Ashalon is a professor of Egyptology at Cairo University. He is none too happy to learn that another American is coming to his country to dig among the ruins of his ancestors. He vows to make it difficult things difficult for this foreigner, who has been given permission by the Council of Antiquities. . .at least until he meets the American upstart, Corina Camden. Professor Camden is searching for mummified remains from the Twenty-first and Twenty-second dynasties, and she quickly captivates Ashalon. Nights Over Egypt is a story of archeological digs, rich culture and buried passion.

For centuries Egypt has been a citadel of Islamic learning and thought, and since the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty in 1979, it has been of immense strategic importance to American interests in the Middle East. But Egypt is also a country in crisis, torn between the old and the new, between unsettled religious revival and secular politics. President Hosni Mubarak favors a secular society. But Mubarak's government faces constant conflict with militant clerics such as Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. In A Portrait of Egypt, Mary Anne Weaver argues that an Islamist victory in Egypt is almost inevitable, and, unlike that of Shi'ite Iran, its impact on the Islamic world will be truly profound. Based on exclusive interviews with militants and front men, generals and presidents, A Portrait of Egypt is essential reading for anyone trying to understand the far-reaching consequences of the growing impact of Islamist politics and policies on the West.