Labib Habachi
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LABIB HABACHI – The Life and Legacy of an Egyptologist, published by the American University in Cairo Press, is a long overdue biography is of Egypt’s most perceptive and productive Egyptologist.  Here is a survey of Egyptian archaeology in the twentieth century in which Habachi’s work is measured against that of his best-known contemporaries, and here too is the full story of his major discovery on Elephantine in 1946 which was shelved by Egypt’s Antiquities Department for thirty years. When finally released for publication it became the subject of a heated controversy between Habachi and Gerhardt Haeny of the Swiss Institute of Archaeology in Cairo that was never resolved.

 

Kamil says, “An insight into the confrontations between scholars; details of what happened when the Antiquities Service was nationalized after the 1952 revolution; and Labib Habachi’s unhappy discord with the national institution during most of his career, could not have been understood except through his personal experiences….”

What scholars say:

“Labib Habachi was a major figure in mid-twentieth-century Egyptology and this biography provides a valuable perspective on the development of Egyptian Egyptology and an important chapter in the history of ideas and cultures”.  (Jason Thompson, author of the definitive biography of the Egyptologist Sir Gardner Wilkinson)

 

“Labib Habachi was a dear friend for over ten years and a respected colleague for nearly forty.  His role in helping to establish indigenous Egyptian Egyptology—and his impact on Egyptology generally—was formidable.  Labib was - and continues to be -  a role model for Egyptian Egyptology students, and this book deserves to be also published in Arabic.” (Kent R. Weeks, Professor Emeritus of Egyptology, The American University in Cairo and Director, The Theban Mapping Project)

 

 “Labib Habachi was an exceptional Egyptologist with unique knowledge of the historical topography of Egypt from Aswan to the Delta. He was the first to identify Avaris (the Hyksos capital) and Piramesse (the city of Ramses II), with the area of Qantir and Tell el-Dab’a”. (Rainer Stadelman, retired director of the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo).

 

“Labib Habachi had an encyclopaedic knowledge of ancient Egypt and was always generous with his time, helpful and good-humoured”. (Torgny Säve-Söderbergh, Department of Egyptology, Uppsala University, Sweden). 

 

AVAILABLE FROM:

 

Cairo:
The American University in Cairo Press
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Tel:+20 (0) 227-97-6895
e-mail:    aucpress@aucegypt.edu
Website: www.aucpress.com

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OR

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