Cairene Book Covers

In my three years resident in Cairo, between 1971 and 1977, I spent an inordinate amount of time combing the city's book stores for what the sellers called turath, or tradition - the classic texts of Islamic civilization. While searching out these cultural gems, however, I could hardly miss the garish, grisly titles and covers of Arabic-language books on current affairs, ugly rants against Israel, Jews, the United States, Americans, the West, Christians, orientalists, and other targets.

These memories come to mind on receipt of a traveler's recent photographs of current book covers in the book shops of Cairo. These have lost none of their wild-eyed, extremist, intemperate, or nasty qualities. Here is a sampling, with my translations into English. (Click on the pictures to see a full-size version of the covers.)

'Armageddon - Reality or Fantasy'

'Bin Ladin - Bogeyman of America'

'Blackwater - Armies of Oppression'

'Culture of Resistance and Liberation'

'Fahrenheit 451'

'Islam and the American-dominated West'

'Islam in Western Thought'

'Mossad's Penetration of Egypt'

'Mr Hani Witnesses the Afghanistan War'

'Shaykh Ahmad Yasin, Witness to the Intifada Era'

'Spy in the Presidential Palace'

'The Greater Middle East'

'The Israel Lobby'

'The Jews and Their State'

'The Puzzle of Jewish Expressions'

'The Qur'an [as Seen by] Its Adversaries'

'The Roots of Jewish Violence'

Two versions of 'Mein Kampf' and 'The Other Face of Adolf Hitler'

'What Does America Want for the Middle East'

'Zionist Leaders'

Comments: (1) While risible to the foreign eye, these books and their covers must be taken seriously, for they define the mental world of monolingual Egyptians.

(2) One book above, The Israeli Lobby and American Foreign Policy (to cite its full title) holds special interest, being the translation of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. Note the subtle but significant change from Israel Lobby to Israeli Lobby. The former implies a lobby for Israel, the latter a lobby run by Israel – a distinction Mearsheimer and Walt are at pains to draw. One wonders in how many other way the translation distorts the contents of the book. Or, should one say, strips bare the authors' intentions? (July 30, 2008)

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