9 - The end of the old regime

Summary

By the time Fuad I University celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1950, Egypt was in serious trouble. Nahhas, at seventy-one, was back with a Wafdist government for one last try, but the party no longer justified the lingering hopes placed in it. Eyebrows were raised when Nahhas kissed the hand of the obese king, whose nightlife had become a national embarrassment. Israel had defeated Egypt, and Britain still occupied the Suez Canal. A third of the agricultural land was owned by 0.4% of the owners, while 94% of the owners held only 36%, and many peasants had no land at all. The Wafd government did pass educational reforms, social insurance for some workers, and higher income and land taxes on the rich. But conservatives like Minister of Interior Fuad Siraj al-Din made sure his class was not seriously inconvenienced.

Left Wafdists, the Socialist Party (the erstwhile Young Egypt), the Muslim Brothers, small Marxist factions, and the clandestine Free Officers all wanted far-reaching change, though they differed on its extent and direction. University and secondary students, together with the growing working class, spearheaded the frequent street protests.

The days of the old regime were numbered, as were those of the British and French at the university and those of the liberal university itself as conceived by men like Lutfi al-Sayyid and Taha Husayn, Ali Mosharrafa and Ali Ibrahim.