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Assumption of Mary

The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus as follows:

"We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."

The declaration was built upon the 1854 dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, which declared that Mary was conceived free from original sin, and both have their foundation in the concept of Mary as the Mother of God. It leaves open the question of whether Mary died or whether she was raised to eternal life without bodily death.

The equivalent belief (which is not held as dogma) in the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Dormition of the Mother of God or the "Falling Asleep of the Mother of God".

The word 'assumption' derives from the Latin word assūmptiō, meaning 'taking up'.

Mary's assumption highlights the Catholic belief in the resurrection of both body and flesh. Pope Pius expressed in his encyclical Munificentissimus Deus the hope that the belief in the bodily assumption of the virgin Mary into heaven "will make our belief in our own resurrection stronger and render it more effective".

Traditions relating to the Assumption
In some versions of the assumption narrative, the assumption is said to have taken place in Ephesus, in the House of the Virgin Mary. This is a much more recent and localized tradition. The earliest traditions say that Mary's life ended in Jerusalem (see Tomb of the Virgin Mary). By the 7th century, a variation emerged, according to which one of the apostles, often identified as Thomas the Apostle, was not present at the death of Mary but his late arrival precipitates a reopening of Mary's tomb, which is found to be empty except for her grave clothes. In a later tradition, Mary drops her girdle down to the apostle from heaven as testament to the event. This incident is depicted in many later paintings of the Assumption.

Teaching of the Assumption of Mary became widespread across the Christian world, having been celebrated as early as the 5th century and having been established in the East by Emperor Maurice around AD 600. John Damascene records the following:

"St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven."

History

Some scholars argue that the Dormition and Assumption traditions can be traced early in church history in apocryphal books, with Shoemaker stating, "Other scholars have similarly identified these two apocrypha as particularly early. For instance, Baldi, Masconi, and Cothenet analyzed the corpus of Dormition narratives using a rather different approach, governed primarily by language tradition rather than literary relations, and yet all agree that the Obsequies (i.e., the Liber Requiei) and the Six Books apocryphon reflect the earliest traditions, locating their origins in the second or third century." Scholars of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum "argued that during or shortly after the apostolic age a group of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem preserved an oral tradition about the end of the Virgin's life". Thus, by pointing to oral tradition, they argued for the historicity of the assumption and Dormition narratives. However, Shoemaker notes they fail to take into account the various "strikingly diverse traditions" that the Assumption seems to come from, mainly, "a great variety of original types", rather than "a single unified tradition". Regardless, Shoemaker states even those scholars note "belief in the Virgin's Assumption is the final dogmatic development, rather than the point of origin, of these traditions".

According to Stephen J. Shoemaker, the first known narrative to address the end of Mary's life and her assumption is the apocryphal third- and possibly second-century Liber Requiei Mariae ("Book of Mary's Repose"). Shoemaker asserts that "this earliest evidence for the veneration of Mary appears to come from a markedly heterodox theological milieu".

Other early sources, less suspect in their content, also contain references to the Assumption. "The Dormition/Assumption of Mary" (attributed to John the Theologian or "Pseudo-John"), another anonymous narrative, is possibly dated to the fourth century, but is dated by Shoemaker as later. The "Six Books Dormition Apocryphon", dated to the early fourth century, likewise speaks of the Assumption. "Six Books Dormition Apocryphon" was perhaps associated with the Collyridians who were condemned by Epiphanius of Salamis "for their excessive devotion to the Virgin Mary".

Shoemaker mentions that "the ancient narratives are neither clear nor unanimous in either supporting or contradicting the dogma" of the assumption.

In accordance with Stephen J. Shoemaker "there is no evidence of any tradition concerning Mary's Dormition and Assumption from before the fifth century. The only exception to this is Epiphanius' unsuccessful attempt to uncover a tradition of the end of Mary's life towards the end of the fourth century." The New Testament is silent regarding the end of her life, the early Christians produced no accounts of her death, and in the late 4th century Epiphanius of Salamis wrote he could find no authorized tradition about how her life ended. Nevertheless, although Epiphanius could not decide on the basis of biblical or church tradition whether Mary had died or remained immortal, his indecisive reflections suggest that some difference of opinion on the matter had already arisen in his time, and he identified three beliefs concerning her end: that she died a normal and peaceful death; that she died a martyr; and that she did not die. Even more, in another text Epiphanius stated that Mary was like Elijah because she never died but was assumed, like him.

Notable later apocrypha that mention the Assumption include De Obitu S. Dominae and De Transitu Virginis, both probably from the 5th century, with further versions by Dionysius the Areopagite, and Gregory of Tours, among others. The Transitus Mariae was considered as apocrypha in a 6th-century work called Decretum Gelasianum, but by the early 8th century the belief was so well established that John of Damascus could set out what had become the standard Eastern tradition, that "Mary died in the presence of the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven."

Euthymiac History, from the sixth century, contains one of the earliest reference to the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary.

The Feast of the Dormition, imported from the East, arrived in the West in the early 7th century, its name changing to Assumption in some 9th century liturgical calendars. In the same century Pope Leo IV (reigned 847–855) gave the feast a vigil and an octave to solemnise it above all others, and Pope Nicholas I (858–867) placed it on a par with Christmas and Easter. In the 12th century, the German nun Elisabeth of Schönau was reportedly granted visions of Mary and her son which had a profound influence on the Western Church's tradition that Mary was assumed in body and soul into Heaven, and Pope Benedict XIV (1740–1758) declared it "a probable opinion, which to deny were impious and blasphemous".

Scriptural basis

Pope Pius XII, in promulgating Munificentissimus Deus, stated that "All these proofs and considerations of the holy Fathers and the theologians are based upon the Sacred Writings as their ultimate foundation." The pope did not advance any specific text as proof of the doctrine, but one senior advisor, Father Jugie, expressed the view that Revelation 12:1–2 was the chief scriptural witness to the assumption:

"And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child ..."

The symbolism of this verse is based on the Old Testament, where the sun, moon, and eleven stars represent the patriarch Jacob, his wife, and eleven of the twelve tribes of Israel, who bow down before the twelfth star and tribe, Joseph, and verses 2–6 reveal that the woman is an image of the faithful community. The possibility that it might be a reference to Mary's immortality was tentatively proposed by Epiphanius in the 4th century, but while Epiphanius made clear his uncertainty and did not advocate the view, many later scholars did not share his hesitation and its reading as a representation of Mary became popular with certain Roman Catholic theologians.

Many of the bishops cited Genesis 3:15, in which God is addressing the serpent in the Garden of Eden, as the primary confirmation of Mary's assumption:

"I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms that the account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, and that the fall of mankind, by the seductive voice of the snake in the Bible, represents the fallen angel, Satan. Similarly, the great dragon in Revelation 12 is a representation of Satan, identified with the serpent from the garden who has enmity with the woman. Though the woman in Revelation represents the people of God, faithful Israel and the Church, Mary is considered the Mother of the Church. Therefore, in Catholic thought, there is an association between this heavenly woman and Mary's Assumption.

Some scholars contend that no messianic prophecy was originally intended, that in the Hebrew Bible the serpent is not satanic, and the verse is simply a record of the enmity between mankind and snakes (although a memory of the ancient Canaanite myth of a primordial sea-serpent may stand behind them, albeit at a distance). But although the verse speaks literally about mankind's relationship with snakes, there is also a metaphorical overtone: a door has been opened to a dark power and there is no promise of victory, but rather a warning of ongoing conflict.

Among the many other passages noted by Pope Pius were the following:
 * Psalm 132, greeting the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem ("Arise, O Lord, into your resting place, you and the ark which you have sanctified!"), where the ark is taken as the prophetic "type" of Mary;
 * Revelation 11:19, in which John sees the Ark of the Covenant in heaven (this verse immediately precedes the vision of the woman clothed with the sun);
 * Luke 1:28, in which the Archangel Gabriel greets Mary with the words, "Hail Mary, full of grace", since Mary's bodily assumption is a natural consequence of being full of grace;
 * 1 Corinthians 15 and Matthew 27, concerning the certainty of bodily resurrection for all who have faith in Jesus.

Catholic marian visionaries and the Assumption
On 1 May 1950 Gilles Bouhours (a marian seer) reported to Pius XII a presumed message that the Virgin Mary would have ordered him to communicate to the pope on the dogma of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary. It is said that Pius XII asked God, during the Holy Year of 1950, for a sign that could reassure him that the dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was actually wanted by God and when Gilles communicated the message to Pius XII, the pope considered this message the hoped-for sign. Six months after the private audience granted to Gilles by the pope, Pius XII himself proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of body and soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven.

Assumption versus Dormition

Some Catholics believe that Mary died before being assumed, but they believe that she was miraculously resurrected before being assumed (mortalistic interpretation). Others believe she was assumed bodily into Heaven without first dying (immortalistic interpretation). Either understanding may be legitimately held by Catholics, with Eastern Catholics observing the Feast as the Dormition. It seems, however, that there is much more evidence for the mortalistic position in the Catholic traditions (liturgy, apocrypha, material culture). It is also worth noting that St. Pope John Paul II expressed the mortalistic position in his public speech.

Many theologians note by way of comparison that in the Catholic Church the Assumption is dogmatically defined, whilst in the Eastern Orthodox tradition the Dormition is less dogmatically than liturgically and mystically defined. Such differences spring from a larger pattern in the two traditions, wherein Catholic teachings are often dogmatically and authoritatively defined – in part because of the more centralized structure of the Catholic Church – whilst in Eastern Orthodoxy many doctrines are less authoritative.

The Latin Catholic Feast of the Assumption is celebrated on 15 August and the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God (or Dormition of the Theotokos, the falling asleep of the Mother of God) on the same date, preceded by a 14-day fasting period. Eastern Christians believe that Mary died a natural death, that her soul was received by Christ upon death, that her body was resurrected after her death and that she was taken up into heaven bodily in anticipation of the general resurrection.

"Orthodox tradition is clear and unwavering in regard to the central point [of the Dormition]: the Holy Virgin underwent, as did her Son, a physical death, but her body – like His – was afterwards raised from the dead and she was taken up into heaven, in her body as well as in her soul. She has passed beyond death and judgement and lives wholly in the Age to Come. The Resurrection of the Body ... has in her case been anticipated and is already an accomplished fact. That does not mean, however, that she is dissociated from the rest of humanity and placed in a wholly different category: for we all hope to share one day in that same glory of the Resurrection of the Body that she enjoys even now."

Protestant views

Views differ within Protestantism, with those with a theology closer to Catholicism sometimes believing in a bodily assumption whilst most Protestants do not.

Lutheran views
The Feast of the Assumption of Mary was retained by the Lutheran Church after the Reformation. Evangelical Lutheran Worship designates August 15 as a lesser festival named "Mary, Mother of Our Lord" while the current Lutheran Service Book formally calls it "St. Mary, Mother of our Lord".

Anglican views
Within Anglicanism the Assumption of Mary is accepted by some, rejected by others, or regarded as adiaphora ("a thing indifferent"). The doctrine effectively disappeared from Anglican worship in 1549, partially returning in Anglo-Catholic tradition during the 20th century under different names. A Marian feast on 15 August is celebrated by the Church of England as a non-specific feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast called by the Scottish Episcopal Church simply "Mary the Virgin", and in the US-based Episcopal Church it is observed as the feast of "Saint Mary the Virgin: Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ", while other Anglican provinces have a feast of the Dormition – the Anglican Church of Canada, for instance, marks the day as the "Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary".

The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, which seeks to identify common ground between the two communions, released in 2004 a non-authoritative declaration meant for study and evaluation, the "Seattle Statement"; this "agreed statement" concludes that "the teaching about Mary in the two definitions of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, understood within the biblical pattern of the economy of hope and grace, can be said to be consonant with the teaching of the Scriptures and the ancient common traditions".

Other Protestant views
The Protestant reformer Heinrich Bullinger believed in the assumption of Mary. His 1539 polemical treatise against idolatry expressed his belief that Mary's sacrosanctum corpus ("sacrosanct body") had been assumed into heaven by angels:

Feasts and related fasting period
Orthodox Christians fast for fourteen days before the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, including abstinence from sexual relations. Fasting in the Orthodox Churches generally consists of abstinence from certain food groups; during the Dormition fast, one observes a strict fast on weekdays, with wine and oil allowed on weekends and, additionally, fish on the Transfiguration (August 6).

The Assumption is important to many Christians, especially Catholics and Orthodox, as well as many Lutherans and Anglicans, as the Virgin Mary's heavenly birthday (the day that Mary was received into Heaven). Belief about her acceptance into the glory of Heaven is seen by some Christians as the symbol of the promise made by Jesus to all enduring Christians that they too will be received into paradise. The Assumption of Mary is symbolised in the Fleur-de-lys Madonna.

The present Italian name of the holiday, Ferragosto, may derive from the Latin name, Feriae Augusti ("Holidays of the Emperor Augustus"), since the month of August took its name from the emperor. The feast was introduced by Bishop Cyril of Alexandria in the 5th century. In the course of Christianization, he put it on 15 August. In the middle of August, Augustus celebrated his victories over Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra at Actium and Alexandria with a three-day triumph. The anniversaries (and later only 15 August) were public holidays from then on throughout the Roman Empire.

The Solemnity of the Assumption on 15 August was celebrated in the Eastern Church from the 6th century. The Western Church adopted this date as a Holy Day of Obligation to commemorate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a reference to the belief in a real, physical elevation of her sinless soul and incorrupt body into Heaven.

Public holidays

Assumption Day on 15 August is a nationwide public holiday in Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chile, Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, East Timor, France, Gabon, Greece, Georgia, Republic of Guinea, Haiti, Italy, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of North Macedonia, Madagascar, Malta, Mauritius, Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro (Albanian Catholics), Paraguay, Poland (coinciding with Polish Army Day), Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tahiti, Togo, and Vanuatu; and was also in Hungary until 1948.

It is also a public holiday in parts of Germany (parts of Bavaria and Saarland) and Switzerland (in 14 of the 26 cantons). In Guatemala, it is observed in Guatemala City and in the town of Santa Maria Nebaj, both of which claim her as their patron saint. Also, this day is combined with Mother's Day in Costa Rica and parts of Belgium.

Prominent Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox countries in which Assumption Day is an important festival but is not recognized by the state as a public holiday include the Czech Republic, Ireland, Mexico, the Philippines and Russia. In Bulgaria, the Feast of the Assumption is the biggest Eastern Orthodox Christian celebration of the Holy Virgin. Celebrations include liturgies and votive offerings. In Varna, the day is celebrated with a procession of a holy icon, and with concerts and regattas.

In many places, religious parades and popular festivals are held to celebrate this day. In Canada, Assumption Day is the Fête Nationale of the Acadians, of whom she is the patroness saint. Some businesses close on that day in heavily francophone parts of New Brunswick, Canada. The Virgin Assumed in Heaven is also patroness of the Maltese Islands and her feast, celebrated on 15 August, apart from being a public holiday in Malta is also celebrated with great solemnity in the local churches especially in the seven localities known as the Seba' Santa Marijiet. The Maltese localities which celebrate the Assumption of Our Lady are: Il-Mosta, Il-Qrendi, Ħal Kirkop, Ħal Għaxaq, Il-Gudja, Ħ'Attard, L-Imqabba and Victoria. The hamlet of Praha, Texas, holds a festival during which its population swells from approximately 25 to 5,000 people.

In Anglicanism and Lutheranism, the feast is now often kept, but without official use of the word "Assumption". In Eastern Orthodox churches following the Julian Calendar, the feast day of Assumption of Mary falls on 28 August.

Art
The earliest known use of the Dormition is found on a sarcophagus in the crypt of a church in Zaragoza in Spain dated c. 330. The Assumption became a popular subject in Western Christian art, especially from the 12th century, and especially after the Reformation, when it was used to refute the Protestants and their downplaying of Mary's role in salvation. Angels commonly carry her heavenward where she is to be crowned by Christ, while the Apostles below surround her empty tomb as they stare up in awe. Caravaggio, the "father" of the Baroque movement, caused a stir by depicting her as a decaying corpse, quite contrary to the doctrine promoted by the church; more orthodox examples include works by El Greco, Rubens, Annibale Carracci, and Nicolas Poussin, the last replacing the Apostles with putti throwing flowers into the tomb.

title: Assumption of Mary


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Subscription business model

The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and is now used by many businesses, websites and even pharmaceutical companies in partnership with governments.

Subscriptions
Rather than selling products individually, a subscription offers periodic (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, semi-annual, yearly/annual, or seasonal) use or access to a product or service, or, in the case of performance-oriented organizations such as opera companies, tickets to the entire run of some set number of (e.g., five to fifteen) scheduled performances for a whole season. Thus, a one-time sale of a product can become a recurring sale and build brand loyalty.

Industries that use this model include mail order book sales clubs and music sales clubs, private web mail providers, cable television, satellite television providers with pay television channels, providers with digital catalogs with downloadable music or eBooks, audiobooks, satellite radio, telephone companies, mobile network operators, internet providers, software publishers, websites (e.g., blogging websites), business solutions providers, financial firms, health clubs, lawn mowing and snowplowing services, pharmaceuticals, renting an apartment, property taxes, as well as the traditional newspapers, magazines, and academic journals.

Renewal of a subscription may be periodic and activated automatically so that the cost of a new period is automatically paid for by a pre-authorized charge to a credit card or a checking account. A common variation of the model in online games and on websites is the freemium model, in which the first tier of content is free. Still, access to premium features (for example, game power-ups or article archives) is limited to paying subscribers.

In addition to the freemium model, other subscription pricing variations are gaining traction. For instance, the tiered pricing model is frequently used in software as a service (SaaS) platforms, offering customers different access levels and features based on their subscription tier. This model is particularly effective for tailoring services to customer requirements. Another approach is the usage-based pricing model, which calculates charges based on the extent of service or product utilization by the customer. This model is becoming increasingly prevalent, especially in services where customer usage varies significantly.

Types and examples
There are different categories of subscriptions:
 * A subscription for a fixed set of goods or services.
 * Periodicals, such as a newspaper or magazine, have several types of subscriptions:
 * Paid circulation
 * Non-paid circulation
 * Controlled circulation
 * Subscription boxes contain a variety of consumables
 * Community-supported agriculture
 * Meal delivery service
 * Meal kit delivery service
 * A subscription for unlimited use of a service or collection of services. Usage may be personal and non-transferable for a family or, under certain circumstances, for a group utilizing a service simultaneously. In the publishing industry, a subscription to a bundle of several journals, at a discounted price, is known as a "big deal".
 * Software as a service
 * A pay-as-you-go subscription where a consumer subscribes to purchase a product periodically. This is also known as the convenience model because it is convenient for the customer not to have to remember to find their product and buy it periodically. This model has been popularized by companies like Dollar Shave Club, Birchbox, and OrderGroove. Based on their success, many other retailers have begun to offer subscription model services.
 * For example, a company's subscription to a rail pass may not be individualized but might permit all firm employees to use the service. Subscriptions of this type are rare for goods with an unlimited supply and many luxury services.
 * A subscription for basic access or minimal service plus some additional charge depending on usage. A basic telephone service pays a pre-determined fee for monthly use. Still, it may have extra charges for other services such as long-distance calls, directory, and pay-per-call services. When the basic service is offered free of charge, this business model is often referred to as Freemium.
 * An online subscription supports content creators using crowdfunding. Fans can interact and send tips to the content creator but also have access to exclusive paid content. Popular examples are Patreon and OnlyFans.

Publishing
In publishing, the subscription model typically involves a paywall, paysite, or other "toll-access" system (named in opposition to open access). As revenues from digital advertising diminish, a paid subscription model is being favoured by more publishers who see it as a comparatively stable income stream.

Academic journals
In the field of academic publishing, the subscription business model means that articles of a specific journal or conference proceedings are only available to subscribers. Subscriptions are typically sold to universities and other higher education institutions and research institutes, though some academic publishers also sell individual subscriptions or access to individual articles.

In contrast with other media such as newspapers, subscription fees to academic publishers generally do not go towards supporting the creation of the content: the scientific articles are written by scientists and reviewed by other scientists as part of their work duties. The publisher does not pay the paper authors and reviewers. In this light, the subscription model has been called undesirable by proponents of the open access movement.

Academic publications that use the subscription model are called "closed-access" in opposition to their open-access counterparts.

Vendors
Businesses benefit because they are assured a predictable and constant revenue stream from subscribed individuals for the duration of the subscriber's agreement. Not only does this greatly reduce uncertainty and the riskiness of the enterprise, but it often provides payment in advance (as with magazines, and concert tickets), while allowing customers to become greatly attached to using the service and, therefore, more likely to extend by signing an agreement for the next period close to when the current agreement expires.

In an integrated software solution, for example, the subscription pricing structure is designed so that the revenue stream from the recurring subscriptions is considerably more significant than the revenue from simple one-time purchases. Some subscription schemes (like magazines) also increase sales by not allowing subscribers to accept or reject any specific issue. This reduces customer acquisition costs and allows personalized marketing or database marketing. However, the system requires that the business have an accurate, reliable, and timely way to manage and track subscriptions.

From a marketing-analyst perspective, the vendor has the added benefit of knowing the number of currently active members since a subscription typically involves a contractual agreement. This so-called 'contractual' setting facilitates customer relationship management to a large extent because the analyst knows who is an active customer and who recently churned.

Additional benefits include a higher average customer lifetime value (ACLV) than that of nonrecurring business models, greater customer inertia and a more committed customer base as it transitions from purchase to opt-out decisions, and more potential for upselling and cross-selling other products or services.

Some software companies such as Adobe and Autodesk have moved from a perpetual licensing model to a subscription model, known as "software as a service". This move has significant implications for sales and customer support organizations. Over time, the need to close large deals decreases, resulting in lower sales costs. However, the size of the customer support organization increases so that the paying customers stay happy.

Customers
Consumers may find subscriptions convenient if they believe they will buy a product regularly and might save money. The customer saves time for repeated delivery of the product or service.

Subscriptions which exist to support clubs and organizations call their subscribers "members" and they are given access to a group with similar interests.

Subscription pricing can make it easier to pay for expensive items since they can often be paid for over time and thus can make the product seem more affordable. On the other hand, most newspaper and magazine-type subscriptions are paid upfront, which may prevent some customers from subscribing. Fixed prices may be an advantage for consumers who frequently use those services. However, it could disadvantage a customer who plans to use the service frequently but later does not. The commitment to paying for a package may have been more expensive than a single purchase. In addition, subscription models increase the possibility of vendor lock-in, which can have fatally business-critical implications for a customer if its business depends on the availability of software: For example, without an online connection to a licensing server to verify the licensing status every once in a while, a software under a subscription-model would typically stop functioning or fall back to the functionality of a freemium version, thereby making it impossible (to continue) to use the software in remote places or particularly secure environments without internet access, after the vendor has stopped supporting the version or software, or even has gone out of business leaving the customer without a chance to renew the subscription and access his data or designs maintained with the software (in some businesses it is important to have full access even to old files for decades). Also, consumers may find repeated payments to be onerous.

Subscription models often require or allow the business to gather substantial amounts of information from the customer (such as magazine mailing lists), and this raises issues of privacy.

A subscription model may benefit the software buyer if it forces the supplier to improve its product. Accordingly, a psychological phenomenon may occur when a customer renews a subscription, that may not occur during a one-time transaction: if the buyer is not satisfied with the service, he/she can leave the subscription to expire and find another seller.

Environment
Because customers may only need or want some of the items received, this can lead to waste and an adverse effect on the environment, depending on the products. Greater volumes of production, greater energy and natural resource consumption, and subsequently greater disposal costs are incurred.

Subscription models also create the opposite effect. This can be illustrated by subscribing to a service for mowing lawns. The effective use of a single mower increases when mowing for a collection of homes; instead of every family owning a lawnmower that is not used as much as the service-providing mower, the use of resources for producing lawnmowers, therefore, decreases while lawns stay cut.

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title: Subscription business model


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Operation Ranch Hand

Operation Ranch Hand was a U.S. military operation during the Vietnam War, lasting from 1962 until 1971. Largely inspired by the British use of chemicals 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D (Agent Orange) during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s, it was part of the overall herbicidal warfare program during the war called "Operation Trail Dust". Ranch Hand involved spraying an estimated 19 e6U.S.gal of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover. Areas of Laos and Cambodia were also sprayed to a lesser extent. According to the Vietnamese government, the chemicals caused 400,000 deaths. The United States government has described these figures as unreliable.

Nearly 20,000 sorties were flown between 1961 and 1971. The "Ranch Handers" motto was "Only you can prevent a forest" – a take on the popular U.S. Forest Service poster slogan of Smokey Bear. During the ten years of spraying, over 5 e6acre of forest and 500000 acre of crops were heavily damaged or destroyed. Around 20% of the forests of South Vietnam were sprayed at least once.

The herbicides were sprayed by the U.S. Air Force flying C-123s using the call sign "Hades". The planes were fitted with specially developed spray tanks with a capacity of 1000 U.S.gal of herbicides. A plane sprayed a swath of land that was 80 m wide and 16 km long in about 4½ minutes, at a rate of about 3 U.S.gal/acre. Sorties usually consisted of three to five aircraft flying side by side. 95% of the herbicides and defoliants used in the war were sprayed by the U.S. Air Force as part of Operation Ranch Hand. The remaining 5% were sprayed by the U.S. Chemical Corps, other military branches, and the Republic of Vietnam using hand sprayers, spray trucks, helicopters and boats, primarily around U.S. military installations.

Defoliants
The herbicides used were sprayed at up to 50 times the concentration than for normal agricultural use. The most common herbicide used was Herbicide Orange, more commonly referred to as Agent Orange: a fifty-fifty mixture of two herbicides 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and 2,4,5-T (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid) manufactured for the U.S. Department of Defense primarily by Monsanto Corporation and Dow Chemical. The other most common color-coded Ranch Hand herbicides were Agent Blue (cacodylic acid) that was primarily used against food crops, and Agent White which was often used when Agent Orange was not available.

The Agents used are known as the Rainbow Herbicides with their active ingredients, and years used were as follows:
 * Agent Green: 100% n-butyl ester 2,4,5-T, used prior to 1966
 * Agent Pink: 100% 2,4,5-T (60% n-butyl ester 2,4,5-T, and 40% iso-butyl ester of 2,4,5-T) used prior to 1966
 * Agent Purple: 50% 2,4,5-T (30% n-butyl ester of 2,4,5-T, and 20% iso-butyl ester of 2,4,5-T) and 50% n-butyl ester of 2,4-D used 1961–1965
 * Agent Blue (Phytar 560G): 65.6% organic Arsenicical (cacodylic acid (Ansar 138) and its sodium salt sodium cacodylate) used from 1962–1971 in powder and water solution
 * Agent White (Tordon 101): 21.2% (acid weight basis) triisopropanolamine salts of 2,4-D and 5.7% picloram used 1966–1971
 * Agent Orange or Herbicide Orange, (HO): 50% n-butyl ester 2,4-D and 50% n-butyl ester 2,4,5-T used 1965–1970
 * Agent Orange II:50% n-butyl ester 2,4-D and 50% isooctyl ester 2,4,5-T used after 1968.
 * Agent Orange III: 66.6% n-butyl 2,4-D and 33.3% n-butyl ester 2,4,5-T.
 * Enhanced Agent Orange, Orange Plus, Super Orange (SO), or DOW Herbicide M-3393: standardized Agent Orange mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T combined with an oil-based mixture of picloram, a proprietary Dow Chemical product called Tordon 101, an ingredient of Agent White.

The herbicides were procured by the U.S. military from Dow Chemical Company (all but Agent Blue), Monsanto (Agent Orange, Agent Purple, and Agent Pink), Hercules Inc. (Agent Orange and Agent Purple), Thompson-Hayward Chemical Company (Agent Orange and Agent Pink), Diamond Alkali/Shamrock Company (Agent Orange, Agent Blue, Agent Purple, and Agent Pink), United States Rubber Company (Agent Orange), Thompson Chemicals Corporation (Agent Orange and Agent Pink), Agrisect Company (Agent Orange and Agent Purple), Hoffman-Taff Inc. (Agent Orange), and the Ansul Chemical Company (Agent Blue). In April 1967, the entire American domestic production of 2,4,5-T was confiscated by the military; foreign sources were also tapped into, including the Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI).

