The popular culture of pre-revolution Egypt did more than entertain―it created a nation. Songs, jokes, and satire, comedic sketches, plays, and poetry, all provided an opportunity for discussion and debate about national identity and an outlet for resistance to British and elite authority. This book examines how, from the 1870s until the eve of the 1919 revolution, popular media and culture provided ordinary Egyptians with a framework to construct and negotiate a modern national identity. Ordinary Egyptians shifts the typical focus of study away from the intellectual elite to understand the rapid politicization of the growing literate middle classes and brings the semi-literate and illiterate urban masses more fully into the historical narrative. It introduces the concept of "media-capitalism," which expands the analysis of nationalism beyond print alone to incorporate audiovisual and performance media. It was through these various media that a collective camaraderie crossing class lines was formed and, as this book uncovers, an Egyptian national identity emerged. "Ziad Fahmy's Ordinary Egyptians stands out. It provides a model for creative but very solid historical studies. Fahmy assembles rich empirical data from what he calls "media capitalism," incorporating all mass media, including print, performance, broadcast, and recording." --Raymond W. Baker, The Middle East Journal "Ordinary Egyptians is a pioneering and provocative work that critically intervenes in the history of revolution and modernity in Egypt. The book contributes much to scholarship on the history of modern Egypt, media, nationalism, and the relationship between technology and culture." - The International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies . "Fahmy's account of the emergence of the Egyptian public sphere from the 1870s through 1919 is richly detailed, theoretically sophisticated, and beautifully written." -Mark Lynch, Foreign Policy "Ordinary Egyptians is a useful volume that will be received with enthusiasm by not only students of Egyptian history and Middle East studies but also by scholars more generally interested in nationalism and popular culture." - Journal of World History "Fahmy has created a powerful and timely book, ably documenting the historical impact of the lower classes; he shows that Egypt's 2011 revolution is, in many ways, not new at all... The themes of 2011 parallel those of 1919: An elitist regime articulates hegemonic imperatives out of touch with ordinary Egyptians. In the aftermath of the recent Arab uprisings, observers who may wish to examine whether social networking played a causative role in those revolutions should turn to Fahmy's elucidation of pre-1919 popular culture as a potential model for such studies." Middle East Quarterly Ziad Fahmy is Associate Professor of Modern Middle East History at Cornell University. Ordinary Egyptians Creating the Modern Nation Through Popular Culture By Ziad Fahmy STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Copyright © 2011 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8047-7212-9 Contents List of Illustrations..................................................................................ixPreface................................................................................................xiNote on Transliteration................................................................................xvii1. Colloquial Egyptian, Media Capitalism, and Nationalism..............................................12. Political Centralization to Cultural Centralization.................................................203. Print Capitalism and the Beginnings of Colloquial Mass Culture, 1870–1882.....................394. New Media: Laughter, Satire, and Song, 1882–1908..............................................615. Media Capitalism: From Mass Culture to Mass Practice, 1907–1919...............................1966. The Egyptian Street: Carnival, Popular Culture, and the 1919 Revolution.............................134Conclusion.............................................................................................167Appendix A: Urbanization and Infrastructure............................................................177Appendix B: Plays and Songs Composed by Sayyid Darwish from 1918 to 1919...............................180Notes..................................................................................................183References.............................................................................................221Index..................................................................................................239 Chapter One Colloquial Egyptian, Media Capitalism, and Nationalism Modern man is not loyal to a monarch or a land or a faith, whatever he may say, but to a culture. —Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism If the decoding of power relations depended on full access to the m