Michael Wood: The Use of the Pharaonic Past in Modern Egyptian Nationalism

The Use of the Pharaonic Past in Modern Egyptian Nationalism Author(s): Michael Wood Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 35 (1998), pp. 179-196 Published by: American Research Center in Egypt Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40000469 . Accessed: 07/06/2012 07:51 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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The Use of the Pharaonic Past in Modern Egyptian Nationalism* All Things Dread Time, but Time Dreads the Pyramids Arab Proverb1

Michael

Introduction Ancient history is often used by modern nations to inspire the processes of nation building. Events, monuments and artifacts of centuries past are often reflected in how a modern nation perceives itself and its future. It may be possible to see the present nation and its citizens as the current descendants, whether physicallyor merelyin spirit,of a once great civilizationof the past. Such an identification can take the form of an official ideology propagated to a nation's citizens in the school curriculum and the pronouncements of the government and political parties. In Turkey, for example, children are taught that modern Turksare the descendants of the ancient Hittites; the modern Greek nation, from the War of Independence on, has consciouslyidentified itself with the Greece of Pericles and the Parthenon.2Mongolian politicians, campaigning in recent elections, invoked the * This paper owes a great deal to discussionswith Elin Weinstein,who introduced me to the relevance of archaeological theory and to the advice of Bruce Trigger,Department of Anthropology,McGillUniversityand that of Uner Turgay,McGillInstituteof IslamicStudies. 1 Tom Melham, "Egypt'spyramids:Monuments of the Pharaohs,"in Mysteries of theAncientWorld(Washington,D.C.: National GeographicSociety,1979), 56. 1 For more information on Turkishuse of the past see TekinAlp, "TheRestorationof TurkishHistory,"in Nationalism in Asia and Africa,edited by Elie Kedourie (New York; The WorldPublishingCompany,1970), 207-24. For Greek use of the past see Kedourie's discussion,in the introduction to the samevolume, of the GreekhistorianPaparrhegopulos

Wood

memory of Genghis Khan.Flagsmaycontain ancient symbolsand resources maybe spent on the preservation,promotion and displayof the material remains of the past. Thus, the Mexican flag portraysa scene from an Aztec legend; the Mexican dictator Diaz, in an attempt to solidifyfeelings of Mexicannationhood, sponsoredextensive excavationsat the site of Teotihuacan.3Israeliarchaeologists have used the resultsof excavations at such sites as Masadato reconstruct a vision of an ancient Biblical past with which the citizens of the modern state of Israel could identify.4 It would be natural to suppose that ancient PharaonicEgypt,with its impressivemonuments and artifacts,its pyramids,its temples, its tombs, its hieroglyphsand its gold, might similarlyserve to inspire modern Egyptiansin the process of nation building. But this may not necessarilyhave been the case. It is perhaps possible that other ideas inspired Egyptiannationalistsof the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Islam and panArabism may have been more powerful forces in shaping modern Egyptianidentity.This paper will, in its first section, examine how the Pharaonic past manifested itself in the building of the 3 For Mexicanuse of the past see Donald Fowler,"Usesof the Past:Archaeologyin the Service of the State,"in American Antiquity52/2 (1987), 230-34 and B. Keen, TheAztec Imagein Western Thought(New Brunswick:RutgersUniversity Press,1971). The most complete discussion of the political dimensions of Israeliarchaeologycan be found in Neil Silberman's biographyof the Israeliarchaeologist,general and politician

and his five volume The History of the GreekNation published

Yigal Yadin, A Prophetfrom Amongst You: The Life of Yigael Yadin: Soldier, Scholar and Mythmakerof Modern Israel (New

between 1860 and 1877,47-48.

York:Addison-WesleyPublishingCompany,1993).

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modern Egyptiannation through literature, art, the educational system and political activities. This paper will argue that Pharaonicimageswere of only marginal importance to the nationalist project. The second section of this paper will try to ascertain why Pharaonic history and images failed to become a central part of modern Egyptian nationalist ideology. Egypt of the Pharaohs in Art and Literature There has always been a tendency in Egyptian literature to deal exclusivelywith Egyptian matters. Jack A. Crabbsattributesthis tendency to Egypt'sposition in the ancient and medieval Islamic worlds. For Syria and Iraq, the age of the Umayyadand cAbbasIdCaliphswas the most spectacularperiod these regions had known. For Egypt, on the other hand, the medieval period, during which it was more often than not a mere province, paled in comparison to the glories of the Hellenistic and Pharaonic past.5 An entire class of medieval writings,the faddDilMisr,extol the greatness of Egypt. Its land, its people and its past, including its Pharaonicpast, were glorified.6 However, modern historical writing only really began in the early nineteenth century. During this time period the ViceroyMuhammad cAli, through his modernizing efforts and his defiance of the Ottoman authorities, fostered a sense of distinctiveEgyptianidentity, even if it was not yet possible to speak of Egyptiannationalism. It was in such an atmosphere that the Egyptianhistorian,government official and educational reformer Rifacaal-Tahtawiproduced, in 1868, a notable work on ancient Egyptian history,which utilized a varietyof European,Arabic and even archaeological sources.7Jamal al-Din 5 Jack A. Crabbs, The Writingof Historyin Nineteenth(Detroit: CenturyEgypt:A Studyin National Transformation WayneStateUniversityPress,1984), 36. The Babylonianand Assyriancivilizationsof Mesopotamia,while frequentlymentioned in the HebrewBible and Classicalsources,werelargely forgottenin both Europeand the MiddleEastuntil the emergence of modern archaeologyin the nineteenth century. 6 Ulrich Haarmann, "Regional Sentiment in Medieval IslamicEgypt,"in Bulletinof theSchoolof Orientaland African Studies43, 1 (1980), 57-59. 7 Crabbs,The WritingofHistory,79; also Donald Reid, "Indigenous Egyptology:The Decolonizationof a Profession?," in Journalof theAmericanOrientalSociety105, (1985), 236.

al-Shayyaldescribesthis book as markinga turning point not only in the writing of Egyptianhistory but also in the development of Egyptian national awareness.8Besides writing his history of ancient Egypt, Tahtawi also protested Muhammad cAli's plans to export an obelisk to Europe. Instead he urged conservation on the Viceroywho eventuallyin 1836 agreed to forbid the exportation of antiquities, appoint antiquity inspectors and open a museum in Cairo; these plans, as will be noted below, took much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to become a reality.9 Historicalworkson the Pharaonicpast continued to be writtenby native Egyptiansthroughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A variety of Arabic works were produced, including books on hieroglyphics,histories, and guidebooks on ancient monuments. The guidebooks aimed to convince Egyptiansto familiarize themselves with their nation's heritage through visiting museumsand archaeological sites rather than leaving such activities to European tourists.10Scholarlyarticles from the pens of native Egyptians became particularlycommon in the wake of the 1922 discoveryof the tomb of King Tutankhamun;Ahmad Kamal, one of the first native Egyptologists,described the historyof the 18th dynasty,while his son Hasan wrote a series of articleson the tomb's discovery.11 Such an interest in the history of ancient Egypt was reflected in a trend of Egyptian nawhich tionalist thought known as "Pharaonism," 8 Jamal al-Din al-Shayyal,A HistoryofEgyptianHistoriographyin theNineteenthCentury(Alexandria:AlexandriaUniversityPress,1962), 23;cf. BernardLewis,History:Remembered, Invented(Princeton: Princeton University Press, Recovered, 1975), 34. 9 Crabbs, The Writingof History,70; Reid, "Indigenous Egyptology,"235. 10Ibid., 236-37. 11Reid, "IndigenousEgyptology,"239. The tomb of the Eighteenth DynastyPharaoh Tutankhamun(reigned 13521344 B.C.)wasdiscoveredby the EnglishmanHowardCarter in November of 1922 after manyyears of search. As it later turnedout, and as will be explained in more detail below,the tomb's discoverywas to have major political significance, John Wilson, Signs and Wondersupon Pharaoh:A Historyof AmericanEgyptology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964), 159-66; The EighteenthDynastyis generallyidentified as the time 1570 to 1303 B.C.,John Wilson, TheCultureofAncientEgypt(Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress,1951), 321.

