domes of Sarghatmish.

Enjoy your walk and your mosque.

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�e Egyptian Post Office MuseumB L LP B M B

The Egyptian Post Office Museum hidden within the noisy, polluted Al-Ataba Square is a prize gem of Central Cairo. The doors are kept closed and elec-

tricity turned off in-between visitors but once an entrance ticket is presented, the doors swing open like curtains onto a spectacular stage. Enter the world of communication.

During King Fouad’s reign (1917-1936), a new depart-

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�e Egyptian Post Office Museum

ment of communication responsible for telephone, tele-graph and postal services was established that included the transportation sector such as railway, airway, and roadway. King Fouad, an avid stamp collector, established the Postal Museum in February 1934. It was opened to the public in 1940 on the second floor at the Central Post Office. Over the years, the collection grew from a stamp exhibit to one that highlights communication from phara-onic times and demonstrates the development of Egypt’s postal service through the centuries. The museum has more than 1200 exhibits arranged in sections – history of communication, transportation, postal equipment, local and foreign stamps, uniforms, postal buildings, rare let-ters and maps.

The museum is well-preserved and exhibits are main-tained with obvious care. Leather mailbags, original postal uniforms, badges, seals of all shapes and sizes, and nu-merous letterboxes, three dating from 1894, are examples of various postal paraphernalia. In rural areas of Egypt, of-ficial duties were the responsibility of the ruling elder, thus

1- Housed in the Postal Office building, the museum’s architecture is enough to revel in on its own.2-�e museum’s large collection of postal seals3- Collection of vintage leather bags dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries.4-7 One of the museum’s greatest delights: their assortment of vintage mailboxes in various designs.

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�e Egyptian Post Office Museum

ment of communication responsible for telephone, tele-graph and postal services was established that included the transportation sector such as railway, airway, and roadway. King Fouad, an avid stamp collector, established the Postal Museum in February 1934. It was opened to the public in 1940 on the second floor at the Central Post Office. Over the years, the collection grew from a stamp exhibit to one that highlights communication from phara-onic times and demonstrates the development of Egypt’s postal service through the centuries. The museum has more than 1200 exhibits arranged in sections – history of communication, transportation, postal equipment, local and foreign stamps, uniforms, postal buildings, rare let-ters and maps.

The museum is well-preserved and exhibits are main-tained with obvious care. Leather mailbags, original postal uniforms, badges, seals of all shapes and sizes, and nu-merous letterboxes, three dating from 1894, are examples of various postal paraphernalia. In rural areas of Egypt, of-ficial duties were the responsibility of the ruling elder, thus

1- Housed in the Postal Office building, the museum’s architecture is enough to revel in on its own.2-�e museum’s large collection of postal seals3- Collection of vintage leather bags dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries.4-7 One of the museum’s greatest delights: their assortment of vintage mailboxes in various designs.

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letters were posted and collected from his personal house. On display is an over-sized wooden letterbox that would have stood inside the house of the village-head. There is a not-to-be-missed glass case of miniature statues of postal workers with examples of uniforms worn in Roman times to the present, as well as original postal apparel from Egypt and around the world. Valuable collections of stamped en-velopes from foreign countries along with a sweeping dis-play of commemorative stamps – King Farouk’s coronation and the first Egyptian stamp collection (1867-69) – and lo-cal stamps with pharaonic, Islamic, and Coptic designs are samples of this vast collection. At the far end of the room is a stamp mosaic made from 15,000 identical stamps. Each individual, post-marked stamp has the same picture of the tapestry – a pyramid and the Sphinx. The desk and chair stationed in front of this stamp tapestry are those of the

first postmaster in Egypt, Jacob Muzzi, an Italian.Postal distribution is a particularly important part of the

museum’s exhibit. Glass cases contain miniature scenes and models of ways by which messages were distributed since pharaonic times to the present. The ancient Egyp-tians were probably the first to convey messages through an organized service. Diplomatic correspondence exchanged nearly 3,500 years ago between the pharaohs and rulers of Babylon, Assyria, Syria, and Palestine were inscribed in cuneiform writing on square clay tablets.

Through the ages, the search for quicker and more re-liable ways of communication has been a human obses-sion. From horses and camels to the helium balloon, we must not overlook the work of carrier pigeon as well. Sure enough, models of the carrier pigeons and the messages they carried can also be found in the museum. Of particu-

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lar interest is a map of the carrier pigeon’s route during the Mamluk era. The museum delves deeper and demon-strates wheels, motors, water and wind transport commu-nication through extensive exhibits that include models of trains, ships, airplanes, trucks, vans and bicycles, as well as, a felucca and horse drawn boat; all to illustrate the distribution of mail throughout the centuries.

The Post Office Museum is an off-the-beaten-path excur-sion that children from five- years old will enjoy. It is an excellent field trip for students who are interested in the history of communication and transportation of Egypt. (Ex-planations and labels are mostly in Arabic.) The Post Office Museum is located at the Central Post Office on Midan al-Ataba.. To buy a ticket, go through the door marked “Main Post Office” and purchase tickets at the commemorative stamp office, on your right. (Here, commemorative stamps

are on sale as well.) Tickets cost 50 piasters for Egyptians and 2LE for foreigners. Return to the sidewalk and enter the door marked “L’Organisme Nationale des Postes’. The museum is on the second floor, in the atrium is a bust of Ismail Pasha, the entrance of the museum is the first door to the left.

The museum is open Sunday through Thursday from 10am to 3pm. Telephone: 2391-3128. For more informa-tion about unfrequented museums in Cairo, purchase Cai-ro, The Family Guide (3rd edition), American University in Cairo Press.

1-4 Figurines displaying the various costumes and scenes from Egypt’s postal history.5-8 �e various modes of transport used by the postal system over time.

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The Birth ofKhedivial Cairo

Anyone familiar with downtown Cairo will find it hard to be-lieve that not that long ago – a

mere 140 years back in time – the area was cultivated land reclaimed in the 1850s over the rubbish dumps sepa-rating the old Ottoman city from the Nile. It is perhaps even harder to imagine that many early build-ings of the “new quarters” de-veloped there from 1868 on-wards were already gone a couple of decades later, and that by the 1930s a com-plete new landscape, made of opulent apartment flats (among them the Yacoubi-an building), Art deco movie theaters (Metro, Radio, Di-ana) and grand department stores (Cicurel, Chemla, Davies Bryan, Omar effendi, Hannaux), had replaced the early suburban houses of “Isma-ïlia”, as the area was named upon its creation in reference to its found-er, Khedive Ismail.

Cairo’s Ismaïlia EmergesThe most short-lived buildings of

khedivial Cairo were probably the cir-cus and the racecourse (public enter-tainment was an important facet of

the new city envisioned by Khedive Ismail). The former stood in the rear of the Op- era House,

by the Ezbeki-yah gardens – built over a few months in 1869 by the German architect Ju-lius Franz and the French engineer Regis de Curel, it was torn down in

1872 to give way to the huge Matta-tias apartment building (by Ambroise Baudry, 1876), a neo-classical unfin-ished arcaded bloc, itself demolished in 1999. The latter, a huge walled and half-covered structure, was imple-

mented in the very heart of Cairo’s new quarters (the entrance was

from Midan Mustafa Kamel) and lasted a bit longer, but in 1881 its land was subdivided and sold as building lots. One of the last surviving buildings of that development is at 27 Cherif St., in a sad condi-tion, although registered as historical heritage since 1995. The house was built in 1884 by French engineer and art collector Alphonse Delort de Gléon, (as can be

read on the founding inscrip-tion still existing on the façade),

in the Mamluk style that he cher-ished, and was for long a distinct

landmark in Cairo’s social and cul-tural life. In the 1890s, the house was the premises of the “Cercle Artistique”, a club that organized every Ramadan an annual art exhibition, where inter-national and local figures showed their works. It later housed the Automobile Club d’Egypte, until the estate was

By Mercedes Volait

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The Birth ofKhedivial Cairo

Anyone familiar with downtown Cairo will find it hard to be-lieve that not that long ago – a

mere 140 years back in time – the area was cultivated land reclaimed in the 1850s over the rubbish dumps sepa-rating the old Ottoman city from the Nile. It is perhaps even harder to imagine that many early build-ings of the “new quarters” de-veloped there from 1868 on-wards were already gone a couple of decades later, and that by the 1930s a com-plete new landscape, made of opulent apartment flats (among them the Yacoubi-an building), Art deco movie theaters (Metro, Radio, Di-ana) and grand department stores (Cicurel, Chemla, Davies Bryan, Omar effendi, Hannaux), had replaced the early suburban houses of “Isma-ïlia”, as the area was named upon its creation in reference to its found-er, Khedive Ismail.

Cairo’s Ismaïlia EmergesThe most short-lived buildings of

khedivial Cairo were probably the cir-cus and the racecourse (public enter-tainment was an important facet of

the new city envisioned by Khedive Ismail). The former stood in the rear of the Op- era House,

by the Ezbeki-yah gardens – built over a few months in 1869 by the German architect Ju-lius Franz and the French engineer Regis de Curel, it was torn down in

1872 to give way to the huge Matta-tias apartment building (by Ambroise Baudry, 1876), a neo-classical unfin-ished arcaded bloc, itself demolished in 1999. The latter, a huge walled and half-covered structure, was imple-

mented in the very heart of Cairo’s new quarters (the entrance was

from Midan Mustafa Kamel) and lasted a bit longer, but in 1881 its land was subdivided and sold as building lots. One of the last surviving buildings of that development is at 27 Cherif St., in a sad condi-tion, although registered as historical heritage since 1995. The house was built in 1884 by French engineer and art collector Alphonse Delort de Gléon, (as can be

read on the founding inscrip-tion still existing on the façade),

in the Mamluk style that he cher-ished, and was for long a distinct

landmark in Cairo’s social and cul-tural life. In the 1890s, the house was the premises of the “Cercle Artistique”, a club that organized every Ramadan an annual art exhibition, where inter-national and local figures showed their works. It later housed the Automobile Club d’Egypte, until the estate was

By Mercedes Volait

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purchased in 1914 by the famous art dealer Matatias Nahman who turned it into his residence and showroom of international repute, where museum curators all over the world came to buy Egyptian, Islamic or Coptic an-tiques.

Early Khedivial Cairo was essen-tially a suburban development, where land was given for free to anyone com-mitting to build a house surrounded by a garden for a substantial amount of money in a maximum of two years time. Few Cairene residents, whether foreign or Egyptian, could meet the re-quirement, and yet, in no time, most plots were allocated - eventually re-al-located when the first owner could not respect his engagement, and construc-tion began. In 1874, the photographer Emile Béchard produced an illustrat-ed survey of the 61 buildings already constructed (some of which can be seen on the Egypte d’antan’s website). The one- or two-storey houses ranged from modest plain structures to opu-lent heavily-decorated mansions, of which very few have made their way to the present. The palace in Moorish style of Muhammad Sherif Pacha, a minister of Khedive Ismail and son-in-law to the French-born Soliman Pacha, designed by Julius Franz in 1871 on Midan Soliman Pacha, and the mansion of another member of the Turco-Circassian elite, Ali Cherif, known for his stables of race horses,

Opposite- Delort de Gleon interior painted by Gunnar Berndtson (1854-1895). Cour-tesy of the Finnish National Gallery.1-Villa Saint Maurice, now transported to Giza.2-Baron Delort de Gleon Residence built in 1872 by Ambroise Baudry, architect. One of the few remaining buildings, its exterior can be seen on Chawarbi street.3-Raphael Swares Palace. On the spot where Mustafa Kamel square is today.

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on the opposite side of the back street (hence the actual name of Cherifein St.), are no longer there. The Sabet pal-ace on the same midan was replaced in 1898 by the Savoy Hotel and in 1934 by the Baehler buildings. One of Nubar Pacha’s residences, a building on Mi-dan Khazindar to which the German architect Carl von Diebitsch was com-missioned to add Moorish decors and an annex in the same style in 1865, experienced a similar fate : after being turned into a hotel (known as the Ori-ental, then Khedivial hotel), it was re-placed in 1914 by the Sednaoui depart-ment stores (Georges Parcq, architect).

�e Last Survivors of a Golden EraThe imposing Mamluk-style palace

of the French Count Gaston de Saint-Maurice, used as the French Embassy since 1884, was dismantled in 1937; since it was built with architectural salvages from Ottoman buildings de-stroyed for the cutting-up of streets in

the old urban fabric, part of its precious materials, among them an impressive qa’a with four iwans, a fasqiyya (foun-tain), ivory inlaid and carved door panels and marble dadoes, still sur-vive : they were transferred to the new site in Giza to decorate some rooms. The Immobilia, the tallest building in Cairo at the time (Max Edrei and Gas-ton Rossi, architects) was erected on the cleared site. Gone indeed at about the same time were the neo-classi-cal palace of banker Raphael Suares (Ambroise Baudry, 1877) which stood on midan Mustafa Kamel, and the neighboring “Arab-style” residence of Ambroise Baudry itself on Cheikh Aboul-Sebaa St. (the 18th c. ceilings it contained were in this case moved to a new house on Pyramids Road, the Ispenian house, designed by architect Charles Aznavour, where they can still be seen).

The last remnant of the early houses built in the area is a dilapidated vil-

la in Chawarbi Street. Hardly visible from the street because of successive encroachments by shops, the villa once stood in the middle of a large garden, abutting the St-Maurice’s pal-ace, and had an annex attached to it which was known as the “Villa Medi-cis du Caire” because it offered studio space and rooms to visiting painters. It has been commissioned to Ambroise Baudry by Baron Alphonse Delort de Gleon in 1872, in the “Arab style” as the genre was then labeled. Trained at the studio of the famous Oriental-ist artist Jean-Léon Gerôme and suc-cessful in the multiple businesses he had set up in Cairo, the Baron was eager to encourage art in any form and besides subsidizing artists, also collected Islamic art, not only through local dealers but also through agents sent to Yemen and the Hejaz. Reflect-ing his taste for Islamic art, the house displayed many features of Cairene historical architecture: ivory inlaid

door panels, polychrome mar-ble dadoes, a hall lightened by a central lantern and qamari-yyas, muchrabiyyas closing all windows. Purchased in 1908 by a wealthy landowner, Mo-hamed Chawarbi Pacha, the house was subsequently used as the Italian Embassy and in the 1930s as the headquar-ters of the political journal al-Siyasa. It is now occupied by a trading firm. The house was stripped of most of its interior decors in 1995 – but painted ceilings are still visible, as are some of the glass windows as well as the Arabic foundation-al inscription naming Delort de Gleon and his architect.

The few other buildings that have survived from those early days in the southern part of Khedivial Cairo (Cheikh Rihan

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and Nasriyya areas) include a School designed in 1872 by Ali Pacha Mou-barak for upper-class girls (Ecole des Jeunes Filles Nobles, later used by the Ministry of Public Works and to-day by Ministry for Social Affairs) and the massive neo-classical palace of Is-mail Saddiq al-Muffatish built around 1875 on midan Lazoghli (now used as a warehouse by the Ministry of Fi-nance). Close by, stood the palace of the mother of Khedive Ismail at Qasr al-Ayni, occupying with its gardens the whole land where Garden-City was developed after 1906; its monumental gate with the initials of Khedive Ismail can be seen in the Eastern cemeteries, where it was relocated at the time.

Ismaïlia Transforms AgainBy the 1940s and during a relatively short

span of time, downtown Cairo had already experienced quite a radical turn-over of its early constructions. More was to come in the following decades. Another landmark that disappeared in 1955 was the private museum of amateur Omar Sultan attached to his pal-ace on Gamaa Sharkass St. – built in 1907 in Islamic revival style, the gallery and residence were known as Dar al-Mathaf and housed the huge Ancient Egyptian art collection as-sembled by the young amateur, who was the brother of feminist Hoda Chaarawi. Chaarawi herself lived near by, indeed in a Mamluk style house, adjoining another house-museum in the same style on Qasr al-Nil St., belonging to aristocrat Antoine de Zogheb. Cities do tend to change fast; keeping their memories alive through architecture is rarely an option.

Existing images and texts still have that power; glimpses into early modern Cairo, a city where art mattered for many, may survive that way.

1- Nubar Pacha’s residence where the Sed-naoui department store stands today on Khazindar square.2-�e old Shepeard’s Hotel, circa 1906.3- New Hotel, circa 1894

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B Y E D�e story of a street in Cairo

The street is clogged with car wrecks. The black soot layered over the buildings and further dulled by the hovering grey cloud makes you wonder what a magnificent palace like this is doing on the corner. Its surrounding wall has crumbled so badly that you can barely make out the decorations that embellish it from all sides. The concave pedestals have apparently been stripped of their statues and are now covered in graffiti. Never has such an elegant building been so out of place. What’s more puzzling is that the street name seems out of context as well... Why Champollion? …

Well, according to the ahwagi at one of the makeshift sidewalk cafes, the street was named after the famous French Egyp-tologist who resided there over 200 years ago in the Palace known today as the former Nasreyya School. It may sound like a logical deduction, but it is yet another urban myth, one of many going around on Rue Champollion. Some old maps and a little digging into the past start to reveal facts: The previous name of Champollion Street was Waboor El Mayya (water pump), and the original name of the first intersecting street, Mahmoud Bassiouni St. (formerly Antikhana) was Fom el Teraah (mouth of the channel). The street names were related to the water company and two channels (named Al-Bulakeyya and Al-Ismailia) which flowed only a few meters away. Both names, along with many others started changing after the year 1902, following the inauguration of the museum of antiquities (the Antikhana) by Khedive Abbas Hilmi II. Consequently, Waboor El Maya turned into Champol- lion, and Fom El Teraah became Antikhana, other streets were named after August Mariette and Gaston Mas- pero, giving the museum’s flavor to the whole surrounding area which had by then also transformed into a little piece of Haussmanite Paris.

An illustrious street in its hey-day, it has now become one long, grey alley of grimy auto-repair shops. Only a few decades ago, a stroll down Champollion would have been a completely different experience. Apparently, the famous palace was not the only landmark. Champollion St. was the proud address of some of Egypt’s great-est figures and institutions. So, picturing myself in the 1930s, I walked down the street from its very beginning, coming from Ismailia (Tahrir) square, trying -with great difficulty- to relive its days of glory in my head:

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Villa ShaarawiNumber 1 Rue Champollion was the listed address for the residence of Egypt’s pioneer feminist, women’s rights activ-

ist and nationalist Hoda Shaarawi (1879-1947) and her husband Ali Pacha Shaarawi (one of the seven founders of the Wafd party in 1918).

Why this house (opposite) was destroyed in the 1970s is a mystery. The beautiful arabesque Villa was not just an architectural beauty, but was also a major historical landmark that should have been turned into a museum, a tribute to a revered woman who is considered a national hero by all.

The location is now, of all things, a parking lot.

Atelier of Sculptor Mahmoud Moukhtar

Now walking past the intersection with Antikhana Street (currently Mahmoud Bassiouni), the atelier of Sculptor Mahmoud Mokhtar (1891-1934), begins to appear behind the fence to the left. Credited with some of Egypt’s most famous and monumental public sculptures, it is Mokhtar who has produced landmarks such as the Nahdet Masr Statue now in Giza , and the Saad Zaghlul statues in Cairo and Alexandria.

Another location where a genius mind was at work mak-ing history; it is now an auto repair shop, with only a cen-tury-old map and scattered accounts left to hint me to-wards the former location.

Conservatoire TiegermanI wonder if the Shaarawis could hear the immaculately played

Chopin from their window. They would have been lucky, because right next door was Conservatoire Tiegerman, where one of the world’s unparalleled legends of the piano, Ignace Tiegerman (right), taught future greats including Henry Barda, Mushira Issa and oth-ers such as pianist Selim Sednaoui and Palestinian activist/in-tellectual Edward Said who was then the young timid son of the Standard Stationary Co. owner.

Said, later on in his life, is reported to have said (referring to the Juilliard School and his eminent teachers in Boston) that they “all rolled into one, didn’t equal Tiegerman’s pinkie.”

The Polish pianist came to Egypt in 1931, and soon after es-tablished his Conservatoire where only the most promising pupils were given a chance to receive the superb musical training he had to offer.

You won’t find any Steinway pianos there anymore, maybe a mi-cro-bus or two; Conservatoire Tiegerman has also been replaced by the same parking lot as Villa Shaarawi.

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Nadi el Kudah (Judge’s Club)Egypt had just signed the Montreux treaty establishing it as an independent state. Of course, the British still con-

trolled the Suez Canal zone and maintained their naval base in Alexandria along with thousands of troops, but one great achievement was that the highly resented mixed courts were to be abolished at last, handing the reins over entirely to Egypt’s native judges.

As the treaty was soon to officially come into effect, Egypt’s judges convened in a general assembly in 1947 and de-cided to construct the building that would become the premises of their club. The general purpose of establishing the

Judge’s Club was primarily to provide a place of relative isolation for the judiciary community, away from the general society, in order to help main-tain their neutrality and detachment from potential biases.

Hettena contracting company was commissioned for the building using the judges’ modest resources aided by some government contributions. The Club was inaugurated on May 5th of 1950 by King Farouk and holds its position proudly to this day. It was reported that when the king asked what other organizations were close by, he was told “The Journalists and the Lawyers’ Syndicates.” The monarch laughed and jokingly said “You have really good neighbors, don’t you?!”

Palace of Prince Said Halim (later Nasreyya School for Boys)

Renowned architect Antonio Lasiac (credited with the Montazah Pal-ace in Alexandria and the spectacular Khedivial buildings on Emade-din Street among many others), built the formerly famous palace in 1897 for Viceroy Mohamed Ali’s grandson Prince Said Halim (below). The prince didn’t use the palace for very long. It is said that his wife, Princess Amina Indji Toussoun found the area too noisy and refused to live in the sumptuous residence that was built for her. However, as it turns out; Prince Halim left his palace, not to appease his irritated wife, but to accept the position of El Sadr El Aazam (Grand Vizir) of the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul. At the beginning of World War One, Halim was declared an enemy of the opposing British Empire, owing to his position with the Ottomans, and all his as-sets were confiscated by the British-controlled state. His pink (now grey) palace on Champollion Street was thus turned into the Nasreyya School for Boys.

Among the first royal family residences ever to be converted into a school before the 1952 coup, the Nasreyya which was headed by directors such as the highly esteemed historian Amin Pacha Samy (who wrote the indispensable refer-ence on Egyptian history, Taqweem el Nil) turned out some of the country’s most prominent figures such as El Nahass Pacha, Ahmed Pacha Hassanein and many others.

The palace, which was evacuated by the Ministry of Education in 2000 is now privately owned and is on the National Heritage List. It is now deserted and its fate remains unknown.

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Champollion Street, Redeemable?Champollion, like many a street in the ravaged city of Cairo has clearly transmogrified into a miserable state, to say

the least. Many will say that the city cannot be frozen in time, that change is, after all, a natural thing. True; razing and rebuilding is not a novel idea. Even during Cairo’s ‘belle époque’ many buildings were demolished and replaced with others. However, when was a palace or an elegant mansion ever leveled to park a few dozen cars? How many elegant art deco masterpieces were destroyed to be replaced with plain blocks of concrete?

As for the miraculously surviving palace of Prince Said Halim, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) is now trying to purchase it for restoration and adaptive reuse. A proposal (from the Institut de Recherche Pour le De-velopment – IRD) for converting the palace into a muse-um of Cairo’s history has been under consideration for a few years but remains on hold due to the ownership dilemma. The fate of the palace is yet to be determined. The neighboring Townhouse Gallery brings an appre-ciating crowd to the area which could offer a glimmer of hope for the palace which is now mostly surrounded by auto repair shops. Grand schemes for “gentrifying” the whole surrounding area have been proposed over the past years. So far, there are only proposals, and we have yet to see what the fate of the palace and Cham-pollion will be.

Mixed Courts (currently the High Court of Justice)

The colossal Roman-style pillars appearing in the horizon dwarf everything around them. The Higher Court of Justice offers a stupendous grand finale to Champollion Street. The con-struction of this magnificent edifice (commis-sioned to architects Leon Azema and Max Edrei) was complete by 1934 in the location of the old Water Company. Initially named the “Tribunal Mixte”, the mixed courts were created in 1876 as an attempt to rectify the consular court sys-tem, which was responsible for gross injustices against the native population. With the aboli-tion of the mixed courts system several decades later, the building was re-named into the Higher Court of Justice (Dar el Kadaa’ Al-Aali) on a historic day in 1949 (below), thus estab-lishing Egypt’s first national court to govern all, irrespec-tive of nationality.

