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About the author and this book: Edward William Lane was born in Hereford on September 17th, 1801. He was the 3rd son of the Reverend Theophilus Lane, LL.D., a prebendary of Hereford Cathedral and was educated privately, mostly by his parents. Despite early success in Mathematics and Classics and hopes for a career in the Church, Lane abandoned the idea and headed for London where he helped an elder brother with his work in lithography and engraving. He also devoted much time to learning Arabic in which he acquired a great proficiency. Work and study undermined his health to such an extent that he nearly died of fever and this prompted him to head for the East and Egypt in particular where he could recover and take up his favourite studies; and so he went to live there at the tender age of twenty-four. He decided to not just study the language, but the people as well. As such he adopted their costume and carried the effect off so well that people assumed he was a Turk. He hired professors to instruct him in Arabic and to teach him Moslem religion and law and lived among the people taking on an Arabic name and adopting their manners, customs and their opinions too. He abstained from eating food forbidden by their religion and from drinking wine; and also from habits thought to be disagreeable such as using knives and forks at meals. The result of the efforts he went to was that he gained the entire confidence of the Arabs, who forgot he was not one of them. He was thus, even as an Englishman, able to penetrate into their thoughts, into their inner life and to think their thoughts in their language. Lane's life among the Egyptians was preparation for the great work he had set out to accomplish - showing the Egyptians to the world as they had never been seen before. Staying in the country for three years at Alexandria, Cairo, the Pyramids and up the Nile; he returned to England at the end of 1828 with his work "Description of Egypt" in complete form and illustrated with his own drawings. He could not find a publisher willing to take the book on despite its inherent value; however Lord Brougham's advice led him to take it to the Society for the Diffusion of of Useful Knowledge. This was not the end of the story - Lane felt that the book could be improved and decided to return to Egypt in 1833 to do just that. A further two years in Egypt allowed him to gain additional information and insight, which was woven into a new work called "The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians", which was published in 1836 in two volumes of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge; again illustrated with woodcuts drawn by Lane himself. This book was very successful and was acknowledged as accurate, fair and complete and a remarkable descriptive account of a people Contents List of Illustrations |
Life in Egypt Muslim Society |
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