An excerpt from Beth Baron’s forthcoming book tells the story of pioneering Egyptian physician Hilana Sidarus and women entering medicine.

Much more than simple body adornments, traditional Egyptian tattoos incorporate complex meanings and evoke tales of knights, seductresses and animals in a multicolour world of the imagination.

The musical heritage of the Coptic Church, which springs from perhaps the oldest musical tradition in the world, had already begun to fade by the early twentieth century. However, mainly thanks to one monkish layman, authentic Coptic psalmondy survives to this day.