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Going, Going ... GoneHeritage at risk

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BisharinWritten & Photographed By Mohamed El Hebeishy

Hanging in the Balance

34

Jabanna, Tiffa, Couca and camels are four simple words that can best describe the life of an ethnic group of people whose life and territory have not changed much over the past 4,000 years. Would they be able to hold on for the next 10 years though? A controversial question that leaves the Bisharin hanging in today’s world balance.

Noah is believed to have had three sons, who in turn had 16 sons, who over the years married and remarried to multiply and give the world its present population. After the flood, Ham, who was one of Noah’s three sons, moved southwest into Africa and the Middle East; his eldest son was Cush, to whom the Bisharin linage is linked. Bisharin is part of a much larger tribe called Beja. A late 19th cen-tury census estimated the Beja population to be around 1,900,000. They live mainly in the area between the river Nile and the Red Sea coast, stretching from the southeast corner of Egypt to Sudan and further to Eritrea. The Beja as a tribe can be divided into five main sub-groups: Abab-da, Bisharin, Hadendoa, Amarar and Beni Amer; out of which the first two only live in Egypt. All five speak dif-ferent dialects of a verbal language called To-Bedawi, or rather Rotana as it is most commonly known. The only exceptions are the Ababda and Beni Amer, as the former had dealt and intermarried on a much larger scale with Arabs and hence have adapted Arabic as their day-to-day language; while Beni Amer, on the other hand, has tribal factions whose mother tongue is Tigre.

Bisharin’s concentration in Egypt is around Mount Elba, a 1437m summit that lies in Egypt’s Eastern Desert’s far

southern corner. A difficult area to access due to its geo-political nature; it represents the country’s second largest National Park as well as being a politically disputed area between Egypt and neighbouring Sudan. As a matter of fact, its southern sector is a no-entry zone unless a diffi-cult-to-obtain permit is in your pocket. The area enjoys a fairly good amount of rain, especially when compared to the rest of arid Eastern Desert. The reason for the seasonal rain is actually the location of Elba Mountain; where at its peak clouds break and rain starts pouring down, no wonder Bisharins call Elba (meaning white in Rotana)—The White Mountain. Elba doesn’t only contribute to the natural formation of the area but also to the cultural heri-tage of its residents. Legend has it, that the mysterious Couca disappeared in the mountainous labyrinth of Elba; he was turned into stone and his colossal statue is con-cealed within the heart of the gigantic mountain.

Bisharins are very elusive by nature, a trait belonging to the greater motherland—the desert. They live in small clan-based communities scattered around wells and wa-ter sources, depending mainly on pastoralism. Camels are more than just a source of income or even a wealth in-dicator; Bisharins are renowned camel herders. Nomad-ic pastorals for thousands and thousands of years, they breed the best camels in the world; supplying the hun-gry markets in Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula. For the Bisharins, camels cross the status of being another form of cattle; they are their irreplaceable companion through long desert marshes and the main inspiration of their folk-

1 2

1- A Bishari making Jabanna (coffee)2-Camels, much more than simply a source of income for the Bisharis3- A typical Bishari house

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loric songs and music. An important communal form of socialization is the cof-

fee gatherings; Bisharins spend up to 20% of their income on coffee, preferring to starve than to go without. Jabanna is the name of a green coffee bean mostly brought from Su-dan. It is a very common habit for Bisharins to go around carrying their own Jabanna supplies and equipment, so whenever they decide to go for some coffee or have a coffee gathering, they simply light a fire, start roasting the green coffee beans, crush them while adding ginger, heat the mix in a clay pot and Voila! You have got yourself Bisharins’ most popular drink. Jabanna is served in very small cups with lots of sugar to dilute the combined bitter taste of cof-fee and ginger. Servings come in odd numbers up to seven, two, four and six are not an option, unless you want to offend your host.

With a diet that mainly consists of milk and grain, with occasional supplements of meat, Bisharins are very skinny in figure with a reddish dark brown complexion. As part of their tradition, men grow their hair long, styling it in a crown-like shape of fuzzy hair called a Tiffa. Rudyard Kipling, the internationally acclaimed Indian-born author and poet, gave them the name “Fuzzy Wuzzies” courtesy of their hair style. Kipling was actually referring to the Han-dendoa who, along with the rest of the Beja tribes, are re-nowned warriors. During the Mahdi uprising (1881-1889) in Sudan, Hadendoa gained fame for defeating the Brit-ish in two battles and being the only traditional warriors equipped with swords and shields to break the notorious

British “square” armed with gunfire-based weapons. The time of renowned warriors is gone, and now

Bisharins face a double-edged threat in their homeland. Despite the seasonal rain, Mount Elba region is catego-rized as a drought-prone area; water shortage translates in grazing pastures scarcity. Hence, this creates a pres-sure on the nomadic Bisharin pastorals to find new graz-ing grounds or rather face a highly probabilistic decline in the herd numbers. On the other hand, urban develop-ment in nearby commercial centers on the Red Sea coast represent a luring temptation to abandon the desert all together, a temptation that tends to be much more diffi-cult to resist, especially at time of drought. Undoubtedly, current Bisharin lifestyle is changing; the legendary fuzzy wuzzies are trimming their hair, wearing wristwatches and smoking cigarettes. Whether modernization is in favor or against the lifestyle of the Bisharins, it is there and it is taking its toll. Bisharins are gradually, whether in a slow or at a fast pace, losing a 4000 year- old tradition. Shall we stop it or shall we let it be? That might be an important question but what seems to me as a fairly more important question is what can we do to preserve and conserve the Bisharins heritage without either secluding them from the modern day world or totally integrating them in urban cen-tres and kissing their heritage goodbye.

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Farah el Helw, Student of Actuarial Science at AUC“This is a photo that I took about a year ago in Milan, Italy. This picture was specifically shot in the Duomo area. I was amazed at how the Egyptians inspired the rest of the world. So I thought this example of ‘Egyptomania’ was worth taking a picture of.”

Many of us walk through the streets of Egypt and find ourselves captivated by the most incredible sights. People from all backgrounds and professions have taken up photogra-phy either as amateurs or as professionals in order to document the many scenes of Egypt. Here, we invite you, our reader, to submit your photographs of Egyptian heritage and your thoughts. Tell us what you want to say with your photograph, tell us of the story behind the shot: simply express yourself. Get in touch with us by emailing: [email protected]

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Sherif Lotfy, Engineer“The whirling dervishes of the Mevlevi Sufi or-der, founded in Konya in the 13th century and moved to Egypt in 1945”“A sufi singer moving to the beats of his req”“Tanoura dancer”

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Aly Shalaby, Pediatric Surgeon“No. 66 Nabi Daniel St., Alexandria.I never get bored looking at this building. The sheer amount of ornamentation captivates my eyes, and I can’t begin to imagine what it must have looked like way back when. Every time I pass by it I also wonder if it will be the last time I see it.”

Dina Khalil, Accountant“What a beautiful door. What a sad sight.”

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Abdel-Zaher Atelier:

By Iman R. Abdulfattah

Photographed By Miriam Benyamein

The Art of Bookbinding

41

Walking around the streets of Cairo can be an excit-ing challenge. From the monuments that are rep-

resentative of Egypt’s diverse history, to the architectural gems that date to the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th cen-tury, to the bustling activity that is char-acteristic of life in this city, there is a lot to arouse one’s creative side. Such visual stimulation should not go ignored. If you might be the type that likes to docu-ment memories, be it in the form of photographs, sketch-es, drawings or writing, then I know of the perfect place to encourage you to take up one of these hobbies. We’ll begin our journey in the area of al-Azhar, at the center of which is the mosque by the same name.

The Mosque of al-Azhar is one of the most important monuments in all of Cairo. It was first established as the congregational mosque of al-Qahira in 969, with a com-plementary university added at the end of the 10th cen-tury. It is thus, considered by many to be one of the oldest universities in the world, with instruction still being con-ducted there and at satellite campuses around the coun-try. The religious and academic significance bestowed on this institution over time has rendered the mosque an im-portant center in Cairo. Even today, as you walk around the mosque you will see all sorts of goods being sold; if you venture around the east side of the mosque, you will see vendors selling books related to the different subjects relevant to the Azhari curriculum…if you go a bit farther along Sheikh Mohammad Abdou Street, you will find the location of the last surviving bookbinder in Cairo, Abdel-Zaher Atelier.

At first, the storefront seems unassuming; however I must draw your attention to the fact that the greater fa-çade that is shared by the row shops here belongs to a wikala, or caravanserai, commissioned by the Mameluk Sultan Qaytbay in 1477. This wikala is part of a complex that also included a sabil-kuttab (public water dispensary and school for boys) and a drinking trough for animals.

The shop first opened in 1936 under the name Hegab

Bind-ing, and

was owned by Mr. Ali Hegab. An

apprentice, Abdel-Za-her Ibrahim, who also hap-

pened to be a relative, later joined him. The two specialized in a specific type of bookbinding, where books are bound with a leather spine and vinyl sides. This is the most basic and least expensive type of binding on the market, and is still in high demand today. Although it was Hegab who owned the store, the technical and practical skills were in the hands of Abdel-Zaher.

In the early 1950s, Abdel-Zaher passed away, forcing his eldest son, Mohammad, who was a teenager at the time, to start working at the shop. He worked there for a few years until he purchased his own bookbinding shop in the Bab al-Khalq area close to the current Museum of Islamic Art. Mohammad pursued the same line of business, because at the time binding was commercially prosperous, resulting in a plethora of clients and customers.

Around the end of the 1960s Ali Hegab passed away. It was around this time that Mohammad Abdel-Zaher de-cided to close his store and return to the Azhar area to purchase the store from Ali Hegab’s children. There were also sentimental motivations for this change: it was impor-tant for Mohammad, an experienced proprietor and bind-er himself, to maintain the shop where he and his father started out. He changed the name from Hegab Binding to Abdel-Zahir Binding; this name has remained until today.

The shop is now in the hands of the third generation of the Abdel-Zaher clan, and is primarily managed and run by Mohammad’s oldest son, Hossam. Hossam was fortunate in that he inherited a successful business that thrived off of students attending al-Azhar. Mohammad contributed to this success by adhering to a standard of quality that allowed him to keep the traditional customers, but at the same time attracted new ones that knew of his work in Bab al-Khalq.

alking around the streets of Cairo can be an excit-ing challenge. From the monuments that are rep-

resentative of Egypt’s diverse history, to the architectural gems that date to the end

and beginning of the 20th cen-tury, to the bustling activity that is char-acteristic of life in this city, there is a lot to arouse one’s creative side. Such visual stimulation should not go ignored. If you might be the type that likes to docu-ment memories, be it in the form of photographs, sketch-

B ind-ing, and



pened to be a relative, later joined him. The two specialized in a specific type of bookbinding, where books are bound with a leather spine and vinyl sides. This is the most basic and least expensive type of binding on the

41

Walking around the streets of Cairo can be an excit-ing challenge. From the monuments that are rep-

resentative of Egypt’s diverse history, to the architectural gems that date to the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th cen-tury, to the bustling activity that is char-acteristic of life in this city, there is a lot to arouse one’s creative side. Such visual stimulation should not go ignored. If you might be the type that likes to docu-ment memories, be it in the form of photographs, sketch-es, drawings or writing, then I know of the perfect place to encourage you to take up one of these hobbies. We’ll begin our journey in the area of al-Azhar, at the center of which is the mosque by the same name.

The Mosque of al-Azhar is one of the most important monuments in all of Cairo. It was first established as the congregational mosque of al-Qahira in 969, with a com-plementary university added at the end of the 10th cen-tury. It is thus, considered by many to be one of the oldest universities in the world, with instruction still being con-ducted there and at satellite campuses around the coun-try. The religious and academic significance bestowed on this institution over time has rendered the mosque an im-portant center in Cairo. Even today, as you walk around the mosque you will see all sorts of goods being sold; if you venture around the east side of the mosque, you will see vendors selling books related to the different subjects relevant to the Azhari curriculum…if you go a bit farther along Sheikh Mohammad Abdou Street, you will find the location of the last surviving bookbinder in Cairo, Abdel-Zaher Atelier.

At first, the storefront seems unassuming; however I must draw your attention to the fact that the greater fa-çade that is shared by the row shops here belongs to a wikala, or caravanserai, commissioned by the Mameluk Sultan Qaytbay in 1477. This wikala is part of a complex that also included a sabil-kuttab (public water dispensary and school for boys) and a drinking trough for animals.

The shop first opened in 1936 under the name Hegab

Bind-ing, and



pened to be a relative, later joined him. The two specialized in a specific type of bookbinding, where books are bound with a leather spine and vinyl sides. This is the most basic and least expensive type of binding on the market, and is still in high demand today. Although it was Hegab who owned the store, the technical and practical skills were in the hands of Abdel-Zaher.

In the early 1950s, Abdel-Zaher passed away, forcing his eldest son, Mohammad, who was a teenager at the time, to start working at the shop. He worked there for a few years until he purchased his own bookbinding shop in the Bab al-Khalq area close to the current Museum of Islamic Art. Mohammad pursued the same line of business, because at the time binding was commercially prosperous, resulting in a plethora of clients and customers.

Around the end of the 1960s Ali Hegab passed away. It was around this time that Mohammad Abdel-Zaher de-cided to close his store and return to the Azhar area to purchase the store from Ali Hegab’s children. There were also sentimental motivations for this change: it was impor-tant for Mohammad, an experienced proprietor and bind-er himself, to maintain the shop where he and his father started out. He changed the name from Hegab Binding to Abdel-Zahir Binding; this name has remained until today.

The shop is now in the hands of the third generation of the Abdel-Zaher clan, and is primarily managed and run by Mohammad’s oldest son, Hossam. Hossam was fortunate in that he inherited a successful business that thrived off of students attending al-Azhar. Mohammad contributed to this success by adhering to a standard of quality that allowed him to keep the traditional customers, but at the same time attracted new ones that knew of his work in Bab al-Khalq.

alking around the streets of Cairo can be an excit-ing challenge. From the monuments that are rep-

resentative of Egypt’s diverse history, to the architectural gems that date to the end

and beginning of the 20th cen-tury, to the bustling activity that is char-acteristic of life in this city, there is a lot to arouse one’s creative side. Such visual stimulation should not go ignored. If you might be the type that likes to docu-ment memories, be it in the form of photographs, sketch-

B ind-ing, and



pened to be a relative, later joined him. The two specialized in a specific type of bookbinding, where books are bound with a leather spine and vinyl sides. This is the most basic and least expensive type of binding on the

42

Hossam’s involve-ment with the shop started around 28 years ago, when he was 10. He didn’t, however, start working there un-til he was 16 years old. Like the two shopkeepers whom I interviewed in previ-ous issues of Turath, Hossam loved the idea of working with his father and the communal feel generated by this traditional, and important, neigh-borhood. He gradually took over the shop and started to develop new ideas and products; many of these were intro-duced around 1993, the same year that he officially took over management of the shop from his father.

Being based in this historic and touristic area, the shop is visited often by foreigners (be they expatriates or tourists) who have a tendency to stroll around the backstreets of al-Azhar for a taste of the “authentic” side of Cairo. According to Hossam, it is the taste of many of these foreigners that has contributed to the growth of his business over the past 15 years. Hossam, having basic knowledge of English, knew how to communicate with many of them, but also under-stood the needs of the more traditional customer. In short, he was able to achieve a balance as far as his clientele was concerned. Moreover, he understood the importance of de-veloping friendships with those foreigners who might be-

come regular customers. One such cus-tomer, Luis Auguste from France, who is now deceased, used to bring his own marbled paper to have his books bound. He would also bring extra sheets for Hossam. It was Mr. Au-guste’s particular taste that encouraged Hossam to take the family business to the next level. In fact, Hossam credits this friendship as the impetus for the changes that we find today. It was deal-

43

ing with different peo-ple and aesthetic

senses that motivated him to ex-

pand the shop’s scope

and develop a line of unique

gift products.He introduced

new ideas based on the interest of

his customers. For instance, he first

produced notebooks and photo albums

in an amazing variety using different mate-

rial and vibrant colors. In the case of the photo albums, a foreign cus-

tomer, who brought some old ones of his own for bind-

ing, inspired him to design something similar.

Today, Hossam uses many different types of material for his books and albums. There is natural paper en-crusted with leaves and flowers that comes from Nepal or Holland, and marbled paper that he imports from France. There are also leather-bound books and albums that are made of goat and local Nile Tilapia (or Bolty) skin. For many who are concerned with reviving and maintaining local crafts, it is Hossam’s creativity and ability to adapt that is most appreciated. For example, the marbled paper that comes from France, 60% of which is machine made and the remaining 40% is handmade, is far less expen-sive than the 100% handmade alternative. So about 10 years ago, when Mohammad was in his 50s, he began making his own marbled paper, 100% of which is made by hand. This started out as a hobby, but Mohammad now generates sheets with elaborate marble patterns for sale in his shop. Interestingly, despite the introduction of new materials, he still uses old technique and proce-dures for manufacturing bound books. Here are the most important steps:1) First, the books are completely dismantled, mended, and hand sewn back together in sections. Much of this is done or overseen by Amm Mohammad, who has been in the business for 50 years, working for the Abdel-Zahir family for 20. 2) Then the end papers, or the extra sheets that join the

44

cover to the first and last section of the book, are glued. 3) If necessary, the pages are trimmed down for a more even-finished look.4) The next stage involves the gluing of the spine to the book. When dry, the spine is rounded so that it is slightly curved. This allows the book to open with flexibility.5) The sideboards are then affixed. This keeps the condi-tion and shape of the book intact.6) Finally, the leather spine and corners are added

These are the integral steps that secure the binding, and this technique has remained unchanged for over a 100 years. One book requires three days of work, but a special order takes 15 days – this is because the various stages are done along an assembly line with 50 to 100 books at a time.

As a trade, binding requires the energy of someone who is young, patient, hardworking and creative. There are three different categories of binders: the 2nd assistant, a begin-ner who can do about 20% of the required tasks; the 1st assistant, who knows about 60% of the work; and the pro-fessional who is capable of tackling all of the steps. Each stage takes 1 to 3 years of mastery, depending on how ambitious the apprentice is. One who is very bright and motivated can become a professional in at least 4 years. Aside from consumer relations, human ties with the Azhar

area are maintained, giving him approximately 50% of his labor force. Hossams’s brothers are also involved in the business: Ahmad is in charge of the marketing, Yaser the finishing of the books and Hussein is the manager of the workshop. Today, Hossam mainly deals with administra-tion.

Abdel-Zaher Atelier works with a variety of international companies and independent craft-oriented stores in Egypt and abroad; among them are Khatun, Al Diwan Bookstore, Catacomb, Tanis, & Company, Kutubkhan and even Bey-man, an upscale designer retail store. To avoid duplica-tion, Hossam does not provide any of his clients with the same product; instead he diversifies them by using differ-ent materials that are specific to each.

The downside to the business is the fact that the over-whelming majority of the materials are imported, with the exception of the goat leather (which is prepared and sold outside Bab Zuwayla on Qirabiyya Street,) the Nile Tila-pia skins, the thread, and the printed material that comes from the Khiyamiyya area. Everything else, like the gold foil used for goldstamping text on the leather binding, note/sketchbook paper, inks, adhesives and the plastic sleeves that the books are sold in, comes from abroad. Unfortu-nately, this is necessary to ensure the best possible quality of product. Besides, most of the comparable materials that are locally made are of an inferior quality. This is quite

4545

the contrary to how things were between the 1930s and 60s when the best materials were available because there were far more bookbinders around. At that time, Egypt was a completive market for printing; conse-quently there were lots of print shops and binders around town, most of which were centered in the Azhar and Bab al-Khalq areas.

Although Abdel-Zaher Atelier is the only surviving store that specializes in quality, traditional binding, this is not his bread and butter. Rather, the main source of revenue comes from the other products, like the note/sketchbooks, followed by the photo albums and multi-purpose boxes. Un-fortunately, binding only accounts for 20% of his work and sales.

Notebooks come in 8 sizes and the following materials: all leather (fish or goat skin); a combination of leather and marbled paper; leather and natural paper; leather and papyrus; and cloth bound with printed Khi-yamiyya patterns or woven textiles from Akhmim. Photo albums come in 6 different sizes and all materials, while sketch/guestbook are available in 5 sizes and all materials. Folders, desk sets and multi-purpose boxes are also sold.

If you are interested in taking up a creative hobby, or simply like to sup-port a dying trade, pay Hossam a visit. In addition to the shop, he would be more than happy to take customers to the workshop near by.

Abdel-Zaher Atelier31, al-Sheikh Mohammad Abdu StreetAl-Azhar, Cairo, EgyptTel/Fax: +2 02 2511-8041E-mail: [email protected]://www.abdelzaherbinding.com/

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Dr. Sherif El KerdaniA Philatelic Telling of History

“Ah…., this is a lovely piece,” Sherif El Kerdani exclaims, draw-ing our attention to a rather ordinary looking envelope in one of his meticulously annotated and presented albums. It turns out

that he's right: the postage stamp indicates that in 1910, He-liopolis was still officially beyond the suburbs of Cairo, and the

sender had to pay the national rate of five milliemes, rather than the mere three required for intra-city post. What's more, the let-ter, addressed to somebody living beside the mosque in Midan al-Gamia, today one of the neighbourhood's busiest squares,

was returned to sender. Why? Because according to the postman there were no houses on that square in 1910.

B S E R

A Philatelic Telling of History

1

2

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El-Kerdani, a urologist by profession, and an avid stamp collector, was introduced to philately at the age of eight, during a three year stay in England.

Inspired by his mother, who carefully kept the Egyptian stamps the family received on letters from relatives back home, he showed interest, was given his own album, and the rest, somewhat surprisingly, is the history of modern Egypt, told through a collection of postage stamps amassed over the last 40 years.

And it isn't just Egyptian trivia: We learn that, like many important functions in the Ottoman Empire, the postal sys-tem started in Egypt as a private enterprise. Established in the 1820s as the Posta Europea, by an Italian by the name of Michel Meratti, the business developed along rail-roads and waterways (reminding us of the inseparability of the postal system and transport-related infrastructure). It was later turned over to an heir, Muzzi, who received permission from the viceroy Said Pasha to use the govern-ment railway system at what was then the significant sum of LE144 per year. Following the wishes of Said's succes-sor, Ismail, a dedicated nation builder, the company was bought by the government, Muzzi made its director, and given the title of Bey. And thus, a year later, in January 1866, the first Egyptian postal stamps were issued.

In order to send letters abroad, standard procedure was for a letter to be sent from the post office at the consulate of the desired country, and Egypt itself had both consular post offices (located in countries where there was a sizeable Egyptian community), and territorial post offices (places under Egyptian rule). If a letter was to be sent abroad from a place in Egypt with no consular office, it would have an Egyptian stamp to get it to the required consular office, and the foreign consulate's postage stamp to take it abroad – a combination called “mixed franking.”

Often times, there wasn't enough time to produce stamps for a certain occasion, and the easiest solution

was to overprint them. El-Kerdani tells us the story of al-Mahdi's regressive rule of the Sudan (1885), in which both the postal service and the railway system were shut down. Upon Kitchener successfully retaking the country in 1898,

Up from left to right:- Letter from Alexandria to Malta dated 31/08/1848 disin-fected upon arrival (as is evident by the two slits (arrows).- Folded letter from Samanud to Zefta, dated 20/02/1859, bearing the Posta Europea stamp.- 1866- Ottoman Egypt’s first stamp, overprinted in Turkish and priced at “Iki Ghoroush” (two piasters)- 1865-1866 Interpostal seals labeled “Egyptian Vice Regal post.” Egypt had not become a Khediviate yet.- 1878 Interpostal seal “Egyptian Khedivial Post, Office of the Director General.”1 & 2: The letter dated 1910 to Midan el Gamee, Heliopolis. The postman found no houses and returned the letter.3: Dr. Sherif El Kerdani examining one of his prized posse-sions: an original of the first stamp ever made, bearing the portrait of a young queen Victoria.

3

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both systems were reinstated, but there were no Sudanese stamps to be found, and the easiest solution was to over-print "Soudan" on Egyptian stamps and use those.

