Francophone Egyptian Nationalists, Anti-British Discourse, and European Public Opinion, 1885 – 1910: The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘ Ziad Fahmy

If any fresh proof were required that it is somebody’s interest to make mischief between England and France by reviving, if possible, in a new form the Egyptian question, it would be found in the persistent efforts of the Egyptian Nationalists to enlist sympathy for their cause in this country through the medium of the Paris Press. A short time ago the Nationalist agitator Mustapha Kamel [Mustafa Kamil] Pasha ventilated his views in the Temps. Today he contributes an article to the Figaro. — Times (London) Paris correspondent, 29 April 1907

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

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nfluencing European public opinion regarding the ills of the British occupation and “enlisting sympathy” for Egyptian independence was one of the key objectives of the Egyptian nationalist movement. This tactic was used in an attempt to compel the European powers, especially France, into politically forcing the British out of Egypt. Ya‘qub Sannu‘ (1839  –1912) and Mustafa Kamil (1874  –1908) were the two most important and visible Egyptian propagandists in France who, as this article will demonstrate, played an active role in reshaping European perceptions of Egypt and the British occupation. Sannu‘, who was a Parisian resident from 1877 until his death in 1912, presented almost weekly lectures to French audiences on a variety of topics related to Egypt and Islam. His weekly illustrated Abu-Naddara Zarqa’ and L’Univèrs Musulman periodicals were published in Paris and targeted both French and Egyptian readers.1 In his lectures, political cartoons, and articles, Sannu‘ cleverly sang the praises of French culture while baiting the Anglophobia of French readers and audiences with merciless attacks on the British. He was especially adept at using his own newspapers to lure the mainstream French press into covering stories favorable to Egyptian nationalist goals.2 I would like to thank Linda T. Darling, Julia Clancy-Smith, Charles D. Smith, Kaila Bussert, Deborah A. Starr, and Ziad Abi Chakra for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. All Arabic and French translations, unless otherwise indicated, are my own. 1.  Abu-Naddara Zarqa’ [Zarr’a] means “The Man with the Blue Glasses” in colloquial Egyptian. The first issue appeared on 21 March 1877. Initially it was an Arabic newspaper, but by 1885 it was equally divided between a French and an Arabic section. L’Univèrs Musulman, published from 1907 to 1910, was entirely written in French and primarily targeted a European audience.

2.  It is important to note here that Sannu‘ continued to print his newspapers until December 1910 and did not retire in 1907 as cited in the literature. In the conclusion of The Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, which is the only non-Arabic book-length biography of Sannu‘, Irene L. Gendzier mistakenly claims that Sannu‘ retired in November 1907, “without formally taking leave of his readers.” In fact, Sannu‘ continued to publish both newspapers until December 1910, and he even dedicated the entire last issue of Abu-Naddara Zarqa’ as a final farewell to his readers. Scholars relying on Gendzier for Sannu‘’s biographical information are continuing to date 1907 as the year of Sannu‘’s retirement from journalism (e.g., see Joel Beinin “Writing Class: Workers

and Modern Egyptian Colloquial Poetry [Zajal],” Poetics Today 15 [1994]: 194). Irene L. Gendzier, The Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘ (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966), 138; Abu-Naddara Zarqa’, ­December 1910. 3.  Times (London), 29 April 1907; 15 July 1907. Also see Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, Egypt and Cromer: A Study in Anglo-Egyptian Relations (New York: Praeger, 1969), 157. 4.  ‘Abd al-Rahman Al-Rafa‘i, Mustafa Kamil: Ba’ith alharaka al-wattaniyya, 5th ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Ma‘arif, 1985), 26 – 27.

Sannu‘ and Kamil: Gaining Access to a European Audience Ya‘qub Sannu‘

Despite their similar career paths, Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘ came from entirely different backgrounds. Sannu‘’s father, an ­Italian Jew from Leghorn, was among the thousands of European professionals arriving in Egypt during the first half of the nineteenth century. Employed as an adviser to Prince Ahmad Pasha Yeken, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, he married an Egyptian Jewish woman named Sarah, who gave birth to Sannu‘ on 9 February 1839. Because of his eclectic and multicultural upbringing, Ya‘qub Sannu‘ was fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, Italian, French, and English by the time he was twelve years old.7 By the age of fourteen, Sannu‘ was sent to continue his education in Leghorn (from 1852 to 1855), and upon his return to Egypt he worked as a private tutor until 1863, when he was employed as a language teacher at the military Polytechnic Institute.8 In 1870 he became a makeshift playwright and with the financial support of Khedive Ismail (1863 – 79) established Egypt’s first Arabic theater company. Most of Sannu‘’s plays were performed in colloquial Egyptian and contained nationalistic themes.9 As the nationalistic sub-

5.  Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski, Egypt, Islam, and the Arabs: The Search for Egyptian Nationhood, 1900 –  1 930 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 13. 6.  Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 157 – 58; and Gendzier, Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 95 – 98. 7.  Gendzier, Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 9 – 14; Jacob Landau, “Abu Naddara: An Egyptian Jewish Nationalist,” Journal of Jewish Studies 3 (1952): 31 – 32. 8.  Matti Moosa, “Ya‘qub Sanu‘ and the Rise of Arab Drama in Egypt,” International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 5 (1974): 402; Gendzier, Practical ­Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 16 – 17. Prince Yeken was apparently so

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The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘

and Kamil’s European media campaigns, taking into account their manipulation of European colonial rivalries, their repeated Francophile appeals, and their frequent exploitation of Anglophobic discourse. Additionally, by revealing the external resistance strategies of colonized intellectuals, I hope to expand the geographic playing field of colonial-colonized encounters and contestations from the colonies to the heart of the metropole.

Ziad Fahmy 

Like Sannu‘, Mustafa Kamil spent a great deal of time publicizing Egyptian nationalist claims to European audiences. From 1895 until his unexpected death in 1908, Kamil wrote many articles and editorials in European newspapers including Le Figaro, L’Éclair, Le Journal des Debats, Revue des Deux Mondes, the Times, and Nouvelle revue. 3 The European publicity of the Egyptian nationalist cause was so important to Kamil that in 1907 he established two new versions of his al-Liwa (Standard) newspaper in both English (Egyptian Standard) and French (L’ Étendard Egyptienne).4 Aside from their journalistic activities, throughout their careers Sannu‘ and Kamil conducted interviews, made countless speeches, and held many conferences and presentations throughout France and Europe in their continuing attempts at externally forcing a resolution to the Egyptian question. Despite the significance of Sannu‘’s and Kamil’s European activities, historians have only briefly examined these events. Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski’s Egypt, Islam, and the Arabs, the most comprehensive work on early Egyptian nationalism, does not cover Egyptian nationalist efforts in Europe. Short of a brief mention in their introduction of how Kamil “hoped to use the French as a lever against the British in Egypt,” the authors pay little attention to Kamil and Sannu‘’s European campaigns. 5 Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot and Irene L. Gendzier outline the European activities of Sannu‘ and Kamil, though without detailing these events.6 Accordingly, the primary objective of this article is to shed more light on the European activities of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘, hoping to spark further research on Egyptian anticolonial activities in Europe. This article analyzes the different components of Sannu‘’s

impressed by the young Sannu‘ that he fully sponsored his education in Leghorn, where he studied fine art, science, political economy, and international law. 9.  Jacque Chelley, “Le Molière Egyptien,” Abu­Naddara, 1 August 1906; Atia Abul Naga, Les sources françaises du théâtre egyptien (1870 – 1839) (Madrid: ­Altamira-Rotopress, 1972), 76; Najwa Ibrahim’ Anus, Masrah Ya‘qub Sannu‘ (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al ‘Amma lil-Kitab, 1984), 31 – 33; Moosa, “Ya‘qub Sanu‘,” 404 – 5 ; Jacob Landau, Studies in the Arab Theater and Cinema (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1969), 65 – 67; Gendzier, Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 34 – 38.

