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A Border Passage Allusions & Cultural References

When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.

Literary and Philosophical References

  • Ahmad Amin, Egyptian historian and writer (42, 45)
  • Roland Barthes (214)
  • Simone de Beauvoir (33)
  • Ludwig van Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata (153)
  • Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (143)
  • Albert Camus (33)
  • Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (17, 35 )
  • Jacques Derrida (214)
  • Charles Dickens (14)
  • Emily Dickinson, Letter to Mr. Higginson, April 15, 1862 ("The mind is so near itself...") (134)
  • Assia Djebar, Fantasia (134)
  • Frantz Fanon (33)
  • Michel Foucault (214)
  • Paulo Freire (33)
  • Zeinab al-Ghazali, Return of the Pharaoh (122)
  • Tewfik al-Hakim (252)
  • Thomas Hardy (13, 14)
  • George Herbert, "Teach Me, My God and King" (138)
  • Taha Husain (252)
  • Meiling Jin, "Strangers in a Hostile Landscape" (195-196, 235)
  • Oot el Kouloub, Ramza (99)
  • Edward William Lane (231, 241)
  • Naguib Mahfouz, Palace Walk (101, 252)
  • Harriet Martineau (193)
  • Somerset Maugham (14)
  • Barbara McClintock (35)
  • Albert Memmi (33)
  • Felix Mendelssohn, "Hear My Prayer/O for the wings of a dove" (153)
  • W.A. Mozart, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (153)
  • Jalaluddin Rumi (5, 130, 155, 306)
  • Edward Said (6, 33), Orientalism (240-242)
  • Jean Said (Makdisi) (6)
  • Jean-Paul Sartre (32)
  • Huda Shaarawi, Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist (93, 94, 96, 259)
  • Hanan al-Shaykh (252)
  • William Makepeace Thackeray (14)
  • Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (180, 192)
  • William Butler Yeats, "The Wheel" (155)

Historical References

  • King Abdullah I of Jordan (262)
  • El Alamein (156)
  • Arab-Israeli War of 1948 (9)
  • Arab-Israeli War of 1967 (Six-Day War or Third Arab-Israeli War) (238)
  • The Aswan High Dam (17)
  • The Balfour Declaration (249, 250)
  • Hasan al-Banna (261, 262)
  • Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer (38, 45)
  • British Occupation of Egypt (1882) (37)
  • Leon Castro (250)
  • Dinshwai (The Dinshwai Incident, 1906) (44)
  • Sir Anthony Eden (168, 171, 172, 190, 265)
  • Egyptian Revolution of 1952 (7, 139, 203, 205)
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower (response to Suez crisis) (168)
  • Mohamad Farid (248)
  • King Farouk (9, 43, 71, 261)
  • Hasan Fathy (34)
  • Bilalia Fula and Al-Hajj Omar ibn Said (296)
  • Hugh Gaitskell (170)
  • Mahatma Gandhi (6, 8, 71)
  • Talaat Harb (250)
  • Iran Hostage Crisis (1979) (293)
  • Iranian Islamic Revolution (289)
  • Mustapha Kamil (247)
  • Khedive Abbas II (248)
  • Khedive Ismael (Ismail Pasha) (35)
  • T.E. Lawrence (247, 249)
  • Mohammed Ali (Governor of Egypt, 1805) (36)
  • Salama Musa (Moussa) (45)
  • Muslim Brotherhood (7, 122, 261, 262)
  • Mahmoud al-Na'rashi (Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha), Egyptian prime minister (1945-1946; 1946-1948) who was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood (261, 262)
  • Gamal Abdel Nasser (9, 12, 17, 33, 149, 154, 164, 238-239, 269), Philosophy of the Revolution (269)
  • Nasser's speech nationalizing the Suez Canal (1956) (19)
  • Jawaharlal Nehru (6, 168)
  • Anthony Nutting (170, 171)
  • Enoch Powell (207, 224)
  • Port Said, invasion by British and French forces (168-173)
  • Anwar Sadat (9, 252)
  • Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid (251)
  • Doria Shafik (154)
  • Suez Crisis (1956) (32)
  • Sykes-Picot Agreement (248)
  • Ahmed Urabi (37)
  • Wafd Party (257)
  • Saad Zaghloul (251, 252, 258)

Pop Culture References

  • El-Arafa (City of the Dead)
  • Asmahan (24, 111)
  • Joseph Cicurel (Les Grands Magasins Cicurel) (250)
  • Cinema Roxy (142)
  • Taha Husain, Dua al-Karawan (The Curlew's Cry, movie adaptation) (163)
  • Khan El Khalili Market (177)
  • Um Kulsum (Umm Kulthum) (24, 177)
  • Naguib el-Rehani (142)