Many American scholars work in Cairo these days. For this reason, we pay more attention to Egyptian history-writing, to the situation of the archives as well as to newly discovered textual sources. I have compiled here a few notes along these lines.

Published in late 2004, Mashayna khatti-sirah dhatiyah [Going My Way], (Cairo: Dar al-Hilal, 336 pp.), is an unusual work by the well-known Egyptian historian Raouf Abbas, which sold several thousand copies in days and elicited a number of reviews. The wide interest in this autobiographical work doubtless lies in the controversial subjects it raises and the names it names.