Reddit mentions: The best egyptian history books

> 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.

It goes without saying, but you shouldn't overlook the Jewish roots of Jesus. Too many want to skip right to the juicy bits, when in reality, this Jesus guy wasn't wholly original even in a Jewish context (nevermind how the gospels portray him).

That mentioned, no scholar can conclusively state that the authors of the New Testament borrowed from any particular mythology, and part of the reason for that is that some myths, such as dying and rising gods, are plentiful in the ancient world. (On dying and rising gods, check out Baal, Dionysus, Ra, Persephone, Osiris, Ishtar, Baldr, Quetzalcoatl, and Adonis. See The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors: Christianity Before Christ for more on this topic as it links to Christianity.) The cult of Mithras was a very popular Persian religion that spread through Roman legionnaires, which Manfred Clauss details well (IMO) in his book. I also enjoyed Glenn Holland's Gods in the Desert as a beginning overview of various Near Eastern mythologies. I can't say it's a good ending point for scholarship, but for an introduction it does the job well enough. John Allegro is a controversial writer, but I think he has some good arguments worth hearing, at least.

I've seen it argued (I believe by Dennis MacDonald in "Homeric Epic and the Gospel of Mark," but I may be mixing that up with a scholarly article - sorry, it's been years ago that I read this argument) that the heroic descent into the underworld is a literary map for Jesus's journey across the Sea of Galilee and back again (Mark 5), where his destination is an earthly allegory for Hades. Obviously The Odyssey is the best known example of this journey, but it exists in Gilgamesh too, and many other narratives. Sisyphus is one of my favorites, though that's Greek too, as is the Herakles example.

The virgin birth myth is almost certainly borrowed from elsewhere because Paul, his earliest authentic writings likely from before 70 AD because he doesn't mention the destruction of the Temple, also doesn't mention the virgin birth when discussing Jesus. It doesn't help that the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke have different accounts too. The number of virgin births in the ancient world is exhaustive. I can't tell you just one or two to look at, but Dionysus is usually a good place to start (he doesn't have a virgin birth, but he is born prematurely, so Zeus lets him finish developing in his own body before he is "born again," this time "perfect").

If you have a question about a particular story, that would be helpful in showing you similar stories from the ancient world. I hesitate to say that I can show you its roots, as that can be difficult to show, but I will tell you the borrowed/ coopted tale that sucked me into the history of thought. I'll take you down the same intellectual path that I went down before discovering that I hadn't discovered anything novel. This is long, but please bear with me. I think the journey is worth it.

If you look in the synoptics ( Matthew, Mark, Luke ), there's a story about the Sadducees telling Jesus of a woman whose husband died without children. According to Mosaic law, she marries the brother, who dies without children, and she goes through seven brothers like this. They ask, "At the resurrection, to whom is she married?" Jesus answers, "Don't you know the scriptures? She will be like the angels in heaven and there will be no marriage." I ask you, and see if you can answer this before moving on to my next paragraph, to which scriptures is Jesus referring?

It isn't in the OT. The nearest source material we have that Jesus could be referring to is the Book of Enoch, which tells of the second fall of the angels. It isn't important if he quoted from Enoch so much as believed in the Enochian tradition. Basically, Satan and some angels come to Earth to copulate with human women, and then they get buddy-buddy with the men and teach them "every kind of evil," such as astronomy and mathematics and how to make a mule. Yahweh vows to destroy the angels and their offspring, but Enoch intercedes and Satan pleads that the souls of his children be left on the Earth in order to help him "tempt this evil generation." Yahweh allows this but destroys them bodily in a great flood. This sounds awfully familiar, though, so flip over to Genesis 6. "The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward." Which days? The days leading up to the flood. How were the Nephilim on the earth afterward unless they 1) were on the boat or 2) lived on spiritually? We know Noah's family is never associated with the Nephilim, and for good reason: Noah's bloodline was pure. That only leaves a spiritual continuation, as spirits who wander the earth. "The sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful." Who are the sons of God? If you consult a Protestant commentary, they'll tell you the sons of Seth, but this doesn't really ring true. The Hebrew is beney elohim, the same words used in Job 1-2 for the angels in heaven. So we can fairly state that the "sons of God" must be demigods (elohim, I should note, is a plural, so "sons of gods" is a better translation - in fact, if you check out Genesis 1, you'll find the elohim are the creators, not a single deity, but several/ many, and the elohim show up again at Babel). Well this is all well and good, Jesus referencing a tradition and it possibly being mixed into our flood narrative. What else do we have?

Jude quotes directly from the Book of Enoch 1:9. He also references their destruction. "Just as the angels did." Goosebumps, friend. That gives a new light to go back and look at the Sodom story, but that's for another day. Suffice to say, this Enochian tradition is pervasive in the Christian scriptures, suggesting the authors may have believed in it strongly.

