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The Modern and the Traditional: The Case of Egypt
| Article
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20506 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1992 |
4,684 Words |
| Author
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Amira El Azhary-Sonbol
Amira El Azhary-Sonbol teaches at the American University in
Cairo. |
A walk down the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, or Port Said brings home the realization that the duality that had marked Egypt's society and was described in great detail by scholars of the fifties, sixties, and seventies is coming to an end. The history of modern Egypt has been studied from many angles, the most important being the subject of modernization: How far has Egypt been modernized? What are the sources and the personalities involved in this modernization? What of the resistance of Egyptian society to modernization? What more can or should be done?
Today such questioning will have to be redirected to take into account the cultural evolution of Egyptian society away from modernization. The duality that permeated society and was evident in the buildings and people--the clothes they wore, food they ate, colloquial language they spoke, theaters, movies, and TV programs they watched--is diminishing quite rapidly. Cultural homogenization was the phenomenon of the eighties and should continue into the nineties. This trend should not be seen as antimodernism, even though the religious revivalism the country is experiencing may give that indication. Rather it is a bridging of the chasm that has divided Egyptians into two cultural groups, each with its own political and economic base, one wielding power over the other.
Introducing Westernization
The story of modern Egypt could be said to have begun in the eighteenth century with the rise of an indigenous capitalist class and the efforts of the Mamluks to carve out a state from the territory of a weakened Ottoman Empire. The process was accelerated during the nineteenth century through rulers' deliberate endeavors to westernize the country. Beginning during the rule of Muhammad 'Ali Pasha (1805-1849), plans were laid to transform Egypt into an economic power that could withstand the encroachment of an aggressive Europe. Such plans included the centralization of the country and its administration by a growing bureaucracy; they also entailed the destruction of the Mamluk military and the building of an army trained and equipped according to the most modern techniques. The name given to the army, the nizam jadid, or New Order, defined the outlook toward these reforms: the belief that a new beginning was at hand.
Other reforms included the building of factories to produce goods that would substitute for imports, export items, and weaponry for the army. The mercantilist policies that followed necessitated that the state control agricultural output. This was achieved through
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