The making of a revolution
 

Al-Mothaqafoun Al-Mesriyyoun wa Dwarhom fi Thawret 1919 (Egyptian Intellectuals and Their Role in the 1919 Revolution), Amal Saad Zaghloul, Al-Mahroussa, 2021, over 400 pages

Was the 1919 Revolution just an act of resentment against the British occupation of Egypt that started in 1882, or was it a more profound manifestation of an intellectual evolution that had been in the making since the formation of Egypt’s middle class upon the expansion of education?

This is the crucial question that Amal Saad Zaghloul, an Egyptian historian, attempts to answer in her voluminous title, Egyptian Intellectuals and Their Role in the 1919 Revolution.

Across more than 400 pages, Zaghloul examines the emergence of an Egyptian intelligentsia alongside the formation of the middle class, both shaped by growing state involvement in education and wider public access to schooling.

Zaghloul’s book is actually a great text to read to understand the motives of the country's rulers since Mohammed Ali in the early 19th century, throughout the early decades of the 20th century, to make education available.

Mohmmed Ali wanted to create a new elite to balance his own Turkish elite; Ibrahim, Abbas, and Said had very little interest in education, if any; and Ismail was set to emulate the European model of advancement.

Tawfik, in collaboration with the British occupation, acted to reverse the accessibility of education to help subdue the nation and to limit funding of schools and students.

The subsequent rulers, especially Fouad and Farouk, were committed to a scheme of modernization, partly to underline Egypt’s effective separation from the Ottoman Empire.

More or less, Zaghloul presents the 1919 Revolution as a subsequent act of resentment of subjugation to the revolt of Ahmed Urabi in 1881 against Khedive Tawfik.

While recognizing tensions between Egyptian and Turkish officers in the army as a key trigger for the Urabi revolt, she argues that the 1919 Revolution was also a broad protest against injustice imposed on Egyptians by both the Khedival regime and the British occupation.

From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, the book argues, there was a shared sense of purpose between civilians and the army to end British rule, particularly after the First World War, when Britain declared Egypt a protectorate.

According to Zaghloul, independence from the Ottoman Empire itself remained a subject of debate among political leaders.

According to Zaghloul’s book, however, loyalty to the Ottoman Sultan as a quasi-religious duty was widely contested from the late 19th century into the early decades of the 20th century, as the spread of education encouraged more modern, or at least less archaic, interpretations of the foundations of Islam.

Overall, the book challenges a widely held perception that the 1881 and 1919 revolutions were driven solely by the inspiration and leadership of Ahmed Urabi or Saad Zaghloul, with whom the author has no family connection.

Modernity de-westernized
 

The Age of Effendiya: Passages to Modernity in National-Colonial Egypt, Lucie Ryzova, Oxford University Press, 2014

Arabic Translation: (Aasr Al-Effandiyya: Mamarat Al-Hadatha fi Masr Khilal Fatret al-Haimanah El-Istaamariyah wa Benaa Al-Uuma Al-Haditha), translated by Mohamed Al-Dakhakhni, Kotob Khan, 2023, over 400 pages

Who embraced modernity in Egypt, and how, during the early decades of the 20th century? Cultural historian and University of Birmingham lecturer Lucie Ryzova offers a layered answer in her book The Age of Effendiya: Passages to Modernity in National-Colonial Egypt.

She draws on literary memoirs and writings by early 20th-century authors, including Mohamed Hussein Heikal (1888–1956), Tawfik Al-Hakim (1898–1987), Yahya Haqqi (1905–1992), and Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006).

The central characters of these and other novels largely mirror the authors’ own journeys, illustrating different paths towards becoming an efendi, a status that Ryzova argues is not limited to the middle class, as is often assumed. Originally a Turkish term, efendi is broadly equivalent to the Arabic ustaz, referring to an educated white-collar professional.

The book argues that the efendiyya constitute a socio-cultural segment rather than a socio-economic group. They span the upper tiers of the lower economic classes, families able to educate one or more of their children, through to the middle class, where education was becoming the norm. Their social norms were not necessarily uniform, even though they shared much in their embrace of modernity.

The core of Egypt’s efendiyya underwent a complex journey of identity, moving from a grounded sense of being typically Egyptian, whether of rural or urban origin, to a phase marked by the rejection of local culture in favour of European models encountered through education, before ultimately arriving at a position in which they embraced the essence of modernity in a de-westernized form.

Ryzova’s book argues that achieving this balance resulted from a confrontation with poverty and ignorance, and their many social consequences, alongside an equally strong rejection of foreign occupation, with its injustice and humiliation. This dynamic, she suggests, placed the efendiyya at the heart of the nationalist movement.

Inevitably, Ryzova writes, the efendiyya shared a consciousness that was both personal and national. They were, she adds, the main contributors to the development of political life, social organizations, and cultural production in modern Egypt. They were also the primary consumers of politics, culture, and social activities.

The book shows that the efendiyya were at the centre of opposition to British control of Egypt as a protectorate at the start of the First World War. They played a key role in the 1919 Revolution, were instrumental in drafting the 1923 Constitution, and shaped the concept of the nation-state in Egypt after the Second World War.

