Best egyptian history books according to redditors
We found 82 Reddit comments discussing the best egyptian history books. We ranked the 37 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 82 Reddit comments discussing the best egyptian history books. We ranked the 37 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
In essence, and despite all the possible means of keeping secrets safe, nothing was safe, and almost everything was revealed - ironically, neither to own intel or military services, even less so to own public, but certainly to the enemy.
Indeed, the classic example of how much each side actually knew about the other would be the case of Adolf Tolkachev: he revealed 'super-secret' details of an entirely new generation of Soviet-made weapons systems (especially those related to types like MiG-29, MiG-31, and Su-27) to the CIA - even before these have entered service. The Soviet/Russian defence sector never recovered from this blow (indeed: not even until today).
Regarding such cases like that with the T-54: the actual issue is the depth of perception.
Due to the compartmentalization of security-related issues, somebody like, say, a defence attaché in Moscow, was not expected 'to know' plenty of things, say, Langley did already know. In other cases - like that of Tolkachev in particular - the intelligence received so much information, that it took it years to study all of this. Of course, until it was so far, nobody could know all the details. That's why all the possible intel services were still eager to get their hands upon, say, MiG-29 as of the early 1990, although - theoretically - they should've known everything about the type, inside out.
Another 'anecdote' (if you like): we frequently get to hear how the Israelis got that Iraqi MiG-21 in 1966 and then handed it over to the USA. Actually, that story was entirely surplus.
CIA has obtained the flight manual for MiG-21F-13/PF (I've got the translation of the same, dated with 1964, should there be any questions about 'evidence') - from Iraq already in 1963. And not only that manual, but also all the technical documentation about that type, plus everything there was in sense of documentation on SA-2, too.
In that year, there were three coups in that country, already the first of which removed the gov that was 'USSR friendly' (actually: not really, but it did include a C-in-C air force that was a 'staunch communist'). Thus, also in the same year, the IrAF sent a group of its pilots - including nearly all of those who used to fly MiG-21s - to the USA, for advanced staff training. 'In exchange' for that, it delivered everything it's got of Soviet technical and training documentation.
Indeed, even the pilot that later flew that MiG-21 to Israel was with that group, i.e. sent for staff training to the USA: that's how the Israelis 'got' him, in the first place: they assassinated three other Iraqi pilots who turned down their 'silver or lead' offers (the first of them was murdered in a bar in the USA; for details, see Arab MiGs, Volume 2).
However, the CIA never made this public. Thus, 'this all never happened' and all we get to hear is 'the Israelis got a MiG-21 for the USA'. Even more so, due to the compartmentalization of security issues, even the USAF and the USN did not know that the CIA has got the intel they urgently needed for use over North Vietnam, for example.
Something similar was valid for the NSA's success in regards of reading the Soviet IFF: it was already in 1962, over Cuba, that the NSA found out it could not only 'read' the Soviet IFF (installed on MiGs), but actually trigger a response from IFF-transponders that were set on 'passive'. 'Still', resulting technology ('IFF interrogators') was only extremely cautiously applied against North Vietnam starting in 1968, and really deployed 'in combat' only starting in 1971-1972. (For details, see Clashes: Air Combat over North Vietnam).
Funny fact about this: until today I'm to find a single former user of the IFF-transponders in question (i.e. one of former MiG-pilots, no matter where: in the ex-USSR or any of its 'clients') that has at least ever heard of such stuff like APX-80 Combat Tree. I.e. even if the intel of the other side almost certainly learned about such equipment, it didn't left its own 'warfighters' know that the US intel could read their IFF and make tactical use of that fact. No surprise, although the existence of such systems like Combat Tree was reveald in the Western public already in the late 1990s or early 2000s, even most of ex-USAF F-4-pilots are still extremely cautious when one asks them about the APX-80...
Indeed, another funny related fact: when I once interviewed an ex-Iraqi Mirage-pilot, and told him about the use of the Combat Tree by the Iranians during the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988 (they were in the exclusive club of getting such US-high-tech of the early 1970s, together with the Israelis, of course), his reaction was disbelief. 'Why do you have to fantasise and create such science fiction to explain our losses...'
