The creation of the Egyptian monarchy in 1922, under King Fuad II, opened contests and debates over fundamental cultural questions, particularly definitions of Egyptian modernity, rule and identity. Here, James Whidden looks at the political, cultural and intellectual landscapes of Egypt between the wars, from the nationalist agitations for independence in 1919, the rise of the Wafd - first under Saad Zaghul and then Mustafa El-Nahas Pasha - and the rise and fall of different political and power brokers in the period such as Abd al-Latif al-Makkabati or Abd al-Khaliq Tharwa. Whidden therefore focuses on the different interpretations of the nature of Egyptian politics, highlighting the ways in which patriotism and elitism, Islam and tradition, colonial manipulations, and ideological politics combine. In particular, he examines how monarchists, like Zaki Fahmi and Diaeddine Saleh, attempted to neutralise opponents through cultural works, patronage and political party contests. The period under examination was to a large extent defined by the 'revolution' of 1919 and the constitutional and electoral processes that followed. The sectors of society involved in this were the effendiyya and the notables - such as Zaghul. But these were soon dominated by the monarch, as the Wafd party allied with the king. Bearing this in mind, Whidden examines how these notables attempts to mobilise the people in revolutionary activity, electoral contest and the formation of political party organization in this period. Although a 'liberal constitution' was written by an appointed constitutional commission in 1923, Whidden argues that the disagreements it occasioned suggest that politics in the interwar period was very much an attempt to redefine or rewrite that constitution to the differing assumptions of liberal, nationalists and monarchists. Monarchy and Modernity in Egypt is thus a vital resource for those interested in Middle East history, as well as intellectual developments within the region.

This book examines the transformations of Egyptian childhoods that occurred across gender, class, and rural/urban divides. It also questions the role of nostalgia and representation of childhood in illuminating key underlying political, social, and cultural developments in Egypt.

The Islamic world's artistic traditions experienced profound transformation in the 19th century as rapidly developing technologies and globalizing markets ushered in drastic changes in technique, style, and content. Despite the importance and ingenuity of these developments, the 19th century remains a gap in the history of Islamic art. To fill this opening in art historical scholarship, Making Modernity in the Islamic Mediterranean charts transformations in image-making, architecture, and craft production in the Islamic world from Fez to Istanbul. Contributors focus on the shifting methods of production, reproduction, circulation, and exchange artists faced as they worked in fields such as photography, weaving, design, metalwork, ceramics, and even transportation. Covering a range of media and a wide geographical spread, Making Modernity in the Islamic Mediterranean reveals how 19th-century artists in the Middle East and North Africa reckoned with new tools, materials, and tastes from local perspectives.

An examination of experimental cinema and media art from the Arabic-speaking world that explores filmmakers' creative and philosophical inventiveness in trying times. In this book, Laura Marks examines one of the world's most impressive, and affecting, bodies of independent and experimental cinema from the last twenty-five years: film and video works from the Arabic-speaking world. Some of these works' creative strategies are shared by filmmakers around the world; others arise from the particular economic, social, political, and historical circumstances of Arab countries, whose urgency, Marks argues, seems to demand experiment and invention. Grounded in a study of infrastructures for independent and experimental media art in the Arab world and a broad knowledge of hundreds of films and videos, Hanan al-Cinema approaches these works thematically. Topics include the nomadism of the highway, nostalgia for '70s radicalism, a romance with the archive, algorithmic and glitch media, haptic and networked space, and cinema of the body. Marks develops an aesthetic of enfolding and unfolding to elucidate the different ways that cinema can make events perceptible, seek connections among them, and unfold in the bodies and thoughts of audiences. The phrase Hanan al-cinema expresses the way movies sympathize with the world and the way audiences feel affection for, and are affected by, them. Marks's clear and expressive writing conveys these affections in works by such internationally recognized artists and filmmakers as Akram Zaatari, Elia Suleiman, Hassan Khan, Mounir Fatmi, and Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, and others who should be better known.

A history of Egypt's first teacher-training school, exploring 130 years of tension over the place of Islamic ideas and practices within modernized public spheres.

