Routledge Handbook on Contemporary Egypt

Robert Springborg, Amr Adly, Anthony Gorman, Tamir Moustafa, Aisha Saad, Naomi Sakr, Sarah Smierciak, Robert Springborg, Amr Adly, Anthony Gorman, Tamir Moustafa, Aisha Saad, Naomi Sakr, Sarah Smierciak

• Éditeur: Routledge
• Année: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780429603198
• Édition: 1
• Sujet: Geschichte
• Sous-sujet: Geschichte der ägyptischen Antike

Investigating key features of contemporary Egypt, this volume includes Egypt's modern history, politics, economics, the legal system, environment, and its media and modes of cultural expression. It examines Egypt's capacities to meet developmental challenges, ranging from responding to globalization and regional competition to generating sufficient economic growth and political inclusion to accommodate the interests and demands of a rapidly growing population.

The macrohistory of Egypt is complemented by the microhistories of specific institutions and processes that constitute separate sections in this handbook. The chapters revolve around political economy: it is shaped by the people and their abilities, political and legal institutions, organization of the economy, natural and built environments, and culture and communication. Politics has been overwhelmingly authoritarian and coercive since the military seized power in 1952; consequently, the contributions address both the causes and consequences of unbalanced civil–military relations, military rule, and persisting authoritarianism in the political society.

This multidisciplinary handbook serves a dual purpose of introducing readers to Egypt's history and contemporary political economy and as a comprehensive key resource for postgraduate students and academics interested in modern Egypt.

Part I

History

Introduction

Occupation, independence, revolution

Anthony Gorman

At the beginning of the 1880s, Egypt was formally part of the Ottoman Empire with a population of under 7 million people; by the end of the 20th century, it was a modern independent state of 70 million (and now 100 million) people. Over this period, its history has been punctuated by four significant episodes of political upheaval. The first, the British occupation of 1882, resulted in its ultimate incorporation as a protectorate of the British Empire in 1914. The second—the 1919 Revolution, the nationwide protest calling for the end of the occupation and the recognition of national sovereignty—resulted in a recasting of Egypt’s relationship with Britain and qualified independence. The third—the July 1952 Revolution, the seizure of power by the military—replaced an unloved monarchy and an ineffective political class with a republican government with a radical agenda. Finally, the January Revolution of 2011 saw the overthrow of an increasingly debilitated, discredited regime and launched the country into another period of political instability.

Each of these upheavals were preceded by periods of political struggle when the record of the existing order was found wanting and the popular aspirations for freedom, and political and economic reform proved a greater force. In the aftermath of these changes, the political contest was followed by an assertion of authoritarian politics as the new regime sought to address questions of political legitimacy, economic prosperity and national identity. In navigating this course from Ottoman province to independent state, Egyptian rulers and society have engaged in a negotiation, at times constructive and at others destructive, to construct not only an effective political and economic order but also to situate the country in relation to a rich history that stretches from Pharoanic times to the Ottoman and British colonial legacies and encompasses the Arab, Christian and Muslim dimensions of its culture.

Occupation

The foundation of modern Egyptian statehood was laid by Muhammad Ali (r. 1805–1848), first as Ottoman governor and then as confirmed hereditary ruler during the first half of the 19th century. By the second half of the 19th century Egypt had established itself as an effectively autonomous province although still formally a part of the Ottoman Empire on its own path of development. In the 1870s this local project reached a political and economic crisis that prompted the rise of the Urabi movement that sought to resist the increasing foreign influence in the country and the autocracy of the Khedive. The confrontation provoked the invasion of British forces in 1882 that, after defeating local forces in the field, reinstalled the compromised Khedive Tawfiq and began the first phase of British occupation known as the veiled protectorate. British control of Egypt relied on a relatively small military force and an administration consisting of members of the traditional political class, largely made up of landowning families, coopted by the British authorities and supported by British advisers under the supervision of the British representative and arch imperialist, Lord Cromer, for much of the period. A new constitution promulgated in 1883 would be the basis of government for the next 40 years.

The priorities of the administration were first to focus on putting Egyptian finances in order and then to oversee an extensive programme of public works and infrastructure including irrigation works, railways and prisons, that aimed to support a productive colonial economy and a vision of law and order. However, the end of the 19th century, rather than simply a period of colonial quiescence as it has sometimes been characterised, was a time of great social dynamism in which nascent political ideas and cultural expression were energised by an active press that expressed a multiplicity of voices in Egypt and much discussion about its future (Booth and Gorman, 2014, pp. 1–27).

The character of British authority and Egyptian political aspirations for independence were ignited dramatically in 1906 with the Dinshaway affair, when a number of peasants were hanged for defending their village against pigeon-shooting British officers. This brutal British response roused a depth of nationalist feeling in which young nationalists such as Mustafa Kamil and others took the lead in establishing political parties and agitating for the nationalist cause. The move was met in time by a sustained period of repression in which newspapers were closed, parties banned and nationalists imprisoned or deported. With the outbreak of World War in 1914, Britain asserted its dominance by formally declaring Egypt to be a British protectorate and replacing the absent Abbas Hilmi II, the last Khedive of Egypt, with his more amenable uncle Husayn Kamil as its first modern Sultan.

