THE REVOLUTIONS BEFORE THIS REVOLUTION

The revolution that began in Egypt in January 2011 was by no means the first liberal/nationalistic/pro-democracy movement to disrupt the status quo of the regime in power at the time. Egypt's history includes several political uprisings stemming from the people's demands for freedom and justice, even though these revolts were not connected by any ideology or political pursuit. No one has ever proven the theory of historical continuity in Egypt, but I see a link, no matter how intangible or scientifically difficult to establish. Mine may be a sentimental or romantic vision of Egypt's history. But anyone who shares the notion of Egyptianhood, al-muwatana al-Masriyya, which I discussed in the Introduction (with some poetic license), can identify a historic link that most Egyptians feel. The various revolts, upheavals, and revolutions from 1798 to 2011 are somehow connected, if only because each was an instance of Egyptians rebelling against injustice and for freedom. The 2011 Revolution is one link in that national chain.

In the 1800s, the Khedives who administered Egypt on behalf of the Turkish Ottoman Sultans were not only despotic but ruthless. They used Egyptian peasants, fallahīn, just as European feudal regimes in the Middle Ages exploited farmers as serfs. They excessively taxed the peasants and frequently used them as forced labor for their own projects. The khedives also used non-Egyptians – Turks, Circassians (mostly Sunni Muslim people of the northwest Caucasus), and others who had settled in the country – to exploit the indigenous population, mostly the peasants in what was a poor, agrarian society. This led to a number of popular uprisings: the first recorded one was in upper Egypt in 1822, then in the delta in 1844, and then throughout Egypt in 1863 and 1879. Egyptians also revolted against Napoleon in 1798 when French forces under his command occupied Egypt until 1801, when what remained of them were forced to leave.

In all these uprisings, peasants rebelled against the crushing economic burdens of their rulers’ injustices. But could a sense of nationalism have also motivated these peasants? The uprising of 1798, clearly was a rebellion against a foreign occupier, even if at the time the Egyptian Beys, who controlled the country, were the oppressive rulers.