FORUM:
Gender and Empire

 

Gender as a Category of Analysis for Empire? Femininity, Masculinity and Orientalism

Stephanie Boyle

 

"No one but a dreamy theorist could imagine that the natural order of things could be reversed and that liberty could first be accorded to the poor ignorant representatives of the Egypt people, and that the latter would then be able to evolve order out of chaos"

—Evelyn Baring (Lord) Cromer
Modern Egypt, 1907

     In Modern Egypt, Lord Cromer, the highest positioned British official in Egypt, offered an economic, cultural and social sketch of Egypt. As Cromer's words note, the complexity of religious, cultural, economic and political life were relegated to mere evidence for the occupation of Egypt that "evolved order out of chaos." The economic and geopolitical objective of the British Empire seemed secondary to the harsh brutality of "hyper sexual overlords" and feminized peasant men. The text is the story of men, oriental men whose ineptitude resulted in Egypt's total economic failures. Cromer's overall claim is the obvious imperial assessment; British men could and would save Egypt and ultimately extract economic resources while leaving behind a better, more civilized class of men. As I argue, the discussion of women and their position only serves to illustrate the superiority of English men to protect them from these inept yet brutal despots.

     Typically, teaching gender as a category of analysis in the Middle East in world history classes rests on the imagined oriental woman. Middle Eastern men are almost entirely absent from the discussion except for a discussion of their role as oppressor. Concurrently, stories of imperial masculinity reaffirm the narrative trope of white male domination over colonized women. By including sections from primary sources like Modern Egypt, the two-volume history of contemporary Egypt that speaks more about imperial justifications than any other topic, students are exposed to new perspectives about the Middle East in the age of Empire. Texts like Modern Egypt provide an opportunity to discuss how emasculation of Arab/Muslim men in the Middle East became a central part of Empire in Egypt. The primary source analysis of Modern Egypt, a short primary source assignment, fits into a larger pedagogical objective of developing critical reading and writing skills. Scaffolded near the beginning of the semester, close reading and short writings strengthen students' intellectual confidence as well as their writing skills. It supports the overall discussion of gender throughout the semester. In each historical period, students learn about the ways that men and women respond to events. The study of Modern Egypt and the discussion of Orientalism prepares students to participate in discussions of masculinity and the depression, while masculinity and WWI provides them with a framework to discuss Cold War representations of Asia or how the US framed the Iraq invasion of 2004 in class discussions and longer assignments (3–5 pages).

     This article will provide a brief textual analysis of Modern Egypt and also place it within the historical context of empire in Egypt during the late 19th century. It will discuss ways that masculinity and Said's theories of Orientalism can and should be integrated into introductory level World History courses. Quite often, for the purpose of brevity and chronological continuity, masculinity is a topic that is absent in the discussion of empire in the Middle East during the age of high imperialism. Rather, textbooks focus on the larger story of the imperial metropole and often leave behind discussions of colonized people and spaces beyond anecdotes.

Introducing Orientalism and Masculinity as Supplemental Topic

     A sampling of World history textbooks from the four publishing giants in 2004 shows that Modern Egypt is generally absent from World History textbooks.1 Although World history textbooks are often chronological in organization and global in scope, Europe (and later the US) feature most prominently and often occupies upwards of fifty percent of the material on average. The Essential World History by William Duiker and Jackson Spielvogel dedicates less than a page to Egypt and explains the ways that French and British colonial rivalries resulted in the occupation of Egypt after the failed revolution of Colonial Ahmed 'Urabi in 1882.2 The textbook offers the "opposing viewpoints" of "White Man's Burden/ Black Man's Burden" to supplement the content of the chapter on empire. In a later chapter, discussions of Islam and Modernity come from sources written by Muhammad Iqbal of India and Mustafa Kamel of Turkey. The brief versions of Traditions and Encounters makes no mention of Egypt during the age of Empire and Egypt only appears in the map as part of the discussion of the Scramble for Africa.3 Like The Essential World History, "The White Man's Burden" serves as the primary source to discuss masculinity and the age of empire. World History: Patterns of Interaction dedicates two pages to Egypt as part of the discussion of European interests in Muslim lands, but as of 2012 also offer state specific texts (seemingly) for the content to adhere to the state testing at the high school level.4 Each of these textbooks, used in both high schools and introductory college world history courses reflect the need for brevity and clarity at the introductory level, but the focus on the metanarrative from the imperial metropole privileges specific content. Even when coverage is better, as in, World Civilizations: the Global Experience by Peter Stearns et al., the focus on a grand narrative leaves little space to reflect on the complexities of gender and empire in the Middle East.5

