Egypt
Conrad Black adheres firmly to the ‘great man’ view of history
The movers and shakers of Volume I of his projected history of the world are Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Hannibal rather than any socio-economic forces
The wonder of the wandering life
Anthony Sattin begins with a quotation from Bruce Chatwin, who famously tried all his life to produce a book about…
Does knotted string constitute ‘writing’?
What particularly excites Silvia Ferrara, the author of The Greatest Invention, is not language per se but writing – that…
Marina Warner becomes her mother’s ‘shabti’
There comes a time after the death of parents when grief subsides, the sense of loss eases, and you, the…
The Egyptians knew the value of accidental discoveries
The government has plans to fund a new research agency to back ‘cutting-edge science’. Ptolemaios (Ptolemy) I (367-282 bc), the…
The art of the hermit
Holed up in her sixth-floor London flat, Laura Freeman finds solace in the art of the hermit
Arabian nights
Recall the media coverage at the height of the Jimmy Savile scandal, times it by about a thousand, and you…
Meet the fans who risk death for heavy metal
We in the West may snigger at heavy metal, but in some parts of the world its practitioners face the death penalty. Karen Yossman reports
For Egypt, a bitter winter has followed the Arab spring
Jack Shenker is a throwback to an older, more romantic age when foreign correspondents were angry, partisan and half-crazed with…
Galleries are getting bigger - but is there enough good art to put in them?
Martin Gayford recommends the exhibitions to see — and to avoid — over the coming year
Islamic State is making its threats a reality
Isis could be on the brink of creating a terrifying new world order
Egypt: where gods are born and go to die
Tom Holland on Egypt, where the deities were born and history itself began
Brothels, hashish, a poisonous scorpion, a cursed necklace: all excuses for macho antics in the Valley of the Kings
Gore Vidal has form as a crime writer. In the early 1950s, when his sympathetic literary treatment of homosexuality had…
Tourists are trickling back to Egypt – to beat the crowds, go now
Egypt’s revolution of 2011 didn’t just get rid of President Mubarak: it did a pretty good job of clearing out…
Portrait of the week
Home MPs voted by 382 to 128 to make Britain the only country to allow genetic modification of embryos to…
Why BBC Arabic is booming
Last weekend BBC Arabic celebrated 77 years since John Reith (as he then was) launched the first foreign-language service of…
How to save Islam from the Islamists
It’s time to reclaim Islam from the Islamists
Why does Isis slay hostages? To cover up the fact that it’s losing
Isis slaughters kidnap victims because it guarantees headlines. It's better at slaughtering innocents than it is at winning wars
In Gaza, the siege mentality is helping Hamas
Gaza The main entrance to Al-Shifa Hospital was crowded with what seemed to be journalists. This wasn’t unusual. They…
How the Westminster hawk became an endangered species
There is a slight whiff of the summer of 1914 to Westminster at the moment. The garden party season is…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, responded to the triumph of the UK Independence Party in the European elections (which…
If we have to let generals run Egypt, must we pay for them, too?
America has let Egypt’s old military oligarchs take hold again. Must it carry on paying for them, too?
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that inheritance tax ‘shouldn’t be paid by people who’ve worked hard and saved…
Is Hamas finally losing its grip on Gaza?
The party is out of favour with its foreign neighbours and with ordinary Gazans
