Stampa e nazionalismo in Egitto a cavallo tra Ottocento e Novecento

Abstract

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Egypt saw new concepts of community emerge to replace the extant, traditional forms of identity based on local loyalties. This paper will explore the role played by language and journalism in this re-imagining of identity, and its use by the elite in shaping perceptions of the Egyptian people, nation and language. A fundamental element of this process was the development in the use of the term ummah in the discourse of many thinkers of the Nahḍah, from its meaning signifying the global community of Muslim believers, into a symbol of the modern nation-state, a re-interpretation which I discuss drawing, notably, on the unpublished writings of the journalist Aḥmad Luṭfī al-Sayyid. This perspective enables an exploration both of the competition between traditionalist values and the secular, multicultural model of early Egyptian nationalism, and of the multifarious colonial influences on the pro-Europe anelite in this struggle for a vision of Egypt’s future.