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This book demolishes one French myth about Algeria after the other.
Algerian leaders are too prone to dwell on their war for independence, nostalgia for an exalted past cannot help to build a modern nation.
The first twenty years of the French conquest of Algeria (1830-1850) cost 400,000-500,000 natives lives, between ten and 12.5 percent of the population. The First World War, the costliest in lives France ever fought, cost the country an estimated 3.5 to 3.7 percent of the native population. Nothing better illustrates the sheer brutality of France’s conquest of Algeria than these bare statistics. European colonial wars were usually brutal but this one was particularly so, mirrored by an equally bloody war on independence in 1954-62. That Algerian and French modern politics and broader relations should be haunted by the sheer amount of blood spilt, the human brutality and lasting resentment these conflicts provoked should not surprise the modern reader. History offers a useful guide when trying to understand the deep crisis diplomatic relations between France and Algeria have been going through over the past 18 months, the worst crisis since the latter’s independence.
The theory of France’s “civilising” mission to the world remains to this day the mainstay of many TV debates. Where Algeria is concerned it was traditionally the mainstay of public discourse in academic and political circles. That discourse predates the conquest of Algeria by a century and was given new impetus by the French Revolution after 1789 which turned the idea of Revolutionary Enlightenment values into the bedrock of public discourse. Such ideas combined with the missionary discourse of the Catholic church which before 1789 took the form of “rescuing” Christian lives from captivity in the prisons of the “Algerine pirates” in other words the privateering sea captains of the Regency of Algiers which at the height of their power in the 16th and 17th centuries regularly raided the coast of Devon, Ireland and once in 1632, Iceland. By the 19th century the Catholic Church had taken on a novel form, at least in Algeria, that of bringing the native Berbers back to the faith of their ancestors, notably that prince of the early Christian Church St Augustine, bishop of Hippo (modern day Annaba).
he reasons king Charles X invaded Algeria in 1830 are well known but the extent to which such an idea had been discussed in the Paris press is explained in Alain Ruscio’s remarkable book more fully than ever before. The British admiral Lord Exmouth had bombarded Algiers in 1816 after the Congress of Vienna had decided that the activities called “privateering” had to stop. They had virtually disappeared by then but the European powers after their victory against Napoleon felt morally righteous as never before and that righteousness turned, after 1815, against the Ottoman empire and, more broadly, the Muslim world. Greece was about to break loose from Constantinople, Algiers came at the same time though the circumstances of Western intervention were very different.
Continuous warfare in the 20 years after 1830 across the northern region of Algeria witnessed methods of war the native population did not use: the systematic burning of towns, destruction of irrigation works, cutting down of fruit trees and burning of crops. The French miliary commanders enjoyed overwhelming superiority in weapons but they had to fight a tenacious enemy: Abdelkader and Hadj Ahmed Bey are but two of the most famous Algerians who fought the French army with tenacity for years. Eventually outgunned, the first surrendered to the French in 1847, the French generals promptly betrayed their word and imprisoned the Emir in France. It took five years for the new emperor Napoleon III to free Abdelkader and let him leave for the East in 1852.
French settlers were not attracted to Algeria and never were in great numbers. By the mid century the majority of European settlers was not French, but Spanish and Italian. Nor did they care to farm a land the troops had so devastated during the conquest. Most Europeans resided in cities. It was only much later in the 1880s while phylloxera devastated the vineyards of France that Algerian grapes and winemaking prospered.
This book demolishes one French myth about Algeria after the other. It is very well documented and written in chronological order which makes it very pedagogical. The sorry story it tells puts paid to any idea of a French civilising mission but it is one which conservative and radical right wing politicians evoke regularly on TV talk shows, in their view Algeria remains the “barbary state” so beloved of their 18th and 19th century forebears. Nor have attitudes towards Islam changed all that much.
Algerian leaders are too prone to dwell on their war for independence, nostalgia for an exalted past cannot help to build a modern nation. La Première Guerre d’Algérie should be required reading for many French political readers. Clearly written and argued with a wealth of previously difficult to access statistics and references, this book demonstrates once and for all why Algeria is the black box of French history.
Ahmed Malek made history as the first Egyptian to win the El Gouna Star for Best Actor at the El Gouna Film Festival, which closed yesterday. During the closing ceremony, many other awards were also presented to Arab and international films.
The 8th edition of the El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) concluded, celebrating a remarkable lineup of films that illuminated the power of storytelling across cultures. The evening crowned winners in the festival’s five competition sections: Feature Narrative, Feature Documentary, Short Film, Cinema for Humanity, and the El Gouna Green Star.
Egyptian actor Ahmed Malek was awarded the El Gouna Star for Best Actor for his performance in My Father’s Scent, directed by Mohamed Siam, making history as the first Egyptian actor ever to receive this honour in the festival’s eight editions.
The jury praised Malek for delivering “a layered emotional journey between father and son,” commending the depth and subtlety of his performance. In his acceptance speech, Ahmed Malek pointed out that, for the first time in the festival’s eight editions, the Best Actor award had finally come to Egypt.
He expressed his deep happiness at being the first Egyptian to receive it, saying, “I am really proud to be part of this industry, in which I have worked since I was a child. Acting chose me, and it has been—and will always be—my greatest passion.”
