More Ink Than Blood

Although starting in Tunisia before spreading across the Arab world, the vast majority of books about the so-called Arab Spring published thus far in English deal with Egypt. There are a number of reasons for this, first being that Egypt’s colonial history was one of Anglophone rather than Franco- phone domination, in spite of the French getting there first, with Napoleon in 1798.

Second, and more importantly is the ostensible familiarity of, and thus in- terest in, Egypt for foreign journalists and tourists. The original tourist des- tination, Pharaonic Egypt has loomed large in the imagination for hundreds of years, even if today more foreign visitors part with their money to stay in one of the many, high-walled Red Sea resorts.

There is a hadith attributed to Mohammad, the prophet of Islam, which says, ‘The ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of the martyr.’ If this is true, we can all rejoice in the results of this revolution. Within weeks of Mubarak’s removal from office on 11 February 2011, there was a flood of titles tackling events. The titles considered below have been arranged into four broad, but distinct categories: books that cover Egypt from 1952 to Mubarak’s demise; those concerned with events as they took place; works that look ahead to what might happen next; and titles that of- fer analysis of events from a broader, region-wide political and historical perspective.

1952 And All That

Writing a chronological history of the Republic of Egypt is relatively straightforward. One begins with the 1952 Coup, a.k.a. 23 July Revolution, and then – ignoring Naguib – divides the body of the text between Nasser,

Sadat and Mubarak. The three presidents provide a neat arrangement, and here are three books that do just this: The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square by Steven Cook, The Road to Tahrir Square: Egypt and the United States from the Rise of Nasser to the Fall of Mubarak by Lloyd Gardner, and Egypt on the Brink: From the Rise of Nasser to the Fall of Mubarak by Tarek Osman.

A historian of American foreign policy, Lloyd Gardner’s book is an intelli- gent and astute account of US-Egyptian relations since 1952, which impor- tant area easily justifies the focus of this work. However, the author’s unar- guable expertise with regard to US foreign policy and American opinions sometimes means that this angle gets more space, and is handled more con- fidently, than that material which deals with the Egyptian view of things.

In contrast, Tarek Osman’s approach to the same period does not try to cov- er the complex relationship between a superpower and the leading nation in the Arab World. Instead, Osman’s thematic approach, which may initially disorientate newcomers to the subject, turns out to be far more powerful and insightful. Osman was born and raised in Egypt. An Egyptian-born writer will not necessarily do a better job than a foreigner, but in Osman’s case, it adds to his instinct for the story of his native land.

Of the three, Steve Cook’s The Road to Tahrir Square is the best, most accessible history of modern Egypt, with the complex and competing nar- ratives deftly handled. Cook tells the story of how the Egyptian military have been in effective control of the country since the 1952 coup, and how they were allowed to turn the country into a security state that spent most of its time securing its own position. In Egypt today, one sees millions of Egyptians in the streets, celebrating the removal of Morsi and looking to the Army to establish an egalitarian, democratic system. The Army did nothing to safeguard the ‘revolution’ of 1952, and it is unlikely to prove to be a force for democratisation in 2013.

To the Barricades

The eighteen days of popular protests that took place in January and February 2011, forcing President Mubarak from power after more than twenty- nine years, were truly astonishing. As a result, it is understandable that some would try and capitalise on the first rush of excitement. Anyone who raced to get a book out before phase one of the revolution was over must have known they were taking a gamble, perhaps producing a volume whose shelf life might be about the same as a copy of Vogue, and substantially less than an issue of The London Magazine. While mass demonstrations took place all over Egypt, Midan Tahrir – Liberation Square – in downtown Cairo was the epicentre. As a result, Midan Tahrir is naturally invoked in a number of titles.

Tweets from Tahrir is a slim, not uninteresting book that consists almost entirely of Twitter feeds sent in Cairo between 25 January and 11 Febru- ary. The editors’s selections, which they explain are limited to English- language messages ‘for logistical and stylistic reasons,’ do an excellent job of conveying the immediacy, confusion and excitement among younger, educated, technologically savvy protestors. The causes of the revolution were many and deep-rooted, and to speak of a Twitter or Facebook Revolu- tion would be fatuous. Thankfully, the editors do not make any such claims but, equally, they are right to highlight the role played by these modern communication tools.

