Francophone Egyptian Nationalists, Anti-British Discourse, and

European Public Opinion, 1885-1910: The Case of Mustafa Kamil

and Ya'qub Sannu'

Ziad Fahmy

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East,

Volume 28, Number 1, 2008, pp. 170-183 (Article)

Published by Duke University Press

For additional information about this article

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cst/summary/v028/28.1.fahmy.html

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 Francophone Egyptian Nationalists,
Anti-British Discourse, and
European Public Opinion, 1885 – 1910:
The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘

Ziad Fahmy

If any fresh proof were required that it is somebody’s interest to make mischief between
England and France by reviving, if possible, in a new form the Egyptian question, it would
be found in the persistent efforts of the Egyptian Nationalists to enlist sympathy for
their cause in this country through the medium of the Paris Press. A short time ago the
Nationalist agitator Mustapha Kamel [Mustafa Kamil] Pasha ventilated his views in the
Temps. Today he contributes an article to the Figaro.
— Times (London) Paris correspondent, 29 April 1907

nfluencing European public opinion regarding the ills of the British occupation and
“enlisting sympathy” for Egyptian independence was one of the key objectives of the
Egyptian nationalist movement. This tactic was used in an attempt to compel the Euro-
pean powers, especially France, into politically forcing the British out of Egypt. Ya‘qub Sannu‘
(1839  –1912) and Mustafa Kamil (1874  –1908) were the two most important and visible Egyp-
tian propagandists in France who, as this article will demonstrate, played an active role in
reshaping European perceptions of Egypt and the British occupation.
s of  Sannu‘, who was a Parisian resident from 1877 until his death in 1912, presented almost
tu di e
iv eS   weekly lectures to French audiences on a variety of topics related to Egypt and Islam. His
a rat a nd weekly illustrated Abu-Naddara Zarqa’ and L’Univèrs Musulman periodicals were published in
mp r ic a
Co Af
 
  s ia , Paris and targeted both French and Egyptian readers.1 In his lectures, political cartoons, and
 
ut hA
 
  o st  articles, Sannu‘ cleverly sang the praises of French culture while baiting the Anglophobia of
       S Ea
    le
    idd French readers and audiences with merciless attacks on the British. He was especially adept at
 
 
th eM using his own newspapers to lure the mainstream French press into covering stories favorable
 
 
      00
8 3 
  . 1, 2 7 - 06 to Egyptian nationalist goals.2
  , -2No 00
  28 0 1x s s 
ol. 92 Pre
   V1 0 8 i ty I would like to thank Linda T. Darling, Julia Clancy-Smith, Charles 2.  It is important to note here that Sannu‘ continued to print his
  / s
  121
5 er
 
  1 0. ni v D. Smith, Kaila Bussert, Deborah A. Starr, and Ziad Abi Chakra newspapers until December 1910 and did not retire in 1907 as
d oi k eU
     Du for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. All cited in the literature. In the conclusion of The Practical Visions
    by
0 08 Arabic and French translations, unless otherwise indicated, are of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, which is the only non-Arabic book-length biog-
2
 © my own. raphy of Sannu‘, Irene L. Gendzier mistakenly claims that Sannu‘
 
retired in November 1907, “without formally taking leave of his
1.  Abu-Naddara Zarqa’ [Zarr’a] means “The Man with the Blue
readers.” In fact, Sannu‘ continued to publish both newspapers
Glasses” in colloquial Egyptian. The first issue appeared on 21
until December 1910, and he even dedicated the entire last issue
March 1877. Initially it was an Arabic newspaper, but by 1885 it
of Abu-Naddara Zarqa’ as a final farewell to his readers. Schol-
was equally divided between a French and an Arabic section.
ars relying on Gendzier for Sannu‘’s biographical information
L’Univèrs Musulman, published from 1907 to 1910, was entirely
are continuing to date 1907 as the year of Sannu‘’s retirement
170 written in French and primarily targeted a European audience.
from journalism (e.g., see Joel Beinin “Writing Class: Workers
 Like Sannu‘, Mustafa Kamil spent a great
deal of time publicizing Egyptian nationalist
claims to European audiences. From 1895 until
his unexpected death in 1908, Kamil wrote
many articles and editorials in European news-
papers including Le Figaro, L’Éclair, Le Journal
des Debats, Revue des Deux Mondes, the Times, and
Nouvelle revue. 3 The European publicity of the
and Kamil’s European media campaigns, taking 171
into account their manipulation of European
colonial rivalries, their repeated Francophile
appeals, and their frequent exploitation of An-
glophobic discourse. Additionally, by revealing
the external resistance strategies of colonized
intellectuals, I hope to expand the geographic
playing field of colonial-colonized encounters

Ziad Fahmy 

The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘

Egyptian nationalist cause was so important
to Kamil that in 1907 he established two new
versions of his al-Liwa (Standard) newspaper in
both English (Egyptian Standard) and French
(L’ Étendard Egyptienne).4 Aside from their jour-
nalistic activities, throughout their careers
Sannu‘ and Kamil conducted interviews, made
countless speeches, and held many conferences
and presentations throughout France and Eu-
rope in their continuing attempts at externally
forcing a resolution to the Egyptian question.
Despite the significance of Sannu‘’s and
Kamil’s European activities, historians have only
briefly examined these events. Israel Gershoni
and James Jankowski’s Egypt, Islam, and the Arabs,
the most comprehensive work on early Egyptian
nationalism, does not cover Egyptian national-
ist efforts in Europe. Short of a brief mention
in their introduction of how Kamil “hoped to
use the French as a lever against the British in
Egypt,” the authors pay little attention to Kamil
and Sannu‘’s European campaigns. 5 Afaf Lutfi
al-Sayyid Marsot and Irene L. Gendzier outline
the European activities of Sannu‘ and Kamil,
though without detailing these events.6
Accordingly, the primary objective of this
article is to shed more light on the European
activities of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘,
hoping to spark further research on Egyptian
anticolonial activities in Europe. This article
analyzes the different components of Sannu‘’s
and contestations from the colonies to the heart
of the metropole.
Sannu‘ and Kamil:
Gaining Access to a European Audience
Ya‘qub Sannu‘
Despite their similar career paths, Mustafa
Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘ came from entirely dif-
ferent backgrounds. Sannu‘’s father, an ­Italian
Jew from Leghorn, was among the thousands
of European professionals arriving in Egypt
during the first half of the nineteenth cen-
tury. Employed as an adviser to Prince Ahmad
Pasha Yeken, the grandson of Muhammad Ali,
he married an Egyptian Jewish woman named
Sarah, who gave birth to Sannu‘ on 9 Febru-
ary 1839. Because of his eclectic and multicul-
tural upbringing, Ya‘qub Sannu‘ was fluent in
Arabic, Hebrew, Italian, French, and English by
the time he was twelve years old.7 By the age of
fourteen, Sannu‘ was sent to continue his educa-
tion in Leghorn (from 1852 to 1855), and upon
his return to Egypt he worked as a private tutor
until 1863, when he was employed as a language
teacher at the military Polytechnic Institute.8 In
1870 he became a makeshift playwright and
with the financial support of Khedive Ismail
(1863 – 79) established Egypt’s first Arabic the-
ater company. Most of Sannu‘’s plays were per-
formed in colloquial Egyptian and contained
nationalistic themes.9 As the nationalistic sub-

