Living In Historic Cairo

The film portrays al-Darb al-Ahmar, a section in the heart of the old city. Conceived to accompany this book, "Living in historic Cairo", the film follows several interwoven restoration projects undertaken in Cairo. The projects combine conservation with social, cultural and economic neighbourhood schemes. Directed by Maysoon Pachachi and produced by Elizabeth Fernea. Echo Productions, c2001.

This book reveals how the Aga Khan Development Network and its Historic Cities Programme transformed an area of Cairo's urban blight into a dynamic public space. Once a city of verdant gardens and parks, Cairo in the 1980s was severely overcrowded, economically struggling, and many of its inhabitants lived in unsanitary conditions. Historic Cairo, a World Heritage Site centered on the original Fatimid settlement of Cairo, has presented a challenge to conservationists and urban planners over the years as they have sought to protect the city's heritage while it remains a living city. Understanding how the process of decline could be reversed by restoring monuments and building a new park, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) set about revitalizing the Darb al Ahmar area and creating Al Azhar Park. This book features numerous scholarly contributors and authors who participated in the program, and shows how the conservation effort paid off in countless ways.

The Arab–Islamic city has been always a glamorous urban dream in human cultural memory. This is manifested in Cairo, the world’s largest medieval urban system where traditional lifestyles are still implemented. Nevertheless, despite the extensive efforts to preserve Historic Cairo, it is sadly vulnerable. Ahmed Sedky investigates the reasons behind this condition, exploring and comparing regional and international case studies. Questions such as how and what to conserve are raised and elaborated through the perspectives of different stakeholders. A resulting evaluative framework is accumulated that underpins the criteria for assessing area conservation in the Arab–Islamic context and that can be used to delineate the causes responsible for the present condition of Historic Cairo.

The urban dream of the Arab Islamic city is seen in Cairo, the world's largest medieval urban system where traditional lifestyles are still implemented. Despite extensive efforts to preserve Historic Cairo, it is sadly vulnerable. Ahmed Sedky investigates the reasons for this, exploring and comparing regional and international case studies. Questions such as how and what to conserve are raised and elaborated through the perspectives of different stakeholders.

This book reveals how the Aga Khan Development Network and its Historic Cities Programme transformed an area of Cairo’s urban blight into a dynamic public space. Once a city of verdant gardens and parks, Cairo in the 1980s was severely overcrowded, economically struggling, and many of its inhabitants lived in unsanitary conditions. Historic Cairo, a World Heritage Site centered on the original Fatimid settlement of Cairo, has presented a challenge to conservationists and urban planners over the years as they have sought to protect the city’s heritage while it remains a living city. Understanding how the process of decline could be reversed by restoring monuments and building a new park, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) set about revitalizing the Darb al Ahmar area and creating Al Azhar Park. This book features numerous scholarly contributors and authors who participated in the program, and shows how the conservation effort paid off in countless ways.

“A remarkable debut novel written by a promising young writer who captures vivid details and writes masterfully” (Christian Science Monitor) about an American attorney, an Egyptian translator, and an Iraqi-American resettlement officer trying to protect a refugee who finds herself trapped in Cairo during the turbulent aftermath of the Spring Awakening. Cairo, 2011. President Mubarak has just been ousted from power. The oldest city in the world is reeling from political revolution. But for the people actually living there, daily life has become wilder, more dangerous, and, occasionally, freeing. Live from Cairo is the "Eye-opening... Rich and charged” (Seattle Times) story of these people: Dalia, a strong-willed Iraqi refugee who finds herself trapped in Egypt after her petition to resettle in America with her husband is denied. Charlie, her foolhardy attorney, whose complicated feelings for Dalia have led him to forge a not-entirely-legal plan to get her out. Aos, Charlie’s translator and only friend, who spends his days trying to help people through the system and his nights in Tahrir Square protesting against it. And Hana, a young and disenchanted Iraqi-American resettlement officer, deciding whether to treat Dalia’s plight as one more piece of paperwork, or as a full-blooded human crisis. As these individuals come together, a plot is formed to help Dalia. But soon laws are broken, friendships and marriages are tested, and lives are risked. A vibrant portrait of a city in all its teeming chaos and glory, Live from Cairo is an exhilarating, electrifying debut, and a stunning testament to the unconquerable desire of people to rise above tragedy to seek love, friendship, humor, and joy. “This brilliantly conceived and artfully detailed novel…is both a comedy and tragedy of errors…Ian Bassingthwaighte’s virtuoso debut deserves the widest attention” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

This work presents a series of pen and ink sketches of historic Cairene architecture, made by a single artist over a period of ten years. The accompanying text presents the monuments as part of a larger cultural, social and historical continuum, placing the buildings in human perspective.

Recipient of the 2013 PROSE Awards Architecture & Urban Planning honorable mention Just to the south of modern Cairo stands the historic enclave known as Old Cairo, which grew up in and around the Roman fortress of Babylon, and which today hosts a unique collection of monuments that attest to the shared cultural heritage of ancient Egyptians, Christians, Jews, and Muslims. In this lavishly illustrated celebration of a very special place, renowned photographer Sherif Sonbol's remarkable images of the fortress, churches, synagogue, and mosque illuminate the living fabric of the ancient and medieval stones, while Gawdat Gabra describes the history of Old Cairo from the time of the ancient Egyptians and the Romans to the founding of the first Muslim city of al-Fustat. Stefan Reif focuses on the Jewish history of the area, exploring the famous Genizah documents found in the Ben Ezra Synagogue that tell so much about everyday life in medieval Egypt. Gertrud van Loon looks at the early Coptic Christian churches, some of the oldest in the world, and Tarek Swelim describes the arrival of the Muslims in the seventh century, their establishment of al-Fustat on the edge of Old Cairo, and the building of the Mosque of 'Amr ibn al-'As, the oldest mosque in Africa.