A Turk of the West: Sir Edgar Vincent's Career in Egypt and the Ottoman Empire

This article examines the concept of the ‘gentleman capitalist’, as embodied by the career of Sir Edgar Vincent (1857–1941), arguing that a career as a financier was not incompatible with the status of a gentleman in Victorian Britain. From the 1830s, both the City of London and the British government agreed on free trade as the bedrock of British commercial policy, and the use of financial power as a means of extending both formal and informal empire. The life of Sir Edgar Vincent is discussed in detail, particularly his period in Egypt as Financial Adviser to the Khedive and in Constantinople as Director-General of the Imperial Ottoman Bank. The article concludes that Sir Edgar believed absolutely in Britain's civilizing mission in the Middle East, promoting her interests whenever possible, but equally that he had no qualms about using his official position for financial gain.     

British Understandings of the Sanussiyya Sufi Order’s Jihad against Egypt, 1915–17

Abstract

This article considers the Sanussiyya Sufi order’s 1915–16 jihad on Egypt from a fresh perspective, analysing British understandings about the attack that soldiers and officials fashioned as the conflict progressed. By incorporating aspects of imperial and Islamic history and a focus on British perceptions, the article presents new directions in the study of the war in the Middle East that move beyond the concerns of older military histories. It analyses three key areas of British thinking in relation to this jihad. First, the belief that local fighters joined the campaign as a result of economic factors, chiefly the famine that swept the Western Desert from November 1915 as a result of an Anglo-Italian blockade, and that the order had little support from the local population owing to their policy of requisitioning goods. Second, the important set of perceptions that the Sanussiyya were pressured by the Ottomans to attack the British as part of their overall call for jihad against the Allied powers. Third, the divided nature of British views around the broader threat posed by the order to Egypt and the wider war effort. Finally, it examines the broader religious and ideological context of the Sanussiyya as an organised reformist Sufi order, engaged in a struggle for resistance to and survival against European imperialism—a struggle that collided with the changed strategic landscape of a region rent by conflict between the Ottoman and British empires from November 1914.     

The Impact of the Dardanelles Campaign on British Policy Towards the Arabs: How Gallipoli Shaped the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence

In 1915, Britain negotiated a deal to persuade the Arabs to join the Allies in the fight against the Ottomans. The Hussein-McMahon correspondence between the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Arthur Henry McMahon, and Sharif Hussein of Mecca was the vehicle for that negotiation. In exchange for opposing the Ottomans, Sharif Hussein demanded an Arab independent area that stretched from the Mediterranean to modern day Iraq and from the Indian Ocean to Syria. The British accepted. Elie Kedourie's argument that McMahon was influenced by the Ottoman army deserter, Muhammad al-Faruqi, has thus far provided historians with the primary detailed reasoning for the British acceptance of Hussein's demands. This article will suggest that insufficient emphasis has been given to the failure of the Allied campaign at Gallipoli, which was a significant reason behind the British desire to negotiate a deal with the Arabs.     

Egyptian secret societies, 1911

Abstract

The Sudanese factor was indeed a primary factor for the settlement of the Anglo-Egyptian dispute over the Sudan and the conclusion of the 12 February 1953 Agreement. Based on British primary sources as well as Egyptian and Sudanese literature, this article discusses the role of this factor, tracing its development and showing how the new military leaders in Egypt reckoned on it to support their stand during the negotiations held with the British Government between November 1952 and February 1953. The article analyses the political agreements signed between the Egyptian Government and the Sudanese political parties. It goes further to discuss the dominance of the Sudanese factor during the transitional period that preceded the declaration of independence on 1 January 1956.     

Neutralism Made Positive: Egyptian Anti-colonialism on the Road to Bandung

Many assessments of the trajectory of positive neutralism in Egypt have presented it as a foreign policy implemented in response to the Cold War context, and ineffective in the shadow of superpower rivalries. This contribution contends instead that positive neutralism developed out of the pursuit of a particular combination of foreign policy and nation building in Egypt, by elites whose political formation was dominated by an anti-colonial rather than Cold War consciousness. This is demonstrated through the analysis of three foreign policy episodes and parallel nation building programmes unfolding between 1952 and 1955. Together they illustrate the origins of positive neutralism in the positions taken by Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Free Officers on the British presence in Egypt, on regional alliances and the Baghdad Pact, and on development and pan-Arabism in nation building, all before Egypt's participation in the 1955 Bandung Conference after which the policy of positive neutralism was formally adopted. The use of Egyptian documents throughout foregrounds Egyptian agency and motivations in drawing up policy, and enables an evaluation of the contributions of positive neutralism identified in Egypt at the time.     

