54

A VEILED PROTECTORATE

Britain’s occupation of Egypt, initially intended to be a short-term venture, soon turned into a permanent presence. For a period of more than sixty years Egypt was encumbered by a succession of British proconsuls with the power to intervene as they saw fit, backed up by a local British garrison. The tone was set by Lord Cromer (Evelyn Baring), Britain’s consul-general from 1883 to1907, an austere, autocratic figure who insisted from the start that Egypt needed a prolonged period of British rule to restore its finances and reform its administration. Nominally, Egypt remained an autonomous state ruled by the Muhammad Ali dynasty, owing allegiance to the Ottoman authorities in Istanbul. In practice, the nerve centre of power was the British consulate. While Egyptians remained at the head of government departments and ministries, real control lay with British officials. One of Cromer’s officials, Alfred Milner, described Britain’s form of government in Egypt as a ‘veiled protectorate’. When the young khedive, Abbas Hilmi II, the son of Tawfiq, sought to challenge Cromer’s authority, he was publicly rebuked.

The reform programme initiated by Cromer led to an era of financial stability, lower taxation and advances in public works. A large-scale dam at Aswan was completed in 1902, the largest dam in the world at the time, providing additional irrigation waters for both Upper and Lower Egypt. Many parts of Egypt, notably the Delta, were no longer dependent on the annual Nile flood. Farmers were able to grow two or three crops a year; the production of cotton doubled within twenty years. Much of the increase in agricultural prosperity, however, flowed into the hands of large landowners rather than peasants.

British rule nevertheless aroused growing resentment among Egypt’s middle-class elite. Thwarted in his attempt to assert a more prominent role, Abbas was instrumental in stirring up anti-British agitation. He supported the activities of a group of Egyptian nationalists, secretly helped to form a Society for the Revival of the Nation, backed anti-colonialist publications that demanded independence and sought closer contact with Turkey.

The advent of the First World War caused further alienation. When Turkey joined Germany in the war against Britain, the British government, fearing that Egypt’s population might rally behind the Ottomans, deposed Abbas, replaced him with a pliant uncle, declared Egypt a protectorate and imposed martial law. Egypt became the main British base for operations in the Middle East. By 1916, three British armies were stationed there, a total of 400,000 men. The influx of foreign troops produced soaring price inflation and widespread hardship. The British conscripted labour and requisitioned food and transport animals, provoking a series of violent incidents. Egyptians expressed their fury in a popular song directed at the British high commissioner, General Wingate.

Woe on us, Wingate. Who has carried off our corn.

Carried off our cotton. Carried off our camels.

Carried off our children. Leaving us only our lives.

For love of Allah, now leave us alone.

By the time the war ended, Egypt was seething with discontent. The clamour for independence became ever more insistent. In November, a Cairo lawyer, Saad Zaghlul, asked Wingate for permission to lead an Egyptian delegation – a wafd – to London to present the case for ‘the complete independence of Egypt’. Blocked by the British authorities from travelling either to London or to the Paris Peace Conference, Zaghlul and his associates turned the wafd into a protest movement. In an attempt to curb Wafd activities, the British arrested Zaghlul in March 1919 and sent him and other colleagues into exile in Malta. The immediate result, however, was a nationalist uprising. Within days, Egypt was engulfed in a wave of demonstrations, strikes, rural violence and sabotage. Seeking to restore order, the British released Zaghlul and allowed him to lead a Wafd delegation to Paris. But Zaghlul’s hopes of gaining a hearing there for Egypt’s independence were soon dashed. In May 1919, the Peace Conference recognised Britain’s claim to a protectorate over Egypt.

Faced with further disturbances and realising that Egypt could only be held by force, the British government then decided to accede to Egyptian demands for independence but to retain certain powers that were regarded as being essential to protect British interests. In a unilateral declaration made in February 1922, Britain ended protectorate rule and granted Egypt a modified form of independence, reserving for itself authority over four key areas: the security of imperial communications in Egypt, including the Suez Canal; the defence of Egypt against all foreign aggression, involving control of the Egyptian army; the protection of foreign interests and minorities in Egypt; and hegemony over Sudan. Furthermore, Egypt was required to accept a British military presence to safeguard British interests. The limits that Britain imposed on Egypt’s independence aroused so much controversy that it was not until 1936 that negotiations over a new treaty settled the matter.

