Egypt's Age of Transition: Unintentional Cosmopolitanism during the Reign of Muhammad ‘Alī (1805–1848)

Pasha was a Turkish title used in the Ottoman Empire, and applied to governors of provinces, or military and naval commanders of high rank.

Ismā‘īl was the first, in the successors of Muhammad ‘Alī, to adopt the title of Khedive (viceroy) in 1867.

According to Al-Asad, this authorship is first documented in the 1908 Baedeker Egypt: Handbook for Travellers. Mohammad Al-Asad, “The Mosque of Muhammad ‘Alī in Cairo,” Muqarnas 9 (1992), 48–9. Accessed March 8, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1523134.

Hassan ‘Abdel Wahab, “al-‘Imara fi ‘Asr Muhammad ‘Alī Pasha,” al-‘Imarah 3–4 (1941), 57–70. Al-‘Imarah, the first architectural journal in Egypt, is examined by Marwa El-Ashmouni in her PhD dissertation supervised by Katharine Bartsch and Peter Scriver (University of Adelaide) and Ashraf Salama (University of Qatar).

Nasser Rabbat, The Citadel of Cairo: A New Interpretation of Royal Mamlūk Architecture (New York: Leiden, 1996), 30.

See Alain Silvera, “Edme-François Jomard and the Egyptian Reforms of 1839,” Middle East Studies 7 (1971).

The Mamlūk architectural features in Coste's design include the richly carved stonework evident in the entrance and the domes as well as the two-tone banding (usually red-and-white stonework) of the typical horseshoe and trefoil arches. The angular patterning on the domes is another common Mamlūk feature; different patterns (zigzag, floral, geometric), carved in high relief, identified a mosque's patron. The ornate polygonal minarets on square bases, with their multiple balconies, are another characteristic Mamlūk element. Not least, the primary dome surmounting the qibla wall emulates that of the most famous Mamlūk mosque of Sultan Hassan (1356–61). These features are quite distinct from the unadorned massing of the Alabaster Mosque.

Coste was the first to document Mamlūk architecture. Nasser Rabbat, “The Medieval Link: Maqrizi's Khitat and Modern Narratives of Cairo,” in Nezar AlSayyad, Irene Bierman and Nasser Rabbat, eds., Making Cairo Medieval (Maryland, USA: Lexington Books, 2005), 35. Coste's views about Mamlūk architecture were also emphasized in Gaston Weit, Mohammed ‘Ali et les Beaux-arts (Cairo: Dar al-Maaref, 1949).

Nezar AlSayyad, Cairo: Histories of a City (USA: Harvard University Press, 2011), 187.

AlSayyad, Cairo , 187.

Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (London: Faber and Faber, 1991), 85.

For example, Mercedes Volait, Architectes et Architectures de l'Égypte Moderne (1820–1950): Genèse et Essor d'une Expertise Locale (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 2005).

Sami Zubaida, “Cosmopolitanism in the Middle East,” in Roel Meijer, ed., Cosmopolitanism, Identity and Authenticity in the Middle East (Richmond, UK: Curzon, 1999), 25; Maya Jasanoff, “Cosmopolitan: A Tale of Identity from Ottoman Alexandria,” Common Knowledge 11:3 (2005): 393–409; Robert Ilbert, Alexandrie 1830–1930: Histoire d'une Communauté Citadine (Cairo: IFAO, 199).

Zubaida, “Cosmopolitanism in the Middle East,” 15–16.

Mubarak, Al-Kheteat Al-Tawfqiyya , vol 5, 78. This account provides a detailed description and quantifies every feature in the mosque including the inscriptions. All Arabic translations are by Marwa El-Ashmouni unless otherwise stated.

Henry Dodwell, The Founder of Modern Egypt: A Study of Muhammad ‘Ali (Cambridge: University Press, 1931, reprinted 1967). This is the first work in English to document the career of the Pasha based on archival sources in Britain and Cairo.

The sites are known to the principal author, a native of Alexandria.

Ulrich Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , trans. Ciaran Cronin (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2006).

Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

Roel Meijer ed., Cosmopolitanism, Identity and Authenticity in the Middle East , 1–14.

