Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:56:33.134Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Socioeconomic Role of the Local Foreign Minorities in Modern Egypt, 1805–1961

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Marius Deeb
Marius Deeb
Affiliation:
Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The purpose of this study is to examine the socioeconomic role played by the local foreign minorities in modern Egypt. Who were these local foreign minorities? And what do we mean by their socioeconomic role?

Local foreign minorities were those foreigners like the Greeks, the Armenians, the Italians, and other Europeans, who emigrated to Egypt during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and who kept their language and culture and did not get assimilated into Egyptian society. Other local foreign minorities included the Syrians and the Jews. The former were originally Arabic speaking but a large proportion of them tended later to acquire foreign nationalities and a Levantine outlook. A great number of Jews in Egypt were foreign emigrants who settled during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century in Egypt, whereas a section of the indigenous Jewish population acquired foreign protection and foreign nationalities during the same periods.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , February 1978 , pp. 11 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Douin, George, La Mission du Baron de Boislecomte: L'Egypte et la Syrie en 1833 (Cairo, 1927), p. 99.Google Scholar

2 Thedenant-Duvent, M. P. P., L'Egypte sous Mohemed-Ali ou Aperçu Rapide de L'Administration Civile et Militarie de ce Pacha (Paris, 1822), pp. 44–45.Google Scholar

3 Mengin, Felix, Histoire de L'Egypte sous le gouvernement de Mohamed Aly, vol. II (Paris 1823), pp. 417–418;Google ScholarBowring, John, Report on Egypt and Candia (London, 1840), pp. 80–81.Google Scholar

4 Driault, Edouard, La Formation de L'Empire de Muhammad Aly de l'Arabie au Soudan, 1814–1823 (Cairo, 1927), p. 273.Google Scholar

5 ‘…a'yān al-nās wa yataqalladūna al-manāṣib’. ‘Abd al-Rahḥmān al-JabartĪ, ‘Ajā'ib al-āthār fi ‘l-Tarājim Wal-Akhbār, vol. IV (Cairo, 1322/1904), p. 337.Google Scholar

6 Bowring, , Report on Egypt, p. 118.Google Scholar

7 SāmĪ, Amin, TaqwĪm al-NĪl, vol. II (Cairo, 1928), p. 279.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., p. 845.

9 Ibid., p. 438.

10 Ibid., p. 479.

11 See, e.g., al-JabartĪ, , 'ājā’ib al-Athār, 4, 164–165, 268–269.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., pp. 154–155.

13 Ibid., pp. 220, 274, 296.

14 For lists of the main apaltos, see Bowring, , Report on Egypt, p. 46;Google Scholarde Cadalvene, E. and de Breuvery, J., L'Egypte et la Nubie, vol. I (Paris 1841), p. 382.Google Scholar There were more apaltos than these two lists suggest. See Cattaui, Rene, Le Règne de Mohamed Aly d'Aprés les Archives Russes en Egypte, vol. III (Rome 1936), pp. 28–29.Google Scholar For a description of how some apaltos came into operation, see al-JabartĪ, , 'Ajā 'ib al-āthār, 4, 168.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., p. 187. Similarly, the apaltos for the minting-house increased by leaps and bounds so that Muḥammad ‘AlĪ found it more profitable to run it himself (Ibid., p. 165).

16 Ibid., pp. 166, 167, 269, 274, 288, 289–290, 298, 299, 308, 319℃320, 335–336.

17 Ibid., p. 168. According to Hodgson's, W. B. report of 1835 (Fu'ād Shukri, Muhḥammad et al. , Binā' Dawlat Misṣr Muhḥammad 'AlĪ (Cairo 1948), p. 280)Google Scholar Europeans paid 3 per cent, Muslims 4 per cent, and Christian local subjects 5 per cent. On the other side, Mengin claimed that both foreigners and indigenous merchants paid the same customs (Histoire de L'Egypte, II, 435).Google Scholar

18 Ahmed Abd al-Rahim Mustafa, ‘The Breakdown of the Monopoly System in Egypt after 1840’, in Holt, P. M., ed., Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt (London 1968), p. 303.Google Scholar

19 Merruau, Paul, ‘L'Egypte sous le Gouvernment de Mohammed Said-Pacha’, Revue des Deux Mondes, 11 (15 09, 1857), 348–349.Google Scholar

20 Douin, G., Historie du Règne du Khedive Ismail, vol. II (Rome, 1934), p. 124.Google Scholar

21 Ibid.

22 Politis, A. G., L'Héllènisme et L'Egypte Moderne, vol. II (Paris 1928), pp. 326, 329, 338, 343, 354–358, 361, 363–365, 375, 378, 380, and 383.Google Scholar

23 Charmes, Gabriel, ‘Un éssai du Gouvernement Européen en Egypte, I, La formation du Ministére Anglo-Francais’, Revue des Deux Mondes, 34 (07–08 1879), 795.Google Scholar

