Word: arabism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Other Arabs have grudgingly acknowledged Egypt's leadership. They send their sons to learn in Cairo, the great teaching center of the Middle East. Al Azhar, founded in the 10th century, is older than Oxford, Cambridge or the Sorbonne; Cairo University, with 95,000 students, is not only the biggest university in the Middle East but one of the largest in the world. Cairo's four universities, indeed, turn out more graduates than the impoverished Egyptian economy can absorb, and more than 1 million of them now work, often in key positions, in other Arab countries. The remittances they send...
...Although Arab by definition, Egyptians are still Egyptian first?by emotion and inclination. Their history has made them proud, and they are galled to have to wait, like the beggars on their own streets, for handouts from desert oil sheiks or American capitalists. Sadat's peace initiative was hugely popular with his own people, who have grown increasingly resentful that they have fought Israel in four wars with blood while other Arabs have fought only with words or money. "Given a choice between our feelings for Egypt and our feelings for the Arab world, Egypt will win every time," says...
...interest in peace, Sadat reopened the Suez Canal, which had been blocked since 1967. It is once again one of the country's biggest money earners, bringing in $500 million a year. Sadat also decreed a massive development scheme, largely financed by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, to rebuild the cities along the canal, which were almost totally empty for eight years. The ambitious plan included new cities as well as tunnels to carry Nile water under the canal to the parched Sinai beyond...
...glittering past. The pyramids and temples that awed adventurers from Caesar to Napoleon are irresistible still, magnets for tourist dollars, marks and yen that Egypt must have to help surmount its present problems. "Egypt is a dusty city and a green tree," said Amr ibn al As, the Arab general who conquered the country for Islam's warriors in the 7th century. "The Nile traces a line through the midst of it; blessed are its early-morning voyages and its travels at eventide...
...army behind him, Sadat today has concentrated more power in his hands than Nasser ever had. Yet the villager who became a ruler feels alone in power. The threat of death does not depress him, he says, even though he has become the No. 1 villain to Arab rejectionists. "Neither the Palestinians nor Gaddafi," he said, "can deprive me of one hour of my life, if God doesn't accept it." At the Barrages, Sadat recalled a book about Abraham Lincoln that he had read as a boy. "Lincoln was a villager, too," he said, "and he moved alone...