‘Id al-adha: The “Feast of Sacrifice,” which commemorates Abraham’s sacrifice of a ram in place of his son Isma‘il, as related in the Qur’an. Muslims celebrate this several-day event (also known as Greater Bairam) by slaughtering animals on the first dawn of the feast, often distributing the meat to the poor.
Ka: In the complex system of pharaonic-era beliefs, when someone died, their ka, or spiritual essence, would come to visit the deceased. The ka brought with it the ba, the dead person’s soul, depicted as a human-headed bird in mortuary reliefs, often sculpted sitting on the mummy. Strictly speaking, it was Hor’s ba, not his ka, that was represented by the sparrow. Yet the ka was generally seen in the ancient religion as the agent for revenge against tomb intruders — which certainly fits “The Mummy Awakens.”
Kameni: A Fourth Dynasty high priest of the early vulture goddess Nekhbet in her temple at al-Kab on the Nile opposite Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt, ca. 2560 BC.
Khnum: Depicted as a man with the head of a ram, Khnum was the creator-god of Elephantine (ancient Abu at Aswan).
Punt: Hailed as “God’s land” by the ancient Egyptians, Punt was probably located on the Red Sea in eastern Sudan or Ethiopia, or perhaps in northern Somalia. Egyptians apparently began traveling there during the late Fourth Dynasty (ca. 2649–2513 BC).
Qadesh: A city on the Orontes River in present-day Syria that served as a base for the Hittites against their rivals, the Egyptians, especially during the New Kingdom.
Qaqimna: The Arabic name for Kagemni, a famous Sixth Dynasty vizier. The Teaching for Kagemni, a Middle Kingdom text concerned mainly with the rules of gracious conduct, was putatively addressed to Kagemni. The Teaching itself, however, puts Kagemni in the Fourth Dynasty.
Sa‘idi: An Upper Egyptian; the word for the southern part of the country — from which the Nile flows down to the North and the sea — is al-Sa‘id, “the elevated land.” Sa‘idis are commonly seen as physically resembling the ancient Egyptians.
Zahi: Also rendered “Sahi” or “Djahi,” in ancient Egyptian this refers to the area of roughly modern Israel, Palestine, and Syria, plus parts of Iraq on both sides of the Euphrates, in addition to Lebanon (Phoenicia) and Cyprus.
About the Author
NAGUIB MAHFOUZ
Voices from the Other World
Naguib Mahfouz is the most prominent author of Arabic fiction today. He was born in 1911 in Cairo and began writing at the age of seventeen. His first novel was published in 1939. Since then he has written nearly forty novel-length works and hundreds of short stories. In 1988 Mr. Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He lives in the Cairo suburb of Agouza with his wife and two daughters.
Raymond Stock (translator), a doctoral student in Arabic literature at the University of Pennsylvania, is writing a biography of Naguib Mahfouz. He is the translator of Naguib Mahfouz’s novel Khufu’s Wisdom.