THE PHARAONICPAST IN MODERNEGYPTIANNATIONALISM emerged in the early twentieth century and was particularlypopular in the 1920's.In brief, Pharaonism identified Egyptas a distinctiveterritorial entity with its own historyand characterseparate from that of the rest of the Arab and Islamic world. This separate identity drew on Egyptian symbols derived from the Pharaonic and Hellenistic pre-Islamicpast;an Islamicand Arabidentity was in contrastdownplayedor even rejected. Pharaonismtended to blend into the identification of Egypt as a Mediterranean nation with historiclinkswith Europe.UltimatelyEgyptcould be identified as a part of Europe, a western nation rather than an eastern Islamic nation.12Before WorldWarI the Egyptianpolitical thinkers MustafaKamaland Ahmad Lufti al-Sayyidboth introduced pharaonic elements into their political thought. Kamilspoke of Egypt as the world's first great civilized state, while Lufti expressed an interest in a "Pharaoniccore" of Egyptian society which had survived into modern times. Pharaonic themes appeared in many Egyptian novels, such as Tawfiqal-Hakim'snovel TheReturnof theSpirit.The Pharaohswere also evoked in the visual arts. The statues of the sculptor MahmudMukhtarcombined modern and pharaonic motifs. SacadZaghlul, the great Egyptian nationalist leader, was entombed in a neopharaonic mausoleum of Aswangranite.13

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ible impact. SalamaMusa,a Copt who went on to have a notable careeras a socialistwriter,wasembarrassedto showhis ignorance of the Pharaonic past while he was visiting Europe at the turn of the century. He had graduated from secondary school and felt that the Egyptianschool system, now thoroughly under British control, avoided the teaching of ancient Egyptianhistoryfor fear that such information would stimulate local national pride and a desire for independence.15 During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuriesnativeEgyptiansbegan to take an interest in ancient Egypt as Egyptologists.The Egyptian antiquitiesservice wasunder Frenchcontrol for almost one hundred years,from SacidPasha's appointment of Auguste Mariette as Conservator of EgyptianMonuments in 1858 to the overthrow of King Faruqin 1952. British,American, German,Austrian,and ItalianEgyptologistsalso played a prominent role in the uncovering of Egypt's past; indigenous participation in this enterprise was slow to manifest itself, although this was not for lack of interest. Egyptianswere systematicallyprevented, by Europeans, from studying their own ancient history. Local study, on Europeanlines, of the Egyptianpastcan probablybe held to have begun with the opening of a "School of the Ancient Egyptian Language"in 1869. This school was run by the Germanorientalist Karl Heinrich Brugsh. Students, selected for their abilities in French, and including AhThe Pharaonic past as part of the Egyptian mad Kamal,studied hieroglyphics.The progress education systemand the rise of of these students pleased both Brugsh and the indigenous Egyptology Viceroy, but Mariette felt that Egyptians who As the nineteenth century progressed, efforts knew hieroglyphicswere a threat to French conwere made to instill in Egyptianyouth a knowl- trol of the antiquities service and the school wasconsequentlyclosed. Kamal,however,strived edge and appreciation of their Pharaonic hericAli who was Minister of to continue to study Egyptology;his persistence Mubarak, tage. Egyptian Education after 1868, sponsored talks on Egyp- seems to demonstratethat it wasEuropeanintertology; and from at least 1874 Pharaonic Egypt ference more than Egyptian indifference which was part of the secondary school curriculum.14 slowedthe developmentof an indigenous branch But such efforts may not have made a discernof Egyptology. After Mariette's death in 1881 Kamalwasappointed to the museum in Cairo;he 12 Yaacov Shimoni, Political later became assistant curator and taught arDictionary of the Arab World York: Macmillan 406; (New chaeology and hieroglyphics.Kamal'sdifficulties Publishing Company, 1987), Israel Gershoni, "The Emergence of Pan-Nationalismin continued after Mariette's successorGastonMasEgypt,"in Asian and AfricanStudies16, 1 (1982), 89; L. B. pero returned to France in 1886. The archaeolNamier, "Nationalityand Liberty,"in VanishedSupremacies ogy and hieroglyphics class was disbanded and (London:H. Hamilton, 1985), 47. 13Reid, "IndigenousEgyptology,"239. 14

Crabbs, The Writingof History,94, 112.

15Reid, "IndigenousEgyptology,"237, 239.

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most Egyptians were dismissed from museum service. Kamal was able to regain his position after Maspero's1899 return to Egypt.He is listed as one of three museum conservators in 1908, the other two being Europeans.16 Ahmad Kamal remained very much alone throughout his career; few Egyptians were allowed and encouraged to studyPharaonicEgypt. To try to promote more local interest and participation in EgyptologyKamalorganized popular lectures. In 1908 he began to teach the history of ancient Egypt at the recently founded Egyptian University (later King Faud University and finally Cairo University). In 1910 Kamal was able to get an Egyptologyprogram set up at the Higher Teacher'sCollege, which he himself taught. The graduating class of 1912 had difficulty in finding jobs and the class was discontinued in 1913. Kamalretired in 1914; realizing that there were virtually no local Egyptologists to succeed him, he tried to persuade the Antiquities Service, and its French director Pierre Lacau, to begin training more Egyptian students.17 Lacau replied that few Egyptians, besides Kamal himself, took much interest in the Pharaonicpast. Kamalreplied: "AhM. Lacau, in the sixty-fiveyearsyou French have directed the service,what opportunities have you given us?"18 Kamal died soon after, in August 1923, on the very day on which the Egyptiangovernment decreed the creation of an Egyptologicalschool at the Higher Teacher's College with Kamal as its director. This event, which occurred in the wake of formal Egyptian independence and a variety of controversiesassociatedwith the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun,marked the turning point in the long struggle to create an indigenous group of Egyptologists.The teaching of subjects related to ancient Egypt increased dramaticallyat the EgyptianUniversity;the first class of Egyptologistsgraduatingin 1928.19 The staff at the Universitywas almost exclusively European; the most promising students were usually sent to Europe for advanced study. These students were soon directing their own 16Ibid., 236-37. 17Ibid., 237. 18 Wilson,

Signs and Wonders,192.

Reid, "IndigenousEgyptology,"241.

excavations and occupying important positions in the University, the Cairo Museum, and the Antiquities Service. The process of the "Egyptianization"of the studyof Pharaonichistorywas well under wayby 1939. In that year Sami Gabra, who had studied in Europe in the twenties, became the first Egyptiandirector of the Egyptian University'sInstitute of Archaeology.FuDadUniversitybegan to awardits own doctoratesin 1942. Additional Egyptian universities later provided training in Egyptology.20 The Politics of Pharaonism Pharaonism,as a trend in Egyptian nationalism, was not only reflected in art, literature and education, but was also, albeit on a modest scale, translatedinto political action. Pride in the Pharaonic past was notablyevident in the wake of the February 1922 declaration by Great Britain of Egypt's independence and the November 1922 discoveryof the tomb of Tutankhamun;to some the Egyptof the Pharaohsseemed the real antecedent of the new Egypt.The spirit of the newly independent state was to be pre-Islamic and pre-Christian;a fusion of both Islamicand Christian traditions but also independent of both.21 Whatwasto become of the tomb and its contents soon became a flashpoint of political conflict. Up to this time the convention of the Egyptian Antiquities Service was that artifactsdiscovered in intact tombs had to remain in Egypt, while those found in plundered tombs would be divided between the Egyptiangovernmentand foreign archaeologists.The Tutankhamuntomb had apparentlybeen broken into soon afterthe king's death and had been resealed by the mortuary priests; it had remained intact ever since. As its "plundering"had taken place in antiquity and was rather small scale (a few unguent bottles were smashed for their aromatic contents), it could be argued that the tomb was in fact intact. This was in fact the argument put forwardby the Egyptianauthorities.The issue was complicated by the strainedrelationshipbetween the govern20Reid,

"IndigenousEgyptology,"241.

1 P. Vatikiotis, The J. History of ModernEgyptfrom Muham-

madAli to Mubarak,4th Edition (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1991), 312.

THE PHARAONICPAST IN MODERNEGYPTIANNATIONALISM merit and the tomb's excavator,HowardCarter. Carter felt that the right to control access to the tomb properlybelonged to him and that the government was interfering with his work. Further, he felt that some of the tomb's treasures should go to the estate of the late Lord Carnarvon, who had invested a fortune and years of effort in the effort to find the tomb's location. Eventscame to a head in Februaryof 1924 when Carter and his European associates in effect "went on strike," sealing the tomb and stopping work to protest government interference. In retaliationthe Frenchdirectorof the Egyptian Antiquities Service had the tomb seized and declared that contraryto past practice all the contents of the tomb must remain in Egypt.22 Prime MinisterZaghluljustified the action on the grounds that: "it is the duty of the government to defend the rights and dignity of the nation. I do not consider that a constitutional government can disregard the opinion of the country."To celebrate the tomb's reopening a gala reception was planned for March 6. This turned into a massive rally in support of the WafdPartyand its leader, although Zaghlulhimself wasabsent.A special train carryingministers and members of parliament left the Cairo station amid the cheers of a large crowd of Wafd supporters; hundreds of thousands of others thronged the entire route to Luxor. In Luxor itself the train was greeted by the largest crowd the city had seen in modern times. The High Commissioner Lord Allenby, who had arrived separatelywith his wife, was met with cries for an immediate and total British withdrawal from Egypt. The opening itself was a dramatic event in which Tutankhamun'sgold coffin was illuminated with a speciallyrigged lighting system.The celebrations lasted well into the night and in the opinion of the Egyptianpress demonstrated the government's awarenessof the people's attachment to their Pharaonicheritage.23 Carterfelt that he had been wronged and the issue of who controlled the tomb eventually landed in court; an attempt at a compromise mediated by the American Egyptologist James 22 Wilson, Signs and Wonders,165-66. 23 Thomas Hoving, Tutankhamun: The Untold Story (New

York:Simon and Schuster,1978), 298-99.

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Henry Breasted came to nothing when Carter's lawyercompared the government to "bandits."24 The Egyptian press backed the government in opposing Howard Carter.25However, the assassination of Sir Lee Stack and the subsequent change of government allowed Carterto quietly resume working in the tomb in the fall of 1924. The new prime minister,Ahmad Ziwar,had little interest in the nationalistic implications of the Pharaonicpast,although he wasapparentlyaware of them. He supposedly remarked to Breasted: "Egypthas no civilization except what comes to us from Europe and America. We mustrely on foreign scientists- but I cannot say that in public! Therein lies our chief difficultyin carrying out your project."26 Ziwar'scomments were made in response to Breasted'srequest for permission to build a new museum in Cairo. This project, to be funded by John D. Rockefeller Jr., aroused nationalist passions similar to the controversies involving the Tutankhamundiscovery. The old museum, built by Mariette in the last century, and still in use today, was clearly in need of repair, but the proposal contained severalcontroversialelements. It threatened French control of the Egyptian Antiquities Service and the Britishwere not particularlyinterested in the proposal. The biggest objection to the museum, from an Egyptian nationalist point of view, was that it was to be controlled for thirty years by an international commission. Egyptians would eventually be trained to take over the museum themselves. Nationalistsfelt that the project was an infringement on the sovereigntyof Egypt. Some foreign scholars sympathetic to Egyptian political aspirations, such as the American George Reisner, agreed with them and the offer was eventually withdrawn.27 Pharaonism was also particularly evident in the ideology of the Misral-Fatah(YoungEgypt) 24Ibid., 301-6. 25Withthe sole exception of the LiberalConstitutionalist Party'sal-Siyasa(whichwas alwayshostile to Zaghlul). Reid, "IndigenousEgyptology,"239. ZbIbid., 238. 27Wilson, Signs and Wonders,183. Also, Jeffrey Abt, "Towarda Historian'sLaboratory:The Breasted-Rockefeller MuseumProjectsin Egypt,Palestine,and America," JARCE33 (1996), 173-94.

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movement. This movement, founded by Ahmad Hussain and other law students in 1933, stressed a revivalof Egypt'sglory through militant action on the part of the nation's youth. The movement had become a political party by 1938 with a platform combining extreme Egyptiannationalismwith religious fanaticismand general xenophobia; the movement possessed an impressive paramilitaryyouth wing. The party advocated the radical syndicalizationand militarizationof Egyptian politics and society.28Young Egypt's supportersconsisted mainly of urban secondary school students. The party published its own newspaper, Misral-Fatat,which in January 1939 carried the party's programme and fundamental principles. This programwas intended to appeal to the masses;youth were to be the military vanguard of Egypt's renewal. An Egyptian empire consisting of Egyptand the Sudan, allied to the Arab states, was to lead the Islamic world. The will of the people was equated with the will of God. The party called for an increase in agriculturalproduction; in industry it aimed to emulate the achievements of Muhammad Ali and the Pharaohs. Egypt was to lead the world in educational achievements; Egyptian scholars would spread an "Egyptianmentality"throughout the Arab world. Young Egypt placed great importance on religious belief and moralityattackingalcohol consumption,prostitution,and public corruption. The party felt that the creed of the new generation should involve faith, action, material sacrifice and possibly even death for the sake of a new Egyptianempire. The party clearly admired the methods, achievements and even the symbols of the German Nazis; they had connections with the Italian Fascists and even attended the mammoth Nuremburg rally of 1936.29 The movement's founder, Ahmad Hussain, had long been interested in Egypt's Pharaonic past and he touted it as an inspirationfor the renewal of the country'sgreatness. In his teens, in the early 1920's, he had been heavily involved in theater and had been influenced by Mahmud Murad who had composed plays, musicals and operettas on Pharaonic themes. These worksincluded The Gloryof Ramses.Hussain noted the 28 Vatikiotis, The History of Egypt,320.

29Ibid., 330-31.

effect this play had upon him and his contemporaries, it "resurrectedthe spirit and filled us with enthusiasm and power."Murad, who later joined YoungEgypt,also wrote a play about Tutankhamun, in which Hussain played the part of Ramses.30But Hussain's real recognition of the importance of the Pharaonicpast to Egypt's present came in a dramaticconversion while on a scouting trip to Upper Egypt in 1928. After seeing the monuments of the Valleyof the Kings, Karnakand Aswan,he argued that if Egypt had once been great it could be so again. He felt reborn and fell in love with Egypt calling for a life of dignity,patriotism,and self respect. Filled with such visions of power and greatnesshe went on to organize mass rallies involving flags, anthems glorifying the Pharaonic past and greenshirted paramilitaryfollowers. He stressed the need for a "leaderof action, who is not of Turkish or Circassian,but of Pharaonicblood."31 The Pharaonic past was most evident in the ideology of YoungEgyptin the 1930s;appeals to Egypt'sArab and Islamic character later gained in importance.Hussainhad begun his movement by emphasizingEgypt'sdistinctivenessfrom other Arab and Islamic nations, a pattern which he felt had a long history. Thus, Ahmad Hussain repeats the arguments of Taha Hussain, who assertsthat even under IslamEgypthad long displayed a particularist streak, leading a revolt against the third Caliph and soon becoming independent under Ibn Tulun in the ninth century.32Partyideologue, Dr. MuhammadGhallab, in a 1938 article in the partyjournal, while generallydismissingthe importanceof ancient Egyptian religion, notes two important connections between Pharaonic Egypt and the present day. The ancient Egyptianshad shown great respect towardstheir religion and their Pharaoh;present day Egyptianscould ensure that their nation remained a viable concern through a similar re30P. Vatikiotis,Nasserand his (London:Croon J. generation Helm, 1978), 70; Vatikiotisdrawshis information on Hussain's life from the latter'sautobiographyImani (My Faith) (Cairo,n.p., 1936). 61Vatikiotis,Nasser,68, 72. 32Dennis Walker, "The Contribution of Rising PanArabismto the Break-upof a Multi-SectarianEgyptianPolitical Communityin the 1930's:The Case of Misral-Fatat,"in Al-Mushir22(1980), 144.

THE PHARAONICPAST IN MODERNEGYPTIANNATIONALISM spect for religion (Islam) and the king (in this case Faruq).33 By 1939, however, Hussain was calling for Egyptian society to be purified on the basis of Islam.In 1940 the YoungEgyptPartychanged its name to the National IslamicParty.New emphasis was placed on renewing Islamic law,re-establishment of zakatand abolition of the charging of interest on loans. The movement claimed that it wasmoving "beyondthe narrowlimits of Egyptian nationalism"and was now also an Islamic movement battling imperialism in all Islamic countries. The partylater took on a more socialist air after the war, calling for a struggle against "feudalists and capitalists";Hussain called for the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a pan-Arabic "United Arab State." Little was left of the movement's old Pharaonic ideology.34 The Failureof Pharaonism Young Egypt was not alone in abandoning Pharaonismin the face of rising interest in panIslamic and pan-Arabistforces. In August 1930, the Egyptian Muslim activist Muhammad cAli cAllubacalledfor the abandonmentof "unhealthy provincialism"within the "narrowboundaries"of the Nile Valley and for Egypt to fulfill its destiny of promoting Arab unity through creating an all-encompassing economic, cultural, social and political frameworkfor the Arab world. He felt that "hewho wishes to deflect Egyptfrom accomplishing this greater (Arab)mission in order to persist in that (Pharaonic) heresy is dealing cAllubawasvirtuallyalone, Egypta heavyblow."35 the elite of the late 1920s and among literary in early 1930s, questioning EgyptianPharaonicbased territorialnationalism.An attitude which sawthe Pharaonicpast as a unique inspirationto the inhabitantsof the Nile Valleywas beginning to crystallize.But such attitudes clearlybegan to change; cAlluba'sstrident call for Egypt to see 33MuhammadGhallab,"Al-Dinwal-WalaD lil-cArshdaruriyyanilil-Hayatal-Salihahfi Misr,"(Religion and Loyaltyto the Throne: Two Necessities for a Viable Life in Egypt), in Misral-Fatat,24th February(1938) quoted in Walker,"The Contribution,"146. 34Ibid., 144. 35 Gershoni,"The 59-60. Emergenceof Pan-Nationalism,"

