UC Irvine FlashPoints Title Disarming Words: Empire and the Seductions of Translation in Egypt Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4mr898pd Author Tageldin, Shaden M. Publication Date 2011-06-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Disarming Words FlashPoints The series solicits books that consider literature beyond strictly national and disciplin- ary frameworks, distinguished both by their historical grounding and their theoretical and conceptual strength. We seek studies that engage theory without losing touch with history, and work historically without falling into uncritical positivism. FlashPoints will aim for a broad audience within the humanities and the social sciences concerned with moments of cultural emergence and transformation. In a Benjaminian mode, FlashPoints is interested in how literature contributes to forming new constellations of culture and history, and in how such formations function critically and politically in the present. Available online at http://repositories.cdlib.org/ucpress Series Editors: Ali Behdad (Comparative Literature and English, UCLA); Judith Butler (Rhetoric and Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley), Founding Editor; Edward Dimend- berg (Film & Media Studies, UC Irvine), Coordinator; Catherine Gallagher (English, UC Berkeley), Founding Editor; Jody Greene (Literature, UC Santa Cruz); Susan Gillman (Literature, UC Santa Cruz); Richard Terdiman (Literature, UC Santa Cruz) 1. On Pain of Speech: Fantasies of the First Order and the Literary Rant, by Dina Al-Kassim 2. Moses and Multiculturalism, by Barbara Johnson, with a foreword by Barbara Rietveld 3. The Cosmic Time of Empire: Modern Britain and World Literature, by Adam Barrows 4. Poetry in Pieces: César Vallejo and Lyric Modernity, by Michelle Clayton 5. Disarming Words: Empire and the Seductions of Translation in Egypt, by Shaden M. Tageldin Disarming Words Empire and the Seductions of Translation in Egypt Shaden M. Tageldin university of california press Berkeley • Los Angeles • London this book is made possible by a collaborative grant from the andrew w. mellon foundation. University of California Press, one of the most distin- guished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its ac- tivities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institu- tions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2011 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tageldin, Shaden M. Disarming words : empire and the seductions of translation in Egypt / Shaden M. Tageldin. p. cm.­­—(FlashPoints ; 5) ISBN 978-0-520-26552-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Translating and interpreting—Egypt—History— 19th century. 2. Translating and interpreting—Egypt— History—20th century. 3. Postcolonialism—Egypt. 4. Comparative literature—Arabic and English. 5. Com- parative literature—Arabic and French. 6. Language and languages in literature. I. Title. P306.T265 2011 418'.02—dc22 2011005499 Manufactured in the United States of America 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper). for my parents and for all who struggle, in word and in deed, with imperialism and its wake Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Note on Translation and Transliteration xvii Overture | Cultural Imperialism Revisited: Translation, Seduction, Power 1 1. The Irresistible Lure of Recognition 33 2. The Dismantling I: Al-‘At.t.ār’s Antihistory of the French in Egypt, 1798–1799 66 3. Suspect Kinships: Al-T.aht.āwī and the Theory of French-Arabic “Equivalence,” 1827–1834 108 4. Surrogate Seed, World-Tree: Mubārak, al-Sibā‘ī, and the Translations of “Islam” in British Egypt, 1882–1912 152 5. Order, Origin, and the Elusive Sovereign: Post-1919 Nation Formation and the Imperial Urge toward Translatability 195 6. English Lessons: The Illicit Copulations of Egypt at Empire’s End 237 Coda | History, Affect, and the Problem of the Universal 273 Notes 289 Index 331 Illustrations 1. Proclamation by Napoleon Bonaparte to the people of Egypt, 2 July 1798 / 35 2. Portrait of a Janus-faced Napoleon Bonaparte, sporting French bicorne and Mamlūk turban, c. 1798–1801 / 41 3. Bilingual Arabic-French cover of Rifā‘a Rāfi‘ al-T.aht.āwī’s Naz.m al- ‘Uqūd fī Kasr al-‘Ūd (1827), a translation of Joseph Agoub’s La Lyre brisée (1825) / 142 4. Arabic title page of Rifā‘a Rāfi‘ al-T.aht.