Ariens 931016 S-12 User Manual download pdf (Page 24)

The Mamluk Sultana Shadjarat ad-Durr ruled Egypt one thousand years after the Ptolemaic

Queen Cleopatra. Between these two female rulers, pagan Egypt had become Christian

and then Islamic. Shadjarat ad-Durr reigned over Egypt during a critical period, during

which the country was under assault by King Louis IX of France. The beautiful and strong

Sultana suffered a painful end, clubbed to death with wooden shoes by her maids, her

corpse thrown from the heights of the Saladin Citadel in Cairo. Despite all this, the

memory of Shadjarat ad-Durr slowly faded, while Queen Cleopatra always remained

present in Egyptian popular culture. The image and the history of this female ruler have

become an indelible part of Egyptian collective memory, despite the many centuries that

have passed since her days.

Even today, the most famous hotels, the most elegant restaurants on the Nile and the

most popular cigarettes in Egypt are named for her. Cotton textiles and folkloric female

garments of the “Cleopatra” brand are on sale everywhere, and innumerable other articles

of clothing display the image of the Egyptian queen.

When I was a child, I often attended a cheap cinema with my mother, my siblings and

the neighborhood children – it was the only one there was in our modest neighborhood

in Cairo’s Eastern section. Usually, three movies were shown in succession, and the whole

thing only cost a few piasters. The neighborhood was called “Zeitun” and the cinema – of

course – “Cleopatra”. I still remember it as the place where I saw Hannibal and A Journey

to the Center of the Earth.

In the far Northwest of Egypt, near the Mediterranean Sea, lies the city of Marsa Matruh.

Outside the city, in the surf, lies a picturesque rock the Egyptians call “Cleopatra’s Rock”.

They believe that this is where Cleopatra used to bathe in the sea here, and anyone

traveling to Marsa Matruh today visits this rock and a beach nearby called “Love Beach”.

Even today, many Egyptians claim that Cleopatra used to meet her lover Marc Antony

there…

Gold Cleopatra jewelry is still very common in the Egyptian countryside. Peasant women

still wear “Cleopatra necklaces” modeled on Cleopatra’s famous one today, as well as

earrings depicting a profile of the queen posing as the Pharaonic goddess Isis. For their

weddings, my mother and most women of her generation were given bracelets

representing a pair of snakes whose heads were a diamond and a ruby. These valuable

golden snakes were the same jewelry which the legendary Cleopatra had worn on her

upper arm.

Cleopatra’s make-up is also still very popular – presumably, the make-up utensils even

go back to the Pharaonic Queen Hatshepsut. Kohl, which is made from burnt cotton

preserved in olive oil and stored in kohl pots made of silver or brass, decorated in the

traditional style, is still very popular all over Egypt. In addition, there is blue kohl, derived

from stone, which is used as eye-shadow. Even the designs of traditional garments make

reference to Cleopatra’s gowns in certain details.

Perhaps the constant presence of Cleopatra in Egyptian daily life also confirms the

Hellenistic element of Egypt’s national tradition – which many Egyptian intellectuals have

emphasized strongly, most of all Taha Hussein, Subhi Wahida and Hussein Fauzi, to name

just a few. During the past century, their efforts gave rise to a movement to revive the

Hellenistic spirit of Egypt, giving expression to an attitude that wished to emphasize the

Mediterranean identity of their country. Popular culture confirms this Mediterranean-

Hellenistic element through its recourse to Cleopatra, but does away with the thinkers’

Salwa Bakr ı Cleopatra – Long Gone, Still Present

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Ariens 931016 S-12 User Manual Page 24

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