Egyptian digital library

This is a good Egyptian digital library. You can read the first issue of Al-Ahram (you need to enable pop-ups): the first issue was as lousy and bad as the last issue of this lousy newspaper. (Al-Ahram had its best years in the 1960s). But the site, like many Egyptian sites, is rather clunky. It reminds me of a story that Hanna Batatu told me: he was going to the archives of the Iraqi police in the 1960s to do research for his massive great book on Iraq. He spent months and years reading through the files (which was arranged to him by his friend, Hani Al-Hindi). One year, Batatu goes to continue his research only to be told that he needs to get several signatures and go to various government offices. Batatu was surprised and told them that it used to be a simple matter and that it never required signatures. They said: oh, no. But we have hired bureaucratic experts from Egypt who are going to reform the state government in Iraq. (thank Haroon)