65% of the herbicides used contained 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid that was contaminated with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin, a "known human carcinogen... by several different routes of exposure, including oral, dermal, and intraperitoneal". About 12,000,000 U.S.gal of dioxin-contaminated herbicides were sprayed over Southeast Asia (mainly in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) during American combat operations in the Vietnam War.

In 2005, a New Zealand government minister was quoted and widely reported as saying that Agent Orange chemicals had been supplied from New Zealand to the United States military during the conflict. Shortly after, the same minister claimed to have been mis-quoted, although this point was less widely reported. From 1962 to 1987, 2,4,5-T herbicide had been manufactured at an Ivon Watkins-Dow plant in New Plymouth for domestic use, however it has not been proven that the herbicide had been exported for use by the U.S military in Vietnam.

Operations
For most of the war, Operation Ranch Hand was based at Bien Hoa Air Base (1966–1970), for operations in the Mekong Delta region where U.S. Navy patrol boats were vulnerable to attack from areas of undergrowth along the water's edge. Storage, mixing, loading, and washing areas and a parking ramp were located just off the base's inside taxiway between the Hot Cargo Ramp and the control tower. For operations along the central coast and the Ho Chi Minh trail regions, Ranch Hand operated out of Da Nang Air Base (1964–1971). Other bases of operation included Phù Cát Air Base (1968–1970), Tan Son Nhut Air Base (1962–1966), Nha Trang Air Base (1968–69), Phan Rang Air Base (1970–1972), and Tuy Hoa Air Base (1971–1972). Other bases were also used as temporary staging areas for Ranch Hand. The Da Nang, Bien Hoa and Phu Cat Air bases are still heavily contaminated with dioxin from the herbicides, and have been placed on a priority list for containment and clean-up by the Vietnamese government.

The first aerial spraying of herbicides was a test run conducted on 10 August 1961 in a village north of Đắk Tô against foliage. Testing continued over the next year and even though there was doubt in the State Department, the Pentagon and the White House as to the efficacy of the herbicides, Operation Ranch Hand began in early 1962. Individual spray runs had to be approved by President John F. Kennedy until November 1962, when Kennedy gave the authority to approve most spray runs to the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam and the U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam. Ranch Hand was given final approval to spray targets in eastern Laos in December 1965.

The issue of whether or not to allow crop destruction was under great debate due to its potential of violating the Geneva Protocol. However, American officials pointed out that the British had previously used 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D (virtually identical to America's use in Vietnam) on a large scale throughout the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s in order to destroy bushes, crops, and trees in effort to deny communist insurgents the cover they needed to ambush passing convoys. Indeed, Secretary of State Dean Rusk told President Kennedy on 24 November 1961, that "[t]he use of defoliant does not violate any rule of international law concerning the conduct of chemical warfare and is an accepted tactic of war. Precedent has been established by the British during the emergency in Malaya in their use of aircraft for destroying crops by chemical spraying." The president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem began to push the U.S. Military Advisory Group in Vietnam and the White House to begin crop destruction in September 1961, but it was not until October 1962 when the White House gave approval for limited testing of Agent Blue against crops in an area believed to be controlled by the Viet Cong. Soon after, crop destruction became an integral part of the Ranch Hand program.

Targets for the spray runs were carefully selected to satisfy the strategic and psychological operations goals of the U.S. and South Vietnamese military. Spray runs were surveyed to pinpoint the target area and then placed on a priority list. Due to the low altitude (ideally 150 ft required for spraying, the C-123s were escorted by fighter aircraft or helicopter gunship that would strafe or bomb the target area in order to draw out any ground fire if the area was believed to be 'hot'. Spray runs were planned to enable as straight a run as possible to limit the amount of time the planes flew at low altitude. Data on the spray runs, their targets, the herbicide used and amount used, weather conditions and other details were recorded and later put into a database called the Herbicide Reporting System (HERBS) tapes.

The effectiveness of the spraying was influenced by many factors including weather and terrain. Spray runs occurred during the early morning hours before temperatures rose above 85 F and the winds picked up. Mangroves in the Delta region required only one spraying and did not survive once defoliated, whereas dense forests in the uplands required two or more spray runs. Within two to three weeks of spraying, the leaves would drop from the trees, which would remain bare until the next rainy season. In order to defoliate the lower stories of forest cover, one or more follow-up spray runs were needed. About 10 percent of the trees sprayed died from a single spray run. Multiple spraying resulted in increased mortality for the trees, as did following up the herbicide missions with napalm or bombing strikes.

Scientific community reaction
The use of herbicides in the Vietnam War was controversial from the beginning, particularly for crop destruction. The scientific community began to protest the use of herbicides in Vietnam as early as 1964, when the Federation of American Scientists objected to the use of defoliants. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) issued a resolution in 1966 calling for a field investigation of the herbicide program in Vietnam. In 1967, seventeen Nobel laureates and 5,000 other scientists signed a petition asking for the immediate end to the use of herbicides in Vietnam.

In 1970, AAAS sent a team of scientists—the Herbicide Assessment Commission (HAC), consisting of Matthew Meselson, Arthur Westing, John Constable, and Robert Cook—to conduct field tests of the ecological impacts of the herbicide program in Vietnam. A 1969 study by the Bionetics Research Laboratory found that 2,4,5-T could cause birth defects and stillbirths in mice. The U.S. government suspended the military use of 2,4,5-T in the U.S. in April 1970. Sporadic crop destruction sorties using Agent Blue and Agent White continued throughout 1970 until the final Ranch Hand run was flown on 7 January 1971.

Human impact
The use of herbicides as a defoliant had long-term destructive effects on the people of Vietnam and their land and ecology, as well as on those who fled in the mass exodus from 1978 to the early 1990s. According to the Vietnamese government, the US program exposed approximately 4.8 million Vietnamese people to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths due to a range of cancers and other ailments.

Hindsight corrective studies indicate that previous estimates of Agent Orange exposure were biased by government intervention and under-guessing, such that current estimates for dioxin release are almost double those previously predicted. According to the Vietnamese Government, census data indicates that the United States military directly sprayed upon millions of Vietnamese during strategic Agent Orange use.

According to the Vietnamese government, the program caused three million Vietnamese health problems, with 150,000 children born with severe birth defects, and 24% of the area of Vietnam being defoliated. The Red Cross of Vietnam estimates that up to one million people were disabled or have health problems as a result of exposure to Agent Orange. The United States government has described these figures as unreliable. According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, 2.6 million U.S. military personnel were exposed and hundreds of thousands of veterans are eligible for treatment for Agent Orange-related illnesses.

title: Operation Ranch Hand


text:
1994 Oregon Ballot Measure 11

Measure 11, also known as "One Strike You're Out", was a citizens' initiative passed in 1994 in the U.S. State of Oregon. This statutory enactment established mandatory minimum sentencing for several crimes. The measure was approved in the November 8, 1994 general election with 788,695 votes in favor, and 412,816 votes against.

The sentencing judge cannot give a lesser sentence than that prescribed by Measure 11, nor can a prisoner's sentence be reduced for good behavior. Prisoners cannot be paroled prior to serving their minimum sentence.

The measure applies to all defendants aged 15 and over, requiring juveniles 15 and over charged with these crimes to be tried as adults.

The measure was placed on the ballot via initiative petition by Crime Victims United, a tough-on-crime political group. Then-State Representative Kevin Mannix, who sponsored the measure, has since argued that violent criminals cannot be reformed through probation or short prison sentences, and that the time they are kept incarcerated is itself a benefit to society.

Ballot Measure 10, also passed in 1994, permitted the Oregon Legislative Assembly to change Measure 11, but only with a 2/3 vote in each chamber. The legislature has done so several times.

Legislative Attempts to Alter or Repeal Measure 11:

 * House Bill 3439 passed June 1995: Added Attempted Murder and Attempted Aggravated Murder.
 * Senate Bill 1049 passed July 1997: Added Arson I (when a serious physical threat is involved), Compelling Prostitution, and Use of Child in Display of Sex Act. This also allowed for departures from the mandatory minimum sentencing for some Assault II, Kidnapping II, and Robbery II convictions.
 * House Bill 2494 passed August 1999: Allowed for departures from the mandatory minimum sentence for some Manslaughter II convictions committed after October 23, 1999.
 * Measure 94 defeated November 2000: Attempt to repeal mandatory minimum sentencing in Oregon; defeated 387,068 to 1,073,275.[14]
 * House Bill 2379 passed July 2001: Allowed for departure from the mandatory minimum sentence for some Rape II, Sodomy II, Sexual Penetration II, and Sexual Abuse I convictions after January 1, 2002.
 * Senate Bill 1008 passed in May 2019 (pending signature from the Governor): The bill is a major overhaul of many Measure 11 stipulations. Key parts of the bill seek to address the impacts of Measure 11 on youth reported by the Oregon Justice Resource Center, such as:
 * "Second Look" hearings for any juvenile convicted in adult court after completion of half their sentence. Judges are to consider factors such as remorse and rehabilitation, and may reduce the remainder of the juvenile's sentence to community-based supervision.
 * Prohibiting life without parole for minors.
 * Ensuring minors of 15 years or older are not automatically tried as adults for major crimes.