     The notable exception is the Worlds Together, Worlds Apart series.6 Robert Tignor, a prominent Egyptian historian and author of the series, not surprisingly places Egypt and the Ottoman Empire within the discussion during the early half of the 19th century, but the age of empires is dominated by discussions of European perspectives about reordering colonized spaces. Recent work, specifically The New World History: a Field Guide for Researchers and Teachers has made great strides in addressing how specific topics/regions have played a secondary role in research and pedagogy in world history. Specifically, Craig A. Lockard writes, "to be sure, there remains major lacunae in our knowledge that will need to be filled by a new generation of world historians, more of whom will hopefully come from Asia, Africa and Latin America."7 While much work is to be done on reconciling debates about the field of world history, this article hopes to show that because introductory world history textbooks privilege the narrative of empire in the modern era over the lived experience of actors in the colonized world, including assignments that speak to the historian's specialty can and should supplement textbook use.8

     Interestingly, the centrality of Britain's imperial domination tends to be featured much more prominently along with France in both textbooks and curriculum. Specifically, British India tends to be the dominant example of British aims and Oriental depictions, with detailed discussions of laws concerning child marriage and sati. The absence of any detailed discussion of Egypt, an important site of colonial tensions, obfuscates the experience of Egyptians as colonial subjects as well as its significance in the "Eastern Question" in the age of empire.9 The United Kingdom occupied Egypt between 1882 and 1936, but remained active in Egyptian politics until 1954 when Gamal abd-al-Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.10 That occupation gave the British control of a significant body of water and access to immense power and financial resources as a result of the Suez Canal.  

Egypt as a Site of Inquiry

     Egypt's geographic position at the crossroads between Asia, Africa and Europe made it a center of intellectual thought of strategic importance to France and Britain. It was central to the story of colonial rivalries and shifting global economic transformations during the 19th century. Peter Gran, historian of Egypt and the World, notes in the Islamic Roots of Capitalism that since the late 18th century France coveted Egypt's output of raw materials and hoped to get it for free rather than to continually pay for it.11 For Napoleon, occupying Egypt provided free access to raw materials and offered a key strategic position in the Indian and Mediterranean Oceans. Once Napoleon successfully invaded and occupied Egypt, he broke through the long-standing Ottoman barricade that excluded Europeans from dominating the "old world." The three year occupation (1798–1801) that followed was an important victory for the French because it successfully impeded British domination of the Indian Ocean world and the Arabian Peninsula. 12

     The British responded by working with the Ottoman Sultan to send a mission to Egypt to reclaim Ottoman authority by installing Muhammad Ali (an Albanian Ottoman military officer) after he massacred the competing Mamelukes in 1805.13 With the return of Ottoman authority in Egypt, the British and the French sought ways to benefit financially in conjunction with the "Eastern Question."14 this part of the sentence does not make sense to me] The re-establishment of a loyal Ottoman government in Egypt provided a space for the French and British to expand the capitulation agreements that granted Europeans immense trading privileges and concessions in public works that financially saddled Egypt to foreign investors for very long periods. The concessions, capitulation agreements and large land purchases helped European investors and governments burrow into the economic structure and embedded them politically in Egypt.