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ject matter of Sannu‘’s plays became more critical of Ismail’s reign, his theatrical activities were banned by the government.10 No longer allowed to perform his plays publicly, Sannu‘ promptly found other outlets for his political pursuits. Early in 1877 Sannu‘ began to publish anonymously printed sheets where he allegorically attacked the Khedive’s government. The relative success of this venture led to the establishment of his weekly satirical journal Abu­Naddara Zarqa’ on 21 March 1877.11 Sannu‘’s early theatrical activities left a noticeable mark on the format and content of his journal. Every issue of Abu-Naddara contained a small theatrical sketch usually in the form of a colloquial Egyptian dialogue with the characters satirically commenting on the government and the Khedive. It was most likely one of these satirical sketches that led to the exile of Sannu‘ to France on 22 June 1878.12 Sannu‘’s exile, however, did not stop the distribution of Abu-Naddara in Egypt. Almost immediately after his arrival in Paris, he continued to print his journal and successfully smuggled it into Egypt.13 Beginning in 1882 Sannu‘ started to add gradually a small section written in French to his newspaper.14 At first the French portion was simply a handwritten translation of a political cartoon or one of his small Arabic articles, but by 1885 Abu-Naddara Zarqa’ was equally divided between a French and an Arabic section.15 While Sannu‘’s newspapers were certainly not read by enough Europeans to make a direct impact on the Egyptian question, his limited European readership consisted of important anti-British journalists and anticolonial liberals, who helped him achieve greater exposure in French society. Accordingly, the most important function of his French newspapers was to increase his visibility in mainstream French media outlets. This ap-

10.  Sannu‘ was banned from the theater in 1872. The full texts of seven of Sannu‘’s Arabic plays are printed in Muhammad Y. Nijm, Al-masrah al-‘Arabi: Dirassat wa nususs, vol. 3, Ya‘qub Sannu‘ (Beirut: Dar al-Thaqafa, 1963). 11.  Landau, “Abu Naddara,” 33. 12.  Gendzier, Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 65. 13.  Times (London), 12 March 1885. According to Gendzier, Sannu‘ revealed in his memoirs “that he had smuggled his newspaper into Egypt by hiding copies in the pages of larger illustrated reviews, books,

proach was quite successful in giving Sannu‘ sufficient media coverage in established French newspapers, increasing his popularity in Paris and allowing him to have a successful career as a lecturer throughout France. A September 1895 article in Le Courrier de France reported that Sannu‘ had “become such an in-demand conference presenter that no week passes by without the press documenting one of his many conference presentations.”16 His status in Parisian society was to such an extent that a small fire in his Paris apartment was uncharacteristically covered by major French newspapers, including Le Temps.17 Mustafa Kamil

Unlike Sannu‘, who belonged to the upper middle class and had a mixed heritage, Kamil was entirely a product of a new and growing upwardly mobile Egyptian middle class. Kamil’s father, an Egyptian army engineer of modest means, encouraged his son to receive a proper education. While still in high school, Kamil had an early interest in Egyptian politics and journalism, founding several student organizations, the most important of which was called Jam‘iat Ihya’ al-Watan (Society for the Revival of the Nation). After his graduation from high school in spring 1891, Kamil decided to go to the Khedival Law School and continued his nationalistic pursuits there.18 It was as a politically active law student that Kamil attracted the attention of the young Abbas Hilmi II, who disliked the British and wanted to regain more of his Khedival authority. He knew that in order to accomplish this task he had to gain the trust and support of the Egyptian people, and to this end he labored to mobilize Egyptian nationalist feelings in order to counter British colonial authority.19 Abbas II

art albums, and other respectable documents.” See Gendzier, Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 70. Sannu‘ also frequently changed the name of his paper in order to evade the censors. Other names for the paper include Abu-Naddara, Abu-Suffara, Abu-­Zummara, and Al-Hawi . 14.  See Abu-Naddara, 21 April 1882. 15.  See Abu-Naddara, 10 January 1885 – 10 December 1910. 16.  Le Courrier de France, September 1895, quoted in Abu-Naddara, 25 September 1895.

17.  See Le Temps, 13 June 1895; Abu-Naddara, 15 July 1895. 18.  Letter dated 12 July 1891 written by Kamil to his brother Ali Fahmi Kamil. See Mustafa Kamil, Awraq Mustafa Kamil: Al-murasalat (Cairo: al-Hayi’a al-  Misriyya al-‘Ama lil-Kitab, 1982), 136. Also see Al-Rafi‘i, Mustafa Kamil, 24 – 29, 31 – 48. 19.  Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 156 – 57; Lord Cromer, Abbas II (London: Macmillan, 1915), 1 – 1 0; Jacques ­Berque, Egypt: Imperialism and Revolution, trans. John Stewart (London: Faber and Faber, 1972), 63 – 169.

20.  Ahmad Shafiq, Mothakarati fi nisf qarn: Min sanat 1873 ilá sanat 1923 (Cairo: al-Hayi’a al-Misriyya  al-‘Ama lil-Kitab, 1994), 2:50. In his article titled “The Egyptian Nationalist Party,” Arthur Goldschmidt misquotes Shafiq’s memoirs and erroneously dates Kamil’s meeting with Abbas at “February 1892,” instead of 28 November 1892. See Arthur Goldschmidt, “The Egyptian Nationalist Party, 1892 – 1919,” in Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt, ed. P. M. Holt (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 312. 21.  Abbas Hilmi, Khedive of Egypt: Memoirs of Abbas Hilmi II, trans. and ed. Amira Sonbol (Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 1998), 136. 22.  Juliette Adam, L’Angleterre en Egypte (Paris: Imprimerie du Centre, 1922), 144 – 45; Al-Rafi‘i, Mustafa Kamil, 51 – 54; Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 156 – 57.