Proponents of Measure 11 argued that judges had been too lenient in sentencing violent offenders. They saw the measure as critical for lowering crime rates.

Opponents of Measure 11 argued that judges should be allowed discretion in sentencing and should be able to account for the particular circumstances of a given crime. They also objected to the requirement that many youth defendants be tried as adults.

Oregon's prison population increased after Measure 11, and as of 2004, 41% of the growth was attributed to the direct or indirect impact of Measure 11. Crime rates in Oregon decreased between 1994 and 2000, but increased in 2001; opponents of Measure 11 noted that the trend mirrored national trends, while acknowledging that some likely re-offenders were imprisoned as a result of the law.

The effectiveness of Measure 11 to deter crime is further questioned when compared to research about mandatory minimums. Research has repeatedly disproven mandatory minimums as public safety tools. For example, a 1993 meta-analysis report compiled from 50 different studies found mandatory minimums’ lengthier prison sentences produced higher rates of recidivism and a tendency for lower-risk offenders to experience more negative outcomes.

Background and context
Prior to 1989, Oregon judges would decide whether a convicted felon should be put on probation or sent to prison, and for those sent to prison, set a maximum sentence (known as an "indeterminate sentence.") Based on a subsequent decision by the Parole Board, which used an assessment of good behavior, rehabilitative efforts, and criminal case, the average offender would serve a fraction of the sentence handed down by the judge.

The Oregon Legislative Assembly established felony sentencing guidelines in 1989, in an attempt to achieve the following four goals:
 * Proportional punishment, imposing the most severe sentences on the most serious offenders
 * Truth in sentencing, so the judge's sentence would more closely reflect actual prison time
 * Sentence uniformity, to reduce disparities among judges
 * Maintenance of correctional capacity consistent with sentencing policy, so the criminal justice system would be able to deliver proposed penalties.

Parole release for most offenders was abolished by the establishment of these guidelines. The Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision continues to have release authority over those prison inmates sentenced for crimes committed prior to November 1, 1989, those sentenced by the courts as dangerous offenders, and for murderers and aggravated murderers who are eligible for parole, regardless of the date of their crimes. Other prisoners began serving at least 80% of their sentences.

Measure 11, passed in 1994, affected only specific crimes, which were covered by the sentencing guidelines from 1989 to 1994.

Various exceptions exist to the guidelines, and to Measure 11 restrictions on sentencing.

Impact on youth
In February 2018, Oregon Council on Civil Rights, in collaboration with the Oregon Justice Resource Center, released a report on the impact of Measure 11 on Oregon's young people and whether the law is out-of-step with legal and scientific developments of recent years.

According to the report, Measure 11 mandates that juveniles hold the same culpability as adults, despite brain science declaring otherwise. The US Supreme Court has ruled several times in regards to the sentencing of minor:

 * Roper v. Simmons, which ruled that juveniles cannot be sentenced to death.
 * Graham v. Florida, which ruled that juvenile life without parole is unconstitutional for non-homicide juvenile offenders.
 * Miller v. Alabama, which ruled that mandatory juvenile life without parole is unconstitutional for all crimes.
 * Montgomery v. Louisiana, which confirms that the miller ruling now be applied retroactively.
 * Key conceptual takeaways from the supreme court decisions:
 * Youth have a unique capacity for reform.
 * Youth are fundamentally different from, and less culpable than, adults
 * All youth should have a reasonable opportunity to demonstrate their ability to change.
 * Lengthy sentences that fail to take into consideration the mitigating qualities of youth are in violation of their Eighth Amendment rights.
 * Youth should have access to a “meaningful opportunity for release.

Some key statistics:

 * Today, Oregon incarcerates young people at a higher rate than almost every other state in the country, including Texas and Louisiana. In fact, Oregon has the second highest rate of youth transfers to adult court in the nation, with young people - especially youth of color - subjected to lifelong consequences as a result.
 * In 2012, Oregon convicted black youth of Measure 11 offenses at 17 times the rate of their white counterparts.
 * Black youth account for 15.5% of Measure 11 indictments but only 1.8% of the general population in Oregon (resulting in an overrepresentation of around 8.6 times.)
 * The average relative rate of disparity (measure by the relative rate index or RRI2 ) between black and white youth for the five most common Measure 11 crimes is 15.26. The overall RRI for all crimes covered in this study was 13.6.
 * Oregon taxpayers bear a significant burden for youth incarceration. Measure 11 offenders require close custody, the most expensive form of state confinement, which can result in costs of as much as $263 per day and $95,995 per year, per juvenile.

Impact on women
In October 2018, the annual Women in Prison Conference held by the Oregon Justice Resource Center Women's Justice Project focused primarily on the effects of mandatory minimum sentences imposed by Measure 11 on female defendants. The conference highlights similar concerns and statistics echoed by Measure 11's original opponents in concerns to youth, including:

 * Oregon's incarceration rate for women has tripled since 1994 when Measure 11 when was first passed
 * Many convicted females had mitigating circumstances at the times of their cases, which are barred from consideration during sentencing under Measure 11's mandatory minimums. Coffee Creek Correctional Facility reported 2015 that 46% of their intakes that year experienced domestic violence; 76% were unemployed; over half had children; and 38% had not finished high school.

Political impact
The passage of Measure 11 was a central issue of Governor John Kitzhaber's first term, and remains a matter of controversy in Oregon politics. Supporters credit Measure 11 for reducing crime rates.[12] Opponents argue Measure 11 pressures innocent defendants into plea bargains for lesser (non-Measure 11) crimes, due to fear of mandatory sentences.[13]

title: 1994 Oregon Ballot Measure 11


text:
The Egyptian

The Egyptian (Sinuhe egyptiläinen, Sinuhe the Egyptian) is a historical novel by Mika Waltari. It was first published in Finnish in 1945, and in an abridged English translation by Naomi Walford in 1949, from Swedish rather than Finnish. Regarded as "one of the greatest books in Finnish literary history", it is, so far, the only Finnish novel to be adapted into a Hollywood film, which happened in 1954.

The Egyptian is the first and the most successful of Waltari's great historical novels, and that which gained him international fame. It is set in Ancient Egypt, mostly during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten of the 18th Dynasty, whom some have claimed to be the first monotheistic ruler in the world.

The novel is known for its high-level historical accuracy regarding the life and culture of the period depicted. At the same time, it also carries a pessimistic message of the essential sameness of flawed human nature throughout the ages.

Summary
The protagonist of the novel is the fictional character Sinuhe, the royal physician, who tells the story in exile after Akhenaten's fall and death. Apart from incidents in Egypt, the novel charts Sinuhe's travels in then Egyptian-dominated Syria (Levant), in Mitanni, Babylon, Minoan Crete, and among the Hittites.

The main character of the novel is named after a character in an ancient Egyptian text commonly known as the Story of Sinuhe. The original story dates to a time long before that of Akhenaten: texts are known from as early as the 12th dynasty.

Supporting historical characters include the old Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his conniving favorite wife, Tiy; the wife of Akhenaten, Nefertiti; the listless young Tutankhamun (King Tut), who succeeded as Pharaoh after Akhenaten's downfall; and the two common-born successors who were, according to this author, integral parts of the rise and fall of the Amarna heresy of Akhenaten: the priest and later Pharaoh Ay and the warrior-general and then finally Pharaoh, Horemheb. Though never appearing onstage, throughout the book the Hittite King Suppiluliuma I appears as a brooding threatening figure of a completely ruthless conqueror and tyrannical ruler. Other historical figures with whom the protagonist has direct dealings are: Aziru (ruler of Amurru kingdom), Thutmose (sculptor), Burna-Buriash II (Babylonian king), and, under a different name, Zannanza, son of Suppiluliuma I. Zannanza's bride is a collage of at least three historical figures: herself, first wife of Horemheb and, by him, mother of Ramesses I. Historical Horemheb died childless.

Plot
Sinuhe recounts, in his old age at his location of forced exile by the Red Sea coast, the events of his life. His tone expresses cynicism, bitterness and disappointment; he says humans are vile and will never change, and that he's writing down his story for therapeutic reasons alone and for something to do in the rugged and desolate desert landscape.

Sinuhe begins his life as a foundling discovered in a reed boat in the Nile, and grows up in the poor part of Thebes. His adoptive father Senmut is a doctor, and Sinuhe decides to walk in his footsteps. As an assistant to a royal doctor who knows his adoptive father, Sinuhe is allowed to visit the court, during a trepanation on the dying Amenhotep III – here Sinuhe, the young crown prince Akhenaten and Horemheb meet for the first time. Well educated, Sinuhe sets up a clinic and acquires the sly and eloquent slave Kaptah, who will be his companion and close friend throughout his life.

One day he gets acquainted with the gorgeous woman Nefernefernefer and is bewitched by her. Nefernefernefer gets Sinuhe to give her everything he owns – even his adoptive parents' house and grave. When the woman has realised that Sinuhe has run out of possessions, she gets rid of him. Ashamed and dishonored, Sinuhe arranges his adoptive parents to be embalmed and buries them in the Valley of the Kings (they had taken their lives before eviction), after which he decides to go to exile in the company of Kaptah to Levant, which was under Egyptian rule at the time.

In Syria, his medical skill earns him fame and wealth. During an Egyptian military operation in Syria, he re-encounters Horemheb, serving as a military commander. From this, Sinuhe is commissioned to travel at his expense in the known world to determine what military potential the established nations have.

