Popularizing Egyptian Nationalism: Colloquial Culture and Media Capitalism, 1870-1919
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Popularizing Egyptian Nationalism: Colloquial Culture and Media Capitalism, 1870-1919 Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Fahmy, Ziad Adel Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 24/09/2021 05:44:07 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195746 POPULARIZING EGYPTIAN NATIONALISM: COLLOQUIAL CULTURE AND MEDIA CAPITALISM, 1870-1919 by Ziad Fahmy _____________________ A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2007 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Ziad Fahmy entitled Popularizing Egyptian Nationalism: Colloquial Culture and Media Capitalism, 1870-1919. and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 5/14/2007 Julia Clancy-Smith _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 5/14/2007 Charles D. Smith _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 5/14/2007 Linda T. Darling Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. We hereby certify that we have read this dissertation prepared under our direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: 5/14/2007 Dissertation Directors: Julia Clancy-Smith & Charles D. Smith 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Ziad Fahmy 4 NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION Fusha or classical Arabic words have been transcribed according to a simplified system based on the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES). All diacritical marks have been omitted except for the Gayn (G), and the hamza (’). For texts, songs and plays, written or performed in colloquial Egyptian, I have modified the transliteration system based on IJMES. Instead of jim (j) I use (g); instead of qaf (q) I use a hamza (’). Because the term fusha appears frequently in this dissertation, it is important to note that it is pronounced as fuss-ha. The names of Egyptian authors writing in French or English have not been changed. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation has benefited from the encouragement and ideas of countless family members, friends, and colleagues. First, I would like to thank my advisors Charles D. Smith, Julia Clancy-Smith, and Linda T. Darling for their guidance, intellectual insight, patience, and for sharing their immense knowledge in the field throughout my graduate education. I would also like to thank Tracy Gould, Julia Hutchins-Richards and Christina Lindman, who as members of our dissertation writing group, read over the first two chapters and kept me motivated at pivotal moments during the writing process. I am thankful to Donald Malcolm Reid for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of Chapter 1, and Frédéric Lagrange for sending me some relevant pages from the early- twentieth century catalogues of Odeon, Columbia, and Baidaphone record companies. This dissertation required two years of intensive research and writing in Egypt and England, which was made possible through generous grants from the Fulbright Hays and the American Research Center in Egypt. I am eternally grateful to my parents, Ferial Sammakia and Adel Fahmy, who sacrificed a lot for my education and helped instill in me a sense of historical and intellectual curiosity. Most of all, I would like to thank my wife, Kaila Bussert, whose love, editorial, intellectual, and emotional support has made this dissertation possible. 6 DEDICATION In memory of my grand father Muhammad Abd al-Aziz Fahmy (1913-1978). His freethinking, erudition, and tolerance serve as a model and a perpetual source of inspiration for my life and scholarship. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS…………………………………………………..…..10 LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………………11 ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………….…….12 PREFACE.…………………………………………………………………………13 INTRODUCTION: DIGLOSSIA, MEDIA CAPITALISM, AND EGYPTIAN NATIONALISM …………………..……………….……………………..………17 Mass Culture and Colloquial Egyptian as a Historical Source………….....21 Diglossia and Egyptian Identity……………………………………………25 Linguistic Regionalism and Dominance of the Cairene Dialect……..