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Midnight in Cairo
The Female Stars of Egypt's Roaring 20s
320 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in
- Hardback
- 9789776790063
- July 2021
- Region: Egypt
LE650.00
Where To Buy:
The captivating story of Egypt’s interwar nightlife and entertainment industry through the lives of its most pioneering women
1920s Cairo saw singers pressing hit records, new theaters and dramatic troupes springing up, and cabarets packed—a counter-culture was on the rise. In bars, hash-dens and music halls, people of all classes and backgrounds came together as a passionate group of eccentrics, narcissists, and idealists strove to entertain Egyptian society.
Of these performers, Cairo’s biggest stars were female, and they asserted themselves on the stage like never before. Two of the most famous troupes were run by women; Badia Masabni’s dancehall became the hottest nightspot in town; pioneer of Egyptian cinema Aziza Amir made her stage debut; and legendary singer Umm Kulthum first rose to fame. It is these women, who knew both the opportunities and prejudices that this world offered, who best reveal this cosmopolitan and raucous city’s secrets.
Introducing a thrilling cast of characters, Midnight in Cairo reveals a world of revolutionary ideas and provocative art—one which laid the foundations of Arab popular culture today. It is a story of modern Cairo as we have never known it before.
Raphael Cormack lived in Cairo for several years and his writing on Arabic literature, culture and history has appeared in the London Review of Books, Prospect, TLS, and Apollo Magazine, among others. He is the co-editor of The Book of Khartoum and the editor of The Book of Cairo.
"A book full of surprises. A lively story of women shaping gender, class, money, and national liberation."―Ahdaf Soueif, author of Cairo: Memoir of a City Transformed
"Social changes come about because people begin to reimagine everyday life. Raphael Cormack offers an intimate view of a place and a time when entertainment and politics were part of the same story: a Middle Eastern society’s wrestling with the possibility of reinvention."―Charles King, author of Midnight at the Pera Palace
"Packed with pizzazz and fizzing with naughtiness, Midnight in Cairo is a thrilling reminder of the richness and wonder of Egyptian culture in the roaring ’20s. Raphael Cormack plunges into the cafés, clubs, and cabarets of Cairo to put the leading ladies of Egyptian nightlife back where they belong: center stage."―Justin Marozzi, author of Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood
"Evoking large music halls and intimate cabarets, the air scented by Turkish hashish, throats lined with whisky and late nights fueled by cocaine, Midnight in Cairo is also the story of the struggles in Egypt for women’s rights and against colonialism, for independence, suffrage and a New Egypt. Cairo’s theatrical demimonde resisted and rebelled as enthusiastically as they entertained."―Paul French, best-selling author of Midnight in Peking
"An utterly unique book, teeming with vividly recounted stories, at times hilarious and at times tragic. These were true feminists avant la lettre who defied the societal norms and authorities of their time, both in Egypt and abroad. This inspiring gem of a book gripped me from beginning to end."―Hanan al-Shaykh, author of Women of Sand and Myrrh
"Important, insightful, and fascinating…Cormack highlights an important period in Egypt’s modern history―almost unknown in the West―when its cosmopolitan culture was characterized by a tolerance of all races and religions…This is a must-read."―Alaa Al Aswany, author of The Yacoubian Building
"Beguiling and original―an unexpected story of powerful women and their no less powerful voices―on stage and behind the scenes."―Marina Warner, coeditor of Scheherazade’s Children: Global Encounters with the Arabian Nights
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