Egyptian-Arabic Scholarship in Classics and Papyrology: Invisible or Marginalized?

Egyptian-Arabic Scholarship in Classics and Papyrology: Invisible or Marginalized?

I am not trying to get into detail of this large topic. My aim is just to record what I have found and then I will go back to this.  I have once twitted about this. 

It's usually reported, not infrequently with astonishing confidence, that the Egyptian school of Greco-Roman Studies is a peripheral. Yet I wonder how this conclusion came 2 exist while its publications r not included either n L'Année philologique o n Bibligraphie Papyrologique!

— Usama A. Gad (@usamaligad) November 20, 2018

L'Année philologique contains only 100 record of Arabic scholarship in the field, while Bibligraphie Papyrologique have almost no record.

Her is what I have found from L'Année philologique.

There is only 100 records.

Making Arabic-Egyptian and Non-Egyptian scholarship in Classics Visible

In my blog here you could browse hundreds of records which I have unsystematically been posting since 2014. In the spreadsheet below I recorded up till now over than 300 records of Egyptian scholarship in Classics and papyrology. I will be adding more in the coming months.

Here is the spreadsheet. It is in Arabic, but I will transcribe the titles into English and provide every record with an English Abstract. For non-Egyptians scholarship, I will translate the title into Arabic and provide the record with an Arabic abstract. Feel free to add to this list or send me your work about Egypt to make it visible in Arabic too.

1- Arabic-Egyptian Scholarship Records

There are now more than 300 records.

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2- Arabic Translations of Greek and Latin

There are now 130 records.

OEDIPUS ON THE NILE: TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTIONS OF SOPHOCLES' OEDIPUS TYRANNOS IN EGYPT, 1900-1970

OEDIPUS ON THE NILE

By Cormack, Raphael Christian (https://ergamegala.wordpress.com/)

[Retrieved from https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/23624 on 06/08/2010]

Between 1900 and 1970 seven different versions of Sophocles’ play Oedipus Tyrannos were performed or published in Arabic in Egypt. This thesis looks at the first 71 years’ history of this iconic Greek tragedy in Arabic and the ways it can be used to think through the cultural debates of the period. The long history of contact between Greece and Egypt and the 19th and 20th century interpretations of this history can be used to look at different models of colonial and post-colonial cultural interaction. Classicism offered Egyptian writers a constructive way of looking at their cultural identity and contemporary world – a way which takes in to account the legacies of colonialism but also engages Greek literature to create their own models of nationhood. Following the history of performance and adaptation of the play throughout the 20th century, this thesis offers close readings of the most prominent adaptations of Oedipus, particularly those of Farah Antun (whose text was used for Actor-Director George Abyad’s first version of the play in 1912), Tawfiq al-Hakim (1949), Ali Ahmed Bakathir (1949) and Ali Salem (1970). Using performance and translation theory, I show how performance of translated plays like Oedipus was a crucial but complex part of the formation of an Egyptian dramatic tradition through the dynamic interaction of diverse views of what the theatre should be, using, for instance, the role of singing in turn of the century drama. This thesis also revisits and revises misconceptions about the relationship between Islam and theatre. In addition to examining Egyptian Oedipus’ 19th and 20th century context, I also stress the contribution of performance and adaptation to readings of the original text. In particular, these versions of Oedipus ask questions about monarchical rule and democracy that form one link between this classical play and 20th century Egypt. Through its interdisciplinary approach as well as the close readings it offers, this thesis aims to make valuable contributions to the fields of Arabic Theatre Studies and Classical Reception in Colonial and Post-Colonial contexts as well as Performance and Translation Theory.

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/1842/23624

Download

https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/23624/Cormack2017.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Collections

• Literatures, Languages, and Cultures PhD thesis collection

A Digital Corpus for Graeco-Arabic Studies

Between the 8th and 10th centuries AD, hundreds of Greek philosophical and scientific works were translated into Arabic. These translations exerted immense influence on the development of philosophy and science in the Islamic world and, through a later process of translation and transmission, in the Latin West as well.

The Digital Corpus assembles a wide range of such texts together with their Greek counterparts, where available, but also a number of Arabic commentaries and crucial secondary sources such as Arabic bio-bibliographical works.

Access the database through this link.

© 2014 - Supported by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Harvard University, Tufts University

Sulaiman Al-Bustani's Translation of Homer's Iliad by Magda El-Nowieemy

An article about Sulaiman Al-Bustani's Translation of Homer's Iliad by Magday El-Nowieemy is published by the Greek Academy of Institutions and Cultures Society in its webpage in Academia.edu. The paper is titled:  "Sulaiman Al-Bustani's Translation of Homer's Iliad: A Study of Creation and Trans-Creation", Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on Graeco-Oriental andAfrican Studies , held in Delphi, May 2009, in: Graeco-Arabica , vol. 11 (Heraklion, Crete 2011)pp. 247- 256.

