An Alexandria Anthology: Travel Writing through the Centuries

Middle East Travel Anthologies

by Michael Haag (editor), Plutarch, Strabo

Founded by Alexander the Great over 2,300 years ago, Alexandria has belonged both to the Mediterranean and to Egypt, a luxuriant out-planting of Europe on the coast of Africa, but also a city of the East―the fabled cosmopolitan town that fascinated travelers, writers, and poets in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, where French and Arabic, Italian and Greek were spoken in the cafés and on the streets. In the pages of An Alexandria Anthology, we follow the delight of travelers discovering the strangeness of the city and its variety and pleasures. Most of all they are haunted by the city’s resplendent past―the famous Library, the temple built by Cleopatra for Antony, the great Pharos lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the world, of which only traces remain―we follow our travelers here too as they voyage through an immense ghost city of the imagination. About the The elegant, pocket-sized volumes in the AUC Press Anthology series feature the writings and observations of travel writers and diarists through the centuries. Vivid and evocative travelers’ accounts of some of the world’s great cities and regions are enhanced by the exquisite vintage design in small hardback format that make the books ideal gift books as well as perfect travel companions. Designed on cream paper stock and beautifully illustrated with line drawings and archival photographs.

168 pages, Hardcover

First published December 15, 2014

About the author

Michael Haag, who lived in London, was a writer, historian and biographer. He wrote widely on the Egyptian, Classical and Medieval worlds; and on the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ancients: 331 BC Plutarch, early 1st C Strabo, early 2nd C Dio of Prusa, 1st C Anthony de Cosson

The Medieval: 642 Amr ibn al-As, 760 Abd al-Malik ibn Juraif, 1183 Ibn Jubayr, 1200 Abd al-Latif
al-Baghdadi, 1326-1349 Ibn Battuta

Early Europeans: 1558 Peregrino Brocardo, 1577 Filippo Pigafetta, 1612 William Lithgow, 1737 Richard Pococke, 1768 James Bruce, 1779 Eliza Fay, 1798 Vivant Denon

@Muhammad Ali: 1885 Baedeker's Handbook, 1847 Murray's Handbook, 1872 Francois Levernay,
1816 Henry Salt, 1822 John Carne, 1836 Sarah Haight, 1842 Sophia Poole, 1845 W.M.Thackeray,
1846 Harriet Martineau, 1849 Florence Nightingale, 1867 Mark Twain, 1868 Rev A.C.Smith,
1883 R.Talbot Kelly

Modern: 1922 Evaristo Breccia, 1891 Cavafy, 1905 Ronald Storrs, early 1900s Patrice de Zogheb,
1910 Douglas Sladen, 1914 Edith Louise Butcher, 1902 Baedeker's, 1872 Francois Levernay,
1918 & 1935 Mabel Caillard, 1917 E.M. Forster, 1926 Jasper Brinton, 1920s Cavafy, 1937 C.S.Jarvis,
1937 Josie Brinton

WW2: 1941 Jasper Brinton, 1943 Noel Coward, 1942 Lawrence Durrell, 1943 Schindler's Guide,
1944 Gwyn Williams, 1941 Josie Brinton, 1941 Robert Crisp, 1943 Theodore Stephanides,
1944 Lawrence Durrell

@Nasser: 1949 Jean Cocteau, 1967 Naguib Mahfouz, 1978 Robbin Fedden, 2004 Gaston Zananiri

[Islam Shazly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little booklet is a fascinating look into the evolution of Alexandria from ancient times till modern times as seen through the eyes of countless travellers and residents. However, the editor of the book, is like orientalists, full of nostalgia for an Alexandria he can never bring back, and chooses his wordings accordingly when describing the Muslim conquest of Egypt as the “Arab invasion” and blames them for the decline of Alexandria. And at the same time looks favourably upon the British occupation of Egypt and what they turned Alexandria into.

[Mohammad Ashkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent job collecting bits & pieces of articles, & texts talking about Alexandria since the ancient times.
This book has shed more light on a city I admire a lot, with deep yet changing history that now looks almost nothing like before...