Overall, everything is related to the 'depth of perception': the fact that some secret is actually known to the other side, means not that the other side has left all of its 'trigger pullers' know that it knows.
The question you're asking requires a book-length response. The book to read is Edward William Lane's Arabian Society in the Middle Ages
https://www.amazon.com/Arab-Society-Time-Thousand-Nights-ebook/dp/B00A7357IK/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1494355803&sr=8-13&keywords=Edward+William+lane
No she doesn't. In the first feminist movement in the 1910s the women were wearing face veils.
Anyway you can check out detailed accounts of what Egyptians wore in the 1830s in the book *The Manners and Customs of Modern Egyptians, written by a British traveller. The upper class women all wore face veils. Only the poorest women wore no veil at all, and they often tattooed their faces as well.
Nice! I just did a review of three introductory books:
CHAOS MAGIC: Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine
LUCIFERIANISM: Begining Luceferian Magic by Michael Ford
SETIAN/TYPHONIAN: The Seven Faces of Darkness by Don Webb
Also /u/three_scarabs has a really good list of basic lhp books that they share around here...
> (Especially if you've read Oren's Book, "Ally", which pretty much details how Obama fought Israel in nearly every way they could. They kept the aid and helped with some emergencies in Israel when a wildfire got particularly out of control, but Obama's administration and state department has been openly Jew hating in it's actions.
Ally is a fantastic book (I've read it twice since I bought it a few months ago), and everyone should read it along with all of his others.
I'm currently reading Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present.
I also have Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East and plan on re-reading it after I finish P, F & F.
Ally, and the interviews he's done on the book (look for them on YouTube, there are many) are very illuminating about the Obama admin, his personal worldview & the Obama/Clinton/Kerry foreign policy. Some of the interviews in particular, add a lot to the book that wasn't quite expressly said. He reveals much more about his personal beliefs in his interviews than he did in the book. He tries to go to great lengths to maintain that the Obama admin was not anti-Israel, and I firmly believe, that he firmly believes that Obama wasn't anti-Semitic or anti-Israel.
However, an intelligent reader, can deduct that Oren also recognizes that the Democrats aren't good for Israel anymore. He's quite candid that the Obama admin had a deliberate policy of ending Israel's special relationship with the US. Even Hillary Clinton, who he identified as a big supporter of Israel still did nothing to advance peace in the Middle East or even have Israel's back.
Oren, a self described Scoop Jackson Democrat, knows that despite his best efforts to maintain bipartisan support for Israel, year after year, the Democrats drift further to the left, and that support for Israel among the Democrats is becoming nothing more than a talking point.
> 1.) How are the gods viewed? Extra-dimensional beings, intelligences of natural forces or something else? Are they part of our world or another one?
These small questions demand exhaustive responses, haha. It's difficult for me to condense it here, but I will try, and will more than likely end up elaborating in comments later on.
The Netjeru are viewed as Gods -- Gods with multifarious and complex natures. They're not archetypes. They're not mere "metaphors" for anything, and are by no means facile explanations for natural phenomena conconcted by "pre-rational" humans, as many Moderns who privilege promissory materialist philosophy and interpretations are so fond of and known to say.
Personification-deities -- like Ma'at, the embodiment of the concept of ma'at; Sia, the embodiment of Divine intellect, perception, prophecy, etc.; and Shai(t), the God Who manifests more often as male than as female, and embodies fate, destiny, prophecy, etc. -- are still literal Divine beings as all the rest, but are not ones which are personable and personally accessible to human beings, on human terms. Some are much more "humanly accessible" than others. There are many classes of deities, with many roles and functions each performs, both on an individual basis and as units.
Fair warning: One does not get very far with two-dimensional interpretations and approaches to Egyptian religion(s). Ancient Egyptian theo-logic is incredibly polyvalent, and is not comprised of nor dictated by a series of competitive and contradictory bivalent values.
