What the heck is a "Maadi" or "Misr"
I remember hearing these terms in the states before I came to live in Egypt. Now that I'm here I find out that "Maadi" is a suburb of Cairo that the Brits set-up and "Misr" is just the Arabic word for Egypt. Not a single Egyptian I've spoken to knows anything about these two American referances to the AK47. Anyone have an idea? Thanks, Dave
Dave,In the late 1950s,as a part of the Military Soviet Aid program the Soviets assisted the Egyptians in the establishment of military production of Soviet-pattern small arms.Among the weapons that they have manufactured is an Egyptian version of the AKM at factory 54,a facility which is now part of the Maadi Military & Civil Industries Company which in turn is a subdivision of the state-owned enterprise called the Military Factories General Organization.Maadi made AKMs are called Misr in Egyptian sales catalogs for export.
From my experience in almost any Country,the locals almost alway refer to their AKs as Kalashnikovs.Hope this helps
Thanks for the help, Johno. They sure do have alot of AKs here. Guards on every street corner.
i have been told by egyptians here in america that the arabic word "misr" means both "egypt" and "egyptian" in english.
i guess it is similar to "suomi" translating to "finnish" and "finland".
keep digging around aver there and see if you can enlighten us further.
maadi is, indeed, a name of a section of cairo.
stay safe over there!
Welcome to the site Dave,like Campy said,look around and let us know what types of AKs you see,but be discreet!We would'nt want you drawing any attention to yourself.
In Cairo, I've seen every config of AK you can imagine. I've seen them with forward grips, folding stocks, Krinkovs, bayonets fixed, and everything in between. At high risk places (i.e. Isreali Embassy), I see MG mounts of unknown manufacture. They look like the ones the German's used in "Saving Private Ryan." At some of the other embassies, I see HK94's and what looks to be HK/Benelli shotguns. Out in the villages I've seen everything from SKS's to Enfield SMLE's. As far as side arms, the Helwan copy of the Beretta M85 seems to dominate. By the way, Helwan is the next suburb south of Maadi along the Nile.