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The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘

anti-British French periodical, hosted a literary salon in Paris attended by many prominent French journalists and political figures of the time. Adam affectionately confirmed this relationship by stating, “I really began to fulfill my maternal role vis-à-vis this very young man who championed a great cause. I introduced him to many prominent and valuable men who are interested in Egypt . . . his favorites were Pierre Loti and General Marchand . . . I also introduced him to other valuable contacts within the French press.”26 These contacts included leading French editors and writers such as Edouard Drumont (editor of La Libre Parole), Ernest Judet (editor of Le Petit Journal and L’Éclaire), and Henri Rochefort (founder and editor of L’Intransigeant). Kamil would make good use of his contacts with the French press until his death in 1908.27

Ziad Fahmy 

first met with Kamil in an official visit he made to the Khedival Law School on 28 November 1892.20 Noticing the potential and political usefulness of the young Kamil, Abbas established a strong bond with him and supported many of his nationalistic efforts. 21 Abbas sponsored Kamil’s continuing law education in Toulouse, where he received his law degree in November 1894.22 Upon his return to Egypt in December 1894, Kamil did not practice law but devoted his full attention to politics. He immediately wrote several articles in Al-Ahram attacking the British and calling for their evacuation.23 Along with his internal policy of rousing the Egyptian masses to political action, Kamil used an external strategy similar to Sannu‘’s for swaying European public opinion toward the Egyptian nationalist cause. In an early article sent to alMu’ayid newspaper, Kamil openly described this European propaganda strategy to the Egyptian people: “The wise among the British have realized the danger of their occupation of Egypt. What they need to know is the true feelings of the Egyptian nation, its fears, hopes, and the truth. This would force their government to evacuate the Nile Valley. The best thing that we Egyptians can do now is to advertise the truth to Europe with as many languages as possible, especially in English and French.”24 Working toward this goal, Kamil spent every summer from 1895 to 1907 in France publicizing his mass media campaign.25 Although his fluent French and charisma greatly boosted Kamil in his mission, his eventual friendship with the renowned French author Juliette Adam became the real key to opening the doors of French society. Adam, editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes, an

Who does not know the Sheikh ‘Abu-Naddara,’ who is regarded as the great friend of France, by our Parisian confreres? He has been our guest for the past 30 years and has become as popular on the banks of the Seine as he is on the banks of the Nile and the Bosphorus. A week barely passes when the press does not document one of his many conferences, speeches or interviews. His favorite subjects are the role of France in the Orient, the sympathies which the Orientals have for the French, the Egyptian question, Islam and lately the Franco-Ottoman entente cordiale.28

As the above quotation from Le Progrès indicates, in time Sannu‘ became an icon of Parisian journalistic and social circles. Until the

23.  See Al-Ahram, 28 December 1894; 4 January 1895; 28 January 1895; 4 February 1895; 23 February 1895; 4 March 1895. Kamil began writing nationalist articles in the local press in early 1893. See Al-Ahram, 11 February 1893; 16 February 1893; 24 February 1893; 8 March 1893; 20 April 1893; 20 July 1894; 31 July 1894; 3 August 1894; 1 September 1894; 8 September 1894.

de Philae, to Mustafa Kamil. General Marchand was a captain when Kamil first met him. He would later lead the French expeditionary force at Fashoda. See Mustafa Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises adressèes a Mme Juliette Adam, 1895 – 1 908 (Cairo: Madrasit Mustafa Kamil, 1909), 16; and Adam, L’Angleterre en Egypte, 146 – 47.

24.  Al-Mu’ayid, 5 August 1895, cited in Al-Rafi‘i, Mustafa Kamil, 60.

27.  Goldschmidt, “Egyptian Nationalist Party,” 314 – 15.

25.  For the first few years Kamil’s European activities were financially supported by the Khedive. 26.  Pierre Loti (1850 – 1923) is the pseudonym of Louis Marie Julien Viaud. He was an eccentric and prolific French novelist who was facinated with Middle Eastern culture and frequently defended the Ottoman Empire. He dedicated his book about Egypt, La mort

28.  Louis Aiguine, in Le Progrès, 29 February 1908.

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Figure 1.  “La prise de Khartoum.” Source: Abu-Naddara (Paris), 25 September 1898

arrival of Kamil on the European scene in the mid-1890s, Sannu‘ was the sole “for-hire” native Oriental expert in Parisian circles. The colorful Anglophobic cartoons that he printed in his Abu-Naddara attracted readers and gained the desired attention from the French and European press.29 Sannu‘ included at least one political cartoon per issue, accompanied by a descriptive dialogue and/or a brief description of the events depicted in the drawing. Adding to his humor is the coining of satirical nicknames that he tagged on his political enemies. The British were often labeled “les Rouges” (the Reds), referring to the redness of their faces from exposure to the Egyptian sun. In dialogues where Sannu‘ portrayed the British exploitation of Egyptian farmland and the fellah, they were dubbed “les Sauterelles Rouges” (the Red Locusts).30 Typically in Sannu‘’s cartoons and their accompanying dialogues, the English Albion, labeled as “La Vieux Albion,” and her son John 29.  Saturday Review, 26 July 1879; Revue de Deux Monde, 15 June 1885; Constitutionnel, 28 October 1886; Times (London), 3 March 1885.

Bull were grotesquely illustrated and were usually conspiring against the Egyptian fellah. 31 For example, a cartoon titled “La prise de Khartoum” (see fig. 1), which appeared in the 25 September 1898 issue of Abu-Naddara, reveals the typical depiction of La Vieux Albion as a skinny old witch and her son John Bull as a ghoulish old man. The cartoon depicts the celebration of “La Vieux Albion” and John Bull after the 2 September 1898 British victory over the Sudanese forces of Al-Khalifa at Omdurman near Khartoum. 32 The intoxicated John Bull, holding two bottles of beer, addresses his mother (in French): “Goddamn! I cannot take this any more! What heat! Have I done well, oh mother Albion, by arming myself with these two nice bottles of Stout? This patriotic beer will refresh our throats, which have dried from the intensity of this infernal sun.”33 John Bull’s portrayal as a drunkard reinforced the common French stereotype depicting the British as brutish and uncultured.

30.  It is important to note here that the term sauterelles rouges was borrowed by some French journalists and was used to describe the British presence in Egypt by an October 1896 article in Le Courrier de France. See Le Courrier de France, October 1896, quoted in Abu-Naddara, 25 November 1896. AbuNaddara, 28 February 1888; 15 July 1895; 20 February 1898; 25 April 1897. 31.  Abu-Naddara, 9 June 1893; 1 May 1893; 18 October 1893; 25 September 1895.

32.  Al-Khalifa is the title of Abdullah al-Ta’aishi, who succeeded Muhammad Ahmad (the Mahdi) as the leader of the Sudanese rebellion. See John Marlowe, A History of Modern Egypt and Anglo-Egyptian Relations, 1800 – 1956 (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1965), 154 – 56. 33.  Abu-Naddara, 25 September 1898. For satirical purposes, John Bull’s character in both the Arabic and French sketches often begins his sentences by uncontrollably shouting “Goddamn!” (Goddem in trans­ literated French).

L’Ottoman (à voix basse): Ne faites pas de scandale, je vous en prie; autrement, on vous mettra à la porte. [The Ottoman (in a low voice): Don’t make a scandal, I beg you, otherwise they will throw you out.] John Bull: Oh! Mais, La rage de moâ est héclatante! Moâ vouloir boxer tous les Hégypchiens et les Youropyâns qui happlaudir le speech de lé petit Abbas! Poukouâ loui parler français? Loui faut parler la langage dou les maîtres de loui, le hanglais! [ John Bull: Oh! But my rage is intense! I want to punch all the Egyptians and Europeans who are applauding the young Abbas! Why is he addressing them in French? He should speak English, the language of his masters.] L’Ottoman: Ne dites pas de bêtises, mon pauvre ami, et allez calmer votre rage “héclatante” au bar voisin. [The Ottoman: Stop uttering stupidities my poor friend, and go calm your “intense” rage in the bar next door.] John Bull: Oh! Yes. Mais vous faut venir drinker avec moâ. [ John Bull: Oh! Yes. But you have to come and drink with me.]35 34.  Sannu‘ was equally skilled at depicting different dialects and foreign accents in both his colloquial ­Arabic and French writings.