Enlightenment by Fiat: Secularization and Democracy in Turkey

This essay examines the relationship between Indian and Australasian soldiers and colonial Egyptians from 1914–19. Drawing upon memoirs, letters, and the work of Nagib Mahfuz, I argue that the First World War reaffirmed British military rule in Egypt and also posed a danger to it in the form of disorderly soldiers. Because British officials feared the unruly conduct of their troops they promoted manly ideals of self-control to facilitate their control over Egyptian society. Uncontrolled spectacles of wartime violence were therefore critical to the ways in which the British Army deployed masculine behaviour in the service of the colonial state.     

Hashish traffickers,hashish consumers,and colonial knowledge in Mandatory Palestine

I examine the extent to which the rise in the early 1900s of international efforts to stamp out or regulate the flow and (ab)use of hashish affected the (under)world of hashish traffickers and hashish consumers in Mandatory Palestine. A crucial phase in the global fight against cannabis, the Mandatory period serves as an excellent arena for exploring the local reverberations triggered by the reversal of the course of ‘the psychoactive revolution’, a revolution that has made drugs pervasive in human societies from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. I begin by examining how hashish traffickers responded to these new conditions of control and prohibition, showing that their persistence in maintaining the illicit trade presented the authorities with unforeseen challenges. I then provide a vista into Mandatory Palestine's consuming subjects and the kinds of colonial knowledge about cannabis which helped to raise critical, racial-cum-cultural, awareness of these people, as well as to deter Jews from consuming the forbidden substance. As opposed to other regions of the British Empire (most notably India and Egypt), the history of cannabis in Palestine has not been told before. By drawing on previously untapped archival, press and literary sources, this article seeks to rectify this lacuna.     

Pleading for a place in modern Egypt: negotiating poverty and patriarchy, 1908–1913

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the petitions of a poor woman, Jalila Sa?d, who sought educational opportunities and property from the Egyptian government between 1908 and 1913. Her interest in procuring a ‘place’ for her sons and her family in modernizing Egypt reflects the ways in which non-elites were able to participate in and move within the major physical and discursive public spaces of the era. This study argues that even those at the very edges of society were not categorically marginalized; rather, they were negotiating the dominant spatial hierarchies of their time in attempts to better their circumstances. This ability to navigate and participate in the prevailing discussions and institutions of the time demonstrates that even the most marginalized elements of Egyptian society were quite integrated into the project of ‘modern Egypt’, even if they did not always reap its benefits.     

Beyond borders: the Egyptian 1947 epidemic as a regional and international crisis

This article examines the post-Second World War regionalization and internationalization of public health by focusing on the 1947 cholera epidemic in Egypt. We argue, first, that for the Egyptian medical profession, the epidemic served as an opportunity for both anti-colonial critique and soul-searching and self-criticism: it attested to the poor medical condition of the Egyptian countryside and the work required to ameliorate it. Second, we place the Egyptian epidemic in its regional context. We show how travel restrictions affected the mobility of people and merchandise between Egypt and its neighbours, as newly formed borders were solidified, crossed or transgressed. At the same time, the epidemic served as an opportunity for Arab solidarity. Finally, the since epidemic erupted during the short term of the WHO’s Interim Commission, Egypt served as the WHO’s first testing ground, helping to prove its capability to mobilize medical assistance, disseminate medical alerts and negotiate the abolition of quarantine restrictions. The epidemic, moreover, erupted against the background of renegotiation of international sanitary conventions, which historically placed cholera and the Muslim pilgrimage to the Hejaz at their centre. The source of the epidemic in a British military base and Egypt’s ability to contain the epidemic resonated with on-going debates over international travel restriction, international health policies and local sovereignty. The 1947 cholera epidemic was thus, a defining moment in the emerging relationship between international organizations and the decolonizing world.     

