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The "magnificent" (Robert L. Tignor, Princeton University) story of the Greeks in Egypt from Muhammad Ali to Nasser
From the early nineteenth century through to the 1960s, the Greeks formed the largest, most economically powerful, and geographically and socially diverse of all European communities in Egypt. Although they benefited from the privileges extended to foreigners and the control exercised by Britain, they claimed nonetheless to enjoy a special relationship with Egypt and the Egyptians, and saw themselves as contributors to the country’s modernization.
The Greeks and the Making of Modern Egypt is the first account of the modern Greek presence in Egypt from its beginnings during the era of Muhammad Ali to its final days under Nasser. It casts a critical eye on the reality and myths surrounding the complex and ubiquitous Greek community in Egypt by examining the Greeks’ legal status, their relations with the country’s rulers, their interactions with both elite and ordinary Egyptians, their economic activities, their contacts with foreign communities, their ties to their Greek homeland, and their community life, which included a rich and celebrated literary culture.
Alexander Kitroeff suggests that although the Greeks’ self-image as contributors to Egypt’s development is exaggerated, there were ways in which they functioned as agents of modernity, albeit from a privileged and protected position. While they never gained the acceptance they sought, the Greeks developed an intense and nostalgic love affair with Egypt after their forced departure in the 1950s and 1960s and resettlement in Greece and farther afield.
This rich and engaging history of the Greeks in Egypt in the modern era will appeal to students, scholars, travelers, and general readers alike.
“Alexander Kitroeff’s magnificent book, The Greeks and the Making of Modern Egypt,is a work of great scholarly maturity and personal love. He offers a stimulating overview of modern Egypt’s most populous and influential foreign community, based on many years of research, a comprehensive reading of sources, and a personal and deep connection with Egypt dating back to the late nineteenth century, when his great-grandfather emigrated from the isle of Chios and settled in Alexandria.”—Robert L. Tignor, Princeton University
“This is the single best book on the role of the one-time flourishing Greek community in Egypt: richly sourced, wide-ranging, and subtle and complex in its judgments, by one of the world’s leading scholars of the modern Greek diaspora.”—Robert Vitalis, University of Pennsylvania
“A marvelously comprehensive historical study of one of modern Egypt’s most important foreign communities, as rich in detail as it is sensitive to the complex nature of the community’s internal structures, its adaptability in face of changing internal and external power relationships, and the nostalgia with which its surviving members now remember its sojourn in a wondrous land.”—Roger Owen, Harvard University
“This finely written book is a must-read for all those with an interest in the story of the Greeks in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Egypt and the complex and intricate relations that existed between Egyptian Greeks (Egyptiotis), the Greek Orthodox Church, and the homeland.”—Mohamed Awad
"[A]n important and welcome contribution to our understanding of the Greek presence in Egypt, both as a case study of Greek life beyond the limits of the Greek state and as an account of one of the notable resident communities, among which we might include Armenians, Italians, and Maltese, which made up the pluralist society that was modern Egypt."—International Journal of Middle East Studies
"The history of the Greeks of Egypt has not previously been recounted so thoroughly in English, and in such an accessible form. This book has filled a significant gap in the secondary literature on the subject of ethnic minorities in the modern Middle East and will remain an important resource for the foreseeable future."—Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
"Kitroeff’s well-researched and eloquently written book will be of interest to academics in many different disciplines addressing Greece, Egypt, diasporas, colonialism, and more." —Ilias Kouskouvelis, Middle East Quarterly
"Informative, well-researched" —Gretchen McCullough, Los Angeles Review of Books
List of Figures
Introduction
1. The Greeks in Nineteenth-century Egypt
2. Benefiting from British Control, 1882–1919
3. The Rise of Egyptian Nationalism
4. Debates about the Future of the Greeks in Egypt
5. The Second World War Years and the End of the Mixed Courts
6. The Greeks and the Nasser Era
7. The Greek Egyptian Diaspora: Memory and Nostalgia
Notes
Bibliography
Index