24 Owen, E. R. J., Cotton and the Egyptian Economy 1820–1914 (Oxford, 1969), pp. 83–85.Google Scholar

25 Sacré, Amèdè and Outrebon, Louis, L'Egypte et Isinail Pacha (Paris 1865), p. 213.Google Scholar

26 Owen, , Cotton and the Egyptian Economy, pp. 85–86.Google Scholar

27 Ibid., pp. 113–118.

28 Ibid., p. 157.

29 McCoan, J. C., Egypt As It Is (New York, 1877), p. 23. This increase in the number of foreigners contributed to the broadening of the system of capitulations and its abuses. This was an outcome of the weakness of Sa'Īd and Ismā'Īl vis-à-vis the foreign consuls, as the former became more dependent on foreign loans to finance their various projects and ventures.Google Scholar

30 Owen, , Cotton and the Egyptian Economy, p. 386.Google Scholar

31 Ibid., p. 219.

32 Crouchley, A. E., The Investment of Foreign Capital in Egyptian Companies and Public Debt (Cairo 1936), pp. 148, 154–156.Google Scholar

33 See Owen, , Cotton and the Egyptian Economy, pp. 321–323.Google Scholar

34 See, e.g., the debates of Majlis Shūra al-Nuwwāb during the period December 1881–March 1882 (KhalĪl Ṣubhḥi, Muhḥammad, TārĪkh al-Ḥayāt al-Niyābiya, vol. IV [Cairo 1947], pp. 265–535).Google Scholar

35 See especially Nahhas, Youssef, ‘The Economic and Financial Situation in Egypt’ in Minutes of the Proceedings of the First Egyptian Congress (Alexandria, 1911), pp. 211–221.Google Scholar

36 See my article, ‘Bank Misṣr and the Emergence of the Local Bourgeoisie in Egypt’, Middle Eastern Studies, 12, 3 (10, 1976), 69–86.Google Scholar

37 Misṣr al-Ṣinā'iya, vol. I, No. 1 (1925), p. 16.Google Scholar

38 See, e.g., The British Chamber of Commerce of Egypt, vol. XV, No. 4, 04 1928, p. 54 vol. XVII, No. 8, 01 1930, p. 2; and vol. XXI, No. 8, 08 1934, p. 821.Google Scholar

39 See, e.g., Bulletin Mensuel de la Chambre de Commerce Héllènique; No. 297, 06, 1927, p. 6; No. 298; 07, 1927, p. 5 and No. 328, 01, 1930, pp. 7–8.Google Scholar

40 The British Chamber of Commerce of Egypt, vol. XV, No. 6, 06, 1928, p. 84.Google Scholar

41 The question arises as to whether the traditional beliefs of many Egyptians contributed to their reluctance to participate in banking, finance, and in particular, jointstock companies. There is some evidence that the belief that investing in a bank was a form of usury (riba) was not uncommon. One should not maintain, however, that these beliefs were an unsurmountable obstacle for inducing Egyptians to join such economic enterprises. See KhalĪl al-Naqqāsh, SalĪm, Misṣr lil-Misṣriyyin, vol. VI (Alexandria, 1884), pp. 136–137,Google Scholar and the reminiscences of HḤarb about the founding of Bank Misṣr, Rūz al-Yūsuf, No. 593 (07 22, 1939), p. 28.Google Scholar

42 Misṣr, Bank, Inshā' al-Ṣinā'āt al-A hliya wa TanzĪm al-TaslĪf al-Ṣinā'Ī, Mashrū'Bank Ṣinā'Ī MiṣrĪ (Cairo 1929), pp. 211–213.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., pp. 206, 208–209.

44 Deeb, , ‘Bank Misṣr and the Local Bourgeoisie’, p. 80.Google Scholar

45 el-Emary, Ahmed, ‘La crise du chämage en Egypte et ailleurs, ses causes et ses remédes’, L'Egypte Contemporaine, 27, 164 (05, 1936), 472.Google Scholar

46 Deeb, , ‘Bank Misṣr and the Local Bourgeoisie’, p. 79;Google ScholarFederation Egyptienne de L'Industrie, Annuaire (Cairo 1950), pp. 257–279.Google Scholar

47 Al- YūnānĪ al-Mutamaṣṣir; I, 1 (06 1932), I, and I, 7 (12 1932),I.Google Scholar

48 Majallat Ghurfat al-Iskandariya, 148 (01 1949), 31.Google Scholar

49 Deeb, , ‘Bank Miṣr and the Local Bourgeoisie’, p. 79;Google ScholarIssawi, Charles, Egypt in Revolution (London 1963), p. 89.Google Scholar

50 Majallat Ghurfat al-Qāhira, XVI, 6 (07–08 1951), 643–645.Google Scholar