Issues of Jewish History as Reflected in Modern Egyptian Historiography · 229Their positive attitude regarding the contribution of the Jews to world
culture is obvious, and they even express reservations about the blood li-
bel and the persecution of the Jews by the mob. However, except for these
three books, it seems that whatever was written about the Jews was criti-
cal and unsympathetic. It is enough if we look at some of the book titles
to realize this trend: Israel: The Torah: Misleading History, The Real History
of the Jews from Their Appearance to Date, Delusions in Jewish History, The
Jews of the Arab World—False Claims of Persecution, The Jews and the Legend
of Historical Rights.
Egyptian historiography cannot, of course, be considered en bloc,
since it covers a wide spectrum that starts from the rightist, Islamist
angle, which examines historical events through a religious prism, up
to the leftist social one, which is mainly secular and whose historical vi-
sion is based on materialistic concepts such as economics and society.
Between these two extremes there are various religious undercurrents,
but the main characteristic of them all is their evaluation of the national
dimension as the main motivation for the course of history. In fact, three
different ideological streams can be distinguished in the Egyptian dis-
course, each implying a specific attitude toward the past: the nationalis-
tic-institutional stream, the revisionist-leftist, and the Islamist. This divi-
sion was introduced into academic research at the end of the 1960s by
Yehoshafat Harkavi. About two decades later, it was confirmed by the
Orientalist Emanuel Sivan, and it can be said that it is also accepted by
Arab researchers.^2
The common interest of these three streams is their negative approach
toward Jews, Judaism, and Zionism. For instance, national historians
consider Zionism to be a competitive factor and present its supporters
as a danger to the Arab nation. The leftist researchers refer to them as a
societal enemy by presenting them as capitalists who exploit the socially
weaker classes. The Islamists, on the other hand, point out that they are
heretics who compete with Islam about divine truth.
Among these streams and substreams there are differences. This is
expressed by the nature of their source material and claims, as well as the
terminology, symbols, and linguistic codes that served each of them to
describe the Jews, Judaism, and Zionism. There is a clear tendency among
Islamist historians to deal with issues relating to the Jewish faith and refer
to it as the main cause for the conflict between Jews and Muslims. These
historians base their claims on their holy scriptures and concentrate,