Author: Shady Lewis Botros

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Map of the Maghreb (1843) by the geographer Alexandre Vuillemin, taken from his "Atlas universel de géographie ancienne et moderne à l’usage des pensionnats" (Universal Atlas of ancient and modern geography for the use of boarding schools) (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The origins of the Maghreb

Was the Arab Maghreb a French invention?

The book "The Invention of the Maghreb: between Africa and the Middle East" prompts us to review basic terminology. This includes terms that we use almost every day as if they are definitive by virtue of geography, history and culture, such as "the Arab Maghreb", "North Africa", "the Middle East" and "sub-Saharan Africa". Shady Lewis Botros read the bookMore

The West and the Middle East: Casting a long shadow – Napoleon's intervention in Egypt"A Slave Between Empires: A Transimperial History of North Africa" – Decolonising Maghreb history The Tuareg: literature, language and culture: "The journey of the princess"
People look at the Rosetta Stone on display in a glass cabinet in the British Museum (photo: Daniel Kalker/picture-alliance)

Hieroglyphs exhibition at the British Museum

Museums with guilt complexes

To celebrate the bicentenary of the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone, the British Museum is running an exhibition entitled "Hieroglyphs: unlocking ancient Egypt" until February 2023. While Shady Lewis Botros welcomes the museum's effort to broaden the Eurocentric focus of the exhibition, he says that it "lays bare a critical approach and a potential for revisionism" and remains largely decorativeMore

Climate change and Middle East monuments: The most endangered on EarthArchaeological mystery: Ancient Elamite script from Iran deciphered?Treasures of the Ancient Middle East: Deciphering the first written language
Adam, the main character, is played by Palestinian actor Tawfeek Barhom (source: Cannes Film Festival)

Cairo Conspiracy a.k.a. Boy From Heaven

Al-Azhar, a Catholic monastery...and the Dalai Lama

Palme d’Or winner "Boy from Heaven" is a classic crossover film in which cultural elements are mixed together in haphazard and random fashion. Shady Lewis Botros bemoans the director’s use of various formulaic and cliche-ridden templates dominant in global mass cultureMore

Cancelling "The Lady of Heaven": Why the fuss over the Prophet's daughter?The filming of Rumi: Everybody's darlingHollywoodʹs flirtation with 1001 Nights: The Aladdin controversy
Film poster "The Lady of Heaven" (source: imdb.com)

Cancelling "The Lady of Heaven"

Why the fuss over the Prophet's daughter?

Written by the controversial Kuwaiti Shia preacher, Yasser Habib, the film's plot pursues two threads: one from the Islamic past, the other from the present. The narratives meet when Islamic State seizes vast areas of Iraqi territory. By Shady Lewis BotrosMore

The Sunni-Shia debate: For clarity′s sakeQantara photo essay: Arbaeen, the world′s largest pilgrimageVisiting the Sufis in Sehwan Sharif: Defying the extremists
"El-Ekhteyar 3" publicity photo (source: Synergy)

Egypt's Ramadan series "El-Ekhteyar 3"

At Abdul Fattah al-Sisi's expense

In the third series of "El-Ekhteyar", actor Yasser Galal delivers a remarkable performance in the role of Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, attracting admiration and ridicule in equal measure. By Shady Lewis BotrosMore

Mass propaganda in Egypt: "El-Ekhteyar 2" – twisting the facts for President SisiEgypt's National Human Rights Strategy: Propaganda tailored to the U.S.?Overpopulation and Sisi regime propaganda: Egypt's people – nothing but a burden and a nuisance
Egyptian intellectual, reformer and cultural politician Taha Hussein (source: Wikipedia)

Taha Hussein, a biography

Modern Egypt's great pioneer

Taha Hussein (1889-1973) is considered one of Egypt's most influential intellectuals and cultural politicians. With his biography "The Last Nahdawi", historian Hussam Ahmed provides a profound insight into the contradictions in the life of the great pioneer of Egyptian modernity. By Shady Lewis BotrosMore

Taha Hussein and the democratisation of education in Egypt: The sea of knowledgeManifesto published by Muslim intellectuals: For Islam and democracyArab nationalism and political Islam: Secularism – ″the other option″?
Street scene in Cairo: A father rides a motorbike with his five children (photo: picture alliance/ dpa/ Matthias Toedt)

Overpopulation and Sisi regime propaganda

Egypt's people – nothing but a burden and a nuisance

Looking to mobilise the Egyptians, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and his ministers will refer to them as the "people". As soon as the Egyptians demand something of the state, however, they are a burden. Apparently, it is not the state that is accountable to the people, but the people who are accountable to the state, writes Shady Lewis Botros in his essayMore

Social utopia on the Nile? Sisiʹs new breed of EgyptiansSocietal repression in Egypt: The tentacles of autocracyEgyptʹs 2018 presidential elections: Blatant autocracyEgypt's deepening economic crisis: Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s vanity projects
President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi on the 'campaign trail' (photo: Getty Images/A. Berry)

Egyptʹs 2018 presidential elections

Blatant autocracy

No-one is under any illusion about the forthcoming presidential elections in Egypt at the end of March. With the current regime shamelessly and unambiguously issuing instructions to one political party after another to put up candidates, the outcome will be a sham, argues Shady Lewis BotrosMore

Interview with Egyptian novelist Alaa al-Aswany: ''Mubarak's regime remains intact''Interview with the Egyptian historian Khaled Fahmy: ''The army lacks a vision for the future''The role of Egypt′s armed forces: A military empire
A Egyptian Copt vents his grief and anger following the terrorist attack in Tanta (photo: Reuters/M. Abd el Ghany)

Terror attack on Egypt′s Christian minority

Why the Coptic focus?

Last week′s heinous bus attack was just the latest in a wave of brutal terrorist strikes by the Islamic State group on Egypt′s minority community of Coptic Christians. In his essay, the Egyptian writer Shady Lewis Botros looks at why the Copts in particular are bearing the brunt of these vicious assaultsMore

Egyptian Copts flee the Sinai: "They're slaughtering us like chickens"Egypt′s Coptic Church: The cost of a cornerstoneChristians in Egypt: Persecuted and forgotten