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By:
Col. Mehmeti
- February 11, 2021 11:30 AM
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It is a neighborhood of Cairo that when it was built perpetuated the spirit of the time to be modernized according to the western way. Also called the "Paris of the East", it is about the neighborhood in the capital of Egypt in which the grandson of Mehmet Ali Pasha, Ismaili, created an architecture with the most popular European styles. But together with Cairo there is also Alexandria, Beni Suef and other Egyptian cities that have an entire Albanian history.
They were not just something dropped from heaven among the pyramids, the desert of Paana, the Mamluks and the large population in the country that Herodotus once called "the gift of the Nile". The white-dressed Albanians are the ones with whom the new history of Egypt begins as a flourishing state in the "fertile crescent" in the most southeastern corner of the Mediterranean.
The Albanian history of Egypt seems bigger than the history of all Mamluks and Fallahs. When the Greek writer, Nikos Kazanzaqis, visited Egypt in 1927, a young Egyptian intellectual told him: "The history of Egypt today is divided into two critical periods: from Mehmet Ali to the European war and from the European war to the present day."
But the trace of this grandiose history does not have the last act with the coming to power of the iron-fisted colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1953, which ended the 148-year rule of the dynasty of the descendants of the Albanian Mehmet Ali Pasha.
However, the Egyptian authorities have recently given permission to the project to renovate and preserve the quarters and buildings of the Albanian royal family in Cairo.
The news was announced by the activist of Albanian origin who lives in Beirut, Lebanon, Abdelkarim Kassem Al Arnaout. Through a notice posted on his Facebook account, he expressed his gratitude to the Egyptian Government for the revival of "Cairo of the Khedives".
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"The best demonstration of Egyptian-Arnautic architecture"
One of the buildings in "Talaat Harb" square. It is this neighborhood, also known as "Khediv Cairo", which is associated with the royal buildings of the Albanian dynasty that ruled for over a century in Egypt. The Egyptian government, according to the activist of Albanian origin, Abdelkarim Kassem Al Arnaout, has given support to the project for the revival and restoration of buildings related to the Albanian dynasty from Kavalla
"All thanks and gratitude to Egypt for the revival and restoration of 'Cairo Khedive', which is the best demonstration of Egyptian-Arnaut architecture", wrote Al Arnaout, who is also the chairman of the association "Sawt - Voice of Arnaout International for Culture and Art" based in the Lebanese capital.
Appreciating the decision of the Egyptian authorities to preserve the Albanian neighborhoods, the activist of Albanian origin expressed the hope that he will soon meet with the Albanians of Cairo, which he called "the capital of love, peace and unity".
Al Arnaout, known for his efforts to bridge cultural ties between the descendants of Albanians in the Middle East and Albania, had influenced the opening of the first Museum of Albanian Culture in Lebanon.
Although this country still does not recognize Kosovo's independence, the Albanian activist wrote to the then Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, to recognize Kosovo as a "free and independent state".
"Lebanon is a founding member of the United Nations and has signed many of the human rights agreements, and has always supported human rights to freedom and independence," Al Arnaout wrote in his letter.
Mehmet Ali Pasha and "La Belle Époque"
September of the Egyptian entrepreneur, Talaat Harb, after whom the well-known square of Cairo is named
According to architecture connoisseurs, "Cairo Khedive" has the setting of the Paris of the East, full of buildings with distinctive European architectural styles.
What started in 1868 caused Cairo to acquire a new urban landscape with opulent buildings, theaters and residences built in the "Ismaïlia" neighborhood for several decades. It was named after the khedive Ismail Pasha, the grandson of Mehmet Ali Pasha, who followed the influences of French architecture. The well-known journalist Trevor Mostyn has described the well-known Albanian as "Physician and founder of contemporary Egypt".
Ismail Pasha had lived first in Austria and then in Paris, which had encouraged in him the dream of the Europeanization of Egypt. Along with the architecture, he brought a new style of life, which further brought to life an elite class that lived in European Cairo, in contrast to the "Egyptian" one in which the poor lived.
Thus, European Cairo experienced different architectural styles within a short period of time from the hands of French, Italian, German and Egyptian architects. This created an eclectic architectural atmosphere between neoclassical, baroque, rococo styles, but also Egyptian motifs. There are also many who describe these years as "La Belle Époque" of the Egyptian capital.
The history of the settlement of Albanians in Egypt
The history of the settlement of Albanians in Egypt begins at the end of the 18th century, with people coming mainly from the south of Albania. A number of them from Kavalla were sent in 1801 to fight the Napoleonic forces that had invaded Egypt in 1798.
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According to University of California Egyptian historian Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid-Marsot, Albanians within the Ottoman forces in Egypt formed a bloc within the army that stood apart from the rest. Accepting the command only of Tahir Pasha, who was Albanian, they were usually used as a counterweight to undisciplined janissaries.
"Albanians spoke little Turkish and despised the Ottoman janissaries, just as the latter despised the Albanians", writes Marsot in her book "Egypt in the Reign of Muhammad Ali".
Relations with the locals were far from exemplary and were characterized by mutual hatred.
The first Egyptian historian, Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, in his chronicle reserved the greatest hatred for the armed "arnauts" who "openly drank hashish, beer and bet even in Ramadan".
"Most of them do not fast during the month of Ramadan - wrote Al-Jabarti not without hatred - and no one can say what they believe or which sect or tariqa they belong to. The easiest thing for them is to kill, steal other people's things and disobey their superiors and generals... May Allah destroy them!", he concluded with some open kindness.
"Albanians spoke a different language from Turkish"
Building with European architecture in the center of Cairo, or as it is known by the locals, "Wasat El Balad"
Since the Albanian troops did not accept anyone else in charge except someone who spoke Albanian, this circumstance together with his charisma and other qualities made Mehmet Ali Pasha rise in rank within a short time.
"The fact that Mehmet Ali was Albanian, a member of an ethnic and linguistic group within the Ottoman family, is important. Albanians spoke a different language from Turkish even though they were Muslims and did not belong to the despised Arabs," writes Marsot in the same book.
Another researcher, Harry Thirlwall Norris, also pays attention to the settlement of Albanians in Egypt. According to him, the dynasty that Mehmet Ali Pasha created and the love he had for his compatriots and they for him, as well as "the paradise he created for them as an asylum from Ottoman control, victimization by Greek neighbors, or the complete cruelty of Balkan poverty, meant that at that time Alexandria, Cairo, Beni Suef and other Egyptian cities would shelter Albanians who organized associations, published newspapers and especially wrote works in verse and prose that included masterpieces of contemporary Albanian literature.
Prominent names of Albanian literature such as: Thimi Mitko, Spiro Dine and Andon Zako Çajupi worked in Egyptian cities. In other periods, Filip Shiroka, Jani Vruho, Anastas Avramidhi, Thoma Avrami, Milo Duçi, Fan Noli, Aleksandër Xhuvani and many others worked there. "The Albanians of Egypt were, no doubt, influenced by the Egyptian theater - but only by those elements that were not overly charged with Islamic sentiment," writes Norris.
The presence of Albanian warriors in Egypt attracted the attention of European artists of the time. The most prominent of them was the French painter, Jean-Léon Gérôme, who created a cycle of paintings with the "arnauts", their costumes, ornate weapons, as well as the attitude full of pride and contempt towards the population in cosmopolitan Cairo.
Until the Second World War, there were many different organizations and associations in the Egypt of the Albanian dynasty.
Albanians of the Bektashi faith had the "Magauri" teqe in the outskirts of Cairo, which was run by father Ahmet Sirri Glinës from Përmeti. It was often visited by King Farouk himself.
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For a while, a number of Albanians fleeing the communist regime in Albania found refuge in Egypt. Even King Zog Tok himself lived there with his family.
But the good days for the Albanian community ended with the coming to power of Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Arabization policy he followed. Apart from Faruk's royal family, the entire Albanian community of more than 4 thousand families, which became the target of attacks, was forced to move mainly to America.
