Culture






Music:
Egyptians just love music. Egyptian music is a mix of Arab, European, and Nubian influences and it mostly rocks. In the earlier part of this century Egyptian music followed very strict guidelines of classical Arabic and Turkish composition, the songs of these days sound alien today and the image of old record players spewing the high pitched words is almost comic today.

Then came Mohammed Abdullwahab in the 30's. This man single handedly introduced western tunes to Egyptian music forever. Sayed Darwish was also an influential figure at that time, his patriotic and love songs are now synonymous with Egypt.
The 40's, 50's, and 60's saw the classical giants. People like the legendary Um Kalthum and the angelic Layla Mourad. These people reigned Egyptian music in a tyrannical monarchy and their intimidating talent still overshadows artists today. These titans still sell more CD's, tapes, and records when they are dead than modern singers do alive.
The 60's and 70's also saw another trend setter, Abdulhalim hafez. This romantic, not so good looking guy, still mysteriously captivates young people till this day. Abdulhalim ruined romance for all modern singers.
In the 80's a new, daring, ambitious, and very bad form of music developed. It was called jil and employed fast, furious tunes. Jil aimed mainly at revolution with a commercial edge and it sucked.
In the 90's jil rectified itseld and became shababy music. This strand of fast pop music is now so successfull, commercial, and catchy that one has to wonder how much rectification exactly happened in the early 90's.
Alongside this mainstream pop, there is Shaaby. Shaaby is a pop form of native, poor neighbourhood music, sort of like Rebetika in Greece. Shaaby remained a stigma for most of the 90's but all of a sudden something clicked. The honest, frank, simple, and funny lyrics of these songs suddenly broke to the middle class. Middle class Egypt suddenly embraced this music and celebrated it publicly much to the consternation of snobby intellectuals. The antichrist of this heresy in their opinion is the singer Shaban abdel-Reheem. He spearheaded the Shaaby breakthrough. His not-so-good-looks and his almost intentionally tacky outfits were a great hit with everyone as the "intellectuals" got brainstrokes.
Alongside all this the original artforms of mawal and sira and ghena2 araby still thrive and attract thousands of people in small cafes and in the main theatre of the opera.
 
 
 

Arts:
Egypt has had a long history with cinema, TV, and radio. The first movie produced in Egypt was a silent movie called Zeinab and it outdates most European countries. Till 1960 movie production in Egypt was either an important economic activity or a strategic industry sponsored by the government. That period saw the production of hundreds of excellent films by the time's standards. People often reminisce about the days when Egypt produced 100 films a year but they often forget that most of these films are not good enough to qulaify as classics, they were simple enterprises. Also till the mid-80's most stories were "adapted" from American and European movies with no attempt at creativity.
In the 70's and 80's the flow of petromoney and the VCR caused a boom in production. A torrent of quick-made horrid movies intended for video only (no cinema) flooded the market. These movies were known as "contractor movies". In the 90's the boom ended as satellite dishes flooded the gulf and petromoney stopped flowing. Everyone cried and wept as the number of productions dropped. The worst year was when only 7 movies were produced in 1997. Critics declared Egyptian cinema dead.
Then a group of young desperate people tried something new. They tried an original, unusually realistic story, a good production, and some time investment and it payed off in the romantic comedy called "To Ismayliya and back". This signalled another boom in which the rule is young stars, large investment, and comedy. The cinema industry picked up but critics are still moaning and reminiscing for the old days.
 
 
 

Cuisine:
Egyptian cuisine has elements from ancient Egyptian, mediterannean, Arab, and European cuisine. Egyptian foods are generally heavy as an anvil and yet many dishes are totally vegetarian! Here are some of my favourites:
Fool: Yes that's what it's called so stop laughing already! Fool is fava beans, the most common way of cooking it is boiling it slowly and ever so slowly like for a full day. This gives us fool medammes, a brown, pasty, tasty, fullfilling mush. Fool is really good, you'd have to try it to believe. It's very popular in Ramadan where it is usually the main dish of the last meal because it is digested very slowly and leaves you full for a long time. Fool is prepared with a bewildering variety of garnish and additions. I like the simple, plain fool off a food stall in the street. Fool is so popular because it's so good and soooo cheap :-)
Felafel: Yes, this is where it comes from originally. It is originally known as Tameya and falafel is it's name in Alexandria and the name that stuck when the Europeans and Levantines there picked it up. Felafel is ground fava beans made into patties and fried. It is the twin sister of fool, you can't have one without the other. I like felafel with tahina and tomatoes, yummie.
Molokheya: Controversial. All Egyptians I know of all classes and backgrounds love this dish in an unqualified manner. And most foreigners I know hate it! Molokheya is a thick soup made from a herb called Jews marrow which is ground and cooked with chicken, rabbit, or shrimp stock. The herb is very gellatinous and the result is a thick black pasty soup eaten with bread or rice. Molokheya is heavy on garlic so it's really tasty. Those who hate it probably do so because in the end it has a certain mucousy consistensy to it, wuss!
There are so many more but rather than typing them out I'd rather go eat them.

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