Samia Gamal, one of the most celebrated Egyptian dancers in Egyptian cinema, never realized her dream of marrying famous musician Farid el-Atrash despite an eleven-year-old romance between them. In an attempt to forget her ill-fated love, Gamal (...)
Taheya Karioka (a picture of Taheya posing in front of the poster for her movie "Shabab Emraa" (A Woman's Youth) at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.
Famous for dazzling performance and dances, Taheya Karioka appeared in several Egyptian cinema (...)
From ministers with football-shaped heads to Egypt's seemingly chaotic road system, the sarcastic wit throughout Lord Edward Cecil's diaries raises a laugh and a glass to his memory
There is no title more fitting for my study on Lord Edward Cecil's (...)
A holiday treat with an ancient pedigree
I thought a lot before writing this article for fear it might encourage the muftis to impose a ban on Eid kahk, our seasonal Ramadan biscuits. Suspecting a crusader-inspired heresy, they might be tempted to (...)
In his book 'Lessan Al-Arab' ("The Arabic Language"), linguist Ibn Manzour el-Afriqi provides a precise definition of the post-Ramadan Eid al-Fitr feast. "Eid is a festival of joy," he quotes fellow writer Ibn Al-Arabi as saying. "And the feast (...)
Until quite recently, Egyptians had a distinctive body language associated with Ramadan. It wasn't just a month of worship and religious obligations, but was also—at least for us as children—a world of color, lights, and joy. In the midst of all (...)