Sinuhe, in company of Kaptah, travels first to Babylon where he engages in science and socializes with the city's scholars. One day he is summoned to the sick king Burraburiash, whom he manages to cure. Soon Kaptah is selected for the traditional day of the false king, where the city's greatest fool is king for a day and then killed. A young Cretan woman named Minea has been recently acquired to the king's harem against her will; during a feast, Sinuhe, in the process of falling in love with her, smuggles Minea and Kaptah from the palace and flees with the two to the neighboring country Mitanni. From there they proceed to Anatolia and to the fast-growing Hittite empire. Sinuhe and his companions feel unhappy about the militarism and tough rule of law that characterize the kingdom of the Hittites, and they decide to leave Anatolia and sail to Crete, Minea's homeland.

Minea has grown up with the mission to sacrifice herself as a virgin to the local bull god who lives in a mountain cave at the sea. Sinuhe is horrified by this and fears that he will not see her again. In the evening before Minea should enter the mountain cave, they marry each other unofficially. A while after Minea has been escorted into the mountain cave, Sinuhe enters the cave in search for her. He finds Minea's dead body and the remains of the Cretan god (described as a bull-headed sea serpent), and realises that she has been killed by the god's high priest Minotaurus to prevent her from returning and telling the god is dead. Sinuhe loses his mind from grief, but Kaptah eventually succeeds in calming him down and convinces him that it's best to move on and return to Syria.

In Syria, Sinuhe returns to medical profession and regains his previous status. He notices, however, that the Egyptian sovereignty in the area has now begun to be questioned and threatened. This rebellious mood is triggered not in the least by the Syrian, Hittite-friendly Prince Aziru, whom Sinuhe still befriends, among other things, through a medical assignment.

One day Sinuhe decides to return to Egypt. He sails to Thebes and opens a clinic for the poor in the same neighborhood he grew up in. He does not get rich in this, being driven by ideological motives instead. His slave Kaptah (now released by Sinuhe) instead becomes a businessman and buys a pub called "Crocodile's Tail". There Sinuhe meets a woman named Merit, who becomes Sinuhe's life partner.

In Egypt, a new king, Akhenaten, has begun to convey a monotheistic teaching centered around the sun god Aten. According to Akhenaten's doctrine, all people are equal, and in the new world order there no longer would be slaves and masters. Aspects of Akhenaten prove to be unpopular: his pacifism, among Horemheb and others concerned with the threat of Syrian and Hittite invasion; his attempts at redistributing property to the poor; and his worship of Aten at the exclusion of the old gods, among the clergy of the mighty state god Amon. Sinuhe is attracted to the teachings that the new king proclaims and, as he feels, focus on light, equality and justice, and joins Akhenaten's court.

After a particularly violent public incident, Akhenaten, fed up with opposition, leaves Thebes with Sinuhe to middle Egypt where a new capital, Akhetaten, dedicated to Aten, is built. However, the conflicts between Amon and Aten continue, and it all develops into a civil war. Aten's kingdom on Earth begins to fall, and the courtiers, one after another, abandon Akhenaten and Akhetaten in favor of Amon and Thebes. The final battle also takes place in Thebes. Sinuhe fights for the sake of Aten and Pharaoh to the end, but ultimately the side of the Amon priesthood is victorious. During the chaos, Merit and her son Thot are killed – the latter would turn out to be Sinuhe's offspring. When defeat has become reality, Akhenaten dies after having drunk a cup of poison mixed by the embittered Sinuhe. Queen Nefertite's father, Ay, takes the throne, after the boy king Tutankhamun's short reign, despite Sinuhe having realised from Tiy that he himself is of royal blood and must be the son of Amenhotep III and his Mitannic consort, and thus closer to the throne.

With Akhenaten out of the way, Horemheb gathers all fit men and conducts a full-scale war against the Hittite kingdom – Egypt's premier rival at this time. Both Sinuhe and Kaptah participate in this battle, as Sinuhe wanted to know what war is like. A peace treaty is ultimately established, and king Aziru and his royal family are captured and publicly executed. Sinuhe later succeeds with Horemheb's and Ay's mission to assassinate the Hittite prince Shubattu, secretly invited by Baketamon to marry her, preventing him from reaching Egypt and seizing the throne.

Sinuhe now goes back, afflicted by all the losses, to a simple dwelling in Thebes, bitter and disillusioned in the heart. Every now and then he is visited by his former servant Kaptah, who only becomes richer and richer, and is now Sinuhe's patron. Sinuhe begins to criticise the new regime led by his old friend Horemheb, and as a punishment for this he is exiled to the Red Sea coast.

Research and background
Although Waltari employed some poetic license in combining the biographies of Sinuhe and Akhenaten, he was otherwise much concerned about the historical accuracy of his detailed description of ancient Egyptian life and carried out considerable research into the subject. Waltari's fascination of ancient Egypt was sparked as a 14-year-old by the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun, which became widely publicised and a cultural phenomenon at the time. On his trips to foreign countries he would always first visit the local egyptological exhibitions and museums. Waltari didn't make notes, instead preferring to internalise all this vast knowledge; this allowed him to interweave his accumulated information smoothly into the story. The result has been praised not only by readers but also by Egyptologists.

Waltari had long been interested in Akhenaten and wrote a play about him, Akhnaton, auringosta syntynyt (Akhnaton, Born of the Sun), which was published in 1936. In it, Waltari explored the disastrous consequences of Akhenaten's well-intentioned implementation of unconditional idealism in a society, and referenced the tensions at the borders of the Egyptian empire which resemble those on the Soviet-Finnish frontier. Waltari would later revisit these themes, which only had a minor role in the play, in greater depth in The Egyptian. The character of Sinuhe makes no appearance in this play.

With the advent of World War II, Waltari's idealism crumbled and was replaced with cynicism; this was in no small part due to him serving as a propagandist during the Winter War and Continuation War at the State Information Bureau, causing him to realise how much historical information is actually relative or made of half-truths. Waltari also witnessed Finland's sudden, perfidious change of policy towards the USSR from "enemy" to "friend" upon the signing of the armistice on 4 September 1944, another ideal shattered. The war provided the final impulse for exploring the subjects of Akhenaten and Egypt in a novel which, although depicting events that took place over 3,300 years ago, in fact reflects the contemporary feelings of disillusionment and war-weariness and pessimistically illustrates how little the essence of humanity has changed since then. The political and battle depictions of ancient Egypt and surrounding nations contain many parallels with World War II. The threatening King Suppiluliuma has many of the overtones of Hitler. Waltari often said that the novel would have been a very different one had it not been for World War II.

The writing
In April 1945 Waltari travelled to his mother-in-law's cottage in Hartola, where he began writing in the attic. The experiences of war and 20 years of research had pushed him into a state where the novel burst out of him: The novel was written within a three and a half-month period of great inspiration, with Waltari producing as many as between 15 and 27 sheets per day. So intense was his state of inspiration and immersion that, in a fictionalised account called A Nail Merchant at Nightfall he would write later, he claimed to have been visited by visions of Egyptians and to have simply transcribed the story as dictated by Sinuhe himself. He repeated the same story four decades later in Kirjailijan muistelmia. This has caused some to speculate that Waltari in fact had been an Egyptian in a prior life or was a reincarnation of Sinuhe. Waltari followed a consistent schedule, writing from 9 AM to 4 or 5 PM, meal breaks at predetermined times, family members leaving him to his work. A state of happiness and being in love during creative work was essential to Waltari, and on evenings he wrote long love letters to one Helena Kangas (later known as Leena Ilmari) throughout the summer. Waltari's extramarital relationships were no danger to his marriage, as he and his wife Marjatta had developed a mutual understanding regarding these matters and Waltari would always remain loyal to her in the end. His mother died during this; his wife managed the funeral arrangements, Waltari attended the funeral, and on the next morning he resumed writing the novel where he left off.

The completed manuscript, totaling almost one thousand pages, was delivered by Waltari to WSOY in the first half of August 1945. Editor Jalmari Jäntti had typically cut risqué material from Waltari's prior works. This time, however, little to no corrections or deletions were required by the editor – it went on to be printed as it was on the same month.

Unchanging humanity
Central to the novel's themes is the conviction of the unchanging nature of mankind, exemplified by the recurring phrase "so there has ever been and ever will be". Its view on humanity is reputedly grim, displaying human failings such as selfishness, greed and prejudice as widespread. Waltari has gone on to state: "Although the basic characteristics of a human being can not change in the foreseeable time-frame due to the fact that they have 10000, 100000, 200000 years old inherited instincts as their basis, people's relationships can be altered and must be altered, so that the world can be saved from destruction."

Commenting on the prevalence of this interpretation, Finnish literary scholar Markku Envall views that the novel's main thesis is not simply that people can not change, but rather that it contains a contradiction that nothing can change and everything can change; on some levels things remain the same, but on other levels the hope of future change survives in the novel.

Envall brings up the "familiarity" of the depiction of 14th-century BC Egypt as highly developed: the novel describes phenomena – inventions, knowings, institutions etc. – that, although resembling familiar modern day equivalents that are rather new in Finland, are nonetheless egyptologically accurate. The similarity between ancient and modern times supports the themes of changelessness, and is in an "effective" tension with the archaic-style language. "The narration estranges the phenomena by portraying them as simultaneously archaic and timeless, alien and familiar," he writes. As examples of these cultural parallels, Envall lists: the pseudo-intellectuals exalt themselves by flaunting their usage of foreign loanwords; the language of Babylon is the common language of the learned throughout various countries (like Greek in the Hellenistic period, Latin in the medieval period, French among diplomats and English in the 20th and 21st centuries); education takes place in faculties that provide degrees for qualification in posts (European universities began in the Middle Ages); people have addresses and send mail as papyrus and clay tablets; censorship is circumvented by cloaking subjects with historical stand-ins. There are precursors to aspects of modern medicine and monetary economy as well.