…….29 Theories of Nationalism and the Egyptian Case…………………………...35 1. STATE CENTRALIZATION AND THE MODERNIST INFRASTRUCTURE OF EGYPTIAN NATIONALISM……………..….……45 State Centralization…………………………………………………………46 The Expanding Bureaucracy……………………………………….48 Public Education…………………………………………………...51 Nationalism and “Centralization Technologies”…………………………...53 The Egyptian Railroads……………………………………………54 The Egyptian Postal System………………………………………..57 Urbanization and National Identity………………………………………...60 Printing and the Expansion of Urban Culture………………..…………….64 Books, Literacy, and Communal Reading …………………………68 The Colloquial Press and Egyptian Mass Media ………………….73 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….77 2. THE BEGINNINGS OF COLLOQUIAL EGYPTIAN MASS CULTURE, 1870-1882………………………………….……………………..….79 Traditional Popular Culture and the Roots of Egyptian Mass-Culture…….80 Jalal and Sannu‘: The Beginnings of “Modern” Colloquial Theater, 1870-1880………………………………………………………...86 Nadim, Sannu‘ and the Early Colloquial Press, 1877-1881……………….95 Abu Naddara and al-Tankit wa al-Tabkit: Selling the ‘Urabi Revolution, 1879-1882……………………………………………103 Conclusion………………………………………………………………..117 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS – Continued 3. THE GROWTH OF COLLOQUIAL MASS CULTURE, 1882-1908….…...120 Early British Occupation and Colloquial Culture, 1882-1892……………..122 The Return of Nadim and the Revival of the Nationalist Movement 1892-1895………………………………………………….…..127 Colloquial Theater at the Turn of the Century, 1890-1910…………….…..134 The Phonograph and Colloquial Comedic Sketches…………………….....139 Early Colloquial Song Recordings, Media Capitalism, and the Advent of the Ta’tu’a, 1903-1910………………………………………………………....143 The Colloquial Press: The Rapid Growth of an Industry………………......146 Repeating Themes in the Satirical Press…………………………………...151 The Economy and National Solidarity…………………………......152 Women, Men and “Preserving” National Morality……………......154 Cultural and Linguistic Satire and the Language of “True” Egyptians….....159 Stinging Political Attacks and Counter-hegemonic Satire………………....162 Muhammad GAbduh and the Satirical Press (1902-1904)……………….....164 The Vulgarization and Suppression of the Colloquial Press…………….....169 The New Mass Culture and Dinshiway as a National Myth……………….177 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….....184 4. MEDIA-CAPITALISM, MUSICAL RECORDS AND VAUDEVILLE: FROM MASS-CULTURE TO MASS-PRACTICE, 1907-1909……………..…….……186 Political Parties & Mass Mobilization……………………………………...188 The Death of Kamil and the Radicalization of Egyptian Politics…………..192 Mass-Politics & the Revival of the 1881 Press Law………………………..195 Coptic-Muslim Strife & the Assassination of Butrus Ghali ……………….199 Passive Resistance: Laughing at Kitchener and Cromer …………………..205 Taqtuqas (Ta’tu’as) and the “Culture-Market”, 1907-1919………………..209 Munira al-Mahdiyya……………………………………………….211 Sayyid Darwish…………………………………………………….213 Laughter, Horse Meat and the Socio-economic Effects of WWI…………..219 The Evolution and Cultural Influence of Vaudeville During the War (1914-1918)…………………………………………………………..227 Culture Wars? Elite Vulgarization of Vaudeville and Colloquial Songs…………………………………………………………..236 Conclusion………………………………………………………………....241 9 TABLE OF CONTENTS – Continued 5. THE EGYPTIAN STREET: MASS POLITICS AND THE 1919 REVOLUTION…………………………………………………………………….243 The Wafd & Zaghlul: from Elitists to Populists? ..........................................246 Exile and “Revolution”……………………………………………..250 Coffee Shops, Midans and the Urban Streets…………………………….…256 Secularizing & Gendering the Sacred: Mosques and Churches as Revolutionary Spaces…………………………………………………….262 Censorship and the Official Egyptian Press………………………………...266 Pamphlets, Pamphleteering and the “Illicit” Press……………………….....271 Illicit Periodicals……………………………………………………273 Revolutionary Pamphlets……………………………………………275 Singing in the Streets………………………………………………..279 Re-Living the Revolution on Stage and in Songs…………………………...286 Happiness, Pigeons and Dates……………………………….…......292