     Muhammad Ali, the first governor of Egypt in the 19th century, established himself as a formidable leader by expanding the military and focusing domestic attention on establishing power and economic expansion.15 Egypt gained increasing importance as the great global game of empire gained steam over the course of the 19th century. Sandwiched between India, the Persian Gulf and North Africa, Egypt was positioned strategically for both the British and French. Of equal importance were the developing ideas of opening up the Suez Canal by digging out the small strip of land that separated the Red Sea from the Mediterranean Ocean- a project that would transform international trade through the shipping of goods through the Suez Canal from Asia into Europe. Ferdinand De Lesseps, a French diplomat and friend of Said Pasha (1854–1863), the governor of Egypt, gained the concession to construct the Suez Canal. Unfortunately for France, the Egyptian governor Said and later the Viceroy (new title) Ismail (1863–1879) eventually relinquished the controlling shares in the Canal to the British in 1875.

     By 1882, these poor economic decisions resulted in widespread dissent and revolution led by Colonial Ahmad Urabi. British troops met Ahmad Urabi in the battle of Tel al-Kabir in the summer of 1882. Promising to re-establish order and evacuate once the authority of the governor (khedive) was restored, the British eventually argued that they could not end the occupation until they were certain that their investment in the Suez Canal was protected and that Egypt would pay back the remaining balance of their loans. 16 The occupation of Egypt illustrated the shift in the balance of power in the age of empire. While the Sublime Porte continually questioned the British motivation and objectives, this was met with an outright refusal to leave Egypt.

     Lord Cromer became the Consul General in Egypt in 1883 and remained until 1907.17 The British government selected Cromer because of his notable success in administration in British run India. His great accomplishment in Egypt was his ability to generate income for the British crown and convince the English public that local rule was undesirable, corrupt and impossible. His assertions about Egypt were based on his understanding of race and the inferiority of the Egyptian people to rule themselves. His grandiose claims were based on his own understanding of his role as an imperial master over a large estate that, like a plantation, would generate large revenues based on cotton production. While in Egypt, Cromer fancied himself a qualified expert and crafted Modern Egypt in an effort to explain the occupation, Britain's role in it and the ways that the imperial master would control and transform Egypt. While his greatest intention was to reap economic rewards, he also intended to convince Egyptians of their inferiority and the superiority of Western civilization.

Cromer and Modern Egypt

     Cromer's Modern Egypt, a two volume text, discusses the economic relationships between British and French investors and the Egyptian government during the 19th century. The text reads like an endless treatise of economic statistics and cultural justifications for the British occupation of Egypt. While economic stupidity featured prominently (according to Cromer) as part of Egypt's decline, gender and discussions of gender relationships in Egypt featured almost as much. In particular, the chapter, "The Dwellers of Egypt" discusses the stations of women, men and their relationship to Islam. The chapter begins with, "He (the Englishmen) came not as a conqueror, but in the familiar garb of a savior of society."18 The few pages that follow speak of Englishmen, in the third person, their mission and the (mostly well-received) response to English intervention in Egypt. The Englishman that he speaks of is an anthropomorphic representation of the British occupation of Egypt. The Englishman in this chapter is physically strong, placing English soldiers on the ground in Egypt, but also benevolent and wise. He sits back from the administration of the government and merely protects the structure, the elites and the downtrodden victims of Islam. According to Cromer, the Englishman is naturally inclined to hold such a position because of his race. This discussion is set up as a false binary based on the "raw material" that the Englishman had to content with when dealing with the "inhabitants." In referencing raw materials he speaks not of Egypt's natural resources, but of the eight million people who lived under the British occupation. For Cromer, the flaws and subservience of the Egyptians are biological and biologically proven through a discussion of race.19