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itself as an Arab,rather than a Pharaonic,nation was echoed throughoutthe 1930s and 1940s.36 Similar attackson Pharaonism emerged from a pan-Islamic perspective. Hasan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, attacked the concept that Egypt was a distinctive territorial nation, with a proud pre-Islamic history. He saw such notions as being in "abysmally deep contradiction"with the concept of a universal Islamic umma. Pharaonism, noted alBanna, seemed to consider the pre-Islamicpast to be the exclusive model for modern Egypt's revival;the unity of Arab-Islamichistory is denied and the mistaken claim is made that the people of Egypt had a history separate from other Arabsand Muslims.37 In 1937, al-Banna describes Pharaonism as "the revival of pagan jahili customs which have been swept away, and the resurrection of extinct manners";the aim of this "resurrectionof the dead" was "to annihilate the characteristic traits of Islam and Arabism."Pharaonism arbitrarily placed the beginnings of the Egyptian nation, and its golden age, in the distant Pharaonic past;the "paganreactionary"Pharaohs,Tutankhamun,Ramsesand Akhenaton, are exalted in place of Muhammadand his companions.38 Al-Banna probably goes too far in his assaults; most Egyptian admirers of the Pharaonic past, such as Ahmad Hussain, were also devoted to the country's Islamic heritage. But what clearly emerged in the 1930s and 1940s was a feeling that whatever the pedigree of its past Egypt could not exist in isolation; it had to take part in, and possiblyeven lead, a widerworld,whether that world be pan-Arabor pan-Islamic. Since the 1940s then, artists and politicians, with a few exceptions, have shown little interest in the Pharaonicpast as a possible basisfor building the modern Egyptiannation. Before Nasser moved on to Arab nationalism in the 1950s he began to utilize Pharaonic symbols; Faruq's portrait on the piaster coin was replaced by the Sphinx and the huge statue of Ramses II from Memphis was raised in front of the Cairo railroad station.39In the wake of the Egyptian 36Ibid., 61. 37Ibid., 72, 74. 38Ibid., 74. 39Reid, "IndigenousEgyptology,"240.

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defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, an Egyptian writer, using the pen-name Bint al-ShatP (daughter of the Nile riverbank), described the Qur3an as being in error; the Pharaoh was a hero, while his Israelite opponents were villains.40Sadat, at least on an international scale, tried to promote the glories of the Pharaonic past; he insisted that the mummy of Ramses II, being flown to Paris for restoration work, be greeted at Charles de Gaulle Airport with a twenty-one-gun salute as befitted a visiting head of state.41To facilitate improved relations with the United States, he allowed selected items from the king Tutankhamuntomb to be sent to America in a travelingexhibit.42Sadatalso emulated Nasser in giving gifts of artifacts to foreign dignitaries. Nasser, according to Egyptian archaeologist Ibrahim al-Nawawi, sent important worksof art to the Soviet Union, Japan and the Vatican,while Sadat sentjewelry, statues and other artifacts to the heads of state of France, the United States, the Philippines and Iran.43 Domestically,however, Sadat toned down appeals to the Pharaonicpast and had the mummy room of the Cairo Museum closed so as to avoid offending religious sensibilities.44It is possible, however, that such an action was in fact an act of reverence towards Egypt's past (and pagan) rulers; Sadat supposedly remarked at the time that, "Egyptiankings are not to be made a spectacle of" (the mummy room was eventually reopened in 1994).45 Despite such attempts by Sadat to distance himself from the Pharaonic past, his assassinswere still able to identify him as a non-Islamic tyrant, crying out at their trial: "Wehave killed Pharaoh!".Since Sadat's death the political discourse has remained largelyhostile to a glorification of the Pharaonic past.46 In many ways the Pharaonic past has been reduced to an economic entity, a source of tourist 40 Lewis, 35. History Remembered, 41 Neil Asher Silberman, BetweenPast and Present:Archaeology, Ideologyand Nationalism in the Modern Middle East (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1987), 160. 42 Hoving, Tutankhamun,12. 43 Dina Ezzat, "Egypt's Stolen Past,"in TheMiddleEast, 240 (1995), 37. 44 Silberman, BetweenPast and Present,160. 45 Helen Miles, "Mummies at Rest,"in TheMiddleEast, 235 (1994), 40. 46 Reid, "Indigenous Egyptology," 246.

revenue to be deliberately targeted by Islamist militants, a group of Egyptianswho apparently have no interestin the country'spre-Islamicpast. Militants,for example, in 1993 planted a series of bombs in the vicinityof the EgyptianMuseum in Cairo.47Other identifications, whether they be with other Arabsor with other Muslims,seem to have a greater hold over Egyptianstoday than does a feeling of kinship with the Egypt of the Pharaohs.The various attempts, whether in art, literature or politics, discussed above, to foster such a bond between ancient past and present can be seen as largelya failure. Reasons behind the failure of Pharaonism A reverence for Egypt's Pharaonic past thus failed to become a major component in the art, literature or politics of Egyptian nationalism; pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism, proved more powerful forces in mobilizing Egyptiansfor the purposes of nation building. This paper identifies three reasons for Pharaonism's failure to make more of a lasting impact. Firstof all, Islam had a long history of hostility towardsthe Pharaonic past. Second, the West in general, and WesternEgyptologistsin particular,have systematically expropriated Egypt's past and thwarted efforts by native Egyptiansto studyand interpret their own history. Last of all, certain marked features of Egyptof the Pharaohs,made it problematic; the Pharaonic past, for the Egyptian nationalist, was simply the "wrong past". This section of the paper will explore these three themes starting with Islam's alleged hostility towardsthe Pharaohs. Islam and the Pharaohs The QurDanrefers to the Pharaoh in almost entirely negative terms. He is noted as an unbeliever and the oppressor of Moses, Aaron and the Israelites.Pharaohforced his people to worship him as god and to build a tower which would enable him to reach heaven.48Pharaoh 47 Scott Mattoon, "Egypt: Terror makes its mark," in The MiddleEast, 224 (June 1993), 9-10. 48 A. Wensinck and G. in Encyclopedia J. Vadja, "FirDawn," Islam: SecondEdition, Volume II (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1965), of 917.

THE PHARAONICPAST IN MODERNEGYPTIANNATIONALISM eventually accepted God at the moment of his drowning in the Red Sea, but God decreed that Pharaoh's body be left in Egypt as a warning to future sinners. Later traditions amplified the details of Pharaoh's sinfulness. Egypt's kings, before and after Moses, were archetypal tyrants, who ruled with an iron fist during the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. A verb eventually emerged in Arabic, derived from Fircawn(Pharaoh), tafarcana,meaning "to act arrogantlyor tyranically".49 Hostility towards the Pharaonic past sometimes took the form of attackson ancient monuments during the medieval period. Such attacks did not alwaysmeet with widespread approval, and it seems clear that many Egyptians took a more ambivalent attitude towards their distant past. The UmayyadCaliph YazidII gave orders for the destruction of the remnants of paganism in Egypt, both al-Macmunand Saladin tried to break into the great pyramid of Giza; such attacks seemed to have been less evident during the reigns of the Tulunidsand the Fatimids, both more locally based dynasties. The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were peak periods for the defacement and destruction of Pharaonicartifacts;this wave of iconoclasm may have been connected to a feeling of unease caused by famines, floods, plagues and foreign invasion. In 1260 a local Sufi struck the sphinx with his shoes expressing his contempt for popular veneration of the statue. In 1311 the statue of Isis in Fustatwas destroyed and a temple was destroyed in Memphis in 1350, its stones were then used to build a Sufi convent in Cairo, an indication both of the triumph of Islam over paganism and of the continued power, in some minds, of the remains of the Pharaohs.The destroyersof the Memphis temple expressed relief that they were not punished by the building's "evileye,"which had obviouslylost its power.The sphinx was damaged in 1378 by a Sufi. His actions supposedly caused sands to blanket the lands around Giza. Later traditions clearly condemned the act of vandalism;a report from the seventeenth century claimed that the Sufi was killed by a mob and buried near the sphinx.50 49 Silberman, BetweenPast and Present,159.

