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Lutz
Pharaoh
Joined: 02 Sep 2007
Posts: 3748
Location: Berlin, Germany
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 Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 11:06 pm Post subject: Stories of the Sphinx |
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... from Hussein Bassir, Director-General of the Giza Pyramids at the Ministry of Antiquities :
"Stories of the Sphinx" (Al-Ahram Weekly - Issue No.1291, 14 April, 2016)
Greetings, Lutz.
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dzama923
Scribe
Joined: 15 Jul 2014
Posts: 298
Location: Stamford, Connecticut
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| Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 11:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Nice article. I remember my 6th grade teacher saying an invading army used the sphinx as target practice. It's too bad we feel this way. It is interesting too how it can be covered up completely in sand for so long. Makes me wonder what else is hidden under the sand. |
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Lutz
Pharaoh
Joined: 02 Sep 2007
Posts: 3748
Location: Berlin, Germany
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| Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2016 12:44 am Post subject: |
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| dzama923 wrote: | | ... I remember my 6th grade teacher saying an invading army used the sphinx as target practice. It's too bad we feel this way. ... |
It is a pity that teachers still today tell their pupils such nonsense ...
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Lutz
Pharaoh
Joined: 02 Sep 2007
Posts: 3748
Location: Berlin, Germany
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| Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 8:57 am Post subject: |
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| Lutz wrote: | | dzama923 wrote: | | ... I remember my 6th grade teacher saying an invading army used the sphinx as target practice. It's too bad we feel this way. ... |
It is a pity that teachers still today tell their pupils such nonsense ... |
Selim Hassan : The Great Sphinx and its Secrets - Historical Studies in the Light of the Recent Excavations. - Cairo : Government Press, 1953. - [Excavations at Gîza 8: 1936-1937]. - On Page 155 :
| Quote: | ... 2.- EL-MAKRIZI (2)
EI-Makrizi says: "In our time, there was a man whose name was Saim-el-Dahr, one of the Sufis (780 A.H.). This man wanted to remedy some of the religious things, and he went to the Pyramids and disfigured the face of Abul-Hol, which has remained in that state from that time until now. From the time of this disfigurement also, the sand has invaded the cultivated lands of Giza, and the people attribute this to the disfigurement of Abul-Hol" (3).
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(2) EL-MAKRIZI, "Khitat El-Makrizi", Abul-Hol, Part I, p. 197.
(3) For a similar idea, see Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. VIII, January 1949, No. 1, p. 31. ... |
Greetings, Lutz.
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neseret
Vizier
Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Posts: 1031
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Lutz wrote: | | Lutz wrote: | | dzama923 wrote: | | ... I remember my 6th grade teacher saying an invading army used the sphinx as target practice. It's too bad we feel this way. ... |
It is a pity that teachers still today tell their pupils such nonsense ... |
Selim Hassan : The Great Sphinx and its Secrets - Historical Studies in the Light of the Recent Excavations. - Cairo : Government Press, 1953. - [Excavations at Gîza 8: 1936-1937]. - On Page 155 :
| Quote: | ... 2.- EL-MAKRIZI (2)
EI-Makrizi says: "In our time, there was a man whose name was Saim-el-Dahr, one of the Sufis (780 A.H.). This man wanted to remedy some of the religious things, and he went to the Pyramids and disfigured the face of Abul-Hol, which has remained in that state from that time until now. From the time of this disfigurement also, the sand has invaded the cultivated lands of Giza, and the people attribute this to the disfigurement of Abul-Hol" (3).
...
(2) EL-MAKRIZI, "Khitat El-Makrizi", Abul-Hol, Part I, p. 197.
(3) For a similar idea, see Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. VIII, January 1949, No. 1, p. 31. ... |
Greetings, Lutz. |
al-Maqrizi notes that Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, the leader of a Sufi tariqah in Cairo - whose name means something along the line of "he who constantly fasts", a practice forbidden in Islam - took it upon himself to deface the Sphinx since local Egyptians were still burning milk-thistle (shuka'a) and safflower (badhaward) at the foot of the Sphinx and murning a verse 63 times in hope that their wishes would be fulfilled. So, basically, in 708 AH (1378 CE), Saim Al-Dahr took a crowbar and pried off the nose, which would be considered a great insult, since it deprives the entity from drawing breath, in the mindset of the period, effectively "killing" the "idol."
When I took World History in high school, I was taught by a decidedly Afrocentric teacher, who mentioned the "target practice" myth but coupled it with evil intentions on Napoleon's troops part - saying they did so (quote)"to hide the fact that the ancient Egyptians were black."(end quote)
I recall having some decidedly lively arguments with her about this and other ill-informed pronouncements along this line throughout the course. When I pointed out to her the Al-Maqrizi statement, and that the damage was in fact done by an Egyptian, she huffed and puffed about it, but had no proof of her own statements.
Just to note that sometimes teachers in schools are not as factual (or knowledgeable) as they should be.
HTH.
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Katherine Griffis-Greenberg
Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Oriental Studies
Doctoral Programme [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom
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