     The diversity of inhabitants—Syrians, Jews, Copts, Armenians and Greeks—illustrate for Cromer the chaos of this unorganized society. There is no clear Egyptian race, which for Cromer is part of why Egypt is inferior. The racial discussion of Egypt illustrates the biological inferiority of Egyptian men to administer and control Egypt, but also serves as a vehicle to represent the Englishman as benevolent, educated and modern. While Cromer illustrates the racial inferiority of the Egyptian people, they are also depicted as having "barbaric virtues" and dangerous. This complicated yet simplistic depiction of Egyptian men establishes the superiority of the Englishman and the British occupation, specifically Cromer asserted that the Egyptian government employed "dangerous instruments" by encouraging mutiny in the army20 Cromer's representation of the Englishman reflected an acute understanding of imperial masculinity and how to sell it back in the metropole.21 The packaged image not only reflected the relationship between gender, empire and nation, but also illustrated that Cromer understood that support for empire related intimately to a capable English imperial agent that honored English manhood as modern, benevolent and competent. More interesting is the subtlety of masculinity and class as reflected by Cromer's discussion of Imperial administrators and imperial soldiers as well as a discussion of the mirror in Egyptian society. The competency of the imperial man served as a binary narrative against the ineffectual, slothful Egyptian elite.

     The Egyptian male elite appears in opposition to the Englishman of Modern Egypt. As the "east" is the opposite of the "west" and the Orient is the antithesis to the Occident, the Egyptian male is an economic disaster who lost control of the Suez Canal and borrowed Egypt into obscene national debt. He asserts, "For all practical purposes it may be said that the whole of the borrowed money, except 16 million pounds spent on the Suez Canal was squandered."22 The upper echelons of the Egyptian government were ineffectual economic administrators, but the military were an "utterly worthless" bunch.23 Interestingly, the worthless bunch become dangerous adversaries when their foes were British imperial forces. The class-based attributes to emasculate the Egyptian administration functioned as a vehicle to support Cromer and the British occupation. Cromer recounted the moment when Urabi surrendered to the Viceroy. The Viceroy trembled in fear and said "What can I do? We are between four fires? We shall be killed." The English official present calmed the Viceroy's nerves and subdued Urabi, the leader of the revolution that resulted in the British occupation. The complexity of social class and political implications colors the way that Cromer represented the elites of Egyptian society. The government lacked the power and the intellect to lead Egypt. Ironically, the gentry did not suffer the same criticism as urban elites because many were happy to collaborate with the British in the early days of the empire. 24 To some extent, their absence from real criticism resulted from a subtle thread that ran through Modern Egypt that the rural Egyptians were the real Egyptians.

     Modern Egypt asserted that the most authentic of all rural Egyptians were the fellaheen (peasant farmers).The poorest of men are almost entirely absent from Modern Egypt. Rather they are subsumed by the term peasant. Cromer uses the victimization of the Egyptian peasant, their poverty and lack of access to resources, to illustrate again the ineffectual leadership. Specifically, he discusses the famine in Upper Egypt during 1878 and references the climate of scarcity that resulted from poor economic choices made by the Egyptian government. Peasants appear in the text often in terms of the debt that resulted in the British Occupation. In a report from the 1878 famine, a British official claims, "it's almost incredible the distance travelled by women and children, begging from village to village…The poor were in some instances reduced to such extremities of hunger that they were driven to satisfy their cravings with the refuse and garbage of the streets."25 Depicting the poverty of peasants and more specifically peasant women and children, Cromer illustrated the ineffectual nature of the nationalists who could not and did not protect the peasant class from the despotic rule of the Viceroy's government. 26

     Of course, the description of the peasant as the authentic Egyptian was not invented by Cromer, but was also the dominant trope of the urban professional nationalists who were active in the Egyptian press. Peasant women in particular represented Egypt herself, the pure and pristine countryside and the strong connection to cultivation and the soil.27 As noted by Cromer's contemporary Qasim Amin, author of The New Woman (1900) and the Liberation of Women (1899) the position of women became central to the discussion of the viability of Egyptian men's ability to successfully govern independently without the support of the British. Amin, a respectable man from the urban middle class, a member of the effendiyya class, articulated that the oppression of women was part of the reason that Egypt was subservient to Europe. Only through the liberation of women, their education and release from veiling, could Egypt become part of the modern world. In many ways Amin was directly responding to Cromer and the occupation, illustrating the active involvement of elite men in the discussion of women's role in the future of Egyptian society. Amin's nationalist perspective sits in the backdrop of Modern Egypt and reflects the ways that societal issues of gender, race and nation colored how Cromer represented Egypt to Britain's reading audience, but also how Egyptians came to internalize Orientalist tropes as part of their internal voice of self-criticism.

