Plain Talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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The AUC Press never fails to surprise. Its latest surprise is Egypt Unexpected, a book which is a labour of love, the love of Egypt by Silvia Dogliani and Theresa Everline.

Dogliani is a photographer/ journalist who has been living in Egypt since the end of 2000. Everline was for some time managing editor of Egypt Today. In her short but revealing preface, she writes: "When I try to describe Egypt to people, I listen to what I am saying and realise that the exact opposite is often just as true."

The book's subtitle is 1001 Days in Photographs. In many ways the book is a modern Arabian nights, telling stories not so much in words but in wonderful photographs that show not the impressive tourist sites, but aspects that are quite ordinary.

The photos are accompanied by commentaries by or interviews with Egyptians and foreigners. Both the images and words of this book "are an attempt to show the noise, the silence, the spirit, the movement, the past and the future of Egypt". The six sections of the book revolve around these six aspects.

It was hardly surprising that Dogliani should devote the first section to Noise. Cairo is an over-populated city of 16 million, squeezing into a mere 679 square kilometres of space, "making for a population density of more than 30,000 people per square kilometre in contrast to a city, like London with a density of 4500 people per square kilometre". As a result Cairo is vibrant, busy -- and very noisy. Egyptian drivers have developed, in the words of Everline, "an elaborate language of horn honks that can communicate an impressive array of sentiments". Thus I was not surprised to find that the first photo, spread over two pages, shows a Cairo traffic jam.

In addition to the beautiful, expressive photographs, this section has an interview with Abdel-Salam El-Mahgoub, governor of Alexandria, in which he says: "It is terrible to hear the noise. As a person I hate it. As a governor I am working hard to prevent it." Alaa Sadeq, a sports journalist, on the other hand, likes the noise: "It's part of my work," he says.

Everline introduces the Silence section with the following words: "When prayer time is finished, the inside of the mosque is shrouded in silence. Shoes have been left outside. Barefooted people glide soundlessly along the carpeted floors." But it is Egypt's natural landscapes that provide the deepest sort of silence, and we are treated to a variety of Dogliani's photos to prove the point.

The Movement section opens with a photo of the whirling dervishes in action. Everline introduces this section by linking the restlessness and determination of the Nile with the people who live on it. "Or maybe the seemingly ceaseless movement that characterises present-day Egypt can be traced back to the caravan routes that once passed through the country. But mostly," she writes, "the incessant activity of present-day Egypt is the result of the very human pursuit of work and fun." This section includes interviews with a number of people including Amr Moussa and Omar Sharif.

In the Spirit section we have a wonderful array of scenes from churches, mosques and synagogues. One of the reasons people fall in love with Egypt has to do with what can only be called the country's spirituality. In an interview in this section, Naguib Mahfouz says: "Whether standing inside the ancient tombs or in the mediaeval mosques, a person can easily learn a spiritual lesson from Egypt: how the world cannot be rushed."

In this book, the Past is not only represented by ancient monuments, but also by late 19th and early 20th century architecture and artefacts: the Cairo Marriott, old elevators in Zamalek, the Windsor Hotel bar, a pasha's villa. The Past is also embodied by the old waiters at Alexandria's Santa Lucia restaurant .

In the last section Theresa Everline writes in her foreword: "Egypt is famous as an ancient land, but it is a country heading decidedly into the future." "One of the brightest flickers of promise," she continues, "comes from Tahani El-Gebali who was appointed at the beginning of 2003 to be Egypt's first sitting female judge. El-Gebali's grace in the face of her ground- breaking role should serve as an inspiration to all young Egyptian girls -- as well as to the rest of the country's people, and indeed the world."