For the Mamlūk period see Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Cairo of the Mamlūks: A History of the Architecture and its Culture (London: Tauris, 2007); and for the Ottoman see André Raymond, “Cairo under the Ottoman,” in André Raymond, ed., The Glory of Cairo: An Illustrated History (Cairo: American University Press, 2002). The continuation of the Mamlūk style during the Ottoman period was studied by Ülkü Ü. Bates, “Two Ottoman Documents on Architects in Egypt,” Muqarnas 3 (1985), 121–127. Accessed April 12, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1523088. Bates confirms that the continuity of a local style under a new imperial power was due to both the strength of the regional power as well as the patrons' lack of commitment to any imperial style.

See Darrell Dykstra, “The French Occupation of Egypt, 1798–1801,” in M.W. Daly, ed., The Cambridge History of Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) for a detailed study of the strategic value of French power in Egypt.

For that period see, Nezar AlSayyad, Cities and Caliphs: On the Genesis of Arab Muslim Urbanism (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991).

P.J. Vatikiotis, The History of Modern Egypt: From Muhammad ‘Alī to Mubarak (London: Butler & Tanner, 1991, 4th ed.), 10.

The continuity of Fatimid forms and the lack of further innovation during the Ayyubid period, identified by Creswell and Behrens-Abouseif, are challenged by Korn in his meticulous analysis of the façade of the Ayyubid Madrasa. Lorenz Korn, “The Façade of As-Salih ‘Ayyub's Madrasa and the style of Ayyubid Architecture in Cairo,” in Urbain Vermeulen and J. Van Steenbergen, eds., Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid, and Mamlūk eras III (Belgium: Peeters, 2001), 103. Architectural conservatism in the Mamlūk period is also identified in André Raymond, ed., The Glory of Cairo: An Illustrated History (Cairo: American University Press, 2002), 334; and Doris Behrens-Abouseif, “The Visual Transformation of Egypt during the Reign of Muhammad ‘Alī,” in Doris Behrens-Abouseif and Stephen Vernoit, eds., Islamic Art in the 19th Century: Tradition, Innovation, and Eclecticism (Boston: Brill, 2006), 115.

Raaof ‘Abaas, Islaah ‘am Tahdeeth? Misr fi ‘Ahd Muhammad ‘Alī [Reformation or Modernization? Egypt during Muhammad ‘Alī's reign] (Cairo: Higher Culture Council, 2000), 9.

Mitchell, Colonising Egypt , 35.

Mitchell, Colonising Egypt , 33.

Mitchell, Colonising Egypt , 44.

Mitchell, Colonising Egypt , 60. Starr has also referred to this process of ordering the neutral space in her compelling depiction of a nineteenth-century postcard. This card, titled ‘Cairo-Native Quarter,’ shows the intersection of the old obscure native alley with the new legible modern street, and “offers a metaphor of enlightenment, secured by the British military.” Starr, Remembering Cosmopolitan Egypt, 6.

Mitchell, Colonising Egypt , 13.

Janet Abu-Lughod, Cairo 1001: The City Victorious (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1971), 88.

Behrens-Abouseif, “The Visual Transformation of Egypt,” 115.

Gaston Weit, Mohammed Ali et les Beaux-arts (Cairo: Dar al-Maaref, 1949).

Rabbat, “A Mosque and an Imperial Dream,” Al-Ahram Weekly , 756 (2005): 2. Nezar AlSayyad, Cairo.

Shirley Johnston with Sherif Sonbol, Egyptian Palaces and Villas: Pashas, Khedives and Kings (New York: Abrams, 2006).

Hassan Hassan, The House of Muhammad ‘Alī: A Family Album, 1805–1952 (The American University in Cairo Press, 2000); Michael Haag, Egypt (London: Cadogan Guides, 5th ed. 2009); Caroline Williams, Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide (Cairo: American University Press, 2002); and Sayyed Karim, “The House of Muhammad ‘Alī,” al-‘Imarah 3 (1941): 14. Sayyed Karim, the editor of al-‘Imarah, (1939–59), asserts that this information is based on first-hand accounts by Muhammad ‘Alī. This issue was devoted to Muhammad ‘Alī and includes a complete account of his palaces by the historian Hasaan ‘Abdel Wahab.