The paper is in English and in a pdf format and could be downloaded free through this link.

Students studying Greek and Latin in Egyptian Universities

Greek and Latin  languages are introduced for students  in Egypt only in universities.These two languages are not taught in secondary schools. During their study students of classics, ancient history, Philosophy ,classical archaeology, English and sometimes German are taught the grammar of these two languages. It goes without saying that students of classics are the only ones who learn  the grammar of these two languages in their first and second semesters and continue to learn intensively their syntax, philology and texts throughout their studies. The other students learn their grammar in various stages of their study program, sometimes in the last semester.

     The total number of students who learn Greek and Latin for the first time in Egypt is estimated to be thousands, but accurate and documented numbers are lacking in this regard. I'm trying to collect these information for the last year 2013/2014 from my colleagues who teach these languages in their class rooms in Ain Shams, Cairo , Alexandria and other universities across the country.

Here is a list where one can find course descriptions ( in Arabic) of Greek and Latin in Egyptian Universities ( I will continue to update this list as long as I find new material online)

1. Cairo University: Greek and Latin, Second Semester, 4 h.w.  (http://classicscu.edu.eg/tawsifat.html).
2.  Ain Shams University: Greek and Latin, First semester, 4 h.w. (http://arts.asu.edu.eg/course/index.php?action=show&cid=1299).
3. Alexandria University, no information available online(http://arts.au.alexu.edu.eg/Arabic/Departments/Department16645/Pages/default.aspx).  

Cairo University's Department of Greek and Latin Studies: 10th Conference

2015 Department of Greek and Latin Studies  10th Conference    

Individual and Society in Greek & Latin Lyric Poetry
and its Echoes in Modern Times
Saturday 8 - Monday 10 March 2015

The Department of Greek and Latin Studies at the University of Cairo will host its 10th biennial conference in March 2015 .  Plenary lectures , presentations and papers will be held on campus in the Faculty's Conference Room . Accommodation and meals will also be pro­vided on campus.
We welcome proposals for papers (20 minutes long followed by discussions) and coordinated panels (comprising either 3 or 4 papers) from graduate students, academic staff, or others interested in the ancient world on the topics suggested below .
Suggested topics:

1- Roots of Lyric Poetry :
·      in Epic Poetry .
·      in Didactic Poetry .
2- Solo Lyric Poetry (Monody) :
·      Terpander - Sappho - Alcaeus - Anacreon ….. etc.
3- Choral Lyric Poetry :
·      Alcman - Ibycus - Simonides - Corinna - Pindar – Bacchylides….. etc.
4- Dithyramb :
5- Choral Odes in Greek Drama :
·      Their nature and functions .

6- Alexandrian Lyric Poetry :
·      The Epigrammatists : Asclepiades - Hedylus - Posidippus - Callimachus - Theocritus - Dioscorides .
7- Compilation and Classification of Classical Lyric Poetry in Alexandria .
8- Lyricism in Ancient Latin Literature :
·      Livius Andronicus - Ennius - Naevius - Accius - Pacuvius .
9- The Origins of Roman Drama and Roman Lyric Legacy :
·      Versus Fescennini - Satura - Fabula Atellana - Mimus (Fabula Riciniata).
10- Lyricism in Roman Comedy :
·      Plautus - Terence .
11- Latin Lyric Poetry in the Golden Age :
·      Catullus - Horace - Ovid . The Elegists : Gallus - Tibullus - Propertius .
12- The Influence of Sappho and the Alexandrian Lyric Poets (esp.Calli-
       machus) on Latin Lyric Poetry .
13- Latin Lyric Poetry in the Silver Age .
14- Lyricism in Seneca’s Tragedies .
15- The Influence of Greek and Latin Lyric Poetry on Modern European
        Literatures in Greece , Italy , France , Britain , Spain , Germany … etc .
16- The Echoes of Greek and Latin Lyric Poetry in Modern Arab Poetry :
·      The School of Apollo - Abdelwahhab Elbayyati - Salah Abdelsabour - Adonis - Nezar Qabbani … etc .
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e-mail: elnahas.adel@gmail.com   -   alimoeinclasscaiedu@yahoo.com   -  samehfarouk 2002@hotmail.com

Homer's Iliad into Arabic verse !

Suleyman al-Boustani, the Lebanese statesman, teacher, poet and historian (1856–1925), has translated Homer's Iliad not simply into Arabic prose, but into Arabic verse. The translation is published by Kalimat press The book could be freely downloaded from the  website as a kindle, pdf, or ePUB, through this link. The provider is Hendawi Foundation for Education and Culture; a non-Profit Organization seeking to promote education and culture and thought in the Arabic region through both translation and publishing of literature from all over the world.

An Arabic Translation of Garth Fowden's Before and After Muhammad: The First Millennium Refocused

An Arabic translation of "Before and After Muhammed: The First Millennium Refocused"  By Garth Fowden is now in preparation by Usama Gad.