Natural‐Born Subjects? Race and British Subjecthood in Australia

From the time of European settlement in Australia until 1948, British subjecthood was the preeminent Australian citizenship classification. "Australian citizenship" was only created as a legal category in 1948, and from then until 1984 British subjecthood continued to exist, alongside Australian citizenship, as a kind of parenthetical citizenship status. This article explores the meanings and significance of British subjecthood in Australia, and considers the reasons for its eventual demise. The article argues that the advent of formal (legal) racial equality in Australia for Indigenous people and for immigrant groups (which culminated in 1975 with the passage of the Racial Discrimination Act ), was one significant factor that helped to render obsolete the scenario whereby Australian citizens were deemed also to be British subjects.     

美国并吞菲律宾过程中在香港之部署——以美国领事活动为中心

香港沦为殖民地后,美国在港活动愈趋频繁。时至美西战争前夕,美国驻香港总领事的委任及其活动为美国军事行动提供了重要支援;在港英当局奥援下,美国方面对菲律宾香港委员会开展舆论、情报及司法等斗争,并思考战后如何利用华人开发菲岛;为策应香港部署,广州、上海、新加坡与马尼拉等地美国领事与香港展开合作,加速并吞菲律宾。上述行动构成美国在东南亚扩张的重要环节,香港成为美国在远东扩张之战略要点,是菲岛以外不见硝烟的"战场"。     

Cannabis Prohibition in Egypt, 1880–1939: From Local Ban to League of Nations Diplomacy

This article examines Egypt's stance on cannabis prohibition, from the 1870s ban on cultivation and consumption, to the role Egypt played in the international ban on traffic in cannabis, in the 1924–25 International Opium Conference. Relying on Egyptian polemic writing, British correspondences and League of Nations documentation, this article argues that elite concerns with national modernity, rather than merely British colonial interests, motivated Egyptian drug policy and diplomacy. This article further demonstrates the effects of the Egyptian ban on consumption, as well as on production – across and beyond national borders.     

Oil,War and European Initiatives for Peace in the Middle East 1973–74: British Attitude and Perspective

The Arab–Israeli wars since 1948 resulted in several peace treaties between Israel and its neighbours brokered by the US, the Soviet Union and European countries in an attempt to achieve a just and lasting peace settlement in the Middle East. All efforts however proved ultimately futile, with the resumption of war several years after each peace treaty had been signed. For example, after the Six Day War of 1967, all parties agreed to accept a peace treaty based upon United Nations Resolution 242. However, six years after the tabling of the resolution, war broke out again on October 1973. Another long process of peace settlement ensued which culminated in the Camp David Accords, brokered by President Jimmy Carter. These peace accords, signed between President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel on 17 September 1978, led directly to the Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979. Despite its success, the 1979 treaty yet again failed to achieve the just and lasting peace settlement that had been expected. In all these treaties, the core issues of the conflict, such as the Palestinian refugee problem and the status of East Jerusalem, failed to be resolved. This article examines the British attitude and perspective towards the peace settlement after the 1973 war, focussing on the proposal for an International Peace Guarantee and the initiative of the Euro-Arab Dialogue. Based upon declassified archival records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office available at the National Archives in England, it unveils the attitude of the British government towards the UN Resolutions as well as its collective initiatives with the European Community to establish a just and lasting peace settlement in the Middle East.     

Evolving structure of collective bargaining in Turkey (1990–2005)

ABSTRACT

Following the June 1967 Six-Day War, the Soviet Union and Britain invested significant efforts in rehabilitating their relations with the Arab countries, notably Egypt. While both supported the withdrawal of Israel from the Arab-occupied territories, the two countries differed over the nature of the settlement. Still, at the UN Security Council, the Soviet Union supported the British draft resolution for solving the Middle East conflict. Cold War interests and competition over influence in the Middle East, however, led the Soviets to launch a public campaign against British policy in the Middle East and prevented the two countries from joining efforts to bring about a breakthrough in the Arab–Israeli conflict.     

Turco-British relations,Cold War and reshaping the Middle East: Egypt,Greece and Cyprus (1954–1958)

This article tries to shed light on Turco-British relations in the early Cold War era. It focuses on the two states’ cooperation in Middle Eastern defence, as well as their interactions with Egypt and Greece. Immediately after the Second World War, the Soviet Union and communism were accepted as common threats directed against Turkey, Greece, Britain, the entire Western camp and a broad range of Middle Eastern countries. Washington and London were in search of alliances with regional actors; however, due to the anti-Western attitudes of Egypt in particular, and the anti-Israeli attitudes of the Arabic realm in general, the West was not satisfied with the defence system established in the region. In regard to the relations between the four abovementioned states, while Turkey and Britain joined forces against the Egyptian cause in the Suez issue and the Greek cause on the Cyprus issue, Greece and Egypt sided with each other against the British positions.     