As is typical of Egypt even today, El-Kerdani reminds us, ensuring special service was comforting, and Egypt was the only country to develop an inter-postal seal service (in 1864), which, applied to important dispatches especially between high officials, would guarantee good treatment.

The First World War brought an influx of British forces in Egypt, for whom the postal system was essential as letters to and from home helped boost the troops' morale. Forces "on active service" (OAS) were exempt from paying postal charges as long as this was marked on the envelope. The war also meant numerous shortages --- one of which was paper. Ever resourceful, the British army designed reus-able envelopes, with careful instructions on how to open and seal them to make this possible.

It wasn't until 1914 that Egypt started to produce "picto-rials", El-Kerdani explains, pointing out a series of stamps depicting Egyptian landmarks, first issued on January 8th, to be exact. The date corresponded to the 22nd anni-versary of Khedive Abbas Helmy II's ascent to the throne,

starting a flourish-ing tradition of pic-torial stamps, but not boding well for the Khedive himself, who was deposed and exiled in the same year.

Several albums later, we reach 1922, El-Kerdani's favou-rite period. This marks an important turning point for Egypt – it became a sovereign state, with King Fouad as its ruler. It was only then that the rul-er's portrait made it on to the Egyptian postal stamp, be-

fore that the country's precarious relationship with the Sublime Porte in Istanbul made portraits doubly inappro-priate: Egypt's khedives were technically subordinates to the Ottoman sultan, and therefore not entitled to put their face on stamps, while the sultan himself, in his capacity as, Amir al-Mu’minin (leader of the Islamic umma), was seen as a religious figure and therefore representing him was frowned upon, as per Muslim tradition.

King Fouad, El-Kerdani surmises, "was an excellent rul-er, who made use of his status as king to bring reform. Dictatorial and strong in character, he was also conscien-tious, wise, and foresighted, having a very strong sense of the impact of his actions. He moved towards the Egyp-tianisation and Arabisation of the government, but neither in a hot-headed nor a zealous way. He believed that there was no reason why Egyptians shouldn't take on important posts in a system that had tended to reserve them for for-eigners, but was also a perfectionist, and knew that good education was a prerequisite for all of this." Unsurpris-ingly, his first postage stamps were printed in Arabic, un-til the Universal Postal Union, (UPU), in 1927, stipulated that every stamp had to have the key information in Latin script as well. Egypt’s first commemorative stamps date from Fouad's reign and mark the numerous international conferences held in the country, largely through the ruler's persistence and conviction that making his nation a venue of scientific debate would help it progress.

There were many other postal firsts under Fouad: Air-mail started in 1926, initially with a single line flying be-tween Cairo and Baghdad. Around the same time, the first quality Egyptian stamps were produced in the country (they had previously been printed in England and Hol-land), and by the 1930s, Egypt had pioneered a new print-ing technique, the "bleed off", much to the annoyance of established European print-houses, who took a decade to master the technique.

Farouk came to the throne in 1936, a boy king with many of his father's good intentions, but with a weaker character. This was the heyday of the commemorative stamp, and the increased public face of the royal family, rather than just the king,

meant that Farouk and his much-loved bride Farida, ap-peared on the postage stamp as a couple, first in commem-oration of their wedding, and, a month later, on the occa-

49

sion of the King's 18th birthday, ironically, with Farida in her wedding dress (the wedding stamp depicts her in day clothes).

World War II divided up the Mediterranean, and postal services to Europe, formerly very easy, sought new routes. A letter from Cairo to London would now have to go via Su-dan, Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, and Portugal……. a rather lengthy proposition. As always, the postal system respond-ed to socio-political and economic state of affairs. Here, the solution came through an agreement with Eastman Kodak, whereby letters were photographed, put on rolls of film in groups of 1500, and printed in England. Thus the air-graph came to being, followed by the aerogramme,

an extremely economical invention whereby the envelope and the letter became a single piece of paper.

The 1952 coup d'etat created a new government, with strong anti-monarchist sentiment and huge stocks of King Farouk stamps. The response was traditional: overprint-ing, but the sheer numbers required the enlisting of print houses that had never dealt with stamps before. The result was that the deposed king’s stamps were defaced through a rather sloppy process, of which King Fouad would cer-tainly have disapproved, but which led to the inconsis-tencies that are the stamp collector's dream: varieties. To make his point, El-Kerdani shows us the carefully noted differences in size and number between the bars obliterat-ing the king's handsome face.

El-Kerdani's albums go on through hundreds of com-memorative stamps of the next five decades; but, more out of time concerns than for lack of interest, we choose to stop at a positive note in 1957: Two Egyptian stamp-makers, sent to Switzerland to learn new printing techniques, and coming up with trials of fish --- not particularly Egyptian, but demonstrating a new introduction that would come to characterise the philatelic future: multi-colour.

At our gathering, somebody comments that arranging stamps chronologically is unorthodox in the philatelic world. Apparently, typological groupings are the norm. El Kerdani's answer to that is simple, "My interest in stamps is in the stories they tell; a chronological arrangement en-ables me to better tell the story of Egypt". At that, I recall our first meeting two years earlier, with El-Kerdani prefac-ing his interest in philately, "A hobby is something that you enjoy; something shaped by the way you wish to enjoy it".

Carefully shutting album 19, we exchange email ad-dresses, and without much worry for the impact of email on the future of the postage stamp, I silently vow never to think of stamps as boring little bits of paper again.

Up from left to right:- 1893 Official Intergovernmental stamp.- French Post office in Port Said issuing their own stamps priced at 1 fr. Date 1902- 1868 The Suez Canal Company issuing their own stamps.- 1914- Egypt’s first pictorial stamp, here with an image of the old Ras el Tin Palace.- Egyptian stamps overprinted with “Soudan”, dated 1885- The 1922 crown overprints. Egypt had just become offi-cially independent from the Ottoman Empire.- 1923- The first portrait issue bearing the photograph of King Fuad.Opposite & Above: Special occasions marked by commemo-rative stamps over the years.

B S M

50

Blowing around East Africa and onto the Arabian Peninsula and swirling around Egypt is “The Red Wind” otherwise known as “The Spirits of Zar”.

The myths abound as to the origin of these spirits, and each region harbors its own ancient beliefs. In old Abyssin-ian stories, they are the 15 most beautiful and intelligent children of Eve, born in the Garden of Eden, and forever punished by being the ‘children of the night’. Whereas an-cient Sudanese folklore connects them to the Prophet Soli-man, as part of his army of ‘djinn’, with a fickle nature, who can only be coaxed with the smell of incense and the beat of drums.

Closer to the Arabian Peninsula, another fable is found. Stranded on the rocky hills of the Jordanian landscape is a small tree, no higher than an average man, brittle with age and deeply rooted to its otherwise barren home. At the base of the tree are piles of stones, and tied to its branches are rags flapping in the breeze. This is one of

the “Zarzur” trees, o t h e r -

w i s e

known as altars of the desert. They are believed to be holy trees, inhabited by Zar spirits, and visited by pilgrims, who put a stone in place for their prayer, and mark their pil-grimage by tying a rag.

In different accounts the spirits of Zar are also believed to dwell under the earth, or in water, until they inhabit a human body, when they could sometimes communicate verbally through the inhabited host.

The spirits of Azuzar and Ausitu were ruling ancient Af-rican deities, there is a strong connection between their stories and those of Isis and Osiris, their counterparts in Ancient Egypt, and possibly a connection with the myth of Zar, and an explanation of the connection of Zar to fertility and safe childbirth.

Putting myths aside, we find that the term Zar refers to both the spirits and the rituals and practices connected to them. Linguistically, some scholars believe that the word Zar is derived from the name of the African god ‘Djar’, while others believe that it comes from the Arabic word ‘ziyara’ meaning a ‘visit’. Contrary to popular belief, Zar rituals are not a form of exorcism, but rather an appeasement of

the spirit that has inhabited the body – more like “com-ing to terms with your own devil”. Among the earliest written accounts of Zar rituals are those of 19th cen-tury western historians travelling through Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt and Arabia. The rituals were mostly described as ‘profane parodies of a sacred service’ and related to African Voodo, although Zar does not include blasphemy or the rejection of God, but still the sinister undertones of invoking the unseen and

unknown spirit world can be awe-inspiring and pro-voking. They also place excessive weight on the belief in

the power and malignity of demons. Hence in 1983, Zar

Al Rih Al Ahmar

B S M �e Spirits of Zar

51

rituals were condemned by Islamic Shari’ah and in 1992 they were officially banned in Sudan, for example. Al-though sharing common roots, Zar rituals differ from one society to the other, and always exist in a socio-cultural context. In Egypt alone, there are 3 types of Zar rituals that are being practiced; Upper Egyptian Zar, Abu al-Gheit Zar, and Sudanese or African Zar. But the rituals have al-ways been more wide-spread in the south of Egypt, with its proximity to Sudan, and also because this area was not the focal point for colonizers of Egypt, which enabled it to maintain a purer form of its traditions. Although frowned upon by conservative society and religious doctrine, Zar rituals remain deep-rooted in Egyptian consciousness. The rituals are also not limited to a particular social class, but seem to have a great attraction – whether out of belief or out of pure curiosity – to the whole spectrum of society; most Egyptians will have a Zar story to tell.

Although the rituals are never replicas of each other, they all contain basic elements, which when, put together, give the effect of good drama. They incorporate music, dance, costumes, props, actors, a set script, the heroes and the villains, and most importantly they include catharsis – a purging of the soul.

Traditionally a Zar ritual is a predominantly female practice. It will be led by the ‘kodia’ or ‘sheikha’, who has most likely inher-ited her skills from her mother or another female relative, and who is sometimes inhabited by spirits herself. The ‘patient’ is also most likely to be a woman, suffering

from an illness or a psychological problem, and the attendees are largely women; neigh-bors, friends or rela-tives. Men only take part i n

�ey (the Zar rituals) incorporate music, dance, costumes, props, ac-tors, a set script, the heroes and the villains, and most importantly they include catharsis – a purging of the soul.

playing the music, following the kodia in the dances or slaughtering the sacrifice if there is to be one. But the men still believe that they too have ‘a calling’ to the traditional music of the Zar, and the instruments they use, such as the tar (similar to a tambourine), the tabla (a drum) and the tamboura (similar to a lyre). Some of the women will also participate in the music

using the mazaher (drums), finger cymbals, rattles and the mangour (a belt of

jingles worn around the waist).As always in any ritual, the

Zar has an altar, placed in a room which is usually set

aside for such

practices and is not used domestically. The altar is a round metal tray of dried fruits and nuts covered with a white cloth and put on a high wooden stool in the middle of the room. The dancing will take place around the altar with the ‘patient’ in the middle. The patient is dressed in white with henna painted on her hands and feet. The room is filled with incense and burning candles. The chanting and singing begin – led by the kodia – and the rhythm increases in tempo, reaching a crescendo, when the patient achieves a trance-like state. The participants are in a frenzy, the head- roll-ing common to the dance comes from the belief that spirits hold on to human hair. It is the role of the kodia to ascertain which spirit inhabits the patient; this is

done by watching the reaction of the patient to certain music and words. The kodia knows

the specific rhythmic pattern that calls

�e Egyptian Center for Cul-ture and Art regularly hosts

and promotes groups like Mazaher who perform tra-

ditional Egyptian music for a growing audi-

ence every week. �e center’s activities

also include record-ing, documenting

and archiving current practice to make it

available to scholars, musicians as well as

audiences.

52 53

each of the spirits. Once the spirit has been identified, the aim of the ritual is to appease it, to achieve peace between the spirit and its host. The spirit might also require a sacrifice, and so an animal is slaughtered, all attendees will partake of the feast, and the blood of the animal is smeared on the face of the patient. The items used in the Zar, whether the animal slaughtered or the food placed on the altar, all depend on the social status of the patient or on the seriousness of her prob-lem. The patient is now ‘cured’, and has found peace with her other ‘self’, although the ritual might need to be repeated periodically, whenever her symptoms reappear. Although all the elements of music, song, dance and incense are for the benefit of the spirit, they culminate to form a multi-sensory experience for all participants.

Apart from the spirits and demons, and the obvi-ous possibility of brain-washing a vulnerable woman into believing she is possessed, as well as the financial extortion that can result from that, recently however, the rituals of Zar have been viewed from a different perspective. Analyzing them in the social context, they provide women with a support network in a predomi-nantly male society. Within the Zar group a woman

achieves a sense of communion, and finds an outlet for her concerns and worries. On the psychological level, many forms of dance and movement therapy have proved to be effective; the rhythms of Zar have start-ed to make their appearance, and are now recognized as therapeutically beneficial. As well as the positive effect on the patient, being the center of attention, with her problems acknowledged by a group of car-ing friends or relatives. A proper Zar ritual, after all, never takes place in the midst of strangers. Over and above the fact that achieving a trance-like state has often been used by psychotherapists in curing psy-chological illnesses.

The Zar ritual is also undeniably a part of Egyptian tradition. Its music, dance and songs have the authen-ticity and uniqueness of a true art form. Even the beliefs that go with it, though much criticized, are part and parcel of Egyptian culture. Zar rituals are often misrepresented and consequently have tak-en to the shadows, though some of those practic-ing them might be viewed as charlatans, many are artists, who have inherited an artistic tradition that still exists – despite the censure- and has withstood the test of centuries.

I am always quite puzzled when I vis-it my aunt Inaam Hanem. She always pushes me to keep eating more and more. I often wonder whether it’s her great gen-erosity, or simply a plan to avoid the em-barrassment of wolfing down all the food by herself. Anyway, on my last visit, as she was persuading me to eat yet anoth-er tangerine, I tried to make the conver-sation a little more interesting:

“Do you know why we call them Youssef Effendi (or the slang Youstafandi) here in Egypt?”

“No”, she said indifferently, “Why?”“Well, In 1826, Mohamed Ali Pacha sent

a delegation of 40 students to receive their education in France. They studied vari-ous disciplines. One of them was a young twenty three year old of Armenian origin who stayed at Revel, France and studied Ag-riculture. The young man later returned to Egypt and took part in some of the state’s agricultural projects, eventually becoming the principal of the Agricultural School of Nabarouh, then later, the chief supervisor over Mohamed Ali’s gardens.

This young man was Youssef Effendi. Among the many trees and plants he brought back home with him were the sweet tanger-ines that gained instant popularity among the Egyptians, and were later named after him.”

My aunt raised her eyebrow in an attempt to show interest and said “Oh,what a cute story!”. She then reached out for her fifth Youssef Effendi and started peeling it…

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Youssef Effendi... Not Just a TangerineBy Amr S. Talaat

The post-WWI era witnessed one of the world’s sharpest recessions in history. Although the decade before the war had seen tremendous economic growth, much of this fizzled after the war had ended. A series of highs and lows fol-lowed, the worst year of the recession being 1921 when the global economy fell into rapid decline.

These January 1922 newspaper clippings (notices of sale from various courts) are a somber indication of the extent to which even the poor Egyptian fellah was afflicted amidst both economic and political turmoil.

This gentleman, Salama Ibrahim el Hateel, is lit-erally losing his shirt. This notice of sale from the Court of Kafr el Sheikh is announcing the sale of his Galabeyya, a bottle and a light bulb!

This notice from the Court of Tukh is announcing the sale of a water buffalow and six cows belonging to a Mr.Abdel Latif Abdel Dayem.

Back in Cairo, Ezbekeyyeh to be precise; Awad Hussein needs to pay off his debt of 336 piasters. His goat and furniture (chests, chairs & brassware) have been put up for sale.

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While Everyone’s on the Subject of Recessions…

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In our last issue of Turath, we featured contract of a concubine, a “freedom ticket” of a slave and a license document for a donkey. Since the Mixed Tribunals of Egypt are mentioned in many of our articles this is-sue, we thought we’d show our readers an example of a court order from the Mixed Tribunals. Casual as this may sound, it wasn’t easy to come across!

Established in 1876 to replace the unjust consular court system, the Mixed Tribunals were first housed in el Ataba el Khadra area and later moved to the colos-sal building still standing on Champollion street today. The judges of the mixed courts (who included Egyp-tians for the first time) came from many countries and included French, Swedish, American, British, Austrian judges and more.

In 1949 the Mixed Courts were officially abolished and the building was renamed into the Higher Court of Justice (Dar el Kadaa’ Al-Aali), in a new, fully native judicial system.

This court order (signed by a foreign court official), dated November 2nd 1909, was delivered to a Mrs. Rukaya El Tammouhi, most probably a Moroccan or Tunisian French subject who was in conflict with an Egyptian named Mohamed Emin Muftah. As the en-velope stamps indicate, Ruakaya refused to take the court order and it was returned to the postal office without being served.

From the Mixed Tribunals

56

In our last issue of Turath, we featured contract of a concubine, a “freedom ticket” of a slave and a license document for a donkey. Since the Mixed Tribunals of Egypt are mentioned in many of our articles this is-sue, we thought we’d show our readers an example of a court order from the Mixed Tribunals. Casual as this may sound, it wasn’t easy to come across!

Established in 1876 to replace the unjust consular court system, the Mixed Tribunals were first housed in el Ataba el Khadra area and later moved to the colos-sal building still standing on Champollion street today. The judges of the mixed courts (who included Egyp-tians for the first time) came from many countries and included French, Swedish, American, British, Austrian judges and more.

In 1949 the Mixed Courts were officially abolished and the building was renamed into the Higher Court of Justice (Dar el Kadaa’ Al-Aali), in a new, fully native judicial system.

This court order (signed by a foreign court official), dated November 2nd 1909, was delivered to a Mrs. Rukaya El Tammouhi, most probably a Moroccan or Tunisian French subject who was in conflict with an Egyptian named Mohamed Emin Muftah. As the en-velope stamps indicate, Ruakaya refused to take the court order and it was returned to the postal office without being served.

From the Mixed Tribunals

1937

58

Many Egyptians are quite familiar with the scene from the 1963 film “Arous El Nil” or “Bride of the Nile”, where the Pharaoh appears on the

little TV screen to call back his sister Hamees. Hamees was sent by the God Aton to the year 1963 to seek revenge over the engineer who destroyed her tomb as he dug for petrol. As expected, she falls in love with the engineer and stays in modern Egypt with him. Her brother appeared to her as she watched TV and asked her to return home.

“Retuuurn to Aton” says the very solemn (but very kitshe) Pharaoh on TV.

“But I love him” responds Hamees, played by Lobna Abdel Aziz.

This exchange was done in classical Arabic, and we all know that classical Arabic was not the lingua franca of the Ancient Egyptians. But the main themes of the film, from the curses guarding the tombs of the ancients, to the sacrificing of pretty maidens to the Nile God, to the magic performed by ancient Egyptians, mostly have roots in Egypt’s history.

M Ancient Egyptians protect their tombs with curses, and they come back to seek revenge over those who have consecrated their tombs

The curse is an urban legend hyped up by media over the last century, especially after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun and the death of its founder Lord Car-narvon soon after. After the unfortunate death of the Lord, every calamity or death that came to anyone even remotely related to the tomb was attributed to the curse. Even How-ard Carter’s death, seventeen years after he first discov-ered it, was thought to have been the curse finally catching up with the archaeologist.

“Curses” do in fact originate in Ancient Egypt, but should be called threats rather than curses. From as early at the fifth dynasty (ca. 2465-2323) and throughout Egypt’s an-cient history, a warning was inscribed on the outer walls of tombs, warding off any possible consecrators. Ensuring a place in the afterlife was an integral part of ancient Egyp-tian belief, making the safety of the tomb, its structure and its contents of utmost importance. These curses were often around the lines of “if you disturb the slumber of he

1 2

Bride of the NileEgyptomania in Film

B M-A E D

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who rests in this tomb, you will suffer; and your wife and children will be chased by the gods.”

One exact threat describes the consequences of trespass-ing onto a tomb:

“As for any dignitary, or any official, or any persons who remove any stone or any brick from my tomb: My writ (court order) shall be litigated with his by the Great God. I shall seize his neck like a bird’s. I shall cause all surviving people to be fearful of the dead in the West…”

(From the tomb of Nenki from Saqqara, Fifth Dynasty, ca. 2465-2323.)

A more threatening and violent warning says:“The crocodile in the water be against him (the trespass-

er), the serpent on the land be against him, he who shall do a thing against this (tomb). For I have never done a thing against him. It is god who shall judge.”

(From the tomb of Meni, Sixth Dynasty, ca. 2323-2150)And so the “curses” would not only affect the person de-

filing the tomb, but also it fell upon their families, and the society would stand witness. Hamees, the tomb owner in the film, personally came back to drive the engineer, the consecrator, crazy and to force him into removing his drill-

ing equipment. This idea of returning to make the consecra-tors pay, is deeply embedded in ancient Egyptian belief.

M : Ancient Egyptians sacrificed beautiful virgins to the Nile god.

Hamees was the last “Bride of the Nile”, hence the title of the film. It is commonly believed that “Brides of the Nile” were beautiful virgins cloaked in white and thrown into the Nile every year to ensure a healthy and rich flood. Un-til today, celebrations on the occasion of “Wafaa’ el-Nil”, or “Loyalty to/of the Nile”, take place every September in Egypt with the idea that it is an ancient Egyptian festival. In one scene of the film, Hamees sees the modern celebra-tions, and immediately teleports herself onto the boat serv-ing a stage to the festivities, participating in the lead role as the pretty girl being symbolically sacrificed. However,

3

4

5

1-1920s, Howard Carter examining the coffins of King Tutankhamun. �e discovery of Tut came at a time where people were looking for a distraction from the aftermath of the war. �e media found the perfect distraction in the “Curse of the Pharaohs”.2- Only the oil engineer can see Hamees in public, making him appear delusional.3-Hamees partakes in the modern Wafaa el Nil festival and walks down the plank to sacrifice herself once again.4 & 5- �e Nile flood reaching the pyramids at the turn of the 20th century.

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there are no accurate ancient Egyptian accounts suggest-ing that ancient Egyptians sacrificed any living humans to the Nile.

This sacrifice of a beautiful maiden was first attested in the Greek author and philosopher Plutarch’s writings ca. (AD 26-120), where he talked of a king named Agyptos, who offered his virgin daughter as a sacrifice to appease the Nile gods, thereby starting this ritual. However, there is no record of any Egyptian kings named Agyptos, which sheds serious doubt on this account.

Edward William Lane, a British traveller and lexicogra-pher who lived in Egypt through the 1820s and 1830s, documented a certain tradition relating to the rising and flooding of the Nile. Every year in July/August, a week or two before the Nile reached the maximum height, a round pillar was made out of Nile mud and placed close to the Cairo dam. Corn or other grains were sown on top of both the dam and the mud pillar, probably symbolising the fertility of the Nile. This pillar was called “arooseh” or Bride. When Lane asked about this practice he was told that it comes from an ancient Egyptian custom of throw-ing a maiden into the Nile to ensure a healthy flood. Lane cites that Al Maqrizi recounted that this barbaric custom was banned by Amr ibn el-Aas the year of the Islamic invasion.

The day the Nile reached its heights was known as “Wa-faa’ El Nil”, wefaa meaning the Completion or Abundance rather than loyalty. Wefaa’ el-Nil marks the point when the government could proclaim that the Nile has flooded up to the needed 16 cubits, as an old taxation law stated that taxes cannot be collected unless the Nile has attained that height. So the word wafaa is not the loyalty of the Nile, but rather the completion of the rise of the Nile.

As there are no reliable ancient Egyptian accounts, it seems throwing virgins into the Nile as a sacrifice is only a legend that has been perpetuated over Egyptian history and is still being celebrated today. However, today noth-ing (and no-one) is thrown into the Nile, but it has rather become a day for water-sports, fancy floats down the Nile, and fun family activities.

M : �e jealous Hamees ruins several parties at the engineers’ fiancée’s house using magic tricks such as making couches fly and making birthday candles explode.

Magic did indeed “exist” in ancient Egypt. Like modern Egypt, ancient magic revolved around religious prayers and medicine. So, if a person is ill, the remedy would be some prayers, a written text (such as a hegab), and magi-

cal treatments, such as rubbing the ailed body part with some rather unpleasant concoction. Ancient magic prac-tices have survived into modern Egypt: one example is the breaking of a pot or vase after annoying guests have left to ensure that they never return. The ancient Egyptian equivalents were the Execration Texts, where names of en-emies were written upon pot fragments and then smashed to cause them harm.