and Modern Egyptian Colloquial Poetry [Zajal],” Poet-
ics Today 15 [1994]: 194). Irene L. Gendzier, The Practi-
cal Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘ (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1966), 138; Abu-Naddara Zarqa’,
­December 1910.
3.  Times (London), 29 April 1907; 15 July 1907. Also
see Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, Egypt and Cromer: A
Study in Anglo-Egyptian Relations (New York: Praeger,
1969), 157.
4.  ‘Abd al-Rahman Al-Rafa‘i, Mustafa Kamil: Ba’ith al-
haraka al-wattaniyya, 5th ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Ma‘arif,
1985), 26 – 27.
5.  Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski, Egypt, Islam,
and the Arabs: The Search for Egyptian Nationhood,
1900 –  1 930 (New York: Oxford University Press,
1986), 13.
6.  Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 157 – 58; and Gendzier,
Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 95 – 98.
7.  Gendzier, Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 9 – 14;
Jacob Landau, “Abu Naddara: An Egyptian Jewish Na-
tionalist,” Journal of Jewish Studies 3 (1952): 31 – 32.
8.  Matti Moosa, “Ya‘qub Sanu‘ and the Rise of Arab
Drama in Egypt,” International Journal of Middle East-
ern Studies 5 (1974): 402; Gendzier, Practical ­Visions of
Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 16 – 17. Prince Yeken was apparently so
impressed by the young Sannu‘ that he fully spon-
sored his education in Leghorn, where he studied fine
art, science, political economy, and international law.
9.  Jacque Chelley, “Le Molière Egyptien,” Abu-
­Naddara, 1 August 1906; Atia Abul Naga, Les sources
françaises du théâtre egyptien (1870 – 1839) (Madrid:
­Altamira-Rotopress, 1972), 76; Najwa Ibrahim’ Anus,
Masrah Ya‘qub Sannu‘ (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al
‘Amma lil-Kitab, 1984), 31 – 33; Moosa, “Ya‘qub Sanu‘,”
404 – 5 ; Jacob Landau, Studies in the Arab Theater
and Cinema (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylva-
nia Press, 1969), 65 – 67; Gendzier, Practical Visions of
Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 34 – 38.
 172 ject matter of Sannu‘’s plays became more criti-
cal of Ismail’s reign, his theatrical activities were
banned by the government.10 No longer allowed
to perform his plays publicly, Sannu‘ promptly
found other outlets for his political pursuits.
Early in 1877 Sannu‘ began to publish
anonymously printed sheets where he allegori-
  cally attacked the Khedive’s government. The
t i ve
ar a relative success of this venture led to the es-
mp
Co
f  tablishment of his weekly satirical journal Abu-
ie so
tu d
­Naddara Zarqa’ on 21 March 1877.11 Sannu‘’s
S , 
A si a early theatrical activities left a noticeable mark
u th  
So t he on the format and content of his journal. Every
a nd issue of Abu-Naddara contained a small theat-
frica
A st rical sketch usually in the form of a colloquial
Ea
d le Egyptian dialogue with the characters satiri-
d
Mi
cally commenting on the government and the
Khedive. It was most likely one of these satirical
sketches that led to the exile of Sannu‘ to France
on 22 June 1878.12 Sannu‘’s exile, however, did
not stop the distribution of Abu-Naddara in
Egypt. Almost immediately after his arrival in
Paris, he continued to print his journal and suc-
cessfully smuggled it into Egypt.13
Beginning in 1882 Sannu‘ started to add
gradually a small section written in French to
his newspaper.14 At first the French portion was
simply a handwritten translation of a political
cartoon or one of his small Arabic articles, but
by 1885 Abu-Naddara Zarqa’ was equally divided
between a French and an Arabic section.15 While
Sannu‘’s newspapers were certainly not read by
enough Europeans to make a direct impact on
the Egyptian question, his limited European
readership consisted of important anti-British
journalists and anticolonial liberals, who helped
him achieve greater exposure in French society.
Accordingly, the most important function of his
French newspapers was to increase his visibility
in mainstream French media outlets. This ap-
proach was quite successful in giving Sannu‘
sufficient media coverage in established French
newspapers, increasing his popularity in Paris
and allowing him to have a successful career
as a lecturer throughout France. A September
1895 article in Le Courrier de France reported that
Sannu‘ had “become such an in-demand confer-
ence presenter that no week passes by without
the press documenting one of his many con-
ference presentations.”16 His status in Parisian
society was to such an extent that a small fire
in his Paris apartment was uncharacteristically
covered by major French newspapers, including
Le Temps.17
Mustafa Kamil
Unlike Sannu‘, who belonged to the upper
middle class and had a mixed heritage, Kamil
was entirely a product of a new and growing up-
wardly mobile Egyptian middle class. Kamil’s
father, an Egyptian army engineer of modest
means, encouraged his son to receive a proper
education. While still in high school, Kamil had
an early interest in Egyptian politics and jour-
nalism, founding several student organizations,
the most important of which was called Jam‘iat
Ihya’ al-Watan (Society for the Revival of the Na-
tion). After his graduation from high school in
spring 1891, Kamil decided to go to the Khedi-
val Law School and continued his nationalistic
pursuits there.18
It was as a politically active law student
that Kamil attracted the attention of the young
Abbas Hilmi II, who disliked the British and
wanted to regain more of his Khedival author-
ity. He knew that in order to accomplish this
task he had to gain the trust and support of the
Egyptian people, and to this end he labored to
mobilize Egyptian nationalist feelings in order
to counter British colonial authority.19 Abbas II