In Cartooning for a Modern Egypt, Keren Zdafee foregrounds the role that Egypt’s foreign-local entrepreneurs and caricaturists played in formulating and constructing the modern Egyptian caricature of the interwar years. She illustrates how these caricaturists envisioned and evaluated the past, present, and future of Egyptian society, in the context of Cairo's colonial cosmopolitanism.

This book analyses the political ideologies of the several highly influential liberal, socialist and communist thinkers, groups and movements which sought to modernize Egypt after World War II. Most of the representatives of these currents intended to transform Egyptian society completely through rapid industrialization, land reforms and economic planning, which would eliminate the peasantry, rationalize the economy and create a new Egyptian citizen who would live 'in accordance with the spirit of the age'. This study explains why and how most liberal and left-wing intellectuals eventually supported the authoritarian modernization programme of the July Revolution of 1952. It gives new insights into intellectual life during one of the most optimistic periods in Egyptian history, a time when Egypt was at the height of its power and believed a whole new future lay before it, uniting the Arab world and joining Asia and Africa in the common struggle for independence and dignity.

This book explores how modern Egyptians understand the Mamluks and reveals the ways in which that historical memory is utilized for political and ideological purposes. It specifically examines the representations of the Mamluks from two historical periods: the Mamluk Sultanate era (1250–1517) and the Mamluks under the Ottoman era (1517–1811) focusing mostly on the years 1760–1811. Although the Mamluks have had a great impact on the Egyptian collective memory and modern thought, the subject to date has hardly been researched seriously, with most analyses given to stereotypical negative representations of the Mamluks in historical works. However, many Egyptian historians and intellectuals presented the Mamluk era positively, and even symbolized the Sultans as national icons. This book sheds light on the heretofore-neglected positive dimensions of the multifaceted representations of the Mamluks and addresses the ways in which modern Egyptians utilize that collective memory.

Re-Envisioning Egypt, 1919-1952 presents new and often dismissed aspects of the constitutional monarchy era in Egyptian history. It demonstrates that many of the domestic and regional sociopolitical and cultural changes credited to the 1952 revolutionaries actually began in the decades before the July coup. Arguing against the predominant view of the pre-revolutionary era in Egypt as one of creeping decay, the volume restores understandings of the 1919-1952 years as integral to modern nation-state formation and social transformation. The book's contributors show that Egypt's real revolutions were long-term processes emerging over several decades prior to 1952. The leaders of the 1952 coup capitalized on these developments, yet earlier changes in Egyptian society fundamentally facilitated their actions and policies. This volume includes revisionist discussion of domestic political issues and foreign policy; the military, education, social reform, and class; as well as popular media, art, and literature. By introducing new approaches to these under-appreciated categories of analysis through exploration of untapped sources and by re-examining the political context of the time, Re-Envisioning Egypt, 1919-1952 proposes innovative methodologies for understanding this crucial period in Egyptian history, casting these years as fundamental to the country's twentieth-century trajectory. Contributors: Tewfik Aclimandos, Malak Badrawi, Andrew Flibbert, Nancy Gallagher, Arthur Goldschmidt, Mervat Hatem, Misako Ikeda, Amy J. Johnson, Anne-Claire Kerboeuf, Samia Kholoussi, Hanan Kholoussy, Fred Lawson, Shaun T. Lopez, Scott David McIntosh, Roger Owen, Lucie Ryzova, Barak A. Salmoni, James Whidden, Caroline Williams.

This deeply informed book considers the intertwined roles of faith, force, and finance in shaping the modern Middle East. Leading expert Monte Palmer argues that these factors will continue to have a major impact on the Middle East as the United States and other major powers increasingly find themselves embedded in conflicts that defy resolution. Palmer considers the lessons learned from past and current conflicts: the limits of using tyrants as avenues of force; the transformation of faith into force; the root causes of terror; and the perils of a global environment that threatens a new cold war between Russia and the United States, a war of religions between the Abrahamic faiths, and a war of terror that is rapidly becoming global. As he clearly shows, the relative dominance of faith, force, or finance is always shifting, depending on time, place, and local conditions. Drawing on cases from ten critical periods, from World War I through the current chaos and stalemate, the author offers constructive paths forward for building a Middle East of peace and stability.