Landholding Patterns in Early Islamic Egypt

This article examines the impact of the Arab conquests of the 630s and 640s on rural society and fiscal organization in Egypt. Traditional accounts paint a picture of a seventh-century Egypt from which the aristocracy had largely disappeared and in which Arab rulers and administrators communicated directly with village communities. Drawing upon the testimony of seventh-century documentary papyri, this essay reveals the continued role of Christian elites in administering tax collection and the extent to which the Arab conquerors left agrarian social relations largely undisturbed. Only over the course of the eighth century were indigenous Christian elites sidelined, leading to a number of tax revolts on the part of the Coptic population.     

Egypt: Food security and food aid

This article examines the multifaceted notions of food security and food aid through a case-study of a rather exceptional country in political terms - Egypt. Egypt has achieved a high degree of food security with lessened reliance on domestic production and has become one of the largest recipients of cereal food aid. The analysis considers significant questions about the interdependence of food security and food aid, the maintainability of an externally dependent food system, its implicit resource costs and its internal distribution and equity impact.     

全球粮食危机背景下的埃及农业发展和中埃农业技术合作建议

农业在埃及经济社会发展中历来占据首要地位。在当今世界粮食短缺、粮价暴涨、发展中国家粮食安全受到严重威胁的特殊时刻,积极促进农业发展,努力增加粮食产量,是目前埃及政府面临的头等大事。本报告通过分析埃及现阶段的环境、地理和人口概况,以及埃及在全球粮食危机冲击下受到的诸多影响,阐述农业发展和粮食供应对于埃及的重要意义。通过研究埃及最新的农业发展情况和一些重要数据及指标,以及《埃及经济社会发展第六个“五年规划”2007—2012》中有关农业发展的若干政策,介绍埃及的农业技术研究体系和推广体系,结合我国科技援外总体战略,就未来中埃农业科技合作提出建议：探索以育种和种质资源合作、农业机械化技术合作、沙漠化治理、土壤改良及旱作农业作为重点领域;建议突出科技在中非农业合作中的重要性,强化培训、建立农业科技示范试点和规划农业战略基地。通过加强中埃及中非农业合作,推动我国农业国际化进程。     

An Exploration of Ethical Decision-making Processes in the United States and Egypt

In this comparative survey of 191 Egyptian and 92 U.S. executives, we explore the relationship between national culture and ethical decision-making within the context of business. Using Reidenbach and Robin’s (1988) multi-criteria ethics instrument, we examine how differences on two of Hofstede’s national culture dimensions, individualism/collectivism, and power distance, are related to the manner in which business practitioners make ethical decisions. Egypt and the U.S. provide an interesting comparison because of the extreme differences in their economies and related business development. Our results indicate that respondents from the U.S, individualistic and low in power distance, were likely to view the decision making outcome in ethics scenarios as more unethical than the more collectivistic and high power distance Egyptians, when applying ethical criteria based on justice, utilitarianism, relativism, and (contrary to our predictions) egoism. However, we also found that both Egyptians and Americans rely on justice, utilitarianism, and relativism in predicting their intentions to behave ethically, and that Americans substitute egoism for justice, when the behavioral intentions of peers are examined.     

古埃及园林植物种类及应用形式研究

以搜集整理与古埃及园林相关的史学著作、文学作 品及考古发掘的碑文、壁画，以及墓穴中的各种陪葬品等为 研究素材，通过查阅和对比国外学者原著或译著及其他研究文 献，辅之以国内学者的著作及研究成果，对古埃及园林的植物 种类进行系统的研究和梳理，同时结合古埃及园林发展的自然 地理和历史文化等背景条件，探讨了古埃及园林植物应用的各 种形式。在此基础上，分析其对后世产生的影响，以及对中国 园林植物资源保护和利用、推动“新中式”园林发展的启示。     

Pro-environmental Behavior in Egypt: Is there a Role for Islamic Environmental Ethics?

Egypt, a less affluent, predominantly Muslim country, suffers from numerous forms of environmental pollution, some severe. This study investigates pro-environmental behaviors of citizens in Cairo, Egypt’s largest metropolis, and studies the relationship between pro-environmental behavior and demographic variables, beliefs, values, and religiosity. Analysis shows that three types of pro-environmental behavior are present: Public Sphere, Private Sphere, and Activist Behavior, with the latter occurring less frequently. Importantly, the study identifies an ecocentric value among respondents which is correlated with Public Sphere Behavior. It also confirms earlier research that characterized Egyptians’ perceptions of the environment as being set in the context of health and cleanliness. Religious teachings and religiosity are shown to be associated with pro-environmental behavior, thus lending support to the presence of an Islamic environmental ethic.     

Heritage Management and Control

ABSTRACT

Tourism is one of the most important economic activities. Historical heritage has been identified by both administrators and the private sectors as major touristic assets. It has been a myth that the more heritages a country own, the better it would be. Some recent reports, however, revealed that heritages, in fact, could be a burden to the concerned government and the economy. This paper is to review the situation in Egypt in relation to the issues of discovering, preserving and commercializing of historical heritages. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the community, which has the gift of heritage, and heritage preservation of Egypt and to the improvement of our knowledge of the discipline of tourism.     

Business Students' Perception of Ethics and Moral Judgment: A Cross-Cultural Study

Business relations rely on shared perceptions of what is acceptable/expected norms of behavior. Immense expansion in transnational business made rudimentary consensus on acceptable business practices across cultural boundaries particularly important. Nonetheless, as more and more nations with different cultural and historical experiences interact in the global economy, the potential for misunderstandings based on different expectations is magnified. Such misunderstandings emerge in a growing literature on "improper" business practices – articulated from a narrow cultural perspective. This paper reports an ongoing research on the cultural and contextual aspects of business ethics. The objective is to investigate how the perception/attitudes of business students towards the ethical dimension of doing business varies in different countries; Whether there are socio-cultural factors that influence the perception of ethicality in business practices. Research findings among business students in six countries: China, Egypt, Finland, Korea, Russia, and the U.S.A. are reported. While all groups had basic agreement on what constitutes ethical business practices, differences are found in the respondents' tolerance to damage resulting from "unethical" behavior. Without underestimating the role of national culture, variations in research results also point to the importance of current socio-political developments in the relevant countries. Implications for business teaching and management development are discussed.     

Smith on Ancient Egypt and the Arab Islamic World: A Tale of Two Statist Models

This paper endeavors to portray Egypt, the Arab, and Islamic worlds in the eyes of Adam Smith as implied in his work An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations from the perspective of the extent and desirability of state intervention in the economy. In other words, the paper attempts to analyze why Smith's stance on ancient Egypt changed from an example of opulence to an eighteenth-century Egypt that—together with other Arab and Islamic countries—represents a model with many challengeable aspects, although the extent of the state action was remarkable in both models, the ancient and the contemporary. Our premise is that Smith did not defend or attack the models based on the extent of state intervention in the economy, but on whether its intervention was conducive to, first, raising the person's well-being and, second, promoting the morals of Smith's “commercial” society.