10.  Sannu‘ was banned from the theater in 1872.
The full texts of seven of Sannu‘’s Arabic plays are
printed in Muhammad Y. Nijm, Al-masrah al-‘Arabi:
Dirassat wa nususs, vol. 3, Ya‘qub Sannu‘ (Beirut: Dar
al-Thaqafa, 1963).
11.  Landau, “Abu Naddara,” 33.
12.  Gendzier, Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 65.
13.  Times (London), 12 March 1885. According to
Gendzier, Sannu‘ revealed in his memoirs “that he had
smuggled his newspaper into Egypt by hiding cop-
ies in the pages of larger illustrated reviews, books,
art albums, and other respectable documents.” See
Gendzier, Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 70. Sannu‘
also frequently changed the name of his paper in
order to evade the censors. Other names for the paper
include Abu-Naddara, Abu-Suffara, Abu-­Zummara,
and Al-Hawi .
14.  See Abu-Naddara, 21 April 1882.
15.  See Abu-Naddara, 10 January 1885 – 10 December
1910.
16.  Le Courrier de France, September 1895, quoted in
Abu-Naddara, 25 September 1895.
17.  See Le Temps, 13 June 1895; Abu-Naddara, 15 July
1895.
18.  Letter dated 12 July 1891 written by Kamil to his
brother Ali Fahmi Kamil. See Mustafa Kamil, Awraq
Mustafa Kamil: Al-murasalat (Cairo: al-Hayi’a al- 
Misriyya al-‘Ama lil-Kitab, 1982), 136. Also see Al-Rafi‘i,
Mustafa Kamil, 24 – 29, 31 – 48.
19.  Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 156 – 57; Lord Cromer,
Abbas II (London: Macmillan, 1915), 1 – 1 0; Jacques
­Berque, Egypt: Imperialism and Revolution, trans. John
Stewart (London: Faber and Faber, 1972), 63 – 169.
first met with Kamil in an official visit he made
to the Khedival Law School on 28 November
1892.20 Noticing the potential and political use-
fulness of the young Kamil, Abbas established
a strong bond with him and supported many
of his nationalistic efforts. 21 Abbas sponsored
Kamil’s continuing law education in Toulouse,
where he received his law degree in November
1894.22 Upon his return to Egypt in December
1894, Kamil did not practice law but devoted
his full attention to politics. He immediately
wrote several articles in Al-Ahram attacking the
British and calling for their evacuation.23 Along
with his internal policy of rousing the Egyptian
masses to political action, Kamil used an ex-
ternal strategy similar to Sannu‘’s for swaying
European public opinion toward the Egyptian
nationalist cause. In an early article sent to al-
Mu’ayid newspaper, Kamil openly described this
European propaganda strategy to the Egyptian
people: “The wise among the British have real-
ized the danger of their occupation of Egypt.
What they need to know is the true feelings of
the Egyptian nation, its fears, hopes, and the
truth. This would force their government to
evacuate the Nile Valley. The best thing that we
Egyptians can do now is to advertise the truth
to Europe with as many languages as possible,
especially in English and French.”24 Working to-
ward this goal, Kamil spent every summer from
1895 to 1907 in France publicizing his mass
media campaign.25 Although his fluent French
and charisma greatly boosted Kamil in his mis-
sion, his eventual friendship with the renowned
French author Juliette Adam became the real
key to opening the doors of French society.
Adam, editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes, an
20.  Ahmad Shafiq, Mothakarati fi nisf qarn: Min
sanat 1873 ilá sanat 1923 (Cairo: al-Hayi’a al-Misriyya  28 January 1895; 4 February 1895; 23 February 1895;
al-‘Ama lil-Kitab, 1994), 2:50. In his article titled “The
Egyptian Nationalist Party,” Arthur Goldschmidt
misquotes Shafiq’s memoirs and erroneously dates
Kamil’s meeting with Abbas at “February 1892,” in-
stead of 28 November 1892. See Arthur Goldschmidt,
“The Egyptian Nationalist Party, 1892 – 1919,” in Politi-
cal and Social Change in Modern Egypt, ed. P. M. Holt
(London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 312.
21.  Abbas Hilmi, Khedive of Egypt: Memoirs of Abbas
Hilmi II, trans. and ed. Amira Sonbol (Reading, UK:
Ithaca Press, 1998), 136.
22.  Juliette Adam, L’Angleterre en Egypte (Paris: Im-
primerie du Centre, 1922), 144 – 45; Al-Rafi‘i, Mustafa
Kamil, 51 – 54; Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 156 – 57.
anti-British French periodical, hosted a liter- 173
ary salon in Paris attended by many prominent
French journalists and political figures of the
time. Adam affectionately confirmed this rela-
tionship by stating, “I really began to fulfill my
maternal role vis-à-vis this very young man who
championed a great cause. I introduced him to
many prominent and valuable men who are in-
Ziad Fahmy 
The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘
terested in Egypt . . . his favorites were Pierre
Loti and General Marchand . . . I also intro-
duced him to other valuable contacts within the
French press.”26 These contacts included lead-
ing French editors and writers such as Edouard
Drumont (editor of La Libre Parole), Ernest
Judet (editor of Le Petit Journal and L’Éclaire),
and Henri Rochefort (founder and editor of
L’Intransigeant). Kamil would make good use
of his contacts with the French press until his
death in 1908.27
Sannu‘’s and Kamil’s
European Propaganda Campaigns
Who does not know the Sheikh ‘Abu-Naddara,’
who is regarded as the great friend of France, by
our Parisian confreres? He has been our guest
for the past 30 years and has become as popular
on the banks of the Seine as he is on the banks
of the Nile and the Bosphorus. A week barely
passes when the press does not document one
of his many conferences, speeches or interviews.
His favorite subjects are the role of France in the
Orient, the sympathies which the Orientals have
for the French, the Egyptian question, Islam and
lately the Franco-Ottoman entente cordiale.28
As the above quotation from Le Progrès indi-
cates, in time Sannu‘ became an icon of Pari-
sian journalistic and social circles. Until the
23.  See Al-Ahram, 28 December 1894; 4 January 1895; de Philae, to Mustafa Kamil. General Marchand was a
captain when Kamil first met him. He would later lead
4 March 1895. Kamil began writing nationalist arti- the French expeditionary force at Fashoda. See Mus-
cles in the local press in early 1893. See Al-Ahram, 11 tafa Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises adressèes
February 1893; 16 February 1893; 24 February 1893; 8 a Mme Juliette Adam, 1895 – 1 908 (Cairo: Madrasit
March 1893; 20 April 1893; 20 July 1894; 31 July 1894; 3 Mustafa Kamil, 1909), 16; and Adam, L’Angleterre en
August 1894; 1 September 1894; 8 September 1894. Egypte, 146 – 47.
24.  Al-Mu’ayid, 5 August 1895, cited in Al-Rafi‘i, Mus- 27.  Goldschmidt, “Egyptian Nationalist Party,” 314 – 15.
tafa Kamil, 60.
28.  Louis Aiguine, in Le Progrès, 29 February 1908.
25.  For the first few years Kamil’s European activities
were financially supported by the Khedive.
26.  Pierre Loti (1850 – 1923) is the pseudonym of Louis
Marie Julien Viaud. He was an eccentric and prolific
French novelist who was facinated with Middle East-
ern culture and frequently defended the Ottoman
Empire. He dedicated his book about Egypt, La mort
 174

 
t i ve
ar a
mp
Co
f 
ie so
S tu d
, 

A si a
u th  
So t he
a nd
frica
A st
Ea
d le
d
Mi

Figure 1.  “La prise de Khartoum.” Source: Abu-Naddara (Paris), 25 September 1898

arrival of Kamil on the European scene in the
mid-1890s, Sannu‘ was the sole “for-hire” native
Oriental expert in Parisian circles. The color-
ful Anglophobic cartoons that he printed in his
Abu-Naddara attracted readers and gained the
desired attention from the French and Euro-
pean press.29 Sannu‘ included at least one politi-
cal cartoon per issue, accompanied by a descrip-
tive dialogue and/or a brief description of the
events depicted in the drawing. Adding to his
humor is the coining of satirical nicknames that
he tagged on his political enemies. The British
were often labeled “les Rouges” (the Reds), refer-
ring to the redness of their faces from exposure
to the Egyptian sun. In dialogues where Sannu‘
portrayed the British exploitation of Egyptian
farmland and the fellah, they were dubbed “les
Sauterelles Rouges” (the Red Locusts).30
Typically in Sannu‘’s cartoons and their
accompanying dialogues, the English Albion,
labeled as “La Vieux Albion,” and her son John
Bull were grotesquely illustrated and were usu-
ally conspiring against the Egyptian fellah. 31
For example, a cartoon titled “La prise de Khar-
toum” (see fig. 1), which appeared in the 25 Sep-
tember 1898 issue of Abu-Naddara, reveals the
typical depiction of La Vieux Albion as a skinny
old witch and her son John Bull as a ghoulish old
man. The cartoon depicts the celebration of “La
Vieux Albion” and John Bull after the 2 Septem-
ber 1898 British victory over the Sudanese forces
of Al-Khalifa at Omdurman near Khartoum. 32
The intoxicated John Bull, holding two bottles
of beer, addresses his mother (in French): “God-
damn! I cannot take this any more! What heat!
Have I done well, oh mother Albion, by arming
myself with these two nice bottles of Stout? This
patriotic beer will refresh our throats, which
have dried from the intensity of this infernal
sun.”33 John Bull’s portrayal as a drunkard rein-
forced the common French stereotype depicting
the British as brutish and uncultured.

