ABSTRACT
The effects of recent privatization and general ‘globalization’ of capital and society in Egypt as well as the ensuing urban and real estate explosion of Cairo, particularly of new exclusive urban spaces of consumption for the elite segment of society, have a sense of newness about them.1 Close observers of Egypt’s modern history, however, experience a déjà vu: has Cairo been down this road before, or is this an untrammelled route in the city’s socio-economic and urban narratives? There are indeed striking similarities between the trajectory Cairo has traversed at the turn of both the twentieth and the twenty-fi rst centuries. At the turn of the twentieth century, following the dénouement of the days of Egypt’s receivership, brought about by Khedive Ismail’s debts to foreign European powers, the Egyptian government launched rigorous privatization and economic liberalization initiatives. These undertakings culminated in the sell-off of the largest state-owned company, Daira Sanieha, to foreign fi nanciers and the launch of the National Bank of Egypt (Raafat, 1997). Following this shift to market capitalism, the government proceeded to
improve the urban infrastructure, particularly, of the capital city. These new developments sparked a seemingly unprecedented era of economic prosperity not experienced in Egypt’s modern history (Goldschmidt, 1988). Capital fl ow and economic integration with European markets were followed by an infl ux of foreign businessmen, speculators, real estate developers, and architects. In the fi rst decade of the twentieth century, not only European-style restaurants and casinos proliferated in Cairo, but also new, exclusive real estate developments, such as Maadi and Heliopolis. The former emulated the European environment and lifestyle whereas the latter refl ected the growing European fantasy of the Orient during the colonial era. As diverse as they were, these developments represented a new urban economy mirroring the consumption patterns of the dominant, growing sectors of agrarian capitalists, white-collar government employees, and foreigners, who had begun to establish themselves in new urban areas inside and around Cairo. It is important to note that the economic boom was short lived, however, and by 1907 a fi nancial crash, caused
by over-speculation in real estate, slowed down the building construction fever.
