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At the center of the world-famous pyramid field of the Memphite necropolis lies a group of pyramids, temples, and tombs named after the nearby village of Abusir. Long overshadowed by the more familiar pyramids at Giza and Saqqara, this area has nonetheless been the site, for the last fifty years, of an extensive operation to discover its past. This thoroughly updated in-depth book documents the uncovering by a dedicated team of Czech archaeologists of a hitherto neglected wealth of ancient remains dating from the Old Kingdom to the Late Period. This is Abusir, realm of Osiris, God of the dead, and its story is one of both modern archaeology and the long-buried mysteries that it seeks to uncover.

Christianity and monasticism have long flourished in the northern part of Upper Egypt and in the Nile Delta, from Beni Suef to the Mediterranean coast. The chapters in this volume, written by international specialists in Coptology, examine various aspects of Coptic civilization in northern Egypt over the past two millennia. The book presents a broad picture of Christianity and monasticism in terms of the history, literature, language, art and architecture, and people of these regions from the first century to the late twentieth century. The chapters explore Coptic art and archaeology, architecture, language, and literature. The artistic heritage of monastic sites in the region is highlighted, attesting to their important legacies.

Marcus Pasha Simaika (1864–1944) was born to a prominent Coptic family on the eve of the inauguration of the Suez Canal and the British occupation of Egypt. From a young age he developed a passion for Coptic heritage and devoted his life to shedding light on centuries of Christian Egyptian history. His achievement lies in his role as a visionary administrator who used his status to pursue relentlessly his dream of founding a Coptic Museum and preserving endangered monuments. During his lengthy career—first as a civil servant, then as a legislator and member of the Coptic community council—Marcus Simaika maneuvered endlessly between the patriarch and the church hierarchy, the Coptic community council, the British authorities, and the government to bring them together in his fight to save Coptic heritage. This biography draws upon Simaika's unpublished memoirs as well as on other documents and photographs from the Simaika family archive to deepen our understanding of several important themes of modern Egyptian history: the development of Coptic archaeology and heritage studies, Egyptian–British interactions during the colonial and semi-colonial eras, shifting balances in the interaction of clergymen and the lay Coptic community, and the ever-sensitive evolution of relations between Copts and Muslims.

This book is the second joint publication of the members of the American–Egyptian South Asasif Conservation Project, working under the auspices of the Ministry of State for Antiquities and directed by the editor. The Project is dedicated to the clearing, restoration, and reconstruction of the tombs of Karabasken (TT 391) and Karakhamun (TT 223) of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and the tomb of Irtieru (TT 390) of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, on the West Bank of Luxor. This book covers the three seasons of work of the project from 2012 to 2014. Chapters concentrate on new archaeological finds, reconstruction of the tombs' decoration, and introduction of the high officials who usurped the tombs of Karakhamun and Karabasken in the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. The book focuses particularly on the reconstruction of the ritual of the Hours of the Day and Night and BD 125 and 32 in the tomb of Karakhamun, the textual program of the tomb of Karabasken, as well as Coptic ostraca, faience objects, pottery, and animal bones found in the South Asasif necropolis.

Growing up in Egypt's Nile Delta, the author was fascinated by the magnificent pharaonic monuments from an early age, and as a student dreamed of conducting excavations and working in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. At a time when Egyptology was dominated by men, especially those with close connections to the regime, the author was determined to succeed, and secured grants to study in Boston, London, and Vienna, eventually becoming the first female general director of the country's most prestigious museum. The author launched the first general inventory of the museum's cellars in its more than 100-year history, in the process discovering long-forgotten treasures, as well as confronting corruption and nepotism in the antiquities administration. In this very personal memoir, the author looks back at the history of Egypt and asks, what happened to the country? Where did Nasser's bright new beginning go wrong? Why did Sadat fail to bring peace? Why did the Egyptians allow themselves to be so corrupted by Mubarak? And why was the Muslim Brotherhood able to achieve power? But the author's first concern remains: How can the ancient legacy of Egypt truly be protected?