29.  Saturday Review, 26 July 1879; Revue de Deux
Monde, 15 June 1885; Constitutionnel, 28 October
1886; Times (London), 3 March 1885.
30.  It is important to note here that the term sauter-
elles rouges was borrowed by some French journal-
ists and was used to describe the British presence
in Egypt by an October 1896 article in Le Courrier
de France. See Le Courrier de France, October 1896,
quoted in Abu-Naddara, 25 November 1896. Abu-
Naddara, 28 February 1888; 15 July 1895; 20 February
1898; 25 April 1897.
31.  Abu-Naddara, 9 June 1893; 1 May 1893; 18 October
1893; 25 September 1895.
32.  Al-Khalifa is the title of Abdullah al-Ta’aishi, who
succeeded Muhammad Ahmad (the Mahdi) as the
leader of the Sudanese rebellion. See John Marlowe,
A History of Modern Egypt and Anglo-Egyptian Rela-
tions, 1800 – 1956 (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1965),
154 – 56.
33.  Abu-Naddara, 25 September 1898. For satirical
purposes, John Bull’s character in both the Arabic and
French sketches often begins his sentences by uncon-
trollably shouting “Goddamn!” (Goddem in trans­
literated French).
 Sannu‘ masterfully exploited French prej-
udice in another dialogue where John Bull un-
successfully attempts to speak French and hu-
morously destroys the French language through
his mangled half-English/half-French sentences
and his clichéd English pronunciation of French
words.34 The dialogue is set in Alexandria at an
1894 trade exhibition, where Abbas II and the
governor of Alexandria gave speeches in French
to assembled ambassadors and foreign dignitar-
ies. Frustrated by the noninclusion of a British
representative in this event, John Bull angrily
addresses one of the Ottoman dignitaries:
John Bull (criant): Goddem! Mais la Hegypte
pas pouvoir faire oun Exhibichon sans naus!
God save the Queen!
[ John Bull (screaming): Goddamn! But Egypt
cannot have an exhibition without us! God Save
the Queen!]
L’Ottoman (à voix basse): Ne faites pas de scan-
dale, je vous en prie; autrement, on vous mettra
à la porte.
[The Ottoman (in a low voice): Don’t make a
scandal, I beg you, otherwise they will throw
you out.]
John Bull: Oh! Mais, La rage de moâ est hécla-
tante! Moâ vouloir boxer tous les Hégypchiens
et les Youropyâns qui happlaudir le speech de lé
petit Abbas! Poukouâ loui parler français? Loui
faut parler la langage dou les maîtres de loui, le
hanglais!
[ John Bull: Oh! But my rage is intense! I want to
punch all the Egyptians and Europeans who are
applauding the young Abbas! Why is he address-
ing them in French? He should speak English,
the language of his masters.]
L’Ottoman: Ne dites pas de bêtises, mon pauvre
ami, et allez calmer votre rage “héclatante” au
bar voisin.
[The Ottoman: Stop uttering stupidities my
poor friend, and go calm your “intense” rage in
the bar next door.]
John Bull: Oh! Yes. Mais vous faut venir drinker
avec moâ.
[ John Bull: Oh! Yes. But you have to come and
drink with me.]35
34.  Sannu‘ was equally skilled at depicting different
dialects and foreign accents in both his colloquial
­Arabic and French writings.
35.  Abu-Naddara, 15 June 1894. The dialogue and its
accompanying cartoon were titled “L’inauguration de
l’exposition d’Alexandrie.”
The above dialogue provides a classic example of 175
Sannu‘’s Anglophobic satire, which undoubtedly
contributed to his popularity in French society.
The 1896 publication of Paul De Baignières’s
L’Egypte satirique: Album d’Abou Naddara also
played a role in increasing Sannu‘’s visibility in
French society. From the outset, the entire book
served as a virtual advertisement booklet for
Ziad Fahmy 
The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘
Sannu‘’s work. The first twenty pages contain a
brief biography of Sannu‘ using favorable press
clippings from European journals and news­
papers. The remainder of the book includes
forty-­eight pages of cartoons (each page con-
tains two to four separate cartoons) taken from
Abu-­Naddara and eighteen pages of text describ-
ing the cartoons in French, with the last section
listing several of Sannu‘’s political poems trans-
lated into French. Baignières acknowledged in
his book that Sannu‘ translated these poems
from Arabic into French. This fact, along with
the overtly positive and noncritical examination
of Sannu‘, suggests that he participated in the
making of this book.36
Baignières’s book was reviewed by dozens
of European newspapers and journals, a fact
that the self-aggrandizing Sannu‘ took full ad-
vantage of. In several successive issues of Abu-
Naddara, Sannu‘ selectively printed positive
excerpts from the reviews of Baignières’s book
presented in La Lanterne, Le Gaulois, La France,
Le Constitutionnel, and L’organe des concours poé-
tique.37 Baignières’s book inflated Sannu‘’s expo-
sure in French and European society by increas-
ing the number of articles written about him in
the European press, and it allowed Sannu‘ to
publish more of his own articles concerning the
Egyptian question in the mainstream French
press. 38 Immodestly dubbing himself as “the
spokesmen of liberal Egyptians,” Sannu‘ was fre-
quently interviewed by European reporters and
met with many political dignitaries seeking the
insider’s view of the situation in Egypt.39
Sannu‘ supplemented his articles and in-
terviews with numerous conferences and lec-
tures conducted throughout France and Europe.
36.  See Paul De Baignières, L’Egypte satirique: Album 38.  Landau, “Abu Naddara,” 41.
d’Abou Naddara illustré de 48 pages de gravures (Paris:
39.  Gendzier, Practical Visions of Ya‘qub Sanu‘, 98.
Imprimerie Lefebvre, 1886), 89.
37.  Abu Naddara, 26 September 1886; 20 October
1896; 20 November 1896; 17 April 1897; 25 June 1897.
 176 While presenting these talks Sannu‘ virtually
transformed himself into an “Oriental” mascot.
As illustrated in figure 2, he changed from his
everyday Western clothes and dressed in a tra-
ditional Egyptian galabiyah and turban. On the
galabiyah Sannu‘ pinned approximately a dozen
decorative metals and awards given to him by
  world leaders. Sannu‘’s overtly accessorized
t i ve
ar a costume effectively transformed him into the
mp
Co
f  Sheikh Abu-Naddara persona, adding “authen-
ie so
tu d
ticity” and hence legitimacy to his lectures,
S , 

A si a while contributing to his thirst to be the center
u th  
So t he of attention.40
a nd Beginning in January 1887 Sannu‘ started
frica
A st a semiregular column titled “Les discours
Ea
d le d’Abu Naddara,” which essentially documented
d
Mi
the majority of his lectures. Within these col-
umns, Sannu‘ continued his habit of self-praise
and recorded all the positive comments made
by the French and European press concerning
his lectures.41 For instance, in a 25 January 1893
column, Sannu‘ “modestly” thanks all the news-
papers that mentioned his Arabic literature
conference at “L’Institut Rudy”:
Le Figaro, in its society page, L’ Agence Havas,
in its correspondence, L’Agence Libre, in its tele-
Figure 2.  Abu-Naddara portrait. Source: L’Hirondelle
grams and in its accredited columns, Les Debats,
de France (Paris), January 1895, reprinted and
Le Temps, Les Gaulois, La Patrie, Le Siecle, Le Vol-
included in the Abu-Naddara 1894 Yearly Album
taire, La Justice, La Republique Française, Le Monde,
La Paix, Le Paris, Le Journal de Matin, L’Orient,
La Petite Republique, Le Petit Journal, Le Petit Pa-
risien, La Petite Presse, Le Charivari, L’Observateur, society, as he relentlessly continued to dissemi-
Le français, Le Petit Français, the American Register, nate his Egyptian nationalist message to French
Le Gallignani’s Messenger, etc., etc. In other words audiences.
a large number of Parisian and foreign newspa- Although transmitting the same message,
pers and journals have graciously announced
and using a similar approach, Kamil’s personal
this conference and gave it glowing reviews. The
style and delivery were completely different from
Sheikh Abu Naddara would like to sincerely re-
thank you for those lovely articles, which have Sannu‘’s. While less entertaining, Kamil was a
contributed to his modest literary cause. better orator and had a genuine sincerity that
Sannu‘ seems to have lacked. Kamil’s official ar-
Notwithstanding his exaggerated sense of self- rival on the European scene was signaled by his
importance, Sannu‘ achieved a degree of popu- June 1895 presentation of a petition and a sym-
larity in France, and especially within Parisian bolic poster to the French Chamber of Deputies

40.  L’Hirondelle de France (Paris), January 1895, re-
printed and included in the Abu Naddara 1894 Yearly
Album.
41.  See Abu-Naddara, 22 January 1887; 7 April 1893;
and Al-Tawadud, June 1901. These columns were
sometimes called “Les conference d’Abu Naddara,”
and Sannu‘ often proudly pointed out the abun-
dance of these lectures by numbering them for his
readers. For example, in the 7 April 1893 issue of Abu-
­Naddara, Sannu‘ prints a column titled (in bold let-
ters), “ The 206th, 207th, 208th, 209th, 210th, and the
211th lecture.”

Figure 3.  Kamil’s poster. Source: Al-Rafi‘i,
Mustafa Kamil, 61
(see fig. 3). The poster depicts Kamil, with the
Egyptian masses behind him, presenting a writ-
ten appeal to France (Marianne) asking her to
help Egypt in gaining her independence from
the British. At the bottom of the picture, a vigi-
lant British soldier with sword in hand closely
guards Egypt, portrayed as a handcuffed and
submissively kneeling woman. Kamil printed
thousands of copies of this poster and distrib-
uted it to major European and even American
newspapers.42
Less than a month after the French Cham-
ber of Deputies presentation, Kamil delivered
his first political speech in Europe. Many jour-
nalists and writers attended this event held in
an auditorium at the University of Toulouse on
4 July 1895. Kamil began his speech by declar-
ing the illegality of the British occupation and
42.  See Kamil’s 8 June 1895 letter to ‘Abd al-Rahim
Ahmad (Khedive Abbas’s secretary), in Kamil, Awraq
Mustafa Kamil, 28 – 32. Al-Rafi‘i, Mustafa Kamil, 61 – 64.
For an analysis of the gender implications of this poster
and late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century
­visual representation of Egypt as a woman, see Beth
Baron, “Nationalist Iconography: Egypt as a Woman,”
in Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East,
ed. Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski (New York:  51 – 52.
Columbia University Press, 1997).
the mismanagement of Lord Cromer, whom he 177
accused of “purposively appointing incapable,
indifferent or traitorous men at the head of
Egyptian government ministries and other ad-
ministrative positions. In this manner he not
only manipulates these men like an instrument
under his control but he uses the incompetence
of these men to attempt and prove to Europe
Ziad Fahmy 
The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘
that our country lacks a governing managerial
class.” 43 Playing to his audience, Kamil repre-
sented the French as benevolent and culturally
superior to the English and devoted the sec-
ond half of his speech to singing the praises of
French culture: “Yes gentlemen, it is France’s
duty . . . to interfere and save us . . . France
which has generously awakened Egypt from its
profound sleep and has always treated us like
its dearest offspring, earning in the process our
eternal respect, emanating from the depths of
our hearts and souls.” 4 4 Indeed, as one shall
see also with Sannu‘, such saccharine adulation
of France proved quite effective in attracting
French audiences.
Kamil, however, was well aware of the irony
of using France’s disparaging paternalistic colo-
nial discourse to counter Britain’s colonial am-
bitions, as his 18 September 1895 letter to the
Khedive’s secretary clearly shows: “Like any re-
alistic person knows, nations only cater to their
best interests. The French, just like the English;
regardless of how they pretend to be loyal to
us, will do whatever is in their best political in-
terests. Therefore through our rapprochement
and our amicability toward them we are merely
employing a purposeful political maneuver to
gain their trust and perhaps, even if it is tempo-
rary, we can benefit from them politically.” 45
Working toward this end, throughout
his speeches and articles in France, Kamil at-
tempted to stress the commonality of Egyptian
and French strategic and political interests espe-
cially when directed against Great Britain. For
43.  See Kamil’s 4 July 1895 speech presented in Tou-
louse, reprinted in Moustafa Kamel Pasha [Mus-
tafa Kamil], Egyptiens et Anglais (Paris: Librairie
Acadèmique Didier, 1906), 26 – 27.
44.  Ibid., 43.
45.  See Kamil’s 18 September 1895 letter to ‘Abd
al-­R ahim Ahmad, in Kamil, Awraq Mustafa Kamil,
 178 instance, in an 18 June 1899 speech presented
in Juliette Adam’s salon in Paris, he declared to
the audience: “The war which your neighbors
from across the English-Channel have been
waging against your cultural influence and pres-
tige on the banks of the Nile is without a name.
English hate has especially targeted the French
  Language, for they have been zealously and tire-
t i ve
ar a lessly attempting to replace their language for
mp
Co
f  yours.” Kamil even melodramatically declared
ie so
tu d
to his audience that “destroying French influ-
S , 
A si a ence in Egypt” ranks as the number one British
u th  
So t he internal policy in Egypt.46
a nd Kamil’s early European activities did not
frica
A st end in France; late in July he traveled to Vienna
Ea
d le for a few days and met with numerous Austrian
d
Mi
journalists and politicians.47 Upon his return
to Paris, he published a twenty-page pamphlet
in French, titled Le peril anglais: Conséquence de
l’occupation de l’Egypte par l’Angleterre, which he
distributed free of charge to journalists and
prominent politicians throughout Europe. 48
After publishing and distributing Le peril anglais,
Kamil introduced himself to Adam by writing
her a letter from Toulouse and asking for her
political support: “Help me Madam, because
you are such a true patriot. I know you are the
only person who can understand me, encourage
me and help my cause.” 49 This simple, almost
naive letter began his life-long relationship with
Adam and, in the process, guaranteed his con-
nection with France’s journalistic circles, ensur-
ing that his voice would be heard throughout
Europe. After his 1895 European trip, Kamil re-
turned every year to continue his propagandist
efforts. Throughout the fourteen summers that
he spent in Europe, mainly in Paris (though
occasionally traveling to other European cit-
ies), Kamil delivered countless speeches, was
interviewed by French and European newspa-
pers, and wrote numerous articles that were
printed in many major French and European
newspapers.50
Kamil was especially adept at tapping
into the intellectual resources and professional
contacts of some of his European friends and
acquaintances. Sometimes he even instructed
some of them to write articles and/or letters to
the editors on the Egyptian question in main-
stream French newspapers.51 In a letter dated 29
May 1904, a week before a major political speech
in Alexandria, Kamil dictated to Adam a short
news dispatch detailing his yet-to-be-preformed
speech: “I would be very happy to see a dispatch
in Le Figaro which reads: ‘Mustafa Kamil, the
editor of al-Lewa has given a speech yesterday
night in Alexandria in front of a large crowd of
listeners . . . the speaker affirmed that the Egyp-
tian people are motivated more than ever be-
fore to achieve national independence.’”52 In an-
other letter to Adam, dated 21 July 1906, Kamil
is incensed over British newspaper articles char-
acterizing Egyptians as religious fanatics and
solicits Adam for a response: “I beseech you to
write an article in the Figaro, the Gaulois or even
a letter in the Temps, to describe the degree of
tolerance and hospitality you witnessed when
you were in Egypt.”53 Kamil also benefited from
his friendship with Pierre Loti, the well-known
anticolonial French novelist. Before the 1906
Paris publication of Kamil’s Egyptiens et Anglais,
Loti wrote a letter to Kamil, informing him that
Gaston Calmette, the editor of Le Figaro, had as-
signed him (Loti) to choose an “appropriate”
journalist to write a review of Kamil’s upcoming
book.54

46.  See Kamil’s 18 June 1899 speech presented in
Adam’s Paris salon, reprinted in Kamil, Egyptiens et
Anglais, 213, 216. See also Kamil’s 11 December 1895
speech presented at the Société de Géographie de
Paris, reprinted in Kamil, Egyptiens et Anglais, 51. In
this early speech, he declared to the audience: “All
that England does in Egypt against our interests is in
reality directed at France as well.”
47.  See Kamil’s 30 July 1895 letter to ‘Abd al-Rahim
Ahmad (Khedive Abbas’s secretary), in Kamil, Awraq
Mustafa Kamil, 37 – 38.
48.  Mustafa Kamil, Le peril anglais: Conséquence de
l’occupation de l’Egypte par l’Angleterre (Paris: Im-
primerie G. Camproger, 1895; repr., Paris: Imprimerie
Albert Lanier, 1899). See also Kamil’s 23 August 1895
letter to ‘Abd al-Rahim Ahmad, in Kamil, Awraq Mus-
tafa Kamil, 46.
49.  Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 2 – 4 .
50.  Times (London), 29 April 1907; 15 July 1907. Also
see Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 157.
51.  For example, after the 1904 Entente Cordial an
anxious Kamil wrote a letter to Adam, asking her to
recruit some of her journalistic friends to support his
cause: “I will write my opinion to M. Montorgueil,
so he can publish it like a (long distance) interview.
If he does publish it please be kind enough to signal
to Drumont, Rochefort, Daudet and all of your friends 
to make editorial commentaries. I want all of France
to know the negative effects that this accord has pro-
duced in Egypt.” Kamil to Adam, letter dated 15 April
1904, in Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 126 – 28.
52.  See Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 136.
53.  Ibid., 248.
54.  See Kamil’s 1 January 1906 letter to Adam, in ibid.,
230 – 32. Kamil’s 325-page book contained the tran-
scripts of eleven of Kamil’s speeches and all of his cor-
respondence with British prime minister William Glad-
stone (1809 – 98). See Kamil, Egyptiens et Anglais.
 Although Kamil and Sannu‘ worked for
the same cause and held almost identical views
about Egyptian nationalism, they rarely met in
Paris and never coordinated their efforts. The
age and generational difference between them
might have accounted for some of this distance.
Considering Sannu‘’s seniority and his obvious
sense of pride, it is probable that to some degree
he was resentful of Kamil, who quickly stole the
spotlight from him as the spokesman of Egyp-
tian nationalism after just a short stay in Paris.
The fact that he seldom mentions Kamil in his
journal would seem to substantiate such a hy-
pothesis. For example, the 10 June 1895 issue
of Abu-Naddara, which was printed a few days
after Kamil’s poster presentation to the French
Chamber of Deputies, is one of the few excep-
tions where Sannu‘ acknowledges Kamil’s cam-
paign in Europe. The small article that Sannu‘
devotes to Kamil is surrounded by two larger ar-
ticles describing his own (Sannu‘’s) conferences
and speeches.55
Countering British Colonial Discourse
The British repeatedly voiced an assortment
of claims regarding the backwardness of Egyp-
tian society and the ongoing need of a civiliz-
ing British presence in order to legitimize their
continued occupation of Egypt. According to
British colonial discourse, Egyptians did not
have a “real” national identity, could not govern
themselves without British guidance, and were
mostly superstitious, religious fanatics. Speak-
ing on the 1897 Egyptian census, Cromer states,
“Who, in fact, is a true Egyptian? The compiler
of the census very wisely did not attempt to de-
fine the term; he must have been aware that pre-
cise definition was impossible.”56 Cromer arbi-
trarily carved up the Egyptian population into
Turco-Egyptians, Circassians, Europeanized
Egyptians, fellahin, Egyptian Bedouins, Coptic
Egyptians, and “semi-Egyptian hybrids.”57 This
perception of Egyptian society as dysfunction-
ally fragmented allowed the British to discount
55.  Abu-Naddara, 10 June 1895.
56.  Lord Cromer, Modern Egypt (London: Macmillan,
1908), 2:128 – 29.
57.  Ibid., 2:127 – 32, 168 – 70.
58.  Ibid., 2:154 – 55, 566 – 69. See “Lord Cromer’s Re-
port on Egypt and the Sudan,” in Times (London),
4 April 1907.
the legitimacy of the Egyptian national move- 179
ment, while justifying their continuing occupa-
tion of Egypt to their own citizens and to other
European powers.
The British also claimed that Egyptians
were incapable of governing themselves “with-
out foreign guidance in civil and military
affairs.”58 Kamil and Sannu‘ were fully aware
Ziad Fahmy 
The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘
of the intricacies of British colonial discourse
and took every opportunity to publicly refute it.
In a speech presented to the Société de Géog-
raphie de Paris, Kamil announced the British
assertion that “Egyptians are not fit to govern
their own country is a calumny, which any rea-
sonable person must refute.”59 Kamil also ad-
dressed this very issue in the British press. In
the middle of a letter to the editor of the Times,
Kamil sarcastically announced: “You will tell
me, I know, that the Egyptians are not ripe as
yet for self-government. It is the old answer, the
answer we always get. . . . Our nation has awak-
ened, and nobody will be able to command its
sleeping. Instead of crying out at it that it awoke
too soon, or that it is dreaming, it is necessary
to satisfy its vital necessities.” 60 The “fanaticism
argument” was perhaps the single most popular
colonial legitimizing claim employed by Cromer
and other British colonial officers. In his book
Modern Egypt Cromer declared, “Islamism, there-
fore, unlike Christianity, tends to engender the
idea that revenge and hatred, rather than love
and charity, should form the basis of the rela-
tions between man and man; and it inculcates
a special degree of hatred against those who do
not accept the Moslem faith.” 61 Sannu‘ made nu-
merous efforts to argue against the British as-
sociation of Islam with “fanaticism” and devoted
many of his lectures and articles toward counter-
acting some of these popular stereotypes. In his
lecture on Islam titled “Le Koran,” after read-
ing to his listeners several verses from the Koran
calling for religious tolerance, Sannu‘ declared,
“The Koran is not a book of fanaticism, super-
stition or barbarity.” 62 Kamil also addressed the
59.  Kamil’s speech to the Société de Géographie de 62.  See Abu-Naddara, 10 June 1906. In 1907 Sannu‘
Paris, 11 December 1895, cited in Kamil, Egyptiens et created an entirely new French journal called L’Univèrs
Anglais, 72. Musulman, devoted to educating Europeans about
Islam and the Islamic world.
60.  Times (London), 13 April 1907.
61.  Cromer, Modern Egypt, 2:139; See also Times (Lon-
don), 28 March 1907.
 180 fanaticism accusations and announced in one
of his speeches that not only have the “English
committed an injustice after an injustice, but
they have convinced Europe that we are a fa-
natic people, hostile to all Christians. This is the
biggest of all lies! We are not fanatics, or hos-
tile to Christians. We are a wise and hospitable
  people and the proof is incontestable.” To make
t i ve
ar a his case, Kamil mentioned that for thirteen cen-
mp
Co
f  turies Christian Copts and Muslims have lived
ie so
tu d
like brothers. Concerning Egypt’s treatment of
S , 
A si a Europeans, he declared, “For the last century,
u th  
So t he we were in direct contact with Europe and es-
a nd pecially France, and we were never hostile to
frica
A st anyone. On the contrary, the entire world finds
Ea
d le in Egypt the most generous hospitality. If our
d
Mi
enemies claim that we are religious fanatics, it is
time to put an end to their legendary deceits.” 63
Since the British frequently equated Egyptian
nationalism with religious fanaticism and xe-
nophobia, Kamil coined the slogan “Libre chez
nous, hospitaliers pour tous” (Free in our coun-
try, hospitable to all), which would later become
his motto.64
Francophiles and Anglophobes
Realistically or not, until the 1904 Entente Cor-
dial both Sannu‘ and Kamil, as well as many
other Egyptian nationalists, generally viewed
France as a potential ally against British colo-
nial domination. This idealistic view of France
can perhaps be attributed to the overwhelming
francophone education received by many Egyp-
tian nationalists. Cromer himself admitted that
“amongst the obstacles, which have stood in
the way of the British reformer in Egypt, none
is more noteworthy than that both European-
ized Egyptians and Levantines are impregnated
with French rather than with English habits of
thought.” In his classic condescending manner,
Cromer attributed this French cultural favor-
itism to the ignorance of the “semi-educated
Oriental,” who naturally does not recognize the
“natural” superiority of English civilization.65
At the turn of the twentieth century,
France had more economic and cultural capi-
tal in Egypt than did any other European na-
tion, including Great Britain, a reality that the
French conscientiously wanted to maintain. 66
Kamil effectively exploited this fact and an-
nounced in one of his speeches that England
is working hard to end the annual Egyptian
student missions to France, in order “to bring
an end to French influence, which is still very
extensive and overly dominant.” 67
Discussing the British educational policy
in Egypt, Kamil bated the crowd’s Anglophobic
tendencies by stating that the Egyptian public
educational system, which was formerly in the
hands of “loyal and scholarly, Egyptians and
French teachers, is now the meeting place of
the most ignorant and the most egotistical Brit-
ish adventurers.” Kamil then proclaimed, “The
British are trying to create for our children a
purely galophobe and anglophile school. You
would not believe the lessons of hate given daily
against France and Turkey.” 68
Kamil’s and Sannu‘’s exploitation of the
Anglophobic predisposition of their French
readers and listeners was matched by their unre-
mitting glorifications of France and French civi-
lization. Sannu‘ especially was keen to display
his affection toward France and claimed to take
part annually in the French Fourteenth of July
celebrations. In a full-page article titled “Hom-
mage du Cheikh Abou Naddara a la France,”
Sannu‘ printed nine different odes he had pre-
viously written about the glories of France. In
a poem originally written for a L’allience Latine
dinner, Sannu‘ affirmed,

63.  Kamil’s speech at Toulouse, 4 July 1895, cited in 67.  Kamil’s speech at Toulouse, 4 July 1895, cited in
Kamil, Egyptiens et Anglais, 36 – 37. Kamil, Egyptiens et Anglais, 28.

64.  Kamil’s speech to the Société de Géographie de 68.  Ibid.

Paris, 11 December 1895, cited in Kamil, Egyptiens et
Anglais, 73.

65.  Cromer, Modern Egypt, 2:236 – 37.

66.  For a detailed analysis of French economic capi-

tal in Egypt during the British occupation, see Samir
Saul, La France et L’Egypte de 1882 à 1914: Intérêts
economiques et implications politiques (Paris: Co-
mité Pour L’Histoire Economique et Financiere de la
France, 1997).
 We adore you, oh children of France — 
champions of liberty
terweight to British colonial policy, so, for the 181
time being at least, France could do no wrong.
You inspire our confidence — 
with your historic loyalty
Dinshaway and Kamil:
If the French treat us like brothers —
Taking the Battle to London
 t he brutal English treat us like dogs
The high hopes that Kamil and Sannu‘ had
The one makes us happy and prosperous — 
the other, steals our goods regarding France and its allies benefiting the
The English pillage our fertile fields —  Egyptian nationalist cause significantly dimin-

Ziad Fahmy 

The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘

taking away the fruits of our labor ished after the signing of the 1904 Entente Cor-
The French enrich our cities —  diale, which called for France to renounce all
civilize and educate us.69 claims to Egypt in exchange for Britain giving
France a free hand in Morocco.72 The damage
This allegiance to France was also extended to
the Entente Cordiale might have caused the na-
all of its European allies. After the 1890 Franco-
tionalist movement, however, was almost com-
Russian agreement, Sannu‘ began singing the
pletely reversed by a minor clash that occurred
praises of the Russian empire.70 In one of his
in the Egyptian countryside. On 11 June 1906
cartoons, titled “Les amis de nos amis sont nos
a group of British officers set out on a pigeon-
amis” (“The Friends of Our Friends Are Our
hunting excursion near the village of Dinsha-
Friends”), Sannu‘ points out the enthusiasm
way. Some of their shots accidentally caused a
of England’s colonial subjects over the Franco-
barn to catch on fire. In retaliation some of the
­Russian rapprochement. The cartoon depicts
angry villagers attacked the officers with wooden
John Bull closely watching an Egyptian, an In-
staves, and in the ensuing struggle a female vil-
dian, and an Iranian cheering on two sailors,
lager was wounded by another stray shot and was
one Russian and the other French, who are cel-
presumed dead. The villagers, becoming more
ebrating the Franco-Russian agreement. John
irate, violently beat and disarmed the officers.73
Bull angrily addresses the three men, “Why
The Dinshaway incident might have been
are you so happy? You are neither Russian nor
politically contained if the British had not retali-
French.” The Egyptian, Indian, and Iranian
ated so harshly. A special tribunal was quickly set
respond in unison: “We like the French who
up, and on 27 June the court passed sentences
are the friends of Islam and now we also like
on twenty-one of the fifty-two accused villag-
the Russians because like the proverb says ‘the
ers. Four were sentenced to death by hanging,
friends of our friends are our friends.’”71 It is
two to life imprisonment, one to fifteen years
perhaps not surprising that Sannu‘ and Kamil
imprisonment, six to seven years imprisonment,
turned a blind eye to France’s own colonial re-
three to one-year imprisonment and fifty lashes,
cord; it obviously did not suit their purpose to
and five to fifty lashes. By orders of the court,
be critical of French colonial policy in Algeria
the sentences were carried out in public and the
or Tunisia. The French were needed as a coun-

69.  Abu-Naddara, 15 July 1895. 72.  Pierre Guillen, “The Entente of 1904 as a Colonial
Nous vous aimons, ô fils de France —   Settlement,” in Britain and France in Africa: Impe-
Champions de la liberté rial Rivalry and Colonial Rule, ed. Prosser Gifford and
Vous nous inspirez confiance —   William Roger Louis (New Haven, CT: Yale University
Par votre antique loyauté Press, 1971), 364 – 65. For a closer look at the 1904 En-
Si le Français nous traite en fréres —   tente Cordiale, see P. J. V. Rolo, Entente Cordiale: The
L’anglais brutal nous traite en chiens Origins and Negotiations of the Anglo-French Agree-
L’un nous rend heureux et prospères —   ments of 8 April 1904 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1969).
L’autre, helas! Nous vole nos biens In his usual melodramatic style, Kamil would later
L’Anglais pille nos champs fertiles —   write to Adam, “Today, my compatriots detest France
De nos labeurs, il prend le fruit as much as England,” and in another letter he would
Le Français enrichit nos villes —   declare to her, “I would be an imbecile were I to be-
Nous civilise et nous instruit. lieve for an instant that France can ever be the friend
of Egypt or Islam. Adieu, to all the dreams of the past,
70.  Abu-Naddara, 20 November 1890. In this issue
all I have in France now is you.” See letters from Kamil
of Abu-Naddara, Sannu‘ wrote “Ode Franco-Russe,”
to Juliette Adam dated 10 May 1906 and 25 February
dedicated to the new Franco-Russian entente.
1906, both cited in Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Fran-
71.  Abu-Naddara, 18 October 1890. çaises, 128 and 238, respectively.
73.  For a complete record of the Dinshaway court
proceedings, see Parliamentary Papers, Paper Re-
specting the Attack on British Officers at Denshawai
[Egypt No. 3 and No. 4] (London: Harrison and Sons,
1906). See also Al-Rafi‘i, Mustafa Kamil, 205 – 9; and
Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 169 – 70. One of the offi-
cers, Captain Bull, who suffered a severe blow to the
head, fled the scene and ran almost eight kilometers
back to base camp. However, he collapsed and died
just a few hundred meters from his destination, a re-
sult of a combination of his injuries and heatstroke.
When a fellah named Sayid Ahmad Sa‘id (who was
uninvolved in the earlier skirmish) saw the dying Cap-
tain Bull and attempted to help him, he was caught
and beaten to death by British troops, who mistook
him for the murderer.
 182 remaining villagers were forced to watch.74 The
cruelty and severity of these sentences infuri-
ated the Egyptian masses and gave ample am-
munition to the nationalists. Kamil did not miss
this opportunity, and on 11 July 1906 he wrote
a lengthy article to the Figaro publicizing and
condemning the events.75
  The Figaro article was carefully crafted
t i ve
ar a to shame the British into making political con-
mp
Co
f  cessions, and from the introductory sentence,
ie so
tu d
Kamil attempted to theatrically set a somber
S , 
A si a tone: “A tragic affair took place in the Egyptian
u th  
So t he delta village of Dinshaway, which has managed
a nd to emotionally touch humanity in its entirety.”
frica
A st Kamil then described the details of the inci-
Ea
d le dent, the ensuing trial, and the public execu-
d
Mi
tions, which he called an unjust and “atrocious
act of vengeance” that “could forever lead to the
loss of respect of European civilization in the
eyes of Oriental peoples.”76
Kamil’s Figaro article caused an instant
journalistic sensation throughout continental
Europe; more important, for the first time some
mainstream British newspapers were sympa-
thetically covering Kamil.77 The backlash from
the Dinshaway incident, coupled with the 1905
election of a liberal government, gave Kamil
an unprecedented political opening to make
his case directly to the British people, or, as he
wrote to Adam, to “battle against Cromer in his
own country.”78
On 15 July 1906, Kamil arrived in ­London,
taking full advantage of the momentum created
by the press coverage of Dinshaway. As the man
of the hour, Kamil was interviewed by many
British newspapers. He also translated his lat-
est Figaro article into English and mailed it to
all members of Parliament and to major British
newspapers. More important, Kamil made the
acquaintance of many English journalists, sev-
eral ministers, and members of Parliament.79
K amil presented his most important
speech in London on 26 July 1906 at a ban-
quet held in his honor at the Carlton Hotel.
The banquet was attended by several members
of Parliament including Lord Lytton and John
Mackinnon Robertson, who was one of the lead-
ing liberal members of Parliament. 80 Kamil’s
speech was extensive and covered most of the
grievances of the Egyptian nationalists. In the
first part of his talk Kamil spent a considerable
amount of time countering British accusations
of Egyptian religious fanaticism. Later on in his
speech, he personally attacked Cromer for not
placing enough competent Egyptians in impor-
tant government and administrative positions
and for “intentionally” neglecting public educa-
tion. The climax of his speech was, as expected,
the Dinshaway incident, and, like all the other
problems he described in Egypt, Kamil squarely
placed the blame on the shoulders of the British
proconsul: “Lord Cromer established this spe-
cial tribunal in Dinshaway which has revolted
everyone . . . a tribunal which follows no legal
code and no laws. . . . It’s existence was an out-
rage against the humanity and civil rights of the
Egyptian people and a blemish on the honor of
British civilization.”81
In a letter he wrote on the night of the
banquet, Kamil accurately appraised the politi-
cal effects of the event: “The British press will
cover the extraordinary political clamor that
was created here . . . and that will only help our
cause.”82 Indeed, partly because of the “political
clamor,” which Kamil expertly stirred in Lon-
don, Sir Campbell-Bannerman, the liberal Brit-
ish prime minister, met with Kamil and asked
him to supply him with a list of capable Egyp-
tians who could participate in an Egyptian min-
istry. Kamil gave Bannerman a list of thirty-two
names including Sa‘d Zaghlul, Qasim Amin,
Muhammad Farid, Adli Yakan, Ahmad Lutfi

74.  Marsot, Egypt and Cromer, 170 – 74.
75.  Le Figaro, 11 July 1906. The article, which was ­titled
“A la nation Anglaise et au monde civilisé,” is included
in Adam, L’Angleterre en Egypte, 151 – 59. Sannu‘ also
covered the Dinshaway incident in his newspaper,
though it was Kamil who would masterfully use
his European press contacts to make a considerable
impact on British colonial policy in Egypt. See Abu-
­Naddara, 1 August 1906.
76.  Le Figaro, 11 July 1906. Kamil’s Figaro article is 81.  The speech, titled “Programme et vues du Parti
printed in its entirety in Adam, L’Angleterre en Egypte, National Egyptien,” is printed in Adam, L’Angleterre
152 – 54. en Egypte, 160 – 7 1.
77.  The Tribune even demanded that the Egyptians 82.  See Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 252 – 54.
be given self-rule. See Tribune (London), 14 July 1906,
quoted in Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 244.
78.  See Kamil, Lettres Egyptiennes Françaises, 242 – 4 4.
79.  See ibid., 246.

80.  See ibid., 252 – 54.

al-Sayid, ‘Aziz ‘Izat, and Husayn Rushdi. 83 The
results of this meeting were almost immediate,
and from Kamil’s list the British government as-
signed Zaghlul as minister of education, which
would be the first step in the inclusion of more
Egyptians into key government positions.
Conclusion
Although Kamil’s and Sannu‘’s European 183
public opinion campaigns did not achieve the
ultimate goal of removing the British from
Egypt, they succeeded in frustrating British co-
lonial efforts.85 As can be seen in the following
excerpt from the Times of London, even after
the signing of the Entente Cordiale the British
felt threatened by Kamil’s European campaign:

Ziad Fahmy 

The Case of Mustafa Kamil and Ya‘qub Sannu‘

The history of colonialism is often portrayed as
a black-and-white encounter between coloniz-
ers and colonized. The careers of Kamil and
Sannu‘, however, especially when highlighting
their European activities, demonstrate the fal-
laciousness of this simplistic and dichotomous
interpretation. In a very real sense Sannu‘ and
Kamil do not fit in such a rigid colonizer ver-
sus colonized paradigm. Their education, cul-
tural habits, and linguistic abilities endowed
them with a chameleonlike quality to function
equally well in either a European or an Egyptian
environment. It was this cultural flexibility that
facilitated their unprecedented access to Euro-
pean mass-media outlets and enabled them to
communicate clearly and sympathetically to a
European audience.
Kamil’s and Sannu‘’s publicity campaigns,
however, did not take place in a political vac-
uum. Anti-British sentiment and a growing con-
sensus of the need for British withdrawal from
Egypt were already taking root in France. By
the mid-1880s the French public was inundated
with mainstream French newspapers calling
for British withdrawal from Egypt. Many of the
articles discussed possible timeframes for the
British evacuating Egypt and stressed the im-
portance of such an evacuation for “engender-
ing France’s ‘benevolent’ secularizing policies
in the Orient.”84 What Sannu‘ and Kamil did
was build on this momentum through filling
the role of “native” spokespersons to the French
media, while reassuring French intellectuals,
and by extension the French public, of the “su-
periority” of French culture.
“The Egyptian nationalists . . . seek through last
night’s publication in the Temps to denounce
England to France and to enlist French sympa-
thy for their cause. If successful, they would kill
two birds with one stone. They would further
their own affairs as well as the policy of Ger-
many so far as it is directed toward undermin-
ing the Anglo-French entente.”86 Aside from the
nationalists’ harassment of Britain’s great power
relations, Kamil’s publicity of the Dinshaway in-
cident achieved a symbolic victory in forcing the
resignation of Lord Cromer from his position
as British proconsul in Egypt. Partly because of
these events, Cromer detested Kamil and inex-
plicably left out any direct mention of him in
both of his books on modern Egypt. When he
did refer to him in one of his books, he never
mentioned his name, calling him either the
“foolish youth” or the “Gallicised Egyptian.”87
Unlike the voiceless colonized “Orientals”
who were unable to resist the machinations of
colonial authority, as unintentionally repre-
sented in Edward Said’s Orientalism and more
recently in some postmodernist works, Kamil
and Sannu‘ forcefully presented their case be-
fore Europe by skillfully exploiting existing
great power rivalries. Both men were well versed
in multiple European languages, and, more im-
portant, they knew how to actively manipulate
and gain access to a host of European mass-
media outlets. Sannu‘’s and Kamil’s vigilance
against British colonial discourse, and their ac-
tive campaign to respond to those attacks in a
European context and on a European stage, is
too significant to be overlooked.

83.  Adam, L’Angleterre en Egypte, 172 – 74; Ibrahim
Amin Ghali, L’Egypte nationaliste et liberale: De Mou-
stapha Kamel à Saad Zagloul (1892 – 1927) (The Hague:
Nijhoff, 1969), 58 – 63.
84.  See Ella-Rachel Arié, “L’opinion publique en
France et la question d’Égypte de 1885 à 1895,” Orient
27 (1963): 65 – 66. See also Le Figaro, 14 August 1887;
and La République Française, 14 May 1886.
85.  Though Kamil’s and Sannu‘’s nationalistic dis-
course did reach thousands of European readers, it is
difficult if not impossible to gauge, with any degree
of accuracy, the general reception of their ideas.
86.  Times (London), 14 January 1907. Kamil was fre-
quently attacked by the London Times; see Times,
13 September 1906; 14 and 28 January 1907; 2, 23, and
27 March 1907; 8, 13, and 29 April 1907; and 15, 19, and
27 July 1907.
87.  Cromer, Abbas II, 34 – 35. “Every feather-headed
young Egyptian who thought himself of equal if not
of superior mental caliber to his British official su-
perior, rallied around the foolish youth, who — prob-
ably without being fully aware of it — had raised the
standard of revolt against Western civilization. The
Gallicised Egyptian, who posed as a reformer, joined
hands with the retrograde Pasha.”