Muḏakkirāt fī l-siyāsah al-miṣriyyah: Nationalism and the Politics of Memory in 20th-Century Egypt

Abstract

Abstract Despite the massive research carried out on Egyptian nationalism and its ideological premises in the first half of the 20th century, little is known on the copious political memoirs composed and published in the same period and on their contribution to the development of a nationalist discourse in its strict sense. Among these “political autobiographies”, the Muḏakkirāt fī l-siyāsah al-miṣriyyah (Memoirs on Egyptian Politics) by Muḥammad Ḥusayn Haykal played a crucial role in the dissemination of a shared sense of identity based on the nation-state. By performing the act of remembering, Haykal continually reshapes the boundaries of his community and questions the inner meaning and the long-term impact of concepts drawn from the liberal-democratic ideology, such as “freedom”, “justice”, “equality”, on the Egyptian system of government and socio-cultural context. This study will therefore attempt to unveil the ‘sense of community’ conveyed by Haykal’s political memoirs by following the theory of Benedict Anderson on the nation defined as an imagined community.