Egyptian Intellectuals in the Shadow of British Occupation

The 1930s bore witness to a turning point in the work of several important Egyptian intellectuals who were recognized for their Western inclinations. In light of the British presence in Egypt—which was accompanied by internal problems such as the economic crisis and the abrogation of the constitution by Prime Minister Sidqi—these intellectuals turned to Islamic-oriented writings. Their work was characterized by an anti-Western tone, and the general underlying message was that Europe was attempting to oppress as well as ‘westernize’ Islamic heritage. A claim that was frequently voiced by intellectuals was that orientalism, under the façade of scientific research, was consciously being used as a tool for undermining Islam as part of the cultural war between the East and West. The present article surveys the statements that were articulated on this topic by several of the era's most prominent Egyptian thinkers.     

Nasser’s Educators and Agitators across al-Watan al-‘Arabi: Tracing the Foreign Policy Importance of Egyptian Regional Migration, 1952-1967

The Egyptian state’s policy of dispatching trained Egyptian professionals, primarily educational staff, across the Arab world rarely features in analyses of Egypt’s foreign policy under Gamal Abdel Nasser. This article relies primarily on newly declassified material from the British Foreign Office archives, unpublished reports from the Egyptian Ministry of Education, and an analysis of related articles in three main Egyptian newspapers (al-Ahram, al-Akhbar, al-Jumhuriya) in order to provide a detailed reconstruction of regional migration’s importance for Egyptian foreign policy. It debunks the conventional wisdom that Egyptian migration became a socio-political issue only in the post-1973 era, arguing that the Nasserite regime developed a governmental policy that allowed, and encouraged, Egyptians’ political activism in Libya, Syria, Yemen, and the Persian Gulf according to state foreign policy priorities in the 1952-1967 period. By presenting a cache of archival material in analytical and critical context, this article offers concrete evidence of how migration buttressed Egypt’s regional ambitions under Gamal Abdel Nasser.     

British Responses to Mahdist and Other Unrest in North and West Africa, 1919–1930*

Several aspects of the phenomenon of world unrest after the First World War have been scrutinized in recent years. However, little has been said of its North‐African dimension in the context of British imperial interests. Drawing upon a wide range of official and private archival material this article examines the origins and nature of British concerns about conspiracies connected with followers of the Mahdi in Northern Nigeria and the Sudan. It also considers the efforts made to investigate these conspiracies against the wider backdrop of nationalist unrest in Egypt and concerns about Bolshevik intrigues world‐wide. The official perception of these conspiracies as well as the various investigations into their source is also considered.     

European Integration and the End of an Imperial Consciousness in Britain

This article examines the impact of European integration between 1961 and 1975 on national and imperial consciousness in Britain. It suggests that the end of imperial sentiment that was brought about by greater involvement in Europe did not produce a strong or deep attachment to the idea of European integration. Arguments about the need for European integration to transcend war in Europe tended to reinforce a sense of Commonwealth commonality for the British rather than a sense of European commonality. Although the Empire and Commonwealth had become a mere source of nostalgia in British consciousness by 1975, the weak support for European integration continues to condition British attitudes to European integration to this day. Indeed, in the current Eurosceptic climate, the Dominions are making a return to British political consciousness.     

The limits of agency: Emily Hobhouse’s international activism and the politics of suffering

Abstract

This article pieces together the activism of the British welfare worker and feminist-pacifist Emily Hobhouse (1860–1926) during two largely unrecorded episodes of transnational activism: firstly, her ministry of Cornish miners in Virginia, Minnesota, in the United States; and secondly, her interventions during the period of reconstruction following the South African War (1899–1902). The article endeavors to contextualize Hobhouse’s activism and offer a broader understanding of the limitations and restraints on her actions. Ultimately, her activism required a platform that was in the gift of political actors and establishment figures, and dependent on fluctuations within specific political and bureaucratic situations. Based on close inspection of undocumented material in both South African and British archives, the article investigates Hobhouse’s repertoire of missionary and philanthropic roles within a wider context of humanitarian politics. It demonstrates how women’s activism and their behind-the-scenes politicking informed political decision-making in modern imperial and international affairs.