The Nile
Page 32
Thereafter, political tensions between pro- and anti-British parties rocked Egypt, culminating in riots in the streets of Cairo on 27 January 1952 (“black Saturday”), just eleven days after the birth of Farouk’s son and heir. To regain control, the king attempted to tighten his grip over the army, but this merely provoked a mutiny among junior officers on 23 July. The leader of the Free Officers’ Movement, Gamal Abdel Nasser, called for Farouk to abdicate. This time, there was no exit clause. Indeed, Farouk seems to have welcomed his fate; he is reported to have told the officers, “You have done what I always intended to do myself.”20 On 26 July 1952, at six o’clock in the evening, King Farouk boarded his royal yacht and sailed down the Nile, bound for exile. His possessions were confiscated and auctioned off by the military government (a special room at Sotheby’s was set aside for Farouk’s large collection of pornography), and his second wife was granted an annulment. Alone, obese and a figure of ridicule, Farouk choked to death in a Rome restaurant on 18 March 1965 at the age of forty-four. His remains were eventually laid to rest in Cairo’s al-Rifai mosque, the ancestral burial-place of Muhammad Ali’s dynasty.
“Torn between East and West, old and new, the mosque and the nightclub,”21 King Farouk embodied the tensions that beset his country at large during the second half of the twentieth century. The coup of 1952 that toppled him did not resolve these tensions, but merely added a new element of dictatorship, leaving the Egyptian people increasingly cynical about their rulers. To Egypt’s—and the world’s—surprise, that cynicism and long-suppressed frustration boiled over on 25 January 2011, unleashing a popular revolution that toppled Mubarak and set the seal on the Arab Spring.
The epicentre of the uprising was Tahrir Square, a massive open space in front of the Egyptian Museum, which links directly with Gezira via the Qasr el-Nil Bridge (a venerable structure built in 1872 to connect the island to the rest of the city). Tahrir Square is today the political heart of Cairo, and a historically resonant location in more ways than one. Previously known as Khedive Ismail Square, it was first developed by the viceroy of Egypt, Said Pasha, in the 1850s as the site of a royal palace, the Qasr el-Nil (“fortress of the Nile”). Said’s successor Ismail improved the area further by cutting the Ismailiya Canal which entered the Nile just north of the palace. (The mouth of the canal was plugged in 1912 and an Anglican cathedral built; this in turn was demolished in 1976 to make way for the 6 October Bridge.) Between the palace and the river, a large set of barracks housed British troops during the occupation of Egypt, which was razed to the ground when the British left. (One of the onlookers who went to the square to witness the lowering of the British flag was Umm Sety.) Following the 1952 coup, Khedive Ismail Square was renamed Tahrir (“Liberation”) Square, and the corniche, once the preserve of a few British officials and titled Egyptians, was opened up to the masses, giving back to the Egyptian people access to their river.
But the euphoria of liberation did not last long. The site of the barracks on the west side of the square was developed as a hotel (the former Nile Hilton), the first of a new generation of international establishments intended for use by Western tourists and wealthy Cairenes. In the 1990s, the hotel ballroom was a popular venue for Egyptian wedding parties, while the ground-floor bar was a noted gay pickup joint. On the south side of Tahrir Square, an equally prominent building attracted even more resentment, tinged with fear. The giant, Soviet-style edifice known as the Mugamma contained various government departments including the hated Ministry of the Interior. Here Egyptians (and foreign visitors) had to queue for hours to have their identities checked, papers stamped and all the other casual indignities that a dictatorship obsessed with bureaucracy and control heaps upon its citizens.
Bounded by government buildings redolent of corruption and cronyism, advertising hoardings promising inaccessible luxuries, a hotel for the wealthy and the stately Egyptian Museum as a reminder of the country’s glorious past, it is little wonder that Tahrir Square became the focus of dissent against the Mubarak regime. For eleven days in late January and early February 2011, the huge granite, marble and sandstone monument in the centre of the square—originally the pedestal for a statue of Khedive Ismail—became a platform for protestors, a focal point for their revolution. Battles with Mubarak’s hired thugs were fought in the square itself and in the surrounding streets. Some of the fiercest clashes took place on the Qasr el-Nil Bridge, which runs into the south side of the square from Gezira Island. Here, in 1970, millions of Egyptians had gathered to watch Nasser’s funeral cortège cross the Nile into central Cairo. Now, their children and grandchildren were fighting on the very same bridge to overthrow the power of the generals.
