The 1919 revolution
The exile of Saad Zaghlul sets off a nationwide uprising in which Muslims and Copts rise together, forcing Britain to grant Egypt nominal independence in 1922.
- Modern Egypt: The Formation of a Nation-State — Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., Westview Press (2004)
- The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 2: Modern Egypt, from 1517 to the End of the Twentieth Century — M. W. Daly (ed.), Cambridge University Press (1998)
- Christians versus Muslims in Modern Egypt: The Century-Long Struggle for Coptic Equality — S. S. Hasan, Oxford University Press (2003)
After the First World War, a delegation (wafd) led by Saad Zaghlul asked to go to the Paris Peace Conference to argue for Egypt’s independence. Britain refused, and on 8 March 1919 arrested Zaghlul and deported him to Malta. Within days the country rose up: students, lawyers, workers and peasants struck, demonstrated and cut railway and telegraph lines, and hundreds were killed as British troops restored order.
- Modern Egypt: The Formation of a Nation-State — Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., Westview Press (2004)
- The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 2: Modern Egypt, from 1517 to the End of the Twentieth Century — M. W. Daly (ed.), Cambridge University Press (1998)
Two images defined the revolution: upper-class women, led by Huda Sha’rawi, marching veiled through Cairo, and flags showing the crescent and cross together, with Coptic priests preaching in al-Azhar and sheikhs in churches.
- Christians versus Muslims in Modern Egypt: The Century-Long Struggle for Coptic Equality — S. S. Hasan, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Modern Egypt: The Formation of a Nation-State — Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., Westview Press (2004)
- Modern Egypt: The Formation of a Nation-State — Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., Westview Press (2004)
- The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 2: Modern Egypt, from 1517 to the End of the Twentieth Century — M. W. Daly (ed.), Cambridge University Press (1998)
The years that followed, the “liberal era”, saw a flowering of Egyptian culture: a free if partisan press, Cairo University (founded in 1908 and made a state university in 1925), the first Egyptian films, Umm Kulthum’s rise and the singer Sayed Darwish’s anthem “Biladi, Biladi”, now the national anthem. They also saw growing frustration with a political system dominated by the palace, the landowners and the British, out of which grew both the Muslim Brotherhood, founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928, and, eventually, the Free Officers.
- Modern Egypt: The Formation of a Nation-State — Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., Westview Press (2004)
- The Society of the Muslim Brothers — Richard P. Mitchell, Oxford University Press (1969)
- The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century — Virginia Danielson, University of Chicago Press (1997)
Why it matters today
1919 is remembered as the moment the Egyptian nation stood up as one, men and women, Muslims and Christians, under the banner of the crescent and the cross. It is still invoked whenever Egyptians talk about national unity, and the liberal, parliamentary Egypt it created is looked back on with nostalgia by some.