Arguably, the majority of the Netjeru are both immanent (within the world) and transcendent (above/outside the material world but still affecting it). That said, there are Gods that specifically dwell in the Duat (the Unseen), and do not manifest in the Seen (the material world which we inhabit). These obscure legions of specialized Divinities and "demons" are primarily but not exclusively encountered in funerary religious material, including but not limited to the Books of the Earth.
We must account for differences between localities and time periods, too . . . there is simply no simple, short, sweet answer (or set(s) of answers) to such questions, I'm afraid. Nor should there be, for a religion (or rather, series of religions) so old and multiplex as those of Ancient Egypt.
>2.) What should I read first? Should I study the myths or read a 101 book?
>3.) What specific books do you recommend?
There is no one book, nor only a couple of "handy manuals," that will inform you even remotely satisfactorily on Ancient Egyptian religion(s) and/or ritual mechanics. Anything that focuses solely on "myth," as per the nature of the discipline of "Mythology" (which is the study of myth as literature, frequently to the exclusion of cultural and religious context, and without regard for the fact that not all myth corresponds to ritual, or vice versa), will inevitably be inadequate and piecemeal.
The easiest place for me to start is to advise you whose works to avoid. Rosemary Clark, E. A. Wallis Budge, Judith Page, Normandi Ellis, Jeremy Naydler, and Jocelyn Almond are among those on the "Do Not Read" list. They're all rife with interpretative and methodological faux pas and plain-old factual historical inaccuracies.
The not-so-easy place for me to go from there is whose I recommend. There are too many scholars and texts to recommend, and my advice and recommendations are most definitely colored by my formal education in Philo/Theo and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. There are some articles I would recommend before out-and-out textbooks, but I realize that not many people have ready access to them as I do.
Anyway, even the best "Western" scholars, such a Jan Assmann and John Baines and Dimitri Meeks and Stephen Quirke, have their own interpretative problems embedded in their best pieces of writing. That said, Stephen Quirke probably has the best (not to mention the most recent) introductory, survey text on Ancient Egyptian religion(s) to date. I absolutely do not recommend Garry Shaw's, which was published last year, for all his privileging of Modernity over "pre-rational" Ancient non-Greeks and refusal to view Egyptian religious material as anything other than "poor explanations of the physical world for people without recourse to particle physics" (paraphrasing, though "for people without recourse to particle physics" are among his exact words). Nor does Shaw say anything different or better than other scholars like Meeks and Assmann and Baines have already said years earlier, elsewhere.
Erik Hornung's Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt : The One and the Many is one of the most important books on the nature of Egyptian religion(s). While I have some issues with it, I highly advise people curious about Egyptian religion(s) read that text in particular. Definitely plan to read that one, and read it slowly and carefully. Many Modern Kemetics who have read it didn't particularly understand the material for whatever reasons, which I highly suspect had to do with, in no small part, speed-reading and no time taken for critical reflection.
Maulana Karenga composed the most extensive -- not to mention, fair -- study on the Egyptian concept of ma'at to date. He does a good job of pointing out some problems in other scholars' attempts at unpacking the issue over the last several decades, and he does a good job outlining what, precisely, ma'at entails morally-ethically through extensive analyses of diverse bodies of textual evidence from different periods of Pharaonic history. Ma'at, in case you and/or those reading don't already know, is the underpinning of the entire religion(s) and Kemetic worldview, and it's impossible to be a Kemetic without understanding what ma'at is, and making it the foremost part of one's daily life and the foremost goal of one's life.
Robert K. Ritner and Geraldine Pinch wrote texts addressing heka -- Ritner's are considered to be among the best, while Pinch's are considered adequate (she makes glaring citation mistakes in areas, for instance, i.e. in the sections she writes concerning the Seven Hathors. No spell in primary source material, from any period, exists where They perform as Pinch states They perform, on top of her not providing citation for what text she (mis)interpreted those sections from). J. F. Borghouts' Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts, although brief, is frequently cited and worth looking at. A PDF of it should be floating around the interwebs somewhere, if you're interested in that, since it's pretty expensive to acquire physical copies of and is, to my knowledge, since out of print.
