The choice of Egypt
The relations between the Nile Valley and the coast, the mountain and the hinterland of what makes up today's Syria and Lebanon go back to antiquity. Be they commercial or cultural, they have never broken down regardless of the conflicts that affected the region. The migratory flows were more frequent in one direction than in the other. Thus, in 1724, the schism that split the Syrian Greek Orthodox community upon the creation of a patriarcat[1] attached to Rome resulted in a migratory flow which saw Melkites (Greek-Catholic) from Damas Alepo, Zahle or Sidon move to Egypt. Those were mostly middle class family arrived with their employees, who invested some of their capital in trade or in the nascent cotton industry. Patriarch Mazlum[2] who obtained from the Sultan recognition for his church in civilian and ecclesial matters supported the development of his church in Alexandria where he appointed a bishop and encouraged the creation of charitable foundations and the construction of churches.
The reforms decided by Muhammad Ali as well as Egypt's growing autonomy from Istanbul were both favourable to the installation of the Shawam. Khedive[3] Abbas Ist[4] sought to impose restrictions on the newcomers but his attempt was not met with success. His successor Sa'id Pasha[5] set up close links of dependence with Europe, an orientation pursued, voluntarily at first then under duress from the British occupier (1882), by Ismaïl[6] and Tewfik[7]. The development of the Northern Mediterranean rim was pointed out as a model to follow. This orientation required the knowledge of foreign language. The Shawam seized this opportunity since a respectable number of their group mastered other languages than Arabic, not least among them French. They coincidentally reconnected on Egyptian soil with the types of schools and religious orders (Christian Brothers[8], Jesuits[9]) in which their parents might have been educated.
Thus exile also turned out to be the result of an attraction. Levantines were frequently first to be taken on by European and North-American major societies and banks. The same causes yielding different effects according to the regions, the opening of the Suez Canal saw the banks of the Nile take off economically. The Shawam played an active part in the development of the private sector. They were successful in cotton and mulberry farming like in the professions where they thrived as accountants, magistrates, lawyers, doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, translators and political advisors. They settle in Alexandria, Damietta, Mansoura, Tanta and Cairo. They took advantage sooner than the Copts[10], of the Egyptian constitution that established the juridical equality of all citizens and granted the Christians the fullness of civil rights. The cultural and political liberalism, more marked in the Egyptian capital, especially after Sultan Abdul Hamid II[11], suspended the Ottoman constitution, encouraged Arab speaking intellectuals to launch a press activity that was soon flourishing.
The Levantine community in Egypt counted more than 100,000 members at the turn of the 20th century : civil servants, hairdressers, cobblers, drivers, engineers, dentists, doctors, shopkeepers, painters. Their aggregate wealth was reckoned at one and a half billion francs, that is 10% of the Egyptian GDP. Those who had capital invested it in small businesses (oil, soaps, tobacco, patisserie...). Others created more important companies trading or producing salt, sodium, textiles, perfume, wood, silk. This economic success lead to the foundation of schools, clubs, charities, generally linked to a place of worship which was most of the time a church. A minority returned to their home village but the majority remained “semi-detached”, settling for several generations in Egypt without for all that involving themselves fully in the host society.