36.  See Paul De Baignières, L’Egypte satirique: Album d’Abou Naddara illustré de 48 pages de gravures (Paris: Imprimerie Lefebvre, 1886), 89.

35.  Abu-Naddara, 15 June 1894. The dialogue and its accompanying cartoon were titled “L’inauguration de l’exposition d’Alexandrie.”

37.  Abu Naddara, 26 September 1886; 20 October 1896; 20 November 1896; 17 April 1897; 25 June 1897.

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38.  Landau, “Abu Naddara,” 41. 39.  Gendzier, Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 98.

The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘

John Bull (criant): Goddem! Mais la Hegypte pas pouvoir faire oun Exhibichon sans naus! God save the Queen! [ John Bull (screaming): Goddamn! But Egypt cannot have an exhibition without us! God Save the Queen!]

The above dialogue provides a classic example of Sannu‘’s Anglophobic satire, which undoubtedly contributed to his popularity in French society. The 1896 publication of Paul De Baignières’s L’Egypte satirique: Album d’Abou Naddara also played a role in increasing Sannu‘’s visibility in French society. From the outset, the entire book served as a virtual advertisement booklet for Sannu‘’s work. The first twenty pages contain a brief biography of Sannu‘ using favorable press clippings from European journals and news­ papers. The remainder of the book includes forty-­eight pages of cartoons (each page contains two to four separate cartoons) taken from Abu-­Naddara and eighteen pages of text describing the cartoons in French, with the last section listing several of Sannu‘’s political poems translated into French. Baignières acknowledged in his book that Sannu‘ translated these poems from Arabic into French. This fact, along with the overtly positive and noncritical examination of Sannu‘, suggests that he participated in the making of this book.36 Baignières’s book was reviewed by dozens of European newspapers and journals, a fact that the self-aggrandizing Sannu‘ took full advantage of. In several successive issues of AbuNaddara, Sannu‘ selectively printed positive excerpts from the reviews of Baignières’s book presented in La Lanterne, Le Gaulois, La France, Le Constitutionnel, and L’organe des concours poétique.37 Baignières’s book inflated Sannu‘’s exposure in French and European society by increasing the number of articles written about him in the European press, and it allowed Sannu‘ to publish more of his own articles concerning the Egyptian question in the mainstream French press. 38 Immodestly dubbing himself as “the spokesmen of liberal Egyptians,” Sannu‘ was frequently interviewed by European reporters and met with many political dignitaries seeking the insider’s view of the situation in Egypt.39 Sannu‘ supplemented his articles and interviews with numerous conferences and lectures conducted throughout France and Europe.

Ziad Fahmy 

Sannu‘ masterfully exploited French prejudice in another dialogue where John Bull unsuccessfully attempts to speak French and humorously destroys the French language through his mangled half-English/half-French sentences and his clichéd English pronunciation of French words.34 The dialogue is set in Alexandria at an 1894 trade exhibition, where Abbas II and the governor of Alexandria gave speeches in French to assembled ambassadors and foreign dignitaries. Frustrated by the noninclusion of a British representative in this event, John Bull angrily addresses one of the Ottoman dignitaries:

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While presenting these talks Sannu‘ virtually transformed himself into an “Oriental” mascot. As illustrated in figure 2, he changed from his everyday Western clothes and dressed in a traditional Egyptian galabiyah and turban. On the galabiyah Sannu‘ pinned approximately a dozen decorative metals and awards given to him by world leaders. Sannu‘’s overtly accessorized costume effectively transformed him into the Sheikh Abu-Naddara persona, adding “authenticity” and hence legitimacy to his lectures, while contributing to his thirst to be the center of attention.40 Beginning in January 1887 Sannu‘ started a semiregular column titled “Les discours d’Abu Naddara,” which essentially documented the majority of his lectures. Within these columns, Sannu‘ continued his habit of self-praise and recorded all the positive comments made by the French and European press concerning his lectures.41 For instance, in a 25 January 1893 column, Sannu‘ “modestly” thanks all the newspapers that mentioned his Arabic literature conference at “L’Institut Rudy”: Le Figaro, in its society page, L’ Agence Havas, in its correspondence, L’Agence Libre, in its telegrams and in its accredited columns, Les Debats, Le Temps, Les Gaulois, La Patrie, Le Siecle, Le Voltaire, La Justice, La Republique Française, Le Monde, La Paix, Le Paris, Le Journal de Matin, L’Orient, La Petite Republique, Le Petit Journal, Le Petit Parisien, La Petite Presse, Le Charivari, L’Observateur, Le français, Le Petit Français, the American Register, Le Gallignani’s Messenger, etc., etc. In other words a large number of Parisian and foreign newspapers and journals have graciously announced this conference and gave it glowing reviews. The Sheikh Abu Naddara would like to sincerely rethank you for those lovely articles, which have contributed to his modest literary cause.

Notwithstanding his exaggerated sense of selfimportance, Sannu‘ achieved a degree of popularity in France, and especially within Parisian

Figure 2.  Abu-Naddara portrait. Source: L’Hirondelle de France (Paris), January 1895, reprinted and included in the Abu-Naddara 1894 Yearly Album

society, as he relentlessly continued to disseminate his Egyptian nationalist message to French audiences. Although transmitting the same message, and using a similar approach, Kamil’s personal style and delivery were completely different from Sannu‘’s. While less entertaining, Kamil was a better orator and had a genuine sincerity that Sannu‘ seems to have lacked. Kamil’s official arrival on the European scene was signaled by his June 1895 presentation of a petition and a symbolic poster to the French Chamber of Deputies

40.  L’Hirondelle de France (Paris), January 1895, reprinted and included in the Abu Naddara 1894 Yearly Album.

41.  See Abu-Naddara, 22 January 1887; 7 April 1893; and Al-Tawadud, June 1901. These columns were sometimes called “Les conference d’Abu Naddara,” and Sannu‘ often proudly pointed out the abundance of these lectures by numbering them for his readers. For example, in the 7 April 1893 issue of Abu­Naddara, Sannu‘ prints a column titled (in bold letters), “ The 206th, 207th, 208th, 209th, 210th, and the 211th lecture.”

(see fig. 3). The poster depicts Kamil, with the Egyptian masses behind him, presenting a written appeal to France (Marianne) asking her to help Egypt in gaining her independence from the British. At the bottom of the picture, a vigilant British soldier with sword in hand closely guards Egypt, portrayed as a handcuffed and submissively kneeling woman. Kamil printed thousands of copies of this poster and distributed it to major European and even American newspapers.42 Less than a month after the French Chamber of Deputies presentation, Kamil delivered his first political speech in Europe. Many journalists and writers attended this event held in an auditorium at the University of Toulouse on 4 July 1895. Kamil began his speech by declaring the illegality of the British occupation and 42.  See Kamil’s 8 June 1895 letter to ‘Abd al-Rahim Ahmad (Khedive Abbas’s secretary), in Kamil, Awraq Mustafa Kamil, 28 – 32. Al-Rafi‘i, Mustafa Kamil, 61 – 64. For an analysis of the gender implications of this poster and late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century ­visual representation of Egypt as a woman, see Beth Baron, “Nationalist Iconography: Egypt as a Woman,” in Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East, ed. Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski (New York:  Columbia University Press, 1997).

