On December 9th 1998, the Centre d'étude et de documentation économique, juridíque et sociale (CEDEJ) in Cairo held a day-long symposium to celebrate the publication of Peter Gran's Beyond Eurocentrism and the reprinting of his ealier book, Islamic Roots of Capitalism. Gran opened the symposium with a discussion of his work in which he emphasized the wide-ranging significance of Gramsci's theory of hegemony and its implications for writing modern history. He also talked about the "Italian Road" as a version of hegemony and its modernity. A session of the symposium was devoted to the topic "Gramsci et la théories des system hégémoniques" with papers by Raouf Abbas (Professor of History at Cairo University) and by the theorist and translator, Atef Ahmad. In the afternoon session, Iman Farag (CEDEJ) spoke on "Historiographie 'Nationale' et Hégémonie." He was followed by F. Ireton, É. Denis CEDEJ), and Diya Rashwan (CESP, al-Ahram) who gave a joint presentation on "The 'Southern Question' and Egypt." In the final session of the symposium, Professor Hilmi Shaarawi (Director of CAR) delivered a paper on "Gramsci From the Experience of the Center of Arab Research," and Professor Mahmoud Amin El-Alem (Director of Qadaya Fikriyya) talked about "Gramsci Applications and the Next Generation of Egyptian Cultural Studies."