More than twenty years have passed since Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) concluded the Oslo Accords, or Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements for Palestine. It was declared “a political breakthrough of immense importance.” Israel officially accepted the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and the PLO recognized the right of Israel to exist. Critical views were voiced at the time about how the self-government established under the leadership of Yasser Arafat created a Palestinian-administered Israeli occupation, rather than paving the way towards an independent Palestinian state with substantial economic funding from the international community. The years since the Oslo Accords are scrutinized from a wide range of perspectives in this book. The text asks: did the agreement have a reasonable chance of success? What went wrong, causing the treaty to derail and delay a real, workable solution? What are the recommendations today to show a way forward for the Israelis and the Palestinians?

Zar is both a possessing spirit and a set of reconciliation rites between the spirits and their human hosts: living in a parallel yet invisible world, the capricious spirits manifest their anger by causing ailments for their hosts, which require ritual reconciliation, a private sacrificial rite practiced routinely by the afflicted devotees. Originally spread from Ethiopia to the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf through the nineteenth-century slave trade, in Egypt zar has incorporated elements from popular Islamic Sufi practices, including devotion to Christian and Muslim saints. The ceremonies initiate devotees—the majority of whom are Muslim women—into a community centered on a cult leader, a membership that provides them with moral orientation, social support, and a sense of belonging. Practicing zar rituals, dancing to zar songs, and experiencing trance restore their well-being, which had been compromised by gender asymmetry and globalization. This new ethnographic study of zar in Egypt is based on the author's two years of multi-sited fieldwork and first-hand knowledge as a participant, and the collection and analysis of more than 300 zar songs, allowing access levels of meaning that had previously been overlooked. The result is a comprehensive and accessible exposition of the history, culture, and waning practice of zar in a modernizing world.

The so-called Will of Naunakhte (1154 BCE) has become rightly famous in Egyptology. Naunakhte was a woman from the New Kingdom village of Deir al-Medina who made a statement in court about her inheritance. So what really happened to her eight surviving children, four of whom were daughters? By carefully studying the documents mentioning members of the family and including all the material mentioning the women of the New Kingdom village of Deir al-Medina and other sources, the book puts to the forefront the remarkable role played by ordinary women in ancient Egypt. The book is an unprecedented view into the lives of these ordinary women and the status of divorce and marriage in Deir al-Medina at the time.

This book explores the early years of military rule in Egypt following the Free Officers' coup d'etat of 1952. Enriched by interviews with actors in and observers of the events, the book shows how the officers' belief in a quick reformation by force was transformed into a vital, long-term process that changed the face of Egypt. Under Gamal Abdel Nasser, the military regime launched an ambitious program of social, economic, and political reform. Egypt became a leader in Arab and non-aligned politics, as well as a model for political mobilization and national development throughout the Third World. Although Nasser exerted considerable personal influence over the course of events, his rise as a national and regional hero in the mid-1950s was preceded by a period in which he and his colleagues groped for direction, and in which many Egyptians disliked—even feared—them. The book analyzes the goals, programs, successes, and failures of the young regime, providing the most comprehensive account of the Egyptian revolution to date. It includes a new Introduction that looks back at the post-1952 period from a post-2011 perspective.

From the 1980s onward, billions of dollars were poured into irrigation improvement programs in Egypt. These aimed at improving local Nile water management through the introduction of more water-efficient technology and by placing management of the improved systems in the hands of local water user associations. The central premise of most of these programs was that the functioning of such associations could rely on the revival of traditional forms of social capital—social networks, norms, and trust—for their success. This book shows how the far-reaching social changes wrought at the village level in Egypt through the twentieth century rendered such a premise implausible at best and invalid at worst. The book examines networks of social relationships and their impact on the exercise of social control and the formation of collective action at the local level and their change over time in four villages in the Delta and Fayoum governorates. Outlining three time frames, pre-1952, 1952–73, and 1973 to the present, and moving between multiple actors—farmers, government officials, and donor agencies—the book shows how institutional and technological changes during each period and the social changes that coincided with them yielded mixed successes for the water user associations in respect of water management.