43.  See Kamil’s 4 July 1895 speech presented in Toulouse, reprinted in Moustafa Kamel Pasha [Mustafa Kamil], Egyptiens et Anglais (Paris: Librairie Acadèmique Didier, 1906), 26 – 27. 44.  Ibid., 43. 45.  See Kamil’s 18 September 1895 letter to ‘Abd al-­R ahim Ahmad, in Kamil, Awraq Mustafa Kamil, 51 – 52.

Ziad Fahmy 

177

The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘

Figure 3.  Kamil’s poster. Source: Al-Rafi‘i, Mustafa Kamil, 61

the mismanagement of Lord Cromer, whom he accused of “purposively appointing incapable, indifferent or traitorous men at the head of Egyptian government ministries and other administrative positions. In this manner he not only manipulates these men like an instrument under his control but he uses the incompetence of these men to attempt and prove to Europe that our country lacks a governing managerial class.” 43 Playing to his audience, Kamil represented the French as benevolent and culturally superior to the English and devoted the second half of his speech to singing the praises of French culture: “Yes gentlemen, it is France’s duty . . . to interfere and save us . . . France which has generously awakened Egypt from its profound sleep and has always treated us like its dearest offspring, earning in the process our eternal respect, emanating from the depths of our hearts and souls.” 4 4 Indeed, as one shall see also with Sannu‘, such saccharine adulation of France proved quite effective in attracting French audiences. Kamil, however, was well aware of the irony of using France’s disparaging paternalistic colonial discourse to counter Britain’s colonial ambitions, as his 18 September 1895 letter to the Khedive’s secretary clearly shows: “Like any realistic person knows, nations only cater to their best interests. The French, just like the English; regardless of how they pretend to be loyal to us, will do whatever is in their best political interests. Therefore through our rapprochement and our amicability toward them we are merely employing a purposeful political maneuver to gain their trust and perhaps, even if it is temporary, we can benefit from them politically.” 45 Working toward this end, throughout his speeches and articles in France, Kamil attempted to stress the commonality of Egyptian and French strategic and political interests especially when directed against Great Britain. For

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instance, in an 18 June 1899 speech presented in Juliette Adam’s salon in Paris, he declared to the audience: “The war which your neighbors from across the English-Channel have been waging against your cultural influence and prestige on the banks of the Nile is without a name. English hate has especially targeted the French Language, for they have been zealously and tirelessly attempting to replace their language for yours.” Kamil even melodramatically declared to his audience that “destroying French influence in Egypt” ranks as the number one British internal policy in Egypt.46 Kamil’s early European activities did not end in France; late in July he traveled to Vienna for a few days and met with numerous Austrian journalists and politicians.47 Upon his return to Paris, he published a twenty-page pamphlet in French, titled Le peril anglais: Conséquence de l’occupation de l’Egypte par l’Angleterre, which he distributed free of charge to journalists and prominent politicians throughout Europe. 48 After publishing and distributing Le peril anglais, Kamil introduced himself to Adam by writing her a letter from Toulouse and asking for her political support: “Help me Madam, because you are such a true patriot. I know you are the only person who can understand me, encourage me and help my cause.” 49 This simple, almost naive letter began his life-long relationship with Adam and, in the process, guaranteed his connection with France’s journalistic circles, ensuring that his voice would be heard throughout Europe. After his 1895 European trip, Kamil returned every year to continue his propagandist efforts. Throughout the fourteen summers that he spent in Europe, mainly in Paris (though occasionally traveling to other European cit-

46.  See Kamil’s 18 June 1899 speech presented in Adam’s Paris salon, reprinted in Kamil, Egyptiens et Anglais, 213, 216. See also Kamil’s 11 December 1895 speech presented at the Société de Géographie de Paris, reprinted in Kamil, Egyptiens et Anglais, 51. In this early speech, he declared to the audience: “All that England does in Egypt against our interests is in reality directed at France as well.” 47.  See Kamil’s 30 July 1895 letter to ‘Abd al-Rahim Ahmad (Khedive Abbas’s secretary), in Kamil, Awraq Mustafa Kamil, 37 – 38.

ies), Kamil delivered countless speeches, was interviewed by French and European newspapers, and wrote numerous articles that were printed in many major French and European newspapers.50 Kamil was especially adept at tapping into the intellectual resources and professional contacts of some of his European friends and acquaintances. Sometimes he even instructed some of them to write articles and/or letters to the editors on the Egyptian question in mainstream French newspapers.51 In a letter dated 29 May 1904, a week before a major political speech in Alexandria, Kamil dictated to Adam a short news dispatch detailing his yet-to-be-preformed speech: “I would be very happy to see a dispatch in Le Figaro which reads: ‘Mustafa Kamil, the editor of al-Lewa has given a speech yesterday night in Alexandria in front of a large crowd of listeners . . . the speaker affirmed that the Egyptian people are motivated more than ever before to achieve national independence.’”52 In another letter to Adam, dated 21 July 1906, Kamil is incensed over British newspaper articles characterizing Egyptians as religious fanatics and solicits Adam for a response: “I beseech you to write an article in the Figaro, the Gaulois or even a letter in the Temps, to describe the degree of tolerance and hospitality you witnessed when you were in Egypt.”53 Kamil also benefited from his friendship with Pierre Loti, the well-known anticolonial French novelist. Before the 1906 Paris publication of Kamil’s Egyptiens et Anglais, Loti wrote a letter to Kamil, informing him that Gaston Calmette, the editor of Le Figaro, had assigned him (Loti) to choose an “appropriate” journalist to write a review of Kamil’s upcoming book.54

48.  Mustafa Kamil, Le peril anglais: Conséquence de l’occupation de l’Egypte par l’Angleterre (Paris: Imprimerie G. Camproger, 1895; repr., Paris: Imprimerie Albert Lanier, 1899). See also Kamil’s 23 August 1895 letter to ‘Abd al-Rahim Ahmad, in Kamil, Awraq Mustafa Kamil, 46.

If he does publish it please be kind enough to signal to Drumont, Rochefort, Daudet and all of your friends  to make editorial commentaries. I want all of France to know the negative effects that this accord has produced in Egypt.” Kamil to Adam, letter dated 15 April 1904, in Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 126 – 28.

49.  Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 2 – 4 .

52.  See Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 136.

50.  Times (London), 29 April 1907; 15 July 1907. Also see Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 157.

53.  Ibid., 248.

51.  For example, after the 1904 Entente Cordial an anxious Kamil wrote a letter to Adam, asking her to recruit some of her journalistic friends to support his cause: “I will write my opinion to M. Montorgueil, so he can publish it like a (long distance) interview.