Every-day magic mainly revolved around protection and fertility/childbirth; it was used to protect from and cure a variety of ailments, and to encourage fertility of humans and cattle alike, as well as protecting newborns and in-fants from demons (and the neighbours’ evil eye). Magic potions to make someone fall in love, to fortify someone’s sexual desires, and even to bring back a bald person’s hair were also known. Curses and possessions also existed, and were often prepared, and cured, by wise women.

Other, more elaborate forms of magic were also accounted for in ancient Egypt. In one story, King Khufu of the Great Pyramid fame was told about a great magician named Djed-Djedi who, at 110 years of age, was still able to eat 500 loaves of bread a day downed by 100 jugs of beer, and

2

1

1 Hamees’ magical abilities enable her make the couch fly, terrifying this poor woman2-Hamees mistakes the fridge for a sarcophagus.

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had the magical skill of reattaching a severed head back onto its body. King Khufu desired proof, and so brought in a prisoner on death row to have him decapitated for the magician to prove himself. However, the magician refused to sacrifice a human life. Instead, geese were brought in and their heads were cut off. Djed-Djedi did indeed prove his skills, and soon the heads and bodies were crawling back to one another, and were reunited before the resur-rected geese flapped happily on their way.

However, were ancient Egyptians able to send a couch flying across a room and make people disappear into thin air? If Djed-Djedi managed to attach the severed heads of geese together, then I am sure the couch flying would have been a piece of cake.

Much more than we would imagine has roots in ancient Egypt, from sliced bread (Egyptians thought of it first), to the large marble slabs placed at the buildings to mark their inauguration dates, which were used throughout Egyptian history. Though “The Bride of the Nile” is not meant to be accurate, its main ideas do have roots in ancient Egypt. Threats against tomb trespassers existed and magic was used. Although not attested in ancient Egypt, still the practice of throwing a maiden into the Nile was noted at least as early the first century A.D. It would be interesting to find out whether real maidens were ever thrown into the Nile, and if not, how this idea came about. It seems like underwater excavations in the Nile may have even more secrets to reveal!

OUR PERSIANSDuring the 19th century Persian families arriving from

Iran, India or Istanbul settled in Egypt, mostly in the dis-tricts of Hamzawi, Mouski, Souk al-Samak al-Kadim and Ghouria. Besides the proximity to the venerated Al-Hus-sein Mosque, they no doubt took pleasure in living and working next to various iconic legacies of the Shi’a Fatimid Caliphate, al-Azhar University being but one of them.

From among those families we find the Abouela Asfahanis, Abdelrassoul Shirazis, Agamis, Amir-Aghas, Askar Tabriz-is, Bakir Qazwinis, Bayat Shirazis, Djidaoui Abdelkarims, Hassan Yazdis, Ismail Alis, Kazem-Boghdadis, Kazarounis, Khozans, Mirza Abdelgawaads, Mustafa Iranis, Namazis, Rafie Mishkis, Shukrallah Kazems, Tehranis, Zadehs, etc.

Almost all were merchants and traders dealing in indi-go, tobacco, pigments, silver and tea imports from Iran, Southern India and Turkey. Later some of these merchants would switch to carpets and rugs from Iran and Central Asia offsetting Turkish imports that had prevailed in Egypt for many centuries.

A good example is Haj Mohammed Hassan Kazarouni. Young and ambitious he forfeited a livelihood in Madrass, India where his family owned a trading depot, preferring to start his own busi-ness in Cairo where he launched his trad-ing company. This was during the reign of Viceroy Mohammed Ali when Egypt was opening up to the rest of the world and commercial prospects were booming.

Within a few years Kazarouni made his first fortune importing indigo from the Indian sub-continent, luring other mem-bers of his family to join him. Owning a large house on Midan al-Daher (today a government commercial school), accom-modating newcomers was of no conse-quence for the prosperous Shahbandar al-Tujar.

But not all Persians in Egypt were mem-bers of the influential traders guild. The few exceptions were either political exiles, protégés of the monarch or adept chroni-clers like Mirza Mu’adab Asfahani who

edited a community paper which appeared at the begin-ning of the 1900s under the name Chehr-name.

It was during the early years of King Fouad’s reign (1917-36) that Persian traders in Egypt formed their own cham-ber of commerce with the post of sir-tujar--provost revolv-ing among the leading families. Yet, according to one of the community elders, the Chamber was ineffective through-out most of its existence. And, as though to confirm this negative opinion the Chamber is hardly mentioned in com-mercial journals neither is it listed in telephone directo-ries.

Also in line with other foreign resident communities (Ar-menians, Austro-Hungarians, Jews, Greeks, French and Italians), the Iranians agreed to set up their own communal institutions. This included an Iranian Community School which must have expanded to some extent in 1927 neces-sitating a logistical move from its unpretentious premises in Gamaleya to Saray Ali Salaam located at No. 12 Ba-haeldine Ibn Hanna Street, Sikket al-Daher. The school catered to both elementary and secondary levels.

There was also an Iranian Benevolent Society favoring the poorest members of the community. Several of the wealthier members of the community created waqfs--trusts from which proceeds were disbursed annually to Iranian charities.

During his 26 November 1923 speech on the occasion of the departure of the long-time representative of Persia in Egypt, Mirza Mohammed Rafie Mishki Bey ta-bled in detail his community’s many ac-complishments during the last decades. In Egypt since 1864, Mishki was eyewit-ness to many changes in its political and economical scene. Moreover, he operated under four rulers: Khedives Ismail and Tewfik; Sultan Hussein Kamel and now King Fouad.

Alluding to their privileged position in Egypt, Mishki called to mind the excellent rapport between the two great Moslem monarchies with a special mention for

By Samir W. Raafat

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King Fouad. The head of the Irani Chamber of Commerce Utaki Tijarati went on to applaud the Association of the Orient Jamiayat al-Rabta al-Sharkia, a non-political cul-tural organization headquartered at 28 Sami Street, in the district of al-Dawaween (the ministries).

Throughout its existence Rabta al-Sharkia promoted cul-tural and literary events for its members who hailed from different areas within Central Asia, India, Persia and the Fertile Crescent. Most active were the association’s Iranian members led on by intellect Mirza Rafie Mishki Bey who perceived it as a forum for partnership and mutual coop-eration with the host country.

Yet, despite various calls for rapprochement between Iran and Egypt, as a foreign community residing in what was first a semi-autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire and later a British Protectorate, Persians in Egypt answered to their own Majlis Milli and consular courts regarding civil and criminal matters. Later, under the 1901 decree, which substituted for the Capitulations system, Iranians in Egypt benefited from the Mixed Court system, an incentive they were keen to preserve at all costs.

For instance, during the 1919 protest riots that broke out all over Egypt, the Iranian merchant families of Cairo quickly distanced themselves from the Egyptian national-ists and their fight for independence. Their concern was primarily to seek indemnification for the looting of their goods and the ransacking of their warehouses, which is probably why their acting provost wrote to al-Ahram re-minding its readers that “Iranians in Egypt were protected under the 1875 Convention ratified between the Ottoman and Persian empires. Hence, the letter implied, they were ‘privileged’ citizens in an Egypt currently ruled by the Brit-ish. The letter was signed by Mirza Abdelrehim Shirazi, the sir-tujar of the Persian traders in Cairo.

Three years later, in January 1922, when it was clear the nationalist Wafd Party was about to become an important powerbroker in Egypt, the Iranian community began to re-verse its tune. In a letter to al-Ahram, Ahmed al-Husseini, on behalf of the Persian community, declared that he fully shared the plight of his Nile Valley brethren in their strug-gle against colonial discrimination. “As Easterners we sup-port Egypt’s quest for self-determination and we join our voice to that of exiled leader Saad Zaghloul.”

Due to inbuilt fears of being mistaken for locals in view of their shared physical resemblance and common reli-gion, Iranians living in Egypt continually raised the prickly issue of ‘privileges’ often mobilizing the Iranian Embassy for support and intervention. Hence the state of distress within the Iranian community when it was rumored the in-cumbent Persian envoy Ali Akbar Khan had been recalled to Tehran. Almost immediately the community reposted with a written appeal to the Persian prime minister to re-think his decision.

In an attempt to settle what was for a long time regarded as a grey area on the treatment of Iranians in Egypt, the Egyptian government issued a statement on 19 October 1924 and a reminder on 8 June 1925 outlining the extent of their privileges. It was now more than evident that the heretofore coveted capitulatory status was on the wane. After all, the original regime of Capitulations had been cre-ated in the 17th century for Christian traders operating in-side the Moslem Empire. The Moslem Persians had merely piggy-backed on it.

Capitulations would remain a troublesome issue for the next decade. Meanwhile, in April 1928, in an attempt to do away with this travesty, the Wafd government conveyed its desire to the European powers that it wanted to put an end to this outdated Convention so that foreigners in Egypt, irrespective of nationality, answer only to Egyptian jurisprudence.

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Opposite- Advertising vacant position for English teacher at Iranian School al-Ahram August 1923.Right-Princess Fawzia of Egypt and Mohamed Reza Pahlevi, the Crown Prince of Iran during their engagement in 1939.

Perhaps, because of common faith and other shared val-ues, the first country approached on the subject of revok-ing Capitulations was Iran. “Do Iranians trust the Egyp-tian judiciary system?” was the question put forward by an adept reporter to Ghaffar Khan Galal, Persia’s repre-sentative in Egypt during an interview conducted in April 1928. The answer was clear-cut. “Iranians in Egypt felt at home. They trusted and respected the host government’s sagacity. Arabic had become their first language on par with Farsi.”

In due course the Persian Empire revoked the Capitu-lations umbrella calling upon its subjects living in Egypt to adhere to local legislations in all matters. While some countries reluctantly followed suit, the European powers stalled and deferred to the limits of unreason. Capitula-tions and the Mixed Court system finally ended in 1946 following years of exhaustive negotiations.

Moslems by birth, the majority of Persians residing in Egypt were of the Shi’a sect. At their tikias, assembly hall located off Azhar Street (one in Gamaliya the other in Hamzawi), they celebrated Ashoura and other traditional holidays in conformity with their rites. Interesting to note that rather than switch to the mainstream Sunni school, some Iranians converted instead to Baha’ism. This was true of certain community elders such as Mirza Hassan Khorassani, Mirza Ali Mohammed Shirazi and (Agha) Ali Reza Asfahani. (Introduced by the Mogol emperors of India the title “Mirza” referred to a learned man).

Despite slight variances in worship and idolization with-in the small Persian community; when the time came for unity of purpose, its members rose to the occasion. For instance, when Iran was hit by one of its chronic but devastating earthquakes in the summer of 1923, Egypt’s

Iranians quickly mobilized themselves setting up an Earthquake Fund under the joint auspices of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce and the Irani Benevolent Society.

Up until air travel became popular, the preferred travel-ing route between Cairo and Tehran was overland just like it had been in pre-biblical times except that now trains and cars had replaced camels. The fist stop was Haifa in Palestine and then onwards to Beirut or Damascus. The last stop was

Baghdad before taking a 30-hour bus ride into Tehran. An alternate route was through Izmir, Turkey then onwards by rail to the seaport of Baku (in what is now Azerbaijan) and from there, across the Caspian Sea to Northern Iran.

Later, in the 1930s, travel by airplane from Cairo to Teh-ran via Baghdad would take 15 hours.

Departures of leading members of the Persian commu-nity were often reported in the press as indeed was the case in May 1924 when Irani Chamber of Commerce chief, Mirza Mahdi Rafei Mishki Bey, headed to Tehran and plac-es beyond. There to see him off at Cairo’s Central Railway Station was the head of the Grand Master Loge, implying that Mishki Bey was an active freemason--a fashionable trend for upwardly mobile beys and pashas.

As though by correlation, shortly after Egypt became an independent monarchy, the influx of Persian immigrants decreased considerably. But most likely it had more to do with the changes taking place in Iran, which had been in an endless state of decline.

In the mid-20s the old Kajar dynasty was replaced by a dynamic military-monarchy with plans for badly needed infra structure and a fresh regime of law and order. As a result, economic and commercial opportunities were fi-nally brightening up and city bazaars across Persia were coming out of lasting recession. Moreover, a heretofore un-known petrochemical industrial sector was about to debut on a titanic scale. It now seemed the only ones leaving Iran were government officials and students on educational missions.

The call of Iran was getting stronger so that some of the younger Iranians living in Egypt along with some newcom-ers decided to return home. Those who remained belonged to the earlier waves of Persian settlers/immigrants who were entering their third and fourth generation in Egypt. They had already begun an effortless process of integra-tion within an overwhelming Sunni-Moslem society.

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1- Farah Diba visiting tomb of Shah Reza Pahlevi at Cairo’s al-Rifa’i Mosque; 2006

Likewise, community members increasingly exchanged their ghetto-like existence for a more open lifestyle sending their children to the finest schools, running the risk some would eventually choose white collar professions over fam-ily business and as a result, become thoroughly “Egyptian-ized.”

A good example is the Mirza Abdelgawad family, which dominated the top tier of the community’s social totem pole leading a palatial existence in Shubra and Alexandria. Sev-eral generations later, the last of the male line was Cairo’s leading interior decorator of the 1960s, Fadlallah “Fazlo” Mirza Abdelgawaad. With a keen eye for the beautiful and grand, at his deathbed he asked to be buried with his ma-ternal ancestors whose patriarch was Egypt’s several times prime-minister Mohammed Riaz Pasha (c.1835-1911).

As for the living matri-lineage descendants of Mirza Ab-delgawaad, they were either major players in the country’s economic sector or directors of major multinationals op-erating in Egypt, as is the case with the current president of the American Chamber of Commerce. The only Irani descendant to have made it to cabinet level however was

Mohammed-Ali Namazi Pasha who held the portfolios of transport and justice between 1950-52.

Emulating the Mirza Abdelgawaads, several other second or third generation Iranian merchants also took up resi-dence in the then-bourgeois districts of Helwan, Abbassia, Helmia al-Gedida and Koubbeh Gardens; later Zamalek and Mohandesseen. And breaking with tradition, whereby arranged marriages were limited to intra-family or with-in the Irani community, some of the upper-crust families married into the local Egyptian bourgeoisie.

Keeping up appearances, merchants like Ismail Ali Bey (The Iranian Co.) and Kazarouni Carpets, opened elegant galleries in the modern district of Ismailia, the first opt-ing for the then-fashionable Passage Continental at the hotel by the same name overlooking Opera Square. The latter opted for the elegant Immeuble Baehler on Kasr al-Nil Street. With a high-end product, they catering to el-egant Cairo salons was a clear indication that the above mentioned carpet merchants had succeeded in creating a niche within Egypt’s emerging bourgeoisie. Conversely, they could now reduce their reliance on intermittent bulk

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sales to mosques and religious endowments.With time, Persia and Shi’ism became a folksy memory

diluted with each coming generation. Nevertheless in the ‘resident foreign population’ section of the Annual Statis-tics Journal for 1936, we still find an entry under “Irani-ans”.

Yet, unexpectedly, a brief exciting reminder of their Per-sian ancestry announced itself in March 1939 with the en-gagement and subsequent marriage of King Farouk’s sister to the crown prince of Iran.

During 30 days of nationwide festivities, the Egypto-Persian community went the whole nine yards proudly advertising itself, contributing hefty donations towards a princely gift to the visiting heir of the Peacock Throne. For a while at least, life was breathed back into an otherwise indolent Egyptian-Iran Union headed by Prince Soliman Daoud, but actually run by two leading Iranian merchants, Mirza Mahdi Rafei Mishki and his brother Mohsen. What a pleasure it must have been for the Mishkis and their community brethren to celebrate Persian New Year (Now-Ruz) at Zaafaran Palace on 22 March 1939 in the presence of no less than Shahpur Mohammed Reza Pahlevi.

The dynastic marriage fell through shortly after World War Two, and the fairy tale Egyptian-born princess was no longer shahbanu--Empress of all Persians. The tables were slowly turning.

Meanwhile in Egypt, the system of Mixed Courts, which had privileged foreign communities living and operating in Egypt, was no more. Some of the mutamasereen felt they no longer had a future in Egypt and were making plans to relocate elsewhere. The large Orthodox-Greek and Catho-lic-Italian communities were reluctantly considering immi-grating to ‘motherlands’ they had never seen before.

The Jews, a few of them Iranian, had seen the writing on the wall, and were making appropriate contingency plans. The Melchite and Maronite Shawaam were now calling themselves Lebanese and commuting back and forth be-tween Cairo and Beirut.

Egypt was now producing homegrown merchants and traders who were competing with, and gradually displac-ing both the khawaga and the ajam from whom they had learned so much. But for the Moslem Iranian community, there was no anxiety, for it had all but melted away espe-cially now that newcomers no longer appeared to replenish the dwindling community.

Assimilation into, and bonding with the local social fab-ric, was both inevitable and overwhelming. So much so that when in 1954 Tahia Kazem-Boghdadi, a daughter of an Iranian merchant, became Egypt’s First Lady as Mrs.

Gamal Abdel Nasser, no one took note of her origins. Na-tionalism had overpowered communitarian-ism.

Bringing home the extent of assimilation was a com-ment made recently by Ali, the blue-eyed grandson of Is-mail Ali Bey (d. 1935) who currently owns a large gallery at Khan al-Khalili’s Sikket Badistan, that famous alley which swarmed with Iranian merchants and shopkeepers in the late 19th century.

“It was only when I turned 40 that I learned I was of Persian extraction and that my grandfather was brought to Egypt at the age of three. The carpet market has since changed 180 degrees and instead of high-end Tabriz, Ke-shan, Qashqai and Nain, we now sell Egyptian handmade carpets and rugs, which are beautiful by the way!”

Today, the descendants of Egypt’s once bustling carpet, tea and indigo merchants are unrecognizable, save for a handful of elderly gentlemen who surface when Farah Diba, Iran’s former Empress, makes her annual July pil-grimage to the late shah’s mausoleum at Cairo’s al-Rifa’i Mosque.

In 525 BC, a great Persian army vanished without trace in Egypt’s Western Desert during the reign of Emperor Cambyse II. Not surprising therefore that a small 20th century Farsi community also disappeared in a devouring urban jungle.

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1-�e last of the mohicans... Ali Gamaleldine Kazrouni beneath his great-grandfather’s tombstone at the beautiful Kazrouni cemetery in al-Ghafir.

1937

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Mademoiselle Garden City

As you walk through a street of impeccable, elegant buildings, that are a sight for sore eyes, and beau-tifully proportioned villas, and spectacular palaces

that all take your breath away, you feel yourself walking through an enchanting ballroom filled with beautiful ladies competing in exquisiteness and elegance. The years might have taken their toll; colors fading, paintwork peeling, but the buildings still preserve their stateliness.

Ever since childhood, I have been obsessed with reading street names; and from them gaining an insight to history. I would read the sign “Saad Zaghloul Pacha Street” and ask the older generation enjoying their stories of the 1919 revolution. The sign “Saray Al Guezira Street” made me live in the entertaining tales of that gorgeous Andalusian palace. Frequently I would ask different people about the same name, to enjoy different stories, or a different ac-count of the same story. This ploy always worked; only when it came to the district of Garden City did it fail!

You walk through the streets I have described above, and come upon a sign that reads “Al Tulumbat”, even though there are no traces of any ‘tulumbat’ (pumps) to be seen, unless maybe on the water pipes of the buildings!! You wonder where the “Saray Kobra” (El Kasr El A’ali) is, and why did they build “Warshat Al Timbak” (Metal workshop) in such a refined district, and what could be the relation of “Maamal Al Sukar” (sugar refinery) to such elegant build-ings? You expect to find plant nurseries for example in “Al Nabatat Street” (plants) or running water in “Al Faskia Street” (fountain). You are at your wits end thinking about how they used “Howd Al Laban” (milk pool), not mention-ing “Al Birgass Street” which no-one knows the meaning of anyway!! If you are told by a better informed friend that it alludes to a race course, you get even more confused, and your mind more boggled.

As you walk through the distinguished streets of Garden City, you recall its days of glory in the first half of the 20th

century. The palace of Ali Pacha Ibrahim, and his neighbor Naguib Pacha Mahfouz. In place of that ugly building was

the palace of Adly Pacha Yakan, the house where Mostafa El Nahas Pacha lived, and where one of the most famous assassination attempts took place; the perpetrators threw a hand grenade at his house, which could have taken his life, but it got caught up in his mosquito net. Members of the Wafd Party at the time believed him to have a super-natural powers!!

The house lies in “Ahmed Pacha Street”, but who is Ahmed Pacha? Residents of the area reply by saying “God only knows”. I was told that the one person who could an-swer all my questions was Haj Massoud “Sheikh Al Hay” (a respected elder of the district with a community role); I went to see him full of hope that he would reveal all the secrets of the area. Haj Massoud replied in an all know-

B A S. T T B S M

11- Laz-Oghli’s tomb hidden inside a Garden City building.2-&-3 �e three gates in Hosh el Wakkad.

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Mademoiselle Garden City

As you walk through a street of impeccable, elegant buildings, that are a sight for sore eyes, and beau-tifully proportioned villas, and spectacular palaces

that all take your breath away, you feel yourself walking through an enchanting ballroom filled with beautiful ladies competing in exquisiteness and elegance. The years might have taken their toll; colors fading, paintwork peeling, but the buildings still preserve their stateliness.

Ever since childhood, I have been obsessed with reading street names; and from them gaining an insight to history. I would read the sign “Saad Zaghloul Pacha Street” and ask the older generation enjoying their stories of the 1919 revolution. The sign “Saray Al Guezira Street” made me live in the entertaining tales of that gorgeous Andalusian palace. Frequently I would ask different people about the same name, to enjoy different stories, or a different ac-count of the same story. This ploy always worked; only when it came to the district of Garden City did it fail!

You walk through the streets I have described above, and come upon a sign that reads “Al Tulumbat”, even though there are no traces of any ‘tulumbat’ (pumps) to be seen, unless maybe on the water pipes of the buildings!! You wonder where the “Saray Kobra” (El Kasr El A’ali) is, and why did they build “Warshat Al Timbak” (Metal workshop) in such a refined district, and what could be the relation of “Maamal Al Sukar” (sugar refinery) to such elegant build-ings? You expect to find plant nurseries for example in “Al Nabatat Street” (plants) or running water in “Al Faskia Street” (fountain). You are at your wits end thinking about how they used “Howd Al Laban” (milk pool), not mention-ing “Al Birgass Street” which no-one knows the meaning of anyway!! If you are told by a better informed friend that it alludes to a race course, you get even more confused, and your mind more boggled.

As you walk through the distinguished streets of Garden City, you recall its days of glory in the first half of the 20th

century. The palace of Ali Pacha Ibrahim, and his neighbor Naguib Pacha Mahfouz. In place of that ugly building was

the palace of Adly Pacha Yakan, the house where Mostafa El Nahas Pacha lived, and where one of the most famous assassination attempts took place; the perpetrators threw a hand grenade at his house, which could have taken his life, but it got caught up in his mosquito net. Members of the Wafd Party at the time believed him to have a super-natural powers!!

The house lies in “Ahmed Pacha Street”, but who is Ahmed Pacha? Residents of the area reply by saying “God only knows”. I was told that the one person who could an-swer all my questions was Haj Massoud “Sheikh Al Hay” (a respected elder of the district with a community role); I went to see him full of hope that he would reveal all the secrets of the area. Haj Massoud replied in an all know-

B A S. T T B S M

11- Laz-Oghli’s tomb hidden inside a Garden City building.2-&-3 �e three gates in Hosh el Wakkad.

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ing tone that “Ahmed Pacha was originally a foreigner who owned this land; he led a decadent life, until God showed him the way, and he became a Muslim and named himself Ahmed Pacha”! I decided to humor him, maybe I could come out of this awkward conversation with any useful information, so I asked him, “ Who is Garden City?”. Shak-ing his head and clearing his throat, Haj Masoud replied,” Ahmed Pacha had a beautiful daughter, whom I used to see each afternoon riding on her white horse, when the land was still all fields……” and he continued to elaborate on a princess - seemingly of the middle ages - until I inter-rupted him – or rather awoke him – by asking, “Who are you referring to?”, irritated by my interrupting his fanta-sies, he retorted “Mademoiselle Garden City” !!

