Mayy el-Sheikh risked her life, braved threats and insults from her fellow Egyptians, and worked around the clock for more than two years—all to try to tell the truth about what was happening in her country. I was an incidental beneficiary of her efforts, and so were the readers of the New York Times. During the writing of this book, she consulted on its planning, filled in gaps in the reporting, and provided valuable comments on early drafts of the chapters. My gratitude to her is undying, and I hope some day she writes her own book about all that she witnessed.
Anthony Shadid was the Times bureau chief in Beirut in 2011. He raced to Cairo to help cover the Tahrir Square sit-in, and I knew him only for the next thirteen months, until he died on February 16, 2012, covering the uprising in Syria. He was the greatest international correspondent of our generation working in the region, and he taught me a great deal. Anthony had a special gift for translating the poetry in the voices of everyday Arabs, and I have tried my best to follow the example of his exceptional empathy. I wish I could read the book he would have written.
The unrivaled commitment to international reporting by the New York Times and the Sulzberger family made this book possible. I am especially grateful for the support, insight, and friendship of Michael Slackman—my predecessor in Cairo, my editor during the Arab Spring, and head of the international desk by 2018. I also owe thanks to many others: Dean Baquet, Joe Kahn, Susan Chira, Bill Keller, Jill Abramson (who I suspect helped persuade the international desk to send me to Cairo), and Jim Yardley. Bill Schmidt arranged for my family during its first evacuation; Janet Elder, who died last year, took care of the second. I benefited from the wisdom and patience of more editors and copy editors on the desk than I can possibly name here.
I am grateful for the collaboration and camaraderie of many New York Times colleagues in the field, including Kareem Fahim, Ben Hubbard, Declan Walsh, Anne Bernard, Neil MacFarquhar, Rod Nordland, Robert Worth, Liam Stack, Mona el-Naggar, Nour Youssef, Robert Mackey, and others. Outside the Times, I am thankful for the friendship in Cairo of the journalists Patrick Kingsley, Edmund Blair, Amina Ismail, Leila Fadel, Abigail Hauslohner, Heba Saleh, Max Rodenbeck, Maggie Michaels, Louisa Loveluck, Matt Bradley, Thanassis Cambanis, and others. I also owe deep thanks to the Egyptian staff of the Times Cairo bureau. They asked not to be named, for their safety.
Nour Youssef made valuable introductions and provided insightful consultations during the writing of this book. Two interpreters who worked with me also asked not to be named, to avoid retaliation.
I owe thanks to many for places to stay during the research and writing: Simon Kitchen and Karima Zein el-Abedeen, Andre and Annie Houston, Jared and Shaye Hardner, Kathy Bradford, Susan and Peter Bradford, and my parents, Nancy and Douglas Kirkpatrick.
The Royal United Services Institute provided a base in London and the Woodrow Wilson Center provided office space in Washington. Steven Cook, Hazem Kandil, Khaled Fahmy, Michele Dunne, Nathan Brown, Michael Hanna, Amy Hawthorne, Andrew Miller, Daniel Benaim, Tamara Cofman Wittes, Samuel Tadros, Moktar Awad, Brian Katulis, and Jon Alterman all shared their time and consultation.
My agent, Elyse Cheney, coaxed out of me a book-length proposal that remained the blueprint for this book. Wendy Wolf at Viking was brilliant, committed, and merciless—all that any author could hope for. Jane Cavolina copyedited with the eyes of an eagle.
Rebecca Corbett read early drafts of each chapter (as well as some that died along the way) and advised me on their structure. I am not sure I could have finished the book without her. Ruth Feycech gave it an extra line edit at the end. My father, Douglas Kirkpatrick, interrupted his retirement to mark up the pages in process. Ariel Kaminer, my friend and editor for more than a quarter century, provided valuable suggestions in several places and sustained me with her enthusiasm. Patrick Kingsley, who covered Cairo for the Guardian in 2013 and now works for the Times, read the near-finished manuscript and helped fix many details. Mietek Boduszyński, a political scientist who was an American diplomat in the region during the Arab Spring, offered helpful comments as well.
Many others who lived through the events provided advice or corrections on parts of the text: Hossam Bahgat, the founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, and Emad Shahin, editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Political Islam, each read large sections. Wael Eskandar, Mina Thabet, Wael Haddara, Shadi Hamid, Nour Youssef, Mozn Hassan, Mohamed Soltan, Suliman Ali Zway, and Moises Salman read portions.
None of them bear any responsibility for any defects of this work. Any conclusions, faults, or errors are mine alone.
My sons Thomas, now twelve, and Emmett, now nine, are heroes: marvels of resilience and determination. They not only inspired me; they also nagged me to get back to the keyboard. “Dad, you have got to finish the book!”
My greatest debt is to Laura Bradford. I am thankful that she married me fifteen years ago, thankful that she moved with me to Cairo, and thankful for her insights and contributions as a partner in all that went into the writing this book. I forced her to shoulder the burden of parenting alone all too often. Who could forget my weekend trip to Libya that went on for two months, or the year I spent your birthday covering a riot in Cairo? But it is as true today as it was the day we met: I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world.