Imagined Empires

by Zeinab Abul-Magd

  56. Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: the Political and Economic Origin of Our Time (Boston: Beacon, 2001), 191–92.

  57. About the Corn Laws, see Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, The Rise of Free Trade, vol. 4 (London: Routledge, 1997), chapters 2 and 3. About the wheat of Upper Egypt, see Mubarak, Nukhbat al-Fikr fi Tadbir Nil Misr, 169.

  58. Mubarak, Nukhbat al-Fikr fi Tadbir Nil Misr, 169.

  59. Sadir Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 367, p. 125, 23 Rabi‘ al-Awwal 1280, NAE.

  60. For example, see Sadir Mudiriyyat Qina, Part 10, p. 56, 14 Rabi‘ al-Awwal 1279, NAE.

  61. For example, see Sadir Mudiriyyat Qina, Part 1, p. 53, 4 Rabi‘ al-Akhir 1279, NAE.

  62. Sadir Mudiriyyat Qina, Part 1, pp. 32–33, 25 Rabi‘ al-Awwal 1279, NAE.

  63. For example, see Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 434, Sijill 666, Case 682, p. 123, Rajab 1275, NAE.

  64. Sadir Mudiriyyat Qina, p. 239, 23 Safar 1272; Part 1, p. 13, 19 Rabi‘ al-Awwal 1279, both in NAE.

  65. Sadir Mudiriyyat Qina, Part 13, p. 67, 8 Shawwal 1275, NAE.

  66. Sadir Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 367, p. 166, 29 Dhu al-Hijja 1280, NAE.

  67. Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 434, Case 842, pp. 77–82, 18 Shawwal 1275, NAE.

  68. For example, see Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 434, Sijill 668, Case 1217, 23 Jumada al-Awwal 1275, NAE.

  69. Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 421, 12 Dhu al-Qi‘da 1288, NAE.

  70. Mubarak, Al-Khitat al-Tawfiqiyya, 14:95. Mubarak misspells the name of the village as Qaw; the actual name of the village that existed in Qina is Faw.

  71. Duff-Gordon, Letters from Egypt, 364. It seems that Duff-Gordon had received confusing accounts, because a Copt was not allowed to buy a Muslim female slave according to shari‘a law.

  72. Ibid., 345–46.

  73. Ibid., 346–47.

  74. Ibid., 347–48.

  75. Ibid., 362–63.

  76. Ibid., 341–71. Quote is on 369.

  77. For example, Delta families that gained politically were the Abazas and the Shawarbis. For details about officials and parliamentarians and their elite families, see Sami, Taqwim al-Nil, vol. 2, part 3; and Muhammad Khalil Subhi, Tarikh al-Haya al-Niyabiyya fi Misr, vol. 6 (Cairo: Matba‘at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1939–47).

  78. See G.R. Rubin and David Sugarman, Law, Economy and Society, 1750–1914: Essays in the History of English Law (Abingdon, UK: Professional Books, 1984).

  79. Sadir ‘Ardhalat Taftish ‘Umum Qibli, p. 103, 19 Safar 1271; p. 110, 25 Safar 1271, both in NAE.

  80. Farshut and Naj‘ Hammadi Courts, Sijill Ishhadat 13, Case 13, p. 3, 22 Shawwal 1274, NAE.

  81. See Sami, Taqwim al-Nil, vol. 1, part 3; Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam microfilms, NAE; and Mubarak, Al-Khitat al-Tawfiqiyya, 8:85.

  82. Jallad, Qamus al-’Idara wa-l-Qada’, 1:183.

  83. Mubarak, Al-Khitat al-Tawfiqiyya, 11:39, 14:69; Sa‘ida Muhammad Husni (ed.), Mahadir Majlis Shura al-Nuwwab: Al-Hay’a al-Niyabiyya al-’Ula, 1866–1869 (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub wa-l-Watha’iq al-Misriyya, 2001), 49–53; Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 434, Sijill 961, Case 274, 2 Dhu al-Qi‘da 1306, NAE.

  84. Husni, Mahadir Majlis Shura al-Nuwwab: al-Hay’a al-Niyabiyya al ’Ula, 1866–1869, 156–61; Ma‘iyya Saniyya, Arabic, No. 23, Part 1, 24 Dhu al-Hijja 1285, NAE.