Over the past editions, the El Gouna Star for Best Actor has recognized outstanding performances from across the globe.
Previous winners include Daniel Giménez Cacho (Zama, Mexico) in 2017, Mohamed Dhrif (Dear Son, Tunisia) in 2018, Bartosz Bielenia (Corpus Christi, Poland) in 2019, Ali Suliman (200 Meters, Palestine) in 2020, Petri Poikolainen (The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, Finland) in 2021, Bottsooj Uortaikh (If Only I Could Hibernate, Mongolia) in 2023, and Adam Bessa (Ghost Trail, France/Tunisia) in 2024.
Feature Narrative Competition
The Golden Star for Best Feature Narrative Film ($50,000) went to A Poet, a deeply human portrayal of a man torn between his poetic dreams and harsh social realities, directed by Colombian filmmaker Simón Mesa Soto. The jury praised the film’s “observational, semi-documentary approach and its politically aware gaze sustained by empathy and humor.”
The Silver Star ($25,000) was awarded to Lucky Lu by Lloyd Lee Choi (Canada/USA), recognized for its “urban symphony of struggle and dignity” embodied by a standout performance from actor Chang Chen.
Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Rashad received the Bronze Star ($15,000) for his debut feature, The Settlement (Al Mosta’mara) — a stark, neorealist portrayal of Egypt’s shrinking working class that the jury described as “a powerful, unembellished look at social predetermination.”
Rashad accepted the award on stage during the closing ceremony, accompanied by his young protagonist Zeyad Islam, who charmed the audience and couldn’t leave the stage without thanking his mother and family.
The Best Arab Narrative Film Award ($20,000) went to Where the Wind Comes From by Tunisian filmmaker Amel Guellaty, praised for its “free, dreamlike road-movie spirit that captures the betrayed hopes of a generation.” Guellaty thanked the El Gouna Film Festival for its continuous support throughout the film’s post-production. Léa Drucker received the El Gouna Star for Best Actress for her role in Adam’s Sake by Laura Wandel (Belgium/France). The jury commended Drucker for delivering “an intense and complex performance rooted in realism.”
Feature Documentary Competition
The Golden Star for Best Documentary ($30,000) was presented to Always by Deming Chen, a poetic reflection on childhood dreams and imagination. Egyptian-French filmmaker Namir Abdel Messeeh triumphed at the El Gouna Film Festival, taking home two major awards for his latest documentary Life After Siham: the Silver Star for Best Documentary ($15,000) and the Best Arab Documentary Award ($10,000).
The film, a tender, humorous, and deeply personal exploration of memory, family, and intergenerational connection, impressed the jury, who praised its “delicacy, sincerity, and the power to bridge generations.”
In his heartfelt acceptance speech, Abdel Messeeh reflected on the intimate roots of the project, saying, “This film could have been called An Egyptian Tale — it tells the story of my parents, which began 75 years ago. I tried to tell it while connecting it to my children.”
He added with emotion, “We have so many stories, and I think as Arabs we need to tell our stories — but in our own way.”
The Bronze Star ($7,500) went to Orwell: 2+2=5 by Raoul Peck, honoured for its “uncompromising, lucid critique of systemic violence.” A Special Mention was also given to How to Build a Library by Maia Lekow and Christopher King, praised as “a profound act of resistance through knowledge preservation.”
Cinema for Humanity Audience Award
This year’s Cinema for Humanity Audience Award was shared between Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk by Sepideh Farsi (France/Palestine/Iran), an intimate account of Gaza’s resilience, and Happy Birthday by Sarah Goher (Egypt), a moving debut exploring Cairo’s class divides. Both films were celebrated for their heartfelt portrayal of humanity and empathy.
El Gouna Green Star Award
The environmental award, the Green Star, went to Seeds by Brittany Shyne (USA), honoured for its “immersive meditation on sustainability and survival through the preservation of land and agriculture.”
Behind the Camera Awards
In recognition of excellence in cinematic craft, the Behind the Camera Creative Achievement Award was presented to veteran cinematographer Dr Tarek El-Telmissany for his outstanding contribution to Egyptian and Arab cinema. The Recent Achievement Award went to editor Heba Osman for her exceptional technical artistry.
Short Films Competition
The Golden Star for Best Short Film was awarded to Agapito by Arvin Belarmino and Kyla Danelle Romero (Philippines), which the jury called “a tender and magical portrayal of the extraordinary in the everyday.”
The Silver Star went to Loynes by Dorian Jespers, described as “a mysterious and witty short that defies convention,” while the Bronze Star was presented to Water Girl (Fille de l’Eau) by Sandra Desmazières, celebrated as “a poetic meditation on aging and the passage of time.”
The Best Arab Short Film Award went to The Devil and the Bicycle by Sharon Hakim (France/Lebanon), commended for its “bold and nuanced storytelling that explores faith and desire with wit, charm, and emotional depth.”
In his speech, Eng. Naguib Sawiris, founder of the El Gouna Film Festival, reaffirmed the festival’s guiding motto, “Cinema for Humanity,” stressing cinema’s duty to shed light on global suffering—from Sudan and Ukraine to the children of Gaza.
He concluded by presenting a Special Tribute Award to Intishal Al-Tamimi, the festival’s former director and current advisory board member, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to GFF’s legacy and to Arab cinema.
