《Egypt》.docVIP

That Egypt has a new strongman is no longer in doubt. Since the Egyptian military ousted the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi last month following protests across the country, posters of Egypt’s de facto leader, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, have become more ubiquitous on Cairo streets than Sphinx souvenirs. The head of the Army stares out from café walls and the windows of government buildings, the red and the gold of his uniform remaining bright, even as the features of his face fade under the relentless sun. “He is the one we can trust,” read some of the posters. Others call him “the eagle of the Arabs.” It’s a ubiquitous image—but an enigmatic one. More than a month after assuming power, al-Sisi remains as opaque as his dark glasses. In Egypt, he is often compared with the charismatic and ruthless leader of the 1950s and 1960s, Gamal Abdel Nasser, yet few people know anything about his family or background. He hardly ever talks to reporters, and his close friends and allies are reluctant to speak—begging off interview requests, or agreeing to talk, only to cancel later after checking with the general’s staff. Khaled Elfiqui/EPA Al-Sisi was virtually unknown to the public before Morsi named him defense minister a year ago. But understanding al-Sisi is critical to understanding where Egypt is headed—especially after this week’s bloodletting, which has seen his soldiers crack down on pro–Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators. And one place to begin is in Cairo’s ancient Khan al-Khalili bazaar, in a shop called Al-Sisi, where finely crafted Egyptian boxes made of intricately inlaid mother-of-pearl grace the shelves. THE GENERAL grew up in the Gamaleya district of Cairo, the same warren of alleys among time-worn mosques and caravansaries that the Nobel Prize–winning novelist Naguib Mahfouz wrote about in his landmark trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street. Even today the precincts that include the bazaar are alive with scenes that may appear