When the independence of Egypt was formally declared on 15 March 1922, the Muhammad Ali dynasty remained in place, but now assumed the title of kings. The first king, Ahmad Fuad, was the youngest son of Khedive Ismail, who had been appointed as sultan of the British Protectorate in 1917. An ambitious man, Fuad conspired to obtain significant powers for himself during manoeuvres over a new constitution. Introduced in 1923, the constitution entitled the king to appoint and dismiss the prime minister and cabinet as well as to prorogue or dismiss parliament. In parliamentary elections in 1924, Zaghlul’s Wafd party won an overwhelming majority, securing 90 per cent of the seats. But despite the size of his victory, the political arena was constantly in ferment, engulfed in a tripartite struggle between the king, the Wafd movement and the British, all seeking to assert their own authority. In November 1924, following the assassination of a British official in Cairo, the British authorities stepped in to remove Zaghlul’s ministry. In the first eight years of constitutional life, parliament was dissolved four times. The endless intrigues and corruption of the political establishment led to widespread disillusionment in the whole idea of parliamentary democracy, providing opportunities for other groups to take root.

The most influential of these groups was the Society of Muslim Brothers – Jamiyyat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin. It was founded in Ismailia in 1928 by a zealous 22-year-old teacher, Hasan al-Banna, who sought religious and political reform in Egypt. A magnetic orator who used the coffee houses in Ismailia as a pulpit as well as the mosques, Banna campaigned for a return to a ‘pure’ form of Islam as laid down by the Prophet Muhammad and the first Muslim elders – the Salaf. Islam as it was originally practised, he argued, was the key to Egypt’s moral and social renewal. It provided not only a guide to private belief and ritual but a comprehensive system of values and governance for the state. He derided Egypt’s parliamentary system, dominated as it was by large landowners and rich merchants, as a sham imposed by the wealthy to keep the poor in their place. More generally, he decried the spread of Western secular values and lifestyles in Egypt – the blight of alcohol, gambling, prostitution, ‘lewd’ films and literature, and the free mixing of women with unrelated men.

Transferred to a school in Cairo in 1932, Banna turned the Muslim Brotherhood into a national organisation. He adopted the title of ‘supreme guide’, issued bylaws, toured branches across the country, set up welfare societies and organised summer youth camps. The Muslim Brotherhood soon became a mass movement, with hundreds of thousands of followers. It also established paramilitary units known as Rovers (jawala) and Battalions (kataib), drawing inspiration from the fascist youth organisations of interwar Europe.

Other groups entering the fray included Young Egypt, an ultra-nationalist movement that set up a militia known as the Green Shirts and used street violence to challenge the establishment. In response, the Wafd party formed its own paramilitary wing, the Blue Shirts. The use of violence in Egyptian politics became increasingly commonplace.

Amid the tumult, King Fuad used his position as monarch to accumulate vast wealth. His personal fortune included 75,000 acres of fertile farmland, five palaces, numerous hunting lodges, yachts and cars. Having been educated mainly in Europe, he spoke limited Arabic and gained a reputation for being contemptuous of ordinary Egyptians and mean with his money. When he died in April 1936, there was little mourning.

His son, Farouk, was only sixteen years old when he became the tenth and final member of the Muhammad Ali dynasty. Pampered from birth, he spent a solitary childhood in royal palaces, surrounded by staff but allowed no friends. Though adept at languages, including Arabic, he disliked having to study and managed to avoid formal education. He was sent to England in October 1935 to attend the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, but preferred to while away time on more pleasurable pursuits in London.

Such was the public dislike of his father, however, that Farouk’s return to Egypt as king in 1936 was greeted with considerable optimism. His coronation in July 1937 became an occasion for national celebration. The streets of Cairo were filled with visitors from across the country, keen to witness the spectacle of marching bands, military parades and fireworks and take advantage of the mountains of free food on offer. In an address to the Chamber of Deputies, Farouk struck a populist note in affirming his embrace of Islam and speaking of his concern for the poor. Amid the array of glittering banquets and balls he attended, he found time to put on a simple suit to drive to the slums of the city and distribute money to relief organisations. The press acclaimed him as ‘the pious king’ and the ‘renewer of Islam’. His wedding in January 1938 to the daughter of a judge was marked by equally lavish celebrations.

But the mood of optimism soon abated. Farouk began to lose his youthful zest, opting for the lifestyle of a rich playboy. And when war in Europe broke out in 1939, Egypt once more became the stamping ground of foreign armies.