Invoking the Empire: An Overlooked Component of Egyptian Nationalism, 1879–1919

Abstract:Egyptian nationalism is most often analyzed with no mention of the Ottoman Empire. Yet invocations of Egypt’s admittedly nominal status as an imperial territory played a crucial role in the process whereby proponents of political autonomy first resisted the direct intrusion of the European powers and later fought to overturn British rule. Some Egyptian nationalists, most notably Mustafa Kamil and ‘Abd al-’Aziz Jawish, emphasized the connection to the Empire more frequently and forcefully than others. But the Porte’s influence touched the nationalist movement as a whole, and overlooking it impedes our understanding of that movement’s emergence and consolidation.