54.  See Kamil’s 1 January 1906 letter to Adam, in ibid., 230 – 32. Kamil’s 325-page book contained the transcripts of eleven of Kamil’s speeches and all of his correspondence with British prime minister William Gladstone (1809 – 98). See Kamil, Egyptiens et Anglais.

Countering British Colonial Discourse

The British repeatedly voiced an assortment of claims regarding the backwardness of Egyptian society and the ongoing need of a civilizing British presence in order to legitimize their continued occupation of Egypt. According to British colonial discourse, Egyptians did not have a “real” national identity, could not govern themselves without British guidance, and were mostly superstitious, religious fanatics. Speaking on the 1897 Egyptian census, Cromer states, “Who, in fact, is a true Egyptian? The compiler of the census very wisely did not attempt to define the term; he must have been aware that precise definition was impossible.”56 Cromer arbitrarily carved up the Egyptian population into Turco-Egyptians, Circassians, Europeanized Egyptians, fellahin, Egyptian Bedouins, Coptic Egyptians, and “semi-Egyptian hybrids.”57 This perception of Egyptian society as dysfunctionally fragmented allowed the British to discount 55.  Abu-Naddara, 10 June 1895. 56.  Lord Cromer, Modern Egypt (London: Macmillan, 1908), 2:128 – 29. 57.  Ibid., 2:127 – 32, 168 – 70. 58.  Ibid., 2:154 – 55, 566 – 69. See “Lord Cromer’s Report on Egypt and the Sudan,” in Times (London), 4 April 1907.

59.  Kamil’s speech to the Société de Géographie de Paris, 11 December 1895, cited in Kamil, Egyptiens et Anglais, 72. 60.  Times (London), 13 April 1907. 61.  Cromer, Modern Egypt, 2:139; See also Times (London), 28 March 1907.

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The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘

the legitimacy of the Egyptian national movement, while justifying their continuing occupation of Egypt to their own citizens and to other European powers. The British also claimed that Egyptians were incapable of governing themselves “without foreign guidance in civil and military affairs.”58 Kamil and Sannu‘ were fully aware of the intricacies of British colonial discourse and took every opportunity to publicly refute it. In a speech presented to the Société de Géographie de Paris, Kamil announced the British assertion that “Egyptians are not fit to govern their own country is a calumny, which any reasonable person must refute.”59 Kamil also addressed this very issue in the British press. In the middle of a letter to the editor of the Times, Kamil sarcastically announced: “You will tell me, I know, that the Egyptians are not ripe as yet for self-government. It is the old answer, the answer we always get. . . . Our nation has awakened, and nobody will be able to command its sleeping. Instead of crying out at it that it awoke too soon, or that it is dreaming, it is necessary to satisfy its vital necessities.” 60 The “fanaticism argument” was perhaps the single most popular colonial legitimizing claim employed by Cromer and other British colonial officers. In his book Modern Egypt Cromer declared, “Islamism, therefore, unlike Christianity, tends to engender the idea that revenge and hatred, rather than love and charity, should form the basis of the relations between man and man; and it inculcates a special degree of hatred against those who do not accept the Moslem faith.” 61 Sannu‘ made numerous efforts to argue against the British association of Islam with “fanaticism” and devoted many of his lectures and articles toward counteracting some of these popular stereotypes. In his lecture on Islam titled “Le Koran,” after reading to his listeners several verses from the Koran calling for religious tolerance, Sannu‘ declared, “The Koran is not a book of fanaticism, superstition or barbarity.” 62 Kamil also addressed the

Ziad Fahmy 

Although Kamil and Sannu‘ worked for the same cause and held almost identical views about Egyptian nationalism, they rarely met in Paris and never coordinated their efforts. The age and generational difference between them might have accounted for some of this distance. Considering Sannu‘’s seniority and his obvious sense of pride, it is probable that to some degree he was resentful of Kamil, who quickly stole the spotlight from him as the spokesman of Egyptian nationalism after just a short stay in Paris. The fact that he seldom mentions Kamil in his journal would seem to substantiate such a hypothesis. For example, the 10 June 1895 issue of Abu-Naddara, which was printed a few days after Kamil’s poster presentation to the French Chamber of Deputies, is one of the few exceptions where Sannu‘ acknowledges Kamil’s campaign in Europe. The small article that Sannu‘ devotes to Kamil is surrounded by two larger articles describing his own (Sannu‘’s) conferences and speeches.55

62.  See Abu-Naddara, 10 June 1906. In 1907 Sannu‘ created an entirely new French journal called L’Univèrs Musulman, devoted to educating Europeans about Islam and the Islamic world.

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fanaticism accusations and announced in one of his speeches that not only have the “English committed an injustice after an injustice, but they have convinced Europe that we are a fanatic people, hostile to all Christians. This is the biggest of all lies! We are not fanatics, or hostile to Christians. We are a wise and hospitable people and the proof is incontestable.” To make his case, Kamil mentioned that for thirteen centuries Christian Copts and Muslims have lived like brothers. Concerning Egypt’s treatment of Europeans, he declared, “For the last century, we were in direct contact with Europe and especially France, and we were never hostile to anyone. On the contrary, the entire world finds in Egypt the most generous hospitality. If our enemies claim that we are religious fanatics, it is time to put an end to their legendary deceits.” 63 Since the British frequently equated Egyptian nationalism with religious fanaticism and xenophobia, Kamil coined the slogan “Libre chez nous, hospitaliers pour tous” (Free in our country, hospitable to all), which would later become his motto.64 Francophiles and Anglophobes

Realistically or not, until the 1904 Entente Cordial both Sannu‘ and Kamil, as well as many other Egyptian nationalists, generally viewed France as a potential ally against British colonial domination. This idealistic view of France can perhaps be attributed to the overwhelming francophone education received by many Egyptian nationalists. Cromer himself admitted that “amongst the obstacles, which have stood in the way of the British reformer in Egypt, none is more noteworthy than that both Europeanized Egyptians and Levantines are impregnated with French rather than with English habits of thought.” In his classic condescending manner,

Cromer attributed this French cultural favoritism to the ignorance of the “semi-educated Oriental,” who naturally does not recognize the “natural” superiority of English civilization.65 At the turn of the twentieth century, France had more economic and cultural capital in Egypt than did any other European nation, including Great Britain, a reality that the French conscientiously wanted to maintain. 66 Kamil effectively exploited this fact and announced in one of his speeches that England is working hard to end the annual Egyptian student missions to France, in order “to bring an end to French influence, which is still very extensive and overly dominant.” 67 Discussing the British educational policy in Egypt, Kamil bated the crowd’s Anglophobic tendencies by stating that the Egyptian public educational system, which was formerly in the hands of “loyal and scholarly, Egyptians and French teachers, is now the meeting place of the most ignorant and the most egotistical British adventurers.” Kamil then proclaimed, “The British are trying to create for our children a purely galophobe and anglophile school. You would not believe the lessons of hate given daily against France and Turkey.” 68 Kamil’s and Sannu‘’s exploitation of the Anglophobic predisposition of their French readers and listeners was matched by their unremitting glorifications of France and French civilization. Sannu‘ especially was keen to display his affection toward France and claimed to take part annually in the French Fourteenth of July celebrations. In a full-page article titled “Hommage du Cheikh Abou Naddara a la France,” Sannu‘ printed nine different odes he had previously written about the glories of France. In a poem originally written for a L’allience Latine dinner, Sannu‘ affirmed,

63.  Kamil’s speech at Toulouse, 4 July 1895, cited in Kamil, Egyptiens et Anglais, 36 – 37.

67.  Kamil’s speech at Toulouse, 4 July 1895, cited in Kamil, Egyptiens et Anglais, 28.

64.  Kamil’s speech to the Société de Géographie de Paris, 11 December 1895, cited in Kamil, Egyptiens et Anglais, 73.

68.  Ibid.

65.  Cromer, Modern Egypt, 2:236 – 37. 66.  For a detailed analysis of French economic capital in Egypt during the British occupation, see Samir Saul, La France et L’Egypte de 1882 à 1914: Intérêts economiques et implications politiques (Paris: Comité Pour L’Histoire Economique et Financiere de la France, 1997).