  85. Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 429, Sijill 889, Case 14, 11 Rabi‘ al-Akhir 1302, NAE.

  86. See Sadir Mudiriyyat, Qina and Isna, Parts 1–2, 1287, NAE.

  87. The 1869 law was abolished in 1881, and the women of Qina Province then hurried to shari‘a courts and the Supreme Court in Cairo to redeem their long-lost properties. See Jallad, Qamus al-’Idara wa-l-Qada’, 1:190. Also see Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 428, Sijill 876, Case 15, 23 Rajab 1301, NAE.

  88. Mubarak, Nukhbat al-Fikr fi Tadbir Nil Misr, 166–69.

  89. Sami, Taqwim al-Nil, vol. 3, part 3, p. 1307; Sadir Mudiriyyat, Qina and Isna, Part 1, p. 55, 4 Rajab 1287, NAE; Mubarak, Al-Khitat al-Tawfiqiyya, 9:263.

  90. Sadir Mudiriyyat, Qina and Isna, Part 1, p. 95, 15 Rajab 1287, NAE.

  91. Majlis Khususi (summaries), No. 71, 20 Jumada al-Thani 1282; Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 429, Sijill 885, Case 454, 2 Muharram 1301, NAE.

  92. Sadir Mudiriyyat, Qina and Isna, Part 1, p. 80, 11 Rajab 1287, NAE.

  93. See Sadir Mudiriyyat, Qina and Isna, Part 1, 1287; Part 2, p. 35, 9 Sha‘ban 1287; and Part 1, p. 27, 28 Rajab 1287, all in NAE. See also Mubarak, Al-Khitat al-Tawfiqiyya, 13:78.

  94. For example, see Sadir Mudiriyyat Qina and Isna, Part 3, p. 91, 27 Ramadan 1287, NAE. Court records of this period show the decline of the native traditional sugar businesses.

  95. Sadir Mudiriyyat Qina and Isna, Part 3, p. 57, 26 Shawwal 1287, NAE.

  96. See, for example, Sadir Mudiriyyat Qina and Isna, Part 1, p. 73, 12 Ramadan 1287, NAE.

  97. Sadir Mudiriyyat Qina and Isna, Part 1, pp. 25 and 30, 21 and 24 Jumada al-Thani 1287; Part 2, p. 24, 24 Rajab 1287, both in NAE.

  98. Sadir Mudiriyyat Qina and Isna, Part 2, p. 30, 25 Jumada al-Thani 1285; Part 1, p. 44, p. 49, 3 Rajab 1287, both in NAE.

  99. Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 422, 5 Rabi‘ Akhir 1299, NAE.

  100. Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 421, Case 141, end of Dhu al-Hijja 1289, NAE.

  101. See Owen, Middle East in the World Economy, 145, and chapter 5.

  CHAPTER 5: A REBELLION IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA

  1. Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 43, Sijill 897, 20 Muharram 1303, NAE; Further Correspondence Respecting the Affairs of Egypt, 1884 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1884), 48–49, British National Archives, Kew (hereafter BNA).

  2. See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983).

  3. Niall Ferguson, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (New York: Basic Books, 2003), xxv and xx.

  4. Anderson, Imagined Communities, 63; see also 37 and 46. Anderson’s theoretical analysis influences postcolonial historiography on the formation of nation-states. For example, on India, see Partha Chatergie, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Post-colonial Histories (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993); on Syria see, James Gelvin, Divided Loyalties: Nationalism and Mass Politics in Syria at the Close of Empire (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).

  5. See, for example, Muhammad Farid Hashish, Hizb al-Wafd, 1936–1952 (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-‘Amma lil-Kitab,1999); and Eric M. Davis, Challenging Colonialism: Bank Misr and the Political Economy of Industrialization in Egypt, 1920–1941 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983).

  6. Evelyn Baring Cromer, Modern Egypt (London: Macmillan, 1908), 1:532. Cromer used the word remote to refer to the south more than once (2:326) (emphasis added).

  7. For example, see ibid., 1:30, 57.

  8. The concept of “free-trade imperialism” is borrowed from the classical article John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson, “The Imperialism of Free Trade,” Economic History Review, second series, vol. 6 (1) (1953): 1–15. The rulers of Egypt, officially viceroys of the Ottoman sultan, had to abide by an Anglo-Turkish free-trade agreement from 1838.

