Scribd
Upload
84 views

DB 43 Writing

The document provides a summary of the book "Legends of the House of the Cretan Woman" which collects local legends from Cairo, Egypt that are centered around the 17th century Bait al-Kretliya palace. The book was originally published in 1951 and has been republished with additional context and color illustrations. The legends intertwine biblical stories with Egyptian pharaonic history and are set in the poor neighborhood surrounding the Bait al-Kretliya palace and the adjacent 9th century Ibn Tulun Mosque. The legends were collected by R.G. Gayer-Anderson, a 20th century British expatriate who acquired and restored the palace, from the last remaining member of the original

Uploaded by

naderali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
84 views

DB 43 Writing

The document provides a summary of the book "Legends of the House of the Cretan Woman" which collects local legends from Cairo, Egypt that are centered around the 17th century Bait al-Kretliya palace. The book was originally published in 1951 and has been republished with additional context and color illustrations. The legends intertwine biblical stories with Egyptian pharaonic history and are set in the poor neighborhood surrounding the Bait al-Kretliya palace and the adjacent 9th century Ibn Tulun Mosque. The legends were collected by R.G. Gayer-Anderson, a 20th century British expatriate who acquired and restored the palace, from the last remaining member of the original

Uploaded by

naderali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

A Bridge Between Cairos Monuments and its Streets

Legends of the House of the Cretan Woman


By R. G. Gayer-Anderson
The American University in Cairo Press, 2001
107 pages, 16 illustrations by Abd al-Aziz Abdu


Cairo is not only a city of monuments, it is itself a monument to human achievements that
bridge the universal to the local. To anyone who has ever visited or lived among its
congenial people and astonishing history, it is clear that you are breathing ancient air
mingled with aromas that are also strangely ancient. The vignettes in Legends of the
House of the Cretan Woman are grounded in the local landscape, and chauvinistically
assume Cairo is the center of the universe where all great and small things happen.

The fourteen legends revolve around the Kretli family who occupied the 17
th
century Bait
al-Kretliya palace that audaciously buttresses the austere 9
th
century Ibn Tulun Mosque
complex, like a boulder hugging a shoreline. Surrounding these two structures is a
crowded poor neighborhood with a relatively new history where the legends continued and
took on a life of their own. R. G. Gayer-Anderson acquired the Bait al-Kretliya in 1935. It
had just been renovated and became a shell for all of his carefully chosen objects,
furniture and Islamic treasures. He heard about the local legends regarding the palace
and began collecting them, too, with the help of the last remaining Kretli descendant, the
mystical Sheikh Sulaiman. During his eight year residence Gayer-Anderson
commissioned a resourceful local artist, Abd al-Aziz Abdu to illustrate each legend.

The legends playfully and at times outrageously distort sacred biblical stories of the Koran
as well as weave in Pharaonic deeds. For example, the hill where Ibn Tulun and the
palace, Bait al-Kretliya, sit is where Noahs ark landed, it is where Abraham sacrificed a
ram rather than his first born son, Ishmael as well as where Moses and the Pharaoh
interacted! The legends earnestly explain why the legend is the truth and how the bible
through a chain events was inadvertently misinterpreted. These stories are to be read
both with a grain of salt and with a sense of healthy gullibility because they are born of
that special and mysterious interaction between people and monument. Take the time to
read the introductory chapters and footnotes throughout. They provide the backdrop for
the various and intertwined parts of the book.

R. G. Gayer- Andersons grandson, Theo Gayer-Anderson, has republished the book, a
handsome version of the original published in 1951. The new edition includes helpful
features such as brief introductory chapters and a redrawing and modification of the
original drawings the adding of color and erasure of ambiguities by Theo Gayer-
Anderson himself. It has an inviting cover, almost like a childs storybook, and Abdus
stylistic illustrations have a folksy and labyrinthian style. In fact I read several stories to
my ten-year-old son and was able to keep his attention.

Legends of the House of the Cretan Woman is full of social and historical facets. One
facet is about the original 17
th
century Egyptian family that tightly entangled their home
against the walls of the ancient Ibn Tulun, as did other families of that time. The mosque
as part of the everyday fabric of life is part of an older Islamic mindset that is not seen in
newer large mosques. Despite the deliberate separation in the early 1920s of the original
neighborhood from Ibn Tulun, the new, less attached neighborhood proved to be
extremely fertile ground for these legends to continue flourishing. Yet another facet is the
20
th
century patriarchal British expatriate who fell in love with the palace and restored it
to a hybrid, colonial-Arabic esthetic. Then there are the quirky short legends themselves.
The difficult task of weaving these facets together, the historical, class and social strands
into a critical whole, is a research project on its own.

In this attractive book we are reminded that the local legends and the shepherding of the
house out of obscurity were not only salvaged by Gayer-Anderson but restored to a higher
status. They deserve to be praised again. His grandsons revival of the book guarantees
that some of Cairos more elusive treasures, that could be lost among all of the tangible
ones in this bigger-than-life city, are not forgotten.

You might also like