EGYPT AND ARABIA

• Egypt is part of what is known as the Cradle of Civilization or Fertile Crescent, a Middle Eastern region shaped like a crescent, which is considered as the birthplace of history, science, writing, trade, urbanization, agriculture and organized religion
• Egypt connects the Middle East to northeast Africa
• The scholarly works on ancient Egyptian culture are largely based on the recognition of scenes related to arts, theatre, literature, dance, music, among others illustrated in tombs, monuments, and temples as well as on the interpretation and translation of writings found on these
• One of the struggles of historians and archaeologists is the extraction of significant information from Egyptian excavated art
• Artists seemed to exhibit the ancient society as the commissioner of the piece wished it to be presented and not as it actually was, thus making it propagandized and idealized
• Egyptians always have their identity awareness as descendants of ancient Egypt
• As the largest Arabic-speaking nation, Egypt plays a big role in the culture of the Arab world
• Arabia or the Arabian Peninsula is situated southwest of Asia
• It is where Islam and the Arab people originated
• Four-fifths of the Arabian Peninsula is Saudi Arabia and the rest are Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq
• Within nomadic and tribal culture began the Arabic literary tradition some 16 centuries ago
• The nomadic tradition travelled far with the spread of the religion, Islam, especially during 7th to the 10th century
• Originally, it aspired for the preservation of hospitality and courage as values while expressing a love for both nature and animals
• The rise of Islamic faith introduced the original Arabian literature to the influence of other cultural traditions such as Persian, Byzantine, Amazigh, Andalusian, and Indian
• At the end of the 20th century, the strong influence of the West dominated, but the Arabian literature strived in maintaining the indigenous inspiration of its own heritage while entertaining the approaches and models of the West
• Saudi Arabia has religious police who separate men and women socially, implement the appropriate dress code, and ensure closure of business during prayer time
• The capital of Egypt is not Sharm El-Sheikh
• Though most Arabs are Muslims, there are still people who belong to other religions like Judaism and Christianity
• Egypt is a transcontinental country since parts of it are located in Africa and Asia
• Most people in Egypt do not live in tents in the desert
• Ancient Egyptian literature is a creation of the civilization of the pharaohs and has huge differences from that of the well-received standard of formal Greek literature
• Ancient Egyptian literature presented itself to the world as engraved writings on walls of tombs, temples, and other monuments
• These inscriptions indicate the religious qualities of the early literary forms reflected in the hymns of worship to their gods and kings
• Autobiographies and offering lists were the pieces of evidence of early Egyptian writing from the Early Dynastic Period (c. 6000-c. 3150 BCE)
• The Pyramid Texts were descriptions of a king's rule and served as an afterlife guide to the souls of the deceased pharaohs
• The Egyptian writing system was characterized by a combination of ideograms (symbols signifying meaning), logograms (symbols that represent words), and phonograms (symbols representing sounds)
• Ebers Papyrus (1550 B.C.) is a medical papyrus containing herbal knowledge
• Ani Papyrus (1250 B.C.) is a funerary text with colored illustrations and cursive hieroglyphics
• The Pyramid Texts, Coffin Text, and Book of the Dead are three of the most significant texts that survived up to this day
• These are mostly incantations with the purpose of bringing about comfort and salvation to the dead in the afterlife
• Naguib Mahfouz is a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988
• He published more than 100 short stories as well as 30 novels, 16 of these were adapted for films
• He has been compared to the social realism tone of Dickens and Balzac
• His short story, Half a Day, emerged in English in the book, The Time and the Place and Other Stories published in the year 1991
• Arabs are great love poets to the point that 70% of Arabic poetry is about love
• Nizar Qabbani


  One of the most renowned love poets in the Arab world, wrote more than 50 poetry and prose collections some of which became lyrics in famous Arab artists' songs
• The peninsular nature of Arabian environment preserved the Arabic language during the pre-Islamic times from the changes of outside forces
• Pre-Islamic literature is labelled by Muslims as Jahiliyyah (period of ignorance)
• It was in the 7th century that Arabic culture and literature flourished with the Qur'an, Islam's Holy Book, as the powerful center and is still holding its place of influence
• The Qur'an


  • It holds 114 suras or chapters containing a massive collection of 6, 236 ayat or verses
  • It comprises narratives, parables, homilies, restrictions, instructions, direct addresses from Allah, and explanations on itself