Egypt: Modernity and Identity
Nasser Rabbat
Nasser Rabbat, B. Arch
(Damascus), M. Arch
(UCLA), PhD (MIT), is
the Aga Khan Professor of
Islamic Architecture at the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. He is the au-
thor of several books, includ-
ing The Citadel of Cairo:
A New Interpretation of
Royal Mamluk Architecture
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995),
Thaqafat al Bina’ wa Bina’
al-Thaqafa [The Culture
of Building and Building
Culture] (Beirut: Riad
Alrayyes Publisher, 2002).Steeped in history and tradition, but also open and cosmopolitan, modern Cairo de-
veloped an expansive yet distinct sense of identity. Starting from the middle of the 19th
century, the city went through a series of political, cultural, and economic transmuta-
tions that were reflected in its First was the invasion of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1798-
1801, which jolted the country to rise from its medieval stupor and face up to this early
colonial threat. Second was the reign of Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha (1805-48), who sought
to modernize the country in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to catch up with the West.
This became sadly clear during the reign of his grandson, Khedive Isma‘il (1863-79),
the most ambitious, most “progress”-minded, and most Europeanized member of the
dynasty. He visited the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1867 and was fascinated by the
bold plan of Baron Haussmann, which transformed the city of Paris. Upon his return, he
“Haussmannized” Cairo and drastically altered its size, layout, and future development.
Isma‘il’s economic policies proved disastrous. The British landed in 1882, after he was
replaced by his son, Tawfic, in 1879 and subjugated Egypt to colonial rule. They also
opened the country to their vast imperial network. Within 20 years, Cairo became a
cosmopolitan city tied to the inter-
national economic system and teem-
ing with a multitude of migrant ad-
venturers and persecuted minorities
that sought her as a new home. This
was the peak architectural moment
of the city. Scores of buildings were
built in hybrid styles that borrowed
freely from the varied repertoires of
the past and blended them with vari-
ous European styles, especially the Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Neo-Baroque styles. But
the one distinguishing invention of the period, and the one adopted as the semi-official
style of the country, was the Neo-Mamluk style.
The most majestic Neo-Mamluk example is the Mosque of al-Rifa‘i (1869-1911), which
stands opposite the Mosque of Sultan Hasan (1356-61) as an attempt by the Khedival
family to measure up to the Mamluks. (Fig. 1) Other notable examples are the Dar
al-Kutub, built in 1904 by the Italian Alfonso Manescalo (Fig. 2), the Awqaf Ministry,
built between 1898 and 1929 by Mahmud Fahmi, and the Egyptian Engineers Society
Fig. 1: Mosque of Sultan Hasan