Eighteen months after the Arab Spring, Tahrir Square is still occupied by demonstrators, although their numbers have dwindled. A calm of sorts has returned to the Qasr el-Nil Bridge. There is very little activity on the river below, except for a solitary police-boat, patrolling this notorious flashpoint at a particularly anxious time for Egypt. Groups of lads with trendy hairstyles sit on the parapet, while burkha-clad women walk by. Caleche-drivers rest their horses, fruit-sellers set up their stalls and a teenager takes a photo of his friend next to one of the great bronze lions that guard the bridge. Their stone pedestals are covered in political graffiti, unthinkable two years earlier. Egyptians, especially in Cairo, have discovered free expression with a vengeance, and every wall and hoarding is covered with political slogans. Those in Arabic are short and to the point—“It’s your constitution, not ours” and “Morsi is a murderer” compete with “God is great”—but one, in English, reflects the high-minded ideals behind the revolution—“You will not kill our idea.”
SO OUR JOURNEY down the Nile comes to an end, on this island in the river’s stream. To our right, westwards, lie the Pyramids and Sphinx, emblems of Egypt’s glorious past. To our left, eastwards, sprawls Tahrir Square, cradle of a revolution that has ushered in a chaotic present and an uncertain future. And next to us is the one constant, the eternal friend upon which every generation of Egyptians can depend, the Nile.
Postscript
In July 2013, the escalating confrontation between Mohamed Morsi’s government and its opponents, and the long-running (eighty-five-year) struggle for national dominance between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military, culminated in Egypt’s first democratically elected president being forcibly removed from office by the army. The generals retook the reins of power, reversing many of the gains of the Arab Spring. The schism between the religious and secular visions of Egypt’s future is profound and will not easily be bridged. The country is more divided than at any time in its recent history. Its immediate future looks bleak, its ultimate destiny deeply uncertain.
Amid the chaos and confusion, the dependability of the Nile will be a vital reassurance for the Egyptian people as they navigate turbulent and uncharted waters; and we can be certain that Egypt’s eternal river will continue to witness many more momentous events that will reverberate throughout the Nile Valley, the Middle East and the wider world.
APPENDIX
Timeline
Date: 700,000–10,000 BC
Period: Lower/Middle/Upper Palaeolithic
People & Events: Earliest humans in the Nile Valley
Date: 10,000–5000 BC
Period: Late Palaeolithic
People & Events: Fishermen of el-Hosh Formation of Birket Qarun, c. 7000 BC
Date: 5000–2950 BC
Period: Predynastic Period
People & Events: Earliest agriculture, Fayum, c. 5000 BC; Badarian culture, fifth millennium BC
Date: 2950–2575 BC
Period: Early Dynastic Period
Ruler: Khasekhemwy
Date: 2575–2125 BC
Period: Old Kingdom
Ruler: Khufu
People & Events: Construction of Great Pyramid, 2545 BC
Date: 2125–2010 BC
Period: First Intermediate Period
Ruler: Intef II
People & Events: Civil war; Heqanakht
Date: 2010–1630 BC
Period: Middle Kingdom
Date: 1630–1539 BC
Period: Second Intermediate Period
Date: 1539–1069 BC
Period: New Kingdom
People & Events: Foundation of Luxor Temple, 1539 bc
Date: 1539–1069 BC
Period: Eighteenth Dynasty
Rulers: Hatshepsut; Amenhotep III; Akhenaten
People & Events: Senenmut; Foundation of Akhetaten, 1349 BC
Date: 1539–1069 BC
Period: Nineteenth Dynasty
Ruler: Seti I
Date: 1539–1069 BC
Period: Twentieth Dynasty
Ruler: Ramesses III
People & Events: Strikes in Thebes, 1157 BC; Tomb robberies begin at Thebes, 1114 BC