Al-Asad, “The Mosque of Muhammad ‘Alī in Cairo,” 48–9. Al-Asad's article is partly based on an earlier, purely descriptive account by ‘Alī Mubarak in his multi-volume work al-Kitat al-Tawfiqiyya al-Jadida li-Misr al-Qahira (Cairo: Bulaq, 1888).

One of the important Arabic accounts dealing with the mosque of Muhammad ‘Alī is the two-volume work of Hassan ‘Abdel Wahab, Tarikh al-Masajid al-Athariyya al-lati salla fiha faridat al-Jum'a Sahib al-Jalala al-M'Alīk Faruk al-Awal (Cairo: Daar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1946).

Āṣim Muḥammad Rezq, Aṭlas al-‘imārah al-Islāmīyah wa-al-Qibṭīyah bi-al-Qāhirah.

Rabbat, “A Mosque and an Imperial Dream,” 3.

Rabbat, “A Mosque and an Imperial Dream,” 3.

AlSayyad, Cairo , 171.

Al-Asad, “The Mosque of Muhammad ‘Alī in Cairo,” 44–5.

Al-Asad, “The Mosque of Muhammad ‘Alī in Cairo,” 44–5.

The complete poem is in Mubarak, al-Kheteat al-Tawfiqiyya , vol. 5, 78. Shihab al-Din is a nineteenth-century Egyptian poet.

The Arabic inscriptions naming the Prophet's companions were created after the Pasha's death, according to Mubarak, al-Khetat al-Tawfiqiyya , vol. 5, 83.

Rezq, Aṭlas al-‘imārah al-Islāmīyah wa-al-Qibṭīyah bi-al-Qāhirah, 219.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 76.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 76.

Behrens-Abouseif, “The Visual Transformation of Egypt,” 120.

Al-Asad, “The Mosque of Muhammad ‘Alī in Cairo,” 54.

Al-Asad, “The Mosque of Muhammad ‘Alī in Cairo,” 52.

Mitchell, Colonising Egypt , 7.

Mitchell, Colonising Egypt , 60.

Mitchell, Colonising Egypt , 6.

Muhammad ‘Alī had also eliminated the influential community of al-Azhar's ‘Ulama, who were able to mobilize public opinion against him, by overtaxing their land. This led to protests which further provoked the Pasha to reduce their income. These actions prompted ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (1754–1825), a contemporary historian, to criticize his rule. His “unequivocal disapproval,” identified by the historian Anthony Gorman, was exceptional in his regard. Anthony Gorman, Historians, State and Politics in Twentieth Century Egypt: Contesting the Nation (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003), 12. See Nasser Rabbat, “Al-Azhar Mosque: An Architectural Chronicle of Cairo's History,” Muqarnas 13 (1996).

The capitulations provided benefits to European residents in three areas: law, economics and conditions of residence. European merchants of capitulatory countries were exempt from paying certain types of taxes and benefited from a reduction of customs duties.

Michael Haag, Vintage Alexandria: Photographs of the City, 1860–1960 (Cairo: The American University Press, 2008), 2. Michael Tossizza became the first Greek consul in Alexandria and the first president of the Greek community.

Robert Ilbert, Alexandrie 1830–1930 , 542.

Michael Haag, Egypt (London: Cadogan Guides, 5th ed. 2009), 443.

Haag, Egypt , 443.

Rifa'a al-Tahtāwī, Takhlis al-Ibreez fi Talkhis Paris (Cairo: Bulaq Press, 1834), 201. Al-Tahtāwī's text is available in English: Daniel L. Newman, ed., An Imam in Paris: Al-Tahtāwī's Visit to France (1826–31) (London: Saqi Books, 2002).

Abu-Lughod, Cairo 1001, 90.

Hassan Hassan, The House of Muhammad ‘Alī , 14.

Johnston, Egyptian Palaces , 22.

Williams, Islamic Monuments in Cairo , 258.

Only three rooms are mentioned in Rezq, Aṭlas al-‘imārah al-Islāmīyah wa-al-Qibṭīyah bi-al-Qāhirah, he excludes the Dining Room. Abdel Wahab's description corroborates Rezq's description of the Chamber of Names.

Hassan Hassan, The House of Muhammad ‘Alī , 14.