James P. Allen's, Thomas G. Allen's, and Raymond O. Faulkner's translations of the most famous funerary texts are among the best. Adriaan De Buck's translations of the Coffin Texts are considered authoritative, but are considerably difficult -- especially for those outside Academia -- to gain access to. I should note that the funerary texts are only so important. They honestly do not play a major role in Modern Kemetic practice and belief, though Modern Kemetics do by no means totally ignore them. Important to know, not much practical use, in other words.
As for Modern Kemetic works . . . nnnnot many exist which I could recommend in good conscience. The late Richard Reidy's Eternal Egypt is much acclaimed by many Modern Kemetics, though it does contain some errors. That's not to say that it's utterly useless, only that some of the rituals contained therein (such as those pertaining to Sekhmet) are predicated on erroneous information and mistaken interpretations. Tamara Siuda's Ancient Egyptian Prayerbook is, admittedly, only particularly handy if you're looking into becoming part of the Kemetic Orthodox Temple. It contains pointers on how to erect and dedicate shrines (in the Kemetic Orthodox way, that is); how to perform the Kemetic Orthodox rite of senut; "how to pray" and prayers in English; and snippets of introductory information about some of the most important Egyptian deities. Nothing super-heavy.
I hope this helps; and apologies for the length of my response.
You'd also probably find the 6-Day War interesting to read about, both the military strategy and the politics surrounding it. I enjoyed this book on it: link
The current Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, wrote a pretty comprehensive history of the Six-Day War, called Six Days of War. It's very readable and highly respected, so I'd very much recommend it.
The whole Arab Migs provides a rather good overview of the several wars and conflicts from the perspetive of Arab airforces.
Taking Sides provides a good overview of america's relationship with Israel
Arabs at war provides a military effectiveness overview but it is extremely biased towards Israel
I always recommend three books for people who want to start learning about the subject:
Righteous Victims by Benny Morris
Israel, a history by Martin Gilbert
and Six Days of War by Michael Oren
Between those three, you have a good introduction. The Morris and Gilbert are both comprehensive histories covering everything from the early Zionists to modern day. They have very different interpretations; it's not that either one is wrong, they just place emphasis on different aspects. And the Oren is the best overview of the six day war which was the most important war in terms of causes of the present day conflict.
Its just a large hadron collider. If you want some crazy wtf irl theories, go read about quantum mechanics...
I believe the show is about Elliot's illumination, his journey from apprentice to master. quantum mechanics has it roots in the occult and I think this show explores these themes perfectly
Check out https://www.reddit.com/r/MrRobot/comments/dlxemv/manyworlds_higgs_singlets/
Also
https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Hermetica-Demystified-Fundamental-Space-Time/dp/1980728151
My claim is that you just made an unsubstantiated point like it was some sort of common knowledge. Maybe you should re-examine the rest of your knowledge before you go on making statements like IDF soldiers rape Palestinian women and the Israeli media covers it up. Because they have no basis in reality. What does have basis in reality is the absurdity in which activists are outraged over whether IDF actually rape anyone, or not. It's unclear what would be the more preferable scenario to them in those cases, the IDF soldiers being rapists or racists.
It does seem that the Osirians may have been foreigners who brough Osiris with them. The foreigner aspect of the story will be addressed further, I just didn't know how to extend this part without it ending up too long. Here are some of the best sources.
Well, so have you..?
And before you tell me that I "need to do some more reading bro", I've read Six Days of War.. What have you read besides a Wikipedia article?
I'll add a few more that don't deal directly with overall ME history:
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You certainly are a sucker for a one-sided opinion.
https://www.amazon.com/Six-Days-War-Making-Modern/dp/0345461924#reader_0345461924
Get this book. It explains the incident in great detail.
Michael Oren was Israeli ambassador to the USA, so it can not be said to be unbiased, but it is the other side of the coin.