  9. For more details on the economic policies of Sa‘id and Isma‘il, see Roger Owen, The Middle East in the World Economy 1800–1914 (London: I.B. Tauris, 1993), chapter 5.

  10. Following the names of big families in ‘Ali Mubarak’s books and biographical collections of notables of this period, one finds that only few Upper Egyptian families made it to high positions in the government and joined the notable class. See Ahmad Taymur, Tarajim ’A‘yan al-Qarn al-Thalith ‘Ashr wa-Awa’il al-Rabi‘ ‘Ashr (Cairo: Multazim al-Tab‘ ‘Abd al-Hamid Ahmad Hanafi, 1940).

  11. Sa‘ida Muhammad Husni, Al-Majalis al-Niyabiyya fi Misr fi ‘Ahd al-Ihtilal al-Biritani, 1882–1914 (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-‘Amma lil-Kitab, 1990), 14–18.

  12. For details a
bout council members, parliamentary minutes, and discussions on matters related to cotton, see Sa‘ida Muhammad Husni (ed.), Mahadir Majlis Shura al-Nuwwab: al-Hay’a al-Niyabiyya al-’Ula, 1866–1869 (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub wa-l-Watha’iq al-Misriyya, 2001); Sa‘ida Muhammad Husni (ed.), Mahadir Majlis Shura al-Nuwwab: Al-Hay’a al-Niyabiyya al-Thaniya, 1870–1873 (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub wa-l-Watha’iq al-Misriyya, 2006); Amin Sami, Taqwim al-Nil (Cairo: Matba‘at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1936), vol. 2, part 3; Muhammad Khalil Subhi, Tarikh al-Haya al-Niyabiyya fi Misr, vol. 6 (Cairo: Matba‘at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1939–47).

  13. Husni, Mahadir Majlis Shura al-Nuwwab: Al-Hay’a al-Niyabiyya al-’Ula, 1866–1869, 13–15, 55–57; Sami, Taqwim al-Nil, vol. 3, part 2, 671. On Muslim identity, see, for example, Sami, Taqwim al-Nil, vol. 3, part 2, 784.

  14. Husni, Mahadir Majlis Shura al-Nuwwab: Al-Hay’a al-Niyabiyya al-’Ula, 1870–1873, 212. The writings of ‘Ali Pasha Mubarak—a high state official and landowner educated in Europe—is an example of this intellectual discourse. See ‘Ali Mubarak, Nukhbat al-Fikr fi Tadbir Nil Misr (Cairo: Matba‘at Wadi al-Nil, 1297/1879), 4.

  15. See Roger Owen, Lord Cromer: Victorian Imperialist, Edwardian Proconsul (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), chapters 8 and 9, and p. 178.

  16. Cromer, Modern Egypt, 2:271.

  17. “Memorandum on Egyptian Affairs: Course of Events and Progress of Reforms in Egypt since the Conclusion of Lord Dufferin’s Special Mission,” February 1, 1884, pp. 3–4, FO 881/4906, BNA; Husni, Al-Majalis al-Niyabiyya fi Misr fi ‘Ahd al-’Ihtilal al-Biritani, 1882–1914, 14–18.

  18. Subhi, Tarikh al-Haya al-Niyabiyya fi Misr, 6:37–58.

  19. Ibid., 6:29–58.

  20. al-Hukuma al-Misriyya, Mahadir Jalasat Majlis Shura al-Qawanin (Cairo: Matba‘at Fath Allah Ilyas Nuri, 1883–), session no. 24, January 1884.

  21. ‘Ali Mubarak, Al-Khitat al-Tawfiqiyya al-Jadida li-Misr al-Qahira (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-‘Amma lil-Kitab, 1994), 8:85–86.

  22. Dishna Court, Sijill Ishhadat, Murafa‘at, Mubaya‘at, and Tarikat 143, Case 155, pp. 39–40, 20 September 1900, NAE; Majlis al-Wuzara’, Iltimasat, Portfolio 8/A, 29 November 1909, NAE.

  23. See, for example, “Memorandum on Egyptian Affairs,” 1884, p. 8, FO 881/4906, BNA.

  24. al-Hukuma al-Misriyya, Mahadir Jalasat Majlis Shura al-Qawanin, 29 Rajab 1310 16 February 1893, pp. 23–24.