�e Arrow Shooting ArenaCairo was decorated and shone for seven nights and days

to celebrate the victory of Ibrahim Pacha the son of Mo-hamed Ali over the Wahhabis. The victorious commander entered Cairo on Thursday December 9th 1818, and on the next day crossed the city at the head of a huge proces-sion and made his way to his new palace – El Kasr El A’ali

or the Supreme Palace.I have not found in my readings any definite date to the

building of El Kasr El A’ali. But Al Gabarty tells us that it was new when Ibrahim Pacha returned, so it is likely that he commissioned its building before he left on his campaign in 1816, to have it awaiting its master on his victorious return. However, Ibrahim Pacha was not the first to reside in the district, he was preceded by Al Nasser Mohamed Ibn Kalawoon in the 14th century, who devel-oped the land to be used as a training ground for soldiers, as well as building an arena for archery training, parts of which still existed at the end of the 19th century.

Al Gabarty reinforces this information; it is said that when Mohamed Ali travelled to Alexandria for the summer as he usually did on July 16th 1819, he appointed Ibrahim Pacha to take his place, his residence was at his palace built on the shores of the Nile in the direction of “Madrab Al Nishab”; the arrow shooters benches. Ali Pacha Mubarak claims that the palace was built in place of the residence of Muhamed Bek, but Mubarak did not specify who exactly Muhamed Bek was, and I did not dare ask Haj Masoud incase he told me that he was the fiancée of Mademoiselle

2 3

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Garden City, whose father would not allow her to marry !!When El Kasr El A’ali was built, to its Southern side was

Kasr Al Ainy, to its Western side was the Nile, to the East was the road that connected Misr Al Kadima (Old Cairo) to the shores of Bulak, what is today “Al Kasr Al Ainy Street. As for the Northern side, there have been disputes, howev-er most sources claim that to the north it was bordered by the palace of Prince Ahmed Pacha Rifaat the son of Ibrahim Pacha. But the maps show that the palace of Ahmad Rifaat was at first a part of El Kasr El A’ali itself, consequently the Northern border of the palace would be where the British Embassy lies today, which means that the grounds of El Kasr El A’ali practically covered what is known today as Garden City!

A Fountain Watering Glass PalmsIbrahim Pacha was influenced at the time of building

El Kasr El A’ali with his father’s residence at the Citadel; hence he wanted his palace to be both residential and of-ficial. He built the Salamlek where he met his guests to the South, and built the Haramlek to the North, as well as service buildings and offices. The kitchens that were appendixes to the palace were equipped to serve meals for

hundreds per day. He also built a palace for Abbas Pacha the son of his late brother who was still a boy.

El Kasr El A’ali was built at a time when architecture in Egypt alternated between the contemporary European style and the Turkish Eastern style. You will find D’estourmel for example describing the palace when he visited in 1833 as a “rural residence”, facing Al Roda island, with wide roads leading to it, and surrounded by large beautiful gar-dens, its layout and design similar to that of Mohamed Ali’s palace in Shubra, although El Kasr El A’ali was more sophisticated in design.”

Whereas an orientalist who visited the palace in Decem-ber 1855 and was greatly impressed by the rooms that had no corridors but lead one into the other, as was the case in the great palaces of Europe such as Versailles and Hermit-age, each princess was allocated 4 or 5 rooms, furnished with precious carpets and pieces of European furnishings with beautiful carvings, albeit scarce.

Contrary to modern times, where houses that are built along the Nile face the river, D’estourmel surprises us with the fact that the main front facet of the palace faced the Citadel and Al Mokkattam. Maybe Ibrahim Pacha chose to face his father’s palace and center of rule! As for the back side of the palace, it faced the Nile, separated from its shores by a few hundred meters of shaded gardens. The shores were paved to enable the waters to be seen from the ground floor, these pavements were planted with trees and decorated with marble statues that lent a decidedly Euro-pean air. However, D’estourmel who relays this description tells us that “even though the palace was more beautiful than its counterparts in Egypt at the time, it was built with discomforting Turkish taste”!!

If you had visited Ibrahim Pacha at the time, you would have been greeted by a large marble staircase with fine crystal banisters suitable to the grandeur of the palace and its owner. Prince Mohamed Ali Tewfik later moved parts of the banister to his palace at Manial and there is also a staircase at Abdeen Palace with a crystal banister, although I cannot confirm whether it was moved from El Kasr El A’ali, or just a twin.

You would have been escorted to one of the palace salons to wait for the Pacha, where numerous wide windows were running along the length of the room, giving an impres-sion that the rooms were in the open air with no walls, were it not for the heavy curtains made of rich fabrics, the windows were separated by narrow columns painted with beautiful landscapes. You would have also been impressed by a fountain built into one of the walls, six feet from the floor, spouting its water like a waterfall into a marble ba-sin, then running through marble channels decorated with sculpted fish, till it fell into a larger deeper pool. If you were invited to dinner you would enter the large splendid dining room, with an enormous chandelier hanging from its ceiling center, and four candle holders in the corners

Above- Ibrahim PachaOpposite- Princess Chevikar who later inherited the palace with her brothers.

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of the room in the shape of palm trees made of glass, with chandeliers placed on the walls behind them throwing a spectrum of light.

“Halviet”Ibrahim Pacha was infatuated with agriculture, I person-

ally appreciate his efforts whenever I enjoy eating the deli-cious olives he introduced to Egypt when he conquered the city of “Kalamata” during his campaigns. By 1835 he had planted more than 5 million trees of 25 different forest species and half a million fruit trees of 41 different kinds of fruit, the most important of which were the mango, cit-rus, berry, strawberry and grapes amongst others. Con-sequently it was a matter of course that the garden of his own palace would be exceptionally bountiful, he commis-sioned the French engineer Francois Beaufort to plan his garden and started work on it in 1821, to the great admira-tion of all who saw it.

D’estourmel tells the story of Beaufort taking him to the gardens of the Haramlek where he met the young prince walking in the gardens with his entourage, this in itself is not strange, nor was it strange for such a beautiful gar-den to have marble statues and fountains, but what was unique was the fact that it also had a small mausoleum. Ibrahim Pacha wanted to honor Mohamed Laz-Ogly Pacha, who was one of the most loyal subjects of Mohamed Ali, and one of the only four men he entrusted with the details of his plan of slaying the Mamluks, and hence D’estourmel found in one of the corners of the garden two small build-ings with domes, the first being a mausoleum for Laz-Ogly and the second being a “sabil” of water in his name, which still exists today hiding in the corner of what is now the side entrance of a modern Garden City building.

Ibrahim Pacha spent his life improving and enlarging the palace, and exercising his favorite hobby of gardening, he opened many passage ways in the gardens of the palace, where the princesses used to take their walks, escorted by the eunuchs, who used to call out “ Halviet!” (Retire-ment) to warn men in the area that the princesses were approaching.

Ibrahim Pacha’s interest in his palace was not confined to the gardens alone, an orientalist by the name of Garner Wilkinson who visited the palace in 1843 found a large library that Ibrahim Pacha had begun in the 1830s, which included many important Arabic and Turkish texts, as well as a museum of Egyptian artifacts, some of which he kept and others he gave as gifts to his visitors, many of these are considered the basis of many private European collec-tions today. Mohamed Ali himself visited his son’s palace many times, and resided there while Ibrahim Pacha was on campaign.

The first great event to be witnessed by the palace was not a wedding or a ball or even a funeral, but was of a dif-ferent and amusing nature, for in July 1819 the palace

saw the celebration of the circumcision of the child Prince Ab-bas Helmy!

Having visited the Haramlek where the Pacha lived with his family, let us now vis-it the Salamlek where he met his guests and saw to his official du-ties. I have before me the minutes of the meeting of the Con-sultative Council of September 21st 1829. It was decreed that on the day following this meeting every Egyptian citizen was to have a document stamped with the official stamp of Egypt if he wished to exit the country and stamped again on his return, thus: passports were born.

Reading the history of the gardens of El Kasr El A’ali solves the mystery of the names of the streets in the Gar-den City district. “Al Tulumbat” refers to the pumps which Ibrahim Pacha imported to lift the water needed for his garden. “Al Birgass” was for training the horses he bought from Arabia, the palace stables housed around 400 thor-oughbred steeds. “Al Nabatat” was the plant nursery of the palace, and from there the “Salamlek”, “El Kasr El A’ali”, “Fountain” and “Guards” are easy to decipher. As for “Maa-mal Al Sukar” it referred to the first of 2 sugar refineries built in Egypt, Ibrahim Pacha built the first in one of the corners of the palace in 1840, and the second in Farshout. Do not attempt to ask about “Houd Al Laban” or else I will be forced to tell you Haj Masoud’s story of Ibrahim Pacha taking his bath in it!

The LegacyThe young student passed his exams and was planning

on joining the famous St. Seour school, but the death of his father on November 10th 1848 forced him to return. We might imagine that these are lines from the biography of a young student of modest means, but actually this re-fers to the great Ismail Pacha the Khedive of Egypt.

Following the death of Ibrahim Pacha, the Kasr El A’ali was overseen by the government. It is clear from the docu-ments of sale and endowment dated November 7th 1849, that it was to be shared by his sons. The elder son Ahmed Rifaat was given the northern part and the Haramlek, which is the largest and grandest area of the palace. The middle son Ismail was given the southern part and the Salamlek in return for 5160 pouches of gold sovereign. Whereas Al Kobba Palace was given to the younger son Prince Mostafa Bahgat Fadel. From that day onwards the name of El Kasr El A’ali applied only to the part given to Ismail, especially

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after he began his rule of Egypt. Many historians attribute their information to documents and maps that belonged to the reign of Ismail, and hence fall into the trap of consider-ing that the palace of Ahmad Rifaat Pacha is the northern boundary of El Kasr El A’ali, whereas in actual fact it is not only part of the original palace, but the largest and most beautiful part.

On his return from France, Ismail took up many resi-dences, one of which was his portion of El Kasr El A’ali. I cannot, however, find evidence as to whether he built a new palace on the grounds, or if he improved and elaborated on the already existing structure. Aly Mubarak claims that “work continued on the palace” but does not give further information. But it is known that he spent some time on his return at El Kasr El A’ali, and his eldest son Mohamed Tawfik (later khedive) was born there. A Swiss orientalist Charles Didier, during his trip to Cairo from September 1853 to January 1854, visited Ismail at the palace and described it as a palace built, decorated and furnished in European rather than Eastern style, its most beautiful at-tribute being its view of the Nile, he also referred to the sugar refinery which he said Ismail ran himself.

Inside the Haramlek“Forty years of age, with brown hair, elegant manners,

and a beautiful intelligent face”. This was the description that Mrs Senior gave when she visited her on November 24th 1855. Shafik Pacha insists that she was beautiful in her youth and remained so till the end of her life. I have never been able to find a picture of this lady; Koshiar Ka-din. But from studying the history of El Kasr El A’ali it is obvious to me that she was the first to play the role of First Lady in Egyptian contemporary history. Her active role in society however was not during the reign of her husband, but rather during the reign of her son Ismail. When Ismail Pacha became khedive, she became the most important woman at the royal court. From hence came the title Al Walda Pacha, in her honor, and for the entirety of her life her name was connected to the history of El Kasr El A’ali.

At the start of his reign, Ismail issued a decree on the 30th of December 1863, ordering Mostafa Al Keredly Pa-cha the governor of Egypt, to endow El Kasr El A’ali to his mother Al Walda Pacha. Documentation shows that Al Walda Pacha was deeply attached to El Kasr El A’ali, may-be in honor of her memories with her husband there, and although her son had allocated the Zaafaran Palace for her use, she donated it to the government on the 15th of July 1876, and took up residence at El Kasr El A’ali, where she moved her belongings and furnishings from Al Zaafaran.

The way of life in El Kasr El A’ali adhered mostly to Turk-ish tradition with some European influences. Al Walda Pa-cha would sit holding a diamond encrusted scepter, with the princesses and visitors sitting around her in a circle on gold threaded cushions. In the middle of the circle of ladies was a cushion on the ground on which was placed a silver tray laden with delicacies in silverware, the silver was all replaced by gold for official functions.

Al Walda Pacha was interested in the arts and in mu-sic; she had a musical troupe in her palace accompanied by Egyptian and Turkish singers, as well as dancers and actors, who all wore gold threaded trousers. During the celebrations for the religious feasts or formal functions, the musical troupe would sit in a wooden kiosk attached to the Haramlek to welcome guests as they entered with music and songs.

Al Walda Pacha chose the most beautiful of Circassian slaves, and had them tutored by Egyptians, Turks and Eu-ropeans. It is said that the palace had more than a thou-sand of these slaves and their Sudanese helpers.

Receiving guests in El Kasr El A’ali followed the proto-col of Abdeen Palace. The guests would sit on high chairs and partake of coffee and sweets, and then would be intro-duced to Al Walda Pacha who would welcome them to the palace. They would then retire to the salons for a drink of absinthe before taking their leave.A Wedding by Coincidence

One of the most interesting weddings that took place at El Kasr El A’ali was that of Ibrahim Tawfik Pacha in 1869. Empress Eugenie had expressed her desire - during her historic visit to Egypt - to witness an Egyptian wedding, consequently the Khedive ordered one of his entourage, Ibrahim Tawfik, to marry one of his slaves, and the wed-ding took place at El Kasr El A’ali for the benefit of the empress. The bride received priceless jewels as a royal gift from the Khedive.

El Kasr El A’ali witnessed many marriages of the Khe-dive’s family, the first being that of Princess Tawhida on March the 21st 1869, and the most flamboyant being the four weddings of the children of Khedive Ismail in January 1873. The wedding celebrations, which lasted for 40 days and nights, were not only the most splendid to take place at the palace, but also the most splendid to take place in the history of Egypt.Opposite page- Rare images of El Kasr el A’ali.

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Khedive Ismail was usurped in 1879. On June 16th 1880 Khedive Tawfik issues a decree making many palaces, in-cluding El Kasr El A’ali, government property. Not many years later the new Khedive enters Egypt protected by the British army, and the buildings of Cairo, including El Kasr El A’ali, are lit in ‘celebration’ of this sad event.

The days pass, and Al Walda Pacha receives the last of her guests at El Kasr El A’ali on the 20th of June 1886. The following day she dies, and her grand funeral march proceeds from the palace at 6 in the evening of the same day. The soldiers lined the roads under the command of Churchill Bek (the British Constable) from Abdeen Square and on to Al Rifae Mosque, where the deceased was in-terred.

The Palaces Unite As I have mentioned, El Kasr El A’ali was divided be-

tween Ismail and Ahmad Rifaat. It seems that “Ahmad Pacha” was not (as Haj Masoud would have us believe) a foreigner after all. He was Prince Ahmad Pacha Rifaat the son of Ibrahim Pacha, who inherited the Haramlek, which is probably situated close to the street carrying his name. I have spoken a lot about the more famous part of the palace belonging to Ismail, as for the other part, it unfor-tunately witnessed mostly sad events.

We will however start our story with one of the few happy events. In 1873 the two families of the palace were united in marriage. Prince Ibrahim Ahmad the son of Ahmad Pa-cha Rifaat married Princess Zeinab the daughter of Khedive Ismail. On the 4th of May 1873 the Khedive paid 56,832 Sterling Pounds, a third of the price of a palace that Prince Ibrahim built to live in with his bride and his mother Shams Hanem. However the young bride suffered from a heart condition and died in 1875, and Shams Hanem died at El Kasr El A’ali in 1891. Prince Ibrahim married again, this time to Nougan Hanem, who gave birth to Chevikar, Ahmad Seif Al Din and Mohamed Wahid Al Din, who inher-ited the palace from their father Ibrahim Ahmad the son of Ahmad Rifaat. They lived at the palace after the death of their father in 1894.

Henna NightOn February the 13th 1895 El Kasr El A’ali witnessed

the last of its very few happy days. Princess Chevikar held a celebration on the occasion of her betrothal to Prince Ahmad Fouad, and invited all the princesses and ladies of high society to attend a Henna Night as was common

practice at the time. She received her guests sitting on a high chair similar to a throne, and was taken the next day in a procession to her husband’s palace at Al Zaafaran. At the time Al Zaafaran was at its most splendid, which was not the case with El Kasr El A’ali, on which time had taken its toll.

A Mysterious WillThe government decided on returning the palace to its

original owner Khedive Ismail in January 1888, nine years after his departure from Egypt. The palace had deteriorated after the death of Al Walda Pacha, with no-one else wishing to reside in it, apart from Prince Hussein Kamel, who lived in the palace for a while in 1894. At the time, the previ-ous Khedive was having financial difficulties; hence he at-tempted to sell the palace but could not find a buyer!

During his last days, Ismail Pacha had plans for El Kasr El A’ali. On February the 2nd 1895 news came from Is-tanbul that Ismail’s health was deteriorating rapidly, he summoned Ahmed Bek Assaad, who travelled taking with him the documents pertaining to El Kasr El A’ali. Ismail’s Pacha’s intentions are not known till today; did he put a certain plan in action or did he die before doing so?

On the 2nd of March 1895 telegraphs were received bearing the news of Ismail’s death. It was decided on bury-ing him in Cairo, and holding the funeral at El Kasr El A’ali. The two princes Hussein Kamel and Ahmed Fouad received condolences at the palace, which was filled with the elites of Egyptian society for the last time. Everyone as-sembled then stood as the Khedive Abbass Helmy entered to offer his condolences to his uncles – the Khedive’s sons – and his three wives. This was the last time for the palace to welcome a ruler of Egypt.

When the days of mourning were over, the princes met with their nephew Khedive Abbass to study the will of Is-mail Pacha, and found that although the palace was in his name, it was owned by his three wives. The heirs all accepted the terms of the will, apart from Prince Ahmad Fouad and his sister Princess Gamila. On their side the three wives were not happy with the legacy since it forced them to pay off a debt of 200,000 pounds.

The Palace Still RemainsThe first attempt at selling the palace was in 1898 to a

German company who wished to convert it into a hotel, however, the deal was cancelled when they discovered that the palace was mortgaged. In the same year all the marble,

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furnishings, doors and wood of the palace was sold at auc-tion, the palace was stripped and the garden ran to ruin.

On the 1st of November 1898 El Kasr El A’ali was sold to “Al Dairah Al Sania” who attempted to sell it again in March 1899 for 85,000 pounds to the company of Philip-part, Simon, Tamvaco & Co. but Prince Ahmed Kamal and his nieces Princess Chevikar and her sister obtained a court decree giving them first right in the purchase of the palace. And so on the 29th of May 1899 the palace was back in the family after half a century of estrangement.

In 1903 the end came, with the demolition of first the Salamlek then the Haramlek. When the Haramlek was knocked down, the Ritz hotel company attempted to buy the land, but the British government beat them to it, and enlarged the embassy. In September 1905 the remains of El Kasr El A’ali were put on sale, Khedive Abbas and his family purchased much of it. Princess Chevikar who built her own palace after El Kasr El A’ali was knocked down, used the marble as well as other items, most important of which was the fountain that was given to Ibrahim Pa-cha during a visit to Europe. The fountain was placed in the garden of the palace which is now the location of the Cabinet, there is a fountain there still, probably the same historic one taken from El Kasr El A’ali.

El Kasr El A’ali is unique in that some of its walls still stand in other locations although the palace itself ceased to exist a century ago. A man by the name of Aly Al Wakkad bought remnants of El Kasr El A’ali and used them to build a family burial plot, his enthusiasm about the palace was

obviously great since he built with care to put the blocks in their original structure and shape. A fire burnt the place down in 1924 and most of the remains were destroyed, however the doors survived and there are still walls with the initials of Khedive Ismail carved on them.

In 1904 the Egyptian Enterprise and Development com-pany was established, its manager was Mansour Naguib Shakour Pacha. The land was divided into streets and in May 1906 the development authority asked for a prom-enade to be built from the walls of the British embassy up to Al Kasr Al Ainy, the promenade was opened in Septem-ber 1910.

In 1906 the plot was sold for 700,000 pounds to the Nile Land & Agriculture Company, who founded the district of Garden City. The contract was drawn up between the com-pany representative and the heirs of Prince Ahmed Rifaat. In 1907 the land was still empty, there was an approval for 2976 pounds to be used for the sweeping of the new streets, many of which were within the boundaries of El Kasr El A’ali.

After taking this trip, you are free to give your own opin-ions about the mysteries behind the names of the streets of Garden City. You can point out with great confidence – just like Haj Masoud – that Al Birgas Street was built on the site of the old arrow shooting arena.

May God bless Ismail Pacha, Ahmad Pacha and Al Walda Pacha, and all those I have mentioned, and above all of-course Haj Masoud !! Although I strongly feel that the one who deserves our prayers for mercy and our pity…… is Mademoiselle Garden City !!

To contact the author, email: [email protected] Above- Khedive Ismail’s initials that can still be seen on one of the walls at Hosh el Wakkad in the eastern cemetery.

1937

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كان 13 فبراير 1895 آخر األيام السعيدة فى حياة قصرنا، على ندرتها، يومها أقامت األميرة شيوه كار احتفااًل كبيراً مبناسبة خطبتها لألمير أحمد فؤاد، وشملت الدعوة أميرات وجلست اليوم. عرائس تقيمها التى احلناء كليلة فكانت القوم، سيدات وعلية األسرة شيوه كار على مقعد مرتفع أشبه بكرسى العرش تستقبل زوارها قبل أن تزف من القصر العالى فى اليوم التالى إلى سراى عريسها بالزعفران التى كانت فى أوج بهائها آنذاك بعكس

القصر العالى الذى طفقت آثار الشيخوخة و عالمات الهرم تزحف على جدرانه!

الوصية الغامضة!

قررت احلكومة إعادة القصر العالى إلى صاحبه األصلى اخلديو إسماعيل فى 29 يناير 1888 بعد خروجه من مصر بتسع سنوات، وكان قد بدأ فى التدهور بعد وفاة الوالدة باشا وخلوه ممن يبغى سكناه، باستثناء األمير حسني كامل الذى أقام به فترة سنة 1894، فى الوقت الذى أخذت حالة اخلديو السابق املالية تضيق، ومن ثم شرع إسماعيل باشا فى بيع

القصر العالى لكنه لم يجد مشتريًا!

والغريب أن إسماعيل باشا أراد أمراً بشأن القصر العالى فى ساعاته األخيرة، ففى يوم 2 فبراير سنة 1895 وردت من اسطنبول أنباء بتدهور صحة إسماعيل باشا تدهوراً خطيراً وقد استدعى أحمد بك أسعد وكيل أوقاف قولة والقصر العالى فسافر ومعه حجج الوقفني ليلتقى باخلديو السابق، ولم جند ما يفيد عما انتواه إسماعيل باشا من ذلك وإن كان قد

نفذه أم داهمته النهاية دونه.

وفى 2 مارس حتمل أسالك البرق نبأ وفاة إسماعيل فى اآلستانة وقد تقرر نقله ليدفن بالقاهرة كما تقرر أن يقام العزاء فى القصر العالى، وجلس األميران حسني كامل وأحمد فؤاد يتلقيان العزاء وقد غص القصر بزواره من علياء القوم للمرة األخيرة، ثم وقف اجلميع لقدوم اخلديو عباس حلمى ليقدم واجب العزاء ألعمامه أبناء اخلديو وزوجاته الثالث فى

آخر مرة تشهد جدران القصر حاكم مصر!

بعد انتهاء أيام احلداد اجتمع األمراء أبناء اخلديو السابق برئاسة ابن أخيهم اخلديو احلالى ودرسوا وصية أبيهم فتبينوا أنه رغم أن القصر العالى باسمه إال أنه فى احلقيقة ملك زوجاته الثالث، وقد وافق الورثة على وصية مورثهم إال األمير أحمد فؤاد وأخته األميرة جميلة، اشترط أن زوجهن وقد علمن بالوقفية مرحبات الثالثة الزوجات تكن لم ناحيتهن من

عليهن فيها تسديد دين قدره مائتى ألف جنيه!

القصر ال يزال موجودًا!

إلى فندق أملانية أرادت حتويله إلى شركة القصر سنة 1898 لبيع وجترى أول محاولة فيه بيعت العام نفس فى مزاد أقيم ثم الصفقة فتعثرت مرهونًا أنه اكتشفت لكنها املنقوالت والرخام واألبواب واألخشاب وجرد القصر من كل ما به، حتى احلديقة تدهور

حالها وذبلت أشجارها.