Similar themes are expressed via repetition throughout the novel, such as: everything is futile, the tomorrow is unknowable, no one can know why something has always been so, all people are fundamentally the same everywhere, the world year is changing, and death is better than life.

Clash of ideologies
Markku Envall describes the work as a criticism of utopism, the advocation of an ideology or idealism while ignorant of the world where it is supposed to be realized. Idealistic and materialistic worldviews are at clash in the novel, the former represented by the pacifist pharaoh Akhenaten and latter by the cold-bloodedly realist warlord Horemheb – idealism and realism are similarly represented also by Sinuhe and Kaptah, respectively. This tension is played out in a world concerned chiefly with worldly matters and rampant with prejudiced attitudes and lust for material possessions, wealth and power. Akhenaten is an illustration of the destructiveness of well-intentioned blindness; he is a tragic character and this blindness is his tragic flaw, by which he causes the destruction of his own kingdom – much like King Lear. The protagonist Sinuhe is an open-minded, learning and developing character, the sole such one in the novel according to Envall. Through him, the worldviews represented by other characters are experienced and evaluated, and during his character arc he is able to internalise much of these aspects, combining idealism and realism. Although Horemheb is able to reinstate peace and order, rebuilding that which Akhenaten destroys, his ingenious realpolitik is rejected by Sinuhe, because it also abolishes freedom. Whether suffering is increased or decreased during Horemheb's reign is left ambiguous, however. Envall constructs the following graph:

He argues that "whole" individuals are achieved by combining these "partial" ones: a good ruler by combining Akhenaten and Horemheb, and an individual capable of surviving through everyday life by combining Sinuhe and Kaptah. Sinuhe is dependent on Kaptah's street-smartness and life experience, and they are inseparable to such an extent that in Kaptah's absence Sinuhe is forced to imagine his voice.

Allegory of Christianity
The portrayal of Atenism, as a doctrine advocating peace and equality, has attracted readings as an allegory of the attempted rise of an early form of Christianity. Markku Envall finds many resemblances between phrases uttered by Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament, and those by characters in The Egyptian (especially in context of Atenism). He argues that by this Waltari anachronistically utilizes literature from after the story's setting, and that it demonstrates the parallelism of the two religions: both religions are prophetic (a single informant), noninstitutional (to experience God, the believer does not necessarily require an intermediary infrastructure), egalitarian (before God, secularly unequal people are equal) and universal (meant for all humanity). As reasons for these similarities, Envall explains that firstly, the religions of Egypt were a major influence on Judaism and hence Christianity, and secondly, that the religions share common archetypical material. Sigmund Freud has likewise called out in his work Moses and Monotheism that there are numerous similarities between the worship of Akhenaten's Aten, and the books of the bible.

Relationship to Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes was an influence, both stylistically and thematically. A device Waltari uses to emphasise a theme is the "chorus" – the reiteration of an idea. On the first page Sinuhe states: "Everything returns to what it was, and there is nothing new under the Sun, and man never changes". Shortly afterwards, the opposite of this idea is denied: "There are also those, who say that which has happened has never before happened, but this is useless talk." This thesis is repeated by multiple other characters as well. The main thesis is borrowed from Ecclesiastes:

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)"

Like The Egyptian, Ecclesiastes strengthens the idea by denying its opposite:

"Is there anything of which one can say, 'Look! This is something new'? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. (Ecclesiastes 1:10)"

Other shared themes are the futility of everything, and the suffering brought by knowledge. Conversely however, Sinuhe's preference of death over life is the antithesis of Ecclesiastes' love of life over death.

World War II allegory
The geopolitical situation of the Middle East, as depicted by the novel, is thought to represent the second world war. Waltari reluctantly approved this interpretation. These analogies are not exact but suggestive in nature; they are split up and mixed up, hidden among a vast amount of reliable historical knowledge. The relations between nations of the two time periods look as follows:

 * Land of the Hittites / Germany
 * Babylon / Soviet Union
 * Mitanni / Poland
 * Crete / France
 * Egypt / England

The similarities between the warlike Hittites and Nazi Germany include their Lebensraum project, fast sudden warfare or Blitzkrieg, use of propaganda to weaken the enemy, and worship of health and power while disdaining the sickly and weak. Mitanni is a border and buffer nation between the land of the Hittites and Babylon, like Poland between Germany and the USSR. Akhenaten's and Horemheb's battle for power mirrors the opposition of Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill; the former seeks peace by conceding lands to the invader but helps the enemy, whereas the latter knows that war is the only way to save the home country.

Historical accuracy
The novel's reputation of historical flawlessness has been often repeated, by the egyptological congress of Cairo, French egyptologist Pierre Chaumelle, and U. Hofstetter of The Oakland Post. In 2008 Dr Richard Parkinson, the director and the curator of the Egyptian department of the British Museum, called it a "serious intellectual achievement" and that it "depicts a culture of real human beings in a way achieved by few other novels". Waltari has been mistaken for an egyptologist. He never visited Egypt, because he feared it would ruin his mental image of Egypt and modern Egypt was completely different from the ancient one. He has said: "I have lived in Egypt although I have never visited the place."

Nonetheless, Markku Envall cautions that the novel cannot be taken as absolutely free of errors on a literal level. A Swiss scholar complained that a sand flea species mentioned did not exist in Africa until it migrated via slave ships. Rostislav Holthoer has doubted the historicity of the depiction of trepanation prominent in the novel, and the act of abandoning newborns in reed boats. He has not been able to confirm nor deny some specific manners or traditions, such as breaking vases to conduct marriage, but the majority of religious ones are real. Even the day of the false king has its basis on reality, with ancient Babylonians killing a surrogate king to save their real king should he have been prophesied to die. On the other hand, he has given Waltari credit for his predictions, as later discoveries have confirmed dubious details of the novel. Waltari's unflattering characterisation of Akhenaten, Horemheb, Tiy and Ay as flawed persons proved to be closer to reality than their earlier glorification. Research at Long Island University has supported Tutankhamun having been murdered, as hinted in the novel. Some have doubted the possibility of an ancient Egyptian person writing a text for oneself only, but in 1978 such a papyrus became public; its author, a victim of wrongdoing, tells his life story in it with no recipient. According to Jussi Aro, the real Hittites were seemingly less cruel and stern than other peoples of the Middle East and the day of the false king was misdated among other errors, although Panu Rajala dismisses his claims as alternative readings of evidence rather than outright contradictions. Markku Envall argues that the accuracy or lack thereof is irrelevant to a fictional work's literary merit, citing the errors of Shakespeare.

Reception
The messages of the novel evoked a wide response in readers in the aftermath of the World War, and the book became an international bestseller. The Egyptian has been translated into 41 languages; it's the most internationally famous and translated Finnish novel, yet in 2009 100 Must-read Historical Novels estimated that "its fame has faded in recent decades".

First publication
The Egyptian was first published in late November 1945. Initially knowledge of the novel spread through word of mouth in Finland; WSOY hadn't advertised it due to concerns over erotic content. It gained some early notoriety through an incident by historical novelist Maila Talvio: after hearing lewd sections read out beforehand in an autumn 1945 literature event, she took offense, marched into WSOY's office and demanded that the novel's printing be stopped, even in vain offering to buy the whole edition when told the printing machines were already in full action. The first two editions were sold out by the end of the year, and it became one of the most discussed topics in societal and literary circles.

The few reviews before the end of the year were positive: Huugo Jalkanen of Uusi Suomi and Lauri Viljanen of Helsingin Sanomat said that the novel was no mere colourful retelling of history, but was relevant to the current attitude shaped by the events of recent years. More reviews followed in January, and a common element among the more negative or lukewarm reviews was the scolding of Waltari's previous work, but many saw it as a turning point for his career. The sexual depictions drew ire. Eino Sormunen of Savon Sanomat recommended discretion due to plenitudes of horrifying decadence at display, and Vaasan Jaakkoo of Ilkka warned about it as unsuitable for children. Yrjö Tönkyrä of Kaiku wrote: "Not wanting to appear in any way as a moralist, I nonetheless cannot ignore the erotic gluttony that dominates the work, as if conceived by a sick imagination – the whole world revolves for the sole purpose that people can enjoy..."

French egyptologist Pierre Chaumelle read The Egyptian in Finnish and, in a letter featured in a Helsingin Sanomat article in 13. 8. 1946, wrote of his impressions:

"'I shall with utmost sincerity attest that I haven't read anything as remarkable in a long time. The book is indeed a work of art, its language and effects fit splendidly with the French language, it contains not a single tasteless nor crude spot nor archaeological error. Its word order, language, closely resembles the language of Egypt, and it would be a crime to translate it with less care than what it has been written with.'"

Critics had been concerned that Waltari might have played fast and loose with historical events, but this article dispelled these doubts and begot a reputation of almost mythical accuracy around the novel. This lack of errors was also confirmed by the egyptological congress of Cairo, and egyptologist Rostislav Holthoer also has since then noted that later research has confirmed some of Waltari's speculations.