Oil, defense, technology provided links in recent years
Diverse economic collaboration built on Vision 2030 initiatives
Saudi Arabia and the US have seen steadily growing economic ties throughout a relationship spanning more than 80 years, beginning with oil and expanding to defense and technology in recent years.
What began as a reliance on oil and gas has expanded to more diverse economic collaboration built on Vision 2030 initiatives.
Economic cooperation between the two nations was solidified in the early 1930s when King Abdulaziz granted the right of oil exploration to the American company Standard Oil through a 66-year contract. This led to the formation of the Arabian-American Oil Company, better known as Aramco.
Saudi Arabia and the US signed an interim diplomatic trade agreement in 1932, establishing an initial framework for trade, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Aramco’s Dammam Well No. 7 struck commercial quantities of oil in 1938, ushering in a new age in the Kingdom’s development.
In the early 1970s the two countries deepened their trading relationship. In 1972, the value of the Kingdom’s imported goods and materials from the US was $314 million, and the Kingdom’s exports were $194 million.
Economic relations between the two countries were underlined in June 1974 through the formation of the US-Saudi Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation, which provided US expertise to develop infrastructure to advance Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economic development.
The two countries agreed to increase the number of private US companies working on local projects in the Kingdom.
The two nations went on to maintain a steady and growing economic relationship with partnerships largely focusing on defense, energy, investment and technology.
The partners took a step forward in their economic cooperation in 2005 by formalizing a partnership in education with the King Abdullah Scholarship Program. This program allowed thousands of Saudi students to study in US universities, building a long-term foundation for a knowledge-based economy.
According to a White House fact sheet, Saudi Arabia is now one of the US’ largest trading partners in the Middle East.
The Kingdom’s direct investment in the US totaled $9.5 billion in 2023, and was focused on the transportation, real estate, and automotive sectors.
US-Saudi goods trade totaled $25.9 billion in 2024, with US exports at $13.2 billion and imports at $12.7 billion.
One recent major platform for economic cooperation was the Saudi-US Investment Forum held in Riyadh in May, at which Saudi Arabia signed deals with the US worth more than $300 billion.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, speaking at the forum, said the Kingdom was looking at $600 billion of investment opportunities, adding that he hoped this would rise to $1 trillion.
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha, speaking to the Saudi Press Agency on the sidelines of the forum, said that the event reflected the Kingdom’s growing prominence on the global digital economy map, with the country the largest digital economy in the region and a key hub for investment in artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Nov. 18 will mark another milestone in the Saudi-US relationship with the Saudi crown prince meeting US President Donald Trump in Washington.
The relationship between the countries, which was underlined by the meeting between King Abdulaziz Al-Saud and President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board the USS Quincy in 1945, has endured and prospered.
And these ties have witnessed continued economic expansion and moves into new sectors like technology.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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On Feb. 14, 1945, as World War II neared its end, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met King Abdulaziz aboard the USS Quincy in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, following the Yalta Conference. (Supplied/MOFA)
US President George W. Bush dances with a sword with then Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz (R), who was governor of Riyadh, during their tour of the Murabba Palace and National History Museum. (AFP file photo)
The Crown Prince and US President in a group picture with investors during the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh on May 13. (Supplied)
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Rana Taha of Jordan as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Tunisia, with the host Government’s approval, effective 19 June 2025.
Ms. Taha has over 20 years of diverse experience working for United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, and UN peacekeeping and special political missions. Prior to her appointment as Resident Coordinator in Tunisia she served as a Team Leader and the senior Peace and Development Advisor for the United Nations in Kenya.
From 2015 to 2019, she held several positions in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and Peace Operations (DPO) at UN headquarters, where she managed the Middle East/North Africa Regional Programme for Peacekeeping and Special Political Missions.
Ms. Taha served in UN missions in Lebanon (UNIFIL, UNSCOL) and Sudan (UNMIS and UNAMID), including as a Special Assistant and Advisor to successive representatives of the Secretary General from 2007 to 2015.
From 2003 to 2007, she served as the representative for Interpeace and the Programme Manager at the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Earlier in her career, she was a research fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Switzerland from 2001 to 2002.
She holds a master’s degree in International Relations and Public Policy from McMaster University and a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Jordan. Ms. Taha is married with one son.
source/content: unsdg.un.org / UN Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG) – (headline edited)
Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has been re-elected for a second term at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Al Mubarak is the first president from West Asia and the second woman to lead IUCN in its 77-year history.
Al Mubarak’s re-election was announced at the IUCN Members’ Assembly, following a four-year term marked by strengthened governance, renewed trust, and the elevation of nature within global climate and biodiversity agendas. A majority of IUCN’s more than 1,400 Member organisations, representing 160 countries, confirmed their confidence in Al Mubarak to continue leading the Union through this decisive decade for nature.
The world’s oldest and largest global environmental network, IUCN is a democratic membership union that harnesses the world’s most influential organisations and experts to conserve nature and accelerate a global transition to sustainable use of natural resources.
Composed of more than 19,000 conservation experts and 1,400 Member organisations, including States, government agencies, subnational goverments,NGOs, and Indigenous Peoples’ organisations, IUCN is considered the global authority on the state of the natural world and the actions needed to safeguard the planet.