Dammit, as a Canadian I know the USA has repeatedly been involved in "friendly fire" attacks on allies.
It happens.
I think the greater point the article was seeking to make is that some Christians who have recently supported Israel very robustly are doing so on intellectually flimsy and therefore easily shifted grounds. This is why the article ends on the note I quoted in my comment before--not to say that one must choose a dichotomous position but that there are ramifications for a sub-critical support or opposition of any of the parties in play.
Give Smith's journalistic history, it's little surprise that he would come down on greater understanding of all parties involved in the tension. Take, for example, his thesis that Americans typically don't understand the way Arabian politics work, which yields a net ineffectiveness in American attempts to resolve tensions in the Middle East in The Strong Horse, for example.
One good book I’d recommend is Paul Kriwaczek’s In Search of Zarathustra: Across Iran and Central Asia to Find the World's First Prophet. It’s sort of a cross between cultural history and personal travelogue, but it’s a very enjoyable read.
UK Link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01CXCHEKG
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
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> The books, the books... first off, name the books.
Since you ask....
That's a start. Keep in mind, the people in these books make up a majority of Israeli Jews now. The books are not about European Jews.
We can acknowledge, however, which side currently holds more unabashed hatred of the other side. Undeniably, Palestinians hate Israelis more than they themselves are hated in return. This has to do with a long line of anti-Semitism among the Arab populations (e.g. supporting the Nazis during WW2) and the systematic lack of education and freedom in Arab controlled lands. Fire up 'the street' against a common enemy and people forget to rebel against their own corrupt tyrants.
Source: Oren, M. B. (2003). Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. New York: Presidio Press.
I am currently reading Six Days of War. Oren writes extensively not only on the war itself, but on the factors leading to it as well (pg. 1-61 covers post WWII to May 1967, pg. 61-170 covers the direct lead-up [May 1967], pg. 170-305 covers the war itself, and the last 20 pages kind of wrap it up) .
Check out All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer.
It's an easy and compelling read which ought to raise many questions and spur further curiosity on the subject. If you get through that, try giving this gem a go. It's an easy read that give a sweeping overview of religious developments through the region. Many debatable points made by the author, but an easy starting point to branch out from.
I don't rant much on the topic. Generally the ranting people are oversimplifying matters and attempting to reconcile their personal bias with reality. Be attentive of the people willing to step back and question what they think they know about this diverse region.
https://www.amazon.com/Into-Hands-Soldiers-Freedom-Middle/dp/073522062X
The Egyptians converted some Mig-21MF's to fire AIM-9P-3's in the early 1980's
Source: these books
It's a tragedy how Arabs are kept in shit by their leaders and its a tragedy Israel is the scapegoat. Obviously I wish only peace, democracy and prosperity for Arabs if they want peace with Jews. Proper goverment in the Middle East, however, is a bit of a challenge considering the tribal and religious nature of the population. There's a good book written about the phenomenon called the Strong Horse.
p.s. I love your name btw!
Here is the golden answer: Religion is a tool of political elites to remain in power.
The long answer: Ibn Khaldun described the nature of the middle east centuries ago as a cycle of violence in which strong horses replace weak ones. Sunni Muslims have ruled through the centuries “by violence, repression, and coercion.” The strong horse, not Western imperialism or Zionism, has determined the fundamental character of the Arabic-speaking Middle East.
How else can we really explain the Arab Middle East's cult of death, honor killings, terrorist attacks, despotism, and warfare?
Well for one, the mere fact of Arab occupation of Egypt is oppression in its own right. When you occupy someone else's country, there will always be oppression no matter how much the conqueror tries to portray himself as a liberator.
There are also books about the role of Arab tribes in displacing Copts in Upper Egypt through raids and slavery and, in the Nasser era, property seizure.
Also, this talks a lot about the oppression Copts faced historically: https://www.amazon.com/Motherland-Lost-Egyptian-Modernity-International-ebook/dp/B00E3FBJYO