Independence with reservations: The settlement of 1923

The end of war saw the quick resumption of Egyptian demands for national independence. Only days after the formal hostilities ended in November 1918, Sa‘d Zaghlul with a number of colleagues, principally drawn from large landowning families, formed a delegation (wafd) to present their national demands to the British government. London’s refusal to entertain their petition, much less negotiate a settlement, and its decision to arrest and deport the members of the Wafd in March 1919 triggered the 1919 Revolution, a period of sustained protest across the country calling for British withdrawal. Invoked as a manifestation of national unity and the desire for independence, the 1919 Revolution would be put down by the British, lead to the Milner Commission of enquiry, intermittent negotiations between the British and Egyptian politicians, and ultimately the British unilateral declaration of February 1922 that announced the end of the protectorate and granted Egypt self-government and the right to a constitution.

In March 1922, Sultan Ahmed Fu’ad, successor to Husayn Kamil, became King Fu’ad and a committee was appointed by the Egyptian government though no doubt under some British influence to deliberate over a new constitution (Vatikiotis, 1991, pp. 274–279). Inspired by the Belgian constitution, it proposed a bicameral parliament, the lower chamber elected by universal suffrage and the upper chamber partly appointed by the monarch and partly elected by a narrower franchise. In place of a weak Khedive was set a strong constitutional monarch—a departure from contemporary European practice—with considerable powers to form and suspend governments, dissolve parliament, approve bills and declare martial law. The decision of the constitutional committee to reject a separate parliamentary representation for the Christian community was an important assertion of a single national identity. Before the war the divisive British practice of favouring Copts in government employment had fuelled serious divisions between the Muslim and Coptic communities. The spirit of the 1919 Revolution that invoked the unity of cross and crescent would thereafter be challenged by expressions of sectarianism during times of national instability.

However, the settlement of 1923 represented a decidedly ‘ambiguous independence’ (Goldschmidt, 1988, p. 55). Although it laid the foundation of an independent Egypt, the British declaration had insisted on maintaining significant reserve powers under the new arrangements. Pending further negotiation, London would effectively control Egyptian defence and foreign policy, maintain responsibility for the security of the Suez Canal and the Sudan and for the protection of foreign interests and minorities. Nevertheless, it signified some progress on the protectorate. The constitution of 1883 had only provided for a weak consultative body and the subsequent establishment of various representative bodies formalised a system of indirect elections that favoured the notability. Among other things, the new constitution contained a section on the ‘Rights and Duties of Egyptians’ and spoke in terms of the rights of freedom of speech and of association and raised expectations on the role of the ballot box and a free press. Culturally the 1920s were marked by a celebration of Pharaonicism, of native Egyptian culture dating back to ancient times. Captured in the statue Nahdat Misr (‘Awakening of Egypt’) of Mahmud Mukhtar and the mausoleum of Sa‘d Zaghlul, it projected a specific sense of Egyptian territorial nationalism. By the beginning of the next decade, this cultural phase, if it ever was broad, had begun to shift towards an increasing affiliation with Arab culture and an interest in Islamic history (Gershoni and Jankowski, 1986; Smith, 1973).

The term of the first Egyptian government elected under the new constitution soon illustrated something of the methods of rule and limitations on authority. Installed as Prime Minister at the head of a Wafdist government in January 1924, Sa‘d Zaghlul showed himself ready to draw from the armoury of British occupation in cracking down on political opposition and particularly the nascent communist and labour movements (Gorman 2010, p. 163). More serious from a point of view of national standing were the limits of the authority of the Egyptian government vis-à-vis British priorities. On 19 November, Sir Lee Stack, the Sirdar, the Commander of the Egyptian Army, was assassinated in Cairo. The British reaction echoed, in tone if not substance, its harsh response to the Dinshaway affair. The High Commissioner Edmund Allenby demanded an apology from the Egyptian government, the payment of a large fine, and the withdrawal of all Egyptian officers from the Sudan while additional British forces were landed in Alexandria (Berque, 1972, p. 389). Rather than simply accede to such humiliation, Zaghlul resigned from office on 24 November and was replaced by the pro-Palace government led by Ahmad Ziwar.

The affair made clear the continuing influence of the British government which would intervene on specific issues, as on this occasion, as well as in the ongoing negotiations about the future relationship between Britain and Egypt. The interwar period also showed the strong role played by the palace. Parliamentary politics throughout the so-called liberal period remained largely confined to the political interests of the landowning elites and their allies, and the political contest between the mass-supported Wafd and the other minor parties, in concert with the agency of the palace. From 1922 until 1952, 30 different governments were formed. Yet while governments changed, the parliamentary dynamics remained the same. Coalitions were as often based on personalities and the result of short-term political calculation. The political game was exacerbated by the interfering ways of King Fu’ad, facilitated by a constitution that gave him very considerable powers, that saw him suspend it on a number of occasions and even replace it in 1930 with a more restricted vote and Isma’il Sidqi as Prime Minister. This attempt to monopolise political power was ultimately defeated and the 1923 constitution was restored. Thereafter the parliamentary game resumed.

