Plain Talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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I have lost count of how many books have been written about Alexandria. The American University in Cairo Press alone seems to have produced at least 11 or 12 books on the city of which the most recent, in fact just off the press, is Alexandria: Real and Imagined.

The book is a product of a conference that took place some years ago at Kings College, London, under the title "Images of Alexandria", according to the preface by Judith Herrin, professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at Kings College, University of London. The volume contains articles by 18 authors, dealing with different aspects of Alexandria. Most of the contributors are experts from different universities and academic centres in Britain, USA, Italy, France, Zimbabwe and, of course, Egypt.

Alexandria has always been a source of inspiration for writers, whether of historical or fictional texts, which explains the subtitle of the book, "real and imagined".

But the question is: What is it that made Alexandria such a catalyst for writers? What is it about the city that has inspired such famous books as E M Forster's Alexandria: A History and a Guide, Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet and D J Enright's Academic Year.

This is what the book tries to answer. The history of Alexandria is a record of an ongoing civilisation that has contributed much to the world in terms of politics, art, music, literature and science. I am here reminded of what John Rodenbeck writes: "Whenever a pipe organ is played, Archimedes screw is used, an atlas or a Western calendar are consulted, grammar, geography, mechanics or geometry are taught, poems, novels, plays or operas are performed, examined by critics... we think of Alexandria."

The ancient library of Alexandria contained 490,000 papyrus scrolls. It was also known for the acquisitions it managed to secure from other libraries, the most famous of which is Aristotle's library. It is recorded that this library was bought for the Alexandria library by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who commissioned the first translation of the first five books of the Old Testament.

Enumerating all aspects of the ancient city which made for its glory, the book shows that Alexandria declined when what was later called Cairo was made the capital city. And this is where most of the writers on Alexandria fell into the pit of accusations that the Arabs ruined the city. An explanation of this is that the Arabs, not being seafarers, regarded Alexandria as vulnerable, since they had no fleet to protect it. Hence their choice of Cairo, which could be defended by their land armies. It became a matter of replacing one capital with another.

The essays collected in Alexandria: Real and Imagined provide a history of the city through the ages. But the essays also analyse literary Alexandria, the city which inspired so many works that blend the fictional with the real. The last four chapters are devoted to representations of Alexandria in a number of literary texts, both Egyptian and foreign. We read about Durrell, Enright and, of course, Constantine P Cavafy. But to balance this, we get to know how this great city inspired some Egyptian writers: Naguib Mahfouz in Miramar and Edwar Al-Kharrat in City of Saffron. In her analysis of the two writers, Azza Kararah gives us an excellent example of what has come to be called comparative literature.

It is difficult, almost impossible, to give such a book its due in this limited space. All I can say is that this is a must-read, not only for the many lovers of "the bride of the Mediterranean", as Alexandria is often referred to, but for all Egyptians who want to know about this great city.