On November 12, 2021, Humphrey Davies, my co-author of Field Guide to the Street Names of Central Cairo, died of complications of pancreatic cancer. Just a few months earlier, we had completed the manuscript for submission to an Arabic publisher of our book. We were discussing a second edition but by August, Humphrey fell seriously ill. All too soon, he passed.

There has been many wonderful eulogies and tributes to Humphrey:

https://arablit.org/humphrey/

https://aucpress.com/news/remember-humphrey-davies-a-towering-figure-in-arabic-translation/

When one creates something new with another, there is a deep and special bond. I will miss our lengthy conversations while researching Cairo street history and all the subtle twists and turns of unraveling complicated stories. The Field Guide was the ultimate treasure hunt and our rewards were excavated, layer by layer, through the sequence and identity of long forgotten names. Our time and effort for this book was a labour of love for Cairo, a city that welcomingly adopted each of us within our own separate circumstances.

Here is a full obituary from the New York Times that sets out the work and life of Humphrey Davies. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/13/books/humphrey-davies-dead.html

All Photographs and text are under international copyright laws. No re-use without the written permission of Lesley Lababidi 2023.