Her re-election comes as IUCN launches a new four-year Programme of Work — the final one before the global biodiversity, climate, and land restoration targets are due in 2030. Under Al Mubarak’s leadership, the Union will work to deliver on its 20-year Vision, turning ambition into measurable outcomes and ensuring that IUCN continues to guide collective action for nature, climate, and people worldwide.
“Thanks to her passionate, innovative, and decisive leadership, the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund has become a global model, showing that small but focused interventions on the ground can make a big difference in saving species. We know that she will continue to bring this same sense of commitment, creativity, and collaboration to IUCN as it sets the global agenda for this crucial decade for conservation,” said Mohamed Al Bowardi, Deputy Chairman of the MBZ Fund.
Al Mubarak said of her re-election as President of IUCN, “I am truly honoured to have been re-elected President of the IUCN, especially at a moment when nature, climate, and people must be brought together in action. Over the past four years, I have witnessed the extraordinary strength of our Union — our Members, Commissions, and partners — working together across boundaries and disciplines. I remain profoundly grateful for the support of the UAE leadership and its institutions, whose belief in conservation has inspired my own. This new mandate is both a privilege and a responsibility — to continue turning ambition into action for nature and for humanity.”
Al Mubarak began her career in conservation in 2001 when she helped to establish Emirates Nature – WWF, an NGO associated with the World Wide Fund for Nature. At Emirates Nature – WWF, she spearheaded initiatives to protect the UAE’s coral, conducted research leading to the establishment of the country’s first mountain national park, and created the framework to protect nesting and migrating sea turtles.
In 2010, Al Mubarak became the youngest person to lead an Abu Dhabi government entity with her appointment as Secretary-General of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD), an organisation for which she now serves as Managing Director. In her role leading a government agency of over 1,000 employees, EAD was instrumental in the successful reintroductions of the Arabian Oryx in the UAE and the Scimitar-horned Oryx in Chad.
Al Mubarak has helped build the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZ Fund) into one of the world’s largest philanthropic endowments supporting direct species conservation. Since its inception in 2009, the Fund has supported more than 3,100 projects worldwide, contributing to the rediscovery, reintroduction, and protection of over 1,900 species. Under her leadership, it has evolved from a small grants programme into a platform advancing broader conservation initiatives that link biodiversity, sustainability, and human well-being.
In addition to her national roles, Al Mubarak serves as UAE Sherpa to the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, Co-Chair of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), and Nature Champion at the World Economic Forum. She also previously served as UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28 UAE, where she played a key role in elevating nature’s role in global climate action.
Al Mubarak holds an MSc in Public Understanding of Environmental Change from University College London (UCL) and a BA (Hons) in Environmental Studies and International Relations from Tufts University, USA. She also serves on the boards of Panthera, Re:wild, and the Tropical Forests Forever Facility.
US President Trump praises ‘new beautiful day’ as Gaza war comes to an end, but questions about the future remain.
Political leaders from around the world have convened in Egypt for a ceremony to sign a ceasefire deal in Gaza, led by United States President Donald Trump and mediating partners such as Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye.
Speaking in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, Trump envisioned a glimmering future for Gaza as a hub of development and investment, even as the Gaza Strip lies in ruins following Israel’s devastating, two-year assault.
“A new and beautiful day is rising and now the rebuilding begins,” said the US president, who praised regional leaders who helped broker a deal between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
“Rebuilding is maybe going to be the easiest part,” he added, stating that “we know how to build better than anybody in the world.”
The ceasefire deal has been greeted with a combination of relief and anxiety about the future in Gaza, where Israeli attacks killed at least 67,869 people, with thousands more likely buried beneath the rubble.
“We drove by entire neighbourhoods that have been levelled to the ground,” Mahmoud said. “There is nothing left. There is nothing recognisable about many of the neighbourhoods that we knew.”
Despite the toll of Israel’s military campaign, which left most of the Strip unlivable and has been described as a genocide by a growing number of scholars and rights groups, the US president has framed discussions of Gaza’s future around Israeli security demands.
“Gaza’s reconstruction also requires that it be demilitarised,” Trump said in his remarks.
But later on Monday, Trump and the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye released a joint statement emphasising equality between Israelis and Palestinians.
“We seek tolerance, dignity, and equal opportunity for every person, ensuring this region is a place where all can pursue their aspirations in peace, security, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, faith, or ethnicity,” the statement said.
Separately leaders from the region such as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi praised Trump at the summit, but warned that only the creation of a Palestinian state could offer a durable end to the conflict.
“Egypt reasserts along with its brotherly Arab and Muslim nations that peace remains our strategic choice, and that the experiences have shown over the past decades that this choice can only be established upon justice and equality in rights,” he said.
But progress towards that goal remains distant.
Israel has insisted that it will not allow the creation of a Palestinian state, and the US, which continued to assist Israel with massive arms transfers and diplomatic support during the conflict despite growing anger at the destruction of Gaza, has offered only vague comments about its vision of the Strip’s future.
The possible involvement of strongly pro-Israel figures, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, in the post-war governance of Gaza has also raised concerns.
“We’re seeing these global leaders gathering together, ensuring that they’re all aligned, that they want to end this conflict,” Zeidon Alkinani, a lecturer at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera.
