Identity

The Egyptian Nile Valley was home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous history.

When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on the country's cultural landscape.

Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate in principal two new religions, Christianity and Islam, and a new language, Arabic and its spoken descendant, Egyptian Arabic.

The degree with which these factors are estimated today by different groups in Egypt in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary greatly, and therefore continue to be a source of frequent debate.

Qestions of identity came to fore in the last century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first time in two thousand years.

Three chief ideologies came to head and would eventually compete with one another (and continue to do so to this day): ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism (and by extension Pharaonism), secular Arab nationalism (and by extension pan-Arabism) and Islamism. Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots in the nineteenth century and eventually becoming the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre- and inter-war periods. It was nearly always articulated in exclusively Egyptian terms:

What is most significant [about Egypt in that period] is the absence of an Arab component in early Egyptian nationalism. The thrust of Egyptian political, economic, and cultural development throughout the nineteenth century worked against, rather than for, an "Arab" orientation... This situation—that of divergent political trajectories for Egyptians and Arabs—if anything increased after 1900.[15]

In 1931, Syrian Arab nationalist intellectual Sati' al-Husri remarked in his memoir following a visit to Egypt, where he intended to propagate Arab nationalism, that "[Egyptians] did not possess an Arab nationalist sentiment; did not accept that Egypt was a part of the Arab lands, and would not acknowledge that the Egyptian people were part of the Arab nation."[16] Incidentally, the later 1930s would become a formative period for Arab nationalism in Egypt, thanks in large part to efforts by Syrian/Palestinian/Lebanese intellectuals.[17] Yet a year after the establishment of the League of Arab States in 1945 to be headquartered in Cairo, Oxford University historian H. S. Deighton was still writing:

The Egyptians are not Arabs, and both they and the Arabs are aware of this fact. They are Arabic-speaking, and they are Muslim—indeed religion plays a greater part in their lives than it does in those either of the Syrians or the Iraqi. But the Egyptian, during the first thirty years of the [twentieth] century, was not aware of any particular bond with the Arab East... Egypt sees in the Arab cause a worthy object of real and active sympathy and, at the same time, a great and proper opportunity for the exercise of leadership, as well as for the enjoyment of its fruits. But she is still Egyptian first and Arab only in consequence, and her main interests are still domestic. [18]

It was not until the Nasser era more than a decade later that Arab nationalism became a state policy and a means with which to define Egypt's position in the Middle East and the world,[19] usually articulated vis-à-vis Zionism in the neighbouring Jewish state. For a while Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic, and when the union was dissolved, it eventually gave rise to the current official name, Arab Republic of Egypt. Egypt's attachment to Arabism, however, was particularly questioned after its defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War, when thousands Egyptians lost their lives and the country become disillusioned with Arab politics.[20]

Nasser's successor Sadat, both by policy and through his peace initiative with Israel, revived an uncontested Egyptian particularist orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt was his responsibility, and the terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent.[21]

Indeed, as professor of Egyptian history P. J. Vatikiotis explains:

...the impact of the October 1973 War (also known as the Ramadan or Yom Kippur War) found Egyptians reverting to an earlier sense of national identity, that of Egyptianism. Egypt became their foremost consideration and top priority in contrast to the earlier one, preferred by the Nasser régime, of Egypt's role and primacy in the Arab world. This kind of national 'restoration' was led by the Old Man of Egyptian Nationalism, Tawfiq el-Hakim, who in the 1920s and 1930s was associated with the Pharaonist movement.[22]

The question of identity continues to be debated today with many Egyptians perhaps falling somewhere in the middle, considering themselves Egyptian first but finding Egyptian and Arab identities linked and not necessarily incompatible. Others identify themselves mainly on the basis of their religion. The sentiment, however, that Egypt and Egyptians are simply not Arab, emphasizing indigenous Egyptian heritage, culture and independent polity (and even publicly voicing objection to the present official name), is frequently expressed—both by Egyptians themselves[23], including Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass[24],

Egyptian-born Harvard University Professor Leila Ahmed, Member of Parliament Suzie Greiss[25] and different local groups and intellectuals[26][27][28][29][30]; as well as in various other contexts[31][32], including Neil DeRosa's novel Joseph's Seed in his illustration of an Egyptian character "who declares that Egyptians are not Arabs and never will be."[33] Egyptian critics of Arab nationalism contend that it has worked to erode and/or relegate native Egyptian identity by superimposing only one aspect of Egypt's culture.

These conflicting views and sources for collective identification in the Egyptian state are captured in the words of a linguistic anthropologist who conducted fieldwork in Cairo:Egypt has been both a leader of pan-Arabism and a site of intense resentment towards that ideology. Egyptians had to be made, often forcefully, into "Arabs" [during the Nasser era] because they did not historically identify themselves as such. Egypt was self-consciously a nation not only before pan-Arabism but also before becoming a colony of the British Empire. Its territorial continuity since ancient times, its unique history as exemplified in its pharaonic past and later on its Coptic language and culture, had already made Egypt into a nation for centuries. Egyptians saw themselves, their history, culture and language as specifically Egyptian and not "Arab."[34]

Source: Wikipedia