Vocab Entry: Muhaggaba

Muhaggaba: a woman who wears the higab

This definition was actually found in the glossary of Zaat, indicating it is a native Egyptian term.

(pg 197) "A muhaggaba at work gave her the telephone number."
This is the only instance I found, though in all honesty the context provides little information about the connotation or association of the term.

Ibrāhīm, Ṣunʻ Allāh., and Anthony Calderbank. Zaat. Cairo: American U in Cairo, 2001. Print.

Vocab Entry: Feddan

Feddan: a unit of land, approximately 1.038 acres. When Egypt adopted the metric system, the feddan was the only old unit that remained legal.

In Zaat this appears throughout Chapter 12, one example on page 193 "Locusts destroy 600 feddans in five governorates."

"Feddan." Sizes: The Online Quantinary. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

Vocab Entry: Osteopath

Osteopath:one who practices osteopathy (no duh... okay what is osteopathy?)
Osteopathy: a system of medical practice based on a theory that diseases are due chiefly to loss of structural integrity which can be restored by manipulation of the parts supplemented by therapeutic measures (as use of drugs or surgery)

Thank you Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. 

That was a mouthful. Pretty much an osteopath is someone who pushes and massages bones and muscles to treat diseases. 

In Zaat (pg 190) "Dr. Abdel Basset Ahmed Youssef, osteopath at Qous General Hospital...[talks about what failing condition his hospital is in."

Public vs Private Sectors

Okay, so technically this isn't a vocab entry, it's more a concept entry. There's a lot of talk in Chapter 12 about the public and private sectors of businesses and privately owned businesses, and it's pretty apparent these are important concepts, but how many of us actually know what they are? Well folks, y'all in luck, prepare to be enlightened.

From the Dictionary:
Private Sector- noun that part of a country's economy consisting of privately owned and operated businesses, etc.

Public Sector- noun the part of a country's economy which consists of nationalized industries and of institutions and services run by the state or local authorities.

Where does it pop up in Zaat?

(pg 186) "The president of the Republic accuses a private company of maliciously interfering with the products of a public sector company because its prices are cheaper."

Applying our new-found knowledge to this quote we can conclude that the president of the Republic's accusation is completely bogus. Clearly, both institutions are legal (we hope) businesses which naturally engage in competition with eachother. However, given the context provided by the novel, we can deduce that the concerns of the president are valid; the government of Egypt is so corrupt, especially on local levels, that most likely, publicly owned businesses are floundering due to poor management. 

"The Chambers Dictionary." Chambers. Hodder Education, 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.

Not quite hyperbole...but still very literary and important!

Hyperbole: an over-exaggeration (like the fact that I used "over" to quantify exaggeration, kind of overkill)

This is not quite a literary feature entry, because in all technicality, hyperbole is not really being used.

As anyone who has actually read the non-prose chapters will have noticed, for the most part, the news-clippings are all very, very extreme. Examples include:

(124) "Two plumbers compete in an auction to buy a palace belonging to the former queen of Egypt, valued at two and a half million pounds."

(133) "The public sector loses 790 million pounds every year in joint public and private sectors."

(163) "A Central Security trooper: 'We get paid six pounds a month, the price of one load of foreign bread in the Jolie Ville.'"

 

These are extreme events! The news clippings are nothing short of shocking, and the sheer volume of the clippings in the novel is overwhelming. So many of the news clippings are groundbreaking news that we begin to wonder whether all Egyptian news is really this insane, or whether Ibrahim just chose the most extreme clippings to illustrate a point. Regardless, the absurd content of the clippings, and the frequency at which bad news appears to happen clearly illustrates Ibrahim's point: corruption in Egypt is so prevalent, it occurs daily, that is begins to seem almost commonplace, and expected. 

Collusion-Good word to know, bad thing to do.

Collusion: a secret agreement or cooperation, especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose

pg (127) "Teachers at Mansoura University's Engineering Faculty squander a quarter of a million pounds in collusion with employees of Kassico Company."

In this instance, collusion specifies the unethical manner in which the money was taken. The negative denotation of squander also serves to emphasize the dishonest nature described in the passage.

Yay! MLA Citations! "Collusion." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.

Frottage...like a cross between a cottage and a frog.

Frottage: the technique of creating a design by rubbing (as with a pencil) over an object placed underneath the paper; also :  a composition so made

2

:  the act of obtaining sexual stimulation by rubbing against a person or object

By examining the context in which frottage is used in Zaat we are able to discern it's usage is the second definition.

(pg 146) "... her chest, which stuck out assertively and attracted hungry looks, rude comments, and accidental frottage..."

Beautiful MLA Citation: "Frottage." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.