مارس فى التى شرعت السنية الدايرة إلى العالى القصر بيع نوفمبر 1898 أول وفى Philippart, Simon, 1899 فى بيعه مببلغ خمسة وثمانني ألف جنيه إلى شركةTamvaco & Co.، لكن األمير أحمد كمال وأوالد أخيه األميرة شيوه كار وشقيقيها العالى مبوجب أمر من احملكمة فى 29 مايو 1899 القصر الشفعة واشتروا مارسوا حق

وتوحد القصر مرة أخرى بعد نصف قرن بالتمام.

هدم وحني احلرملك، ثم السالملك الهدم؛ وبدأ النهاية حانت 1903 سنة وفى احلرملك حاولت شركة فنادق Ritz شرائه لكن حكومة لندن سبقتها وكبرت السفارة. وفى سبتمبر 1905 عرضت األنقاض للبيع فاشترى اخلديو عباس وأسرته الكثير منها، وقد بنت األميرة شيوه كار قصره بعد هدم القصر العالى واستخدمت الرخام وعناصر أخرى فيه لعل أهمها الفسقية التى أهديت إلى إبراهيم باشا حني زار أوروبا، وفى حديقة قصر شيوه

كار الذى صار مقر مجلس الوزراء، فسقية بديعة لعلها نفس تلك الفسقية التاريخية!

ومن غرائب القصر العالى أنه القصر الوحيد الذى التزال بعض جدرانه قائمة فى مكان آخر رغم أنه اندثر منذ قرن! القصة أن شخصًا اسمه على الوقاد اشترى كثير من أنقاضه وأحجاره وقت بيعها وبنى بها مقبرة له ألسرته، ويبدو أنه كان له شغفًا خاصًا بها فأعاد بناء األحجار بنفس الشكل، ورغم أن حريقًا قد شب فى حوش املقبرة سنة 1924 التهم معظم هذه األنقاض، إال أن األبواب ال تزال موجودة تغلق على جدران يعلوها األحرف

األولى من اسم اخلديو إسماعيل.

شكور باشا ومسيو باكوس!

The Egyptian Enterprise & Development شركة أنشئت Company سنة 1904 وكان مديرها منصور جنيب شكور باشا ومت تقسيم األرض سبتمبر فى وفتح كورنيش إنشاء التنظيم مصلحة طلبت مايو 1906 وفى شوارع إلى

1910 وكان من سور السفارة حتى قصر العينى ثم فتح من ناحية قصر العينى.

Nile Land وبدأ بيع القصر من سنة 1906 وقد بيع مببلغ سبعمائة ألف جنيه لشركةAgricultural Company & التى أقامت حى جاردن سيتى، وكان العقد بني ورثة األمير أحمد رفعت ومسيو شارل باكوس، وحتى سنة 1907 كانت األرض ال تزال فضاء الشوارع املستجدة عدة أماكن منها أراضى فتقرأ عن اعتماد 2976 جنيه لكنس ورش

القصر العالى.

بعد هذه الرحلة ميكنك أن تفتى برأيك عن سر أسماء شوارع جاردن سيتى، وميكنك أن تدلو بدلوك فى خبايا تاريخه، فتشير فى ثقة متاثل ثقة صديقنا احلاج مسعود دون أن

يفهمك أحداً بأن البرجاس أنشئ محل مضرب النشاب! رحم اهلل إسماعيل باشا وأحمد باشا والوالدة باشا، وكل من ذكرنا أيًا كانت ألقابهم، وعلى رأسهم طبعًا احلاج مسعود، وإن كنت كثيراً ما أشعر اآلن أن الذى يستحق منا الدعاء

بالرحمة أو حتى الشفقة هى بالفعل ... مزمازيل جاردن سيتى!

مجموعة من الصور النادرة للقصر العالى

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ومن أطرف األفراح التى أقيمت فى القصر العالى فرح إبراهيم توفيق باشا الذى كان سنة 1869 ال يزال فى مبدأ حياته، فقد أعربت اإلمبراطورة أوجينى أثناء زيارتها التاريخية إحدى من بالزواج موظفيه أحد اخلديو فأمر فرح شرقى، فى مشاهدة رغبتها ملصر عن جواريه وأقيم الفرح فى القصر العالى فى نفس الليلة بعد أن تلقت العروس جواهر نفيسة

نفحة خديوية!

األميرة فرح أولها كان اخلديوية األسرة أفراح من العديد العالى القصر فى أقيم وقد توحيدة فى 21 مارس 1869، أما أفخم األفراح التى شهدها القصر العالى، بل شهدتها مصر فى تاريخها املعاصر، فكانت أفراح أجنال اخلديو إسماعيل األربعة فى يناير 1873،

وقد شهد القصر أهم مظاهرها وأبهاها على مدى أربعني يومًا بلياليها.

ويفقد اخلديو إسماعيل عرشه سنة 1879 وفى 16 يونيو 1880 أصدر اخلديو توفيق فرمان بضم عدة قصور وسرايات منها القصر العالى إلى أمالك الدولة، وما هى إال سنوات قليلة حتى يدخل اخلديو اجلديد عاصمته حتت حماية جيش االحتالل فتضاء مبانى القاهرة

الرئيسية ومنها القصر العالى احتفااًل بهذه املناسبة التعيسة!

ودارت األيام واستقبلت الوالدة باشا آخر ضيوفها فى القصر العالى يوم 20 يونيو 1886 ثم فاضت روحها فجر اليوم التالى وخرجت جنازتها الساعة السادسة من مساء نفس اليوم من القصر العالى فى موكب مهيب طوله عدة كيلومترات، وعلى الفقراء وزعت ثمار البلح وحلم أربعة عشر ثوراً ذبحوا أمام النعش فى سيره ونثرت النقود بينما اصطف اجلنود حتت قيادة تشرتشل بك الكونوستابل اإلجنليزى على طول الطريق إلى ميدان عابدين ثم جامع

الرفاعى الذى أقامته املتوفاه قبل أن تدفن به!

القصران يتصاهران!

قلنا أن القصر العالى قسم بني إسماعيل وأحمد رفعت، و«أحمد باشا« يا حاج مسعود لم يكن خواجا وال يحزنون ، بل هو األمير أحمد باشا رفعت بن إبراهيم باشا الذى ورث احلرملك ولعل مكانه تقريبًا مكان الشارع، وقد روينا الكثير عن قسم إسماعيل األشهر،

أما القسم اآلخر فأغلب ما شهد كان مشاهد تعسة حزينة!

القصر، البهيجة، سنة 1873 تصاهر قسما القالئل بواحدة من البداية نروم أننا غير يعنى أهليهما، فقد تزوج األمير إبراهيم أحمد بن األمير أحمد رفعت من األميرة زينب بنت اخلديو إسماعيل، وتقرأ فى 4 مايو 1873 أن اخلديو دفع 56832 جنيه إسترلينى ثلث قيمة قصر أقامه األمير إبراهيم أحمد إلقامته مع عروسه ووالدته شمسى هامن، لكن األميرة العروس كانت تعانى مرضًا صدريًا فأدركتها وفاة مبكرة فى 19 أغسطس 1875 ثم توفيت شمسى هامن فى القصر العالى فى أول مايو 1891. وتزوج األمير إبراهيم مرة الدين الدين ومحمد وحيد له شيوه كار وأحمد سيف أخرى من نوجوان هامن فأجنبت إبراهيم أحمد بن أحمد رفعت وأقاموا به بعد وفاة أبيهم الذين ورثوا القصر عن أبيهم

سنة 1894.

ليلة احلناء!

وتروى البارونة دو مالورتى كيف شكت لها األميرة من سوء حال القصر وقد تصدعت القصر سلم بفخامة أعجبت وإن دخولها، القصر غرفه حتى خشى خدم بعض جدران الرئيسى وصالوناته التى زينته قطع أثاث ضخمة وغطت شبابيكه ستائر ثقيلة اعتقدت

البارونة أنها تخفى عيون بعض أهل القصر الذين وقفوا خلفها يتلصصون!

احلروف االولى من اسم ولقب اخلديوى اسماعيل على احلائط فى حوش على الوقاد

21

»معمل أما سهل. أمرهم و«احلرس« و«الفسقية« الكبرى« و«السراى و«السالملك« السكر« فكان واحداً من أول معملني للتقطير فى مصر، بناه إبراهيم باشا سنة 1840 فى أحد أركان القصر وبنى اآلخر فى فرشوط، وال تسألنى عن »حوض اللنب« حتى ال أحكى

لك قصة احلاج مسعود عن استحمام اخلديو فيه!

القسمة!

جنح الطالب الشاب وكان مخططًا أن يلتحق مبدرسة سان سير الشهيرة لكن وفاة والده يوم 10 نوفمبر 1848 اضطرته للعودة. رمبا تتخيل أن هذه سطور من قصة كفاح شاب عصامى رقيق احلال، لكن احلقيقة أنها سطور من قصة حياة خديو مصر األعظم إسماعيل

باشا!

بعد وفاة إبراهيم باشا آل القصر العالى إلى جهة امليرى، أى احلكومة بلغة ذلك العصر، وتعرف من حجة الهبة والبيع املؤرخة فى 7 نوفمبر 1849 أن ولديه اقتسماه، فأخذ االبن بينما حصل األفخم واألكبر، احلرملك وهى الشمالى وسراى اجلزء األكبر أحمد رفعت األوسط إسماعيل على اجلزء اجلنوبى وسراى السالملك مقابل 5160 كيس، وذهب قصر القبة إلى أصغرهم األمير مصطفى بهجت فاضل. ومنذ ذلك احلني اقتصر اسم القصر العالى على اجلزء الذى اختص به إسماعيل فقط ال سيما بعد أن اعتلى العرش وأمسك مقاليد احلكم فى البالد، حتى أن الكثير من املؤرخني الذين استقوا معارفهم من املراجع واخلرائط البحرى اعتبار قصر أحمد رفعت باشا هو احلد التى صدرت فى عهده يقعون فى خطأ

للقصر العالى، بينما هو اجلزء األكبر واألجمل منه أصاًل!

له منها نصيبه فى يافعًا واعداً، اتخذ إسماعيل عدة مقار بعد عودته من فرنسا أميراً ر املبنى القصر العالى، ولم أستطع تبني ما إذا كان إسماعيل قد أنشأ قصراً جديداً أم أنه طَوّنه؛ فعلى مبارك قال أن »العمل استمر بها« ولم يزد! على أى حال، فالثابت املوجود وحَسّأنه استخدم القصر العالى عند عودته بعض الوقت، فقد ولد فيه ابنه األكبر محمد توفيق اسمه مستشرق سويسرى يروى أبريل 1852. كذلك 30 فى بعده الذى صار خديو شارل ديديه زار القاهرة فى سبتمبر 1853-يناير 1854 أنه زار إسماعيل فى القصر العالى وقال أنها سراى على الطراز الغربى ليس بها سمات شرقية بل ديكورات وأثاث على الطراز الغربى وعلى احلوائط رسومات فرسك وأجمل ما فيها إطاللها على النيل وبها معمل سكر

يديره إسماعيل بنفسه!

خبايا احلرملك!

»فى األربعني وشعرها بنى ولها أخالق راقية ووجه جميل ذكى« ذلك هو وصف مسز سنيور لها حني زارتها فى 24 نوفمبر 1855، ويؤكد شفيق باشا أنها كانت جميلة فى شبابها وقد بقى أثر هذا اجلمال طوال حياتها. لم أجد صورة أبداً لهذه السيدة؛ خوشيار قادين، ولكن من دراسة تاريخ القصر العالى تبدى لى جليًا أنها كانت أول من لعب دور السيدة األولى فى تاريخ مصر املعاصر، على أن دورها النشط فى احلياة االجتماعية لم يكن فى حياة زوجها، بل فى عهد ابنها إسماعيل الذى ما أن تولى العرش حتى أضحت أهم سيدات البالط اخلديوى، وقد جاء إطالق لقب »الوالدة باشا« عليها تكريسًا لهذا املقام.

كذلك ارتبط تاريخ القصر العالى باسم الوالدة باشا طوال وجودهما.

اشترت احلكومة القصر مرة أخرى فى 26 مارس 1856 مقابل ثالثني ألف كيس، ولكن اخلديو فى مستهل حكمه، أصدر أمراً أو إرادة كما كانت تسمى فى 30 ديسمبر 1863 الدولة صاحبة حلضرة العالى القصر »بوهب مصر محافظ باشا الكريدلى مصطفى إلى والعصمة والدتنا احملترمة«، وقد نص األمر على أن حدود القصر العالى البحرية هى قصر

األمير أحمد رفعت ومن هنا صار هذا اجلزء وحده يحمل اسم القصر العالى.

أن إلى الوثائق وتشير تكن كانت باشا الوالدة العالى، للقصر خاصًا حبًا زوجها مع لذكرياتها رمبا قد كان اخلديو أن إذ به، الزعفران سراى لها خصص أن لبثت ما ولكنها القدمية وهبتها إلى احلكومة فى 15 وأقامت 1876 سنة يوليو هى فى القصر العالى ونقلت التى واملنقوالت األثاث إليه

كانت فى الزعفران.

التركى الطابع غلب وقد على شكل احلياة فى القصر بعض داخله وإن العالى فكانت الغربية، العادات الوالدة باشا جتلس وفى يدها عصا مرصعة باألملاس وحولها

األميرات والزائرات على شلت موشاة بالقصب مرتبة على شكل دائرة يوضع فى وسطها منضدة منخفضة عليها صينية

من الفضة وأدواتها كذلك، أما فى املناسبات الرسمية فتكون من الذهب.

وكان للوالدة باشا شغفًا خاصًا بالفن واملوسيقى، فضم قصرها فرقة موسيقى مصحوبة وفرقة القدود راقصات جميالت وفرقة األصوات وتركيات جميالت مصريات مبغنيات تشريفات وفى بالقصب، املزركشة السراويل يرتدين وكلهن مضحك روايات لتمثيل العيد واالستقباالت الكبرى جتلس فرقة موسيقية فى كشك خشبى متصل باحلرمي، وعند

دخول الزائرات تعزف األغانى العربية والتركية والغربية حتية لهن.

والوالدة باشا كانت تنتقى اجلوار احلسان من ذوات األصل شركسى وتأتى لهن باملعلمني واملعلمات مصريني وأتراك وأجانب، وقيل أن القصر العالى كان يضم من هؤالء احلوريات

وأتباعهن السودانيات ما يبلغ األلف عداً!

فرح بالصدفة!

أما استقبال الزائرات فكان على نسق البروتوكول فى عابدين وكانت الزائرات جتلسن على كراسى عالية وتقدم لهن القهوة والُشُبك ثم يقدمن إلى الوالدة باشا فترحب بهن،

بعدها يعدن إلى الصالون مرة أخرى ليشربن »السوبيا« قبل أن يغادرن القصر العالى.

وكان يتحتم على الوافدات زيارة الوالدة باشا فى القصر العالى، وتروى األميرة ألكسندرا زوجة األمير أدوارد Prince De Galle عن غذاء رسمى كبير أقيم فى القصر العالى التى توسطتها فسقية الطعام املدعوات اخلمسمائة حجرة فبراير 1869، ودخلت فى 5 ترتديه ملا رمبا ذلك عن عجزت التى اإلجنليزية األميرة إال أرضية وسائد على وجلسن لتجربه بإحضار يشمك أمرت بكرسى كما لها باشا الوالدة فأمرت تعتده، لم أو ألنها األميرة! وجاء الطعام فى أطباق من ذهب، وقدم حلم »تابيوكه« فى أخرى صنعت من ظهر السلحفاة ضمن أربعة وعشرين صنفًا، لكن السيدات أكلن القليل ثم شربن املاء بالزهر املوسيقى بدأت بينما الُشُبك يدخن أن قبل العسل من صغيرة ملعقة بتناول وختمن العزف. وكانت زوجات اخلديو األربعة وباقى املدعوات يرتدين فساتني أنيقة ولكن ضيقها

يعوق قدرتهن على السير بها!

االميرة شيوكار

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من مئات بضع مياهه يفصلها عن النيل، على أطلت فقد اخللفية واجهته أما حكمه! الطابق من النهر مياه رؤية بحيث ميكن وقد رصفت ضفافه مظللة، من حدائق األمتار الرائع الذى منحها السفلى، وزرعت هذه األرصفة بالشجيرات وزينتها متاثيل من املرمر طابع أوروبى بحت. ورغم ذلك يرى سكوت الذى ترك لنا هذا الوصف أن القصر أجمل

من أقرانه من قصور القاهرة القائمة وقتئذ، وإن كان مبنيًا بذوق تركى غير مريح!

لو كان قد قدر لك أن تزور إبراهيم باشا الستقبلك سلم رخامى عريض يتحلى بدرابزين من البّلور يتسق مع عظمة القصر ومكانة صاحبه، وقد نقل األمير محمد على جزءاً من هذا الدرابزين إلى قصره باملنيل، وقد شاهدت فى قصر عابدين كذلك سلم يتحلى بدرابزين

بّلورى، وإن لم أحتقق إن كان قد نقل إليه من القصر العالى أم شابهه فقط.

نوافذها فتجد الباشا، انتظار فى القصر إحدى صالونات فى للجلوس كنت ستدعى متسعة متعددة حتى تكاد تكون مكشوفة لوال ما يغطيها من ستائر صنعت من أجمل حائط وفى طبيعية. مناظر عليها رسم ضيقة عوارض بينها يفصل وأثمنها، األقمشة إحدى الغرف ستبهرك نافورة بنيت على ارتفاع ستة أقدام من األرض تصب مياهها على شكل شالل فى حوض من الرخام ثم جترى فى قنوات رخامية مزينة بأسماك منحوتة فى إلى مدعو كنت وإذا وأعمق. أكبر فى حوض أخرى مرة تصب مختلفة حتى أوضاع العشاء فستدخل حجرة الطعام فتلفاها فخمة واسعة يتدلى من سقفها ثريا كبيرة تضيئها وفى جوانبها األربع شمعدانات على شكل نخل صنع من أنقى أنواع البّلور يسقط عليه

الضوء من ثريا مثبتة أعاله فيتوهج بألوان الطيف مبهجًا.

هالفيت!

إبراهيم باشا كان مولعًا بالزراعة، أنا شخصيًا أترحم عليه كلما تناولت الزيتون الشهى وقد هناك، انتصاراته »كاالماتا« ضمن بلدة فتح اليونان حني من أشجاره الذى جلب نوعًا بلغ ما زرعه حتى سنة 1835 أكثر من خمسة مليون شجرة من خمسة وعشرين أهمها مختلف فاكهة نوع وأربعني واحد من مليون شجرة ونصف الغابات أشجار من املاجنو املوالح والفراولة والتوت والكروم وغيرها وقد أرسل خبراء إلى مختلف األنحاء من الهند حتى جاميكا الستيراد شتالت جديدة، وصدرت حتت إشرافه أول جريدة فى مصر بدأ اجلمال؛ بالغة قصره حديقة تأتى أن طبيعيًا كان ثم ومن الزراعة. فى متخصصة إبراهيم باشا فى متهيد األرض وزراعة األشجار فى فبراير 1821، وكلف املهندس الفرنسى فرانسوا بوفور بإنشاء احلديقة التى أسهب كل من رآها فى وصف جمال أشجارها وحسن

تنسيقها.

ويروى ديستورميل أن بوفور قاده إلى حديقة احلرملك حيث التقى باألمير الشاب يتنزه مع حاشيته وسط األكشاك والنافورات واألشجار. إلى هنا وال عجب، فطبيعى أن يوجد الغريب أن يكون به مدفن! أراد فى حديقة قصر كهذا متاثيل مرمرية ونافورات، ولكن باشا وهو من أخلص رجال محمد على وكان باشا أن يكرم محمد الظ أوغلى إبراهيم واحد من أربعة فقط الذين ائتمنهم على خطته لذبح املماليك، ولذا وجد ديستورميل فى أحد أطراف احلديقة مبنيني صغيرين يعلوهما قبتان، األول ضريح الظ أوغلى والثانى أسفل إحدى الضريح موجوداً أقيم صدقة على روح رجله املخلص، وال يزال سبيل ماء

عمارات حى جاردن سيتى إلى اآلن!

وقد ظل إبراهيم باشا طوال حياته يطور السراى ويوسع فيها وميارس هواية الزراعة كما فتح ممرات واسعة فى حديقة السراى كانت األميرات يتنزهن بها فيصيح األغوات بصوت عالى »هالفيت« لينبهوا الرجال، األمر الذى يذكرنى بقول بعض ذوى األصول الريفية حني

دخولهم أحد املنازل »يا ساتر«!

لم يكن ميل إبراهيم باشا الشديد لقصره فقط حبًا فى الزراعة وشغفًا باحلديقة، يقول مستشرق اسمه جارنر ويلكنسون أنه رأى فى القصر حني زاره سنة 1843 مكتبة ضخمة متحف بجانب هامة وتركية عربية كتب بها القرن ثالثينيات فى باشا إبراهيم بدأها من كثير نواة وتعد زواره لكبار بعضها وأهدى منها مبجموعة فيه احتفظ مصريات املجموعات اخلاصة املوجودة فى أوروبا. من هؤالء كونت جوزيف دى ستورنال الذى روى أنه زار إبراهيم باشا سنة 1833 وانتقى قطع منها، حتى محمد على كان يروم زيارة ابنه

بالقصر العالى وقد أقام به عدة مرات وإبراهيم باشا فى فتوحاته.

وأول ما سجل التاريخ من أحداث هامة شهدها القصر لم يكن فرح أو احتفال أو حتى مأمت، بل جاء مختلفًا ال يخلو من طرافة؛ فى يوليو 1819 أقيم حفل ختان األمير الطفل

عباس حلمى!

زرنا احلرملك حيث عاش صاحب القصر مع عائلته فتعالى بنا إلى إطاللة على السالملك حيث استقبل ضيوفه وباشر عمله، أمامى محضر اجتماع مجلس املشورة فى21 سبتمبر 1829، وفى اليوم التالى قرر املجلس أن يحمل كل مواطن وثيقة تختم بختم مصر عند خروجه من أبوابها وعند انتقاله من بلد إلى آخر، هكذا ولد جواز السفر ألول مرة فى مصر

فى القصر العالى!

جاردن شوارع أسماء طالسم لك حتل التى هى العالى القصر حديقة تاريخ وقراءة سيتى، »الطلمبات« استوردها إبراهيم باشا من أوروبا لتكون أول مرة ترفع فيها مياه الرى فى مصر آليًا و«البرجاس« لتدريب اخليول العربية التى جلبها صاحب القصر من احلجاز وشيد لها إصطبالت بالقصر كان بها نحو 400 من كرام اخليل، و«النباتات« عند املشتل

ابراهيم باشا والي مصر

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أنه يخبرنا اجلبرتى أن على العالى، القصر إلنشاء تاريخًا محدداً قرأت فيما أجد لم كان جديداً يوم عودته، فاألرجح أن إبراهيم باشا أمر به قبل سفره على رأس احلملة سنة ١٨١٦ فكان عامراً ينتظر سيده حني عاد ظافراً. لم يكن إبراهيم باشا أول من عّمر هذه املنطقة، بل سبقه الناصر محمد بن قالوون فى القرن الرابع عشر حني مهد األرض ليتدرب بها جنوده على أساليب القتال وأنشأ بها ميدان لرمى السهام كان بعضه ال يزال باقيًا فى

أواخر القرن التاسع عشر.

واجلبرتى يعزز هذا؛ فقد روى أنه حني سافر محمد على إلى اإلسكندرية لالصطياف كعادته فى ١٦ يوليو ١٨١٩، عّني إبراهيم باشا قائمًا مقامه، «وكانت إقامته بقصره الذى أنشأه بشاطئ النيل جتاه مضرب النشاب»، أى املكان الذى تضرب به السهام. بينما يذكر على باشا مبارك أن القصر أقيم مكان بيت محمد بك، ولم يحدد مبارك من هو محمد بك هذا، ولم أشأ أن أسأل احلاج مسعود حتى ال يحكى لى أنه كان خطيب مزمازيل جاردن

سيتى الذى لم يرض أبوها أن يزوجها له!