Thankfully, the twenty or so Egyptians who contributed to 18 Days in Tahrir: Stories from Egypt’s Revolution were allowed to tell their stories in more than one-hundred and forty characters. The exhilaration felt in Cairo during the course of phase one of the revolution is well captured here. As with any collection, it is inevitable that the editor’s view will be found lurk- ing somewhere in the narrative, wittingly or otherwise. What most interests Hatem Rushdy, the editor of 18 Days, is the wide socio-economic variety of people who came together to participate in what he calls a multi-class revolution. While politics in Egypt has gone through innumerable twists and turns since the events recorded, this book remains a useful, readable aide-mémoire.

History does not end, which is why ‘what next’ predictions, while great fun, are often problematic. In the wake of the Arab uprisings, most ‘what next’ scenarios are dire. An important reason Mubarak’s opponents were successful was that they were united in the single goal of forcing him from power. Egypt is still in turmoil, two and a half years later, because of the inevitable falling away of that unity of purpose once Mubarak was gone. It is easier to rally opposition to one man who has held power for nearly thirty years than it is to get the people to march behind a banner of socio- economic reforms.

After the Arab Spring: How Islamists Hijacked the Middle East Revolts by John Bradley offers the bleakest analysis, and a future not so far off when the entire region is in thrall to radical Islamists. Bradley is correct in highlighting the importance of economics as an important driver of the uprisings, not to mention corruption and nepotism. A yearning for democ- racy may have been present, but demands for this came later. However, this is not an easy read, with much of the author’s insight lost because of his hectoring. The voice is aggressive, verging on hysterical, and one often feels as though the author is trying to start a fight with the reader. Unforgivably, it is only on page 206 of 216 that Bradley stops conflating Islam – the religion – with Islamism – a political ideology that places such emphasis on social conservatism. Mark Lynch’s The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East is, by contrast, a pleasure to read. The author, director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University, Washington, DC, offers detailed analysis that does not shy away from pointing out the hard truth that bad times are likely just around the corner. One aspect of this will be a reduction in American influ- ence in the region. Given what a terrible hash the world’s most powerful nation continues to make in its dealings with the region, this may not be such a bad thing. In the meantime, to start building balanced partnerships in the region, it might help if we started approaching the locals as people, not Arabs.

A political analyst with Al Jazeera English, Marwan Bishara’s The Invisible Arab: The Promise and Peril of the Arab Revolution is the most optimistic of the three ‘what next’ titles. Watching the Egyptian Army’s removal of Morsi, one might wonder at Bishara’s claim that the Arab uprisings really do mark a break with the past. However, on balance, one is inclined to agree with him. Building on years of protests, strikes, and sit-ins, which were rarely if ever covered by Western media outlets, events from Decem- ber 2010 represented the culmination of a long-simmering movement, not the start of one. The loss of fear is not easy to quantify, but it is palpable on the streets of Cairo today.

Back to Square One

Muhammad Naguib was born in Khartoum in 1901, when Egypt and the Sudan were a single political entity, bound together as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. A curious-looking beast, the condominium of Egypt and the United Kingdom was conceived in the wake of the Battle of Omdurman, and dis- solved with the birth of the Republic of Sudan, in January 1956. With an Egyptian father and Sudanese mother, Naguib embodied the political un- ion. As an ardent nationalist, his view of the world was like many of his generation, but even more of the generation that followed.

Naguib’s father was a soldier in the Egyptian Army, a position he came to resent, seeing his role as nothing more than that of a servant of the British Empire. Following his father’s example, but ignoring his advice, Naguib joined the Egyptian Army in 1918. In spite of Britain’s unilateral declara- tion of Egyptian independence in 1922, and the creation of the Kingdom of Egypt, the British military presence in the country left nobody in any doubt as to who was really in charge. For those who yearned for genuine independence, which in most cases was tied to the end of the Egyptian monarchy, this was a period of permanent frustration. While occasionally threatening to resign, Naguib enjoyed a very successful career, achieving the rank of Major-General in 1950.

After his ouster, Egypt’s first president spent eighteen years under house arrest in Cairo on the orders of Egypt’s second president, Naguib’s erst- while co-conspirator, Gamal Abdel Nasser. Two years after Nasser’s death in 1970, Egypt’s third president, Anwar Sadat, released Naguib from his domestic incarceration. By now an old man, with no political ambition,