“Our story begins at the very dawn of history, circa 3,000 B.C….” (Interrupting herself:) I am reading from an outdated guidebook about the city of Kabul. In Afghanistan. In the valleys of the Hindu Kush mountains. A guidebook to a city which as we all know has…undergone change.
-Homebody/Kabul, Tony Kushner
"Things change, prices go up, schedules change, good places go bad, and bad places go bankrupt. Nothing stays the same."
-The Lonely Planet
…the present edition [is] no less useful…in protecting the traveller against extortion…
-Egypt, A Handbook for Travellers, 1902, Karl Baedeker
In Cairo it can be fun to ask random passers-by for directions to out of the way places that it soon becomes obvious none have ever heard of, such as how to get to a certain medieval-era mosque or fountain or madrassah- if by the word “fun” you mean getting a good workout in expressing yourself with the inverses, obverses, converses, and reverses of logic in your student grade colloquial Arabic.
Such as, Where is the al-Hakim mosque? Is it this way (pointing left)? Is it that way (pointing right)? Is it this way (pointing right) or that way (pointing left)? Am I going in the right direction (walking left)? Am I walking in the wrong direction (walking right)? How would you get there? Do you know where it is?
This need to triangulate your questions with alternate expressions of fact is because of two things you quickly learn about Cairenes. In the eyes of foreigners, they hate to appear ignorant about their own city and they are reluctant to disagree, if by disagreeing it means to contradict, which then makes them appear to be disagreeable.
Thus you must ask twice or three times, each time in a different syntactical manner, for directions in ways that at least in one instance requires a definitive answer in the negative. It is also helpful to begin by asking a question to which you already know the answer, such as, Is it this way (pointing in the direction you have come)? If the answer to that is Yes, then you know that your interlocutor is not to be trusted about even the time of day. If the answer is No, however, then at least you can assume that your interlocutor is not a complete dunderhead, or a recently arrived rural migrant in from Zahaliq, Zifta or Zagazig, as bewildered by Cairo as you are.
