Cury, Alec R. Arabic Without a Teacher.

€ 80.00

Pocket dictionary of Egyptian Arabic, providing "all sentences, phrases and a vocabulary of words that are in common use throughout Egypt, the Sudan and part of Palestine; and which are needed mostly by military men and tourists".

When the Lebanese-born Alec Cury sought the assistance of a British authority for the 1915 first edition of his work, "General Sir John Maxwell, GOC of British troops in Egypt, allowed his name to be put on the cover to give his solemn imprimatur to a work which was to go into no less than 34 editions by 1965" (McLoughlin). The present 32nd edition still proudly bears the phrase "officially approved by the late General Sir John Maxwell" on the front cover and title-page.

Aiming to enable English native speakers to learn Arabic without the help of a teacher, the manual includes useful terms and phrases for interactions at a restaurant, at the post office, with a taxi driver, or a "donkey boy", as well as terms of the oil industry, aviation and military. It provides brief observations on grammar and pronunciation as well as a table with the Arabic alphabet.

Wrappers and title-page somewhat brownstained. Otherwise well preserved.