While the settlement of 1923 offered an impression of new beginnings, in other ways Egyptian governments were happy to embrace and extend British strategies of rule. The press law was a case in point. Already before the British occupation a Publications Law had placed various restrictions on press freedom in 1881. Although applied in varying fashion during the early years of the occupation, the law was reinstated and reinforced in early 1909 as part of an attempt to suppress the rising nationalist movement. After 1923, now with an elected Egyptian government in place, the powers of the press law were regularly enhanced, and the suspension even banning of opposition party newspapers became a routine phenomenon during the 1920s and 1930s, on the grounds of the danger they posed to the safety of the state. A penal provision and special prison regime were legislated for journalists found guilty of illegally criticising the government or the king (Gorman, 2010, pp. 161–165).

Despite the aridity of parliamentary politics that characterised the interwar period there were indications within Egyptian civil society that new forces were organising. The formation of the Egyptian Socialist Party, subsequently the Egyptian Communist Party, in the early 1920s, spoke in the name of class and anti-colonial struggle. However, hampered by its large foreign membership and a weak urban proletariat, the party would be effectively repressed by the government in the mid-1920s, only to re-emerge as a strong if fragmented oppositional force in the years after 1945 (Ismael and El-Sa’id, 1990, pp. 17–31). The establishment of the Society of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna, a schoolteacher from Ismailia, signalled the rise of a modernist Islamist movement. A response to the abolition of the Caliphate by Kemal Atatürk in 1924 and the perceived threat of secularism and Western missionaries, the Society grew over the next two decades through a combination of adept political manoeuvring, a well-organised structure and membership, and a general retreat from the secular nationalism that had been dominant in the 1920s. Another party, Young Egypt (Misr Fatat) was based on a mixed programme of nationalist, socialist and fascist elements.

Elsewhere across Egyptian civil society, other social interests were organising. The nascent pre-war labour movement had played a significant role in the mass protests of 1919 in calling for workers’ rights and an improvement in working conditions. While government gave some recognition to their claims, the establishment of the Labour Conciliation Board proved unsatisfactory in protecting workers (Beinin and Lockman, 1988, pp. 110–120). Trade unions would continue to struggle for legal recognition, something not achieved until 1942 by a Wafdist government (Beinin and Lockman, 1988, pp. 291–294). Women activists had also been notable participants in the 1919 revolution, calling not only for national independence but also for the right to citizenship. Disappointed by the negative response from the mainstream nationalist movement, the Egyptian Feminist Union was formed in 1923 to advance women’s rights, and in the 1930s was active in supporting the cause of Palestine and international peace (Badran, 1996, pp. 223–250).

Since the political declaration of 1922, the future relationship between the Egyptian and British governments had been a matter of continued stalemate. After the failure of several Egyptian governments of different complexions to make any progress in negotiations, there was finally some movement in 1936. The death of King Fu’ad and the accession of his young, more pliable son, Faruq, to the throne in April as well as the election of a Wafd government in May provided the necessary impetus in Cairo. In London concerns about the geopolitical situation in Europe and the possibility of hostilities with Germany focused minds. Styled as a defensive alliance between two equal partners, the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty would provide the legal basis for the presence of British forces in Egypt for the next 20 years and secure its use as a base for Allied operations during the war, despite Egypt remaining formally neutral for much of the conflict. A more specific Egyptian gain was British support to abolish the Capitulations, the system of legal and economic privileges that foreign nationals living in the country had long enjoyed. These were abolished at the Montreux Conference in 1937, with the Mixed Courts, the judicial system that had facilitated foreign penetration of the Egyptian economy, set to expire in 1949. Both steps represented a significant dismantling of the legal legacy of the colonial regime. No progress was made on the contentious issue of Sudan.

The coming revolution

The outbreak of Second World War in 1939 put many pressing and important political and economic questions on hold but the Allied conduct of the war made the real balance of power in the country quite clear. The infamous February 1942 incident, when British tanks surrounded Abdin Palace and forced Faruq to appoint a reliably pro-Allied Wafdist government, stoked further nationalist resentment. With the end of hostilities in 1945 Egyptian demands for British withdrawal resumed with greater enthusiasm and purpose. The period was characterised by increasing political violence that included the assassination of two Prime Ministers, the f...

Table des matières

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Notes on contributors
• Introduction
• Part I History
• Part II Politics
• Part III Economy
• Part IV Law and human rights
• Part V Natural and built environments
• Part VI Media and popular culture
• Index