Brève description / annotation

The extended introduction - a microhistory of khedivial Egypt - explores the life and oeuvre of a forgotten Egyptian intellectual and poet, Mustafa Salama al-Naggari (d. 1870). The book contains the English translation and Arabic transcription of the surviving fragments of his manuscript, The Garden of Ismail's Praise. This was a universal, chronographic history of Egypt, written while the Suez Canal was under construction, in order to praise the governor Khedive Ismail (r. 1863-1879). It advocates a unique solution to computing the period of primordial history, before the Deluge, in the age of steam and print. Al-Naggari's alternative Nahda voice is available for the first time in this edition.

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