āwī’s Naz.m al-‘Uqūd fī Kasr al-‘Ūd (1827) / 143 5. Pictorial comparison of proto-Egyptian skull and ancient Egyptian bust, reproduced and recaptioned by Salāma Mūsā, 1928 / 232 6. Ancient Egyptian representations of ancient Arabs, reproduced and recaptioned by Salāma Mūsā, with continuation of comparative chart of modern English, modern Arabic, and ancient Egyptian words, 1928 / 233 7. Comparative chart of modern English, modern Arabic, and ancient Egyptian words, 1928 / 234 8. Cartoon, “Egypt and the League of Nations,” 1929 / 248 9. Cartoon of Egypt as a Westernized woman shackled head-to-toe by the British, 1930 / 249 ix Acknowledgments This book is a translation of many minds, times, spaces, and voices. In writing it, I have incurred untold debts. Several grants made completion of this book possible. A postdoc- toral fellowship from the Europe in the Middle East–the Middle East in Europe (EUME) program, cosponsored by the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW), the Fritz-Thyssen Stiftung, and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, sent me to Berlin in 2007. My work profited from lively exchanges with Georges Khalil, Samah Selim, Nora Lafi, Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, and my fellowship cohort: Eli Bar-Chen, Z. Özlem Biner, Magdi Guirguis, Erol Köroğlu, Raja Rhouni, Dana Sajdi, Oded Schechter, Mohamad Nur Kholis Setiawan, Muhammad Reza Vasfi, and Zafer Yenal. Many thanks to Georges Khalil and Chris- tine Hofmann of EUME for their hospitality and support and to the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin for hosting me as a guest researcher. Equally important was a Residential Fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at the University of Minnesota. I thank Ann Waltner, Angie Hoffman-Walter, Karen Kinoshita, Susan- nah Smith, and my fellowship cohort, to whom I owe much intellectual stimulation. A 2006 Summer Stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), matched by the University of Minnesota Graduate School, supported research in Egypt and France. (Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this book do not necessarily reflect those of the NEH.) Other grants from the Univer- xi xii | Acknowledgments sity of Minnesota—a College of Liberal Arts Single-Semester Leave, a Faculty Summer Research Fellowship and McKnight Summer Research Fellowship in the Arts and Humanities, a Grant-in-Aid for Research, and an Imagine Fund Faculty Research Award—funded work at home and overseas, research assistance, and fees for reproduction of the illus- trations in this book, as well as permission to reprint them. I thank the gracious staffs of the many libraries and archives that supported my research: in Egypt, the Egyptian National Library and Archives (Dār al-Kutub wa al-Wathā’iq al-Qawmiyya), the American University in Cairo Library, the Cairo University Central Library, and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina; in France, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Centre des Archives d’Outre-Mer; in the United King- dom, the British Library and the British National Archives; and in the United States, Doe Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and Wilson Library and the Digital Collections Unit of Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota. Sincere thanks also to the Binational Ful- bright Commission in Cairo and the U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission in London, which welcomed me to their cities in 2002–3 and helped launch my research. Words alone cannot thank the many whose generosity with time and ideas inform this book. This project began at the University of Califor- nia, Berkeley, where I earned my Ph.D. Thanks to Lydia Liu, I learned to read empire translingually and to rethink translation as a philosophi- cal and political problem, and thanks to Muhammad Siddiq, I learned to read modern Arabic literature in its aesthetic richness and politi- cal complexity, tracing its links to the past and to other world literary traditions. Karl Britto introduced me to francophone literature across three continents and encouraged me to take a comparative approach to colonialism and postcoloniality. Catherine Gallagher taught me to read Victorian texts with an eye for context and the counterintuitive. And to Abdul JanMohamed, I owe the insight that recognition can disarm resistance. To these mentors, I extend abiding gratitude. At the University of Minnesota, I have enjoyed the support of two department chairs, John Archer and John Mowitt, and of my other col- leagues in the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Litera- ture: Hisham Bizri, Timothy Brennan, Robin Brown, Cesare Casarino, Keya Ganguly, Richard Leppert, Thomas Pepper, Harvey Sarles, Jo- chen Schulte-Sasse, and Gary Thomas. Their commitment to progres- sive scholarship, pedagogy, and politics has inspired me to rethink my arguments in profound ways, and I am most grateful. To my students, Acknowledgments | xiii whose insights always teach me, I owe further pleasures of intellectual community. Warmest thanks also to the dedicated staff of our depart- ment, past and present. Julietta Singh was my graduate research assistant in spring 2008. She tirelessly tracked down sources and images and compiled an extensive working bibliography. For her deft, dedicated, and ever gracious assis- tance, she has my deep thanks. At this project’s inception, Gaber Asfour in Cairo and Wen-chin Ouyang in London took time to discuss my work and facilitated access to important sources.