Nicosia: The British Library has awarded a grant to the University of Cyprus for a project aimed at digitizing rare Egyptian legal archives. The Department of History and Archaeology at the university secured external funding of £27,486 (approximately pound 32,500) from the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme. This initiative, titled Life Around the Courts: Legal Practices of Ethnic and Religious Pluralism in Egypt, is spearheaded by Dr. Eftychia Mylona, a postdoctoral researcher part of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie/Onisilos programme at the University of Cyprus.
According to Cyprus News Agency, the project will run from July 2025 to December 2026 and will be under the academic supervision of Dr. Stefanos Katsikas, an Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Cyprus. It will involve international collaboration with the SARD archive in Cairo, where Dr. Mina Ibrahim and Ms. Yasmin Tarek will lend their expertise in digitization and analysis of the historical records. The project aims to preserve and digitize 50 volumes of rare legal documents from Egyptian courts dating from 1910-1950.
The documentation and analysis of court cases involving ordinary citizens of that era, including members of Egypt’s Greek community, will offer insights into the public history of Egyptian society. The initiative aims to highlight Egypt’s multicultural and multireligious character. This international collaboration underscores the global nature of the initiative and the commitment of the University of Cyprus to preserving cultural heritage worldwide.