“But how sustainable is the long-term future after this peace treaty? Are we ending all the issues that ended up accumulating to leading to the events of October 7 and everything that happened [after]? I think that’s the question we need to look at.”
Trump’s Gaza plan calls for a group of Palestinian policy experts to rule Gaza, but the local authorities would be supervised by a so-called “Board of Peace” headed by Trump and Blair.
“We need to look at the legitimacy of a political committee that would be governing a future Gaza,” Alkinani said. “Who would be making the decisions? Who would be nominating these people?”
source/content: aljazeera.com (headline edited) / News agencies and Brian Osgood
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US President Donald Trump speaks during a world leaders’ summit on ending the Gaza war in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025 [Yoan Valat/Pool via Reuters]
Originating in the Horn of Africa and first cultivated in the Arabian Peninsula, coffee has been providing the world with refreshment for at least 500 years.
While there is still disagreement about who first cultivated the coffee plant in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, it seems that this took place in around the mid-15th century CE. It is of course the berries of the coffee plant, a kind of shrub or small tree, that enclose the seed, and it is this — the coffee bean — that, once roasted, ground, and steeped in water, is used to make the now ubiquitous drink of coffee.
According to Arab tradition, Sufi groups in Yemen discovered that drinking coffee, in Arabic qahwa, could raise levels of alertness and stamina, useful when carrying out religious rituals that could go on into the early hours. Having made this discovery, they began to profit from it, and within a few years coffee had established itself as the refreshment of choice across the region.
Nobody drank coffee at the courts of the Umayyad or Abbasid Caliphs, and there is no coffee-drinking in the stories of the Thousand and One Nights, which are otherwise full of all manner of foodstuffs from every part of the then known world. However, by the middle of the 17th century coffee and the cafés in which it was drunk were a feature of most Middle Eastern societies, with visitors to the region eagerly sampling what is still often called “Turkish” coffee.
Prepared by boiling ground coffee in a little water and allowing the grounds to settle in the bottom of the cup before drinking, this method of preparing coffee is still used today in cafés across the Middle East region, often with plenty of sugar added to take the edge off what for coffee-drinkers used to other methods of preparation can be quite a strong brew.
They may be more used to filtered coffee, in which the water is either forced or dripped through the coffee grounds, producing an altogether thinner brew, or even instant coffee made from freeze-dried coffee reconstituted with hot water — the kind of thing doled out across the world in now ubiquitous coffee machines.
However, whatever form of coffee people choose to drink the world over, its origin is the same. The seeds or beans of the coffee plant, first grown in the Ethiopian highlands before making their way to Yemen and from there across the Arab world, are today at the heart of a multi-billion-dollar global business that is essential to providing a morning — or later — caffeine hit to millions worldwide.
Yet, while coffee originated in the Arab world, little is grown there today, and while some coffee may still be grown in Yemen — associated with the famous mocha variety of coffee named after the Yemeni port of Mukha — and Ethiopia, the plant itself long ago went global, with first Southeast Asia and Latin America, particularly Brazil, providing most of the world’s needs, along with, later, parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Even so, coffee is still an essential part of many Middle Eastern and Arab lifestyles. While tea with mint is perhaps a more standard offering in the Maghreb countries in the west of the Arab world, in the east and in Turkey the offer of a cup of usually Turkish coffee is still an essential preliminary to many social situations, with its absence being immediately felt.
Perhaps even more important than coffee are cafés, for centuries a fixture of Middle Eastern streets. These fulfil functions that show little sign of disappearing even as some, particularly younger, coffee customers may prefer more international forms of coffee to the traditional Turkish drink.
Even if they may in some cases prefer to drink filtered coffee to that made by the traditional method in the Arab world, they are still likely to spend time in cafés — which continue to provide the functions that they always have as places of social gathering, of work, possibly now on computer, and to mull over the day’s events, not necessarily now through reading newspapers, but through discussing the latest posts or tweets.
ORIGINS: So familiar do such places feel that perhaps few people ask themselves when they started to become a fixture of Egyptian and Arab streets. But, of course, Arab cafés like other institutions have a history, one that can tell us much about changing lifestyle habits across the region.
Living in Cairo for seven years in the middle of the 19th century following several earlier visits, the English orientalist Edward Lane was a regular customer in Egypt’s cafés. It was probably there that he recruited the informants who told him about the lifestyles of the city’s population, information that ended up in his famous book Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. It was probably there, too, that he did much of the research that went into his famous Arabic-English dictionary — a monumental achievement that he almost single-handedly managed to complete to the letter qaf, the 21st of the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet.
In his book, Lane repeats the accepted story that coffee, discovered by Sufi groups in Yemen, was imported into Egypt at the beginning of the 16th century, from where, “about half a century later”, it found its way to the capital of the then Ottoman Empire in Istanbul. “Formerly, it was generally prepared from the berries and husks” of the coffee plant, he says, but now “it is prepared from the berries alone, freshly roasted and pounded.”
