Anyone who is familiar with doing research in Egypt knows that taxi drivers are probably the best source of information for getting a sense of the latest ‘talk of the town’. As a researcher, one frequently finds oneself sitting in a cab for an hour or more, slowly moving through this megalopolis with her seemly endless traffic lines and congested streets, and surrounded by a cacophony of honking and shouting.

What better opportunity to use one’s time to converse with the taxi driver – this archetypical character of Egyptian society?

While taxi drivers may sometimes assert the most outlandish conspiracy theories, one would be unwise to dismiss their utterances as simply naïve beliefs by some uneducated person. Quite to the contrary, one can learn a great deal form taxi drivers, as they are closest to the pulse of society. Not only are they ahead of the curve in terms of political events, but they also offer colorful and frequently contradictory narratives to what one thinks to be true.

The availability of contrarian narratives is of great value, as it forces the researcher to constantly reconfigure his or her beliefs and assumptions. Indeed, rumors or a conspiracy theories should be seen along the lines of the Zen Buddhists’ famous ‘finger pointing to the moon’, for they offer valuable clues to some yet to be uncovered truth.

Over the period of my fieldwork, I came to appreciate the importance of the rumors I obtained from cab drivers. Quoting the historian Richard Mitchell, my concern as a researcher and a oral historian was not so much what was ‘true’ or not in an absolute sense, for ‘in so far as what men believe to be real, is real, my concern was not the validity of these beliefs, but only the fact of their existence’.

I am grateful to those unnamed heroes, many of whom have known no other life than driving people like me around town, for making my fieldwork in Egypt such a joy. For any Western visitor to Cairo, please be kind to these humans, for many of them have a rough life. If you can, reward them with a tip of 20 or even 50 Egyptian pounds. It is only a few dollars for us but it means the world to the taxi driver, who will keep talking to his future customers about that generous agnabi (foreigner) for years to come.

This archive is a testimony to the many taxi drivers hat have chauffeured me around. It is a great source of information for a bottom-up view of the year when the Muslim Brotherhood was in power. All interviews were recorded with the knowledge and consent of the individuals involved.

Voice Memo 1

Cairo, 24 September 2012 | This taxi driver explains why there are so many problems in Egypt at the moment.

Voice Memo 2

Cairo, 30 October 2012 | This taxi driver complains how he is not able anymore to differentiate between Salafis and Brotherhood members by their beards. He also thinks that stability in Egypt had improved since the Brotherhood is in power.

Voice Memo 3

Cairo, 6 December 2012 | This taxi driver likes Morsi cause he is a respectable man. He explains how the Brotherhood is Egyptian and how everyone ‘uses religion in politics’ (yustakhdim al-din fi’l-siyasa) making a sophisticated argument about the relationship between religion and politics.

Voice Memo 4

Cairo, 11 December 2012 | This taxi driver doesn’t like Khairat al-Shatir. Whom he says is simply as second Ahmed ‘Ezz, and he is firmly against Mohammed Morsi. The conversation quickly descends into an argument with another Egyptian who sits in the back of the car, and who likes Morsi.

Voice Memo 5

Cairo, 11 December 2012 | This conversation is not with a taxi driver, but with the makwagi (‘ironer’, i.e. the person who irons shirts). He is in favor of Morsi, but not because he is a member of the Brotherhood, but because he was democratically elected. It gives a nice panorama view of Egyptian history since the days of Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Voice Memo 6

Cairo, 12 December 2012 | This taxi driver explains the importance of the constitution in Egypt. He is not in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood and explains why Morsi’s presidential decree of 21 November was unconstitutional.

Voice Memo 7

Alexandria, 17 December 2012 | This dialogue was taken when I was in Alexandria for a round of interviews with Sara Ramadan, a journalist with al-Ahram who helped me a great deal in my research. This taxi driver is angry with Morsi and is categorically against the Brotherhood or any other sort of Islamist politics.

Voice Memo 8

Cairo, 17 December 2012 | This taxi driver is totally against the Brotherhood. He believes that Ikhwanis, Salafis and Sufis are all thugs, but he believes that things will get better soon.

Voice Memo 9

Cairo, 17 December 2012 | This taxi driver explains that all Islamist are radicals (mutashaddidin) are radicals, as they are against watching television, and that this is very different from the majority of Egyptians, who are moderate (mutawassat) in their religious behavior.

Voice Memo 10

Cairo, 26 December 2012 | This taxi driver talks about the fact that things have become worse (awhash) under the Brotherhood. He has two children and both are smoking cigarettes. He says that Morsi wants to prevent people from smoking and forbid men from going out with girls. Also, there is no security (amn) in Egypt.

Voice Memo 11

Cairo, 27 December 2012 | This taxi driver likes Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood because they are good people. He affirms that all Islamists love Morsi. He believes that things will get better soon and that the salaries will rise, but that Morsi needs more time. Regarding the constitution he believes that it is too early to tell how things will play out exactly.

Voice Memo 12

Cairo, 27 February 2013 | This taxi driver says how things used to be much better in the past, and how this is clearly visible in terms of Egypt’s cultural production. For instance, movies in the past had actual stories, while today there are only TV series with no coherent story line. He also complains about the Brotherhood, whom he accuses of being corrupt.

Voice Memo 13

Cairo, 28 February 2013 | This taxi driver likes Khairat al-Shatir cause he works, and he dislikes ‘Abd al-Mon ‘im Abu al-Futuh, who only talks a lot of empty words on television.

