7. casino:   not a place to gamble, but a teahouse or restaurant, especially one along the Corniche in Alexandria or along the river in Cairo. A local evolution from the European-style casinos established around Azbakiya in the nineteenth century.

8. “clear destruction”:   the Arabic adjective mubiin (clear, obvious, self-evident) is used many times in the Qur’an, thus giving this phrase a “Qur’anic” flavor.

9. colocynth:   a bitter fruit.

10. condemned man in the mountain:   in Egyptian Arabic, the word for “mountain” is often used to mean “desert,” “wasteland,” or, to Nile Valley residents, far-off, isolated areas such as the desert oases. Egyptian regimes have at times sent some criminals to work in areas such as these; thus “the condemned man in the mountain” would be a man sentenced to labor in the far reaches of the country.

11. conquian:   a card game similar to rummy.

12. Corniche:   from the French, a road passing alongside water (i.e., in Cairo, along the Nile; in Alexandria, along the Mediterranean coast).

13. Dokki:   an upper-middle-class district of Giza, across the river from Cairo; it was then, as it is now, associated with the nouveau arrivé.

14. faqih:   a reader or reciter of the Qur’an.

15. ful:   fava beans; one of the staples of the Egyptian diet.

16. gallabiyya:   the ankle-length garment worn by men of the lower classes in Egypt.

17. Gleem:   a district of Alexandria.

18. Groppi’s:   a famous café-restaurant in Cairo; its proprietors were European.

19. Al-Hajj(a):   someone who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca (the “a” indicates a woman).

20. Hanem:   a term of respect addressed to a woman, much as the terms Bey and Pasha are applied to a man.

21. Hijaz:   The area of the Arabian peninsula, formerly a kingdom and now a viceroyalty, that includes Mecca and Medina. The sandalwood rosary is typical of the sort of souvenir brought back by pilgrims from the Holy Places.

22. Al-Ibrahimiyya:   a district of Alexandria.

23. khamsin:   the hot winds which blow off the desert in Egypt, carrying dense clouds of sand.

24. khwaaga:   the colloquial Egyptian term for “foreigner.”

25. Maghrebi:   from the Maghreb, or northwestern Africa.

26. nargila:   the hookah or hubble-bubble.

27. notable (a‘yan):   a technical term used in Ottoman and later times to denote the local families of influence.

28. Pasha:   title of high civil or military rank used in the Ottoman Empire and continuing in official use in Egypt until the 1952 revolution. Still in use as a polite or respectful term of address.

29. Ra’s al-Barr:   a small town in the Nile Delta.

30. Ramla Square:   the square in central Alexandria from which the trains for Ramla leave and where the Trianon restaurant is located.

31. Ar-Risalat al-Qushairiyya:   a treatise by the famous mystic Al-Qushairi (d. 1072).

32. Saad:   see Zaghlul.

33. Sakakini:   a district of Cairo.

34. second grade:   the second highest rank in the civil service; the next step would be an under-secretaryship.

35. Sharia:   the Arabic word for “street”.

36. Sidi Bishr:   a resort district in Alexandria.

37. Sidi Umar:   the second Caliph, renowned for his asceticism and astuteness.

38. Spatis:   a popular Egyptian cordial.