“Cairo contains above a thousand ‘kahwehs,’ or coffee-shops,” Lane says, “generally speaking, a small apartment, whose front, which is towards the street, is of open wooden work in the form of arches. Along the front, excepting before the door, is a mastabah, or raised seat of stone or brick two or three feet in height and about the same in width, which is covered with matting, and there are similar seats in the interior on two or three sides. The coffee-shops are most frequented in the afternoon and evening… [and] coffee is served by the kahwegee (the attendant of the shop) at the price of five faddahs a cup.”
Unfortunately, Lane, usually so punctilious, does not tell us what a faddah was worth. At the time Manners and Customs was written in the mid-1830s, Egypt was transitioning from the Ottoman currency of piastres and paras to a new system, introduced by Mohamed Ali, of pounds, piastres, and paras. Presumably, since he says that the Cairo coffee-shops were mostly frequented by “the lower orders and tradesman”, the coffee was inexpensive.
Cairo’s cafés were not the only places where coffee was drunk. In an earlier chapter of his book on “Domestic Life”, Lane says that in the houses of the “higher and middle orders” of Egyptian society most people eat little or nothing for breakfast, aside from perhaps a fateerah, “a kind of pastry saturated with butter, made very thin, and folded over like a napkin,” or fuul medammes (fuul — bean stew), eaten “with oil or butter and generally a little lime-juice”. However, all of them drink at least one cup of coffee, “made very strong and without sugar or milk”.
“In preparing the coffee, the water is first made to boil; the coffee (freshly roasted and pounded) is then put in and stirred; after which the pot is again placed on the fire until the coffee begins to simmer, when it is taken off, and its contents are poured out into the cups while the surface is yet creamy. The Egyptians are excessively fond of pure and strong coffee thus prepared.”
Lane’s account, dating from the early decades of the 19th century, will be immediately familiar, with, for many people, little or nothing having changed. This is so even if his account, like those of other writers earlier and later, seems to imply that traditional café culture was for men only. There is no mention of women customers in Cairo’s coffee-shops.
Another aspect of traditional coffee culture that Lane does not mention is the habit, later made famous in films and songs, of telling fortunes from the coffee grounds that remain in a cup of Turkish coffee after it has been drunk. Perhaps this was more widespread in Turkish culture than Egyptian at the time that Lane wrote, though it is the 20th-century Egyptian singer Abdel-Halim Hafez in his song Qariat Al-Fingan (the fortune-teller), a rendition of a poem by Syrian writer Nizar Qabbani, who has made it most famous.
While the Arab traditions are united in saying that coffee originated among Sufi communities in Yemen, they can differ on the date at which it began to spread across the wider region. Nevertheless, the evidence suggests a date in the first quarter of the 16th century for the spread of coffee to Cairo and probably a little later to Damascus, Aleppo, and Istanbul, no doubt helped by the Ottoman conquest of Mameluke Egypt and Syria in 1517 CE.
It seems that at first the new drink was eagerly seized upon, with customers including merchants, students, and others, as well as some men of religion. According to one Western authority on the coffee culture of 16th-century Istanbul, the cafés set up for the consumption of coffee “attracted gentlemen of leisure, wits, and literary men seeking distraction and amusement, who spent the time over their coffee reading or playing chess or backgammon, while poets submitted their latest poems” to the approbation of their friends.
Unfortunately, this new style of sociability soon attracted the attention of the authorities, worried that cafés were places where “current politics were discussed [and] the government’s acts criticised and intrigues concocted.” Edicts were issued against the coffee-houses by the Ottoman Sultans Murad III and Ahmed I, but it was not until the reign of Murad IV (1623-1640) that they were finally banned, even if coffee could still be bought on a take-away basis as long as it was not consumed on the premises.
This situation apparently continued until into the 18th century, so much so that when no less a person than Antoine Galland, famous for his French translation of the Thousand and One Nights that introduced this mediaeval Arab story collection to the European public between 1704 and 1717, turned his attention to coffee in a treatise on the subject written in 1699, he reports that coffee in Istanbul can be bought and consumed as a take-away product but not drunk in a public café.
Galland’s book on coffee, De l’Origine et du progrès du café, has recently been republished in an illustrated edition by Orients Editions in Paris, and in it one reads that coffee, originally cultivated in Yemen, made its way first up through the Hejaz before crossing to Egypt and arriving in Cairo.
According to Galland, the then Mameluke Sultan Qansur Al-Ghuri took a comparatively relaxed attitude towards coffee-drinking, and it was only after the end of his reign — he was killed fighting against the Ottomans in 1517 — that coffee made its way to Istanbul.
CAFÉ CULTURE: The social aspect of café culture is of course still well-known today, even if generally it does not now attract official disapproval. Many people today will have a favourite café, somewhere to go to after work perhaps, to meet friends, or to work in a more relaxed ambiance than is to be found in a library or office.
Many towns and cities are also famous for their cafés, among them Paris, where it is said that the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote his novels and essays sitting in a café in the central district of St-Germain-des-Prés, or Vienna, where writers and artists are said to have rubbed shoulders with scientists and politicians in the city’s cafés during the final years of the Habsburg Empire before World War I.
Cairo, too, is famous for its cafés. Everyone will know the ancient Fishawi’s Café in Khan Al-Khalili in Islamic Cairo, its traditional ambiance drawing on its location in an ancient part of the city just a stone’s throw from the Al-Azhar Mosque. Then there are the cafés of Downtown Cairo, some of them set up by foreigners in the late 19th or early 20th centuries and drawing from the first a mixed or cosmopolitan clientele.
