The launching of this hitherto unpublished book by the great nineteenth-century British traveler Edward William Lane (1801–76), a name known to almost everyone in all the many fields of Middle East studies, is a major publishing event. Lane was the author of a number of highly influential works: An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836), his translation of The Thousand and One Nights (1839–41), Selections from the Kur-an (1843), and the Arabic–English Lexicon (1863–93). Yet one of his greatest works was never published: after years of labor and despite an enthusiastic reception by the publishing firm of John Murray in 1831, publication of his first book, Description of Egypt, was delayed and eventually dropped, mainly for financial reasons. The manuscript was sold to the British Library by Lane’s widow in 1891, and has only now been salvaged for publication by Dr. Jason Thompson, nearly 170 years after its completion. This enormously important book, which takes the form of a journey through Egypt from north to south, with descriptions of all the ancient monuments and contemporary life that Lane explored along the way, will be of immense interest to both ancient and modern historians of Egypt, and will become an essential companion to his Manners and Customs.
Description of Egypt
Notes and Views in Egypt and Nubia
Edward William Lane
Edited and with an introduction
Jason Thompson
786 pp.
158 b/w illus.
15X23cm
ISBN 9789774245251
For sale worldwide
29.95
Jason Thompson
Related products

Edward William Lane, 1801–1876
The Life of the Pioneering Egyptologist and Orientalist
Jason Thompson 24.95
Buy Now
Edward William Lane, 1801–1876
The Life of the Pioneering Egyptologist and Orientalist
Jason ThompsonFew Western scholars of the Middle East have exerted such profound influence as Edward William Lane. Lane’s Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836), which has never gone out of print, remains as a highly authoritative study of Middle Eastern society. His annotated translation of the Arabian Nights (1839–41) retains a devoted readership. Lane’s recently recovered and published Description of Egypt (2000) shows that he was a pioneering Egyptologist as well as orientalist. The capstone of his career, the definitive Arabic-English Lexicon (1863–93), is an indispensable reference tool. Yet, despite his extraordinary influence, little was known about Lane and virtually nothing about how he did his work. Now, in the first full-length biography, Lane’s life and accomplishments are examined in full, including his crucial years of field work in Egypt, revealing the life of a great Victorian scholar and presenting a fascinating episode in east–west encounter, interaction, and representation.
...read more
Hardbound
760 pp.64 illus.
15X23cm
24.95

Cairo
The City Victorious
Max Rodenbeck 12.95
Buy Now
Cairo
The City Victorious
Max RodenbeckAfter 5,000 years of continuous habitation, Cairo remains the greatest metropolis in its quarter of the globe. The seat of pharaohs and sultans, the prize of conquerors from Alexander to Napoleon, the city has never stopped reinventing itself. ‘The Victorious’ is what the Arabs called Cairo, and the indomitable spirit of the place still merits the name. Max Rodenbeck’s richly textured biography combines a sweeping timescale with a keen eye for telling detail. It traces the life of Cairo from birth—the ancient Egyptians believed Creation itself took place there—through the heights of medieval splendor, and on to the present day. Modern Cairo is a place of stark contrasts. Skyscrapers abut ancient tombs and genteel colonial mansions. Pulled between the cultural poles of Paris and Mecca, the city’s population struggles under a double load as they cope with the burden of an incomparably rich past as well as the challenges of the future. Cairo: The City Victorious is a cultural excavation of one of the world’s great cities. Fusing the excitement of travel with the stimulation of history, it is an epic, resonant work.
...read more
Paperback
413 pp.13X19.5cm
12.95

An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians
Edward William Lane Introduced by Jason Thompson 24.95
Buy Now
An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians
Edward William LaneIntroduced by Jason Thompson
Few works about the Middle East have exerted such wide and long-lasting influence as Edward William Lane’s An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. First published in 1836, this classic book has never gone out of print, continuously providing material and inspiration for generations of scholars, writers, and travelers, who have praised its comprehensiveness, detail, and perception. Yet the editions in print during most of the twentieth century would not have met Lane’s approval. Lacking parts of Lane’s text and many of his original illustrations (while adding many that were not his), they were based on what should have been ephemeral editions, published long after the author’s death. Meanwhile, the definitive fifth edition of 1860, the result of a quarter century of Lane’s corrections, reconsiderations, and additions, long ago disappeared from bookstore shelves. Now the 1860 edition of Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians is available again, with a useful general introduction by Jason Thompson. Lane’s greatest work enters the twenty-first century in precisely the form that he wanted.
...read more
Paperback
664 pp.131 line drawings
15X23cm
24.95

Al-Fustat
Its Foundation and Early Urban Development
Wladyslaw B. Kubiak 0
Buy Now
Al-Fustat
Its Foundation and Early Urban Development
Wladyslaw B. KubiakAl-Fustat, the original Arab capital of Egypt, was founded in A.D. 642 (A.H.21) around the Roman–Byzantine fortified town of Babylon in what is now Old Cairo. Early records and modern archaeological excavations of the site of al-Fustat have been of great interest to scholars investigating the life and development of medieval Arab cities as well as to those studying the organization and growth of early Arab Egypt. In this comprehensive study, first published by the AUC Press in 1987, Dr. Kubiak synthesizes the evidence from both medieval documentary and narrative sources and twentieth century archaeology to present a detailed history of al-Fustat. In it he traces and examines the geography of the site; the pre-Islamic settlements; the foundation and early development of the city and its demographic and territorial evolution; and the topography of the city and its architecture.
...read more
11 October 2016
Free e-book
186 pp.14.5X22.5cm
0