A Border Passage (SparkNotes Literature Guide)

By SparkNotes

A Border Passage (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by Leila Ahmed
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• Language: English
• Publisher: SparkNotes
• Release date: Aug 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781411474239

Book preview

Cover of SparkNotes Guide to A Border Passage by SparkNotes Editors

A Border Passage

Leila Ahmed

© 2003, 2007 by Spark Publishing

This Spark Publishing edition 2014 by SparkNotes LLC, an Affiliate of Barnes & Noble

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

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ISBN-13: 978-1-4114-7423-9

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Contents

Context

Plot Overview

Character List

Analysis of Major Characters

Themes, Motifs, and Symbols

Important Quotations Explained

Key Facts

Context

Born in 1940 in Cairo, Leila Ahmed grew up during a time of major political change in Egypt. As a result, the complicated relationship between Egypt, Europe, and the Middle East is a central concern in Ahmed’s memoir, A Border Passage, and understanding that relationship requires a closer look at Egypt’s turbulent modern history. Egypt’s national identity and borders have existed since ancient times, but its people were ruled by foreign invaders and empires such as Alexander the Great, the Arabs, and the Ottoman Empire, until they finally attained full national sovereignty in 1952. Situated in North Africa, Egypt shares borders with Libya, Sudan, and Israel. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Egypt developed a unique position regarding its neighbors in the Middle East through shifting alliances with the Ottoman Empire and the West. Egypt was ruled by the Turks until the British Occupation of Egypt began in 1882. Egypt was never officially a British colony, but it was nonetheless shaped by the policies of its rulers in the West.

Egypt prospered under the somewhat relaxed rule of the British through the turn of the nineteenth century, enjoying a free press and open immigration policy that encouraged the immigration of droves of newcomers from both Ottoman and European territories. Free debate contributed to a lively intellectual atmosphere in Egypt, and modern technology such as the automobile appeared in the cosmopolitan