Situating Cromer and Modern Egypt into the introductory World History course

     The discussion of Modern Egypt fits into a larger discussion of primary source analysis as a vehicle for students to understand historiography, but also connect gender and Orientalism to content. Because it is a two volume text, written in the Orientalist tradition, every aspect of Egyptian society and by extension every failure of Egypt serves as an evidentiary encyclopedia of justifications for the British occupation of Egypt. It reads part anthropological, part historical and seemingly a study of the social structure that positions the vast majority of Egypt's peasant population as victims of an "Oriental despotic structure."

     The excerpts from the following Modern Egypt assignment is part of scaffolded approach to develop students writing and critical thinking skills. In my modern World History course, students write three short primary source assignments that eventually lead to writing short papers. Students receive comprehensive feedback on the primary source assignments to encourage edit and revision as part of the writing process. In New York state (where I teach), students in High School are required to take a regent's exam that privileges tertiary content knowledge at the expense of close engaged readings of primary sources. In many ways, the introductory history course in college has the potential to revive the content since a number of high school graduates need to relearn basic skills before the can tackle college classes, according to a local news report from 2013.28 As a result, critical engagement of primary sources is the first assignment that we tackle.

Orientalism, Masculinity and Primary Source Analysis

Lesson Plan: Assigning Modern Egypt and a discussion of Orientalism

     Lord Cromer's perspectives reflected the way that British and French imperialists represented the people of the Middle East and North Africa in print over the course of the 19th century. Edward Said's seminal text Orientalism, originally published in 1979, has become the methodological foundation for understanding the relationships that developed between Europeans (mostly French and British, then later Americans) and Middle Eastern and North Africa peoples during the 19th century.29 For Said, the transformative relationship between Europe and the Middle East began when Napoleon invaded Egypt, occupied it for three years and robbed the country intellectually and culturally by producing knowledge about Egypt's people, places, flora, fauna and animals in the multi-volume Description de l'Egypt. What followed was a century of knowledge production that cast Europe as "the west" or occident and "the east" as the orient. The East's exotic backward culture trapped in a timeless space rested against a backdrop of the eroding great ancient empires that stood in opposition to the modern educated culture in the west. The binary of east and west existed as a way to simultaneously justify imperial domination and colonial subjugation.

     Orientalism is a robust text that queries a number of European Orientalist writings, a detailed reading of the introduction of the text will provide the foundation for a robust discussion of the Modern Egypt text. While Modern Egypt and a discussion of Orientalism are accessible to many historians of modern Egypt and the Middle East, it may be a daunting task for teachers who are less comfortable with the content.

Lesson Plan: Presenting Orientalism and Modern Egypt

     This lesson plan works best in a class of about an hour or an hour and a half. The discussion of Orientalism and the Modern Egypt assignment are part of the section on empire in the Middle East and North Africa. In this lesson, I cover motivations and justifications of empire fairly extensively and highlight the British Occupation of Egypt from 1882 and the colonization of North Africa and the Levant by the French. We also discuss shifting relationships with the Ottoman Empire and the "Eastern Question." After a detailed lecture, we discuss the ways that the British and French justified empire in terms of gender. For example, we discuss questions like: How did the British and French justify occupation in the Middle East in terms of gender? How do we understand gender in terms of empire? Is gender a good way to understand empire? These questions result in a brief discussion of the main points of Orientalism. Teachers can prepare by reading the introduction of Orientalism and viewing the documentary "On Orientalism" supplemented with content about empire in the course textbook.

