Young
Egyptian nationalists were carrying out guerrilla attacks against the British
bases in the Canal Zone, hoping thereby to make the region untenable for
the British army and force an evacuation. But the British army, having
lost its base in Palestine, was determined to hang on to the Canal Zone.
On Friday 25 January I952, British army units surrounded a police station
manned by auxiliary police in the town of Isma`iliyah, believing
the police to be aiding and abetting the guerrillas, and demanded their
surrender. The Egyptian police, on orders from the minister of the interior,
refused to surrender. They were surrounded by centurion tanks and artillery
was used against the building, killing scores of Egyptian policemen.
That
was the spark that set off a series of events that I witnessed in Cairo
the following day.
I
was
a little boy and I remember that it was a Saturday! I had a day off from
my boarding school in Ma`adiy. My Father, a career officer,
had recently been appointed Lieutenant Governor of the (mudiyriyah) province
of al-Fayuwm, leaving my mother and my elder brother behind to settle some
family business. We were staying in a leased apartment which looked over
Sulayman
Pasha square (now Tal`at Harb) on the corner of al-'Antiykhanah
street (now M. Basyuwniy) facing Groppi's on the square. (The building
is still standing today).
I
had an appointment with the doctor in Duqqiy at 9:00 AM sharp, to have
a wart removed from my little finger. The procedure lasted about an hour.
When we returned home we sensed something strange and brooding in the air.
Reading
Al-Ahram
newspaper I learned about the events of the previous day, and the fate
of the Egyptian Police garrison in al-Ismaa`liyah city and the rumor of
the police strike in Cairo which by now was gaining momentum.
Around
2:00 PM I heard a "walwalah" (clamor) coming from the square. I looked
down and saw a dozen or so women wearing miylaayaat laff (the black cloak
that used to be the national dress for Egyptian women).
Then
I saw a black Citroen packed with passengers entering the square. One of
the passengers, his body halfway out of the window, was waving back and
forth the Old green Egyptian flag with the white crescent and three stars.
Suddenly,
as if from nowhere, a rousing mob coming from Ma`ruwf district filled
the square. The black Citroen car made three or four circles around the
square, and as if by magic, all of the traffic stopped and the black car
disappeared. Strangely, it reminded me of Indians circling the wagons in
a Western movie. I rushed to call my mother to come watch the scene
which was about to unfold.
A
determined mob roaming around was setting fire to British owned establishments,
clubs and businesses, and others belonging to foreigners including night
clubs and casinos.
First
was the sound of the shattering glass of Groppi's windows. Some
of the mob went inside and escorted the employees safely outside. Some
climbed for the Groppi's sign and dismantled the royal emblem (Confisserie
de la Maison Royale) from it. They, then proceeded systematically to smash
everything in the place.
I
could
see the sacks of sugar and flour being dragged into the Miydan (square).
Then the mob proceeded to attack a paint shop next door and set fire to
it. You can imagine the smoke that came from the burning paint. The fire
quickly spread to engulf both Groppi's and a small ammunition store
next to the paint store. The combination was deadly and loud, it was like
a Chinese New Year celebration but with live ammunition!
Then
the mob proceeded to attack any building that looked foreign. The first
casualty was Air France building on the square, followed by Crystal Patisserie
(close to al-'Ismaa`liyah square lately renamed al-Tahriyr
square). Next to our building, on al- Antikhanah Street (now
M.
Basyuwniy street), they ransacked a roof garden night club. Meanwhile,
while I was on the roof garden of our building opposite of it watching
the scene unraveling below me with disbelief!
By
now I could see a cloud of black smoke hung over Cairo as people cowered
in their houses and watched in bewilderment while an ever growing mob seemed
to go berserk, chanting anti-British slogans as it burnt buildings, looted
stores and destroyed property.
Next
the mob set fire to the fashionable " Grands Magasins Hannaux",
then Sedanawi on Isma`iyl Pasha Street (now Qasr al-Niyl),
then `Omar Effendi, followed by Benzion and so on. The frenzied
mob went on a rampage unchecked by the police who were on strike, along
with the fire department.
The
rampage continued way into the wee hours of the following morning, The
army had been belatedly called out, and order was restored by the imposition
of a curfew on the city. By then the center of Cairo looked like a ravaged
war zone with gutted department stores, smoldering buildings and smashed
shop fronts.
THE
DAY AFTER.
The
next day, I remember taking a stroll with my mother and elder brother through
the streets. I recall very well, stepping over and sometimes tripping over
the fire hoses which were laying on the street. The sprinkling water was
still oozing from then.
I
referred to the "frenzied mob" before, and they were, but in sort of an
organized way (!). It was strange scene. They took great care to escort
people out of the buildings, including foreigners, before they attacked
them. According to my friend Samiyr Ra'fat, in his book _Maadi
1904-1962_, amazingly only 10 individual lost their lives in the Turf Club
fire on Maghrabiy street (now`Adly) where they were
hidden.
It
was the second time in my life that I witnessed such a big fire. The first
was the burning of the military depot at the Citadel (Hariyq al-Qal`ah),
a year or so before.
All
the movies theaters: Rivoli, Metro, Cairo Palace, Cinema Opera, Miami -
all burned down. The Old Shepheard Hotel (near al-Opera square),Safiyah
Hilmy
Casino had also been burned. Groppi `Adly, l'Américain,
Barclay's
Bank, the Brazilian Coffee Shop, Fuw'ad Street (now 26th
of July), Chemla, Cicurel stores, Continental Savoy Hotel,
Opera Square, in front of al-'Izbakiyah Gardens, and on and on and
on and on -- all ravaged and looked churned like a scene out of Berlin
after the war.
Modern
European Cairo, which dated from the time of Isma`iyl Pasha
(1863-1879) was consumed overnight
It
was a day I will never forget. Egypt was never the same. The burning of
Cairo, much like the burning of Alexandria seventy years earlier, was a
landmark in the history of Egypt. It signified the end of an era, the era
of "liberal" experiment. Parliament had proved ineffective in the face
of both the monarch and the political parties and governments of the day.
The political parties had run out of imagination and backbone and could
only react to, not initiate, events. The monarch was completely discredited
both in his personal and in his public life.
The
following day, Sunday the 27th, the King, in a desperate attempt to contain
the situation, summoned the veteran politician `Aliy Mahir
Pasha to form a government .
I
distinctly
recall my mother shaking her head back and forth and with a sigh saying:
"Too
little too late! The writing was on the wall long before this event."
As
my late father had always predicated: It was an inevitable clash of two
Cairos. The Old Cairo was reclaiming the Modern Western one.
It
was ominous! It happened then, and most likely it will happen again.
For
six months, various palace appointed regimes tried to limp along.
But the coup de grace came on 23 July 1952, when a handful of young officers
lead by Gamal `Abd al-Nasir organized a coup d'état
that overthrew the monarchy, and with it, the form of government which
had existed since 1922.
Who
was behind the burning of Cairo? Was it organized or spontaneous?
These are questions that remain unanswered to the present day, although
speculation is rife. The truth will probably never be known but there were
strong rumors that the events had been organized by Ahmad Husayn
of Misr al-Fatah, and indeed he was later tried for
it but the case was shelved when the Revolution broke out. Others claimed
some Eastern European embassies had supplied the sophisticated incendiary
materials that were used.
Wa
Allahu 'A`lam! (But God only knows)
The
Egyptian Chronicles
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