poly - xx - 11 - index_bud2.qxd 09/06/2014 14:32 Page i Herewith an historical journey from the third century to the multi- ethnic metropolis of the twentieth century, bringing together two diverse histories of the city. Ancient Alexandria was built by the Greek Macedonians. Ptolemy started the dynasty and in thirty years completed the first lighthouse, and the grand library and museum, which functioned as a university with an emphasis on science, known as “The Alexandrian School”. Scholars attended as “the birthplace of science” from all over the ancient world. Two of the most eminent were Euclid, the father of geometry, and Claudios Ptolemy, writer of The Almagest, a book on astronomy. These are the oldest surviving science textbooks. Herein there are stories about scientists, poets and religious philosophers, responsible for influ- encing the western mind with their writings. Modern Alexandria was rebuilt in 1805 by multiethnic commu- nities who created a successful commercial city and port with an enviable life-style for its inhabitants for 150 years. In 1952 the Free Officers of the Egyptian Army masterminded a coup to free the country from the monarchy and British domination. In 1956 the socialist regime under Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser closed the Suez Canal, resulting in the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion. This outburst of Egyptian nationalism and military revolution by this understand- ably anti-Western regime included the confiscation of property belonging to foreigners and the subsequent mass exodus of business and artisan classes that hitherto had made the city so successful. The author was an eye-witness to these events and he sets out the polit- ical errors and failures of both Egyptian and Western leaders. The legacy of the resulting political and social confusions is deeply apparent in the continuing unrest in the Middle East, and in partic- ular in Egypt. A.J. Polyzoides was born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Greek Macedonian parents. As a youth he walked the city’s avenues and coastal promenade searching for remains of the Greek Ptolemaic city, the absence of which sparked a life-long interest in ancient Alexandria. After the military revolution, the Suez Canal War and the exodus of the foreign commu- nities, he moved to the UK where he trained in trauma and orthopaedics, retiring as Consultant and honorary senior lecturer at Birmingham University. He now lives on an island in the Aegean, and continues research on his birthplace, the illustrious ancient city. poly - xx - 11 - index_bud2.qxd 09/06/2014 14:32 Page ii To Jean poly - xx - 11 - index_bud2.qxd 09/06/2014 14:32 Page iii poly - xx - 11 - index_bud2.qxd 09/06/2014 14:32 Page iv Copyright © Apostolos J. Polyzoides, 2014. Published in the Sussex Academic e-Library, 2014. SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS PO Box 139 Eastbourne BN24 9BP, UK and simultaneously in the United States of America and Canada All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Polyzoides, Apostolos, author. Alexandria : city of gifts and sorrows : from Hellenistic civilization to multiethnic metropolis / Apostolos Polyzoides. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-84519-667-7 (pbk : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-78284-154-8 (e-pub) ISBN 978-1-78284-155-5 (e-mobi) ISBN 978-1-78284-156-2 (e-pdf) 1. Alexandria (Egypt)—History. I. Title. DT154.A4P66 2014 962.1—dc23 2014017867 This e-book text has been prepared for electronic viewing. Some features, including tables and figures, might not display as in the print version, due to electronic conversion limitations and/or copyright strictures. poly - xx - 11 - index_bud2.qxd 27/05/2014 11:30 Page v Contents Preface vii Acknowledgements x Books Consulted xii Maps and Diagrams, with Narrative xiv Introduction 1 CHAPTER ONE Alexandria in the Early 1950s: The Beginning 7 of the End CHAPTER TWO Poets and Writers in Alexandria 17 Constantine Cavafy 17 Edward M. Forster 24 Lawrence G. Durrell 27 CHAPTER THREE Reflections on Ancient Alexandria: Replacing 30 the Famed Monuments on their Rightful Sites CHAPTER FOUR Alexander III: The Great 38 Alexander’s education 40 The murder of his father, Philip II 44 Alexander founding his city in Egypt, and his 46 trip to the Oracle of Amun Alexander’s iconography and Hellenic artists 49 The death of Alexander and his legacy 53 poly - xx - 11 - index_bud2.qxd 27/05/2014 11:30 Page vi vi Contents CHAPTER FIVE The Quest for the Elusive Tomb of Alexander 61 the Great CHAPTER SIX Alexandria the Great 68 The lighthouse and the ancient city 72 The palaces, Museum and Grand Library 74 