Date: 1069–664 BC
Period: Third Intermediate Period
People & Events: Jews resident on Elephantine, eighth to fourth centuries BC
Date: 664–332 BC
Period: Late Period
People & Events: Princess Nitiqret travels to Karnak, 656 BC; Persian conquest of Egypt, 525 BC; Herodotus visits Egypt, fifth century BC
Date: 332–309 BC
Period: Macedonian Dynasty
Ruler: Alexander
Date: 309–30 BC
Period: Ptolemaic Period
People & Events: Foundation of Karanis, c. 270 BC; Construction of Edfu Temple, 237–70 BC; Egypt’s last native pharaoh is defeated, 186 BC
Date: 30 BC–AD 395
Period: Roman Period
Ruler: Augustus
People & Events: Colossi of Memnon “sing,” 27 BC–AD 202; Strabo visits Egypt, 25–24 BC
Date: 30 BC–AD 395
Period: Roman Period
Ruler: Hadrian
People & Events: Hadrian’s visit to Egypt, AD 130; Birth of St. Antony, AD 251
Date: 30 BC–AD 395
Period: Roman Period
Ruler: Diocletian
People & Events: Diocletian visits Luxor, AD 298; Gnostic Gospels written, fourth century AD
Date: 30 BC–AD 395
Period: Roman Period
Ruler: Theodosius
People & Events: Egypt forcibly Christianised, AD 379; Closure of Egypt’s temples, AD 392; Last hieroglyphic inscription carved, AD 394
Date: AD 395–639
Period: Byzantine Rule
People & Events: Arab invasion of Egypt, 639
Date: AD 639–969
Period: Islamic governors
People & Events: Arab conquest of Egypt completed, 641
Date: AD 969–1171
Period: Fatimid Dynasty (caliphs)
People & Events: al-Muqaddasi visits Egypt, c. 1000; Naser-e Khosraw visits Cairo, eleventh century
Date: AD 1171–1250
Ruler: Saladin
People & Events: Crusader invasion of Egypt, 1117
Date: AD 1171–1250
Period: Ayyubid Dynasty (sultans)
People & Events: Death of al-Qenawi, Qena, 1196
Date: AD 1171–1250
People & Events: Death of Abu el-Haggag, Luxor, 1243
Date: AD 1250–1517
Period: Mamluk Dynasty (sultans)
Date: AD 1517–1914
Period: Ottoman Rule
People & Events: An anonymous Venetian visits Luxor, 1589; Richard Pococke travels up the Nile, 1737–8; Napoleonic expedition to Egypt, 1798
Date: AD 1517–1914
Period: Ottoman Rule
Ruler: Muhammad Ali
People & Events: Belzoni visits Egypt, 1815–19; Champollion deciphers hieroglyphics, 1822; Luxor obelisk taken to Paris, 1831; Edward Lane visits Egypt, 1834; David Roberts visits Egypt, 1838
Date: AD 1517–1914
Period: Ottoman Rule
Ruler: Ismail
People & Events: Lucie Duff Gordon lives at Luxor, 1862–9; Opening of the Suez Canal, 1869; Thomas Cook’s first Nile tour, 1870; Amelia Edwards visits Egypt, 1873–4; Opening of first hotel in Luxor, 1877
Date: AD 1517–1914
Period: Ottoman Rule
Ruler: Abbas Hilmi II
People & Events: Petrie’s first excavation in Egypt, 1893; Construction of Aswan Dam, 1899–1902; Opening of the Cataract Hotel, Aswan, 1900; Opening of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, 1902; Completion of Esna Barrage, 1906; Opening of the Winter Palace, Luxor, 1907
Date: AD 1914–1922
Period: British Protectorate
Date: AD 1922–1952
Period: Independent Kingdom
Ruler: Fuad I; Farouk
People & Events: Discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, 1922
Date: AD 1952–2011
Period: Republic (military rule)
Ruler: Gamal Nasser
People & Events: Burial of Aga Khan at Aswan, 1959; Completion of Aswan High Dam, 1971
Date: AD 1952–2011
Period: Republic (military rule)
Ruler: Anwar Sadat
People & Events: Temples of Philae reopened on new site, 1980
Date: AD 1952–2011
Period: Republic (military rule)
Ruler: Hosni Mubarak
People & Events: Arab Spring, 2011
Date: AD 2011–2013
Period: Republic (elected government)
Ruler: Mohamed Morsi
People & Events: Death of Pope; Shenouda III, 2012
Date: AD 2013–
Period: Republic (transitional government)
Notes
PREFACE
1. LUCIE DUFF GORDON, Letters from Egypt, VIRAGO, LONDON, 1997 (FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1865), pp. 67–8.
