"La genèse de l'esprit national égyptien (1863-1882)" by Muḥammad Ṣabrī is a historical study written in the early 20th century. It investigates how Egyptian national consciousness formed under Khedive Ismaʿil, tracing the links between fiscal crises, administrative reforms, the Arabic press, Islamic reformist thought, and intensifying Franco-British involvement that set the stage for the 1881–82 uprising. Drawing on unpublished memoirs and multilingual contemporary sources, it reconstructs the political and intellectual currents that converged into a modern national movement.The opening of the study sets out the author’s aim to clarify a complex period through rare sources: unpublished memoirs (especially those of Muhammad ʿAbduh), early opposition newspapers in Arabic, and French and English press and eyewitness accounts. It then sketches a long backdrop to modern Egypt, arguing for the deep continuity of an “Egyptian type” that became arabisized in language and religion while remaining demographically indigenous, moving rapidly from Greco-Roman suppression through the Arab conquest and successive dynasties to Ottoman and Mamluk rule. The French expedition is presented as a civilizing jolt, while Muhammad ʿAli’s reforms—national army of fellahin, irrigation, industry, schools, and missions to Europe—ignite a “national instinct” and a rising middle stratum. Saʿid Pasha’s fiscal and social measures (tax reform, peasant property, freer commerce, national conscription) further…
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