Voice Memo 14

Cairo, 8 March 2013 | This taxi driver complains that there are a lot of problems in Egypt and he blames the opposition for this situation. He is neutral with respect to Mohammed Morsi, but he is very angry at the fact that people keep demonstrating. He is a strong supporter in the army, under whose rule stability and security increased.

Voice Memo 15

Cairo, 21 March 2013 | This taxi driver believes that Khairat al-Shatir is the de facto General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood. He believes that most members of the Brotherhood are bad (wihsh) and wishes for military rule to return to Egypt.

Voice Memo 16

Cairo, 23 March 2013 | This taxi driver is a fulul. He thinks that Sadat was Egypt’s best president, and he likes Hosni Mubarak. He believes that Khairat al-Shatir is the worst animal, even worse than a pig (khanzir).

Voice Memo 17

Cairo, 4 April 2013 | This taxi driver asserts that $70 billion of Mubarak’s money (fulus Mubarak) is parked Switzerland, a fact that is well-known in Egypt, and that he and other Egyptians want that money back. He also recommends that I should marry an Egyptian woman. He doesn’t like the Brotherhood, who he says want to ‘close’ the country. He voted for Morsi, but he regrets his choice now and wishes he would have voted or Ahmed Shafiq.

Voice Memo 18

Cairo, 5 April 2013 | This taxi driver has a differentiated view about the Brotherhood, and that one cannot say that all Brothers are good or bad. He then makes a sophisticated argument about Islamic authority and is very interested comparative religion, asking me about the similarities and differences between the Quran and the Bible.

Voice Memo 19

Cairo, 5 April 2013 | This group of Egyptians, whom I met on the streets, don’t like the Brotherhood. They say that Khairat al-Shatir is the ‘owner’ of the Muslim Brotherhood and explain their decision-making structure in detail.

Voice Memo 20

Cairo, 11 June 2013 | This taxi driver believes that the Jews control everything (al-yahud biyusaytir ‘ala kullu haga) and that the source of their power is money. He also affirms that the people of Denmark have no religion, only money.

Voice Memo 21

Cairo, 24 June 2013 | This taxi driver is very old and is from the generation of King Faruq. He has worked as a taxi driver for over 65 years. In this voice memo, he gives a nice panorama of Egyptian history, talking about his love for the days of Gamal Abdel Nasser and how Egypt has changed due to demographic growth.

Voice Memo 22

Cairo, 28 June 2013 | This taxi driver says that Egypt is not just Muslim, but that it belongs to Christians as well, and that he would kill anyone who would seek to make Egypt a sectarian country. He is against the Brotherhood, whom he believes to be a party (hizb) and not a society (jama‘a) and whom he believes are only interested in power.

Voice Memo 23

Cairo, 1 July 2013 | This voice memo was taken a minutes after the army had issued its ultimatum. The taxi driver recounts the events of the past few years since the days of Hosni Mubarak, putting things into a historical perceptive. He is happy that the rule of the Brotherhood’s rule is soon coming to an end.

Voice Memo 24

Cairo, 3 July 2013 | This taxi driver talks about how his family is split between those who support Morsi and those who support the army. He talks about the fact that the Egyptian people are happy with little, that all people want is to eat, to be happy and to have some free time, and that the Brotherhood was not even able to deliver these few things.

Voice Memo 25

Cairo, 5 July 2013 | This taxi driver explains that the Brotherhood had been removed from power cause they had been too eager to keep power, that their way forward would be ‘black’ and that many Brotherhood members would now emigrate to Sudan.

Voice Memo 26

Cairo, 14 September 2013 | This taxi driver believes that ‘Abd al-Fatah al-Sisi are wrong (ghalat). He says that he had elected Morsi and that his vote had been extinguished by the military coup.

Voice Memo 27

Cairo, 17 September 2013 | This taxi driver explains that the United States is planning a conspiracy in Egypt, and that the reason for this was Israel’s plan to take over the Sinai peninsula. He affirms that the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are the same. He says that the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims have no problem living together, but that Western politics is creating divisions among the different religions.

Voice Memo 28

Cairo, 21 September 2013 | This taxi driver does not like Morsi, who does not know to govern. In a typically Egyptian style of rhetorical questions, he underlines his point by asking whether a medical doctor should be a medical doctor or an engineer? Of course, this person should be a medical doctor. In a similar vein, the people with the knowledge to govern should be the ones who govern.

Voice Memo 29

Cairo, 21 September 2013 | This taxi driver explains that all the people are against the president of a country, this person would lose legitimacy. He explains that the price of commodities had increased tremendously under Morsi, and that for this reason, the people had turned against Egypt.

Voice Memo 30

Cairo, 24 September 2013 | This taxi driver is angered by the problem of rising terrorist activities in the Sinai peninsula. He loves ‘Abd al-Fatah al-Sisi and Ahemd Shafiq, and he believes that military men have the most experience in governing Egypt.

Voice Memo 31

Cairo, 25 September 2013 | This taxi driver explains the qualities a man should have to get an Egyptian woman. He explains that a woman who put her hand on a man’s leg is a bad woman (bint wihsh), advising me to be careful to get involved with immoral girls.

Voice Memo 32

Cairo, 25 September 2013 | This taxi driver believes that it is important for Egyptian women to have prestige. He tells me that an Egyptian woman will see whether I like her or not if I say nice words to her and behave properly.