The Greeks and the Making of Modern Egypt

by Alexander Kitroeff

From the early nineteenth century through to the 1960s, the Greeks formed the largest, most economically powerful, and geographically and socially diverse of all European communities in Egypt. Although they benefited from the privileges extended to foreigners and the control exercised by Britain, they claimed nonetheless to enjoy a special relationship with Egypt and the Egyptians, and saw themselves as contributors to the country’s modernization.

The Greeks and the Making of Modern Egypt is the first account of the modern Greek presence in Egypt from its beginnings during the era of Muhammad Ali to its final days under Nasser. It casts a critical eye on the reality and myths surrounding the complex and ubiquitous Greek community in Egypt by examining the Greeks’ legal status, their relations with the country’s rulers, their interactions with both elite and ordinary Egyptians, their economic activities, their contacts with foreign communities, their ties to their Greek homeland, and their community life, which included a rich and celebrated literary culture.

Alexander Kitroeff suggests that although the Greeks’ self-image as contributors to Egypt’s development is exaggerated, there were ways in which they functioned as agents of modernity, albeit from a privileged and protected position. While they never gained the acceptance they sought, the Greeks developed an intense and nostalgic love affair with Egypt after their forced departure in the 1950s and 1960s and resettlement in Greece and farther afield.

This rich and engaging history of the Greeks in Egypt in the modern era will appeal to students, scholars, travelers, and general readers alike.

Genres: Egypt

301 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 22, 2019

About the author

Alexander Kitroeff (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Κιτροέφ) was born in Athens, Greece and was educated in the United Kingdom (Ph.D. in Modern History, Oxford University). Kitroeff began his academic career at the Center for Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies at Queens College CUNY, and he has taught at Princeton University, Temple University, and New York University. He is currently Associate Professor of History at Haverford College. His research and published works focus on the study of nationalism and ethnicity in Greece and the Greek diaspora.

Reviews

[David Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delighted to find a book which combines Greek and Egyptian history. It's not the easiest of reads, and it does help enormously if you have some basic grasp of recent (20th century) Greek history, or the constant recurrence of family names might become confusing to say the least. That said, it is insightful, well-researched, and gives a very good picture of the Greek community in Egypt, concentrating on the 19th and 20th centuries. The Greeks had been in positions of power since the 3rd century BC when Alexander's general Ptolemy installed himself as Pharaoh, a dynasty that ended with Cleopatra; the more modern arrivals exercised economic power rather than political, and the author's study examines the effect of the colonial powers (Ottoman and British) on the privileges of the Greeks, and also their relationship with the nascent Greek state. The cultural life - as exemplified by the poet Cavafy - is also covered, very well in my opinion. For anyone who's visited Alexandria, some powerful nostalgia for the pre-WW2 period, and overall a fascinating study of a people struggling with the ideas of integration, and ultimately, Nassrer's nationalisation of the economy, which led to the vast majority of the Greek community heading back to Greece in the 1960s.