Haarmann,"RegionalSentiment,"63-64.

187

The actual deliberate, religiously motivated destruction of the physical legacy of the Pharaohs remained relatively rare (the dismantling of temples for building supplieswasa more common phenomenon). Throughout the medieval and modern periods there was always at least some degree of popular veneration for the country'sancient monuments; there was even an attempt to "Islamicize"both these monuments and ancient history in general. The forementioned thirteenth century Sufi, who attackedthe sphinx with his shoes, did so in response to certain rites which were performed at the monument in the spring;incense was burned and certain formulaewere repeated sixty-threetimes, in response the sphinx was supposed to answerhuman requests.51Near the pyramidsof Egypt is an important Fourth Dynastytomb of the noble Debehni (the Fourth Dynasty is usually dated between ca. 2650 and 2500 B.C.);this tomb was later identified with the local Muslim saint Sidi Hamad Samcan, and up to recent times pious women and children have come to the site for its religious benefits.52At the turn of the century many Egyptian women apparently visited the CairoMuseumfor the same reason, although many middle class Egyptian families were beginning to see an excursion to the museum as merely a pleasant diversion.53 During the medieval period, Egypt's monuments were celebrated as wonders worthy of respect. The cajdDibof the country, such as the pyramids, were seen as symbols of Egypt endowed with magical and even religious power; Jamal al-Din al-Idrisi,writing in the thirteenth century, states that it is a sign of humility and intelligence to be impressed by such wonders. He admonishes a Maghrabi pilgrim for failing to visit the pyramidswhile en route to Mecca; a talabal-cajaDib (a seeker or student of wonders) 51Ibid., 62. 52 Wilson,

Signs and Wonders,8.

53Annie A.

in Egypt(London: n.p., Quibell, A Wayfarer 1925), 45-46, cited by Reid, "IndigenousEgyptology,"240; Reid notes, however, that such superstitionsare hardly restricted to Egyptians,it was the Westernpress, after all, who invented "KingTut'sCurse".Neither Reid nor Quibell seem to consider the possibility that such acts of veneration might involvegenuine religious sentiment ratherthan mere superstition.

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is equated with a talabal-cilm(a seeker of religious knowledge). Idrisi attempts to "Islamize" the country's Pharaonic ruins, particularlythe pyramids.He feels that they were not mentioned in the QurDanonly because they were of no direct relevance to the Arabs, to whom Muhammad'smessagewasinitiallyaddressed.These monuments later acquired holiness through the Companions of the Prophet who did not object to living and even being buried near pagan monuments;one of them even left a Kuficinscription on one of the pyramids.The presence of these blessed individualsbestowed barakaon the land of Egypt; sinners were driven mad when they visited Giza. Idrisi argued that if the Companions of the Prophet had allowed the relics of paganism to remain unmolested then so should his contemporaries;the pyramidshad been left standing as a warningfor future generations.54 Idrisi also assigns magical powers to the monuments, stating,on the basisof a book on charms and magic, KitabMasisunal-Rahib,that dust from Giza, from Ansina (the legendary Egyptian city of sorcerers) and any third Egyptianlocale can produce a talisman of wisdom. Tracing the intelligence of the people of Egypt to the pyramids seemed a fairlycommon belief in medieval Egypt;Hermes, the Idris of the Arabs,was often associatedwith the ancient Egyptiangod of sages, Thoth, who had supposedly built the pyramids, and with Mercurythe planet of wisdom.55The pyramidswere also often mentioned in an eschatological context. Idrisi felt that the destruction of the pyramids and temples of Egypt would resultin carnageof such a scale that horseswould be submerged to their knees in blood.56 This effort at integrating the temples, pyramids and tombs of ancient Egyptinto an Islamic frameworkextended to Pharaonic history as a whole. "Righteous"ancient Egyptianswerefound, who had not spitefully rejected the message of God and his Prophets. The QurDanicstory of Pharaoh'smagicians;who convertto Moses'message and are severely punished by their master is extended, in various traditions, to include other Egyptianswho have shown exemplary be54 Haarmann, "RegionalSentiment,"59-61. 55Ibid., 61. 56Ibid., 60.

havior;these include Pharaoh'sson. Indications that even a nation of tyrants was not wholly irredeemablewere important to medieval Egyptians, it prefigured a hoped for conversion of the persistently stubborn Coptic minority. The Pharaoh who ruled while Joseph was sojourning in Egypt and the first few rulers after Noah were all supposedly monotheists. It was even alleged, in an attempt to salvage Egypt's preIslamicreputation,that the firstPharaohwasnot a real Egyptian and was in fact an unemployed druggistfrom the bazaarof Isfahan.57 If Islam was not alwayshostile to the ancient Egyptianpast it alwaysposed problems for those who saw a Pharaonic identity as a model for Egypt's present and future development. Islam and the Egypt of the Pharaohs could be reconciled only with great difficulty;in the end they could not but compete with each other. Islam, to this day, cannot be excluded from any statebuilding ideology, its hold over most Egyptians is too great. In this sense a rediscovery of the ancient past was much more problematic to Egyptians than it was to other peoples emerging from colonialism. A Mexican could freely use pre-Colombianicons as part of the nationalist enterprise, as the period of Spanish colonial rule could be safely dismissed as a foreign intrusion on an indigenous pattern of development.58 In contrast, an Egyptian could not use Pharaonic symbols without being left open to the charge that such symbolswere un-Islamicor even anti-Islamic.Islam had planted deep roots in the Egyptian population over the course of the last fourteen hundred years. Popularbelief in certain remnants of the preIslamic past could be attacked and discredited as part of the legitimate nation building process on severallevels. First,any form of popular belief, even popular forms of Islam, including some forms of Sufismand the local veneration of saints,could be attackedas an un-Islamicinnovation. Second, the roots of such Pharaonicobservanceswere often to be found among the peasant classes and were thus far removed from the educated elites who developed and promoted a modern Egyptianidentity.Attemptsto "Islamize" 57Ibid., 56-57. 58 Lewis,

58. HistoryRemembered,

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Pharaonic monuments by such learned authorities as Idrisi were usually negative in approach; the monuments, which represented the preIslamic past, were acceptable only because of their associations with revered and pious Muslims who had toleratedtheir continued existence. The monumentsshould remainstanding,to warn future generations and because they maypossess a degree of magicalpower, but they were not inspiring in themselves. The Pharaonic past did not offer a positivemodel for medieval (and later modern) EgyptianMuslims.Last of all, popular utilization of the Pharaonic past, by Muslims, was suspect because of its inaccuratenature. The Pharaonic past which some Egyptians tried to combine with their Islamic world view, was very distorted in nature, drawn as it was mostly from hostile sources such as the QurDanand folk traditions which had undergone major modifications over the centuries.Neil Asher Silberman, who has written extensively on the nationalist use of archaeology, notes that traditional folk descriptions of a nation's history are currently considered suspect. Archaeologists all over the world, whether they be Israeli, Syrian, Greek or Turkish,are trained in broadly similar methods (or at least similarin comparisonto non-archaeological methods of observing the past). A new nation, if its claims are to be taken seriouslyby the world community,must constructa "modern history"using the common methods of modern scientific archaeology.59 Egyptian nationalists who wished to look to their ancient history for inspiration would have to startfrom scratch and would have to distance themselves from an Islamic identity with which the Pharaonic past could not really coexist. In doing so, however, they could cut themselvesoff from one of the strongest and most important elements of the Egyptiannational psyche. They would also have to deal with foreign competition, for as will be explained below, Europeans were alreadybusy monopolizing the reconstruction of the Egyptof the Pharaohs.