Such cafés include Groppi’s on Talaat Harb Square, Groppi’s Garden, originally on Adli Street, and Café Riche on Talaat Harb Street leading to Tahrir Square. Thanks to their fame and central position, there can be few accounts by visitors to Cairo in the first half of the last century at least that do not mention time spent in Groppi’s or Groppi’s Garden café. Café Riche, occupying the same premises since it was opened by originally Greek proprietors in the early 20th century, long served as a meeting place for many of Cairo’s writers and intellectuals, as can still be seen today in the photographs, many of them signed, that adorn its walls.
Writers in particular often thrive in cafés, and there can be few modern writers at least who have not either written parts of their works in cafés or used them as the settings for their works. Sartre certainly seems to have thrived on the mixture of sociability and anonymity that cafés provided, often to be seen writing his novels in a corner of the Café de Flore or Les Deux Magots in central Paris where he might be persuaded to open up to a group of friends.
Egypt’s writers and intellectuals have also been drawn to cafés in a similar way, with Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz being possibly the best-known example. While Mahfouz may not have written his works in Cairo’s cafés, he certainly used them as stopping-off points on his daily routine and as places in which to gather with his friends in the evenings for literary meetings.
There are many stories of Mahfouz, as regular as clockwork, stopping off at the Ali Baba café in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in the early morning to read the papers and drink a cup of coffee on his way to work, in his later years at Al-Ahram. His literary nadwa, a kind of discussion circle, would meet closer to home in the evenings, at first in Abbasiya and then in Giza.
Many of Mahfouz’s novels also use cafés as settings, whether traditional or modern depending on the characters described or the situations he was trying to create. Who can forget Kirsha’s café in Zuqaq Al-Midaq, for example, the centre of the social life of Midaq Alley in the old part of the city but a place that Hamida, one of main characters, is trying to escape? Who can forget, either, the cafés that begin to appear with increasing frequency in the Cairo Trilogy, notably as the families move out of the older districts of Cairo as the trilogy develops?
Coffee earlier had led to the economic development of Yemen, and, with it, large parts of the Middle East. That was not the motive of those who began to develop coffee-drinking as a sort of universal habit, practiced as much in the home as in the public location of the café, but slowly it began to change society in unplanned ways.
This seems to have been the case for Yemen, and then for other countries too, as a result of the swift development of the coffee trade beginning in the early 17th century. According to one Western authority, “as early as 1609, the ships of the English East India Company were sent to Mukha in Yemen to inquire about trading possibilities” in coffee. In 1616, Dutch traders “managed to obtain very favourable commercial terms from the [ruler of Yemen the] imam.”
By the 1660s, Yemeni coffee was being sold in London by the East India Company, and by the 1690s it was being imported on a regular basis to the rest of Europe by the Dutch.
This led to a transformation of the economy of the region, such that by 1690 some 298,816 pounds of coffee were being exported from Yemen through the Red Sea by the East India Company alone, worth the then astronomical sum of 9,821 pounds sterling. “One of the by-products of the coffee trade was a very large influx of precious metals, largely silver, into the Red Sea area, which enabled traders to import luxury goods from India and elsewhere.”
However, this unexpected windfall was not to last. “By the end of the 18th century, when a Turk or an Arab drank a cup of coffee both the coffee and the sugar had been grown in Central America and imported by French or English merchants.”
* A version of this article appears in print in the 24 April, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
Qatar and the United States have signed an agreement to establish a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho to host F-15 jets and pilots, strengthening bilateral defence cooperation and joint readiness.
The United States and Qatar have agreed to establish a new Qatari air force facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, aimed at strengthening bilateral defence cooperation and providing advanced training for Qatari pilots.
The agreement was signed today, 10 October, by Qatar’s Minister of Defence, Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
During a ceremony at the Pentagon, Secretary Hegseth highlighted the significance of the agreement, stating: “Today, we’re announcing a letter of acceptance in building a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.”
He explained that the facility would host a contingent of Qatari F-15 fighter jets and pilots, aiming to “enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability,” and described the initiative as “just another example of our partnership.”
The establishment of the facility also reflects Qatar’s pivotal role in recent diplomatic efforts. Secretary Hegseth acknowledged Qatar’s contribution to securing a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, noting, “You have been a core part of what has unfolded in Gaza, a historic moment.”
He expressed gratitude for Qatar’s ongoing support, particularly highlighting their assistance at Al Udeid Air Base, a key U.S. military installation in the region.
Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs, Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, hailed the “deep defence partnership” shared by both states.
“Our nation shares a deep defence partnership grounded in a mutual respect and a common vision for peace and stability in the Middle East. Qatar’s hosting of Al Udeid Air Base stands as a cornerstone of this alliance and a testament to our collective commitment to regional and global security,” he said.
“We further welcome the signing of the letter of acceptance establishing a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. This step strengthens interoperabilities, enhances joint readiness and advances our shared defence goals,” he added.
“Together we will continue to deepen this strategic partnership in pursuit of lasting peace and shared security.”
Mountain Home Air Force Base, located in southwestern Idaho, is already home to the 366th Fighter Wing, which operates F-15E Strike Eagles. The base also hosts the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s F-15SG fighter jets.
