Noha el-Mikawy explores the changes that have been occurring in Egypt's political system over the past 30 years - three very important decades in the country's transition from authoritarian rule to democracy. By focusing on consensus-building as analytically central to the transition process, el-Mikawy has picked up an original and very fruitful vein in the theoretical debate about the politics of transition and democracy. Her account of the inner workings and ideological divisions among the country's major political parties provides a wealth of detail for the 1980s and early 1990s. This book marks a breakthrough in the conspiracy of silence affecting the inclusion of the Egyptian experience as an empirical reference point in the theoretical literature of transition. REC00281018 Christianity arrived early in Egypt, brought - according to tradition -by Saint Mark the Evangelist, who became the first patriarch of Alexandria. The Coptic Orthodox Church has flourished ever since, with millions of adherents both in Egypt and in Coptic communities around the world. since its split from Byzantine Church in 451, the Coptic Church has proudly maintained its early traditions, and influence from outside has been minimal: the liturgy is still sung to unique rhythms in Coptic, a late stage of the ancient Egyptian language inscribed in hieroglyphs on temple walls and papyri.