In 1798 Napoleon invadedEgyptaccompanied by a large number of scientific experts. Some of these experts included students of ancient history and of eastern languages and cultures. An attemptwas made to examine and record Pharaonic monuments; this process culminated in the publication of the twenty-fourvolume Description de I'Egypte between 1809 and 1824. This work ina spired European revival of Pharaonic art and architecture.The discoveryof the RosettaStone, in 1799, led to the eventual decipherment of the ancient Egyptian language. Napoleon's expedition and its scholarly component marked the beginning of a new epoch in how Europeans viewed Egypt and its past. Edward Said describes the invasion as "thevery model of a truly scientific appropriation of one culture by another, apparently stronger one."60Since Napoleon's time Europeans (and Americans) have systematicallyexpropriated the Egyptian past, not only on a concrete level but on an ideological level. On a concrete level, as noted above, Europeans made it difficult for Egyptiansto study and recovertheir own country'spast.Also, the French controlled the EgyptianAntiquitiesService;other Europeans,including HowardCarter,held lesser positions in the service. Vast amounts of antiquities were exported to Europe and America. MohammadAli, who apparentlyonly sawEgypt's antiquities as gifts with which to manipulate potentially powerful foreign visitors, allowed merchants, diplomats and even casual tourists to enter tombs and temples and to take souvenirs home with them.61Earlynineteenth century adventurers, like the Italian ex-circus performer GiovanniBattistaBelzoni, armedwith explosives, sledgehammers and muscle, looted tombs for variousclients in the European diplomatic community. A diplomatic post in Cairo, at the time, was widely seen as an opportunity for increasing one's wealth through the theft and export

59Neil Asher Silberman, "Promisedlands and chosen peoples: the politicsand poetics of archaeologicalnarrative,"

60 EdwardSaid, Orientalism (New York:Pantheon, 1978), 42.

in Nationalism, politics, and thepracticeof archaeology,edited by

Philip L. Kohl and Clare Fawcett (Cambridge:Cambridge UniversityPress,1995), 257.

European Expropriationof the EgyptianPast

61 Brian

Fagan, The Rape of the Nile: TombRobbers,Tourists

and Archaeologists in Egypt (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975), 85.

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of antiquities.62Later European visitors to the Nile were not as brazen as Belzoni and later Egyptian officialswere not as accommodatingas MuhammadAli, but the plundering of Egypt's heritage has continued to the present day.A concern for science, for the archaeologicallyproper study of Egypt's material culture has modified the way in which artifactsare removed from the ground. But it is significant that up until 1922, and the controversies swirling around the disposal of the treasures of Tutankhamun,it was considered quite normal for Europeans,excavating in Egypt, to demand and usually receive up to one half of a tomb's precious contents. These artifactswere needed, so argued many Europeans, to attract public interest and private funds with which to finance archaeological research.63 When such a generous division of finds was withdrawn,archaeological excavations in Egypt by Europeansbegan to taper off; foreign archaeologists only began to return to Egyptin the late 1950'sas part of the UNESCOproject to save the monuments of Nubia from the rising floodwaters of the Nile caused by the construction of the AswanHigh Dam.64It seems difficultto attribute such actions to purelyscientific motives;Europeans, even "Egyptologists,"must still have been moved by a desire to possess "treasure,"if only for the prestige its ownershipwould entail. Europeans have certainly never been in the mood to return antiquities to Egypt. The Rossetta Stone was taken from the French General Menon by his British counterpart General Hutchinson in 1799; it was housed in the British Museum and it was only in 1973 that it was loaned to the Louvre for exhibition. As Brian Fagan, the author of a popular account on the history of Egyptology has remarked: "no one has ever thought of exhibiting it in Egypt."65In 62Ibid., 97, passim. 63 65; Lacau,the AntiquitiesDirecHoving, Tutankhamun, tor at the time of the Tutankhamundiscovery, disagreed vehementlywith his predecessorMaspero;Lacaufelt that archaeologists had "no rights"and should be permitted only those finds that the AntiquitiesServicewerenot interestedin. 64Wilson, Signs and Wonders,194; for a more complete discussionof the effortsto savesuch monumentsas the Temple of Ramsesat Abu Simbel from submersionsee F. Gladstone Bratton, A History of Egyptian Archaeology(London:

RobertHale, 1967), 257-80. 65

Fagan, Rape of the Nile, 81.

the early 1980'sEgyptianofficialssent out letters to thirty foreign museums requesting the return of artifacts. Of the thirty museums contacted, only two replied, apologizing for being unable to complywith the request.66 This cavalierattitude towardsthe physical recovery of Egypt'spast, that Europeans have the right to excavate, study and export Pharaonic remains however they see fit is rooted in an attitude that feels that, in the end, Egypt's past does not reallybelong to its present day inhabitants. Europeans have not just taken over the control of the recovery and reconstruction of the Pharaonic past on a physical level but have also done so on an ideological level. The anthropologist and archaeological theorist Bruce Trigger has identified three main traditions in interpretingthe materialremainsof the past:nationalist archaeology,colonial archaeology, and imperialistarchaeology.Nationalist archaeology glorifies the past accomplishments of a particular group, nation, or people. Many of the archaeological traditions alluded to earlier in this paper, Israeli, Mexican, and indigenous Egyptian, fall within this pattern of studying and explaining the past. Colonial archaeology was carried out in countries where the native population was either totally overwhelmed by Europeans (large parts of the Western Hemisphere) or where the native population was subject to a long period of European domination. The dominant European class, who practiced archaeology in an exclusivemanner, would have no clear historicalties to the past they were studying.The European power would be motivated to glorify their own past, while simultaneously belittling the historyof their colonial subjects.Modern indigenous people were compared to an earlier primitivelevel of development in the European past and were seen as incapable of achieving material advancement. Imperialist archaeology has been practiced by a small number of modern states, who through the military, economic and political resources at their disposal, have been able to exercise a degree of hegemony over large areas of the globe. Such an archaeological tradition portraysan imperial state, such as Britain, the Soviet Union, or the United States, 66Ezzat, "Egypt'sStolen Past,"35-37.

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as the logical culmination of world-wideevolutionary trends in human development.67 Westernexamination of the Egyptianpast fell into the latter two categories. Foreign archaeologists were not interested in the Pharaonic past as a component of the Egyptianpast and systematically attempted to sever any connections which could be made between the present Egyptian past and their ancestors. The term "Egyptology" itself, applied exclusively to the study of Pharaonic and Hellenistic Egyptian history, implied the separation of the ancient Egyptian past from subsequent Coptic and Islamic developments.68Western civilization was shown as the conclusion of trendswhich had begun in the ancient Near East; Europeans were either the actual or spiritual descendants of the world's first civilization.69On its crudest level, the identification of Westernerswith ancient Egyptians was argued on racial grounds; Europeans and Egyptians were thought to belong to a common "Hamitic"or "Mediterranean"race. Members of this race were thought to be identifiable by certain physical and cultural traits; cultural traits included a predisposition towardscentralized, efficient autocratic rule. Europeans were thought to have the innate right to rule lesser genetic stock. These racist theories thus not only allowed the West to bask in ancient Egyptian glory but also justified the whole imperialist project. In a further refinement, as rulership traitswere considered intrinsicallyEuropeanany archaeological evidence of a strong bureaucratized state, by itself, could be interpreted as evidence of a Caucasianpresence.70Alternately, Westernarchaeology of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century reconstructed a Near Easternpast which consisted of an endless series of ethnic invasions. The Victorian Egyptologist WilliamFlindersPetrie, father of modern scientific Near Easternarchaeology,and an advocate of eugenics, assigned the distinct archaeological cultures he found in Egypt to successive conquests by homogeneous and genetically superior

groups coming from abroad. Such groups would invigorate a culture in the short term, before succumbing to the cycle of degeneracy which made the invasion possible in the first place. Parallelswith the European imperialist project, and "desolate"Eastwas whereby the "backward" rescued by a forwardlooking West seemed obvious to Petrie's contemporaries.71 Racial reconstructions of the Egyptian past, have of course, fallen out of fashion. Modern scholars recognize that ancient peoples were complex entities made up of a diverse set of linguistic, cultural and physical characteristics, which often do not appear in the archaeological record.72The Western claim on the "trueheritage"of ancient Egypthas been forced, over the course of the century,to base itself on more subtle justifications. Ancient Egyptians, along with ancient Mesopotamians, were given the status of "honouraryWesterners"and their achievements were taught as part of Western civilization and world history courses.73The process of diffusion, whereby cultural innovations such as writing, originating in the Near East spread to a still backwardbut highly creative Stone Age Europe, was used, as a less obviouslyracist version of Petrie's eugenic visions, to justify the imperialist project and explain why the country which had been ruled by the Pharaohs could so easily be dominated and conquered by Westernpower. Cultural advancements originated in an area of high culture (such as ancient Egyptvia Mycenean Greece) and spread to backwardareas (like Britain); in such an area, exposed to successive waves of more technologically advanced invaders, such cultural advancements would reach their highest level of development. The apogee of culture (Britain)could, during the imperialist age of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, "return"its technological and cultural advantages to their source, the now backward East.74

67Bruce Trigger,"Alternative Archaeologies:Nationalist, in Man 19 (1984), 355-70. Colonialist,Imperialist," 68Reid, "IndigenousEgyptology,"234. 9 Trigger,"Alternative Archaeologies,"365. W.MacGaffey,"Conceptsof Racein the Historiography of NortheastAfrica,"inJournalofAfricanHistory7 (1966), 1-8.

ogy," in BiblicalArchaeologistMl 2 (1991), 80-81.

