ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on Egypt's historical transition from an Ottoman province to a modern national state during the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. It challenges two commonly accepted yet contradictory narratives in Egyptian historiography that study the formation of the Egyptian state and Egyptian nationalism. The Egyptian nation-state, created after 1923, was then a distinctively modern nation-state that had departed from old Ottoman political and cultural legacies. In the cultural realm, a new Egyptian national print culture that identified with the Egyptian state emerged. In the economic realm, despite the processes of Egyptianization and nationalization, the private sector remained a major force in Egyptian economy. This was expressed in the economic activities and enterprises of many private institutions, companies and agencies, not all under the direct control of the nation-state. During the years 1919-1952, the productive reciprocal convergence between the Egyptian territorial state and the Egyptian territorial nationalism produced a liberal, civil and pluralistic nation-state.