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Belly-dance
Belly dance (Egyptian Arabic: رقص بلدي, translated: Dance of the Country/Folk Dance, romanized: Raks/Raas Baladi) is a dance that originates in Egypt. It features movements of the hips and torso. It has evolved to take many different forms depending on the country and region, both in costume and dance style; with the Egyptian styles and costumes being the most recognized worldwide due to Egyptian cinema. The Egyptian style with its traditional Egyptian rhymes is popular worldwide with many schools around the globe now practicing it. Names and terminology "Belly dance" is a translation of the French term ''danse du ventre''. The name first appeared in 1864 in a review of the Orientalist painting ''The Dance of the Almeh'' by Jean-Léon Gérôme. The first known use of the term "belly dance" in English is in reference to the Middle Eastern dancers who performed at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1893. The informal, social form of the dance is known as ''Raq ...
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Ghawazi
Ghawazi (also ''ghawazee'') ( arz, الغوازي) are female dancers who dance in return for money; the male equivalent is khawal. While the performative and traditional ''raqs sharqi'' in urban Egypt was more classical and influenced by more formal and classical Western styles such as classical ballet or Latin American dance, the term ''ghawazi'' in Egypt refers to the dancers in rural Egypt who have preserved the traditional 18th- to 19th-century styles. The practice began as a few Egyptian Domari refused to dance for free, unlike the custom among all Egypt. Rural Egyptians or ''Fellahin'' adopted the practice, developing a more rural and traditional style accompanied by rural Egyptian songs and the colorful dresses of the ''Fellahin'', becoming a theme of rural Egypt. Over the years, Upper Egyptians (''Sa'idis'') mastered and then developed a different style of traditional Saidi dancing that is accompanied by the Egyptian '' mizmar'' and Qena and Assuit's traditional fe ...
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Samia Gamal
Samia Gamal ( ar, سامية جمال, born as Zaynab Khalil Ibrahim Mahfuz, 5 March 1924 – 1 December 1994) was an Egyptian belly dancer and film actress. Biography Born in the small Egyptian town of Wana in March 1924, Samia's family moved just months later to Cairo and settled near the Khan El-Khalili bazaar. It was many years later that Samia Gamal met Badia Masabni, the owner of a big Cairo nightclub back then. Badia offered Samia an invitation to join her dance company, which Samia accepted. Badia Masabni gave her the stage name Samia Gamal, and she began her dance career. At first, she studied under Badia and Badia's star dancer at the time, Tahiya Karioka. However she soon became a respected soloist and brought forth her own style. Samia Gamal incorporated techniques from ballet and Latin dance into her solo performances. She was also the first to perform with high-heeled shoes on stage. She starred in dozens of Egyptian films next to the famous Farid Al Attrach. Th ...
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Arabic Music
Arabic music or Arab music ( ar, الموسيقى العربية, al-mūsīqā al-ʿArabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also many linguistic dialects, with each country and region having their own traditional music. Arabic music has a long history of interaction with many other regional musical styles and genres. It represents the music of all the peoples that make up the Arab world today, all the 22 states. History Pre-Islamic period (Arabian Peninsula) Pre-Islamic Arabia was the cradle of many intellectual achievements, including music, musical theory and the development of musical instruments. In Yemen, the main center of pre-Islamic Arab sciences, literature and arts, musicians benefited from the patronage of the Kings of Sabaʾ who encouraged the development of music.
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Arab Diaspora
Arab diaspora (also known as MENA diaspora, as a short version for the Middle East and North Africa diaspora) refers to descendants of the Arab people, Arab Emigration, emigrants who, voluntarily or as refugees, emigrated from their native lands to non-Arab countries, primarily in Central America, South America, Europe, North America, and parts of Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and West Africa. In a more specific view, emigrants from Arab countries, such as Sudan or the Palestinian territories, also make up important national groups of their countries' diaspora in other Arab states, such as the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Gulf states or Saudi Arabia. Overview Arab expatriates contribute to the circulation of financial and human capital in the region and thus significantly promote regional development. In 2009 Arab countries received a total of US$35.1 billion in remittance in-flows and remittances sent to Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon from other Arab countries are 40 to 190 per ...
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Arabic Culture
Arab culture is the culture of the Arabs, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast. The various religions the Arabs have adopted throughout their history and the various empires and kingdoms that have ruled and took lead of the Arabian civilization have contributed to the ethnogenesis and formation of modern Arab culture.Language, literature, gastronomy, art, architecture, music, spirituality, philosophy and mysticism are all part of the cultural heritage of the Arabs. The Arab world is sometimes divided into separate regions depending on different cultures, dialects and traditions including: • The Levant: Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan. • Egypt • Mesopotamia (Iraq). • The Arabian Peninsula: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. • Sudan • The Maghreb: Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco ...
