I am writing concerning your June 8 column, “The journey that may or may not end.”
I have been away, coincidentally plying the Greek Islands in the Aegean, and having returned, read your column with much interest as I sorted through a great accumulation of mail.
You write: “Egyptian poet C.P. Cavafy … This is misleading. Although the great poet Cavafy was born in Alexandria, Egypt, he was by no means an Egyptian. He was Greek through and through. All of his poetry was written in Greek.
Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great, was the center of much Greek learning until the Arab conquest. And after the conquest, Alexandria still had a sizeable Greek population until the early years of the last century. With the rise of Arab nationalism, persecutions of the Greek Orthodox ensued, forcing many Greeks to abandon Alexandria, leaving behind a mere remnant (about 5,000 souls) of a once lively minority population.
Vaseili Doukas
Oak Park
