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EzzelArab, AbdelAziz
About the author: Dr. AbdelAziz EzzelArab received his PhD from the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University. After a career in banking, he now teaches economics at the American University of Cairo.
2002 0-7734-6936-2This study examines the movement by groups of Egypt’s elites who controlled the country’s wealth and government before European penetration. This movement, which took place in 1879, had a distinctly different leadership and agenda from the more widely recognized movement of Ahmad ‘Urabi in 1881-82. This work invites a revision of the existing historiography of 19th century Egypt by focusing on this neglected episode. It places the 1879 movement in broad social historical perspective and analyses the meaning of economic nationalism through a discussion of the elite’s motivations and agenda. It contains the first identification and analysis of attempts to establish a national bank in Egypt in the 19th century and a complete translation of two documents relevant to these attempts. Western scholars of Egyptian history will be interested in this discovery, since the existing convention considers the first such attempt to have taken part in the early 20th century. It will appeal to scholars of Egyptian and Middle Eastern history, elite groups, and economics.