Glossary

1Ashwaiyyat: “random” or “spontaneous”, a general term referring to areas of different types of informal, unplanned housing built by the inhabitants on plots of land which they may own, or on government land but without official permission.

2Four Freedoms Agreement: accord signed in 2004 between Egypt and Sudan giving Sudanese nationals the right to movement, residency, work and property ownership in Egypt, plus access to education and public healthcare.

3Baltageyya (sing. baltagi): ruffian or thug for hire or otherwise. During the uprising of 25 January 2011 the Ministry of Interior recruited a number of such people to spread chaos in towns and to confront anti-Mubarak demonstrators, notably during the “Battle of the Camels” in Tahrir Square on 2 February 2011.

4Bekia: ambulant junk dealer.

5Blue bra or “The girl in the blue bra””: reference to an incident in December 2011 when a young female demonstrator in Tahrir Square was savagely beaten and partially stripped by military police, revealing the victim’s blue bra.

6Capitulations: a series of agreements first elaborated at the beginning of the 16^th century between several leading European powers and the Ottoman Empire intended to regulate the status of foreigners within the Empire.

7Cataract: stretches of the Nile interrupted by rapids. Six cataracts are recognised between Aswan and Bagrawiyah, 200 km north of Khartoum. Nubia extends southwards from the first cataract, which in antiquity marked the southern edge of Egypt during the Old Kingdom. The second cataract was submerged by Lake Nasser in 1970.

8Central place theory: a geographical theory, first developed by Water Christaller, that seeks to explain the spatial distribution of towns and their differences in size through their economic functions, especially the distribution of goods and services.

9Climatope: a microclimate correlated to the material properties of the site in question (asphalt, grass, earth, concrete, water, bricks etc.) and to the layout of the built environment.

10Compound: private residential district within new towns, access to which is more or less restricted and controlled.

11National Council for Women (NCW): a quango (quasi non-governmental organisation) for the promotion of women’s rights created in 2000 under the aegis of Suzanne Mubarak. Since inception it has managed to marginalise other independent women’s associations by swallowing any available funding (especially foreign), and by imposing an agenda of acceptable struggles to be waged.

12Deir: monastery.

13Desakota: a term coined by T. C. McGee in 1991 from the Indonesian desa village and kota city describing rural forms of settlement, often invisible to the authorities, but which share agricultural and non-agricultural activities in a densely populated space where there is significant local mobility of the populace.

14Dhimmi: “protected person”, a historical term referring to non-Muslims living in a Muslim state who were granted freedom of worship though obliged to pay a special tax levied on the individual and not on property.

15Ecumene: the inhabitable part of the world, as opposed to desert areas.

16Fellah: peasant farmer

17Feddan: unit of area used in Egypt, Sudan and Syria, equivalent to 60 m by 70 m, or 0.42 hectares: one feddan is divided into 24 kirat.

18Hara (pl.): storage areas for the lockers and cupboards of students residing in the riwaq of Al-Azhar Mosque. These spaces were still in use until the opening of Al-Azhar halls of residence in 1959.

19Infitah: a term referring to the political policies of open private investment established under President Sadat.

20Jabal: hill, mountain

21Khedive: a title conferred in 1867 upon Ismail, fifth successor of Mohamed Ali, and upon his descendants; equivalent of viceroy.

22Karish (or qarish or arish): soft white cheese nowadays often made from skimmed milk. It is eaten fresh and salted, and is an export product.

23Jehan’s Law: promulgated in 1979 and named after the wife of president Sadat who supported the initiative to change personal status laws. The law granted new rights to Egyptian women in areas of marriage, divorce, custody of children and polygamy. It was declared unconstitutional in 1984 under pressure from the religious conservatives.

24Mahaliyyat: local political councils, criticised for ineffectiveness and disbanded in 2011.

25Urfi marriage: a “customary” form of marriage contracted in front of two witnesses, in keeping with Islamic law but not registered with public authorities. It is often kept secret and is socially frowned upon.

26Markaz: a rural administrative entity and component of a governorate; a markaz can include one or more small or medium-sized madina-s (towns) and is on the same administrative level as a qism.

27Maspero Massacre: the violent repression by the army of a demonstration on 7 October in front of the State radio and television building not far from Tahrir Square resulting in more than 20 deaths and at least 300 wounded. The demonstrators, mostly Copts, were demanding the removal of the SCAF and a stop to attacks against the Christian community, especially in the wake of the destruction of a church in Upper Egypt, which had been built without authorisation.

28Mish: a homemade product of fermented karish cheese aged in clay pots. Sometimes very spicy, it is very common element in the rural diet and is eaten as a starter by city dwellers.

29Mogamaa: an administrative centre of the Ministry of the Interior, and workplace of several tens of thousands of public employees.

30Nahda: in Arabic “awakening” or “renewal”, referring to an Arab intellectual renaissance movement of the late 19^th century, notably in the fields of literature and politics, linked to increased contact with the West; the movement was open to ideas of reform and modernisation.

31Nakba: in Arabic “catastrophe”, referring to the creation of Israel, the 1948 war and the forced exile of roughly 700,000 Palestinians.

32Piastre: a unit of currency; one hundredth of an Egyptian pound.

33Qanat: ancient irrigation system of underground tunnels, accessible and maintained via a series of wells running in line on the surface, delivering water to the surface exit by gravity.

34Qism: an urban administrative entity and component of a governorate; a qism is on the same administrative level as a markaz.

35Roz bi laban: rice pudding, sometimes served with pepper as a side dish, and sometimes with sugar as a dessert.

36Riwaq (pl.): corridors in Al-Azhar Mosque used both for teaching and as lodging for foreign and Egyptian students; there used to about 30 in the past.

37Sarrih: itinerant collectors.

38Personal Status (law or code): Personal status law is not unified in Egypt as each religious community (Muslim, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish) has its own laws that date back to the 1920s: those concerning Islamic law have been reviewed in 1985 and in 2000. The codes, which discriminate against women, regulate, among other issues, questions of marriage, divorce and, for Muslims, repudiation and polygamy. In cases of litigation between citizens of different communities, Muslim law prevails as the common law. In accordance with Muslim law, women inherit half of what a man inherits. While a Muslim husband can divorce his wife unilaterally, the woman on the contrary can only initiate divorce proceedings before a judge.

39Tamarrod: in Arabic “rebellion”, referring to a protest movement created in April 2013 by youth members of Kefaya in order to gather 15 million signatures against President Mohamed Morsi and provoke an early presidential election. The movement called for a demonstration on 30 June 2013, rallying the disaffected against the government of the Muslim Brotherhood.

40Wadi: valley

41Wafd: in Arabic “delegation”, referring to the political party that was born out of the delegation composed in 1918 by the nationalist leader Saad Zaghloul to participate in the Versailles conference in order to lobby for Egyptian independence. The party won the first legislative elections of 1924: it was disbanded by Nasser in 1952 and remerged in 1978.

42Waqf: mortmain property in Islamic law, donated in perpetuity by an individual for charitable ends or public utility; the property, given in usufruct, becomes inalienable.

43Zabbaleen: garbage and rag-and-bone specialists of Cairo involved in the collection, sorting and recycling of household and commercial waste.

44Zarayeb: animal pen.