  25. “Villiers to Cromer,” 1895, FO 78/4668, BNA, quoted in Martina Rieker, “The Sa‘id and the City: Subaltern Spaces in the Making of Modern Egyptian History” (PhD dissertation, Temple University, 1997), 153.

  26. ‘Abdin Iltimasat, Arabic, Microfilm 476, Sijill 4, p. 133, 20 December 1904, NAE.

  27. Majlis al-Wuzara’, Majlis Shura al-Qawanin, Portfolio 3/2/B, 22 October 1890, NAE.

  28. Majlis al-Wuzara’, Jalasat Majlis al-Nuzzar, Portfolio 5/L, 5 June 1890; Portfolio 5/M, 9 July 1890 and 24 July 1890, all in NAE.

  29. Majlis al-Wuzara’, Jalasat Majlis al-Nuzzar, Portfolio 5/Sin, 20 August 1896, and Portfolio 5/‘Ayn, 51 January 1897, both in NAE; Reports by His Majesty’s High Commissioner on the Finance, Administration, and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1898 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1899), 19, BNA.

  30. al-Hukuma al-Misriyya, Mahadir Jalasat Majlis Shura al-Qawanin, 13 Jumada al-Awwal 1303/17 February 1886, p. 19.

  31. Ibid., 13 Jumada al-Awwal 1303/17 February 1886, p. 19, and 17 Dhu al-Qi‘da 1303/17 August 1886, p. 61; al-Hukuma al-Misriyya, Mahadir Jalasat Majlis Shura al-Qawanin, 29 Jumada al-Akhir 1305/22 February 1888, pp. 2–3.

  32. See, for example, Majlis al-Wuzara’, Nizarat al-Maliyya, al-Muwazana, I‘tirad Lajna min Majlis Shura al-Qawanin ‘ala al-Muwazana, Portfolio 9/1/K, 22 December 1896, NAE; and Cromer, Modern Egypt, 1:103.

  33. Cromer, Modern Egypt, 2:569.

  34. Majlis al-Wuzara’, Majlis Shura al-Qawanin, Portfolio 3/2/Jim, 9 May 1898, NAE.

  35. Majlis al-Wuzara’, Jalasat Majlis al-Nuzzar, Portfolio 5/‘Ayn, 25 January 1897. NAE.

  36. Majlis al-Wuzara’, Jalasat Majlis al-Nuzzar, Portfolio 5/Nun, 30 July 1896, NAE.

  37. Reports by His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General on the Finance, Administration and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1906 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1907), 49, BNA.

  38. ‘Abdin Iltimasat, Portfolio 495, 8 May 1917, 20 May 1917, November 1921, NAE.

  39. Ibid.

  40. Reports by His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General on the Finance, Administration and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1898, 16–17, BNA.

  41. Owen, Lord Cromer, 304–5.

  42. See, for example, ‘Abdin Iltimasat, Portfolio 496, 30 February 1908, NAE.

  43. Petition from the peasants to Cairo, ‘Abdin Iltimasat, Portfolio 494, Case 4, 30 January 1911, NAE.

  44. The colonial administration developed this reformed legal system in 1883 to allow Europeans to litigate outside the native system of shari‘a courts and other modern legal councils.

  45. ‘Abdin Iltimasat, Portfolio 494, Case 4, 30 January 1911, NAE.

  46. For example, see ‘Abdin, Arabic, Microfilm 476, Sijill 4, 20 December 1904; ‘Abdin Iltimasat, Portfolio 473, 14 March 1915; ‘Abdin Iltimasat, Portfolio 469, 2 May 1911; ‘Abdin Iltimasat, Portfolio 495, 8 May 1917; and ‘Abdin Iltimasat, Portfolio 496, Case 105, 20 April 1915, all in NAE.

  47. “Confidential: British Agency in Cairo, Agricultural Bank of Egypt,” FO 141/531/2, BNA.

  48. Reports by His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General on the Finance, Administration and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1906, 14, 52, BNA.

  49. See, for example, ‘Abdin Iltimasat, Portfolio 473, Case No. 2, 20 January 1917; and Portfolio 496, No. 108, 25 May 1915, both in NAE.

  50. Majmu‘at Mahadir Dawr In‘iqad al-Jam‘iyya al-‘Umumiyya, 1910 (Cairo: al-Matba‘a al-Amiriyya, 1910–), 69–70.

  51. “Confidential: British Agency in Cairo Agricultural Bank of Egypt,” 9, FO 141/531/2, BNA.

