new professional post

That's right, I updated the other blog and now I'm referring all of you to that!  Go multitasking!

Because it is the work-blog, it is kind of similar to what I posted yesterday here though, except more technical and professional.  I do not really expect you to want to read it, but if the Spirit moves someone, go for it.

10 sheikhs psychoanalyze the pope...

Tell me if you've heard this one before?

(Un-)fortunately, it's not actually a joke, but rather something crazy good that I will be looking at all summer long (i.e. my job).  No, really.

So yesterday was my first day at the Arab West Report (check it out!), and despite being rather difficult to find (i.e. although it is ten minutes from where I live, I ended up needing to take a taxi ride as Google Maps failed to deliver on the place name that my office indicated it was kind of near.  Once I made it there, I had to wander around for a while looking for something called "Kinderwonder," which took a while, then from there was supposed to go find the office.  As it turns out, it was on the second floor of an apartment building.  It would have taken a while longer but I ran into a coworker.), I love it.  Basically, my job for the summer can all be explained with something I inherited.  I inherited an almost complete data set of newspaper articles that mention Pope Shenouda III from the late 1990s through the present.  I am systematically reading these, then looking at the media portrayal therein.  What Pope Shenouda III emerges?  Well, I can't tell you that yet as it is literally my job, but one day.  One day.

The other part of my job was the part that meant I was there for 10 hours.  Yes, 10.  Why?  Because after my time technically ended, we went to a lecture sponsored by my boss by two Nobel Peace Prize nominees (Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye) at Cairo University where Obama will be speaking.  These two rather spectacular clergymen from Nigeria reconnected to their spirituality to point towards an end to the religious sectarian violence of their country and reconnecting their respective fellow believers to do the same.  Spectacular opportunity to meet them.  There is even a movie about them, which is part of what we watched.  Before they spoke that is, which was way, way more incredible.

I like my job.

and then i had a whole other day of doing stuff

Moving on...



Today I was invited to join my apartment's current guests on their trip to Khan al-Khalili, the main bizarre at the center of historic Islamic Cairo. For the record, Cairo is rather massive (in case one didn't know), and historically has moved around its center quite a bit. The Fatimid takeover in the 10th Center created a new quasi-suburb called "al-Qahira" next to Fustat, the prior settlement. Al-Qahira became the center of the new Caliphal city, while Fustat continued on as its older, commercial center. Coptic Cairo is near the Fustat portion (now an archeological site with little continuity), while Islamic Cairo is al-Qahira.



Getting to Khan al-Khalili from where I live is a bit of a trek. Which is true of getting to many places from where I live, but this one involves two different metro lines (there are 3 in the entire city) and a taxi. That said, the total fare there and back is about two dollars, so I can't really complain. I also really like the metro.

Anyhow, basically, the central part of Cairo is monument-central of the Islamic world. Half of your Islamic art history textbook is here (why do you have an Islamic art history textbook you ask). Immediately, al-Azhar is rather conspicuous, although unfortunately we did not go inside due to prayer times. 

I think it is conspicuous

so conspicuous

A massive mosque, and claimant to the title of "Oldest University in the World" (the other being al-Qaraouine in Fes), the al-Azhar was built in 975 CE by the Fatimids, who established Egypt as their massive Shi'a empire with al-Azhar as its theological gem. Once Salah al-Din (or Saladin) of the Ayyubids took over in the 11th Century, al-Azhar changed its sectarian affiliation to Sunni, but remained the pre-eminent site of Egyptian theology (and now the pre-eminent site of international Sunni theology). So yeah, it's kind of famous and such.

Khan al-Khalili itself is across the street through rather awesome modernist tunnels (I think you are not supposed to find the tunnels cool, as shown by the guard's rather perturbed look at my photo taking), taking up a sprawling amount of territory. 

modernist tunnels!

outer edge!

The outer edge of Khan al-Khalili is also where a bomb went off under a bench earlier this year, resulting in the removal of all benches from that corner (?) as well as a massive police presence. Once inside, Khan al-Khalili appears similar (to my eyes at least) to many an Arab-world historic market, winding alleys of people trying to get your attention (although, as today was Sunday, it was actually rather emptied out, making it a little easier to walk around). 

market-ness

What does make this area special is the ridiculous amount of really impressive buildings you randomly bump into walking around it. Despite being there for about four hours, I can easily say that I missed most of them, and only glimpsed a handful of those I did see. Must return and go inside I suppose.

random impressive buildings!

random impressive buildings!