69.  Abu-Naddara, 15 July 1895. Nous vous aimons, ô fils de France —   Champions de la liberté Vous nous inspirez confiance —   Par votre antique loyauté Si le Français nous traite en fréres —   L’anglais brutal nous traite en chiens L’un nous rend heureux et prospères —   L’autre, helas! Nous vole nos biens L’Anglais pille nos champs fertiles —   De nos labeurs, il prend le fruit Le Français enrichit nos villes —   Nous civilise et nous instruit. 70.  Abu-Naddara, 20 November 1890. In this issue of Abu-Naddara, Sannu‘ wrote “Ode Franco-Russe,” dedicated to the new Franco-Russian entente. 71.  Abu-Naddara, 18 October 1890.

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Dinshaway and Kamil: Taking the Battle to London

The high hopes that Kamil and Sannu‘ had regarding France and its allies benefiting the Egyptian nationalist cause significantly diminished after the signing of the 1904 Entente Cordiale, which called for France to renounce all claims to Egypt in exchange for Britain giving France a free hand in Morocco.72 The damage the Entente Cordiale might have caused the nationalist movement, however, was almost completely reversed by a minor clash that occurred in the Egyptian countryside. On 11 June 1906 a group of British officers set out on a pigeonhunting excursion near the village of Dinshaway. Some of their shots accidentally caused a barn to catch on fire. In retaliation some of the angry villagers attacked the officers with wooden staves, and in the ensuing struggle a female villager was wounded by another stray shot and was presumed dead. The villagers, becoming more irate, violently beat and disarmed the officers.73 The Dinshaway incident might have been politically contained if the British had not retaliated so harshly. A special tribunal was quickly set up, and on 27 June the court passed sentences on twenty-one of the fifty-two accused villagers. Four were sentenced to death by hanging, two to life imprisonment, one to fifteen years imprisonment, six to seven years imprisonment, three to one-year imprisonment and fifty lashes, and five to fifty lashes. By orders of the court, the sentences were carried out in public and the

72.  Pierre Guillen, “The Entente of 1904 as a Colonial Settlement,” in Britain and France in Africa: Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule, ed. Prosser Gifford and William Roger Louis (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1971), 364 – 65. For a closer look at the 1904 Entente Cordiale, see P. J. V. Rolo, Entente Cordiale: The Origins and Negotiations of the Anglo-French Agreements of 8 April 1904 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1969). In his usual melodramatic style, Kamil would later write to Adam, “Today, my compatriots detest France as much as England,” and in another letter he would declare to her, “I would be an imbecile were I to believe for an instant that France can ever be the friend of Egypt or Islam. Adieu, to all the dreams of the past, all I have in France now is you.” See letters from Kamil to Juliette Adam dated 10 May 1906 and 25 February 1906, both cited in Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 128 and 238, respectively.

The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘

This allegiance to France was also extended to all of its European allies. After the 1890 FrancoRussian agreement, Sannu‘ began singing the praises of the Russian empire.70 In one of his cartoons, titled “Les amis de nos amis sont nos amis” (“The Friends of Our Friends Are Our Friends”), Sannu‘ points out the enthusiasm of England’s colonial subjects over the Franco­Russian rapprochement. The cartoon depicts John Bull closely watching an Egyptian, an Indian, and an Iranian cheering on two sailors, one Russian and the other French, who are celebrating the Franco-Russian agreement. John Bull angrily addresses the three men, “Why are you so happy? You are neither Russian nor French.” The Egyptian, Indian, and Iranian respond in unison: “We like the French who are the friends of Islam and now we also like the Russians because like the proverb says ‘the friends of our friends are our friends.’”71 It is perhaps not surprising that Sannu‘ and Kamil turned a blind eye to France’s own colonial record; it obviously did not suit their purpose to be critical of French colonial policy in Algeria or Tunisia. The French were needed as a coun-

terweight to British colonial policy, so, for the time being at least, France could do no wrong.

Ziad Fahmy 

We adore you, oh children of France —  champions of liberty You inspire our confidence —  with your historic loyalty If the French treat us like brothers —  t he brutal English treat us like dogs The one makes us happy and prosperous —  the other, steals our goods The English pillage our fertile fields —  taking away the fruits of our labor The French enrich our cities —  civilize and educate us.69

73.  For a complete record of the Dinshaway court proceedings, see Parliamentary Papers, Paper Respecting the Attack on British Officers at Denshawai [Egypt No. 3 and No. 4] (London: Harrison and Sons, 1906). See also Al-Rafi‘i, Mustafa Kamil, 205 – 9; and Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 169 – 70. One of the officers, Captain Bull, who suffered a severe blow to the head, fled the scene and ran almost eight kilometers back to base camp. However, he collapsed and died just a few hundred meters from his destination, a result of a combination of his injuries and heatstroke. When a fellah named Sayid Ahmad Sa‘id (who was uninvolved in the earlier skirmish) saw the dying Captain Bull and attempted to help him, he was caught and beaten to death by British troops, who mistook him for the murderer.

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remaining villagers were forced to watch.74 The cruelty and severity of these sentences infuriated the Egyptian masses and gave ample ammunition to the nationalists. Kamil did not miss this opportunity, and on 11 July 1906 he wrote a lengthy article to the Figaro publicizing and condemning the events.75 The Figaro article was carefully crafted to shame the British into making political concessions, and from the introductory sentence, Kamil attempted to theatrically set a somber tone: “A tragic affair took place in the Egyptian delta village of Dinshaway, which has managed to emotionally touch humanity in its entirety.” Kamil then described the details of the incident, the ensuing trial, and the public executions, which he called an unjust and “atrocious act of vengeance” that “could forever lead to the loss of respect of European civilization in the eyes of Oriental peoples.”76 Kamil’s Figaro article caused an instant journalistic sensation throughout continental Europe; more important, for the first time some mainstream British newspapers were sympathetically covering Kamil.77 The backlash from the Dinshaway incident, coupled with the 1905 election of a liberal government, gave Kamil an unprecedented political opening to make his case directly to the British people, or, as he wrote to Adam, to “battle against Cromer in his own country.”78 On 15 July 1906, Kamil arrived in ­London, taking full advantage of the momentum created by the press coverage of Dinshaway. As the man of the hour, Kamil was interviewed by many British newspapers. He also translated his latest Figaro article into English and mailed it to all members of Parliament and to major British newspapers. More important, Kamil made the acquaintance of many English journalists, several ministers, and members of Parliament.79

74.  Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 170 – 74. 75.  Le Figaro, 11 July 1906. The article, which was ­titled “A la nation Anglaise et au monde civilisé,” is included in Adam, L’Angleterre en Egypte, 151 – 59. Sannu‘ also covered the Dinshaway incident in his newspaper, though it was Kamil who would masterfully use his European press contacts to make a considerable impact on British colonial policy in Egypt. See Abu­Naddara, 1 August 1906.