First translations
The Swedish translation by Ole Torvalds was published in late 1946, abridged with Waltari's approval. Torvalds was careful not to omit anything essential while streamlining the pacing. Waltari praised the result. In 1948 a complete French version came out, as well as the Danish and Norwegian versions. The novel sold one million copies in Europe within the first five years after its publication.

The Egyptian saw an English release in August 1949. Putnam had asked a Swedish woman of culture (coincidentally the wife of an editor who'd previously rejected the novel) for input, and she had urged them to publish it. It was translated by Naomi Walford, not directly from Finnish but rather Swedish, and abridged even further at the behest of the aforementioned Swede, the same also hired to abridge it. About a third of the text was lost: aside from the excision of repetitions, the philosophical content suffered and key facts were omitted.

Edmund Fuller of The Saturday Review described the narrative as "colorful, provocative, completely absorbing"; he compared it to Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, writing: "Again, Mann's great work is a study of ideas and of personality. The Egypt emergent from his formidable style is shown within a limited social range and is detailed only in isolated scenes. If there are deeps of the personality that Mann plumbs further, Waltari makes an exciting, vivid, and minute re-creation of the society of Thebes and of Egypt and the related world in general, ranging from Pharaoh and his neighbor kings to the outcast corpse-washers in the House of the Dead. We see, feel, smell, and taste Waltari's Egypt. He writes in a pungent, easy style and it is obvious that he has been wonderfully served by his translator, Naomi Walford." Gladys Schmitt, writing for The New York Times, commented on the unresolved philosophical dilemma posed between Ekhnaton's generosity for bettering the world and Horemheb's pragmatic belligerence for stability, and praised the vibrancy and historical research evident in the characterisation of countries and social classes; however, she criticised social struggles surrounding Akhenaton as obscured, and found events oversensational and the characters composed of predictable types. Kirkus Reviews wrote: "He [Sinuhe] observes- and remembers- and in his old age writes it down, – the world as he knew it. It's a rich book, a bawdy book, a book that carries one to distant shores and makes one feel an onlooker as was Sinuhe. The plot is tenuous, a slender thread never wholly resolved. But the book opens one's eyes to an ancient world, nearer to ours than we think."

Soon after its release in the USA, it was selected book of the month in September 1949, and then entered the bestseller lists in October 1949, where it remained the unparalleled two years – 550 000 copies were sold in that time. Marion Saunders, the agent who had arranged its US publication, remarked that she had never seen anything like it during her 15-year career. It remained the most sold foreign novel in the US before its place was taken over by The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco. Overall the reception was highly positive and some predicted Waltari as being a Nobel prize candidate. A film version with a budget of 5 million dollars and an extensive marketing campaign started production in 1952 and was released in 1954. However, there were issues with actors and inexperience with the then new Cinemascope technology, and the film received mixed reviews and modest financial success.

Losing the "popular fiction" stigma
In Finnish academic literary circles, critics had generally regarded Waltari as an author of popular fiction. This stigma he had gained for perceived overproductivity, superficiality and looseness of style; for his popular erotic flavouring in clearly told stories; and not conforming to the "Great Tradition" of Finnish literature (patriotic, realistic depiction of the struggles of poor yet courageous Finns with nature and society) favoured by critics at the time. Despite its popularity and acclaim, the novel was denied the 1946 state literature award, largely due to the efforts of vocal Waltari critic and ideological opponent Raoul Palmgren. Even the overseas success was denounced in Finland as a popular novel's success. Ritva Haavikko has described the literary discourse of the time as having been dominated by indifference and jealousy towards Waltari. Waltari finally gained appreciation in Finland in the 1980s, after his historical novels had made appearances in French bestseller lists one after another.

The Egyptian has since secured the place as a classic and masterpiece of Finnish literature. It came at first place in a 1988 Finnish reader poll, second place (after Alastalon salissa by Volter Kilpi) in a 1992 poll by Finnish representatives of art, science and culture, it was voted by Finns as the most beloved Finnish book in a 2008 poll and in a 2017 poll it was selected as the Finnish book of the century. When Finnish writer and scholar Panu Rajala was in 2017 asked by Ilta-Sanomat to select the 10 best books from Finland's period of independence, The Egyptian was one of them and he commented:

"'This is clear as day. The Egyptian is the greatest. You can pick out almost anything from The Egyptian. As a depiction of war propaganda it is magnificent. It demonstrates its significance also in its phrase rhythm. Waltari was able to develop a rhythmically wavy, but simultaneously picture-rich narrative style. The Egyptian tells of the futility of human life and the disappearance of utopias and big dreams and how idealism produces to humanity primarily nothing but suffering and more pain. On the other hand it depicts the durability of realism, how people who acknowledge facts survive and do well.'"

As a result of its use in the novel, the name Minea remains in occasional use in Finland. Likewise, named in Finland after the novel's protagonist are Sinuhe Wallinheimo and a café chain.

International reputation
By the 1990s, Waltari was regarded in foreign countries not as a specifically Finnish author but as a master of historical fiction in world literature. He had been invited multiple times to lecture in U.S. universities and literary clubs, but turned down these for his inadequate English and as he felt "the author shouldn't cause to his readers the disappointment caused by meeting him in person". He also politely turned down Egyptian President Nasser's invitation to visit Egypt, because it no longer had anything in common with the ancient one and he was already done with the subject.

An unlicensed Arabic translation appeared in Egypt in 1955, translated from the incomplete English version by engineer Hamed al-Qasb. Taha Hussein, an influential figure in Arabic literature, had read the French translation of The Egyptian and was very much taken in despite his reputation of criticalness. In the preamble of the Arabic translation of The Egyptian he relates that he had read numerous books about ancient Egypt but none had come close to Waltari's novel. He lamented the fact that it was translated from English instead of directly from Finnish, and exclaimed: "Because we have no mastery of even the dominant languages of the world, how could we translate from the minority languages either!" Faruk Abu-Chacra from the University of Helsinki has since then begun a project to produce a complete Arabic version, although he clarifies he is not the translator; as of 2003, he compares the 1955 edition with the original Finnish and other European versions, Pekka Lehtinen is the official translator, and they have to translate the missing portions by themselves. Abu-Chacra describes The Egyptian as a very well-known and respected novel in Egypt, but that nowadays it has become a rarity, disappearing from libraries in Arab countries. It took him 30 years to find some Arabic copies, from Beirut.

Among Czechs, The Egyptian and Waltari's oeuvre enjoy immense, "cult-like" popularity. The Egyptian depicted cynical power politics and a world of violence similar to which the Eastern Bloc lived under; it came out in Czechoslovakia in 1965, at a time when the country's isolation from the rest of the world was starting to ease. Translator Marta Hellmuthová, wanting to convey the novel's message to the Czech people as purely as possible, had learned Finnish in four months to translate directly from the original. It took her 9 years of work, some of it while under imprisonment for Western thinking, until she was done. A reader wrote in Lidové noviny: "I can say that it [The Egyptian] helped me survive through the darkness of the communist era sane! I am immensely grateful to Mr. Waltari." When Markéta Hejkalová's Waltari biography was released in 2007, a review in Hospodářské noviny likened it to the Czechs' own 200-page version of a monument to Waltari.

Editions

 * ISBN 978-3-404-17009-8, German translation by Andreas Ludden. Bastei Lübbe Verlag, Cologne 2014.
 * ISBN 978-86-6157-008-7, Serbian translation by Veljko Nikitović and Kosta Lozanić, NNK Internacional, Belgrade, 2011
 * ISBN 978-9985-3-1983-3, Estonian translation by Piret Saluri, Varrak 2009
 * ISBN 87-00-19188-4, Danish translation by Inger Husted Kvan, Gyldendal 2007
 * ISBN 1-55652-441-2, English translation by Naomi Walford, Independent Pub Group 2002
 * ISBN 85-319-0057-3, Portuguese translation by José Geraldo Vieira, Belo Horizonte 2002
 * ISBN 978-84-9759-665-7, Spanish translation by Manuel Bosch Barret. Plaza & Janés y Mondadori-Grijalbo (1950).
 * ISBN 9986-16-069-3, Lithuanian translation by Aida Krilavičienė, Tyto alba 1997
 * ISBN 953-6442-01-9, Croatian translation by Stjepan A. Szabó. A3 data, Zagreb 1996
 * ISBN 80-85637-00-6, Czech translation by Marta Hellmuthová, Šimon & Šimon 1993 (7th ed.)
 * ISBN 91-46-16279-8, Swedish translation by Ole Torvalds, Wahlström & Widstrand 1993
 * ISBN 5-450-01801-0 Estonian translation by Johannes Aavik, Eesti Raamat 1991 (2nd ed.)
 * ISBN _________________, Hebrew translation By Aharon Amir. Zmora Bitan Publishing, 1988.
 * ISBN 964-407-174-3, Persian translation by Zabihollah Mansuri, Zarrin 1985[=1364 H.sh]
 * ISBN _________________, Greek translation by Yiannis Lampsas. Kaktos, 1984.
 * ISBN 963-07-1301-2, Hungarian translation by Endre Gombár, Európa Könyvkiadó, Budapest 1978
 * ISBN 83-07-01108-6, Polish translation by Zygmunt Łanowski, Czytelnik 1962 (ISBN is for the 1987 edition)
 * , Estonian translation by Johannes Aavik, Orto Publishing House 1954
 * Icelandic translation by Björn O. Björnsson, Bókaforlag Odds Björnssonar, Akureyri 1952
 * Bulgarian translation by Борис Парашкевов, ДИ "Народна култура", 1986

title: The Egyptian