The Program of Cairo University's International Conference on Literary Criticism

Here is the program of  Cairo University's International Conference on Literary Criticism to be held in the Department of Greek and Latin from the 2nd-3rd of March 2017 in Arabic and English.

Classical Papers' new cover to a new issue (2017)

Classical papers is the peer-reviewed journal of the Greek and Latin department in Cairo University. It contains contributions not only from Egyptian classicist, but also from international classicists all over the world. The language of the journal is either Arabic or any other European language of the field Classics (i.e. French, Italian, German or Spanish).

Now it has a new cover to a new issue. The 13th volume (2017) is dedicated to Prof. Dr. Yehia Abdel-Allah. The chief-editor of the journal is the head of the department, Prof. Dr. Ali Abdeltawab.

Menander's Dyskolos into Arabic by Abdel Moaty Shaarawy

Abdel Moaty Shaarawy of Cairo University has translated the only new comedy preserved for us in almost a complete form i.e. Dyskolos (Δύσκολος) into Arabic. The translation has been published in the first month of this year (January 2015) by the Kuwaiti National Council of Culture, Arts and Literature (KNCCAL).

  

Characters of Theophrastus (Ἠθικοὶ χαρακτῆρες) into Arabic by Adel Elnahas

Adel Elnahas, the head of the Cairo department of Greek and Latin Studies, has just announced the publication of his translation of Character of Theophrastus (Ἠθικοὶ χαρακτῆρες) into Arabic. The translation is published by the NCT Cairo (2015). Congratulations for the translator and looking for more.

About Theophrastus see http://catalog.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cite:perseus:author.1394 and cf. also  Philosophia Antiqua Vol. 54 William Fortenbaugh et alli (eds.) Theophrastus of Eresus. Sources for His Life, Writings, Thought and Influence, Brill 1993.

ُExpanding the Arabic content of Wikipedia via educational initiative

Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Adel Alnahas, the head of Greek and Latin studies department of Cairo University a pilot project was done in Cairo University to translate the English content into Arabic through students in the department. The guardian has put all the details of this initiative in this article.You can access the program description in Arabic through this link also. The whole archive of the project is to be found here as well.

Dr. Sameh Farouk's Blog

Dr. Sameh Fraouk of Cairo University publishes some of his linguistics thoughts in  an Arabic blog titled " Linguistics Studies in the NT". It appears that the blog was inactive since 2012, I hope he will continue to feed it with his ideas in the days to come. Her is the link to this blog.  

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).  

Epistulae Heroidum by Ovidius into Arabic

Epistulae Heroidum  of Ovidius is translated into Arabic for the first time ever. The translation is done by Dr.Ali Abdeltwab Ali and his student Bahaddin Ibrahim. The book is published as the 25th issue of the Cairo university's Project for Translation.

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

In Memoriam: Professor Ahmed Etman (1945–2013) by the Classical Receptions Journal, Oxford University Press.

The Obituary of the Prof. Dr. Ahmed Etman, by Lorna Hardwick

In Memoriam: Professor Ahmed Etman (1945–2013)
Classical Receptions Journal 2014 6: 175

In Memoriam: Professor Ahmed Etman (1945–2013)

We record with great sadness the death in August 2013 of Professor Ahmed Etman, who was from its inception a member of the International Advisory Board of the Classical Receptions Journal. Until his recent retirement, Ahmed Etman was a Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Cairo. He also served as Chairman of the Egyptian Society of Graeco-Roman Studies and the Egyptian Society of Comparative Literature. From the start of his career he had extensive interests in the comparative histories of classical texts, both within antiquity and subsequently. He was an international authority on the history of classical scholarship in Egypt and on the role of the transmission of Greek texts through Latin and Arabic translations. In recent years, he contributed extensively on those topics to conferences in the UK and other western European countries.

Ahmed Etman had special skills in setting up large projects and bringing them to fruition. A highlight of his career was his leadership over a period of six years of the team of scholars who translated Homer’s Iliad into Arabic. This prose translation was published in 2004 and was accompanied by the reissue of a paperback edition of Soliman El_Bostany’s popular 1904 verse translation. The publication of the new translation was marked by a conference in Cairo on ‘Translation and Cultural Interaction’. Professor Etman was then under considerable pressure to facilitate a translation into Arabic of Homer’s Odyssey and in the meantime devoted attention to overseeing translation into Arabic of recent Anglophone scholarship, the publication of which he planned to launch at a conference in Cairo in the spring of 2014.

In addition to his scholarly work, Professor Etman was also a playwright, working mainly from classical figures and themes. Several of his plays were broadcast on Egyptian radio. His Cleopatra Worships Peace (1984) was translated into English, French, Greek, and Italian and The Goats of Oxyrynchus into English and French. Most recently, his play A Belle in the Prison of Socrates was published in an English translation by Professor Fawzia El-Sadr (2008). The play took the figure of Socrates as ‘gadfly’ to the democracy, presenting a collage of ancient sources in a theatrical setting. It proved prescient in its phantasmagoria on the elusive presence of demokratia at a time of internal and external conflict in ancient Athens.

Ahmed Etman’s sadly premature death has cut short his plans to use his retirement to promote cross-cultural exchange through discussion of the histories of classical scholarship and translation. We shall miss his energy and humour and especially his courteously ironic and even-handed dismissal of simplistic polarities between ‘orientalism’ and ‘occidentalism’.

Classics Department in Egypt

Classic Department is to be found following universities ( with a link to department's website, when available,) N.B. most websites are in Arabic; some have English contents, other don't:

1- Cairo University ( Faculty of Arts, Department of Greek and Latin Studies).
2- Ain Shams University ( Faculty of Arts, Department of Ancient European Civilizations).
3- Alexandria University ( Faculty of Arts, Department of  Archaeology and Greek and Latin Studies)
4-Mansoura University ( Faculty of Arts, Department of Greek and Latin Studies)
5- Sohag University ( Faculty of Arts, Department of Greek and Latin Studies)
6- South Valley University ( Faculty of Arts, Department of Greek and Latin Studies).

The 10th International Conference of the Department of Greek and Latin Studies (Cairo University)

The Department of Greek and Latin Studies at the University of Cairo will host its 10th biennial conference in March 2014 . 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 .

For more details, please follow this link . N.B. the conference is postponed to September 2015 ! 

The website of the Egyptian Society of Greek and Roman Studies

The online page of the academic society of classical scholars in Egypt is to be found through this link.

List of Arabic titles in Library of Classics department (Cairo University)

The department of Classics in Cairo University is putting online a list with contributions to the study of classics written by scholars in Arabic. The list could be accessed here.