Another group that believed in and preserved the Book of Enoch text were the community living in Qumran. Yep, the Dead Sea Scrolls. The most interesting one of the bunch is The Book of the Giants, which appears on various fragments. There are bits that reference Enoch in here, placing the story before the Flood, but the most interesting name of all is a giant named Gilgamesh. Yes, that Babylonian one-third-divine man with a were-bear as a best friend. There's no Enkidu in the Book of the Giants, but there is a very hairy fellow that Gilgamesh seems to be friendly with. This, in my opinion, ties the Enochian tradition that Jesus references with Babylonian mythology, a position that has been argued for decades by better scholars that me.

I hope this helps get you started while you wait for other historians to answer.

I really loved 5 books we read, so I’ll just mention them all and you can pick if any sound good.

First was Amina Wadud’s Quran and Woman . It’s basically exegesis on the Quran from a female perspective. It challenges a lot of what is presented as evidence that Islam is inherently sexist using textual support. It’s a controversial book, but it’s worth reading for sure. Wadud is brilliant and the perspective definitely gave me some food for thought.

We also read So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba. It’s fictional, but still extremely insightful. It’s essentially a narrative told through letters that discusses polygyny in Senegal. It is a critique of the affects of the Islamic tenet of taking multiple wives, but one from an actual Muslim perspective. It’s fair and from a place of understanding. This is also just one of the best pieces of 20c African literature in general. I love reading outside of the canon.

Next is Sex and the Citadel by Shereen El Feki. This is about sex and sexuality, primarily in urban Egypt. It was extremely readable and gave absolutely fascinating insight on a taboo topic. It’s shocking how much El Feki was able to get women to reveal.

Engaged Surrender by Carolyn Moxley Rouse focuses on African American Muslim women. Once again, we’re getting their stories on their terms. It helps to shed light on why they convert, how Islam affects their lives, and what their religion means to them. As an American, I found this really fascinating. There was a lot of valuable commentary on America within the book.

Finally, I’m gonna bring up a book that deals with men. Farha Ghannam’s Live and Die Like a Man covers the construction of masculinity in Egypt, specifically Cairo, from birth through death. Each chapter essentially tells the story of 1 or 2 men and their experiences. This book was a really important complement to the rest of the course, as it mainly focused on women. Reading an ethnography on men was a shockingly unique experience.


The last 3 I mentioned are ethnographies that I feel are extremely well-done. All of the writers were extremely fair in their analysis. There’s not really explicit praise or criticism of Islam, but just discussion of how it manifests and affects the life of Muslims. Or how Muslims navigate being Muslim in their day-to-day lives. Two of the authors are Muslims themselves and the other discusses how she considered conversion in the book.

I didn’t really leave the class with a different opinion on Islam, as I was never anti-Islam or anti-religion despite being non-religious. I just now have a much more nuanced opinion and ideally a better understanding. As it was a woman’s studies/anthropology course, we were just focused on understanding the lives of Muslims on their terms. Obviously discussion of how we felt about these things and how we can navigate morality across cultures came up, but my professor was wonderful and we primarily focused on understanding, even when we didn’t necessarily agree.

I think if you read literally any of these books, you’ll be left feeling similarly to how I do. They’re all wonderful. Hopefully this was helpful and sorry it was so long! I could talk for hours about this class.

(Also none of these actually discuss Iran even though that’s what I initially brought up. We mainly covered that through lecture)

Not OP, but I asked the same question years ago and I compiled this list:

​

1. This is the best book on the subject that I've read. It is as fair to both sides as one can be. In fact, I came away with a better understanding of how and why the Palestinians feel the way that they do after reading the book.
   
   ​
   
   
2. The Arab Spring. This is a great journey through all of the countries affected by The Arab Spring. It helps understand where we are now.
   
   ​
   
   
3. The Prize. Technically, it is the history of the oil industry. As you should expect, it covers a lot of ME history, too.
   
   ​
   
   
4. Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS This book helps you understand how radical ISIS really is compared to AQ.
   
   ​
   
   
5. Michael Oren has two good books: Six Days of War and Power, Faith, and Fantasy. Despite Oren's affiliation with Israel, his books are fair and interesting reads.
   
   ​
   
   A book on the fall of the Ottoman Empire is another good place to start. I have not read this one yet. I've heard that it is a good read.
   
   ​
   
   ​

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.

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 books, the books... first off, name the books.

Since you ask....

• The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times - a reference for scholars, tons of research and first hand documentation.
  
• Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries - an analysis of the legal status of properties confiscated and repurposed by various countries and how they line up with international agreements, from Columbia University.
  
• Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands - maps, docs, etc around Muslim and Arab government cooperation during this time, as well as interviews with Muslims that provided shelter to local Jews at times.
  
• Jews of Arab Lands - another scholarly book full of resources, best used for research.
  
• Memories of Absence: How Muslims Remember Jews in Morocco - written by a Muslim scholar, history of expulsion and interviews about how perception of Jews changed over generations.
  
  
  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.
  

Excellent Post. You want to read the Strong Horse. The author reaches an interesting conclusion as why the Middle east is the way it is.

This is a tricky thing in terms of online sources, since the form sort of lends itself to pointing towards contemporary issues, rather than strict historicism. I'll recommend a few books that I think directly address some of the issues you're interested in below. What I might actually suggest is digging around for primary sources on the internet for this issue. One kind of nice side effect of the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict is that pretty much all of the major primary documents have been reproduced online! And many of the non-English ones have been translated into English! I suggest taking some time to actually read the Balfour Declaration, the Sykes-Picot agreement, UN Res. 242, the Hamas Charter, the Israeli Constitution, the Oslo Accords, etc., etc..

Additionally, if you want even deeper primary source info, you can get that too. The US National Archives has made public and digital thousands of primary documents related to this subject on it's website. A simple search for Israel, as an example, returns over 1,700 documents that are in the Online Public Holdings. Similar searches at the British Public Records Office can be done as well.

Some recommended reading:
Israel Gershoni, Confronting Fascism in Egypt

Eugene Rogan and Avi Shlaim, The War for Palestine, 1948

Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity

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.

Translated by u/Zorikinu (part of the Skeleton warriors group); special thanks for an advance access (Though by now the chapter may be on Mangadex already)

Many things going on, Refit Ayanami making an appearance (due to the LNY skin), a few small shots of Nimi in that dress, and swimsuit Middy playing cutely with a cat.

Twitter commentary is people talking about other skipping out and their reasons (I think one is U-47)

Next comic: Oct 4 (next friday) Japan timing

Danbooru link w/twitter commentary translated

Hori's danbooru profile w/ links

Original Tweet

Mangadex gallery of the manga (with book bonuses)

Physical book sold here, Here too

Previous comic had translated commentary added.

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

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: 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, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

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.

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.

• https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/188597227X/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1467504778&sr=1-3&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=Don+Webb&dpPl=1&dpID=51WiKFwVruL&ref=plSrch
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1885972075/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1467504778&sr=1-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=Don+Webb&dpPl=1&dpID=51i4ILgBltL&ref=plSrch
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004FGMZAI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Tradition-Ancient-Egypt-Esoteric/dp/1567181295
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Michael-A.-Aquino/e/B01GEWRIMU
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OFQ3QOW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CUU5F26/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Seth-God-Confusion-Egyptian-Mythology/dp/9004054022
  
  
• http://www.pyramidtextsonline.com/translation.html

You are perfectly right. According to Saudi Arabia.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-vows-to-back-egypts-rulers.html

You are perfectly wrong. According to :

• Human Rights Watch
  
• Amnesty International
  
• Al Jazeera
  
• The Times of Israel
  
• Haaretz
  
• Der Spiegel
  
• Le Monde
  
• Former Egyptian Officiers and Egyptian Government Officials
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Coups-Revolutions-Mobilization-Egyptian-Military/dp/0190071451
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_2013_Rabaa_massacre

I haven’t read it, so I can’t speak to it’s quality, but I listened to an interview recently with the authors of this book, which may be of interest: https://www.amazon.com/Soviet-Israeli-War-1967-1973-Intervention-Egyptian-Israeli/dp/0190693487

> I must say I can understand how he must have felt, although I do not agree with his feelings.

My feelings as well. I bought "Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism" and his experiences in the West (early chapters) seem universal to any intellectual who feels isolation and alieness among "happy, healthy, busy" people.

As the other poster wrote - it doesn’t seem that there are a lot of books written on modern Egypt. There are many on the Middle East with some chapters about Egypt, Then, there are books dedicated to a specific event like the revolution of 1952, the Suez war in 1956, etc.

Anyway, here are some books specifically about modern Egypt:

Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to the Muslim Brotherhood, Revised and Updated https://www.amazon.com/dp/0300198698/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_OGO9Ab3TRKCEK

The History of Modern Egypt: From Muhammad Ali to Mubarak ([Asia Africa series of modern histories]) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0801823404/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_OVO9AbRK6RW6J

Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash That Shaped the Middle East https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691167885/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_03O9AbGY8P10X

In the benefit of the history sub, I suggest that you post a couple of questions about modern Egypt.

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!

History books and books on the subject matter like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Rule-Law-Arab-World-Cambridge/dp/0521590264 or this one https://amzn.com/0791418782

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

UK Link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01CXCHEKG

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...

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

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?