ABSTRACT
Socialist thought began to develop in Egypt in the first quarter of the twentieth century, when intellectuals, influenced by various international socialist streams, started propagating such ideas in the country. Some of these socialist intellectuals attempted to formulate a form of nationalist socialism which would combine Marxist ideas and Arab nationalist and Islamic elements. Many had graduated from European universities, including Salama Musa (1887–1958), the earliest exponent of socialism in Egypt and an important intellectual who published books and articles on society, economics, justice, reformism, education and politics. A prominent figure in the socialist movement in Egypt, he introduced several generations of young idealists to socialist thought. Broadly speaking, two themes stood out in Musa's works: first, the toll of exploitation inherent in the capitalist system; and second, the exploitative nature of the Egyptian class structure. 1 In 1913, he published a short monograph on socialism entitled al-Ishtirakiyya - one of the first works on this subject written in Arabic. It was not a careful study of Marxism, but rather a collection of Musa's impressions and reactions following his reading of Karl Marx's Capital, according to Hanna and Gardner in the book Arab Socialism. Musa, they pointed out, came to three major conclusions: Egypt was ruled by a European power as a result of the weakness of its society; the embarkation of the Egyptian people on the road to socialism required their training in democratic rule; and finally, socialist ideas should eventually find their place among the ruling political elite if an appropriate method for their dissemination were to be employed. 2
