Book Review: Stories of the Streets Around Tahrir Square

Egyptian Days continues excavating the history of downtown with an issue about the streets surrounding Tahrir, where battles continue to take place. 

Selselet Ayam Masreya (Egyptian Days series) edited by Mohamed Kamaly, Cairo: Ayam Masreya, 2011. pp. 66.

The new issue of the Egyptian Days series chose the streets of Tahrir Square as its theme. Indeed, it is the theme around which many events are taking place: political movements, angry youth, and masses refusing the policies of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) are all centered around Tahrir Square and the streets around it since 25 January.

Egyptian Days is mainly independent, supported by funds from the Cultural Development Fund, and though doesn’t come out periodically it represents a unique experiment with 43 issues so far, all dealing with non-traditional topics related to modern Egyptian history. Among its issues was one on King Farouk, another for the occasion of the centennial of Cairo University, and one a few months back about Tahrir Square, to which this new issue is considered a continuation, relating tales about the square that became an icon of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.

Ahmed Kamaly and Amr Ibrahim, the editors, don’t only register the history of the area, but also the stories of the surrounding streets where current battles are taking place between revolutionaries, the police and the army, such as Mohamed Mahmoud Street, Kasr Al-Aini Street, Talaat Harb Street and Champollion Street.

The extensive area now called downtown was only a pile of waste and dust when Khedive Ismail took over the throne of Egypt in 1863, and according to historian Abdel-Rahman Al-Rafeey, author of a book about Ismail, Ismail’s efforts in Cairo focused on removing the piles of dust, planning new streets and squares, such as Faggala Street, Kulut Beik, Abdel-Aziz, Mohamed Aly and Abdeen, in addition to entire neighborhoods such as Ismailia, Tawfiquia, Abdeen and Opera.

Ismail laid out the street plan, mostly straight intersecting lines, and squares identified with rocks, with sidewalks throughout. Water pipes were laid out and street lights powered by gasoline. In the end, it was inhabited by princes and the elite.

That’s how Ismail constructed the Khedival Cairo that was no less than Paris, especially that the French engineer who planned Paris was the one who laid out Cairo’s streets. The square bore the name of the man who made it until the 1952 Revolution, when it was changed to Tahrir Square. Some are requesting the name now be changed again to Martyrs' Square.

The stories of the streets are written down one after the other: Mohamed Mahmoud Street, which witnessed the battle where the eyes of peaceful demonstrators were targetted, was named after Mohamed Mahmoud Pasha, a known politician during the early 20th Century, termed by the press “the iron-handed’. He took over the Cabinet in 1928 as head of a minority government, and disbanded parliament for three years, annulled constitutional articles, and enforced censorship on the press by re-enacting the 1881 law on printed material, leading to the termination of 100 newspapers and crippling many others.

Now revolutionaries term the street the "Street of the Martyrs’ Eyes".

There’s also Talaat Harb Street, carrying the name of the famous Egyptian economist; Champollion Street, named after the Egyptologist who discovered the secrets of hieroglyphics. Finally, there’s the street named after Mariette Pasha who was head of the Egyptian Agency for Antiques before his death in 1881 and burial in the garden of the old Egyptian Museum that was in Bulaq at the time. After, his remains were moved to the current Egyptian Museum that opened in November 1902.

The issue is full of little-known photos that register these important historical moments, giving more life to the text. The series represents a unique experience that is moving forward with steady but remarkable steps.

[Produced in partnership with Ahram Online.]

 
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