     Content knowledge and establishing a chronological timeline of the major historical events that shape the history of the world provides a narrow space to discuss incidental sources or themes that often provide the most texture and interest to students. Close readings of sections from longer primary sources like Cromer's Modern Egypt carve out a space to discuss overarching ideologies that guided the age of high imperialism. I hope to provide an avenue for teachers of introductory modern world history courses to engage Orientalism and gender- a seemingly intermediate or advanced level theme- to draw students into the lived experiences of people subjected to imperial policies based on racist and gendered assumptions. A detailed discussion of Orientalism and the ways that Orientalist ideas about gender in the age of empire can provide students with a necessary methodological framework to address and engage primary sources that around the themes of gender and empire. Expanding students' understanding of methodological frameworks helps students develop theses on their own without pointed research questions that stifle their abilities to use their own thoughts to develop and expand upon their own ideas.

Appendix

     The Modern Egypt assignment is the second in the series of three assignments in my modern world history course which covers approximately 1800 to the present. Being able to identify the ways that Europeans and Americans deploy gender as a vehicle for dominance in the age of empire and the Cold War helps students to develop their own perspectives about history above memorizing content. The text is easily assessable and readily available at no cost on both googlebooks and archives.org. With the rising costs of textbooks that feature primary source materials, Modern Egypt as a supplemental text could potentially become part of an OER (Open Educational Resource) as it in my class. Students receive the following instructions:

PRIMARY SOURCE PAPER- guided rubric for the assignment

  • This assignment is a short paper- three paragraphs that should help students illustrate that they have a general understanding of Modern Egypt and can make an original thesis about gender and Orientalist ideas. This is the second assignment because the first primary source assignment is written and revised for a higher grade. Each of the primary source assignments is only three paragraphs so that students can also develop the important skills revision and brevity. By only allowing three paragraphs, students are forced to consider how they can reflect their perspectives with clarity and precision. I impress upon students how these types of assignments will provide lifelong writing skills and that learning about gender and orientalism will expand their intellectual wheelhouse for developing theses. Pointed directions for each paragraph (here depicted as P1, P2, P3) helps students focus on how to make arguments and support them with evidence.

P1- Should provide the title of the source, a very brief summary of the text and say what students hope to critique-argue in P2. Students need to provide an argument-thesis driven statement. A summary alone is neither desirable nor enough to thoroughly complete the assignment.

P2- Should be an analytical paragraph that provides (at least) one example from the text to support the author's claim…ie. The slave's story provides insight into the cruelty of the system, "insert quotation from text here." Using direct quotations provides clarity and helps to support the author's claims.

P3- Should summarize briefly what was covered in P1 and P2 and also say something about the significance of this document for the study of world history and how it shows global interconnectivity. Do not throw this paragraph away, put as much effort into it as P1 and P2.

Grading Rubric- Students are awarded 1–5 for each of the following categories

  1. clarity-this means how well it is written

  2. content- how well you answer the question

  3. analysis/argument- how much of your voice is in the answer. I don't want historical information parroted back at me, I want you to present a thesis driven response. I mean what is your perspective about what you read.

  4. General sloppiness/ neatness- Does this assignment look like you wrote it in 5 minutes? Does it look like you took great care in your work?

These instructions are guided, but to a less extent than the rubrics students quite often receive in high school. While this is uncomfortable for some students, particularly writing original theses without the benefit of a specific research question or prompt, it forces them to engage the material in ways that are different and more advanced the pedestrian constrained methods privileged in high school.  

The writing assignment follows an extensive discussion of Orientalism and gender. While students in the introductory history course do not read Orientalism, they are introduced to it throughout the course. Specifically, we problematize the way that World History often becomes a story of the "west" and the "rest." This discussion helps revive history as a viable and interesting topic for many students who have largely understood world history through the lens of high school global history and the regents' exam that follows. The discussion of Orientalism provides a methodological reference point to begin to formulate an argument in the Modern Egypt text. It usually follows the initial primary source assignment that establishes for me students' writing and critical thinking skills. It shows me where student are in terms of their preparedness for a college level introductory world history course.