K amil presented his most important speech in London on 26 July 1906 at a banquet held in his honor at the Carlton Hotel. The banquet was attended by several members of Parliament including Lord Lytton and John Mackinnon Robertson, who was one of the leading liberal members of Parliament. 80 Kamil’s speech was extensive and covered most of the grievances of the Egyptian nationalists. In the first part of his talk Kamil spent a considerable amount of time countering British accusations of Egyptian religious fanaticism. Later on in his speech, he personally attacked Cromer for not placing enough competent Egyptians in important government and administrative positions and for “intentionally” neglecting public education. The climax of his speech was, as expected, the Dinshaway incident, and, like all the other problems he described in Egypt, Kamil squarely placed the blame on the shoulders of the British proconsul: “Lord Cromer established this special tribunal in Dinshaway which has revolted everyone . . . a tribunal which follows no legal code and no laws. . . . It’s existence was an outrage against the humanity and civil rights of the Egyptian people and a blemish on the honor of British civilization.”81 In a letter he wrote on the night of the banquet, Kamil accurately appraised the political effects of the event: “The British press will cover the extraordinary political clamor that was created here . . . and that will only help our cause.”82 Indeed, partly because of the “political clamor,” which Kamil expertly stirred in London, Sir Campbell-Bannerman, the liberal British prime minister, met with Kamil and asked him to supply him with a list of capable Egyptians who could participate in an Egyptian ministry. Kamil gave Bannerman a list of thirty-two names including Sa‘d Zaghlul, Qasim Amin, Muhammad Farid, Adli Yakan, Ahmad Lutfi

76.  Le Figaro, 11 July 1906. Kamil’s Figaro article is printed in its entirety in Adam, L’Angleterre en Egypte, 152 – 54.

81.  The speech, titled “Programme et vues du Parti National Egyptien,” is printed in Adam, L’Angleterre en Egypte, 160 – 7 1.

77.  The Tribune even demanded that the Egyptians be given self-rule. See Tribune (London), 14 July 1906, quoted in Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 244.

82.  See Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 252 – 54.

78.  See Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 242 – 4 4. 79.  See ibid., 246. 80.  See ibid., 252 – 54.

The history of colonialism is often portrayed as a black-and-white encounter between colonizers and colonized. The careers of Kamil and Sannu‘, however, especially when highlighting their European activities, demonstrate the fallaciousness of this simplistic and dichotomous interpretation. In a very real sense Sannu‘ and Kamil do not fit in such a rigid colonizer versus colonized paradigm. Their education, cultural habits, and linguistic abilities endowed them with a chameleonlike quality to function equally well in either a European or an Egyptian environment. It was this cultural flexibility that facilitated their unprecedented access to European mass-media outlets and enabled them to communicate clearly and sympathetically to a European audience. Kamil’s and Sannu‘’s publicity campaigns, however, did not take place in a political vacuum. Anti-British sentiment and a growing consensus of the need for British withdrawal from Egypt were already taking root in France. By the mid-1880s the French public was inundated with mainstream French newspapers calling for British withdrawal from Egypt. Many of the articles discussed possible timeframes for the British evacuating Egypt and stressed the importance of such an evacuation for “engendering France’s ‘benevolent’ secularizing policies in the Orient.”84 What Sannu‘ and Kamil did was build on this momentum through filling the role of “native” spokespersons to the French media, while reassuring French intellectuals, and by extension the French public, of the “superiority” of French culture. 83.  Adam, L’Angleterre en Egypte, 172 – 74; Ibrahim Amin Ghali, L’Egypte nationaliste et liberale: De Moustapha Kamel à Saad Zagloul (1892 – 1927) (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1969), 58 – 63.

85.  Though Kamil’s and Sannu‘’s nationalistic discourse did reach thousands of European readers, it is difficult if not impossible to gauge, with any degree of accuracy, the general reception of their ideas.

84.  See Ella-Rachel Arié, “L’opinion publique en France et la question d’Égypte de 1885 à 1895,” Orient 27 (1963): 65 – 66. See also Le Figaro, 14 August 1887; and La République Française, 14 May 1886.

86.  Times (London), 14 January 1907. Kamil was frequently attacked by the London Times; see Times, 13 September 1906; 14 and 28 January 1907; 2, 23, and 27 March 1907; 8, 13, and 29 April 1907; and 15, 19, and 27 July 1907.

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The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘

Conclusion

Although Kamil’s and Sannu‘’s European public opinion campaigns did not achieve the ultimate goal of removing the British from Egypt, they succeeded in frustrating British colonial efforts.85 As can be seen in the following excerpt from the Times of London, even after the signing of the Entente Cordiale the British felt threatened by Kamil’s European campaign: “The Egyptian nationalists . . . seek through last night’s publication in the Temps to denounce England to France and to enlist French sympathy for their cause. If successful, they would kill two birds with one stone. They would further their own affairs as well as the policy of Germany so far as it is directed toward undermining the Anglo-French entente.”86 Aside from the nationalists’ harassment of Britain’s great power relations, Kamil’s publicity of the Dinshaway incident achieved a symbolic victory in forcing the resignation of Lord Cromer from his position as British proconsul in Egypt. Partly because of these events, Cromer detested Kamil and inexplicably left out any direct mention of him in both of his books on modern Egypt. When he did refer to him in one of his books, he never mentioned his name, calling him either the “foolish youth” or the “Gallicised Egyptian.”87 Unlike the voiceless colonized “Orientals” who were unable to resist the machinations of colonial authority, as unintentionally represented in Edward Said’s Orientalism and more recently in some postmodernist works, Kamil and Sannu‘ forcefully presented their case before Europe by skillfully exploiting existing great power rivalries. Both men were well versed in multiple European languages, and, more important, they knew how to actively manipulate and gain access to a host of European massmedia outlets. Sannu‘’s and Kamil’s vigilance against British colonial discourse, and their active campaign to respond to those attacks in a European context and on a European stage, is too significant to be overlooked.

Ziad Fahmy 

al-Sayid, ‘Aziz ‘Izat, and Husayn Rushdi. 83 The results of this meeting were almost immediate, and from Kamil’s list the British government assigned Zaghlul as minister of education, which would be the first step in the inclusion of more Egyptians into key government positions.

87.  Cromer, Abbas II, 34 – 35. “Every feather-headed young Egyptian who thought himself of equal if not of superior mental caliber to his British official superior, rallied around the foolish youth, who — probably without being fully aware of it — had raised the standard of revolt against Western civilization. The Gallicised Egyptian, who posed as a reformer, joined hands with the retrograde Pasha.”