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Egyptian Culture
The culture of Egypt has thousands of years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations in the world. For millennia, Egypt developed strikingly unique, complex and stable cultures that influenced other cultures of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Languages Arabic language, Arabic is currently Egypt's official language. It came to Egypt in the 7th century, and it is the formal and official language of the state which is used by the government and newspapers. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Arabic dialect or ''Masri'' is the official spoken language of the people. Of the many varieties of Arabic, the Egyptian dialect is the most widely spoken and the most understood, due to the great influence of Egyptian cinema and the Egyptian media throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Today many foreign students tend to learn it throughout Egyptian music, Egyptian songs and movies, and the dialect is usually labelled by the general public as one of the easiest and faste ...
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Culture Of The Ottoman Empire
Ottomans culture evolved over several centuries as the ruling administration of the Turks absorbed, adapted and modified the various native cultures of conquered lands and their peoples. There was influence from the customs and languages of Islamic societies, while Persian culture had a significant contribution through the Seljuq Turks, the Ottomans' predecessors. Despite newer added amalgamations, the Ottoman dynasty, like their predecessors in the Sultanate of Rum and the Seljuk Empire were influenced by Persian culture, language, habits and customs. Throughout its history, the Ottoman Empire had substantial subject populations of Orthodox subjects, Armenians, Jews and Assyrians, who were allowed a certain amount of autonomy under the ''millet'' system of Ottoman government, and whose distinctive cultures were adopted and adapted by the Ottoman state. As the Ottoman Empire expanded it assimilated the culture of numerous regions under its rule and beyond, being particularly i ...
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Almah (Egyptian Dancer)
Almah or Almeh ( arz, عالمة ' , plural ' , from Arabic: ' "to know, be learned") was the name of a class of courtesans or female entertainers in Egypt, women educated to sing and recite classical poetry and to discourse wittily, connected to the ''qayna'' slave singers. They were educated girls of good social standing, trained in dancing, singing and poetry, present at festivals and entertainments, and hired as mourners at funerals. The Awalim were first introduced as singers, not dancers-cum-prostitutes, according to Edward William Lane's book, ''Manner and Costumes of modern Egyptians''. Lane additionally wrote that the Almah didn't display herself at all, but sang from behind a screen or from another room at weddings and other respectable festivities. Consequently, the Awalem were not subject to exile in Upper Egypt. In the 19th century, ''almeh'' came to be used as a synonym to all the erotic local dancers who usually came from very poor backgrounds and sometimes con ...
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Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realism strives for formal perfection, so the presentation of reality tends to be neutral, emphasizing the values and importance of style as an objective method of presenting reality". He is known especially for his debut novel ''Madame Bovary'' (1857), his ''Correspondence'', and his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert. Life Early life and education Flaubert was born in Rouen, in the Seine-Maritime department of Upper Normandy, in northern France. He was the second son of Anne Justine Caroline (née Fleuriot; 1793–1872) and Achille-Cléophas Flaubert (1784–1846), director and senior surgeon of the major hospital in Rouen. He began writi ...
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Edward William Lane
Edward William Lane (17 September 1801 – 10 August 1876) was a British orientalist, translator and lexicographer. He is known for his ''Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians'' and the '' Arabic-English Lexicon,'' as well as his translations of ''One Thousand and One Nights'' and ''Selections from the Kur-án''. During his lifetime, Lane also wrote a detailed account of Egypt and the country's ancient sites, but the book, titled ''Description of Egypt,'' was published posthumously. It was first published by the American University in Cairo Press in 2000 and has been republished several times since then. Early years Lane was born at Hereford, England, the third son of the Rev. Dr Theopilus Lane, and grand-nephew of Thomas Gainsborough on his mother's side. After his father's death in 1814, Lane was sent to grammar school at Bath and then Hereford, where he showed a talent for mathematics. He visited Cambridge, but did not enrol in any of its colleges. Instead, Lane joi ...
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Castanets
Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument (idiophone), used in Spanish, Kalo, Moorish, Ottoman, Italian, Sephardic, Swiss, and Portuguese music. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome there was a similar instrument called the crotalum. The instrument consists of a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by a string. They are held in the hand and used to produce clicks for rhythmic accents or a ripping or rattling sound consisting of a rapid series of clicks. They are traditionally made of hardwood (chestnut; Spanish: castaño), although fibreglass has become increasingly popular. In practice, a player usually uses two pairs of castanets. One pair is held in each hand, with the string hooked over the thumb and the castanets resting on the palm with the fingers bent over to support the other side. Each pair will make a sound of a slightly different pitch. The origins of the instrument are not known. The practice of clicking hand-held sti ...
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