Mustafa Obaid – författare

City and Identity in Modern Iraq examines the role of Baghdad in the process of shaping collective identity and analyzes how different visions of citizenship have changed the face of the city. Since the establishment of the modern state in 1921, the capital city was central to questions of belonging and the country’s social stability. Each phase of the city’s history offers insights into processes of identity and nation-building that can be found nowhere else.The book traces Baghdad’s evolution from being a “melting pot” for all Iraqis to becoming an epicenter of division after 2003. The focus is on the era following the American occupation and how the city regained its role in constructing inclusive visions of nationality in recent years. Due to the lack of suitable methodologies, the new concept of “cultural capacity” is developed and implemented here. It serves as a tool to analyze the city’s cultural heterogeneity, the accessibility of its spaces for social interaction and the visibility it offers to different forms of belonging on the micro, mezzo and macro levels. The spaces with the highest relevance for these processes are thoroughly documented to provide insights from the everyday perspective of life. Findings are used to anticipate Baghdad’s role, especially after the end of the last wave of ethnoconfessional violence and the Tahrir uprising in October 2019.The book will be useful for readers and institutions with an interest in Iraq, “the Middle East” or the Arabic-Islamic World. Furthermore, it aims to appeal to researchers and professionals from the disciplines of geography, architecture, urban studies, sociology, political sciences, history, heritage and cultural studies.

City and Identity in Modern Iraq examines the role of Baghdad in the process of shaping collective identity and analyzes how different visions of citizenship have changed the face of the city. Since the establishment of the modern state in 1921, the capital city was central to questions of belonging and the country's social stability. Each phase of the city's history offers insights into processes of identity and nation-building that can be found nowhere else.The book traces Baghdad's evolution from being a "e;melting pot"e; for all Iraqis to becoming an epicenter of division after 2003. The focus is on the era following the American occupation and how the city regained its role in constructing inclusive visions of nationality in recent years. Due to the lack of suitable methodologies, the new concept of "e;cultural capacity"e; is developed and implemented here. It serves as a tool to analyze the city's cultural heterogeneity, the accessibility of its spaces for social interaction and the visibility it offers to different forms of belonging on the micro, mezzo and macro levels. The spaces with the highest relevance for these processes are thoroughly documented to provide insights from the everyday perspective of life. Findings are used to anticipate Baghdad's role, especially after the end of the last wave of ethnoconfessional violence and the Tahrir uprising in October 2019.The book will be useful for readers and institutions with an interest in Iraq, "e;the Middle East"e; or the Arabic-Islamic World. Furthermore, it aims to appeal to researchers and professionals from the disciplines of geography, architecture, urban studies, sociology, political sciences, history, heritage and cultural studies.

City and Identity in Modern Iraq examines the role of Baghdad in the process of shaping collective identity and analyzes how different visions of citizenship have changed the face of the city. Since the establishment of the modern state in 1921, the capital city was central to questions of belonging and the country's social stability. Each phase of the city's history offers insights into processes of identity and nation-building that can be found nowhere else.The book traces Baghdad's evolution from being a "e;melting pot"e; for all Iraqis to becoming an epicenter of division after 2003. The focus is on the era following the American occupation and how the city regained its role in constructing inclusive visions of nationality in recent years. Due to the lack of suitable methodologies, the new concept of "e;cultural capacity"e; is developed and implemented here. It serves as a tool to analyze the city's cultural heterogeneity, the accessibility of its spaces for social interaction and the visibility it offers to different forms of belonging on the micro, mezzo and macro levels. The spaces with the highest relevance for these processes are thoroughly documented to provide insights from the everyday perspective of life. Findings are used to anticipate Baghdad's role, especially after the end of the last wave of ethnoconfessional violence and the Tahrir uprising in October 2019.The book will be useful for readers and institutions with an interest in Iraq, "e;the Middle East"e; or the Arabic-Islamic World. Furthermore, it aims to appeal to researchers and professionals from the disciplines of geography, architecture, urban studies, sociology, political sciences, history, heritage and cultural studies.

