Primordial history, print capitalism, and égyptology in nineteenth-century cairo

This book contains the English translation and Arabic transcription of the surviving fragments of a unique manuscript, The Garden of Ismail’s Praise. The author is a forgotten Egyptian intellectual and poet, Mustafa Salama al-Naggari (d. 1870). He wrote this universal history of Egypt to praise the Ottoman governor Khedive Ismail (r. 1863-1879).
This book contains the English translation and Arabic transcription of the surviving fragments of a unique manuscript, The Garden of Ismail’s Praise. The author is a forgotten Egyptian intellectual and poet, Mustafa Salama al-Naggari (d. 1870). He wrote this universal history of Egypt to praise the Ottoman governor Khedive Ismail (r. 1863-1879). The text includes a unique attempt to rationalize primordial history in the age of steam and print. Adam Mestyan argues in the extended introductory essay that al-Naggari’s manuscript is an example of a lost, alternative Muslim modernization.