The Long 1890s in Egypt

Explores a vital and previously understudied moment in Egypt’s modern history

Egypt just before political eruption! Turns of the century in Africa’s northeastern corner have been critical moments, ushering in overt popular activism in the hope of radical political redirection – as this volume’s focus on Egypt’s 19th-century fin-de-siècle demonstrates.

The end of the 19th century in Egypt witnessed crisscrossing and conflicting political currents as well as fluctuating economic, geopolitical, social conditions, demographic conditions and cultural processes. Like Egypt’s 20th-century fin-de-siècle, much of this ferment was a prelude to the more visible and politically eruptive events of the next decades, when Egypt’s popular resistance burst onto the international scene. But its subterranean cast was no less dynamic for that.

Key Features

• A wide ranging and theoretically coherent study of a period that was crucial to the formation of modern Egypt
• 13 case studies challenge the prevailing view that the 1890s in Egypt was a time of withdrawal and quiescence
• Engages with questions of political engagement, shifting gender roles, geographical ambiguities, the emergence of new media, community identity formation and changing artistic formations