The addition of the Qatari contingent is expected to further enhance the base’s operational capabilities, providing a platform for joint training exercises and fostering closer ties between the U.S. and Qatari air forces.
The 33rd edition of the Arab Music Festival and Conference, running from 16 to 25 October, will explore the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and traditional Arab music. More than ever, this year’s festival stands as a vital laboratory for the future of Arabic sound.
While paying tribute to the legendary diva Um Kalthoum, the programme features 41 concerts with 83 Egyptian and Arab artists across Cairo, Alexandria and Damanhour. Yet the heart of the event lies in its symposiums, which will gather 40 researchers from 15 Arab and Western countries to debate how the Arab musical world can fully enter the age of algorithms.
Among the highlights is a major symposium titled Arabic Music Facing Digital Transformation: Horizons and Challenges, alongside other events examining the impact of AI tools on Arab music.
A century-long debate
The discussion around the role of Arab music and its categorization is not new to the region.
“The Arab Music Festival was founded by Ratiba Al-Hefny, and this year marks its 33rd edition. But conversations about Arab music began as early as the first half of the 20th century,” says Shereen Abdel-Latif, head of the festival’s scientific committee. She refers to the historic Congress of Arabic Music, held in Cairo in 1932 under the patronage of King Fouad I.
“This historic event, initiated by French ethnomusicologist Rodolphe d’Erlanger and attended by leading Eastern and Western composers and musicologists such as Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith, sought to codify the maqams (musical modes) and archive the region’s diverse traditions in the face of new technologies like the 78 rpm record and radio. These innovations threatened the essence of tarab — the art of improvisation (taqsim),” Abdel-Latif said.
“Today, AI has replaced the phonograph as both a source of hope and concern. While 1932 focused on recording heritage, AI aims to reproduce, analyze and reinterpret it,” she added.
She has also curated several key presentations exploring the challenges of archiving and digitisation that will be discussed during the festival.
Among them: The Representation of Egyptian Musical Memory in the Digital Era by Ihab Sabry (Egypt); The Need for Documentation and Digitisation of Singing in Yemen by Mohamed Sultan Al-Yousifi (Yemen); Technological Innovation in the Service of Archiving by Salim Al-Zoughbi (Palestine); Documentation Efforts of Tunisian Music and Their Prospects in the Digital Revolution Era by Noura El-Shelli (Tunisia); Documentary Visions Since the 1932 Congress: Egyptian Leadership in Scientific Documentation by Souhaila Abdel-Moati (Egypt); and New Possibilities for Arabic Music in the Digital Age by Jennifer Jolley (United States).
Paradoxes of algorithms
The symposiums will focus on four main themes: creation, education, archiving and the music industry. The scientific committee points to a central paradox in AI’s dual role.
On one hand, AI positions itself as a guardian of heritage. By accelerating production processes and analysing the subtleties of maqams through vast datasets, it can help compose new works that remain faithful to Arabic musical identity.
On the other hand, it poses an ethical and existential threat. Critics fear that Arabic music could lose its soul and emotional depth. The essence of tarab lies in improvisation and deeply felt interpretation, qualities that resist algorithmic reproduction.
Vocal cloning
A major debate is also expected over vocal cloning—or “deepfake” singing—where AI creates a synthetic version of a person’s voice.
“Vocal cloning raises the thorny issue of desecrating the myth of great Arab icons. It is crucial to assess AI’s positive and negative impacts,” says Abdel-Latif. “Examples such as the recreation of Um Kalthoum’s voice, or that of Abdallah Al-Rowaished (Kuwait)—whose voice was synthesized with his consent during illness—show that a recreated voice is never the original.”
“By infiltrating music production, distribution and consumption, AI risks stripping away the creative and human dimensions, along with artists’ intellectual property rights. The research presented at the festival seeks to protect our heritage from such distortions,” she explains.
The master-disciple bond under threat?
The symposiums will also examine Perspectives on Music Education in the Digital Age.
The key question is: how can modern tools—online learning platforms, software and so on—be integrated without eroding the traditional essence of Arabic music, which depends on a deep master–disciple relationship and acute auditory memory?
Educational institutions, says Nahla Mattar, professor of theory and composition at Helwan University’s Faculty of Music Education, are being urged to rethink their curricula and introduce adaptive learning methods.
But can this new partnership with AI preserve the authenticity, human creativity, and melodic genius that gave tarab its glory? Can it ensure continuity without distortion, or must Arabic music simply learn to “dance with AI”?
About the Arab Music Festival and Conference
The Arab Music Festival and Conference is Egypt’s largest annual event dedicated to Arabic music.
Across its 10 days, concerts will showcase Egyptian and Arab musicians, ensembles and orchestras on stages operated by the Cairo Opera House, including the Gomhoreya Theatre and the Arabic Music Institute, as well as the Sayed Darwish Theatre in Alexandria and the Damanhour Opera House.
Earlier this year, organizers announced that the 33rd edition will be dedicated to Um Kalthoum, in line with year-long celebrations marking 50 years since the death of the Star of the East.
_____ This article was originally published in Al-Ahram Hebdo (French) on 8 October 2025. Translation and additional edit: Ahram Online.