حني أنشئ القصر العالى كان حده اجلنوبى قصر العينى والغربى شاطئ النيل والشرقى الشارع املوصل من مصر القدمية إلى ساحل بوالق ومحله اآلن شارع قصر العينى. أما احلد البحرى فهو محل خالف، إذ أن كثير من املراجع تذكر أن القصر العالى كان يحده من الشمال قصر األمير أحمد باشا رفعت بن إبراهيم باشا األكبر، غير أن اخلرائط توضح أن ذلك القصر كان فى أول األمر جزء من القصر العالى نفسه، وعلى ذلك يكون احلد البحرى للقصر العالى هو مقر السفارة البريطانية، أى أن القصر كان محل معظم حى جاردن سيتى

اآلن!

شالل ماء يروى نخل بلور!

كان إبراهيم باشا متأثراً مبقر إقامة والده بالقلعة حني شيد القصر العالى، لذا أراد القصر أن يكون مقراً إلقامته وعمله معًا، فبنى السالملك فى اجلانب القبلى ليستقبل به زواره وبنى احلرملك فى اجلانب البحرى غير مبانى خدمات ومكاتب ملحقة بالقصر، أما املطابخ بنى قصراً خاصًا للمئات كل يوم. كذلك بالقصر فكانت مجهزة إلعداد مائدة امللحقة لعباس باشا ابن أخيه املتوفى وكان ال يزال صبيًا، وبعد سنوات كبر عباس ومنا العداء بينهما

واستحكم ثم خلفه فى احلكم!

الطرز تزال تتأرجح بني القصور فى مصر ال العالى فى وقت كانت عمارة القصر بنى األوروبية احلديثة والطرز التركية الشرقية؛ فبينما جتد ديستورميل مثًال يصف القصر حني إليه عبر طرق واسعة وحتيطه الروضة تصل أمام جزيرة بأنه منزل ريفى زاره سنة ١٨٣٣ بساتني واسعة جميلة وتصميمه وتقسيمه مشابه لقصر محمد على فى شبرا وإن بدا أن اختيارهم هنا لقى عناية أكثر، من ناحية أخرى جتد أحد املستشرقني الذى زار القصر يوم ١٥ ديسمبر ١٨٥٥ معجبًا بغرفه التى ال توجد بها طرقات ولكن تفضى واحدة منها إلى األخرى على نسق القصور األوروبية الفخمة كفرساى وإرميتاج، وقد خصصت لكل أميرة أربع أو خمس حجرات مفروشة بسجاجيد ثمينة وبعض قطع األثاث األوروبى املنحوت

برسوم جميلة، وإن بدا قليًال! وبعكس تصميم املنازل املطلة على النيل اآلن، يفاجئنا ديستورميل بأن واجهة القصر الرئيسية كانت تطل على القلعة واملقطم، ولعل إبراهيم باشا أراد أن يواجه قصر أبيه ومقر

٢٣

18

منمقة بهية وفيالت بصرك ميتع تصميمها أنيقة دقيقة عمارات به شارع فى تسير تقسيمها يشرح خاطرك وقصور فخمة رائعة زخارفها تبعث فيك البهجة، فتشعر وكأنك تخطو بهواً واسع األرجاء به حفل ساهر زاخر بحوريات فاتنات يتسابقن جماًال ويتنافسن أناقة. رمبا أعيتها سنون العمر ونال منها الزمان نصيبًا، بهت لونها أو وقع بياضها، ولكنها

ال تزال على قول املصريني املأثور «حافظة مركزها»!

فى طفولتى كنت - وال زلت – مولعًا بقراءة أسماء الشوارع كى أتعرف من خاللها على بعض صفحات التاريخ؛ أقرأ الفتة «شارع سعد زغلول باشا» فأسأل ألستمتع ممن هم أكبر منى بقصة مثيرة عن ثورة ١٩١٩ أو الفتة «شارع سراى اجلزيرة» ألعيش رواية طريفة عن ذلك القصر األندلسى اجلميل. أحيانًا كثيرة كنت أسأل عن نفس االسم أكثر من مرة فأسمع قصص مختلفة أو روايات متباينة لنفس القصة. املهم أن احليلة كانت دائمًا تنجح،

إال فى حى جاردن سيتى!

متشى فى شارع مبانيه كما وصفت لك وتقرأ «شارع الطلمبات»، مع أنه ال أثر به ملكان ميكن أن يحوى طلمبات اللهم إال على مواسير العمارات! وحتار أين هى «السراى الكبرى» وملاذا بنوا «ورشة التمباك» فى حى سكنى راقى وما عالقة «معمل السكر» بهذه املبانى «الفسقية»، فى جاريًا وماءاً «النباتات» مثًال فى شارع أن جتد مشتل وتتوقع األصيلة. وتكاد جتن من التفكير فى الغرض من «حوض اللنب»، ناهيك عن شارع «البرجاس» الذى ال تعرف له معنى أصًال! وإذا أخبرك صديق أكثر منك ثقافة أنه يعنى حلبة سباق اخليول

ازدادت حيرتك وطار صوابك!

ومتضى فى شوارع حى جاردن سيتى األصيل وأنت تستحضر أيام عزه فى النصف األول من القرن العشرين، هذا قصر على باشا إبراهيم وجاره جنيب باشا محفوظ، ومكان ذلك املبنى السقيم قصر عدلى باشا يكن، وهذا هو البيت الذى سكن به مصطفى النحاس باشا وجرت به إحدى أشهر محاوالت اغتياله، حني قذفه اجلناة بقنبلة يدوية كادت شظاياها أن

تفتك به لوال أن تعلقت بناموسية فراشه، فقال الوفديون وقتئذ أن فيه شىء هللا!

والبيت يقع فى شارع أحمد باشا، هكذا؟ أحمد باشا من؟ فيجيبك معظم أهل الشارع «اهللا أعلم». فى يوم قيل لى أن الذى يجيبك على كل هذه األسئلة هو احلاج مسعود شيخ نى نفسى بكشف أسرار املنطقة فقال لى بصوت العارفني بوابى احلى، وذهبت أسأله وأنا أَمّببواطن األمور «كان أصله واحد خواجة، كانت األرض دى كلها ملكه، اهللا يرحمه كان أخرج لعلى وأسايره باشا»! أحمد نفسه وسمى فأسلم هداه ربنا وبعدين بطّال، سيره مبعلومة ولو بسيطة من هذا احلديث العجيب «طيب ومني جاردن سيتى يا حاج» فيومئ كنت متامه، ليلة البدر زى وحيدة جميلة بنت له «كان يزيد أن قبل ويتنحنح برأسه كان أيام املطهم، األبيض حصانها على تتهادى وهى العصارى ساعة يوم كل أشوفها

األرض كلها غيطان»، وميضى مسهبًا فى وصف أميرة من أساطير القرون الوسطى حتى أقاطعه أو باألحرى أوقظه سائًال «هى مني ده يا حاج مسعود» فيجيب فى شىء من احلدة

وقد أفقته من تخيل فتاة أحالمه «مزمازيل جاردن سيتى»!

مضرب النشاب!

دع منتجع رأس محمد جانبًا وتعالى معى فى رحلة غوص فى رأس إبراهيم؛ إبراهيم باشا بانتصاره على ابتهاجًا بلياليها أيام القاهرة وتألألت سبعة بن محمد على، وقد ازدانت الوهابيني. ويدخل القائد الفاحت القاهرة يوم اخلميس ٩ ديسمبر ١٨١٨ وفى اليوم التالى

يشق املدينة على رأس موكب ضخم ثم يعود إلى قصره اجلديد، القصر العالى.

١- مقبرة الظوغلي، فى مدخل عمارة بحي جاردن سيتي.٢-٣ ابواب القصر التي ال تزال موجودة في مقبرة علي الوقاد

بحث للمهندس / عمرو سميح طلعت

١

أسطورة عاشت علي مدي التاريخ في مصر، ومازال يحتفل بها كل عام الي اآلن، اال اننا اليوم ال نلقي الي النيل بأي شيء وامنا أصبح االحتفال يقتصر علي االلعاب املائية وتسيير املراكب االحتفاليه املزدانة في النيل ليسعد املصريون

مبنظرها اجلميل ويقضون اوقاتا سعيدة علي شاطئ النهر العظيم.

األسطوره الثالثه: "هاميس" الغيور تفسد الحفل في منزل خطيبه االرائك تطير كأن السحريه االلعاب مستخدمه المهندس

وتنفجر الشموع:كان السحر موجودا بالفعل في مصر القدمية. وكما في مصر احلديثة ايضا يكون قد فاملريض والعالجات واالحجبة االدعية حول السحر فكرة تدور أورمبا املكتوبة (حجاب) بالنصوص أواالستعانة االدعية قراءة بعض عالجه أو(قلة) قدر كسر ذلك علي مثال سحرية. بتركيبة العليل اجلزء تدليك بعد مغادرة ضيوف غير مرغوب فيهم للتأكد من عدم عودتهم ابدا، واملقابل كتابة يتم اللعنات) حيث كان في (نصوص القدمية جنده في مصر لذلك أسماء االعداء علي شظية من قدر فخاري ثم حتطيمها بعد ذلك كي يلحق

بهم االذي.فقد واخلصوبة، التحصني حول تدور اليومية السحرية املمارسات كانت وعالجها، والعلل األمراض من مجموعة من للتحصني السحر استخدم ولتحفيز اخلصوبة للبشر ( بل وللماشيه ايضا!!) وكذلك لتحصني األطفال هناك كانت انه كما اجليران، وحسد الشياطني من عموما والصغار الرضع للرأس الشعر وأخري إلستعادة بل للفحولة، وأخري للمحبة جرعة سحرية

األصلع.بتحضيرها يقوم "اللعنات" و"األعمال" كانت معروفة هي األخري وكان ايضا اشكال العمل) نساء يعرفن باحلكمه. كان هناك والعالج منها (فك للملك قيل الروايات أحد ففي القدمية مصر في السحر من تعقيدا أكثر "خوفو" باني الهرم األكبر ان هناك ساحر عظيم يسمي "جتيد جيدي" عمره ١١٠ عاما، ميكنه التهام ٥٠٠ رغيف من اخلبز وجترع ١٠٠ قدح من شراب الشعير، ويستطيع ايضا اعادة الرأس املقطوع للجسد مره أخري. واراد امللك "خوفو" التأكد من صدق الرواية فأمر باحضار أحد السجناء احملكوم عليهم باملوت وأمر بقطع رأسه كي يعيدها الساحر مرة أخري للجسد، اال ان الساحر أبي ان يضحي بحياة انسان وطلب أحضار عدد من األوز ليجري عليها سحره، وفعال بعد قطع رقاب األوز متكن الساحر من اعادتها للحياة وانطلقت ترفرف بأجنحتها بسعادة. ومع ذلك هل كان بإمكان املصريني القدماء جعل االرائك تطير والناس تختفي في الهواء؟ اذا كان "جيد جيدي" استطاع تركيب روؤس االوز املقطوعة واعادتها للحياة، فال شك ان جعل االريكة تطير في الهواء لم

يكن ليشكل أدني مشكلة بالنسبة له.اخلبز من بدءا القدمية، مصر في جذور له تخيله ميكن ال مما الكثير ان اللوحات وحتي ذلك، في فكروا من أول فاملصريون (التوست) املشطور بنائها وهي عادة استمرت تاريخ املباني لتسجيل التي توضع علي الرخامية

علي مدي التاريخ املصري. ونستطيع القول بأنه علي الرغم من ان فيلم "عروس النيل" لم يكن دقيقا باملعني املفهوم، اال ان األفكار االساسية الواردة فيه لها جذور بالفعل في مصر القدمية، فالتهديدات لنابشي القبور كانت موجودة، والسحر كان مستخدما ومعروفا، و"عروس النيل" علي الرغم من انه ليس من دليل علي وجودها في الية في القرن مصر القدمية اال ان تقليد القاء عروس في النهر قد مت االشارة األول بعد امليالد ... ولكن ... ألن يكون من الطريف التأكد من حقيقيه أسطورة عروس النيل؟ كيف السبيل الي ذلك؟؟ ... البحث عن رفات تلك

العرائس في قاع النيل؟!... رمبا !!!

16

والفزع من املوتي الراقدين في الغرب بني األحياء جميعا". عبارة منقوشة علي وتهديد ق.م 2323-2468 اخلامسة األسرة سقارة، في "نينكي" مقبرة الثعبان وليطارده املاء في التمساح "فليطارده يقول: وعنفا أكثر شدة أخر علي األرض، هذا الذي ينبش هذه املقبرة، فإنني لم أوذه يوما، وليحكم اهلل بيننا" من مقبرة "ميني" األسرة السادسة 2323-2150 ق.م. وهكذا فإن اللعنه لن تلحق فقط بالشخص الذي يدنس املقبرة وامنا ستلحق ايضا بأسرتة،

وسيشهد ذلك املجتمع كله.املهندس لتدفع بنفسها الفيلم - عادت في املقبرة – صاحبة "هاميس" الذي نبش مقبرتها للجنون حتي جتبره علي التوقف عن احلفر والرحيل مبعداته تضرب املقابر علي املعتدي من لألنتقام العودة فكرة ان واحلقيقة عنها.

بجذورها في املعتقد املصري القدمي.

األسطورة الثانية: المصريون القدماء يضحون بالعذاري الجميالت بإلقائهن إلله النيل:

واملعتقد الفيلم- هوعنوان كما – النيل( آخر )عروس "هاميس" كانت السائد هوأن عرائس النيل كن عذاري جميالت يرفلن في أثواب بيضاء يتم النيل بخيره ويأتي الفيضان وفيرا. النيل كل عام أمال ان يجود القائهن في والي اليوم تقام احتفاالت "وفاء النيل" في مصر في شهر سبتمبر من كل عام احياءا ملا يعتقد أنه عيد مصري قدمي. وفي أحد مشاهد الفيلم نري "هاميس" تشاهد االحتفاالت احلديثة بوفاء النيل وتنتقل بخيالها علي الفور لنشاهدها تقف علي منصة االحتفال بإعتبارها العروس التي سيتم التضحية بها للنيل، ومع ذلك، فال توجد أية دالئل تشير الي ان املصريني القدماء كانوا يقدمون

قرابني بشرية للنيل.كان الكاتب والفيلسوف األغريقي "بلوتارك" )120-26 ق.م( هوأول في أحد كتاباته عن ملك بعروس جميلة عندما حتدث التضحية من شهد بدأت النيل، وهكذا قربانا إلله العذراء ابنته بتقدمي قام "إجيبتوس" يدعي كان مصري ملك وجود علي واحد دليل يوجد ال انه اال . الشعيرة تلك

يدعي "إجيبتوس"، األمر الذي يلقي ظالال من الشك حول تلك الرواية.اما "ادوارد وليام لني" الرحالة البريطاني ومؤلف املعجم فقد سجل في كتاباته الفترة من عام 1820 الي عام 1830 عن تقليد اقام بها في التي عن مصر النيل وفيضانه كل عام من شهري يوليووأغسطس، يرتبط بإرتفاع منسوب كان لها منسوب أعلي الي النيل مياه وصول من أوأسبوعني أسبوع فقبل القاهرة وكانوا النيل علي مقربة من سد املصريون يضعون عمودا من طمي يغطون السد وعمود الطمي بحبوب القمح والذرة – رمبا رمزا خلصوبة النيل – وكانوا يطلقون علي عمود الطمي )العروس(. وعندما سأل "لني"عن ذلك بالقاء عروس في لتقليد مصري قدمي كان يقضي بأنه يرجع التقليد أجيب النيل لضمان فيضان وفير للنهر. ويشير "لني" الي "املقريزي" الذي سجل في الفتح العاص" عقب الوحشي منعه "عمروبن التقليد أحد كتاباته ان ذلك

األسالمي.الي أعلي منسوب لها يسمي "وفاء النيل اليوم الذي تصل فيه مياه كان العطاء تعني ما بقدر واالخالص الوالء تعني ال هنا "وفاء" وكلمة النيل" والوفرة. ويكون وفاء النيل قد حتقق عندما تعلن احلكومه ان منسوب النيل قد وصل الي 16 ذراع، وكانت تلك هي الطريقة آنذاك حلساب الضرائب، القدر ذلك الي النيل مياه منسوب وصل اذا اال جمعها يتم ال فالضرائب

– 16 ذراع-ومبا انه ال يوجد دالئل قويه في التاريخ املصري القدمي تؤكد القاء عذاري قربانا للنيل كل عام قبيل الفيضان، ميكن القول بأن "عروس النيل" ما هي اال

15

بقلم منة اهلل الُدرِّي

عروس النيل )انتاج النيل عروس فيلم من املشاهد تلك املصريني من العديد يتذكر أخته لينادي التليفزيون شاشة علي الفرعون فيها يظهر التي )1963

"هاميس" ويناشدها العودة الي آتون."هاميس" ارسلها اإلله "آتون" للعام 1963 لتنتقم من املهندس الذي دمر في هاميس تقع هومتوقع، وكما البترول. عن وتنقيبه حفره أثناء مقبرتها حبه وتبقي معه في مصر احلديثة. وهنا، يظهر لها أخاها علي الشاشة عندما كانت تشاهد التليفزيون، ويطلب منها العودة مناديا بصوت يجمع بني الوقار والرهبة ) هاميس ... عووودي الي آتون(. وهنا اجابته هاميس التي لعبت

دورها الفنانة لبني عبد العزيز: ) ...ولكني أحبه(.كانت العبارات املتبادلة بني "هاميس" وأخاها باللغة العربية الفصحي التي األخر اجلانب علي ولكن القدماء، املصريني لغة تكن لم انها نعلم جميعا كانت األفكار التي طرحها الفيلم سواء فكرة اللعنة التي حترس مقابرهم أوالقاء العذاري اجلميالت لإلله النيل أوالسحر الذي مارسه املصريون القدماء، كل

تلك األفكار كان لها بالفعل جذور في التاريخ املصري القدمي.

مقابرهم يحرسون القدماء )المصريون األولي: األسطورة باللعنات، ويعودون لإلنتقام من نابشى قبورهم(:

لعنة الفراعنة هي أسطورة صنعت في احلضر وعززتها وسائل األعالم علي

مدي القرن املاضي، خاصة بعد أكتشاف مقبرة توت عنخ آمون وموت اللورد كارنارفون ممول عملية التنقيب عقب ذلك بفترة وجيزة. فبعد املوت املؤسف للورد كارنارفون أخذ الناس يرجعون الي لعنة الفراعنة أي كارثة أوموت يلحق بأي من هؤالء الذين تربطهم اي عالقة من قريب او بعيد باملقبرة، حتي ان وفاة هوارد كارتر بعد سبعه عشر عاما من اكتشافه املقبرة اعتبرها الناس لعنة

الفراعنة التي جنحت أخيرا في اللحاق باألثري الشهير.ان األحري ولكنه القدمية، الي مصر بالفعل أصولها ترجع اللعنات فكرة يطلق عليها "تهديدات" وليس "لعنات". فإبان فتره حكم االسره اخلامسة )2465-2323 ق.م( وعلي مدي التاريخ املصري القدمي، كانت اجلدران بنبش نفسه له تسول من تهديد الي تشير نقوشا حتمل للمقابر اخلارجية

املقبرة.كان تأمني املقبرة وبنائها ومحتوياتها أمر في غاية االهمية لدي املصري القدمي حيث كانت فكرة اخللود وضمان مكانة في احلياه األبديه بعد املوت تشكل تدور حول اللعنات تلك كانت القدمية. املصرية العقيدة في اساسيا ركنا املعني اآلتي: "اذا قمت باقالق من يرقد في هذه املقبره ستلحق بك وزوجك وابنائك لعنات اآللهة". وتصف أحد التهديدات النتائج التي ستترتب علي نبش املقابر باألتي: "بالنسبه ألي صاحب مقام رفيع أوموظف أوإي شخص يقوم بتحريك حجر أوقرميد من مقبرتي، فإنني أمرت ان حتال محاكمته الي أثير اخلوف الطير، وسوف اإلله األعظم وسوف أقبض علي عنقه كما عنق

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امللك. فنري صورة امللك وعروسه احملبوبة امللكة فريدة علي طابع بريد مبناسبة عيد امليالد الثامن عشر للملك، والطريف ان هذا الطابع كان يحمل صورة فاروق وفريدة مبالبس الزفاف بينما الطابع الصادر مبناسبة الزفاف امللكي تظهر

فيه امللكة فريدة باملالبس النهارية.

فرقت احلرب العاملية الثانية بني ضفتي البحر املتوسط، فاخلدمة البريدية الي أوروبا والتي كانت مسألة يسيرة أصبحت تبحث عن طرق بديلة، واخلطاب وجامبيا وغانا نيجيريا ثم بالسودان مير اصبح لندن الي القاهرة من املرسل السياسية باحلالة البريدي النظام لتأثر انعكاس في بديل البرتغال كطريق ثم شركة مع اتفاق في احلل متثل وهنا عام. بشكل واالجتماعية واالقتصادية لفات علي اخلطابات يتم تصوير بأن ،Eastern Kodak Eastmanافالم تضم مجموعة من اخلطابات كل مجموعة ١٥٠٠ خطاب تتم طباعتها في اجنلترا، ومن هنا ظهر ما عرف بالـAirgraph ثم الـAerogramme وكان

وسيلة اقتصادية للغاية حيث اصبح الظرف واخلطاب ورقة واحدة فقط.

ولوجود للملكية، العداء شديدة جديدة بحكومة ١٩٥٢ ثوره جاءت يتمثل احلل كان فاروق امللك صورة حتمل التي الطوابع من هائلة كميات في اعادة الطباعة، ولكن بسبب ضخامة كمية الطوابع املراد اعادة طباعتها، اضطرت احلكومة اجلديدة لإلستعانه مبطابع لم يسبق لها التعامل مع طوابع بريدية من قبل، وكانت النتيجة محو مالمح الطوابع التي حتمل صورة امللك املخلوع بطريقة غير متقنة علي االطالق وهوما لم يكن امللك فؤاد - الذي كان ينشد الكمال كما اشرنا - ليرضي عنه ابدا. وأدي ما حدث الي انتاج عدد كبير من الطوابع املعيبة والتي تعتبر حلم أي هاو جلمع الطوابع ... وهنا عرض علينا د. الكرداني بعض تلك الطوابع التي يظهر فيها وجه امللك فاروق

املعروف بوسامته ... وجها ملئ بالعيوب في الشكل واملنسوب.

التذكارية للعقود اخلمسة البومات د. الكرداني مئات من الطوابع وتضم التالية للثورة، ولكن لضيق الوقت توقفنا فقط عند تاريخ هام - عام ١٩٥٧ - عندما مت ارسال مصريان من صانعي الطوابع الي سويسرا ليتعلما تقنيات مصرية بالضرورة ليس – جديدة جتريبية بنماذج ليعودا احلديثة، الطباعة – ولكنها تشير الي دخول مصر ملرحلة جديدة من انتاج الطوابع البريدية-

مرحلة االلوان املتعدده. التاريخي الترتيب ان احدهم اشار الكرداني د. عند اجتماعنا اثناء للطوابع يعتبر اسلوب غير تقليدي في عرف هواة جمع الطوابع، وأن الطريقة الصحيحة هي ترتيب الطوابع حسب نوعها. اجاب د. الكرداني علي تلك املالحظة قائال: «ان اهتمامي الرئيسي بالطوابع ميكنني من قرءاة تاريخ مصر بصورة أفضل». وهنا تذكرت لقائي األول بـ د. الكرداني منذ عاميني، عندما التي للطوابع ترتيبه جعل وانه به االستمتاع تعني الشئ هواية ان لي ذكر

يحتفظ بها علي الطريقة التي يستمتع بها.

ودون األلكتروني، البريد عناوين ونتبادل عشر، التاسع االلبوم ونغلق التفكير أوالقلق بشأن تأثير البريد األلكتروني علي طابع البريد التقليدي ... عقدت العزم علي أال أفكر مرة أخري في أعتبار طوابع البريد مجرد قصاصات

مملة من الورق ...

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البريدية» لضمان خدمة «متميزة» لتوصيل اخلطابات والطرود الهامة، خاصه تلك املتبادلة بني كبار املسئولني والشخصيات املرموقة..

تسببت احلرب العاملية األولي في تدفق اجلنود البريطانيني علي مصر، وكان من تصلهم التي فاخلطابات اجلنود، لهؤالء االهمية شديد البريدي النظام «القوات في واجلندي املعنوية... روحهم لرفع وسيلة أكبر كانت بالدهم املقاتله» كان ُيعفي من دفع الرسوم البريديه اذا ما كتب علي الظرف حروف نقص تعني كانت ايضا احلرب .On Active Service أي OASالعديد من األساسيات واالحتياجات كالورق مثًال، وكعادة القوات البريطانية في ايجاد احللول العملية، قاموا بتصميم اظرف خطابات تصلح لالستخدام

أكثر من مرة ( مع شرح طريقة فتحها ولصقها بعناية لضمان حتقق ذلك).

