Egyptian Jewry With reference to "In the track of Egypt's Jews" in the June issue of your Cairo Review of Books, I read with great interest Mona Anis's critical comment on my book Yahud misr min al-izdihar ila al-shatat (Egypt's Jews: from Prosperity to Dispersion). While I found most of her remarks valuable, I would like to draw attention to the fact that many of the book's problems are due to faulty copy-editing of the manuscript -- a problem so serious it even affected pagination. Yet I was astounded to be informed that the 4,300 copies printed were sold out within four months, surely an indication of great interest on the part of the readership. I have since postponed the publisher's decision to reprint to make time for a complete revision of the manuscript, which I feel is merited. In so doing I will also take into account, besides your own remarks, the critical comments made by many readers and friends. I hope the new, revised edition, due to appear this autumn, will be more to your liking. M. Aboulghar, MD Egypt With reference to "In the track of Egypt's Jews" in the June issue of your Cairo Review of Books, I agree that Egyptians were not anti- Semitic, only anti-Zionist. The problem, perhaps, is that the Egyptian government has accused "all Jews of being Zionist." In 1956, indeed, a jeep arrived at my grandfather's office in Hamzawi with four military officials. They told my grandfather to sign a paper transferring ownership of his business to the Egyptian government. He was an Egyptian citizen; he was not British or French. And when he asked why, one officer took a revolver and aimed it at his forehead, saying, "Because you are Zionist." My family was accused, together with other Jews, in a government newspaper, of "sucking the blood of Egypt". There were many names on the list. Yes, we had a wonderful life in Egypt. But in the end it was no picnic, and we were forced to leave, though the Egyptian government has since refused to be honest about this affair. My grandfather arrived in Egypt from Baghdad at the age of 16, around 1895. He considered Egypt his adopted country, which he and all our family loved. He always said, "They can do nothing to harm me. I am Egyptian." He was very proud of his Egyptian nationality, since it was by no means easy to obtain. Many innocent Jews were arrested in 1948, 1956 and 1967. My grandfather's experience in 1956 came as a terrible shock and a great sadness. Ironically, soon after the nationalisation, he was forced to go and vote for Nasser on a very hot day, where he had to wait in line for many hours. He was already old and sick. He died in Cairo in 1957, a heartbroken man. My grandmother, grandfather and aunt are buried in Cairo. But because all the tombstones in the Jewish cemetery have been plundered, we have no idea where our families are buried. We have very fond memories of Egypt, but sad ones too. Sami Ambar USA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mahfouz deserves better It was with great interest that I read your review of Naguib Mahfouz's latest publication, Ahlam fatrat al-naqaha (Al-Ahram Weekly, Cairo Review of Books, June 2005). However, I could not help being surprised that your reviewer failed to comment on the numerous, embarrassing mistakes to be found throughout the edition she read. The text is replete with typos, misplaced paragraph breaks and incorrect punctuation. While Mahfouz's new publishers, Dar El-Shorouk, are commended for a "slick cover", they should be taken to task for producing such a sloppy edition of the work of a well-known author and Nobel laureate. I hope these mistakes will be corrected in future editions. Congratulations on the second edition of the Books supplement; it was dearly missed. Khadiga Attia Egypt ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Staged representations Reading the review by Iman Hamam of a book entitled The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire ( Al-Ahram Weekly, 16 -- 22 June) in your enjoyable new Books Supplement, I was struck by the omission, presumably on the author's part, of representations of the Ottoman Empire and of the Muslim world on the English stage during the period discussed. Every schoolboy used to know, and maybe still does, that Shakespeare in his play Othello, first performed in 1603, presents a fantasy version of the Ottoman-controlled Muslim Eastern Mediterranean at war with Christian Venice for the benefit of London audiences. Indeed, the play's namesake, the "noble Moor" Othello, is explicitly presented as being caught up in this conflict: part of the fascination of his character lies in the way in which Shakespeare contrasts Othello's command of the Venetian navy and his ill-fated marriage to Desdemona, the daughter of a Venetian grandee, with what the play makes out to be his African and Muslim origins. There are also other representations of "moors" in Shakespeare's plays, for example in his early play Titus Andronicus (1592), where the character of Aaron is described as being a moor, or, in other words, as originating from the Arab southern Mediterranean For his part, Othello is described as being from Mauritania. However, probably the most spectacular example of the presentation of Muslim characters on the English stage during its greatest period is the two parts of Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great, performed in London in 1587 -- 90. These are based on the story of Timur the Lame, the conqueror of Muslim Central Asia, though they are not now much performed for reasons of length and difficulty. It is said that at the end of one memorable performance of Tamburlaine the legendary English actor and impresario Sir Donald Wolfit staggered to the front of the stage, and, clutching at the curtains, cried out "We did it Kit!" to the audience (Kit is short for Christopher). Many modern productions of Othello have tried to bring out the contrast between Othello's position in Venice and his Moorish origins, though the jury is still out on whether Shakespeare meant him to be seen in a positive or a negative light. After all, the play's real villain is a Venetian, Iago. It may be worth noting that in Shakespeare's source for this play, a collection of Italian stories published in 1566, the "Moor" is generally presented positively, as indeed he is in Shakespeare's play, where he is the focus of the tragedy. David Musselwhite University of Essex UK ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Congratulations I enjoyed very much reading the revived Books section. Congratulations. Roger Owen Harvard University USA Congratulations on the Cairo Review of Books. We were both very pleased to see the reappearance of your Books supplement and very much like the new format. As always, the content was interesting and the books reviewed timely and topical. We look forward to many more interesting issues and lively debates. All the best and good luck, Gerda and Fawzy Mansour Egypt Congratulations on the new Cairo Review of Books. It is a most welcome event, and one that has been awaited for more than a year now. However, as an occasional contributor to the Weekly, I noticed that there was no mention of an email address on the Cairo Review of Books section on the web. This makes it difficult for contributors who want to submit material for publication, or otherwise comment. Margot Badran Northwestern University USA
