Cairo

Fülszöveg

"He who has not seen Cairo, has
not seen the world. Her soil is gold,
her Nile is a marvel, her women
are as the damsels of paradise, her
houses are palaces, and her soil is
soft, sweet-smelling as aloes, re-
freshing the heart - and how can
Cairo be otherwise when she is the
Mother of the World". So wrote
an illustrious writer of old. This
may provide us with the reason
why artists never wearied of try-
ing to reproduce its picturesque
scenes, and why travellers are fas-
cinated by its oriental charm, real-
ising the dreams of the Arabian
Nights of their childhood. No
sooner does the visitor arrive in
Cairo than he realises that he has
stepped right into the centre of a
history that is fabulous in its wealth
and continuity. No other city has
such rich and impressive collect-
ions of Egyptian and Coptic monu-
ments and antiquities, and no other
city possesses such an assembly of
Islamic masterpieces spread over
one thousand years. The old city
with its... Tovább

Fülszöveg

"He who has not seen Cairo, has
not seen the world. Her soil is gold,
her Nile is a marvel, her women
are as the damsels of paradise, her
houses are palaces, and her soil is
soft, sweet-smelling as aloes, re-
freshing the heart - and how can
Cairo be otherwise when she is the
Mother of the World". So wrote
an illustrious writer of old. This
may provide us with the reason
why artists never wearied of try-
ing to reproduce its picturesque
scenes, and why travellers are fas-
cinated by its oriental charm, real-
ising the dreams of the Arabian
Nights of their childhood. No
sooner does the visitor arrive in
Cairo than he realises that he has
stepped right into the centre of a
history that is fabulous in its wealth
and continuity. No other city has
such rich and impressive collect-
ions of Egyptian and Coptic monu-
ments and antiquities, and no other
city possesses such an assembly of
Islamic masterpieces spread over
one thousand years. The old city
with its beauties and its memories
is there to see in this book. So too
is the modern city in which Cairo
lives again.
The modern city has three univer-
sities, a number of higher insti-
tutes, the National Library, the
academies, the Opera House, the
modern Arts City, the theatres and
many other establishments devot-
ed to culture and the arts - a city
that is vital with energy and that
is going forward into a future
worthy of its past. Modern writers
have also extolled modern Cairo.
Many of them describe her as
the Paris, the Oxford, the Mecca
and the Hollywood of the Arab
world.
This book, published in 1969, i.e.
1000 years after the establishment
of Cairo in 969, presents a true and
inspiring picture of the cultural
and artistic development of Cairo
throughout her millennium. For
the preparation of this book the
highest authorities on Egypt's his-
tory, art and folklore were enlisted.
At the outset about 3,000 photos
were chosen, but eventually only
the choicest of the choice were
allowed to appear in the present
book (525 photos - 120 in colour,
405 in black and white).
There is a stimulating and learned
introduction of 40 pages, as well
as an appendix at the end to give
more information about photos
of places of special artistic or his-
toric significance.
This is the English version of this
book. There are also five other
versions: Arabic, French, Spanish,
Russian and German. Vissza