2. Herodotus (tr. A. D. Godley), The Persian Wars, Books 1–2, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA and London, 1926, Book II:5; a more accurate translation of the Greek is “Egypt … is land acquired by the Egyptians, given them by the river.”
3. Amelia Edwards, A Thousand Miles up the Nile, Century, London, 1982 (first published in 1877), pp. 360–1.
4. MS, personal communication, December 2012.
ONE The Nile
1. Samuel Cox, quoted in Deborah Manley and Sahar Abdel-Hakim (eds), Traveling Through Egypt from 450 bc to the Twentieth Century, The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo and New York, 2004, p. 9.
2. Strabo (tr. Horace Leonard Jones), Geography, Book 17, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA and London, 1949, 1.4.
3. Edwards, A Thousand Miles, p. 92.
4. Ibid., p. 167.
5. al-Muqaddasi (tr. B. A. Collins), The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions, Garnet Publishing, Reading, 1994, p. 177 (Arabic text p. 193).
6. Richard Madden, Travels in Turkey, Egypt, Nubia and Palestine, Henry Colburn, London, 1892, vol. 1, p. 387.
7. Strabo, Geography, 1.4.
8. Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (tr. K.H. Zand, J. A. and I. E. Videan), The Eastern Key: Kitab al-Ifada wa’l-I’tibar, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1964, p. 23 (Arabic text p. 5, left).
9. Pliny (tr. H. Rackham), Natural History, Book 5, Harvard University Press/Heinemann, Cambridge MA/London, 1961, p. 58.
10. Giovanni Belzoni, quoted in Brian Fagan, The Rape of the Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1975, p. 204.
11. Edward Lane, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (Written in Egypt During the Years 1833–1835), Darf, London, 1986 (first published in 1836), p. 342.
12. John Mason Cook, quoted in Manley and Abdel-Hakim, Traveling Through Egypt, p. 107.
13. A. H. Sayce, Reminiscences, Macmillan, London, 1923, p. 178.
14. Tomb inscription of Ineni, Thebes (author’s own translation).
15. Stela of Merka from Saqqara (author’s own translation).
16. Causeway of Unas, Saqqara (author’s own translation).
17. Edwards, A Thousand Miles, p. 91.
18. Ibid., p. xi.
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19. Ibid., p. 37.
20. Ibid., preface to the 1st edition.
21. Thomas Cook & Son, Programme of Cook’s International Tickets to Egypt, Season 1887–88, Thomas Cook & Son, London, 1887, p. 3. (The full, gloriously Victorian title of this illuminating little publication is Programme of Cook’s International Tickets to Egypt including The Nile to the Second Cataract, Philae, Luxor, Thebes, Assouan, Aboo Simbel, &c., &c. Also particulars of arrangements for Steamers and Dahabeahs. With maps and plans of steamers. Under the special and exclusive contracts and arrangements of Thos. Cook & Son, sole owners of the only First Class Tourist Steamers specially built for the Nile [Price Sixpence, Post Free].)
22. Ibid., p. 4.
23. Ibid., p. 4.
24. Ibid., p. 4.
25. Ibid., p. 4.
26. Ibid., p. 8.
27. Ibid., p. 9.
28. Ibid., p. 13.
29. Edwards, A Thousand Miles, p. 83.
30. Ibid., p. 90.
31. Ibid., p. 36.
32. Sayce, Reminiscences, p. 175.
33. Ibid., p. 176.
34. Ibid., p. 232.
35. Ibid., p. 235.
36. Ibid., p. 229.
37. Ibid., p. 278.