Literature, architecture and painting 80 Alexandrian religious philosophy 83 Science and scholars 85 Applied mechanics 87 Astronomers and geographers 89 Alexandrian medicine 91 CHAPTER SEVEN The Collapse of Ancient Alexandria 95 CHAPTER EIGHT The Rebirth of Alexandria, 1,400 Years After 103 the Collapse of the Ancient City CHAPTER NINE The Foreign Communities: The People and 112 their Contribution CHAPTER TEN Four Years of Uncertainty, 1952–1956 124 CHAPTER ELEVEN The Suez Canal War 131 CHAPTER TWELVE The Decline of Modern Alexandria 139 The Cover Illustrations, Select Bibliography and Index poly - xx - 11 - index_bud2.qxd 27/05/2014 11:30 Page vii Preface Fortunate is he who has studied history. Euripides 480–407 BCE Over the centuries, historians, scholars and writers have consistently neglected the history of ancient Alexandria in Egypt – the renowned city of the 3rd century BCE, birthplace of science and the modern mind – in comparison to the numerous books on pharaonic Egypt, Athens and Rome. The aim of this book is to reveal the real history of ancient and modern Alexandria, and to record its importance to western culture. During my student days, I walked along its coastal prom- enade, avenues and narrow alleyways, perplexed at the absence of Greek Ptolemaic archaeological remains, whose civilisation lasted for three hundred years. It is surreal, but also fascinating, that Alexander the Great – having conquered Asia Minor, Persia, Babylon and going as far as India – chose a desolate plot of land on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt, opposite the island of Pharos, to build his capital. Homer, in the 8th century BCE, used the word histor to describe a person who passed judge- ment on facts after an enquiry. The recording of history started in Greece, with Herodotus and Thucydides in the 5th century BCE. Ancient and modern historians presented past events either as a pure narrative or as a timeless analysis of events. A different approach is used in this book, by presenting the relevant historical events from the rise to the fall of a city, the achievements during its apogee, and the reasons for its decline and collapse. Alexandrian history was poly - xx - 11 - index_bud2.qxd 27/05/2014 11:30 Page viii viii Preface shaped by the Ptolemies in the 3rd century BCE – there was no city in the world that could claim to have been built, in less than half a century, with a lighthouse, Grand Library and Museum (which functioned as a university), the Serapeion temple, one deity for both Greeks and Egyptians, and a trading centre: the Emporium. In 30 BCE, Octavian invaded Alexandria and ruled Egypt and the East. When the power of the Roman army was declining, the Arabs were expanding, and they occupied Alexandria without any resistance in 645 CE. Under the Arabs, Alexandria continued to be a trading centre with other western countries in North Africa. In 1517 CE, the Turks occupied Egypt but neglected Alexandria, and it was under their rule that the great ancient city was reduced to a small fishing village. In the 19th century CE, there were regular incursions: first by the French, under Napoleon Bonaparte, and then the British, under Horatio Nelson, who destroyed the French fleet and occupied Egypt. The Ottoman sultan appointed Mohammed Ali, a Greek-born Albanian and distinguished soldier in the Turkish army, as governor of Alexandria and Egypt in 1805. Mohammed Ali saw the potential of the two ports and had the vision to bring British, French, Greeks and Jews to rebuild the city by offering them special privileges. As a result, in the late 19th and 20th century, modern Alexandria arose as a commercially-successful city with all types of industries, cultivating and exporting cotton, generating wealth and a good standard of living for everyone for 150 years. In the 1950s, there was an explosion of Egyptian nation- alism, a change to military rule and the closure of the Suez Canal, followed by the Anglo–French–Israeli invasion in 1956. The legacy of this military regime, under the leader- ship of Colonel Nasser, was the decline of Alexandria and the exodus of all its foreigners – including myself. I had the misfortune to witness these events, and realised that there poly - xx - 11 - index_bud2.qxd 27/05/2014 11:30 Page ix Preface ix was no future for any foreigner to live and work in Egypt. By 1962, some 85–90 percent had already left. Efforts by Britain and the United States to stabilise Egypt failed, the Palestinian negotiations deteriorated, the rise of terrorist organisations was disturbing, the Arab countries’ discontent with their leaders looked for solutions and, several decades later, the “Arab Spring” movement began.