Stephanie Anne Boyle is Assistant Professor of History at (CUNY) New York City College of Technology (SBoyle@citytech.cuny.edu)


 
Notes

1Gilbert T. Sewall, "World History Textbooks: A Review" for the American Textbook Council, 2004 and Thomas Fordham Institute, "A Consumer's Guide to High School History Textbooks" by Diane Ravitch February 2004.

2 Sewall, p. 555–556, William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel, The Essential World History (Australia: Cengage Learning, 2017).

3 Jerry H. Bentley, Herbert F. Ziegler, and Heather Streets-Salter, Traditions and Encounters: A Brief Global History (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2016).

4 Roger B. Beck et al, World History: Patterns of Interaction (New York:Holt McDougal, 2012).

5 Peter Stearns et al, World Civilizations: the Global Experience (New York: Pearson, 2014

6 Elizabeth Pollard et al., Worlds Together, Worlds Apart (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015).

7 Craig A. Lockhard, "The Rise of World History Scholarship," in Ross E. Dunn, Laura Jane Mitchell, and Kerry Ward, The New World History: A Field Guide for Teachers and Researchers (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2016), 31.

8 For a more detailed discussion on the debates concerning, periodization, eurocentrism in World History and microhistory in world history see Sven Beckert and Dominic Sachsenmaier, Global History, Globally: Research and Practice around the World (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018) or Patrick Manning, Global Practice in World History: Advances Worldwide (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2011).

9 Leon Carl. Brown, Diplomacy in the Middle East: The International Relations of Regional and Outside Powers (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006).

10 Juan Cole, Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East, (New York: AUC Press, 1999). Cole's study of the events that led up to the British Occupation is still one of the most comprehensive and nuanced discussions of empire and power in Egypt.

11 Peter Gran, Islamic Roots of Capitalism (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1979), 5. Gran argues that the both France and Britain coveted the raw materials from Egypt and North Africa as a result of the Seven Years War (1758–1763).

12 Juan Cole, Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East (New York: Palgrave, 2008), 3.

13 Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha's Men (New York: American University of Cairo Press, 2010), p. 51.

14 Lucien J. Frary and Mara Kozelsky, Russian-Ottoman Borderlands: The Eastern Question Reconsidered (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2014), 4. The "Eastern Question" is defined as who benefitted from the continuation of Ottoman authority after the Russia-Turkish (Ottoman) War (1768–1774). The answer varied, but most importantly for the purpose of this study it kept France and the British involved in Egyptian politics.

15 Fahmy, All the Pasha's Men recounts the dynamic relationship between Muhammad Ali, Egypt's first modern Ruler and the Ottoman Sultan, p. xix–xxxi.

16 Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991).

17 Roger Owen, Lord Cromer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

18 Modern Egypt, 123.

19 Modern Egypt, 15.

20 Modern Egypt, 108.

21 Wilson Chako Jacob, Working out Egypt: Effendi Masculinity and Subject Formation in Colonial Modernity (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011), 287.

22 Modern Egypt, 11.

23 Modern Egypt, 355.

24 Modern Egypt, 35.

25 Modern Egypt, 35.

26 Working out Egypt, 63.

27 Beth Baron, Egypt as Woman (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007).

28 "Officials: Most NYC High School Grads Need Remedial Help Before Entering CUNY Community Colleges," http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/07/officials-most-nyc-high-school-grads-need-remedial-help-before-entering-cuny-community-colleges/ and "Are New York City Students Getting Smarter Or Are Regents Exams Getting Easier?" https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2013/05/08/are-new-york-city-students-getting-smarter-or-are-regents-exams-getting-easier/#2d4261665a82

29 Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Penguin, 1979). There is also a very good documentary where Said discusses the main points of Orientalism. See Edward Said "On Orientalism" directed by Sut Jhully.