Monday 21 April marks Sham El-Nasim, in the same breath as Easter. The rituals and beliefs associated with today's Sham El-Nasim celebrations link it directly to ancient Egyptian feasts.
Celebrated since 2700 BC by all Egyptians regardless of their (...)
Ramadan is the Muslem holy month where the Quran was bestowed upon Prophet Mohammed. The month often known as the month of piety and charity, fasting from dawn to dusk and refraining from vanity. Among the unique aspects of Ramadan in Egypt is the (...)
Ramadan is the Muslem holy month where the Quran was bestowed upon Prophet Mohammed. The month often known as the month of piety and charity, fasting from dawn to dusk and refraining from vanity. Among the unique aspects of Ramadan in Egypt is the (...)
Over 4,000 pages in its written form, the tale of Seif Ibn Zi Yazan describes a tense relationship between the Semites of Yemen and the Hamites of Abyssinia. Seif Ibn Zi Yazan, a Yemeni king, was predestined to greatness. Even before he was born, (...)
On the night of 27 Rajab, Prophet Mohammed travelled to the Aqsa Mosque on the back of a heavenly beast called the boraq. Afterwards, the prophet ascended to heaven, where he encountered angels and previous prophets and saw paradise and hell.
The (...)
When the Mongols destroyed Baghdad, many storytellers left the Abbasid capital to Egypt. It was around this time, between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries, that the major epics of Arab literature came into being, and many were flavoured by (...)
Monday 25 April marks Sham El-Nasim, in the same breath as Easter. The rituals and beliefs associated with today's Sham El-Nasim celebrations link it directly to ancient Egyptian feasts.
Celebrated since 2700 BC by all Egyptians regardless of (...)
One of the best-known tales of street-wise tricksters in popular literature, the story of Ali al-Zeibaq, or Ali the Mercury Man, unfolds in the ninth or tenth century, but may have been written in the thirteenth century.
The scholar Farouq (...)
This is the only complete oral history of an Arab woman, beginning with her birth and ending with her death. The tale is spiced with vivid scenes of war, some taking place among Arab tribes and others involving the Muslims and the Byzantines. Parts (...)
Collected venue : The village of Bandar Al-Kermania in the Governorate of Sohag
Collection date: 26 January 2009
Collector: Ashraf Nasrat
Storyteller: Saber Yassin Hassan, 43, also known as Saber El-Arabi.
Source: National Folklore Archive (...)