ويشرح لنا د. الكرداني كيف ان مصر عرفت ألول مره الطوابع املصورة في عام ١٩١٤، مشيراً الي مجموعه من الطوابع املصرية املعالم من عدد صور حتمل التي والتي مت اصدارها ألول مرة – وللدقة – في ٨ يناير ١٩١٤ وهواليوم املوافق للذكري الثانية حلمي عباس اخلديوي جللوس والعشرين الثاني علي عرش مصر ليبدأ التقليد اجلديد بانتاج طوابع مصورة يزدهر، اال ان اخلديوي الثاني نفسه قد مت عزله ونفيه عباس حلمي

في نفس العام.

ونتصفح عده البومات اخري الي ان نصل د. لدي املفضلة املرحلة ،١٩٢٢ عام الي الكرداني: « انها املرحلة التي متثل نقطة حتول ذات دولة أصبحت لقد مصر.. تاريخ في فقط هنا األول، فؤاد امللك سيادة يحكمها احلاكم صورة يحمل املصري الطابع أصبح اما قبل ذلك فقد كانت العالقة الشائكة مع الباب العالي في اسطنبول جتعل وضع صورة للجانبيني، مالئمة غير مسألة الطابع علي تابعًا كونه يعدو ال كان مصر فخديوي للسلطان العثماني فيما كان السلطان نفسه هوالشخصية – للمؤمنني اميرا باعتباره العالم األسالمي ومن ثم القائدة في الدينية فأن تصويره كان يعد مستنكرا تبعا للتقاليد

األسالمية.»

وامللك فؤاد، فى رأي د.الكرداني، كان حاكما عظيما، فقد استخدم سلطته كملك للبالد إلجراء عدة اصالحات: «كان ديكتاتورا وقوي الشكيمة، كما انه كان ايضا حكيما وبعيد النظر وكان لديه حدسا جيدا يجعله يدرك نتائج بطريقه ليس ولكن احلكومة وتعريب متصير نحو فؤاد امللك اجته افعاله». متسرعة أو منفعلة. كان يؤمن بأنه ال يوجد ما مينع تولي املصريني للمناصب امللك املناصب لألجانب فقط. وألن ان يحتفظ بهذه اعتاد الهامة في نظام فؤاد كان ينشد الكمال في كل شيء فقد كان يعرف جيدا ان السبيل الي ذلك لن يتحقق اال برفع مستوي تعليم املصريني ولهذا لم يكن من الغريب ان تكون أول طوابع بريد حتمل صورته مطبوعة باللغة العربية، الي ان اشترط « االحتاد الدولي للبريد» (UPU) في عام ١٩٢٧ ان يحمل اي طابع بريد

ترجمة البيانات االساسية املوجودة عليه باحلروف الالتينية ايضا.

يرجع تاريخ اول مجموعة طوابع تذكارية عرفتها مصر الي فتره حكم امللك املؤمترات من عدد الي تشير وكانت فؤاد الدولية التي عقدت في مصر آنذاك، ويرجع مصر تكون ان فؤاد امللك حرص الي ذلك الهامة والدولية العلمية للمناظرات ملتقي إحداث في يسهم سوف ذلك بأنه إلميانه

نهضة في البالد.

عده فؤاد امللك عهد في ايضا ملصر كان أوجه للريادة والسبق في مجال البريد، ففي عام ١٩٢٦ بدأ البريد اجلوي في مصر بخط الفترة تقريبا القاهرة وبغداد، وفي نفس بني الطباعة فاخرة بريد مصريه انتاج طوابع بدأ في وهولندا اجنلترا في تتم طباعتها كان ) ١٩٣٠ عام بحلول أما ... األمر) باديء فقد استحدثت مصر اسلوبا مبتكرا للطباعة اثار الذي األمر (Bleed O�) الفاخرة حيث العريقة االوروبية الطباعة دور ضيق استغرق األمر منها عقدا كامال إلتقان ذلك

االسلوب احلديث للطباعة.

وفي عام ١٩٣٦ جلس امللك الشاب فاروق من الكثير يحمل وكان مصر، عرش علي لم انه اال الطيبة، ونواياه الكبار ابيه أحالم يكن بقوة شخصيته. كانت تلك هي الفترة التي والطوابع التذكارية للطوابع الذهبية صور فقط وليس املالكة العائلة صور حتمل

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« يالها من قطعة رائعة» صاح الدكتور شريف الكرداني مبتهجًا وهو يلفت فائقة... بدقة واملعنونة املنظمة البوماته من واحد يضمه ظرف الي نظرنا والواقع انه كان محقا ... فالطابع املوجود علي الظرف يشير الي انه في عام ولذلك العاصمة، حدود خارج رسميا تعتبر اجلديدة مصر كانت ١٩١٠القيمة ) مليمات وليس ٣ مليمات قيمته ٥ طابع الراسل وضع كان علي املطلوبة للطابع البريدي علي اخلطاب املرسل داخل العاصمة) األهم من ذلك ان اخلطاب كان مرسال لشخص يقطن بجوار املسجد في ميدان اجلامع – وهو للراسل حيث اعادته – وقد مت اليوم من اشد مناطق مصر اجلديدة ازدحاما لم يستدل علي املرسل اليه ألن ساعي البريد لم يجد اي مساكن في ميدان

اجلامع في عام ١٩١٠ ( طبقا ملا دونه الساعي علي الظرف).

د. شريف الكرداني جراح مسالك بولية وهاو نهم جلمع الطوابع القدمية. بدأت هواية الطوابع لدي د. الكرداني في عمر الثامنة عندما عاش مع أسرتة قرابة الثالثة أعوام فى اجنلترا، كانت والدته جتمع الطوابع املصرية التي تتلقاها العائلة من األقارب واألصدقاء في مصر، وعندما أبدي الصغير اهتمامًا، تلقي أول البوم طوابع خاص به واملدهش ان اليوم اصبحت طوابع د. الكرداني التي جمعها طوال االربعني عاما املاضية تروى قصة تاريخ مصر احلديث... واألمر الناس فحسب، ملعظم املعروفة املعلومات يقتصر علي الكردانى ال د. لدى

فقد علمنا منه مثال ان النظام البريدي مثله كمثل املشروعات الهامة األخري في األمبراطورية العثمانية قد بدأ كمشروع خاص، النظام البريدي في مصر واسماه ، Michel Merattiيدعى ايطالي يد علي عام ١٨٢٠ تأسس Posta Europa ، واخذ املشروع اجلديد ينمو جنبا الي جنب مع مشروع السكك احلديدية وشق الترع واملجاري املائية ( وهوما يذكرنا بالعالقة الوثيقة

التي تربط تطور النظام البريدي بتطور البنية االساسية لوسائل االنتقال).

علي الذي حصل Muzzi يدعي وريث الي بعد فيما املشروع وانتقل ترخيص من الوالى سعيد باشا باستخدام نظام السكة احلديد احلكومي مقابل دفع ١٤٤ جنيه مصري سنويا ( وهواملبلغ الكبير مبعايير ذلك الزمن). وحتقيقا لرغبة أسماعيل باشا – الذي خلف سعيد باشا في حكم مصر- والذي عرف بشراء املصرية احلكومة قامت فقد واملدنية، احلضارة مبظاهر الشديد بولعه وهكذا الباكوية، رتبة منحه مع له مديرا Muzzi وتعيني البريد مشروع

وبعد عام واحد صدرت أول مجموعة طوابع بريد مصرية عام ١٨٦٦.للخارج، فاخلطاب يرسل كانت هناك اجراءات محددة الرسال اخلطابات أوال من مكتب البريد الي قنصلية الدولة املراد ارسال اخلطاب اليها داخل مصر ( ومصر نفسها كان لها عددا من القنصليات في اخلارج حيث توجد جاليات مصرية وعدد أخر من مكاتب البريد املصرية في املناطق التي تقع حتت حكم اوال طابع مصري عليه يوضع للخارج املرسل واخلطاب املصري)... النظام اخلاص االجنبي الطابع ثم مصر، داخل املطلوبة للقنصلية وصوله لضمان بالقنصلية لضمان ارساله للخارج عن طريق القنصلية، وهوما كان يطلق عليه

الدمغة املختلطة او التخليص املختلط.

خاصه طوابع النتاج الوقت من متسع هناك يكن لم االحيان معظم في مبناسبة معينة وكان اسهل احللول هواعادة انتاج الطابع نفسه مع اجراء تعديل وفترة «املهدي» قصة الكرداني عن د. ويخبرنا أوقيمته. في شكله بسيط حكمه الرجعي للسودان عام ١٨٨٥ حيث قام باغالق هيئتي البريد والسكك احلديدية، الي ان جنح Kitchener في استعادة حكم السودان عام ١٨٩٨ واعاد تشغيل الهيئتني مرة أخري، اال أنه لم توجد أية طوابع سودانية وكان أسهل حل هواعادة انتاج الطوابع املصرية مع طبع كلمه «السودان» فوق كلمة

«مصر» علي الطابع ثم استخدامها كطوابع سودانية.

يقول د. الكرداني بأنه كما هومعروف عن مصر الي يومنا هذا، «اخلدمة التي الوحيدة الدولة كانت ومصر .. احملببة األموار من تعتبر املخصوصة» االغالق املصوجر»»بطاقات «البريد يسمي ما ١٨٦٤ عام في استحدثت

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بقلم سيف الرشيدي

كما ترويه الطوابع

د.شريف الكردانى

احملاكم املختلطة (دار القضاء العالي حاليا): االعمدة الرومانية الضخمة التي تلوح أمامي في األفق جتعل كل ما بجوارها يظهر قزما. ان مبني احملاكم املختلطة يختتم رحلتنا في شارع شامبليون خير خامتة، فهذا الصرح الرائع الذي كلف ببناءه املعماريان «ليون عظيمه» و«ماكس ادري» مت انشاءه في عام ١٩٣٤ في ذات املوقع الذي تشغله في السابق شركة

املياة. وفكرة احملاكم املختلطة ترجع الي عام ١٨٧٦ كمحاولة لتقنني النظام القضائي القنصلي الذي يتناول القضايا املرفوعة ضد املصريني. وكانت احملاكم املختلطة في أول األمر تقع في منطقة العتبه حتي تقرر انتقالها الي مبناها بشارع شامبليون عام ١٩٣٤. وبإلغاء احملاكم املختلطه تغيرت تسمية املبني الي دار القضاء

العالي في ذلك اليوم التاريخي من عام ١٩٤٩ الذي شهد تأسيس أول محكمة مصرية حتكم بالعدل بني اجلميع بصرف النظر عن جنسياتهم.

هل يعود شارع شامبليون الي مجده القدمي؟قد حتول القاهرة مثله كمثل كثير من شوارع شامبليون، الي وضع يرثي له. يقولون ان الزمن ال يتوقف وهذه هي سنه يبقي علي حاله، هذا حقيقي ... فهدم احلياة وان ال شئ فحتي اجلديد. بالشئ ليس أخري مرة بناها واعادة املباني أيام العصر الذهبي للقاهرة مت هدم مباني كثيرة وبناء أخري مكانها، ومع ذلك: متي هدم قصر عظيم أو مبني أنيق لعمل ازالته جراج سيارات؟ وكم مبني ذو طراز معماري فريد مت

ليحل محله مبني اسمنتي كئيب؟ اما بخصوص قصر األمير سعيد حليم الذي مازال موجودا حلسن احلظ، فاملجلس األعلي لألثار يحاول االستحواذ عليه لترميمه وأعادهة استخدامه. وهناك إقتراح من معهد البحوث التنموية ( IRD ) بتحويل القصر الي متحف لتاريخ القاهرة وهو االقتراح الذي مازال محل دراسة منذ سنوات وحتي اآلن

بسبب مشاكل تختص مبلكية القصر.مازال مصير القصر غير محدد… ان جاليري تاون هاوس للفنون القريب منه يأتي بجمهور يتمتع بحس جمالي كبير الى املنطقة وهوما ميثل بارقة أمل للمكان الذي تشغل معظمه عملية إلجراء عظيمة أفكار هناك سيارات. اصالح ورش حتويل كامل للمنطقة مت طرحها علي مدي السنوات املاضية سوي اآلن لنا وليس … ومقترحات أفكار مجرد ولكنها

األنتظار … لنشهد مصير القصر ومصير شارع شامبليون.

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نادي القضاة«مونترو» معاهدة لتوها وقعت قد مصر كانت بريطانيا كانت مستقلة. دولة لكونها تأكيدا حتتفظ تزال وال القناة منطقة علي تسيطر تزال ال من وباآلف االسكندرية في البحرية بقاعدتها هو املعاهدة اجنازات اهم أحد كان ولكن اجلنود، بشدة تثير كانت التي – املختلطة احملاكم الغاء حنق الشعب املصري- وتسليم زمامها بالكامل الي القضاة املصريني. وبعد املعاهدة، اجتمع قضاة مصر نادي بناء وقرروا ١٩٤٧ عام عمومية جمعية في خاص بهم. كان الغرض الرئيسي من تأسيس نادي ملجتمع يضمن خصوصية مكان ايجاد هو القضاة رجال القضاء بعيدا عن الفئات األخري من املجتمع

وذلك للحفاظ علي حيادهم. بإنشاء مت تكليف شركة Hettena للمقاوالت إضافة للقضاة املتواضعة باملوارد باإلستعانة املبني ١٩٥٠ عام وفي احلكومية. املساهمات بعض الي قام امللك فاروق بافتتاح نادي القضاة (الذي يشغل نفس املوقع اليوم) وقيل ان امللك فاروق عندما سأل النادي من والقربية املجاورة املباني يشغل عمن احملامني، ونقابة الصحفيني نقابة هناك بأن أجيب

ضحك وقال: «عندكم اذن جيران ال بأس بهم».

قصر األمير سعيد حليم (مدرسة الناصرية بنني فيما بعد): يرجع الفضل في بناء هذا القصر الي املعماري االيطالي الشهير «انطونيوالشياك»، الذي بني قصر املنتزة في األسكندرية واملباني اخلديوية الرائعة في شارع عماد الدين وغيرها. وقد بني هذا القصر الذي كان شهيرا في عام ١٨٩٧ لألمير سعيد حليم حفيد محمد علي باشا الكبير، األ ان األمير لم يسكنه سوي فترة قصيرة، ويقال ان زوجته األميرة أمينه اجني طوسون وجدت احلي مزعجا ورفضت السكن في هذا القصر الفخم الذي بني خصيصا من أجلها. وعلي اية حال ترك األمير سعيد حليم القصر، ليس رضوخا لرغبة زوجته، وامنا لقبوله منصب «الصدر األعظم» – أي رئيس الوزراء – لالمبراطورية العثمانية في أسطنبول. ومع بداية احلرب العاملية األولي، اعلن االجنليز اعتبار سعيد حليم

عدوا لالمبراطورية البريطانية بسبب منصبه في احلكومة العثمانية املعادية، وقامت احلكومه التي بتأميم امالكه آنذاك كان يسيطر عليها االجنليز وحتويل قصره الوردي اللون ( رمادي حاليا) الي مدرسة الناصرية بنني. كان هذا القصر من اوائل قصور العائلة املالكة الذي يتم حتويله الي مدرسة مدرسة ان بالذكر وجدير ،١٩٥٢ ثوره قبل الشخصيات من عدد إدارتها تولي الناصرية كتب الذي سامي باشا أمني املؤرخ مثل الهامة كما النيل) (تقومي الشهير التاريخي املرجع تخرج منها شخصيات مرموقة مثل النحاس باشا قامت القصر وغيرهم.. باشا حسنني وأحمد ومت عام ٢٠٠٠ باءخالئه والتعليم التربية وزارة ... القومي» «التراث قائمة علي إدراجه حاليا

اال انه اليوم قصر مهجور ومصيره مجهول.

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١ شارع شامبليون كان هذا هوعنوان منزل رائدة احلركة النسائية ونصيرة حقوق املرأة املصرية السيدة هدي شعراوي ( ١٨٧٩-١٩٤٧) وزوجها علي باشا شعراوي ( أحد مؤسسي حزب الوفد السبعة في عام ١٩١٨). أما اسباب هدم هذا املنزل في عام ١٩٧٠ ... فغير معروفة. الفيال ذات التراث العربي لم تكن حتفة معمارية فحسب وامنا ايضا معلم تاريخي كان يجب حتويله الي متحف تخليدا لسيدة يعتبرها اجلميع شخصية وطنية عظيمة. املكان حتول األن الي – آخر ما ميكن

تصوره – جراج عمومي !!!

اتيليه محمود مختارمحمود ) االنتكخانة شارع مع شامبليون شارع نحوتقاطع األن وأسير بسيوني حاليًا) حيث اتخيل اتيليه املثال «محمود مختار» (١٨٩١-١٩٣٤) املثال الي هذا الفضل امامي خلف السور علي اجلانب االيسر. يرجع يظهر العظيم في عمل أهم وأشهر التماثيل التي تزين مياديني مصر مثل متثال نهضة مصر الذي نراه في اجليزة ومتثالي سعد باشا زغلول في القاهرة واإلسكندرية. موقع آخر كانت تشغله شخصية عبقرية صنعت تاريخا، أصبح اليوم محل قراءاتي في األشارات وبعض عام مائة لوال خريطة عمرها اصالح سيارات. اتيليه محمود يوم ذات كان الذي املكان هذا الي استدللت ملا وهناك هنا

مختار.

كونسرفتوار (تيجرمان) هل كانت هدي شعراوي وزوجها يسمعان هذا العزف الساحر ألحلان «شوبان» من نافذة منزلهما املجاور؟ كانا بالتأكيد محظوظيني لكونهما اجلار املالصق لكونسرفتوار تيجرمان، حيث كان واحد من أساطني العزف علي البيانوعلي مستوي العالم (ايجناس تيجرمان) و»مشيره بردا» مثل «هنري املجال هذا في العظماء من املستقبل في أصبحوا من يعلم عيسي» وآخريني كعازف البيانو «سليم صيدناوي» والناشط واملفكر الفلسطيني «إدوارد االدوات محالت أصحاب من لواحد اخلجول الصغير االبن آنذاك كان الذي سعيد»، املكتبية. وينقل عن إدوارد سعيد فيما بعد قوله (مشيرا الي معلميه املرموقني في مدرسة

جوليارد في بوسطن) «انهم كلهم معا ال يساوا اصبع تيجرمان الصغير» .أسس ما وسرعان ١٩٣١ عام مصر الي األصل البيانوالبولندي عازف تيجرمان جاء الكونسرفتوار الذي حمل أسمه والذي فتح أبوابه للتالميذ الواعدين فقط ملنحهم فرصة يوما مبني كونسرفتوار الذي شغله املكان تلقي أعظم تدريب موسيقي علي يديه. في تيجرمان لن جتد اليوم اي بيانوهات Steinway ولكن رمبا ستجد ميكروباص أوأثنني.. حيث حتول املكان هواألخر الي نفس اجلراج العمومي الذي احتل موقع فيال هدي شعراوي

املجاورة.

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الشارع املكتظ بحطام السيارات، واملباني املغطاة بطبقات الهباب األسود، فضال عن السحابة الرمادية التي حتيط باملكان كله من أثر التلوث، كلها أمور جتعلك تتسائل في دهشة عما عساه ان يفعل ذلك القصر الرائع الكائن علي الناصية!. السور احمليط بالقصر انهار بشكل واضح بحيث ال يستطيع املرء ان الواجهات فقد مت اما جتويفات تزينه من جميع جوانبه. التي الزخرفة يتبني

تلطيخها باللون األسود بعد ان نزعت الثماثيل التي كانت تزينها.اي من أكثر للمكان العام السياق يبدوخارج القصر هذا أن احملير األمر يبدوهواألخر الذي الشارع أكثر هوأسم ذلك واحملير القاهرة، في آخر مبني خارج السياق .. شارع شامبليون .. وملاذا شامبليون؟ طبقا لرواية قهوجي في أحد املقاهي التي حتتل الرصيف: الشارع اطلق عليه اسم عالم املصريات الفرنسي الشهير الذي عاش منذ ما يقرب من مائتي عام في القصر املعروف اليوم مبدرسة الناصرية (سابقا). واإلمر يبدو إستنتاجا منطقيا، اال انه يبقي

واحدا من الروايات العديدة املتداولة عن تاريخ شارع شامبليون.بالبحث في بعض اخلرائط القدمية، ومحاوله الغوص قليال في اعماق املاضي السابق لشارع شامبليون كان شارع فاإلسم بدأت بعض احلقائق تتكشف، «وابور املية» واألسم االصلي ألول الشوارع املتقاطعة معه: شارع « محمود

بسيوني»- «االنتكخانة سابقا» كان يسمي « فم الترعة».

وترعتني: املياة بشركه ترتبط املكان ذلك في الشوارع اسماء كانت امتار قليلة فقط. هذين األسميني البوالقية واالسماعيلية، وكانتا علي بعد افتتح اخلديوي عباس تغيرا في عام ١٩٠٢ عندما الترعة) املية وفم (وابور «وابور شارع ليصبح (االنتكخانة) املصرية األثار متحف الثاني حلمي املية»،«شامبليون»،وشارع «فم الترعة» –«االنتكخانة». شوارع أخري قريبة روح ماسبيرو» إلضفاء مارييت» و«جاستون اسماء «أوجست عليها اطلق املتحف العظيم علي املنطقة احمليطة به، والتي حتولت في تلك الفترة الي قطعة

من وسط مدينة باريس.في عصره الذهبي، كان الشارع في غاية البهاء، اما اليوم فقد أصبح رماديا منذ في شارع شامبليون السير ان السيارات. يضم عددا من ورش اصالح عقود قليلة فقط كان يعد جتربة مختلفة متاما عن اليوم. فالقصر – القابع اليوم علي الناصيه – لم يكن هواملعلم الوحيد في الشارع الذي كان يقطنه آنذاك عدد من الشخصيات املرموقه وكان يضم ايضا عدد من املنشآت واملؤسسات

الهامة.من الشارع في السير وابدأ عام ١٩٣٠، الي بالزمن اعود نفسي واتصور بصعوبة – وأحاول حاليا) (التحرير اإلسماعيلية ميدان من آتية بدايته،

شديدة – ان أعيش بخيالي مرة أخري أجواء املجد الزائل الذي كان.

بقلم ياسمني الضرغامى

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حكاية شارع

دائمًا أحار أثناء زياراتى إلنعام هامن قريبتى فى سر إحلاحها الشديد علّى لتناول املزيد من الطعام؛ أهو كرم زائد، أم حرج من االستمرار فى األكل وحدها! فكرت فى تغيير املوضوع وقد مللت كثرة االعتذار فقلت «عارفة ملا أسموه يوسفندى»؟ ردت وهى تقشر حبة اليوسفى اخلامسة على التوالى فى صوت

يتصارع فيه عدم االكتراث مع رغبة واهنة فى املجاملة: «ليه»؟

سنة ١٨٢٦ أوفد محمد على باشا أربعني طالبًا لتلقى مختلف العلوم فى فرنسا، كان ضمن هؤالء شاب من أصل أرمنى كان عمره آنذاك ثالثة وعشرين عامًا. نزل الشاب فى بلدة روفل بفرنسا دارسًا متدربًا على مختلف علوم الزراعة. وبعد ست سنوات عاد إلى مصر وانخرط فى مشاريع الوالى وتوسعاته

الزراعية حتى ترقى إلى منصب ناظر مدرسة الزراعة بنبروه ثم ناظر بساتني محمد على باشا.

من مصر إلى والفاكهة األشجار أنواع من العديد وقد جلب أفندى يوسف الشاب هذا اسم كان ضمنها حبات املوالح املسكرة اللذيذة التى قدمها للمصريني ألول مرة فاقترنت باسمه... هزت إنعام

هامن رأسها وردت بنفس الصوت «معلومة مفيدة»، ثم مدت يدها لتفترس احلبة

للمهندس / َعْمرو َطْلَعت

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Volume I: Issue 1 - 2009

Documents

Transcript of Volume I: Issue 1 - 2009