An indelible Mark
By
Zahi Hawass
I met Mark Linz in 1996 in his office at the American University in Cairo. He greeted me with a big smile and accepted my proposal to have AUC press publish a book on Egyptology. His decision was made promptly and I thought that here was a man who would contribute a lot, not only to AUC but also to Egypt.
I was right. Mark Linz has now published more than 300 new titles on different aspects of Egypt: history, Egyptology, art, literature, religion and guide books, to mention a few. He is a person that approaches Egyptian intellectuals and encourages them to write new books or translate their work from Arabic to English. He followed the path laid down by John Rodenbeck, which was to translate and publish all Naguib Mahfouz's stories, and more than a million copies of the Noble Prize winner's books have been sold up to now. He has also translated works of other famous writers such as Aisa Abul-Noury, and when my book Silent Images: Women in Pharaonic Egypt sold out, he approached me with view to having it republished by AUC Press.
So many foreigners who live in Egypt become Egyptianised. The land of the Nile has that unique quality that changes foreigners into Egyptians. They develop a taste for the food, adjust to the pace of life, and slowly their habits, attitudes and dress undergo change. This happened even in ancient times. When the Hyksos occupied Egypt and lived here for more than 100 years, they wrote their names in Hieroglyphs; the Greeks and Romans built temples similar in style to Egyptian temples, and carried out the rituals of ancient Pharaohs.
When I was teaching at UCLA after discovering the Valley of the Golden Mummies at Bahariya Oasis, the story was sought by the media throughout the United States and it was published everywhere. A week later, he told me that I should not rush to publish this story but that I should look for a good international publishing company. Harry A Abrams was chosen to publish my book entitled The Valley of the Golden Mummies. Later, AUC press and other foreign publishing companies started to reprint the book, thanks to the encouragement and sound advice of Mark Linz.
We have become very good friends and I feel that this man has done a great deal for Egypt and Egyptology. After the Eighth International Congress of Egyptology the AUC Press offices collected all articles written after the event and published them in three wonderful volumes which are now available on the market.
Mark Linz is an adventurous man, as can be seen from the photograph of him standing at the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza opening his arms and heart in a gesture of love for Egypt. He visits archaeological sites every weekend and is always in attendance at major discoveries.
I once called him from Bahariya Oasis and said that I was about to open an intact sarcophagus and that I felt that there was a mummy inside. "I'll be there tomorrow!" He came and stood at my side when we opened the sarcophagus to find a beautiful mummy of a woman covered with beads and more than 100 pieces of gold.
Mark Linz started his publishing career at the 1954 Frankfurt Book Fair and has spent all his life publishing and working in the production of books. He first came to Egypt in 1984 and left in 1986. He returned in 1996 and was able to reorganise and redirect the work of the institution to reflect and support Egyptian education and culture. Today we can say that Mark Linz has been the moving force behind major new AUC publications, which continue to publish approximately 40 new titles annually.
I recently attended a celebration at the Manial Palace commemorating 10 years of Mark Linz's remarkable career in Cairo, attended by publishers, authors, representatives from the Ministry of Culture and his many friends. Many foreigners come and go, and some may leave a mark. In the case of Mark Linz, it is fair to say that he has already left an indelible mark on the culture of Egypt, and that he is, moreover, thoroughly Egyptianised.
