Much of it was shaped by the country's two monarchs, Fouad and Farouk, who sought to make the capital the heart of an aspired modernity.
The story of these three decades is the core of a 15-chapter edited volume that Dar El-Ein published a few months ago under the title of Al-Qaheira Al-Malakiya – 1922-1952 (Royal Cairo: 1922-1952). An English edition of the book is scheduled for publication later this year.
Edited by architect-historian Nezar Al-Sayyad, already an author of several books, including other edited volumes, on the history of the city, and Hassan Hamed, a historian of a younger generation, the book proposes a not-so-common take on the history of the city before 23 July 1952. According to this volume, the Cairo that is more often than not referred to as Khedival Cairo is probably a mix of the Khedival and the Royal – at least in some aspects, especially the urban.
Most of the key historic buildings of the city today were actually built during the rule of Fouad and Farouk, especially after Fouad became king, five years after taking over the rule of the country in 1917 as the sultan, under the British Occupation. Some of these buildings, the book reminds readers, actually replaced buildings that were constructed during the rule of Khedive Ismail, who ruled between 1863 and 1879 and who had a vision for modernity that was simply based on 'Europeanising' Cairo.
The more than 550-page volume is not exactly trying to offer a comparison between Cairo of Ismail or that of his son Fouad and his grandson Farouk. The book is actually offering a narrative, told by 12 authors of diverse disciplines, that shows Fouad and Farouk as the dedicated children of the vision of elective modernity, given that modernity in the case of the three rulers was designed to be offered for a limited elite and not for the entire population.
Effectively, the book reminds readers that the part of Cairo that is known today as Khedival Cairo, which is practically downtown Cairo, was built at a distance from the older part of the city, which continued to suffer the many signs of dilapidation up until the Free Officers surrounded Abdine Palace to oust King Farouk. This, however, is more about the urban side of the story of Cairo during the royal epoque.
Through a wider lens, the book is showing a city that is inspired by a growing middle class and the 1919 Revolution, both of which subscribed to the modernity and independence of the nation. Judging by the chapters dedicated to the social and cultural aspects of the history of Cairo between 1922 and 1952, some elements of modernity were shared at a relatively large scale. This includes the establishment of modern public services, modern hospitals, museums, the university and the introduction of radio and cinema, whose reach manages to bypass the otherwise rough socio-economic segregation.
By reflecting on the socio-economic discrepancies of the city, the book is actually challenging the sometimes excessive nostalgic recollections of the belle epoque of Cairo. Moreover, it is also revealing the profound political intent of the two kings of Egypt to consolidate their power and legacy and to eliminate all other accounts.
Fouad and Farouk introduced edifices and statues that were 'designed' to confirm a narrative they wished to propagate: Cairo is the making of Ismail, Fouad and Farouk. The idea there, as the book shows, was to overwrite the story of the rulers in the years between 1879 and 1917, when the country was ruled by Tawfik, Abbas Helmi II and Hussein Kamel. Actually, the book reminds readers that, to serve this purpose, Fouad changed the name of Abbas Street (currently Ramses Street) to Queen Nazli, after his wife and the mother of Farouk. The street, however, went through subsequent name changes when Farouk chose to remove his mother's name, when he was having a feud with her, and to just call it The Queen, then Nahdet Masr.
The issue of re-appropriation is certainly one of the biggest cross-chapter stories that the book is continuously telling, before and after 23 July 1952. This included the removal of the dome of a Khedival tomb to be put on the burial place and Mosque of Gamal Abdel-Nasser, who ruled Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970.
The history of the city, as told in the book, is highly political as it shows the manifestations of the battle that involved the palace, the British Occupation and the leading Al-Wafd Party. It also shows the many signs of post-1919 Revolution popular resistance to the British Occupation – and the impact thereof on the complex question of identity. In one of the episodes on the question of identity, the book shows that a parliamentary debate was held to decide the architectural style for Saad Zaghloul’s mausoleum.
Ultimately, an Old Egypt style was agreed upon.
Each of the chapters of the book offers a very impressive account of the many sides of the history of the city – which is effectively the history of the path towards independence, with modernity being part of this path.
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