"Politics, History and Culture in Nasser's Egypt"

Author(s): Muhammad al-Hadidi

Source: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Jan., 1977), pp. 123-124
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/162458
Accessed: 07-08-2019 03:58 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to International Journal of Middle East Studies

This content downloaded from 200.75.19.153 on Wed, 07 Aug 2019 03:58:05 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Int. J. Middle East Stud. 8 (1977), 123-132 Printed in U.S.A. 123

NOTES AND COMMUNICATIONS

To the Editor:

Comments and observations on the article "Politics, History and Culture in

Nasser's Egypt," by Jack Crabbs, Jr.'
I. The stand on "Revolutionary Art" attributed to such men as Louis Awad,
Muhamn-ad Anis, and Muhammad Mandur is not to be taken at face value. To
say (p. 406) that the plea for revolutionary art "struck a responsive note" is an
overstatement with no foundation. These men were old enough before the "Revolu-
tion" to have entertained and examined any ideas worth holding; they had had
ample opportunity to study the principles of socialist art and demonstrate the con-
clusions that they were responsive to it. The fact that they had not done so means
that we should be very wary of accepting their later pronouncements at face value.
Perhaps the root problem is the word "revolution." In my view the word as
used throughout the article is an extravagant generalization of a political and
governmental system that, if examined carefully over the years it lasted and the
very different phases of reactive change it went through, will be found to have
had very little to do with the notion this word implies. The author himself, rather
belatedly (p. 414 from line 7), reflects on the possibility that everything these
men said during the Nasser period should not be taken literally. The best descrip-
tion of the situation at that time comes as a footnote on p. 409: "Conflict between
artistic integrity and comfort that only government patronage can provide."
2. While theatrical and other cultural activities were described in the article
and many plays that had political subtleties were mentioned, one cannot help being
surprised at the absence of many prominent names. A notable example of this type
of omission is Dr. Rashad Rushdi and his work, especially the famous play Baladi
Ya Baladi (My Country, O My Country) which ran between I967-69, and many
others.

3. On p. 407 there is a comment on the views of Dr. Anis; it is difficult to tell

whether it comes from him himself or is an interpretation of the author. Wherever
it comes from, I believe it also requires reconsideration: "Viewed in a positive way,
Egypt since the revolution had become culturally richer than before. She was in a
position to profit from socialist cultures yet continued to draw inspiration from
the West as well." I would like to point out here:
(a) It is simply untrue that Egypt continued to draw from the West, because:
Western books had all but vanished from the scene, because of currency prob-
lems and for other reasons. So did magazines, records, ballet and theatre troupes

1 IJMES 6, 4 (1975), 386-420.

This content downloaded from 200.75.19.153 on Wed, 07 Aug 2019 03:58:05 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
124 Notes and Communications

etc.
etc. Anyone
Anyonewho
wholived
lived
in in
Egypt
Egypt
through
through
the sixties,
the sixties,
and indeed
and indeed
one could
oneargue,
could argue
up
up to
to this
thismoment,
moment,will
will
know
know
thatthat
anything
anything
moremore
than athan
dash aofdash
Western
of Western
culture culture
was
was simply
simplyunavailable.
unavailable.It is
It still
is still
scarcely
scarcely
so. Even
so. Even
the universities
the universities
suffered
suffered
ter- ter
ribly
ribly from
fromthis
thisisolation,
isolation,
andand
students
students
of English
of English
could could
not obtain
not obtain
the books
thethey
books they
needed.

Egyptians were not allowed to travel to or accept invitations from the W\est.
Even government officials were rarely able to take any looks beyond the iron cur-
tain that had descended on Egypt. A good example of the conscious efforts to
prevent cultural contact with the West was the ban on Western films. This ban
was not continued, tlhouglh it was tried twice, only because it was found imprac-
tical to enforce.

(b) It is not true either that Egypt profited from "socialist culture," whatever
that is. If it means culture coming from the Eastern Bloc, I should like to say here
that in my view hardly anything at all came. The languages of this bloc are un-
known here in Egypt, and whatever culture they may have there, this was cer-
tainly refused by the Egyptian readership. Anyone who spends a few hours in
Cairo today will quickly conclu(le that none of this ever happened. No traces are
left for tl-e very good reason that nothing was ever imported here which was
readily embraced by tlhe Egyptian people. If what was meant is books on Marxism
and all that, I believe they have always had in the West far n-ore variety of such
material than we have ever had at any time. And certainly far more people there
read the material. The pl)ain trutll is that Egypt lived through this period with
little or no culture of any sort.

MUHAMMAD AL-HADIDI

Heliopolis, Cairo

To the Editor:

James Bill's "the Patterns of Political Elite in Iran" in Political Elites in the
Middle East (G. Lenczowski, ed.. Washington, D.C., I975) exposes and explains
the system of political processes in Iran. He correctly identifies the political elite
as an increasingly well-educated cohesive group consisting of (i) the famous
forty national elite families who, since the nineteenth century, have been playing
a dominant role in Iranian politics-"bound to one another and to the other elit
families in a complex web of kinship ties, social intercourse, economic cooperation,
and political expediency." they provide the system with an element of continuity;
(2) the so-called mushroom aristocracy, who are mostly members of the middl
class intelligentsia being recruited for elite positions. The author points to the
strengthlening sociopolitical position given to them, noting, however, the general
feeling of alienation and discontent of tlat class toward the elite rulers. He also

This content downloaded from 200.75.19.153 on Wed, 07 Aug 2019 03:58:05 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms