Egypt's Belle Epoque: Cairo and the Age of the Hedonists

by Trevor Mostyn

Egypt's belle époque was a period of incredible extravagance during which the Khedive Ismail's Cairo became the mirror image, both architecturally and socially, of decadent Paris. The glamour and hedonism of the era reached its peak during the magnificent celebrations for the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Kings and emperors, artists, writers and Europe's most sophisticated flocked to the dazzling new Cairo of sumptuous palaces and Parisian gardens, where Verdi's Aida premiered at the new opera house and glittering parties were held on the banks of the Nile. But the splendour was short-lived. Only a year after the Suez Canal opened, the Second Empire in France collapsed and the Khedive's excesses plunged Egypt into crippling debt. Ismail was eventually forced to abdicate, leaving Cairo to the British who occupied Egypt in all but name. This is a riveting account of an extraordinary moment in the history of both France and Egypt.

Genres: Egypt, History

232 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2006

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I originally picked up Trevor Mostyn’s Egypt’s Belle Epoque from the library because I was interested in reviewing the depictions of British recreational life in the latter chapters, in order to see what they might be able to contribute to my dissertation. As it is a relatively short work, however, I decided to read it in its entirety to see what it was about and, as always, expand my knowledge base. The author is a journalist above all else, which is not a problem in and of itself, but unfortunately it leads him to pursue sensationalism and entertainment over nuance. This text, therefore, while not overtly hostile, falls into the trap of being a quintessentially orientalist tome that, despite being written at the end of 1980s, describes Arabs as barbaric and uncivilized and privileges the role of Europeans in developing their indigenous society.

I should note that I was never under the impression that this work was of an academic nature. Despite the fact that each chapter contains references, they are mostly to primary or non-academic sources and, in fairness to the author, there is no pretense anywhere that this is an academic work, and thus it must be evaluated as popular history. Again, it is important to state that there is nothing inherently wrong with this either, so long as the book is advertised as such. Thus, while the material and story reflect a top-down approach, where the most important roles are given to grand figures and high society, it seems unfair to criticize the book for this, since a portrayal of these people is exactly its purpose. Nor can I can disparage it for its reliance on the observations of the British, rather than actual Egyptians.

Mostyn’s first body chapter, however, wastes no time in portraying the Arabs in a stereotypically Orientalist fashion, focusing a few pages on the sultan’s dirty and lazy harem. The purpose of this exposé is somewhat unclear, aside from building a specific portrayal of this era in Egyptian history, but this is characteristic of much of the work. The book offers a mostly chronological telling of the history of British high society in Egypt from the 1860s through the 1952 Revolution, tied together loosely through a series of narratives about a handful of notable figures. At its core, the book uses this timeline to share a series of anecdotes related to the period, and thus most chapters are brief, obviating the need for a chapter-by-chapter review.

The primary narrative here, at least in regards to the Egyptians, is that the country’s upper and royal classes were corrupt and uncivilized, with the author highlighting stories of cruelty at the hands of the rulers and their families in particular. It is not until much later in the book, near the end, when Mostyn has anything positive to say about the Egyptians and, even then, it is qualified and wholly the product of their adaptation of European mores. This is not to say that his portrayal of the Europeans is entirely glowing; many of the British and French personalities are depicted as being unscrupulous, to say the least. In the European cases, however, this is portrayed as an aberration, a consequence of the hedonism inherent in power and status. Their flaws are products of their character; the flaws of the Egyptians, on the other hand, are a result of the civilization as a whole. The primary fault of the Europeans seems to be unfaithfulness, a sin against traditional Christian morality. The prime characteristic of the Egyptian villain, meanwhile, is unprovoked and brutal violence, a crime against all humankind.

There is no need to belabor this point further, as to do so would be to simply repeat it again and again using specific examples. What is important to know is that the overarching purpose of this text is to share a series of colorful anecdotes, sometimes of questionable veracity and provenance, as a way to entertain through a discussion of the absurdity of the past. There are few explicit qualifiers here that the way in which he portrays the Egyptians are based on stereotypes of the period or otherwise unreliable sources, and the reader is lead to believe that most of what is written was likely accurate.

For the Europeans, the mistakes of the past remain in the past. Throughout the book, however, Mostyn makes it clear that the Egyptian flaws are still extant, as he makes constant reference to the deterioration of the physical spaces mentioned in the text. The implication here is that, by kicking out the Europeans during, and in the aftermath of, the Revolution, and pursuing their own path, the Egyptians abandoned an important part of their development and have since been declining. The chance for salvation at the hands of the Europeans has been lost. Overall, I believe that Egypt’s Belle Epoque would have been better titled something like Europe’s Hedonism in Egypt. While such a title would at least be a more accurate representations of the contents, as this really is a text about Europeans in Egypt rather than Egypt itself, perhaps it would have also encouraged a little more reflection on the relationship between Europe and Egypt during this era, and how the country was used as an excuse for upper class Europeans to behave as they had always wanted in their home nations, and a way to blame their excesses on the influence of another “backwards”, yet “exotic” civilization, rather than their own personalities.