Of these, the al-Ghuri mosque was the only we entered, but the building is deserving of visitors to say the least. Beautiful interior, but also with a talk with the caretaker, its rooftop and minaret were accessible. Hard to argue with that type of view.

caretaker and al-Ghuri

more woodwork!

interior of al-Ghuri

how to summit a minaret: a guide

view of Bab Zwela

downtown building

summit of al-Ghuri with view of Bab Zwela

Yet again, for complete photo coverage

oh the places you'll go...

The joys and trials of being a tourist again...

 

Yesterday, I actually did wake up before 3pm thank you very much (10am to be precise) and decided to actually go see the sites of Coptic Cairo, including the Mu'allaqa Church (the Hanging One, as architecturally it is in fact suspended over a gate, although that is difficult to see), 

interior entrance to al-Mu'allaqa

pulpit of al-Mu'allaqa

more views!

stained glass!

icons!

so, this is Saint Jacob المقطع, or the cut-up...

Rather ominously, this is simply called, "The Sinning Woman."

I may have a slight fascination with Middle Eastern decorative arts...

Yeah, I do...

Then the Coptic Museum, which is quite impressive actually...

Coptic museum

 Followed by St. George's Church (technically Orthodox, but same neighborhood)...

St George's

adorable children

... and, my personal favorite, the Christian cemetery located behind all of these things.

  I am about to quote someone far more intelligent than I who I unfortunately cannot precisely recall the name of.  If anyone knows, please correct my plagiarism, because such an insightful statement should be properly credited.  Getting to the point, whoever this is said that only in Egypt was the Christian idea of the Resurrection fully explored and fully appreciated, for only in a culture of mummification could the idea of a physical Resurrection really be understood.  Wandering around the Christian cemetery, it was hard not to keep focusing on these words, as, should I have not bothered to read a sign, I would have assumed the entirety was a neighborhood of sorts.  A creepy neighborhood that was a little run down, but nevertheless a neighborhood.  The tombs appeared more as homes than mausoleums (to me at least) with a feeling that, should the mood strike, the inhabitants could just open their porch doors and continue about whatever it is they had been doing before they "went inside."  It should be said that Egyptians in general seem to take to the idea of life near the dead a little more positively than say, Americans, with an entire phenomenon of the "Cities of the Dead" inside the Islamic cemetery, now one of the more populous neighborhoods of Cairo.  That said, these are not modern dwellers alongside tombs, but rather, old and new tombs that, well, look like homes.  I have always been struck by the graphic and fantastic early Christian descriptions of the Resurrection, which feature martyrs' arms flying out from lions' mouths to rejoin torsos burned in furnaces, remaking the Christian on the Day of Judgment.  When such a day comes, the Christian dead of Cairo need only to open their doors.

 

For all the complete set of photos (i.e. all the extras of random wood paneling and tombs that I kept taking pictures of), click here

more blogging

Because I have clearly shown in time that I can handle one blog, go figure that I went and made a new one.  Actually, my fellowship insisted that I make a new one, but they generously gave me money and blah blah blah, so I went and made it.  It will probably be a lot more professional and informative (read: possibly a lot more boring) than this one.  Anyhow, it is here:

http://www.watsonblogs.org/wamboldt/

Please bookmark as you see fit.

best laid plans

I really did anticipate being awake before 3pm today; really I did.  Unfortunately, jetlag + sleep deprivation all last week = wake up at 3pm.  So I did very little today.  I attempted to go to Coptic Cairo, but any of the stuff I would have wanted to see was closed, so my metro ride was a bit of a bust (although the Cairo metro is surprisingly nice and efficient).

Then I came back to my neighborhood and took the five minute walk to get to the Corniche (the road next to the Nile), which I proceeded to walk down.  Here are the rather paltry photos from what I did.  I have promised myself to be awake by 10 tomorrow.

Directly outside the Mari Girgis metro station.

The Coptic Museum.

A really important river.

Orange boats traverse this river.

More river.  I think there are triangle-y things in the background of this photo.

My neighborhood is pretty, and people fish in it.

I believe these triangle-y things are the really famous triangle-y things at Giza.

pyramid views

To those who don't know, I am 

1) now in Cairo.

2) renting an apartment that promised me authentic pyramid views.

As I did nothing (absolutely nothing) with my day other than catch up on sleep, I decided to spend the last five minutes finding pyramids from my bedroom. 

This is what I found.

Looking toward downtown Cairo.

View of the Nile.  See the pyramid...?

Close-up on the Pyramid of Zoser.

I will have to repeat on a slightly less-polluted/sunset-y day.  Because I hear I'm still missing Giza.