Hassan ‘Abdel Wahab, “al-‘Imara fi ‘Asr Muhammad ‘Alī Basha,” in al-‘Imarah , 3 (1941): 25.

Rezq, Aṭlas al-‘imārah al-Islāmīyah wa-al-Qibṭīyah bi-al-Qāhirah.

Johnston, Egyptian Palaces and Villas : 21.

Pascal Coste, “Les Memoires d'un Artiste en Egypte,” 40.

Nevine El-Aref, “An Egyptian Versailles,” Al-Ahram Weekly , 777 (2006).

Johnston, Egyptian Palaces , 21.

Johnston, Egyptian Palaces , 21.

Johnston, Egyptian Palaces , 21.

Hassan, The House of Muhammad ‘Alī , 14.

Sayyed Karim, “The House of Muhammad ‘Alī,” al-‘Imarah 3 (1941), 14.

Johnston, Egyptian Palaces, 26.

Zubaida, “Cosmopolitanism in the Middle East,” 15–16.

Deborah Starr, Remembering Cosmopolitan Egypt: Literature, Culture, and Empire (New York: Routledge, 2009), 11. Starr examines the instrumentality of creative works in shaping the relationship between cosmopolitanism and colonialism in the nineteenth century.

The Sublime Porte is also referred to as the Ottoman Porte or High Porte (in Arabic al-Bab al-‘Alī translated as the highest door). This refers to the central government of the Ottoman Empire.

Maya Jasanoff, “Cosmopolitan: A Tale of Identity from Ottoman Alexandria,” Common Knowledge , 11: 3 (2005), 396.

Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1993), xii–xxii.

Meijer, Cosmopolitanism, Identity and Authenticity in the Middle East , 153.

See, for example, Robert Ilbert and Ilios Yannakis, eds., Alexandria, 1860–1960: The Brief Life of a Cosmopolitan Community , trans. Colin Clement (Alexandria: Harpocrates, 1997) and Robin Ostle, “Alexandria: A Mediterranean Cosmopolitanism Centre of Cultural Production,” in Tarazi Fawaz and Christopher Bayly, eds., Modernity and Culture From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean (New York: Columbia, 2002).

Marsot, Reign of Muhammad ‘Alī , 100.

Behrens-Abouseif, “The Visual Transformation of Egypt,” 113.

For Nasser's rule (1952–70), see the comprehensive essays edited by Elie Podeh and Onn Winckler, Rethinking Nasserism: Revolution and Historical Memory in Modern Egypt (Gainesville, FL: University of Florida, 2004); and Molefi K. Asante, Culture and Customs of Egypt (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002).

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 57.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 18.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 18.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 7.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 19.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 177.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 13.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 13.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 18. This third category has also been explained by Sheldon Pollock who interprets cosmopolitanism as “action rather than idea” and “as practice rather than proposition (least of all a philosophical proposition).” Sheldon Pollock, “Cosmopolitanism and Vernacular in History,” in Carol A. Breckenridge, Sheldon Pollock, Homi K. Bhabha, and Dipesh Chakrabarty, eds., Cosmopolitanism (London: Duke University Press, 2002), 17.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 48.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 57.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 172. Beck gives an example of the European cosmopolitanism experiment: “The old nation-state game is no longer viable. … Europeanization means a meta-power game. A power game over transforming the seemingly eternal rules of the national-international order has been underway for quite some time. … The British behave as though Great Britain still existed; the Germans believe that Germany exists; the French think that France exists; and so on. But these state-organized national ‘containers’ have long since ceased to exist as empirical realities. In the cosmopolitan Europe a new realpolitik of political action is taking shape.” Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 173.

Arthur Goldschmidt, A Brief History of Egypt (New York: Infobase, 2008), 70.

This twofold process of nationalist and imperial attitudes of the Pasha is reinforced by Fahmy's analyses of the experience of the army of Muhammad ‘Alī and the disciplinary way in which they were fed and supplied. He asserts the instrumentality of this army in charting national consciousness and practices in modern Egypt without enlightening the Egyptians but rather by institutionalizing “novel practices of surveillance, control and management,” ix. Fahmy, All the Pasha's Men, 12.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 22.

Beck, The Cosmopolitan Vision , 9.