71Neil Asher Silberman, "Desolation and Restoration: The Impactof a BiblicalConcept on Near EasternArchaeol11

MacGaffey,"Conceptsof Race,"14. Reid, "IndigenousEgyptology,"234. Christopher Chippindale, personal communication quoted in Donald Fowler,"Usesof the Past:Archaeologyin the Serviceof the State,"in American Antiquity52 (1987), 237.

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An alleged Western "guardianship"of the Egyptianpast was also evoked asjustification for wresting control of Pharaonic monuments and Pharaonic history from Egypt'sindigenous population. European "knowledge"of the Egyptian past was seen as just cause for their present subjugation and for a European monopoly on the studyand creation of Egyptianhistory.Thus, ArthurJames Balfour,in a 1910 reply to the British Member of ParliamentJ. M. Robertson,who had asked what right Britain had to rule (and assume an aura of superiority) over Egyptians, replied: "Weknow the civilizationof Egyptbetter than we know the civilizationof any other country. We know it further back; we know it more intimately;we know more about it."75The statement recalls the earlier quoted remark that Lacaumade to Ahmad Kamal;Egypt'signorance of its own past allowed or forced the West to expropriate it as its own. Left to their own devices, Egyptians would neglect or even destroy the material remains of the Pharaonic past. Pharaonic monuments would have to be protected as part of the "world'scultural heritage" despite Egyptian ignorance and indifference. Mention has already been made of the Rockefeller museum project and frequent criticism is leveled against Egyptian officials for the present condition of the museum in Cairo. It is seldom explained whyWesterncontrol of Egyptian antiquities would produce better results than Westernfinancial aid to Egyptiancontrolled institutions; regional museums in Egypt, such as that at Luxor, have shown few of the problems of overcrowdingand faulty conservation associated with the venerable Cairoinstitution.76 It has often been said that the West would have to excavate the archaeological remains of Egypt (and other developing countries) in order to protect them from tomb robbers.77It is true that a virtual industry of tomb robbing, dominated by certain families of professional thieves, existed in the villagesnear the Valleyof the Kings 75 Said, Orientalism,32.

76Reid,

"IndigenousEgyptology,"246. Jane Hubert, "Aproperplace for the dead:a criticalreview of the 'reburial'issue,"in Conflictin theArchaeology of edited by Robert Layton (London: Unwin Living Traditions, Hyman,1989), 137.

during the nineteenth century.78But such looting began well before the arrivalof concerned European scientists or even before the disappearance of the Pharaohs. Egyptologist John Wilson describes how during the Twentieth Dynasty (1200-1090 B.C.)teams of organized tomb robbers, with bribed temple priests and court officialson their "payroll",found nothing wrong with looting the tombs of Pharaohs,whom Egyptian religion still regarded as gods.79 Much of what passed for "archaeology"in the nineteenth century was probably almost as destructive to long undisturbed artifacts as profit-motivated looting.80 It is recognized by archaeologists today that current "cuttingedge" scientific methods may appear to be little more than reckless vandalism to later generations; at least some of the monuments of Egypt might be better left undisturbed for study by future scholars rather than being subjected to the tender mercies of scientific examination or the enthusiastic attention of tourists. It may indeed be valid to identify the Pharaonic past as belonging to the entire world rather than a single country, but it does seem suspicious that this "worldheritage" is deemed too important to be left in the hands of non-European nations. Certainlymany developing nations recognize that they too play a role in protecting the world'scommon heritage. King Hussain of Jordan, describing his country's efforts to conserve culturalresources, notes: "Weare caretakers of a legacy that belongs not only to us, but to the world."81Developing nations may lack the expertise to adequatelypreserve or examine their own pasts, but one must question whether such a state of affairs, and Western advantages in these areas, give the West the right to put forth a claim over the Pharaohs. As an indigenous Egyptology develops and as more conservation funds are placed in Egyptian hands, it is reasonable to assume that eventually "knowledge"will no longer give the Westan ideological monopoly over the Egyptianpast. 78

44. Hoving, Tutankhamun,

79 Wilson, The Culture Ancient of Egypt,282-88. 80 Bratton, A History of EgyptianArchaeology,77. 81 Philip J. King, AmericanArchaeologyin the Mideast:A History of the American Schoolsof Oriental Research(Philadelphia:

The AmericanSchools of OrientalResearch,1983), 279.

THE PHARAONICPAST IN MODERNEGYPTIANNATIONALISM The Wrong Past Chairman Mao once observed that "the past should serve the present"and it seems clear that the past is a useful tool (if not a weapon) for any new state or regime as it tries to transform the present.82However, it also seems clear that not all pasts are equal; a nation has a choice of what interpretations of its past it wishes to emphasis and what views of its history it wishes to ignore. Beyond such a flexibility in interpretation, a nation can either ignore or glorifywhole eras of its past. Thus, France may choose to focus on periods of greatness,like the reign of Napoleon, while trying to underplay the "Frenchness"of such periods of national shame as the Vichy cooperation with the Nazis. In post-war Italy, Imperial Rome, whose symbolswere extensively used by the Fascists,was looked upon with embarrassment,while the achievements of the preRoman Etruscans were a source of national pride. Long years in which Greeks and Turks cooperated, as subjects of the Ottoman Empire are ignored in favor of more recent conflicts. This selection from a "paletteof pasts"need not really be justified in a systematicand scholarly manner. It is not particularlyrelevant to a nation trying to reconstruct an inspiring past that the author of the CodeNapoleontried to aggressively dominate neighboring countries, nor that there are moral problems, to say the least, in failing to account for French collaborationwith the Nazis, especially when collaborators still hold public office. A nation may acknowledge, in scholarly discourse, that it has not always acted in a saintly manner, but for purposes of nation building it is alwaysbetter to stress the positive. Thus, in a nation's history, its people will have always consisted of either heroes or innocent victims, never villains. Inhabitants of a nation who have acted in a less than exemplary manner can be written off as aberrations, as somehow outside the national mission. Thus modern Egypt, if it is at all like other nations, has a considerable degree of maneuverabilityin choosing its past and Pharaonic Egypt seems simply to be the "wrongpast." More than any other reason, certain problematic features of 82 Mao's quote is cited in Fowler,"Usesof the Past,"238.

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the Pharaonicpast can account for its failure to become an integralpart of the Egyptiannational project. As has been explained above, Islam has been generally hostile to the Pharaonic past. Europeans have also quelled Egyptianinterestin ancient Egyptianhistory,while claiming this history for themselves. Such an expropriation can certainly no longer be justified on grounds of superior Western expertise and certainly not on any grounds of alleged cultural or racial affinity. Even if the Pharaonic past really does belong to the world, Egyptians also belong to the world community and the fact that they presently reside in the Nile Valley which produced Pharaonic civilizationprobablygivesthem an edge over others in deciding how this civilization should be examined and utilized today.83But it must be admitted that even in reclaiming their ancient past Egyptianshave not alwaysbeen very enthusiastic in making it an inseparable part of their present. Such controversies as those surrounding the tomb of Tutankhamunand the Rockefeller Museumappear to make of the Pharaonic past merely a weapon to be used against foreign interference in Egyptian internal affairs. In the Tutankhamunaffairwhat appears,at least at first glance, to be the issue is not the fate of the burial place of an Egyptian ruler of the distant past, but the arrogant manner in which foreign archaeologistsdealt with the officialsand citizens of a newly independent state. The controversy, coming at a critical time of Egypt's development, could just as well have been triggered by any manner of incident as long as it symbolized continued British domination of the country. Despite the short-lived political capital the WafdPartygained from their confrontationwith

83The modern inhabitantsof Egypt certainlydo have a markedphysicalresemblanceto the people portrayedon the wall paintings of Pharaonictombs, but racial claims seem a weakbasisfor a nation'shistoryno matterwho makes them; the rights of modern Egyptiansto see themselvesas the historicalheirs of the Pharaohsare probablymore firmlybased on the fact that they are the currentindigenousinhabitantsof the country,who should not have to tolerate the domination of their country by foreigners whose historical claims are even shakier,especiallyif it is done in the name of preserving the past.

