Historical Figures Featured in the Novel

Abbas, Khedive (Abbas II Hilmi Bey [1874–1944]). Last Ottoman viceroy (khedive) of Egypt and Sudan (1892–1914), deposed by the British in 1914.

Ali, Muhammad (1769–1849). Commander in the Ottoman army, originally from Albania; a political reformer who declared himself viceroy of Egypt and Sudan in 1805 and served in that capacity until 1848; he is widely considered the founder of modern Egypt.

Amherst, Lord (William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst [1835–1909]). British politician remembered primarily as a collector of antiquities.

Andrews, Emma. Mistress of Theodore Davis (s.v.); in the novel she is called Emilia.

el-Baroudy, Mahmoud Sami (1839–1904). Nationalist poet and political figure, who also briefly served as prime minister of Egypt in 1882.

Baybars, al-Zahir (ca. 1223–77). A Mamluk (see glossary) sultan of Egypt, of Turkic origin; in 1254 he defeated the Seventh Crusade of France’s King Louis IX, and in 1260 scored a major victory over the Mongols.

Belzoni, Giovanni Battista (1778–1823). Italian explorer and excavator of Egyptian antiquities.

Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen (1840–1922). English poet, translator, and political commentator; anti-imperialist.

Carnarvon, Lord (George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert [1866–1923]). English aristocrat best remembered as an amateur Egyptologist who bankrolled various excavations, most notably Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.

Carter, Howard (1874–1939). British artist and Egyptologist renowned for discovering Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922; although a great part of Carter’s portrayal in A Cloudy Day on the Western Shore is essentially factual, much has been fictionalized; in addition to the invention of his relationship with Aisha (herself an invention) and numerous lesser episodes, aspects of Carter’s family background are only loosely depicted. Accounts differ, for example, as to whether he was one of eight or eleven children (most say eleven), but seem to agree that he did not actually have any younger siblings.

Cromer, Lord (Evelyn Baring [1841–1917]). British consul general in Egypt from 1883 to 1907; much resented among Egyptians for his repressive policies. Britain’s draconian response to the Dinshaway incident (see glossary) may be seen as effectively his undoing as an administrator in Egypt.

Davis, Theodore (1838–1915). American lawyer and amateur Egyptologist; his wealth financed some of the excavations in Upper Egypt.

Fahmi, Mustafa (1840–1914). Egyptian politician who served variously as cabinet member and prime minister, accused of subservience to the British; it is not clear whether or not the incident relating to illegal ownership of slaves actually occurred.

Farid, Mohammed (1868–1919). Egyptian nationalist and reformer, of Turkish background; backer of Mustafa Kamil (s.v.), and second president of the Egyptian National Party.

Fazil, Zainab Nazli (1853–1913). Egyptian princess of Turkish origin; well-educated and vocal, she may have wielded some influence with the leading politicians of the day, both Egyptian and British.

Ismaïl Pasha (1830–95). Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 to 1879, who followed much of the reformist agenda of his grandfather Muhammad Ali, but mismanaged Egypt’s finances and was eventually dismissed by the Ottoman sultan.

Kamal, Yusuf (1882–1966). Founded Egypt’s first art academy, the Egyptian School of Fine Arts, in 1908, and sponsored Mahmoud Mukhtar (s.v.) in 1912, when Mukhtar undertook his studies in France.

Kamil, Hussein (1853–1917). Sultan of Egypt, 1914–17, so appointed under the newly declared British protectorate, selected for his sympathy to British interests, to replace Khedive Abbas II (q.v.).

Kamil, Mustafa (1874–1908). Egyptian lawyer and nationalist, founder, in 1900, of the newspaper al-Liwa (see glossary), and of the Egyptian National Party in 1907.

Kitchener, Lord (Horatio Herbert Kitchener [1850–1916]). Senior officer in the British Army and colonial administrator in Egypt and Sudan; succeeded Lord Cromer (q.v.) as consul general of Egypt, succeeded by Eldon Gorst (1861–1911).

Laplagne, Guillaume (1894–1927). French sculptor, first director of the Egyptian School of Fine Arts (see Yusuf Kamal, q.v.), who counted Mahmoud Mukhtar (s.v.) among his protégés.

Mahdi, the (Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah [1844–85]). Son of a Sudanese boat builder and charismatic religious leader (member of the Samaniyyah Sufi order), who in 1881 proclaimed himself the divinely appointed harbinger of the last days (the Mahdi); he assumed military command of a force called the Ansar (helpers), and led several successful campaigns against the Egyptians and the British.

Mariette, François Auguste Ferdinand (1821–81). French scholar and Egyptologist, founder of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities. He is thought to have devised, at the behest of Khedive Ismaïl Pasha (q.v.), the plot of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida, which premiered in Cairo in 1871.

Maspero, Gaston (1846–1916). French Egyptologist who twice served as director of the Department of Antiquities; he was not in fact its director in 1891, when Howard Carter (q.v.) first arrived in Egypt. Maspero was dedicated to combating the illegal trade in artifacts, and he helped found the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, in 1902.

Mukhtar, Mahmoud (1891–1934). Son of a peasant family, from the village of Tanbara in the Egyptian Delta. Mukhtar was one of the first students to attend the Egyptian School of Fine Arts upon its opening in 1908, but he was not actually dismissed from the school—he graduated, and went on scholarship (in either 1911 or 1912; accounts differ) to study at École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He is best known for his sculpture Egypt Awakened (located in Cairo’s Ramses Square in 1928), which expresses nationalist sentiment, and now stands by the avenue leading to Cairo University.

Naville, Henri Édouard (1844–1926). Swiss archaeologist and Egyptologist.

Newberry, Percy (1869–1949). British Egyptologist who travelled to Egypt with Howard Carter in 1891, having selected Carter to train as a tracer of ancient wall art.

Orabi, Ahmed (1841–1911). Egyptian military leader of peasant stock who founded the Egyptian Nationalist Party in 1879. In 1882 he led an unsuccessful rebellion against Khedive Tawfiq as part of the Egyptian resistance against Ottoman rule; Tawfiq called for reinforcements against the uprising, resulting in the British bombardment of Alexandria, which culminated in the occupation of Egypt.

Paget, Rosalind Frances Emily (1844–1925). Artist in Egypt who produced watercolor paintings of art from various sites in Upper Egypt; she is mentioned in a letter penned by Edouard Naville.

Petrie, William Matthew Flinders (1853–1942). British Egyptologist and pioneer of archaeological methodology and conservation.

al-Rafiy, Abdel Rahman (1889–1966). Egyptian historian of Levantine origin; he joined the Egyptian National Party in 1907.

al-Sayyid, Ahmed Lutfi (1872–1963). Egyptian intellectual, activist, and founder, in 1907, of Egypt’s first political party, Hezb al-Umma, as a direct response to the Dinshaway incident (see glossary) in 1906. The founding of the Egyptian National Party by Mustafa Kamil (q.v.) followed soon thereafter.

Weigall, Arthur (1880–1934). British Egyptologist and author. When Howard Carter was dismissed from his post as chief inspector of antiquities for Upper Egypt in 1905 following an incident involving a group of French tourists, Weigall was appointed in his place; historical accounts suggest that the rivalry between Weigall and Carter was, at times, as bitter as the novel’s narrative suggests.

Wolseley, Garnet (1833–1913). Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army and commander of the British forces assisting Khedive Tawfiq at the time of the rebellion staged by Orabi (q.v.), whom Wolseley defeated in the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir, near Suez in the Egyptian Delta.