The Maronites diversely accepted depending on flows
Egypt lies on the road Maronite students took on their way to study in Rome where a college had been founded specially for them in the 16th century. A few families had settled there at the time. Their names are listed in the parish records kept by the Franciscan[1] friars to whom the pope had entrusted the upkeep of the holy sites[2] and whose guardian always acted as Papal Legate[3] to the Maronite. The number of Maronites and the amount of service they rendered this Catholic order is negligible and does not appear to have drawn any objection from the Ottoman authority. In any case, these Christians benefited from the protection secured by the Capitulations regime. At the beginning of the 18th century, two of their scholars were living on the banks of the Nile with the double mission of collecting ancient manuscripts and supporting Catholic Copts[4] in their recent union with the Roman Catholic Church. At the time, Egypt's Mamluks[5] aired their autonomist propensities before the Porte : with Syria occupied without as much as a by your leave thanks to Ali Bey[6]'s expedition, they were keen to engage Christians in their service. The Ottoman Empire was at that point receding before the political, military and economical expansion of the European powers and Russia.
The Greek Catholics, then around 3,000 strong stood out by their education and their wealth. The Mamluks entrusted them with key positions in the administration, finance, customs and cabotage. The Maronite, less numerous, settled down mostly around Damietta. The Aleppian Order[7] was given by the Maronite patriarchate[8] the task to attend to the faithful who chose to emigrate. It was also to preside over worship for the Melkite community who kept a low profile in order to elude retaliations from the Orthodox hierarchy who held sway in Egypt like in Syria. At the beginning of the 19th century, these minorities of exiles and achievers faced the backlash of the defeats suffered in turn by Ali Bey and Bonaparte[9]'s army at Abukir followed by the Revolt of Cairo. Egypt's new master Muhammad Ali[10] aimed to cut the dhimmi[11] down to size by withdrawing the privileged status French protection had afforded them, and exiling some of their prominent figures to Sennar. This move, which caused some migrants to return home, was however short lived.
In the event, Muhammad Ali was to inaugurate a new era in Egypt's relationship with Mont Lebanon and Syria, aided in this by the good relations he enjoyed with Emir Bachir II.[12] Conscious of his need for the backing of a multilingual elite up to speed with modern science, the Khedive of Egypt encouraged immigration to urban centres via Alexandria. He sought to enlist the newcomers in the drive for reform and sent some of them study in Europe. The Greek Catholics oversaw finance and the office for translations. Their linguistic skills put them in a position to produce the books needed by the school of medicine run by Clot Bey[13]. The Massabki, a Maronite family, held the print industry – belatedly introduced in the Ottoman Empire – and the fabrication of gunpowder. A good number of their coreligionists settled down in the Nile valley, there to advance sericulture. This project met with mixed success, bringing about a redistribution of those migrants in other agricultural sectors whether at Cairo or at Zagazig. In his report on 1840 Egypt, Bowring[14] counts 5,000 Christian immigrants, half of whom are Maronite ; thus the third migratory wave just made up for the ebbing of the previous one.
The fourth influx was however more massive. Egypt, under Muhammad Ali's successors – barring the short interim of Abbas I's reign – is perceived as a sort of promised land. It attracts a Mediterranean populace highly colourful in every respect. The installation of the migrants proceeded over time : a pedlar's activity as once practiced by the Shawams was no longer profitable in Egypt given the gap growing between living standards. Besides, most of the migrants hailed from educated backgrounds and sought jobs in keeping with the social rank they aspired to. In spite of setbacks and difficulties the Khedives ensured some measure of social cohesion to a population who, dwelling on the banks of the Nile since Pharaoh's times, had absorbed with lesser or greater ease, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Arabs, Turks... The latecomers knew this history ; they made the best of Egyptian and British demand after London established a de facto protectorate in conclusion to the 1882 war, a situation that was hardly to the taste of the French who had not taken part in the expedition.
A French diplomat counted 80,000 departures from Mount Lebanon, at this period chiefly towards Egypt, broken down by faiths as per the list below :
Maronite | 55,000 | 69% |
|---|---|---|
Orthodox | 12,000 | 15% |
Greek-Catholic | 9,000 | 11% |
Druze, Metuali | 4,000 | 5% |
| ||
As their forerunners before them, but with more back-up, these migrants took up teaching, founding and running schools. They were foremost in bringing about the birth and development of papers in Arabic : Al Ahram, founded by Saleem and Beshara Takla[15] publishes its first issue on 5 August 1876. Al Muqtataf, created in Beirut in 1877 by Yaqub Sarruf[16] moved to Cairo in 1885. In 1889, the same Yaqub Sarruf founded with Faris Nimr[17] Al Muquattam the distribution of which was banned in Syria. Al-Mahrousat was founded by Selim Naccache[18] in 1880 and Al-Manar co-founded by Muhammad Rashid Rida[19] in 1897. Medical qualifications also opened fine career routes to the immigrants ; and Christians hailing from Mount Lebanon or hereabout were offered barristers' or lawyers' positions by consular courts where they developed codes compliant with recent international norms. Such migrants, as Khalil Moutran[20], Nicolas Fayyad[21], May Ziadeh (cf. Partie III) participated fully to the Nahda. That moment of “awakening” or “renaissance” of literature in Arabic is grounded in the rediscovery of buried treasures, the translation of deliberately discarded pieces (e.g. the Illiad, translated by Sulayman Al Bustani[22] published in Cairo in 1905) and the introduction of new genres such as the theatre with Seleem Naccache. More broadly they were party to the introduction of European trends and models.
Such a process could not fail to create politically sensitive tensions. A French diplomat, observing this new wave commented on this peculiar relationship . This unconstrained stance gave rise to public reactions among which that of Abdallah al-Nadim[23] who called the immigrants dakhil (“intruders”). In the speech he gave in Alexandria on 7 June 1897, Mustafa Kamel is even more virulent against a particular Syrian group. However the “Egypt to the Egyptians” slogan is not used against them and is reserved for the demonstrations of hostility towards the British. Alongside the strictly nationalist movement there is, incidentally, a current advocating a union between Egypt and Syria under British tutelage with a view to restore the caliphate in favour of the Khedive : such is the Syro-Lebanese Committee whose activity up until the thirties was favourably noted in London and at the Palace. Another transnational grouping called for an administrative decentralisation while making a point of its Ottoman loyalties ; it lied behind the Paris Arab Congress organised in 1913. Others promoted an independent Greater Syria, yet others an independent greater Lebanon. The latter came together in the Alliance Libanaise, among them Yusuf al-Sawda[24], Bechara El Khoury[25], Emile Eddé[26], Auguste Adib Pacha[27], Iskandar Ammoun[28]. At all events, at the onset of the Great War, Egypt was no longer the migration destination, but only one stage on the road to the American continent or Australia, purveyors of broader opportunities.