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Howard Carter, there was really little sustained effort to transform this conflict into a longlasting set of nationalistic symbols.As has been shown above, attempts by such groups as Young Egyptto drawon the legacy of the Pharaohsmet with little success in the face of rising Pan-Arab and Pan-Islamicsentiments. But the Pharaonic past fell short in several other areas, making it a less than ideal choice for a past which Egyptian nationalists could call on their countrymen to emulate. Ahmad Hassanal-Zayyat,an al-Azhareducated Egyptianand formerly a lecturer in Arabicliterature in Baghdad, writing in his cultural journal al-Risalain 1934, raised several objections to Pharaonismfrom a pan-Araband pan-Islamic point of view. He notes that there is no clear continuity in culture and attitude between ancient and modern Egypt; no Pharaonic literature, which could form the core of a modern Egyptianculture has survived.Egypt of the Pharaohs was an unjust, class oriented and oppressive monarchydominated by the whip. Language determinesa community'sidentity;Egyptiansare Arabsbecause they speakArabic.Remote Pharaonic descent is not relevant;Egyptcan in the end only be a chapter in the book of Arab glory.84 Several of these objections are worth commenting on. Ancient Pharaonic Egypt was certainly remote in time and characterfrom modern Arab Egypt,especiallyin comparisonwith other possible points of national reference, such as Islamor Arabism.The pyramidsat Giza, the most recognizable symbol of the Pharaonicpast, were built almost five thousand years ago; in comparison Islam and the Arab language came to Egypt less than fourteen hundred yearsago. Pharaonicculture itself had for the most part alreadyvanished when Muslim Arab armies conquered Egypt in the 640's; Egypt'sincorporation into the Hellenistic world and the rise of a hostile Christianity had alreadybasicallykilled Pharaoniccivilization. The closure by the emperorJustinian (527-565) of the Temple of Isis at Philae, which involved the destruction of the statue of the goddess and the imprisonment of her priests markedthe formal end of ancient Egyptian religion.85The 84Walker,"TheContribution,"142-43.

85 Wilson,

Signs and Wonders,7.

complex code of Egyptianthought and religious belief had already been lost. Monuments and icons were meaningless to the observer.86While language does not alwaysdetermine one's identity,manyseparateand even hostile nations share a common language; it must certainly be noted that the ancient Egyptian language is a dead one with virtuallyno impact on Egypt'smodern population.A hieroglyphicrevivaldoes not seem to be anywhere in sight. Ancient Pharaonic civilizationwas, like all the other civilizationsof the ancient Near East, highly stratified in nature. Modern research has certainly questioned whether it was the "slavestate"popularly imagined in both the West and the Islamic world.87 But in using history for nationalistic purposes it is perception that counts. If the Pharaohs are perceived as tyrants, then they cannot serve as national role models, even if such a perception is over-simplified and anachronistic. And the remains of the Pharaonic past, visible to the lay public, seem to confirm such prejudices. They consist of tombs, palaces and temples, the relics of a death-obsessed, aristocratic,pagan society. More sophisticated models of Egyptian history, developed by mainlyforeign scholars,remain for the most part ignored. The Pharaonicpast is for the most part a constructed entity. Standing monuments had to be supplemented by the discovery of tombs and the decipherment of a long lost hieroglyphic method of writing. Only then could it be presented to the Egyptian public as a possible period of history in which they could take pride. For much of the century, as has been shown above, this process of discoveryremained an exclusivelyEuropean enterprise. CharlesWendell, speaking on the Egyptiannational identity, feels that the Pharaonic ideal could not have originated in Egypt without the direct inspiration 86

Barry Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization

(London:Routledge, 1993), 2. 8 Wilson describes the ancient Egyptians as having a pragmatic,basicallyoptimistic culture; there was probably some coercion in the building of the pyramids,but genuine religious devotion to the Pharaohsmust also be taken into account, the Pharaoh,after all was considered a living god, responsiblefor ensuringthe unchanging cycles of life. John Wilson, The Cultureof Ancient Egypt,83-84, 110.

THE PHARAONICPAST IN MODERNEGYPTIANNATIONALISM of Europe.88 It may be understandable then that interest in the distant Egyptianpast has remained largely confined to local Westernized elites.89Wendell notes that the Pharaonic past could only be used to "stokethe fires of nationalism"if it was coupled with a call for the defense of the watanor homeland. Pharaonic heritage in itself has not become a serious part of the popular Egyptian consciousness, remaining, in Wendell's words, "an object of sentiment and nostalgiafor a few intellectuals."90 Attempts to put forwarda Pharaonic identity for Egypt, especiallyin the earlypart of the century, have an artificialquality.They appear awkwardlygraftedto a projectof makingEgyptmore "Mediterranean"or more "European".Such appeals would seem to have little chance of reaching a larger, mostly Muslim,population. Also, a call to emulate the West would be expected to stand or fall on its own merits, rather than as part of a clumsy promotion of a Pharaonic past with which most Egyptianshave refused to identify themselves. Possible associations between the Pharaonic past and Egypt'sCoptic minority also make this era a problematic one for Egyptiannationalists, especially ones trying to promote a united nation. The Copts, as Christiansadamantlyopposing paganism,had traditionallybeen as opposed to the Pharaonic past as their Muslim neighbors, defacing many temples and turning some of them into churches. In the nineteenth century, in a more nationalistic atmosphere, they had begun to identify the Pharaohs as their ancestors. The liturgical Coptic language was related to the final stages of the ancient Egyptian language and Copts dominated the early days of local Egyptology.91The Copts could, through their language and the fact that they had inhab88 Charles Wendell, The Evolution the of Egyptian National Image:Fromits Origins to Ahmad Lufti al-Sayyid(Berkeley: Uni-

versityof CaliforniaPress,1972) 166. 89 Reid, "IndigenousEgyptology,"246. 90Wendell,"TheEvolution,"163-64. 91 In the 1950's, however, Coptic participation in the study of the Egyptianpast declined dramatically;by 1975 only one of the twentyteachersin the Facultyof Archaeology of the Universityof Cairowasa Copt. Reid, "Indigenous Egyptology," 242; "Kibt,"in TheEncyclopediaof Islam:FirstEdi-

tion,VolumeII (Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1927), 990.

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ited Egypt before the Arab conquest, consider themselvesthe real descendantsof the Pharaohs, a kind of pure Egyptian aristocracy somehow superior to their Muslim fellow citizens. Such a concept would probably threaten the development of cross confessional bonds of citizenship and would certainly cause problems for those Egyptians who saw Egypt as a basically Islamic nation.92 Conclusion: The Pharaonic Past- Wrong for Egyptians,but maybe not for Foreigners The Pharaonicpast then is a problematicone for Egyptian nationalists to employ. Popular stereotypes of it are unattractive. Most Egyptians are indifferent, if not hostile to it. It is a distant, dead past with few connections to the present; the religion of the majorityof Egypt's population portrays it as an age of paganistic ignorance. It is associated with a marginalized minority and with attempts at foreign domination. In addition, possessing this past may,in the long run, cost the nation money. In his analysis of the worldwide use of archaeologicalresearch, Neil Silbermanproposes an addition to Trigger's list of archaeologicaltraditions:"touristicarchaeology"; archaeological research conducted not for ideological or scholarly reasons but simply as an end to attract foreign visitors and their money. He gives as an example the Israeli site of Beth Shean (Hellenistic Nesa-Scythopolis), located near the town of the same name and in a region of high unemployment; almost the entire ancient city center has been uncovered with the aid of untrained workers from the local labor exchange. Silberman feels that in the rush for the tourist dollar a nation will become a "parodyof itself"; archaeological sites will start to reflect what the tourist wants to see rather than historical reality. Negative elements of the past, inequality, brutality,injustice and evil, will be largelyignored in the presentation of monuments and in the design of museums, as these elements do not attract revenue.93Government officials might be tempted to identify the nation's struggle to exert control over its own past 92 CharlesWendell, TheEvolution,163. 93 Silberman,"ThePoliticsand Poetics,"258-61.

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as one of the elements to which foreigners might react negatively.In Egypt, there might be a temptation to play up the "Victorianarchaeology" of aristocratic pith-helmeted Egyptologists and to downplaythe exclusivenessof Egypt's past. Egypt'sgovernment, and other shapers of national identity, might find that the Pharaonic past, having little positive effect on the mobilization of the Egyptianpeople, would at the least fulfill a monetary function if handed over to the foreign visitors who appear to have more interest in it. Mubarak'srecent lavish staging of the

opera Aida at Luxor, would seem to point to such a trend. If this is indeed the case it may mark a final abandonment of attempts to convince Egyptians that their nation should try to imitate the Pharaohs and an acknowledgment that the Pharaonicpast is in effect a foreign one to most of the nation's population; a popular Egyptian identity must, in the end, be sought elsewhere. McGillInstitute of Islamic Studies Montreal