  52. Ibid., 8.

  53. For example, see ‘Abdin Iltimasat, Portfolio 496, No. 108, 25 May 1915; and Portfolio 496, 7 January 1915, both in NAE.

  54. LaVerne Kuhnke, Lives at Risk: Public Health in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 63, 66.

  55. Further Correspondence Respecting the Affairs of Egypt, 1884, 48–49, BNA.

  56. Al-Qararat wa-l-Manshurat al-Sadira fi 1902 (Cairo: al-Matba‘a al-Amiriyya, 1903), 423.

  57. Reports by His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General on the Finance, Administration and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1902 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1903), 71, BNA.

  58. Egypt was not yet colonized, but after the foreign debt crisis its finances were partially under British-French control.

  59. Majlis al-Wuzara’, Sharikat wa-Jam‘iyyat, Portfolio 1/B, 16 May 1880, NAE.

  60. Reports by His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General on the Finance, Administration and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1902, 51, BNA.

  61. Reports by His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General on the Finance, Administration and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1898, 30, 72, BNA.

  62. Reports by His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General on the Finance, Administration and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1902, 49, BNA.

  63. Ibid.

  64. Al-Qararat wa-l-Manshurat al-Sadira fi 1901 (Cairo: al-Matba‘a al-Amiriyya, 1902), 57.

  65. Al-Qararat wa-l-Manshurat al-Sadira fi 1902, 30, 77.

  66. al-Hukuma al-Misriyya, Mahadir Jalasat Majlis Shura al-Qawanin, 8 Rajab 1301/May 1884.

  67. Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 428, Sijill 881, Case 288, 6 Shawwal 1301, NAE.

  68. Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 422, 6 Jumada al-Awwal 1299, NAE.

  69. Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 426, Sijill 861, Case 998, 10 Dhu al-Hijja 1300, NAE. This incident happened in 1878, two years after the dual British-French control over Egyptian finances started, upon the debt crisis.

  70. Reports by His Majesty’s Ag
ent and Consul-General on the Finance, Administration and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1907 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1908), 28, BNA.

  71. Reports by His Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General on the Finance, Administration and Condition of Egypt and the Soudan in 1908 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1909), 32, BNA.

  72. See, for example, Muhammad Farid Hashish, Hizb al-Wafd, 1936–1952 (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-‘Amma lil-Kitab, 1999); Davis, Bank Misr and the Political Economy of Industrialization in Egypt, 1920–1941; and Beth Baron, Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).

  73. See Anderson, Imagined Communities; and Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Griffiths (ed.), The Post-colonial Studies Reader (London: Routledge, 2006), part 8.

  74. Education was the main means of disseminating nationalist discourse. Tay‘ Salama, an infamous parliamentarian, was involved in founding boys’ schools toward this goal. See, for example, Qina Court, Sijill Ishhadat 125, Case 92, pp. 61–62, 4 November 1899; Dishna Court, Sijill Ishhadat, Murafa‘at, Mubaya‘at, and Tarikat 141, Case 100, pp. 86–87, 22 July 1900; and Dishna Court, Sijill Ishhadat, Murafa‘at, Mubaya‘at, and Tarikat 141, Case 39, pp. 36–38, 24 March 1900, all in NAE.

  75. This section of the chapter is theoretically informed by the insights of subaltern studies into writing non-bourgeois-nationalist histories of colonized societies, particularly in India. It attempts to break away from elitist historiography of Egypt that focuses on bourgeois nationalism as the only form of resisting colonialism, opting instead to present a nonelitist narrative showing other modes of resistance of the lower classes in Upper Egypt. See Ranajit Guha, “On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India,” in Vinayak Ghaturvedi (ed.), Mapping the Subaltern Studies and the Postcolonial (London: Verso, 2000), 1–7.

  76. Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, Microfilm 43, Sijill 892, Case 187, 15 Rajab 1302, NAE.

  77. Al-Qararat wa-l-Manshurat al-Sadira fi 1902, 504.

  78. Madabit Majlis al-Ahkam, microfilm 422, 6 Jumada al-Awwal 1299.

  79. Al-Qararat wa-l-Manshurat al-Sadira fi 1889 (Cairo: al-Matba‘a al-Amiriyya, 1890), 378.