LETTERS FROM AN ENGLISHWOMAN IN EGYPT 1842-44

First published in Arabic in Cairo in 1999, we are delighted to have this translation of an original book of letters and collected observations first published in 1844 by Sophia Poole who lived in Cairo from 1842 until 1849 with her brother, the well-known Orientalist Edward Lane, and her two children. During her residence, Poole learned Arabic and adopted Egyptian clothing that enabled her not only to observe day-to-day life in the streets and markets, but also to enter hammams and harems and interact on an intimate level with Egyptian women of different classes. She ultimately had access in fact to the highest levels of society, including the family of the viceroy Mohamed Ali Pasha, and recorded her experiences there with the same eye for detail and understanding of underlying customs as she brought to bear in the marketplace. Through her eyes we see the pasha's daughter smoking her jewel-encrusted pipe, the homesick slave-girl, the occupation of ladies of leisure - one scene after another is unfolding in her writing. In contrast to her brother's dense works of research, Sophia Poole's was cast in the form of letters to a friend covering her arrival in Alexandria and trip up the Nile to Cairo as well as her life in Cairo with its visits to surrounding villages. Entertaining and informative, if Edward Lane kept alive for posterity a post-medieval Cairo that has since disappeared, then his sister in her work no doubt complemented that great achievement by presenting the same world in a feminine perspective that he as a man he could never have seen. 258 page paperback, b/w sketch of cross section pyramid and map. Save £10.