This book digs into past events, proposing readings and assumptions that contribute to presenting another narrative of modern Egyptian history, by raising questions that may represent a new clash with official history, as the writer wonders - according to many data - about the national legend of Mustafa Kamel, which is laden with exaggerations to paint a picture. Untrue for an exceptional leader, and presents the other side of the veteran politician Ismail Pasha Sidqi, which is opposite to the prevailing image in historical writings, as well as raising the forbidden question about what Muhammad Naguib was supposed to be like if he had continued in power as president of Egypt, using his opinions, speeches, and statements that predict a dictator. He didn''t take his chance! The book also presents a new discovery about the woman who turned Sayyid Qutb''s life around, and transformed him from a gentle writer and critic into a hard-line Takfiri thinker. The book also adds for the first time new defendants in the crime of assassinating the late President Mohamed Anwar Sadat, who were not included in the indictment, perhaps because people loved them. Or their great admiration for them!

This is a fair research that rereads history in a conscious manner to restore respect to the greats who passed through Egypt through the lives of seven industry pioneers who established great industries whose echoes still exist. In this book, you will learn the story of the Belgian Henri Noss, who founded the Federation of Egyptian Industries, the journey of Samuel Sornaga, the pioneer of the brick industry, the story of Ernest Tremblay, the godfather of the cement industry, what the Swiss Linus Gasch did to develop the textile industry, the biography of the Greek Theocharus Kotsika, the Emperor of Esperto, as well as Joseph''s fingerprints. Matossian on the cigarette industry, and what the Comte de Zaghib had done in the jam industry. It is an unusual work by a serious researcher, with attractive and interesting language that corrects a wrong impression that imagines every foreigner as exploited.Ibrahim IssaThis book represents a turning point and a review of the role of foreigners in the industry and makes them essential pillars in this transformation. Indeed, the book makes the biography of these pioneers a part of the history of Egypt and not a part of the history of their country. This is undoubtedly a correct approach. Indeed, they are more important than being seen as foreign investors. They are transient, but they are an integral part of Egyptian cosmopolitan society.

The English writer Thomas Carlyle says: "History is the biographies of great men," and this book traces the biography and path of one of the most important Egyptian families, the Muhyiddin family in Kafr Shukr. This family interacted with major incidents in modern history, and its influence extended to all aspects, and it presented, across several generations, outstanding people who played great roles in building Egypt''s major institutions and contributed positively to remarkable transformations. Since the history of the founding grandfather, who presented a unique experience in social ascension and political influence, passing through distinguished politicians and representatives, then the generation of the July Revolution and its most important symbols, Zakaria Mohieddin and Khaled Mohieddin, then the veteran politician Fouad Mohieddin, all the way to the international economist Mahmoud Mohieddin; The imprints of this family remained clear on all civil state institutions, which is what this book attempts to read in a new narrative that explores the forgotten and marginalized in Egyptian history.

On the form of life in Egypt and the features of the country in the period from the last French campaign, through a period of referee, Muhammad Ali and the rise of the rule and even the plague that afflicted the country in 1835. Through the life of a family from the grandfather to the son and grandchildren. The grandfather who was a participant of the resistance against the French campaign. The participation of the protagonist in the Wahhabi war, and his suffering during it, and his suffering from the plague disease that swept the country and the people years after his return, the end of the death of his younger daughter in the last novel, through the measures that the state took to control the situation. The country and the general public are from the circumstances of the country in those periods ... and their way of life ... and the oppression that they passed through among their joys and sorrows

Among the books of the past are tales and news that did not give adequate care from the historians of the ages, great events that were neglected, legendary characters, Tawart, stories and situations that have been withheld; Under the focus on authoritarian history. Sonistians and strangers, good and deadly, patriots and traitors, leaders and hypocrites, lower and pure; They passed through Egypt, and they had a history that was not written, and tales that did not see, until ignorance prevailed and faded prevailed that turned many facts, changed many people from criminals into heroes, and transformed many of the bad guys into good guys, and vice versa. This book is a humble attempt to read the history of Egypt, society, not power, their general attempt, not the elite, the ordinary people, not the distinguished group, the governed, not the judges and their enthusiasts, an attempt to put forward unless it is presented, and the engagement, riotation and discussion of important margins of events, read their sins, and revealing their hidden ones.