The other side of feminism
 

Midnight in Cairo: The Female Stars of Egypt’s Roaring ‘20s, Raphael Cormack, The American University in Cairo Press, 2021

Translated into Arabic by Ala’eddine Mahmoud: Montassaf Al-Lail fi Al-Qahera: Negmat Masr fi Al-Eishrinat Al-Sakheba, Kotobkhan, 2024, over 300 pages

As a professor of Arab studies and language at Durham University, with a PhD in Egyptian theatre, Raphael Cormack was ideally placed to offer a detailed account of the women stars of Egypt’s nightlife in the early decades of the 20th century. The book is a story of genuine liberation, far beyond elite calls for emancipation, and in some cases preceding them entirely.

From the dance halls (salas), theatres, and nightclubs of Al-Ezbekiyya, Cairo’s nightlife hub since the early 20th century, Cormack traces the lives of singers, dancers, and actresses who reached the stage largely after freeing themselves from oppressive male family members. The journey to Al-Ezbekiyya was only part of their struggle, as the venues themselves were male-dominated spaces that posed further challenges.

Despite these obstacles, these women, often with little formal education, achieved stardom through their talent and perseverance. Mounira Al-Mahdiya, Umm Kolthoum, Rose El-Youssef, Badia Masabni, Tahiya Carioca, and others appear in Cormack’s volume not merely as remarkable performers but as women of will and determination who challenged social injustice and demanded recognition for their achievements. 

Cormack recounts the story of Fatima Serri, who took Mohammed, the son of Egypt’s leading feminist Hoda Shaarawi, to court for abandoning her and their child. He also details the extraordinary life of Rose El-Youssef, the Muslim-Lebanese-born actress and journalist abandoned by her father and left in a Catholic convent after her mother died in childbirth, who eventually arrived in Alexandria after being separated from her adopted family during a migration to South America.

He further explores the political activism of Tahiya Carioca, who escaped family abuse to achieve fame at Salet Badia, the cabaret run by Badia Masabni.

From before the First World War to the end of the Second, these women defied restrictive norms and helped shape a new perception of women, and particularly of actresses. Dancers, singers, and performers were central to a shifting social and political landscape, many participating in change as activists or even as spies.

In Cormack’s account, Al-Ezbekiyya was more than a venue for nightlife; it was a stage for political presence, in which women were always active participants.

The entertainment industry and the divas of the early 20th century were part of a vibrant cultural scene, a rising feminist momentum, and an evolving political movement that persisted beyond the 1919 Revolution, ultimately contributing to the ousting of the monarchy and the gradual end of British occupation in the 1950s.

A rural perspective
 

Masr Al-Rifaiya fi Awset Al-Qarn Al-Eshrine: Qera’h fi Mofekrat Guedi (Rural Egypt in the Middle of the 20th Century: A Read Through the Dairies of My Grandfather), Ahmed Gamal El-Dine Moussa, General Egyptian Book Organisation, 2022, over 300 pages

This book provides a direct, first-hand account of the life of Egypt’s middle class in the first half of the 20th century. It also bears witness to the transformations that unfolded following the rise of the Free Officers in 1952.

It is based on the discovered diaries of Moussa Ahmed Al-Mansi, who lived in a Delta village between 1896 and 1964. Educated at Al-Azhar, he worked in traditional roles as an imam (preacher) and mazoun (marriage registrar). He owned some property, primarily agricultural land, which he expanded through careful management and thrift.

Except for a few missing volumes, Al-Mansi’s diaries cover the years 1926 to 1964. Though largely apolitical, they are rich in detail, portraying a patriarch of a large family who received a traditional education, embraced a spiritual interpretation of Islam, and possessed a taste for art and sensitivity to current affairs.

They provide insight into nearly every aspect of social life, including marriages, mourning rituals, religious festivals, and disputes within and between families.

Edited by his grandson, Ahmed Gamal El-Dine Moussa, the book allows for selected extracts but still offers extensive details about this social group, whose economic activities were mainly agricultural and who held prominent rural positions such as mayors and clergy.

The diaries depict a man deeply committed to rural life. Al-Mansi worked to optimise his agricultural output by investing in high-quality seeds and adopting modern farming practices. He was equally invested in his children’s education: his sons were schooled both within and beyond the village, and his daughters received the maximum education available locally, usually primary schooling.

A follower of a Sufi order, Al-Mansi regularly visited Cairo’s major mosques on special occasions, such as when he was in the capital for business. He also had a strong interest in art and culture, attending theatre performances alone or with friends.

He kept a subscription to the daily newspaper Al-Ahram and promptly purchased other papers and magazines to stay informed about current and cultural affairs.

The book provides a rare perspective on Egypt’s rural middle class before 1952, which emerges as generally positive. In the spring of 1926, Al-Mansi recorded his admiration upon visiting Cairo’s first agricultural-industrial fair, and later that year, he praised the Royal Agricultural Association Fair.

He frequently noted the efficiency of the central agricultural service, which allowed him timely access to high-quality seeds, a service he observed had declined following the new regime established in July 1952.

From his position in the heart of the Delta, Al-Mansi also reflects on the impact of the Second World War on Egypt’s economy, the role of the middle class in promoting village public services, the dynamics of legislative elections, the development of rural-urban transport after 1952, and the political changes that shaped the country’s trajectory.