The culture of Egypt has thousands of years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations in Middle East and Africa. For millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly unique, complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, for a time Christianity, and later, Christian culture.
Music has been an integral part of Egyptian culture since antiquity. The Bible documents the instruments played by the ancient Hebrews, all of which are correlated in Egyptian archaeology. Egyptian music probably had a significant impact on the development of ancient Greek music, and via the Greeks was important to early European music well into the Middle Ages. The modern music of Egypt is considered as a core of Arabic music and Oriental music as it has been a source for or a main influence on other regional styles. The tonal structure of Oriental Arabic music is defined by the maqamat, loosely similar to Western modes, while the rhythm of Arabic music is governed by the iqa'at, standard rhythmic modes formed by combinations of accented and unaccented beats and rests.
Raqs sharqi is the classical Egyptian style of belly dance that developed during the first half of the 20th century.
Arabic literature is the writing, both prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is "Adab", which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and which implies politeness, culture and enrichment.
Islamic culture is a term primarily used in secular academia to describe the cultural practices common to historically Islamic people—i.e., the culture of the Islamicate. The early forms of Muslim culture, from the Rashidun Caliphate to early Umayyad perioud, were predominantly Arab, Byzantine, Persian and Levantine. With the rapid expansion of the Islamic empires, Muslim culture has influenced and assimilated much from the Persian, Egyptian, Caucasian, Turkic, Mongol, South Asian, Malay, Somali, Berber, Indonesian, and Moro cultures.
Al-Nahda was a cultural renaissance that began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Egypt, then later moving to Ottoman-ruled Arabic-speaking regions including Lebanon, Syria and others. It is often regarded as a period of intellectual modernization and reform.
Hafez Ibrahim (1871–1932), also referred to simply as Hafiz or Hafez, was a well known Egyptian poet of the early 20th century. He was dubbed the "Poet of the Nile", and sometimes the "Poet of the People", for his political commitment to the poor. His poetry took on the concerns of the majority of ordinary Egyptians, including women’s rights, poverty, education, as well as his criticism of the British Empire and foreign occupation.
Syria is a traditional society with a long cultural history. Importance is placed on family, religion, education and self-discipline and respect. The Syrian's taste for the traditional arts is expressed in dances such as the al-Samah, the Dabkeh in all their variations and the sword dance. Marriage ceremonies are occasions for the lively demonstration of folk customs.
Zajal is a traditional form of oral strophic poetry declaimed in a colloquial dialect. While there is little evidence of the exact origins of the zajal, the earliest recorded zajal poet was the poet Ibn Quzman of al-Andalus who lived from 1078 to 1160. It is generally conceded that the early ancestors of Levantine dialectical poetry were the Andalusian zajal and muwashshaḥah, brought to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean by Arabs fleeing Spain in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. An early master of Egyptian zajal was the fourteenth century zajjāl Abu ʿAbd Allāh al-Ghubārī. Zajal's origins may be ancient but it can be traced back to at least the 12th century. It is most alive in Lebanon today, and the Maghreb and particularly Algeria, and in the Levant, especially in Lebanon, Palestine and in Jordan where professional zajal practitioners can attain high levels of recognition and popularity. Zajal is semi-improvised and semi-sung and is often performed in the format of a debate between zajjalin. It is usually accompanied by percussive musical instruments and a chorus of men who sing parts of the verse.
Egyptian literature traces its beginnings to ancient Egypt and is some of the earliest known literature. Indeed, the Egyptians were the first culture to develop literature as we know it today, that is, the book.
Elia Abu Madi was a Lebanese poet.
The production and consumption of wine has been widespread in the Middle East and has been tolerated to varying extents by different religious groups. Prophet Muhammad forbade all intoxicants (khamr) and even pressed grape juice for Muslims. Wine was traded and used among the Jews, at least in Egypt, including for sacramental purposes, and had to be prepared by Jews according to stated practices. Many Christian monasteries in the region made and sold wine to raise revenue. Finally, the Zoroastrian communities of Persia continued to make and drink wine after the Islamic conquest.
A poet is a person who creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be a writer of poetry, or may perform their art to an audience.
Aisha E'ismat Taymur was an Egyptian social activist, poet, novelist, and feminist in the Ottoman era. She was active in the early 19th century in the field of women's rights. Her writings came out in a period of time where women in Egypt were realizing that they were being deprived of some of the rights that Islam granted them.
Belly dance, also referred to as Arabic dance, is an Arabic expressive dance which originated in Egypt and that emphasizes complex movements of the torso. It has evolved to take many different forms depending on the country and region, both in costume and dance style.
The following are the special concepts and terminology of belly dance. As this dance originated in the Northern India and the Middle East, a significant proportion of the terminology is in Arabic. Turkish or Turkish-loan words may also be encountered among belly dance terms.
The khawal ar: خول was traditional 1911 native Egyptian male dancer cross-dressed in feminine attire and was popular up until the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Arab folk dances also referred to as Oriental dance, Middle-Eastern dance andEastern dance, are the traditional folk dances of the Arabs in Arab world. Arab dance has many different styles, including the three main types of folklore, classical, and contemporary. It is enjoyed and implemented throughout the Arab region, from North Africa to the Middle East.
Qiyān were a social class of non-free women, trained as entertainers, which existed in the pre-modern Islamicate world. It has been suggested that 'the geisha of Japan are perhaps the most comparable form of socially institutionalized female companionship and entertainment for male patrons, although, of course, the differences are also myriad'.
